How to Eat on a Budget when Visiting Disney World
There's no denying that once you get on property at Disney World, the food prices immediately rise. Some of this is just unavoidable. However, we have some of our best tips for you on how to save a bit here and there when you are visiting the parks. We hope this helps you out a bit as you are planning!
Boy, do we have the juicy, budget tips for you today!
Leave a Cooler in Your Car
Bring your meals into the car or leave it in the fridge at your hotel. Have those meals available to you in order to not spend money on those within the parks. This does take some park time away though. Be aware of that!
Based on Your Family, Eat a Meal outside the Parks
Whether you are morning people or night owls, consider having a meal off property. That might be a early breakfast or a late dinner, but either one will save you a bit of money to use for something else.
Take Snacks
We always pack our park bag with snacks to munch on during our touring of the parks. This makes all the difference, especially because it seems like we are always hungry! Our favorites to park are granola bars, trail mix, and fig newtons.
Consider Dining Plans
The dining plans do not always end up saving you money, but sometimes they really do! We highly recommend taking the time to crunch the numbers, look into your plans, and see if that will pay off. It could end up really working for you!
If you do find that you want the dining plan and you are staying onsite, Disney periodically will offer free dining plans with select resort packages. This is not always the case and we do encourage you to not plan on it. However, it does still happen from time to time. If you’ve decided to get the dining and are staying on property, be sure to keep an eye out for any announcement. It could happen!
Share a Meal
Often times Disney will give you a nice size portion that will really fill you up! So, it can often work out that sharing a meal will give you some savings. In addition to this, we will many times grab a meal to share and then a small snack rather than getting two whole meals. There are so many options!
Set Your Family’s Expectations
There are multiple dining experience options within Disney World. From Counter-Service, Quick-Service, and Table Service, you have many ways to spend your time. As you are researching ways to save, make sure you are communicating your ideas and plans to your group. Everyone has different set ideas of how they want to spend their trip. So, if you have a perfect plan to cut some spending by quickly grabbing counter service snacks and meals, make sure your fellow travelers know this is the plan. This will vastly help you curb some sad people if they were expecting to take leisure breaks at a seated dinner.
Look into the Annual Pass
Our last tip starts with the question of how often will you visit Disney. If you are planning to stay for a long trip or go twice in one year, it may actually pay off for you to purchase the annual pass. This pass comes with A LOT of discounts and perks that will really help you. In many cases, only one person in a group needs to have this annual pass to get big savings from it. So, check that out as well if you happen to be visiting Disney even twice in the span of a year. You’ll be surprised at how quickly it could pay off!
We hope this helps you immensely in your trips. If there is any way we can help you, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
What’s more, if you need help planning your trip, Amanda is a travel agent through Goldgell Getaways and specializes in Disney vacations. She would be ecstatic to help you plan your next Disney vacation at no extra charge to you! Feel out a no-obligation form to request a quote directly from her!