Disney is expensive, ya’ll. Like stupid expensive. And your resident cheapo is going to try and spit some facts about how to save money at Disney. This is a 3-parter (you’re welcome) and in Part 3 we’re rounding it up with Disney meals and snacks. If you missed Part 1, you can catch that here, and Part 2 here.
My apologies that Part 3 is late because I got a little obsessed with Schitt’s Creek on Netflix. To be honest, I am as shocked as you are that I actually finished. Thanks for coming back on faith.
Disclaimer:
1. I know a LOT of people who are in LOVE with Disney. But I am NOT.
It’s not like I hate it. But I am not a Disney fanatic. This is probably the fault of my own parents who never took me to Disney as a child. (Ahem… thanks Mom & Dad for ruining my childhood.) None of my core memories involved iconic Disney and instead involved riding in our minivan to another sporting event for my brother or staying at home on the farm, where I stood in the front yard, looking at the sky with my finger in my nose. (This is how Shawn describes my childhood every time he references something straight out of 90’s pop culture that I am clueless about). We didn’t have cable tv until I left for college so you can also thank my parents for this homegrown, farm raised, weirdness.
I digress…… This is a pretty basic, “Disney magic” free guide about how to plan for a Disney vacation that fits in your budget. If you can handle me being pretty blunt about the cost of Disney, read on.
2. There is SO MUCH info out there. TONS. I am going to tell you what WE did.
Love it or hate it, Disney is a TON different than normal right now. This is the case for how it worked for us. Maybe you can apply some of this info if you travel during Covid. If you are reading this after Covid, glean what you can.
DISNEY WORLD DINING
THE AGE OLD QUESTION: Are dining plans right for us?
Right now, dining plans are not right for your trip because (sticking with the theme here) dining plans are temporarily suspended during Covid 19. If you do travel outside of Covid 19 and dining plans are reinstated, you might need the following information.
I wrestled with whether to add a dining plan to our resort reservations. A lot. I have read a lot about dining plans. Again, this topic will divide Disney people. But you do you. I ultimately have a bad case of FOMO (fear of missing out) and heard from so many people how amazing the dining plans are that I was SO close to adding a dining plan. Then Covid happened, dining plans were suspended, and the choice was made for me. Here is my extremely watered down view of dining plans. Dining plans let you prepay for your meals and while this may be convenient, it might not be economical for your family.
Dining plans are figured by person/per day based on what type of meals are right for your family. You can pick “Quick Service”, which is more like a grab and go, counter-service type of eatery. Or you can pick “Table Service”, where you will have a waiter/waitress. Obviously, the Quick Service is cheaper than Table Service, but none of them are considered cheap in my book. Disney resort guests are able to purchase a dining plan for their stay, which essentially is a prepayment for the food you will eat. You can book restaurants in the park or at the resort you are planning to visit up to 180 days in advance in your My Disney Experience App. Get this…. Some people are ACTUALLY organized enough to set an alarm, log into the app and make sure to book their reservations for the most popular restaurants 180 DAYS BEFORE THEIR TRIP.
This blew my ever loving mind. I am organized. I like to plan. But this was nuts to me. I didn’t know ONE thing about any Disney World parks and resorts and the thought that I needed to pre pick where we would eat made me super nervous.
WHAT WE DID:
Since dining plans were not an option, we decided to eat out once a day, eat in the room for breakfast and take lunch with us to the parks. (Guests of Walt Disney World parks can bring in bottled water and food.) I made a table service reservation in three of four parks. We made our reservations late as we contemplated not going on the trip until mid August. I was just sure that WDW would close and we would have to reschedule our trip. Even with late reservations, we were able to eat at Coral Reef in Epcot, which was a good fit since our kids love seafood. We ate at Yak & Yeti’s in Animal Kingdom, which was Asian food and delicious. At Hollywood Studios, we ate at The Sci Fi Drive In for lunch, which was a pretty cool experience. We were unable to find a table service we were wild about at Magic Kingdom, so we ate snacks in the park and then went back to our hotel, ordered from the resort market, and ate by the pool.
We also used Instacart and had Aldi’s groceries delivered to our resort. For around $80 I did not have to worry about transportation to a store since we were without a car. I made an account, linked my credit card, and shopped before the trip. I saved my cart, checked out the day before we left, and requested delivery for the following day after we checked in to our hotel. Our resort also called me when it arrived and delivered to my door! We bought breakfast foods and lunch items and ate in the park three times (two dinners and one lunch). At Hollywood Studios, we ate lunch in the park and then went back to our hotel and ordered from GrubHub.
We took a Pack-It lunch bag that you freeze and it keeps your food cold without ice. We packed it with our lunch items and stored it in the basket of our stroller, along with some water bottles. The lunch box kept our food cool until lunch when we would sit and take a break.
There were a lot of families who also brought their meals into the parks, so I was pleased we were not the only ones eating PB&J’s and slick meat sandwiches in the rest areas. When we did get to sit down for a table service meal, my kids ate like picky kids, except for Sophie who eats like we are made of money. Sloane and Rory mostly picked the Uncrustable, hamburger, or hotdog entree. Sloane would eat PB&J for a lunch that we packed and for supper happily order the dang Uncrustable entree. To be fair, she did eat Lo Mein at Yak and Yeti’s and shrimp at Coral Reef. Still, her mostly PB&J diet confirmed that on the whole, the dining plan was not worth it for her and Rory. For example, I paid $.37 for a PB&J in our grocery order and then turned around and paid $11.99 for an Uncrustable, chips, a fruit squeeze, and a drink at our table service meal.
Each table service meal that we ate in a park or at Disney Springs cost us about $100- $125 for our family of 5. The other three days that we were in Orlando but not in a park, those meals were about $80-$90.
After our trip, I used this Disney Trip Planner tool to compare dining options. I entered how many people were in my party, what we ate, and then compared the two costs to see if we saved money by not using a Disney Dining Plan.
The total for the meals my family ate without the dining plan was SPOT ON with the amount projected on the website. According to Distripplanner.com, if we would have purchased the dining plan, we would have paid $658 more. Given that our other meals cost us about $80 in groceries, our method definitely saved us money.
Final Savings: $578.
Meals & Snacks Cost : $900 ish for 6 days. A Disney dining plan would have cost $1565.58, which is $658 more than our budgeted $900. We spent $80 on Instacart grocery delivery for our other meals. $658-$80= $578.
IF WE DID IT AGAIN:
All in all, I feel like our system worked beautifully and I would absolutely do it again. I wanted to be budget conscious but also not deprive ourselves, which is why we compromised with one meal out a day. We hardly ever eat breakfast out, so eating in the room was a no brainer. Carrying in our lunch may not be the norm, but I am okay with not being normal. I am okay with doing a little bit of work to reap the benefits. I think that if we did purchase a dining plan, I would feel compelled to eat all I could to get my money’s worth. (Sometime maybe I’ll write a blog about the time we went on a cruise and I was sick in the room every night from eating too much). My impulse control is shite.
THE FINAL SAY ON WHAT YOU SHOULD DO:
If you are ready to immerse yourself in all things Disney, want to eat out every meal and will order a steak or higher-priced menu items at table service restaurants: Prepay the dining plan and live it up! (if it is available).
If you are budget conscious and want to experience table service fare at a Disney Park but also know a dining plan will likely not be worth it for your family: forgo a dining plan and make it work for your family! Enjoy some sit-down meals and also take food with you to cut down on costs.
If your budget is slim and you are planning this trip on a whim because 2020 sucks and you’d like to have some joy (or you aren’t staying at a resort where you can purchase a dining plan): Find a hotel that is decently priced and has a continental breakfast and order some groceries to be delivered. Even if you don’t have a mini-fridge you can get peanut butter and jelly, chips, apples, fruit, and make do. Take all your meals into the parks and I promise you your kids won’t notice. They will have the time of their lives no matter what they eat. I promise.