by Budget Diva
There are many ways to save for Disney World!
Many people do not realize this but you can bring your own food into the parks! I always recommend that you pack a soft sided cooler (hard coolers are not allowed) and bring plenty of drinks, juice boxes, etc and snacks for your children. I even pack our whole family a big lunch and bring it each day to save even more money. You can read a whole article about that RIGHT HERE!
The average family of 4 spends $50+ on a quick service meal for lunch at Disney World. Most kids meals are $6 to $8 inside the theme parks. So order off the kids menu if you’re not a big eater, have your kids also split 1 kids meal if they are not good eaters. Snacks add up quickly too. Ice cream can cost as much as $5. You can read more about that HERE.
Another great way to save for Disney World is to limit the amount of meals that you eat out. Request a refrigerator/microwave for your hotel room (ALL Disney hotels now have complimentary refrigerators). This is a great way to ensure that you can prepare meals in your room and save money! You can microwave easy mac, soup, spaghettio’s, etc for your kids.
Are you flying? You can have the food delivered to your hotel by the Garden Grocer.
This would make even more sense for those with allergies and food issues. My wife always finds it hard to get anything gluten-free to eat in the Parks, at least, not as easily as I get my stuff! We’ll have to consider carrying stuff in for our next visit.
I was at WDW in October 2012 and we (2 of us are Celiac) never had a problem finding lots of Gluten Free food to eat. Disney is fantastic for anyone with dietary restrictions. All you have to do is email the special diets department, and they will send you a list of QS locations and the GF items you will find there. If you intend on eating TS, just let them know of the dietary restriction upon booking and they will certainly cater to your needs. For the first time in my life, I ate like a Queen! You do need to plan out where you will eat if you want GF variety, but its simple with the list Disney sends out. 🙂
The fridges do really help for early morning/late evening munchies! We had one in our room and loved it so much.