Anyone eat all their meals off-site?

[HunnyPots]

I get sticker-shock everytime I read a WDW menu and see those prices! I was wondering if anyone goes to WDW and doesn't eat there.
We (me, dh, dd 14, and ds 10) will be there in January so I'm sure the parks will have shorter hours so I can see having dinner off-site after we leave. But what about lunch? Will that be just too much trouble to leave come back after and have to park again and everything? We are renting a car so we won't be depending on WDW transportation.
What do you think? Is this a good idea or should we just bite the bullet and fork over $40 for burgers and fries?
Thanks a bunch!

 

[papagooch]

We bite the bullet for some meals and go all out for
Artist Point or O'Hana but I can't bear to spend that
kind of money for every meal. We take a cooler
and make lunch. For dinner we go to the Maingate area from
the Poly and I don't feel so guilty about spending $4000.
for a hotel room for a week in offseason. I would never eat all
meals off-site though because I love the show that comes along
with the high meal prices at Whispering Canyon or Liberty Tree
Tavern.

 

[BedKnobbery]

HunnyPots,

It would be POSSIBLE, of course, to eat all your meals off-site, but it would seriously cut into your park touring time......not a desirable side effect, especially in the off season when the parks close early.

My suggestion would be to eat a VERY large breakfast before you leave, and bring along a backpack with lots of snacks to supplement during the day. A cooler is possible, but bulky and more likely to draw attention to yourself; even though I've never heard of anyone having a problem bringing food into the parks, it *is* against park rules, and bringing a cooler is basically advertizing the fact that that is exactly what you are doing.

Another possibility is splitting meals; many of the WDW restaurants serve very large portions. You could probably get by on ordering 2 or 3 meals, depending upon how big of eaters you are.

Some suggestions for easy to carry snacks: single packed cookies or crackers, lollipops, string cheese, goldfish, trail mix.

I would also bite the bullet for at least one lunch; I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts your kids will be thrilled to eat at one of the restaurants in one of the parks; there would be mutiny in my family if we didn't take in either the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom, or the Sci-Fi Theater REstaurant at MGM. You could even make it a big 'event'; have your kids go through all the books, and pick the top 3 restaurants they'd most like to visit. Then have a family vote prior to the trip so everyone knows where it will be!

Good luck!

Susanne

 

[GORDYBOY]

Hi

One of the reasons I dont stay in the "magic". I like to visit the parks but staying on site
requires you take a large wheelbarrow with lots of money and then to watch Disney
empty it by charging you $40 for a hamburger meal........

 

[LisaRex]

Ate a few of my meals at the parks and resort, but ate most of them at my villa at OKW. Ate every breakfast except one character meal at home, then packed most lunches (pb&j and lunchmeat sandwiches, frozen juice boxes to keep the sandwiches chilled) which we ate in the park with no problems. Also packed various snacks throughout the day. Didn't buy one drink there other than with meals-- it was WAY too hot to stand in line and pay $2.50 for a soda pop that would have been diluted by melted ice within minutes...

We did eat offsite a few times and found we spent as much at Charley's steak house as we would have onsite. Except the food was delicious. We packed our leftovers and ate them on the last night.

All in all, I budgeted $1000 in spending money and came back with $740.

 

[Mouser]

We generally have a big breakfast off site, then head into the parks..have a later lunch sometimes and then have dinner off site if the parks close early...sometimes though we spring for a nice dinner in our favorite restaurants on site....but we do a lot of fast food there too..Not worth it to drive out of the parks for lunch..waste too much time when the park hours are short...There are combo meal options, your best bet for saving for lunch if you do buy it.

 

[Plum Goofy]

We eat breakfast at the room. Pack snacks in our fanny packs. Then we grab lunch in a (non-full-service) restaurant, that way we can share an entree. After snacking all morning we don't need a big lunch so it is no problem to share.

 

[MouseLover]

On our trip in March, we ate breakfast at our hotel (Buena Vista Suites -- free buffet breakfast daily). It really does take a lot of park time away to leave to eat, so we ate counter service lunches, which will run about $7 each with a drink/burger/ff, and about $3-4 for a kids meal (we have a 4yo DD). We took snacks into the parks, with the exception of buying a box of popcorn to share one afternoon, and going to the Ice Cream Social another afternoon (This is a great way to meet characters and get some good ice cream at the same time, for "relatively" cheap -- $6.75 each). Dinners were counter service again or offsite. Offsite we ate near the Crossroads area (near Downtown Disney) -- at Joe's Crab Shack (I love Joe's, and it's a lot of food for about $10-$12 each); also Olive Garden, Pizza Hut (best deal yet -- $12 for all of us), Wendy's, McDonald's near All-Star resorts, and Chick-Fil-A. We had scheduled character meals but decided to eat cheaper, meet characters at greeting areas and ice cream social, and save the $15-$21 per person instead. Here's a tip: ice water is FREE at the counter service places-- just ask for a cup of water and NOT a bottle.

 

[hercamore]

There is a 50's type cafe in a small strip mall off palmparkway near dt disney called SteaknShake. This place is CHEAP. Most items are under $4. an portions are large. I had a spaghetti plate for $2.95, son had burger fries, salad for $4. and dd had soup, salad, and chickehn sand for $4. Total bill with 2 pop was $l9..

 

[baileybrad]

Didn't read all the responses but SteaknShake is a fairly well-known chain. It would be fine for a meal but is basically a bit higher priced fast food place that has a better quality hamburger and decent shakes. Compared to Disney prices it is fairly reasonable but then most things are when compared to Disney prices. I would not make a habit of leaving the parks during the shorter seasons to travel off-site eat lunch. I would eat some evening meals off-site. I would consider a quick trip back to the hotel for a bite and maybe a short rest. We are DVC members but we usually eat about half of our meals off Disney property, mainly because there are some great choices. We tend to eat more of our lunches on Disney property due to the cheaper prices that you can get at the sitdown places compared to the evening prices.

 

[Musky]

I can not attest to this personally, but I have read that there is a small picnic area near the TTC and that lockers are also available at the TTC. If you are spending the day at the MK, you could put a cooler in a locker at the TTC, and take the monorail over there for a picnic at lunchtime. It would still take you some time walking to the entrance, waiting for the monorail, etc., but it wouldn't be as bad as going the whole way back to your resort or leaving WDW all together. When my brother went, they had a tailgate picnic at their car (they were unaware of the picnic area). I intend to check this out on our October trip.

Musky