Originally Posted By beccad72 Okay, we are heading out to California for a week the end of August. My parents, God bless them, are paying for most everything except meals. Any suggestions on where to feed a family on a budget? We have two girls, one of which lives to eat only chicken nuggets and pizza and is a very picky eatter, the other one eats just about everything. They typically share meals at most restaurants, except McDonalds. We are staying at the DGH. How much should we budget for food? Would $100 a day be enough do you think? We plan to keep water and snacks in the room to bring into the park with us... Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance. Beccad72
Originally Posted By dlkozy I'm not sure that I could feed my family of 4 at DLR for $100 a day. But, all the menus are available online for you to look over and decide for yourself whether $100 will work for you or not.
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 McDonalds is a short walk away from DL, Subway, IHOP and many other places are a short distance away as well. I would reccomend eating breakfast at a local place, You should be able to feed a family of 4 for under 100 a day if you pack snacks and eat breakfast offsite.
Originally Posted By dzy76 I have always budgeted about $100/day for meals and souvenirs at DL for myself and three boys. Most days I'm well under and once in awhile (maybe we ate at BB one day) it goes over. But it has always worked well for me. I don't find meals any more expensive at DL compared to eating out anywhere else. It's all more than eating at home, but DL atmosphere is so worth it. Perhaps McD's is a little less (not much really) but who wants to eat at McD's for vacation?
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 but who wants to eat at McD's for vacation?<< My 3 year old for one lol
Originally Posted By basketballfan dlresortinfo has menus. we had our first family trip to DL last august. for the 5 of us, (3 DD ages 14, 10 and 6) i budgeted $80 a day for food. we had fruit and muffins in the room for breakfasts and lunchmeat for sandwiches. one thing i didn't count on was that we would not be as hungry as usual, and none of us wanted big huge meals. we still ate at nice places, but we would have one meal and then "snacky" meals the rest of the time. i even came home with money. one thing i have tried to stress with my family is that you don't "have" to eat when the clock says it's lunchtime. eat when you are hungry. a couple of tips- drink water with meals and share food. my husband, 1 daughter and i all shared the pasta at the pizza place. another time we each ordered a cinnamon roll from the bakery on main street and it was waaaay to much. you can always order more if you are still hungry, but you can't get money back if you are full.
Originally Posted By tapdancemom Whitewater Snacks in Grand Californian has good prices and portions. Rancho del Zacolo also has huge portions like Pizza Port where meals can be shared. French Market, same thing, lots of food. I like what basketballfan said about buying more if you're still hungry, but you can't get your money back if you're too full to eat it all.
Originally Posted By fkurucz What we do is buy breakfast foods (cereal, fruit, milk, juice, etc.) at the nearby Vons and eat breakfast in our rooms. That frees up some cash to spend on a nicer dinner.
Originally Posted By Plutos Mom Like fkurucz I pack prepakaged breakfast foods (cereals, muffins, milk and juices), that way the kids can eat while while I'm getting ready, and we don't waste a lot of time sitting down to eat first thing in the morning as the kids are real antsy to get into the park. I also pack some snack stuff to take into the park with us, and to leave in the room in case we are too tired to go out to eat somewhere. (That is assuming we can get a room with a fridge.)
Originally Posted By RangerPooh Here are a few sugestions: *pack donuts/danishes/or cereal bars for muching on in the morning *buy a cinammon roll at the Blue Ribbon Bakery and share it. They are huge. As a previous poster said you can always order something else later *Split a meal at Rancho, the portions are really good sized *you could buy a slice of pizza and a salad/pasta at Red Rockets and split it *an inexpensive snack during the day is to buy a plain bread bowl at Boudine's and ask for plenty of butter *a FREE snack is to hit the Mission Tortilla Factory for a tortilla (Boudine's does itt oo but you only get a slice about the size of a crouton) *Reasonable priced lunch that could probably be shared is at Award Wieners *If interested in a good/inexpensive sit down breakfast try Carnation Cafe *McDonald's is across the street (and even though it is hidden there is a dollar menu) *IHOP has kids eat free after a certain time *Also see who offers a AAA discount (not too many, usually sit downs) or AP disocunt if you decide to upgrade to one
Originally Posted By hondo75 We normaly bring breakfast items and snacks with us. We also bring a case of water to take with us to the park so that we don't have to spend much on drinks. With all that we can general make it by with a $100 or less a day for meals, that is for 2 adults and 2 hungary teenagers.
Originally Posted By MomofPrincess We always count on about $100 per day for our family of 4 (our kids are 6 & 10). We, too, take lots of bottled water into the park plus some snacks, although we do usually buy a frozen banana or two during the course of a day. ;-) The Pizza Port over by Space Mountain has big adult portions; my husband and I split their chicken fettucinni (DELICIOUS) and split a salad. It was plenty! Another way to go is to buy the kids' meals for yourself if you're not a huge eater. Definitely check out White Water Snacks over at DCA. Great food and reasonable prices. Plus it's relaxing and not over-crowded. Also, this sounds really silly, but I bought a cheapo $6 toaster at Wal-mart prior to our trip, and took along some bagels, cream cheese, fruit, and juice, and we ate our breakfast in the room each day! (We took a cooler but ended up having a fridge in the room.) It saved us about $30 per day for breakfast out. (Even stopping for a bagel/coffee & muffins/juice there will put you out $20-$25.) I didn't regret it a bit! I am not usually a very frugal person, but I just can't see spending a fortune, day after day, on a bunch of greasy breakfasts. This tasted lighter/better and saved us a ton of time in the mornings.
Originally Posted By avromark I personally bring a small microwave with us, as well as a propane fridge and oven, at least at WDW. We tend to bag it mostly at DLR. As well not ordering soda, and sticking to beautiful OC water can save some money of course, as would skipping dessert.
Originally Posted By MomofPrincess Also, make sure you don't forget the bottled waters. The SMALL bottles run about $2.75 in the park. (The ones that would be $.59 in a mini-mart elsewhere!) I personally wouldn't count on refilling them with Anaheim water, though. Blech! We usually take frozen ones and put them in the locker for later, once we run out. Another easy thing to tote around is some Capri Suns for the kids.
Originally Posted By fkurucz OC water is awful. If you can, buy a 2.5 gallon jug of purified water (the ones that have a built in spigot). They cost $2 at Vons.
Originally Posted By deekaypee we eat breakfast in the room and bring healthy snacks, which I would do anyway. We bring in our own water, for taste, convenience and cost. We agree to eat some cheap fast food off-site (Subway/McDonalds) in order to have one splurge. We've even clipped coupons. Try this site: <a href="http://www.anaheimoc.org/Articles/Archive/Webpage10153.asp" target="_blank">http://www.anaheimoc.org/Artic les/Archive/Webpage10153.asp</a> for 10% off the local McDonald's.
Originally Posted By alexbook >>OC water is awful.<< Maybe there's something wrong me, but I don't think it's that bad.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<any idea where I could find the menus online?>> <a href="http://www.dlresortinfo.com/" target="_blank">http://www.dlresortinfo.com/</a>
