Tips about Disney Dining Plan and Food & Beverage

My #1 tip is to bring a small soft-sided cooler with you into the parks holding several ice packs, drinks and snacks. No alcohol or glass is permitted (except for prescription medicines and baby bottles/food.) All coolers will be inspected when you enter the parks, but they are allowed in as long as they are soft-sided. Once you have used up the contents of the cooler, you will have room to pick up a few pastries from one of the bakeries to have for breakfast the next day if you want. If you have access to a refrigerator, you can "recharge" your ice packs there. Otherwise, you'll have to rely on your ice bucket to recharge them or to bring ice. And of course, you'll need more ice/ice packs in summer than in winter. - Terri Jensen

On the shoestring plan, we have tried many things over the years and these are some that work: Eat a hearty breakfast at your condo or room before going to the parks. It's a long day and food is your biggest expense. Also, if you are staying at a condo or somewhere you have access to a kitchen, utilize it. Keep sandwich material and cook some frozen pizzas and put them in plastic sealer bags in the refrigerator. When you get back from the parks in the evenings, use the trusty old microwave. Instead of eating dinner in the park get a snack and eat back at the condo. This way you save some money and no one has to be burdened with heavy cleanup at the house or condo. - Tom Galloway

Being a Disney Vacation Club member has allowed us to stay in a one- or two-bedroom villa when we visit. We plan our meals ahead of time and purchase groceries for our stay. We ALWAYS eat breakfast in our room and then plan lunches/dinners/snacks based on our itineraries. If we have a car for our trip, we shop at a discount retailer a short distance south of Walt Disney World. If we don't have a car we use a grocery delivery service. Even with the delivery surcharge, it's considerably cheaper than paying for all our meals on the property. - Donna Wisely

Perhaps this money-saving tip is too obvious and/or means only minimal cost savings, but we think it is the greatest. We order food delivered to our condo from Garden Grocer. This helps us save money, in addition to the great convenience. We eat all of our breakfast meals before we go to the parks. By selecting the items online prior to our arrival we are able to carefully select the correct amount of food for the week. We don't forget items at the grocery store, or end up buying too much, or expensive "impulse items" because we are in the "vacation mode." We select breakfast items that are very similar to our meals at home and save our special selections for our dinners at the parks. We love having all of our food items selected before we arrive and delivered right to our condo. - Ross

We split all of our counter service meals. Disney is so generous with portion sizes, that we often find that one meal shared between two is plenty -- and it leaves room for fun snacks between meals. Also, it's not illegal or against the rules to order more food! If, while eating, we think we're going to need more, we just get it (providing the line is short enough). - John and Cassandra Pinheiro

We always bring breakfast items (granola bars, fruit cups) and juice boxes to eat for breakfast as we are getting ready for the day. The night before, we put what we will need for the next day in a bucket of ice or our small cooler so it's cold for morning. This means one fewer meal we have to buy in the parks, but it's also a time-saver, as we are early people and like to be heading for the buses early for park opening. And since it's a light breakfast we are usually ready for lunch around 11 a.m. and beat the big lunch crowds! Bonus! We still usually treat ourselves to one or two special breakfasts during our stay (Tonga toast!) but it's a great way to keep the food budget in check. - Kate

Since milk is not included in the Disney refillable mug program we always purchase the largest container of milk from the resort store. Price is much cheaper than food court. Saves time in the morning since the kids can have some milk and cereal in the room. - Steve

Whatever you do don't spend money on bottled water. It is so expensive and there are water fountains everywhere. This goes for the theme parks and the airport. Simply bring an empty bottle and fill it up as you need it. If you are really hardcore about it you can drink water the whole trip and skip buying drinks at the quick serves entirely. Also think about bringing lots of snacks from home such as granola bars and peanut butter cracker packs that you can eat instead of buying snacks and treats in the parks. You'll save a bunch of money this way. - Chris Kulp

We love the Disney dining plan, but have learned that three meals a day, even counter service, can be a bit much, and if one of the meals is a buffet -- calorie overload! We discovered that by having a late breakfast (often snack credits) on a buffet day, we could save that counter-service credit. Then, on our last day, we could use it, plus any leftover snack credits, to get food to take on the plane ride home that afternoon. Earl of Sandwich makes sandwiches that are wrapped well enough to be carried around, and Goofy's Candy company has lots of bags of candy that are one snack credit each. By taking an extra-large tote purse with me, I could carry two sandwiches, two cookies, and whatever candies we got and not have to rely on buying airline food. Next time, we may try combining two of our table-service credits and eating an upscale meal! - Joyce A. Deen

The Disney Dining Plan is a must, especially since we usually get it for free in the fall. We also bring a case of water bottles and cereal to eat in the room for breakfast. - Tammy W.

I think it is important to know that you do not have to order a "meal" at a quick service restaurant. If you just want pizza without a salad, or a hamburger without fries, you can have it! And it costs less! - Kathy Jo Horan

At the end of our last trip, we had quite a few counter service meals remaining. Since we had a 17 hour drive ahead of us, we went to Disney Springs the morning of our departure. There we used our free dining plan meals that remained. We purchased breakfast pizzas as well as regular pizzas which we later used for lunch [storing them in the cooler and eating cold}. Wolfgang Pucks has great food! This saved us purchasing meals an entire day as we had leftovers. We also earlier in the week spent a day at the coast, using our free dining plan to purchase sandwiches/sides and drinks to take along for a picnic lunch. - Joyce Anderson

Just got back from a wonderful 11-day trip to the "World." While there, we had the chance to use the new RFID key cards. One note of caution, many of the cast members are getting used to the new technology. We were surprised to see we had seven snacks left on the last day of our trip. When we looked at our room charges, we saw that many of the snacks we thought we were using were actually being charged to the room. So we had to rush to use all of our snacks. Make sure to specify to the cashier that you want to use a snack and then check your receipt, or you will end up with a carry-on bag full of Mickey-shaped Rice Krispy treats! - Garrin L. Goebel

Magic Kingdom - We were just at Disney World last week, and we spent two days in the Magic Kingdom. The crowds weren't too bad, but the lines for the Be Our Guest Restaurant were very long. The wait was 45 minutes around 11:30. A helpful cast member told me that many times the line is shorter around 1 or 1:30 p.m. We had a snack to tide us over and went back at 1:20 p.m. Sure enough, we were in the castle in 10 minutes. It was totally worth it! You can research allergies on the touch-screen menu to see what foods are OK to eat. It was wonderful for my gluten-free son. Lunch prices were just slightly more than prices at the Columbia Harbor House, but the ambiance and decorations were priceless. My kids spent half the meal staring at the snow falling outside the giant picture window lining one wall. I really enjoyed the vegetable quiche, and the gluten-free Lemon Raspberry Cream Puff was great, too. Everything about the restaurant is done right. It was a wonderful memory for us. - Ali Sanders

I like to bring an extra sandwich-sized zipper-top bag to the parks with me. That way if the kids don't finish a meal we can take some of it with us as a snack for later. - Ingrid