Tips about Food & Beverage and Resorts

A great new item for that hot thirsty Disney trip -- individual cold brew tea bags! Any restaurant will give you free tap water but it doesn't taste very good. Just pop in a tea bag and some sugar (if desired) and you have delicious iced tea. - Amy

ALL STAR RESORTS - When we stay at the All Star Resorts we like to make our room feel larger and also give our daughter more playing room. Simply push the two beds together against the wall and move the night stand and table between the beds and the door and these small All Star rooms become much more roomy. Just leave a note politely asking the housekeeping to leave the furniture the way you have arranged. - Amy Kearns

There is no milk on the beverage island at any of the food courts, but if you are a coffee drinker like me who prefers milk to cream, just ask one of the CM's. They have some put aside in the "back room" just for this. - Jack Marshall

We stayed at the All-Star Movies Resort. My tip to everyone who's gotta have MILK: Instead of buying the little cartons of milk at the food court for 99 cents each, go into the gift shop and buy a whole quart for $1.50. This saved us a lot of money, once we realized they sold milk in the back of the gift shop. Take your own cereal from home, send someone for the bottle of milk in the morning and this will save you lots of time and money. - Donna Glatfelter

SHADES OF GREEN - With a military ID, you can purchase items at the Shades of Green Gift Shop that are VERY reasonably priced. For instance, we bought pins there for my son to trade in the parks: $3 for pins that are $6.50-$8.50 in WDW gift shops. - Joseph and Renee Witmer

SHADES OF GREEN - We stayed at the Shades of Green this past October during the National Car Rental Golf Tournament. The great perk of staying there was admission to the tournament was FREE! My husband got to see Tiger Woods in person for free. Needless to say we've made reservations for this year's tournament. - Connie Roberts

I just returned from 17 days in Orlando. Although I stayed off-site, I ate quite a bit at Disney hotels. We all know about character dining, but all you Brits should try normal meals at any of the hotels. Fantastic! - Chris M. from the UK

Did you get a great hotel deal for a Disney All Star "value" resort? Don't let the food court prices steal your bargain. At your value resort, a little Minute Maid sip box costs $1.50, and a 2-liter Coke in the gift shop is $3.50. You will probably not exceed your baggage allowance for a 4- or 5-day trip, so you can bring along another suitcase without exceeding your airline limit. Get that old suitcase out of the basement or buy one from a flea market, and the day before your trip, take the family on a grocery shopping trip. Let everyone pick out their favorite snack items. It will be a fun start to the trip, and you could literally save hundreds of dollars. Make sure you have included breakfast items like donuts, fruit cups, juices, bottled water, etc. Breakfast in the room can save you up to $10 per person, per day. If you are a coffee drinker, bring along that old coffee pot or pick up a little five-cup pot at Walmart. Not only will you save money, but you'll also save time not having to walk back and forth to the food court each morning. - Timothy Helm

We just returned from WDW, which was wonderful as always, and I wanted to give you a tip about eating at Chef Mickey's without a Priority Seating. When we called during the day for a Priority Seating for the same evening, there were none available. Since we were staying at the Contemporary, I went to the hostess around 4 p.m. (they close for lunch) and was told that they start taking seating requests at 4:30 p.m. for the 5 p.m. restaurant opening. I went at 4:30, put in my request, got my buzzer, and went to the shops. Promptly at 5 p.m., my buzzer went off, sending me back to the restaurant for dinner with my party of five. - Linda Bradley

I have some tips on how to save money on food at WDW. For breakfast, consider room service! You would think it would be expensive, but you can get a tea, muffins, croissants, and fruit platter for 2-4 people for under $20! And many rooms have free coffee machines... Another option is to do the two-meal-a-day plan. Have a big meal (breakfast/ brunch) around 10-11 a.m., and another big meal around 3-4 p.m. This way, you beat the restaurant rush at the more popular meal times, and when everyone else is eating, you are enjoying the slightly shorter ride lines. - Laura P., Bel Air, Md.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Room Service breakfasts are only available at deluxe resorts and Coronado Springs.

A friendly Cast Member writes to remind everyone to totally fill out their charge slips when dining at restaurants. They said we'd be surprised at how many folks leave the tip and total lines blank!

Just wanted to let people know there are also a Costco and B.J.'s Warehouse close by, for those who frequent those stores instead of Sam's Clubs. B.J.'s is just off I4 at the Conroy exit, so a few miles to drive, but for those of us who live in the northeast it is more common than Sam's. - Dolores DeFrancesco

I just returned from WDW and I stayed at the Old Key West resort. As most people know, the general store at OKW is highly priced for food. What I found out this time is that there is a Sam's Club about 10 minutes away on Orange Blossom Drive. My wife and I went there and bought all of the food for the stay and spent a whole lot less money! Just an FYI for Sam's Club members staying at OKW who want to get food at a decent cost. - Joseph Potts

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks, Joseph! There are actually a few Sam's Clubs in the WDW area. Visit their website at http://www.samsclub.com and click on Club Locator to get directions.

In January, our daughter attended the Alice in Wonderland Tea Party (at the Grand Floridian). We got to take pictures of her when we dropped her off, but were a little disappointed we didn't get any of her with Alice and the Mad Hatter. They do give you one Polaroid, but we are avid scrapbookers and needed more. Well, when I developed film from our trip there were several pictures of Emily with the characters at the Tea Party! I forgot that Emily had her own camera at the party. She had taken pictures, and also Cast Members had taken several pictures of her with the characters using her camera. Tip: Send your little ones with their own camera. Hers was a Fisher Price, but you could send disposable camera, too. The pictures will be great! - Lisa Stewart

For more information on the Tea Party, go to: http://allears.net/pl/grandadven.htm

We just returned from our first trip to WDW. WOW, what a wonderful experience -- but it could get really expensive! I was concerned about keeping up an active pace and having "Disney" food to sustain us, as there were six adults in our party (two in their 20s and four greater than!). We used Federal Express to mail a package of snacks to ourselves, to arrive at our resort the day of our arrival. We packed pears, apples and dried cranberries, packaged sausage and cheese (wrapped in cold packaging), crackers, fruit cookies and boxed juices. We packed our backpacks every day from these items. Everything traveled well. We were really grateful around 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. for our nutritious snacks. We keep up a 12-13 hour a day activity agenda, but still didn't see it all! We are going back next year. - Loraine Dressler