t3kbiz.com

Let me say that we find visiting Disney World to be a great excuse to eat! Lots of great choices, good quality in most cases, and the fun of trying new things, all entice us to truly enjoy eating while at Disney. Still, it can be very expensive, so we have found some ways to save money while still fully enjoying all the delicious options that Walt Disney World has to offer. Here are five favorite tips to reduce your Disney food budget and have an affordable Disney vacation:

1. Think about cooking and/or eating a few meals in your room. If you plan to stay in a vacation home, villa, condo, or even a hotel suite, you should have access to a kitchen. Even with a traditional hotel room, you will probably be able to have a small refrigerator: use this to store milk, juice, and sandwich fixings.

2. Bring your own snacks, juices, water etc. Not having to pay park prices on these things will save you a lot of money.

3. Consider sharing some meals, as Disney portions are pretty large. Especially if you have little ones who don’t eat much, you can easily have 2 kids share, or and adult and child can do so as well….and no one will leave hungry!

4. You may also save some money by eating off-site, especially if you can use discount coupons or promotions. If staying off-Disney property, ask at your hotel for any they offer, and you can also look at local Orlando websites. Or purchase a local Entertainment book to get Orlando area restaurant coupons.

5. Finally, we are big fans of the Disney Dining Plan. The way the plan works, if you are staying on Disney property, you have the ability to choose from several levels of the Dining Plan, basically pre-paying for nearly all of your meals. And with several choices (providing snack, counter service, or in some plans, table service meals) there is an option for nearly any budget. For our family, who like table service meals each night, we choose the Plus Disney Dining Plan and get one snack credit, one counter meal (entree, drink, and dessert), and one table service meal (entree, drink, and dessert) per person, per day. For us, the snacks generally work well most days for breakfast, and the others will be used for lunch and dinner each day. It is frankly more food per person than we can usually eat, and so we often take our dessert with us since we are so full! For this level, the cost per day for our family of 3 is less than we would have paid just for dinner, so we are saving quite a bit of money using the Disney Dining Plan.

Needless to say, with all that food, we are glad to be doing all of the walking that is necessary at Walt Disney World. Saving money on our meals has really helped us to plan many wonderful affordable Disney vacations.

Nancy Bobby has been visiting Disney World for over a decade. Her favorite money saving guide for a Disney vacation has been the Ultimate Disney World Savings Guide. Learn how how to have your own affordable Disney vacation and receive her free Disney vacation guide at her website www.theaffordablemouse.com