Another Disney frugal post - Dining!

Okay, so you're finally on your vacation at Disney. You've got your room, and you're heading to one of the parks. Then you realize you are hungry! That's when it hits you. Disney doesn't just want to take you out of the real world to play, they also want to take you out of the real world when it comes to food prices.

I'll be honest. We don't even BUDGET for food at Disney. We just have a spending money budget and go from there. But we've been enough times to know how to play the game.

1. The Disney Dining Plan - Ah, what a beautiful thing. Kind of. I love the idea of prepaying for your food, and Disney has started to provide more options for those who just want the quickie meals all the way up to those who want to have a sit down meal 3 times a day, every day.

We have been using the standard dining plan, which Disney calls Magic Your Way Plus Dining (you will learn that EVERYTHING has a Disney-fied name very quickly!). This currently includes 1 table service meal (entree, non-alcoholic beverage, dessert and tax), 1 counter service meal and 1 snack a day for each night of your stay for $40 per adult, $13 per child ages 3 - 9. While the prices haven't gone up on this much in the past several years, the value has declined. Three years ago, the table service credit included an appetizer, entree, dessert, non-alcoholic beverage, tip and taxes!! Then they dropped the tip, then this year, the appetizer. You can use them in any combination - if you have the credits and want to eat three table service meals in one day, that's fine! It's not a per day allotment, that's just how you buy the credits.

But still, we find it a very budget friendly option. I like knowing that I already have paid for a lot of my food prior to my trip. We like the table service options, and they can certainly add up. For example, my entree alone at Le Cellier (filet mignon with mushroom risotto) was $36. It's easy to get a good value for your money with little effort. You just have to make sure you actually use all of your credits!

2. Bring your own food - Sounds kind of obvious, but if you are flying, is this something you would do? We fly, and yes, we pack food and drinks for the kiddos. This year, I brought Capri Sun-style drink pouches, as well as just little snacks that fit great in both a suitcase and diaper bag and yet won't crush. When E Belle got thirsty in that hot Florida sun, I didn't always have to go run and get her a $2.50 bottle of Dasani. I just pulled out the drink pouch.

3. If on the dining plan, figure out what your cheapest meal of the day will be, then use cash - For us, this was almost ALWAYS breakfast. The exception was our character breakfast at Chef Mickey's. All other breakfasts were eaten at the quick service area in our resort. We're not big breakfast eaters anyway, so we were happy with things like bagels and a drink. Even so, breakfasts ran close to $15 just for simple breads.

4. Get the resort mugs - If you stay in property, get one for each member of your family who can drink from a cup (we didn't buy E Belle one). They're about $13 a piece, but you can use them to refill your drink the length of your stay in your resort's quick service area. When drinks are running $2+ a piece, this is a quick money saver. In the end, you take home the mug. I still have mugs from about 15 years ago when they were new and smaller. Technically, you aren't supposed to use these at different resorts, but I'll confess - when we were staying at the Polynesian, we did use our mugs at the Grand Floridian when we ate at their quick service one day for lunch. Disney's really made doing this pretty easy because the mugs no longer are resort specific, meaning the one you get at the Conteporary is the same that you get at Pop Century. I really hate this because I liked having the resort specific ones, and Disney's made it easier to abuse the system. Not promoting doing this, now, but it is possible. *Note* you cannot use these mugs in the Parks.