Affordable Disney World Dining: Quick Service and Snacks

Nancy Saving Money on Food , , , , , 1 Comment

Continuing our series on Disney Dining, this week we’re going to discuss the largest food category at Disney World…and the one that nearly everyone will experience multiple times throughout a Disney vacation: Quick Service meals and Snacks.

When it comes to food choices in the Quick Service category, there are literally hundreds of places to eat. Over two hundred in fact, between the parks, resorts, and Downtown Disney. And if you add in the many, many more places where you can just grab a quick snack and keep on going….well there are a lot more than that. In other words…..you name it when it comes to food…and Disney has probably got it somewhere.

Quick Service meals are also known as “counter service” meals, and are of course, those meals where you get in and out quickly. You’re at a theme park for heaven’s sake: there are rides to ride and shows to see! Quick Service meals make it easy for you to get in and out, and Disney, being Disney, is pretty good for the most part, at making the process of eating….well…..quickly, pretty smooth.

So what kind of food is available as Quick Service….and what is it going to cost you?

While many QS places are lunch only, there are some (most, but not all, at the resorts) that also offer breakfast items. Nearly all offer a variety of foods beyond the basic entrees that are featured, with sides, desserts, fruit in some cases, and of course drinks available as well. Here you will also find kid’s meals, and happily Disney lately now offers healthy options for little ones (and parents who are *trying* to minimize the junk, fat, and sweets), with fruit and veggies instead of fries and dessert.

One of the nicest surprises for many folks who are visiting Disney for the first time, is just how much of a variety of food choices there are for QS meals. Yes, you can still get that theme park staple of burger, fries, and a soda…but you also can get many QS food options from countries all around the world, in addition to wraps, salads, “noodles”, turkey legs, sandwiches, chili, rotisserie chicken, soups…and a whole lot more. In fact, there is probably as much variety at Disney World in the QS food category, as there is in the Table Service category.

As to cost, there is again, a variety, but you can expect most QS adult entrees to be between $5-$7 each, but typically under $10. Not cheap, but the portions are also large, so it is very easy to make one entrée serve two people…or at least one adult and one child.

And what about Snacks?

When it comes to snack items, you will find these pretty much everywhere. Many “snacks” are located at the QS places, and if you are on a Disney Dining Plan, you will find all snacks identified with the DDP snack designation. In addition, there are snacks at many little counter areas and carts all around the parks. Some snacks, like packaged chips, pretzels, and candy are available in shops (if you are trying to use DDP snack credits, always ask if you are not sure, as this does change). And again, you’ll find a lot of choices! Breakfast snacks include bagels, croissants, muffins, and breakfast sandwiches …and increasingly, fruit and yogurt.

Snacks for the rest of the day? Well, you name it and it is probably in Disney World somewhere! In fact, there are some really incredible snack options available, with many folks having some strong opinions as to the “best” snack available! In fact, entire articles have been written to describe some of these fantastic snacks, so if you want to really have an idea of specific items that you just HAVE to try, check out these blog posts:

As to cost for snacks? These can really add up if you are not careful. Here is where a food budget can easily be blown, even if you are on one of the Dining Plans because you buy stuff on a whim because it just “looks so darn good!” In general, you will find snack prices to vary widely from a dollar or so, up to $4-$5 each. (Tip: If you are using the Dining Plan, and think you will consume more snacks than your daily allotment of Snack Credits….save the Credits for more expensive items, and pay cash for cheaper things like fruit etc.)

What is available back at the resorts?

At the resorts, you will find a wide variety of Quick Service and snack options as well. At the Value and Moderate resorts there are food courts, while Deluxe properties don’t typically have food courts, but instead have snack shops or counters where you can get a QS meal or purchase snacks. Because these are in the resorts, most have a decent selection of breakfast items, and some are open 24 hours (always check though, as we have tried to get “late night” snacks a few times and missed out because they were closed).

One of the most important things to keep in mind when it comes to QS meals or snacks is that being creative can provide you with some delicious food…and possibly save you some money as well….so try some new things, share large portions, watch for healthy choices, and use those Dining Plan credits wisely,

Our favorite Quick Service and Snack locations…

In case you are wondering, here are some of our family’s favorite places for a Quick Service meal, as well as some yummy Snacks:

  • Magic Kingdom: Columbia Harbour House for lots of *different options* like soup and chili (and be sure to check out the upper level for a quieter place to eat)
  • Epcot – Future World: Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion for practically everything! There are tons of great options, and here you will find many of the healthier choices in Disney as well. Great place for breakfast too.
  • Epcot – World Showcase: Nearly every country in Epcot has great QS options. It’s a fun way for kids to *try new things* without the expense of a Table Service meal. (We especially like the lovely garden behind Japan, for a peaceful, un-themepark-like place to eat.)
  • Hollywood Studios – Rosies All American Café has a nice variety of food.
  • Hollywood Studios – Starring Rolls Bakery for….well everything! 🙂
  • Animal Kingdom – Flame Tree Barbecue for the smoked chicken: easily large enough for two people!

And if you would like more suggestions on great Quick Service or snack options, be sure to check out these great posts from the Disney Food Blog:

We are pleased that this post is part of the Disney Blog Carnival. Be sure to head on over there to see more great Disney-related posts and articles from some of the internet’s most interesting and talented bloggers!

Disney Fun From Around the World: Week of July 26, 2010

Nancy Disney Fun From Around the "World" , , 0 Comment

Happy weekend! Time to take a tour of some of the best, most fun, most interesting…and well, my personal favorite…..Disney blog posts over the past week. LOTS to choose from this week, so grab your beverage of choice, put your feet up, and do the next best thing to being AT Disney World….reading about it! 🙂

Starting off this week, was the most recent edition of the Disney Blog Carnival that we were pleased to participate in again. This is always a great way to meet new Disney bloggers: there are some very talented folks writing out there who aren’t well known yet…but this is a way to find some new favorites, so be sure to stop by to say Hi!

AJ over at the Disney Food Blog continues adding to my “must eat” list for our next Disney trip: “The Best Thing I Ever Ate in Disney!” Entrees

Amanda at the Disney College Blog has some excellent thoughts on how she is Allocating Money on a Disney Trip

The Disney Driven Life offered a great perspective this week on MILITARY DISCOUNTS AT DISNEY. This is something that I personally did not know a lot about, but was so happy to learn about. If you are in the military (or know someone who is), be sure to read this for some important information for ways to save at Disney World.

Thrifty and Thriving shared a FANTASTIC idea for ways to really cut your Disney budget. This is a *must read*: Disney on a Budget: We are creating our own FREE Disney Dining Plan!

Zannaland discussed one of my personal favorite things to do at Epcot: A Surprise in Every Shell – Pick A Pearl in Epcot’s Japan Pavilion

Ken from Chip and Co. provided another in his Oldies But Goodies series: “Best Of” Restaurants For Seniors At Walt Disney World, and then Chip offered some important Disneyworld Quick Tips – How to keep a spring in your step (something that I personally learned, many years ago, the hard way…)

And lastly, my article from  Chip and Co. this week discussed A Disney World Vacation with Teens and Young Adults

Hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did! Have a magical weekend!!

Disney Savings Round-Up for July 30, 2010

Nancy Uncategorized , 0 Comment

In This week’s Disney Savings Round-Up:

A number of promotions are set to run out shortly, including Disney’s FREE Dining which must be booked by mid-August. Be sure to make your reservations now so you don’t miss out!

You can get some great savings from using Restaurant.com at selected Disney property restaurants! In addition, Expedia.com is still running a special Disney sale that expires next week. And be sure to also note the great sales at DisneyStore.com,  Hotels.com, and Travelocity for more ways to save money.

I also want to remind everyone that it seems likely that Disney will be raising their ticket prices…..as they have done every year for the past several years….on August 1. If you have plans to visit Disney World at any point in the future, you can save yourself some money buying tickets now: they won’t expire until you start using them! Undercover Tourist is my recommended source for discounted Disney tickets, as they are reliable, helpful, and offer free shipping. Again, if you can, save yourself some money by getting your tickets before the price increase!

Restaurant.com Promotions

Did you know that you can use Restaurant.com Gift Certificates to save up to 60% off on some meals at Walt Disney World? When you go to the Restaurant.com site and enter “Lake Buena Vista, FL” into the search field, you will find the following Disney property restaurants participating: Todd English’s bluezoo, House of Blues,  Garden Grove,   Kimonos,  Shula’s Steak House , and Il Mulino New York Trattoria.

This is a fantastic promotion that they are currently running: Save 80% Off Restaurant.com $25 Gift Cert. Use code PLATE and pay $2 through 7/31/10 which is tomorrow.

Paying $2 for a $25 gift certificate is an amazing deal!!

You can also use Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for local restaurants or any place you happen to be traveling. We have used the certificates on a number of occasions: it’s easy and it is a great way to save money! This is a great chance to stock up for gifts, and get a few for yourself,  in addition to using some for your Disney vacation.

DisneyStore.com Savings and Promotions

It’s hard to believe but Back to School time is nearly here. DisneyStore.com has a nice promotion for Back to School shopping: FREE Shipping On Your Entire Shipment With Any Back-to-School Item with Promo Code: SCHOOLSHIP.

Don’t forget: Buying Disney items at home BEFORE your Disney trip is a great way to save money. :)

And you can save $50 when you become a Disney Rewards Visa Cardmember at DisneyStore.com

Expedia.com Special Promotions: Note the Disney promotion will expire next week.

Expedia is running a Disney Spotlight where you can find great deals for your vacation, including resorts from $89! – Expires 8/7/10

You may also want to take a look at the Family Getaways for special deals on  the top 10 family vacations of which, of course, the Orlando area is one! Save up to 40% on hotels! – Expires 8/21/10

Travelocity Special Promotions

Travelocity has a great promotion that is valid through the end of July: Orlando Makes Me Smile! $50 off a 3+ night GoodBuy hotel booking to Orlando, Use PROMOCODE: SMILE50. Ends 7/31/10 (tomorrow!).

You might also want to check out this promotion to see if it is a savings for you:  Find Top Secret Hotels in Orlando and save up to 45%.

Hotels.com Special Promotions

Summer Sale – Save up to 40% on hotels. Plus book 4+ nights at select hotels and get a free Flip™ camcorder! Use code FLIP5 at checkout.

Walt Disney World Savings and Promotions: Note the Military Promotion expires at the end of July.

  • Book a Disney Vacation Package and Get FREE Dining!  NEW DATES ADDED!!: Travel August 15 – October 7,  October 22-October 28, November 12-18, November 27 – December 2, and December 10-21.  Stay at a Value Resort and receive Free Quick Service Dining Plan. Receive Free Basic Dining when you stay at a Moderate or Deluxe Resort. Minimum 3 night stay, with 2 day ticket.  You must book by August 14. For more information, visit www.disneyworld.com and click on “Special Offers”.
  • Stay through August 14, 2010 Get a 15%-30% discount off regular room rates. You should know that some blackout dates do apply and that not all rates are available at all resorts. You must book by 8/14. For more information, visit www.disneyworld.com and click on “Special Offers”.
  • Stay August 15, 2010 through Oct. 2, 2010 Get a 30%-40% discount off regular room rates. You should know that some blackout dates do apply and that not all rates are available at all resorts. You must book by 10/2. For more information, visit www.disneyworld.com and click on “Special Offers”.
  • “Kids Stay and Play for Free“: This special offer has been extended and is now valid for stays most nights May 2 – Oct. 2, 2010. Purchase a 4 night/5 day Magic Your Way vacation package (room and theme park tickets) and a child (age 3-9) stays in the room and gets a 5 day park pass for Free. This is basically providing free tickets for one child of this age…or two if there are two adults in the room…which can be a substantial savings! To receive the package deal, you must book by August 14, 2010. For more information, visit www.disneyworld.com and click on “Special Offers”.
  • Military Discount of up to 40% on select Disney Resort rooms, for stays most nights through Sept. 30, 2010. You must book through July 31, 2010. In addition, active or retired members of the military can get a 4 day park ticket for $99. For more information visit the Military Special Offer page on disneyworld.com.

Good luck getting some great Disney vacation savings this week!

Tips for Using the Affordable Disney Vacation Planning Worksheets

Nancy Affordable Disney Vacations, Disney Vacation Planning, Saving Money on Food, Saving Money on Souvenirs , , , , 2 Comments

You told me you wanted worksheets to help you budget your Disney World vacation, and ways to stay organized with all the vacation details. Well your wish is my command. 🙂

Late last week I finally finished 3 new worksheets for you and uploaded them to the site. If you haven’t yet seen them, you can find links to all 3 on the Planning Worksheets page.

While there is a quick overview of each on that page, I wanted to take today’s post to elaborate just a bit and provide a tutorial that will hopefully help you to use them. But first, a few things for you to know…

First, they were all created as Excel worksheets, so if you have Excel installed on your computer, they should open up just fine. Each link goes directly to the worksheet: simply save each one into a folder on your computer so you can find it later! If you don’t have Excel, no worries because you can download the free program Open Office, that allows you to create documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and more that are all fully compatible with Microsoft Office. And again, it’s free! If you are going to use Open Office, once the program is downloaded, you should be able to open the worksheets in one of two ways:

  1. Click on each worksheet and it will open automatically in Open Office (you may need to “tell” it what program to use to do this) or
  2. Open Open Office and click on the spreadsheet icon. Once that opens, go to the file menu in the upper left corner, click “open” and select which worksheet you want to use…and it should open automatically.

OK, worksheets open: here’s the second thing you will want to know. Each sheet has cells where you can input your own information, while the rest of the sheet you cannot edit. Sorry, but since I created the sheets, I didn’t want changes to them going all over cyberspace…but still having my name on them. Hope you understand. 🙂 The important thing here though, is that the things you need to edit for your own use, you can.

The last thing to know is what you do with them once you are finished. Basically, if you have saved your edited version, then when you get ready to leave on your vacation, you can print out what you want to take with you. Even better, smartphones and blackberries make it easy to have an electronic version with you stored in your phone! Just send it to your phone, save it so you can pull it up when needed, and voila, your vacation details in the palm of your hand. 🙂 I do love technology sometimes……

Now let’s take a look at each sheet.

ADR Information Sheet

First there is the ADR Information Sheet: On this sheet, the Column Headings and top row with examples of how to fill it out (in red) you cannot edit. The rest of the sheet you can. So as you plan your Advanced Dining Reservations, use this little sheet to have all the information for each ADR together, in one place. I have found this truly important to have, in case I need to doublecheck, or change an ADR. I also like to make sure that I have noted when the ADR was made and who I spoke to (in case there is a problem). This sheet will also help you keep track of Disney Dining Plan table service credits, and/or how much you need to budget to eat there, as well as if there is a credit card hold for the restaurant.

Vacation Itinerary

The Vacation Itinerary is a formal version of what I have used on every Disney vacation (or every vacation for that matter) that I have ever taken. (In it’s earliest forms, it was hand written in a small notebook that came with me everywhere on our vacation.) I really like to have all my details for each day, all in one place, so I can at a glance, know who/what/where/when/why we are doing anything. This includes budget: I have found the absolute best way to make sure we don’t go over budget on a vacation, is to know how much I have to spend each day, and on what. That’s how much we take with us, the rest stays back in the safe at the room.

So the Vacation Itinerary basically has one sheet per day. You start with your Arrival Day, which has your travel information, hotel reservations/location, as well as a section for estimated expenses for the day. The left hand column you cannot edit, everything under Information/Numbers and Notes you can.

Next come Vacation Days. I made a number of these so you can have one for each day (if you need more days, then just open it a second time). Here you can enter as much information for each day of your Disney vacation as you like. I know many people get involved with touring plans, etc. We have never been quite so formal: Basically I like to know park hours, what is most important for us to see (so we make sure we get to it), any shows or parades if it matters, as well as ADR information. Take the ADR info from the ADR Information Sheet and plug it in here so you have it https://theaffordablemouse.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpwith you. And again, an estimated budget for the day. 🙂

And then lastly is the Departure Day, which is fairly similar to Arrival Day.

Disney Vacation Budget Plan Sheet

The Disney World Vacation Budget Plan basically covers (hopefully!) just about anything you would conceivably spend money on. There are sections labeled “other” for things not listed. 🙂 The Budget Plan covers Transportation, Accommodations, Tickets, Entertainment, Meals, and Miscellaneous expenses. For every category except Meals, you edit “Column D” by inputting your estimated expenses, and the spreadsheet will subtotal each section for you, and provide you with a total for that entire category:

In the Meals category, you will figure your cost per day (Column B) enter then number of days (Column C), and then Column D will give you the total. There is an area to compute this using the Dining Plan or paying by cash. Important Note: The Cost per adult/day or Cost per child/day for the Dining Plan will be changed to reflect the number of people. You will note the TOTAL amount per day for ALL adults and for ALL children.

At the very bottom of the sheet, the subtotals for each category will be totaled for a complete Disney vacation budget. 🙂

So there you have it. Hopefully this tutorial will help you to make the most of these Disney planning worksheets. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments, or send me an email at nancy@theaffordablemouse.com.

Happy planning!