Dining at Disney: How to Keep the Cost Down
Eating in restaurants can be expensive at Disney, but there are ways to keep the cost down and still be able to enjoy a meal out. Whether you have a dining budget for your Disney trip or not, most people like to save money where they can. It feels good to know you saved some money, especially since Disney vacations are far from cheap!
My tip for this week is simple, instead of having lots of dinners in restaurants, try to limit to breakfasts and lunches, especially if you are eating at the buffets. The reason is the price goes up with every meal, unless we are talking about some of the special dining experiences like Cinderella’s Royal Table (that’s going to be a jaw-dropping price no matter what time of day you go).
If a restaurant serves both lunch and dinner, chances are the lunch is just a scaled down version of dinner. They usually offer most of the same items in a smaller portion size and for a reduced price. We did this for most of our trip. We had either a big breakfast or a big lunch and only dined out for dinner a couple of times. When we did have dinner out it was more of a splurge and well worth the price. For instance, the day we had reservations for California Grill we had quick service food for the rest of the day and then we splurged at dinner. Totally worth it!
As an example you can see the Biergarten’s lunch and dinner menus on Disney’s website. There really is not much of a difference in the food offered, just the price of the buffet changes. If you want to see the jaw-dropping prices I was talking about for Cinderella’s Royal Table, just click here. Granted, you get a lot of extras with this meal (and I hope to get reservations here for the next trip), but it is very expensive. I don’t think the table service restaurants, like 50’s Prime Time Cafe, change the menu prices for lunch and dinner quite as much as the buffet restaurants.
So, there you go! If you like dining at the buffets (and they are really good!), I would recommend having breakfast or lunch there to keep the cost down. With the money you save on the meals you can buy fun souvenirs or put it towards your next Disney trip 😉
Thanks for reading!
Liz ⁰O⁰
