First time to Disney with family

[mom2nickntink]

My husband and I are going from 11/29-12/4 with my MIL, son (6 1/2) and daughter (15 months). Our tentative schedule is:

Sat - Epcot
Sun - Magic Kingdom
Mon - Breakfast @ Animal Kingdom then MGM for dinner & show
Tue - Magic Kingdom

Can anyone give me an idea of where and what to eat for lunch and dinner at each park? We are on a limited budget so would like an inexpensive as possible. Not looking for charachter meals or fancy dining. Want decent food at a decent price.

Is there anywhere to get sample menus from different restaurants in parks?

Thanks sooooo much in advance.

 

[jennymouse]

Here is a link to all the menus at WDW along with prices on Deb Will's site, there are also other good info on this site as well. The menus are fun to look at too, kinda makes ya hungry though! Once you get an idea of what you want, you can post threads on this board to ask others opinions about that particular restaurant.

http://www.wdwig.com/menu/menus.htm

Hope I did that right.

 

[CBRorBust]

I say on your Epcot day do 50's Prime Time Cafe. I'm sure your son will get a kick out of it.

Not too pricey, but not cheap either. Maybe this can be your "splurge dinner"

 

[SnowWitch]

I will also recommend Deb's site ,it is great!! I'm going to assume you want fast food so here are a few suggestions.

AK- Tusker House

MK- Casey's Corner(hot dogs)
Columbia Harbor House( Fish and chicken,clam chowder
in a bread bowl)

MGM-Sunset Ranch Marketplace-hot dogs, hamburgers, baked
potatoes, turkey legs.
50-s Primetime Cafe(look at the menu on Deb's site,
this is not fast food)

Epcot- The fast food options in the UK and Japan are family
favorites.

 

[sha_lyn]

MK ... Pecos Bills. Try to time it so you arrive about 15 min before the parade. Have someone grab a table outside while you order the food. We actually ate there 2X in one day, because the food is good and the parade view is great.

What we do to save $$ is eat breakfast in our room (cereal and milk, breakfast bars etc, we take a rubbermaid box full of food and an electric cooler full of drinks). We usually do character buffett lunch and then counter service for dinner. The exceptions are we have a late breakfast in place of lunch at Donalds Breakfastosaurus on our AK day and we always do the Dinner package at MGM. For the dinner package we loved Mama Melrose.

Really I think the character lunchs come out almost as cheap as counter service lunch plus you have the benifit of sitting insde in the airconditioning (or heat) and you don't have to stand in line for autographs.

 

[nkjzmom]

Depending on where you are staying you may want to head back to the hotel for a quick lunch of sandwiches. We did this back in Jan and it worked out well. We have 4 kids ages 7-1 and after lunch we would rest for about an hour and then head back into the parks. We also carried quite a few snacks and water with us to help stave off absolute starvation until our next meal!! BTW, we were at the Contemporary, so it was extremely convenient.

 

[bobcat]

We also eat breakfast in our room. I always take peanut butter and lunchmeat for those days when we want something quick (usually the kids want to go back to the hotel to swim!) and it helps out our budget as well. Our favorite counter service in each park:

MK - Columbia Harbour House and Pecos Bills (Love the topping bar!)
EPCOT - Fish and Chips from the UK, Burgers from the American Adventure
AK - Tusker House

Also the lunch menu's at many sitdown restaurants are very reasonable. We usually spend between $13-18 counter service for two kids and myself, but a sit down meal can cost anywhere from $20-30 for the three of us. The best meal we had last trip was at Le Cellier and the bill was only $20 plus tip.

Carry a water bottle with you, we like the refillable Brita, to save on buying drinks. We also carry a couple of snacks to ward off the have to find something to eat munchies.

 

[crisi]

Another MK eatery is Cosmic Rays between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Its huge.

If you go to the sandwich counter the sandwiches are pricey - but they easily feed two. Or at least they fed my mother and I and neither of us left hungry.

Nothing at WDW is cheap, but very often the portions are generous enough that the price is reasonable. The sandwiches at Cosmic Rays are an example of that.

 

[mom2nickntink]

I went on Deb's site and found a bunch of great places. I think we are going to incorporate alot of your suggestions and try to eat breakfast at hotel, bring lunch at least 2 -3 days and then "splurge" on dinners.

The menus do sound great at some places and definitely want to try Lotus Blossom Cafe, Cosmic Rays, Rainforest Cafe & Pizza Planet. Think we will do 50's Cafe or Tusker House for a dinner.

Is the Animal Kingdom meal deal worth the $10.99/pp?

When you go to a reataurant with a 15 month old, do I have to order her a meal or can I just let her pick off our plates like she does at home? Most of the time she and my 6 yr old share one meal, can I do that at Disney restaurants?


Thank you all.

 

[SnowWitch]

A 15month old can certainly eat off of your plates or you can order something for the kids to share. Most DIsney rstr. will actually split it for you onto 2 plates if you ask them to.

 

[crisi]

Disney is VERY flexible with sharing anyplace but buffets - and at the buffets you won't need to pay if she is under three. Even adults can split without problem (at least commonly - there are always exceptions and people will occationally say "we had a waiter that was rude about bringing us a second plate" but its rare).