Comments on: Disney on a Budget: Great Restaurant.com choices in and around the Disney Theme Parks

By: police identification numbers

police identification numbers — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 22:05:01 +0000

Your expertise on this subject shines through in this post.

By: mbf

mbf — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:49:37 +0000

@Corey: If you don’t have a stroller, there are lockers available to rent, both inside the parks and out. There is actually a picnic area by the trams where you can eat your food and stash your cooler. There are also lockers just outside the entrance to both parks, on Main Street in Disneyland, and should be some on Buena Vista Street at DCA. There are 3 sizes of lockers, I want to say $7/10/15? Still, for a family or 4 or more, the money you save just by bringing your own water bottles will pay for the lockers. Plus, you save time by not having to go off-site to get jackets, food, etc. I rented a locker on Leap Day just so I could roam freely and not have to leave the park for the entire 24 hours!

By: Corey

Corey — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 02:49:54 +0000

We are headed to Disneyland in May for the first time as a family. Many of you are talking about bringing in your own food in a cooler, where do you keep the cooler all day? That is not something I want to haul around all day and we likely won’t have a stroller with us to tote it on. Same goes for the water bottle and snacks too, if you bring them in a backpack to do you have to haul a heavy backpack all day? I would love to save money on food but I am just not sure on the details….Remeber this is our first time, so I really am clueless 🙂

By: Christy

Christy — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:15:57 +0000

@Tara Where are you located?

By: Tara

Tara — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:06:10 +0000

Does anyone have any recommendations from the available restaurants at restaurant.com?

By: Gwen

Gwen — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:35:44 +0000

Christy, Thank you!! We have been in the Brick Builders Lego Club for 5 yrs plus and I have never looked inside the magazines for coupons. I have a ton of those laying around the house.

Just yesterday I bought the Entertainment Book from Wallgreens for $15. They have a coupon in this Sunday’s paper for $20 off. Anyway, the Entertainment Book had coupons for Lego Land in there as well. 25% off the family (up to 6) for one day admission or $5 off each ticket (up to 6) for a one day admission.

Thanks again!

By: Maegen

Maegen — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:21:19 +0000

Christy,
Thanks so much for the scoop.
I’ve read your other Disney posts, and I will definitely be looking forward to future ones! My little one wants to go just for the Star Wars/Jedi thing. I think it would be the happiest day of his life if he got to battle Darth Vader!

By: Christy

Christy — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:37:46 +0000

Gwen – I agree with Lindy about getting a rental car.

You can usually find coupons for Legoland inside the free Lego club magazine. You can sign up here: https://club1.lego.com/en-US/subscription/default.aspx?SkuId=9052b50e-271e-46d2-9abb-e1950f8cc438&step=1&CountryId=US

I know the last issue had one to get a free child’s ticket when you buy an adult ticket. I think we may still have the issue (if I didn’t recycle it). I can send it to you. If I do find it, I will email you.

By: Gwen

Gwen — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 15:29:36 +0000

Thank you Lindy, I will definitely be renting a car if we decide to go. Very much appreciate the advice :). I have seen Lego Land coupons for Southern Cal residents but nothing else. We may just have to pay full price for entrance tickets! Can’t believe I just said full price. We book our hotel/air and hopper passes to Disney Land separately and have found that doing everything separate is a lot cheaper. We have Best Western points and air miles to use so it only makes sense for us. If I could only get a BOGO for the Lego Land tickets….hmmm. We shall see.
Thanks again,
Gwen

By: Lindy

Lindy — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:21:50 +0000

I will chime in on Lego Land. We went in 2006 (but I think the info should still be relevant). Our family of 5 went to Disneyland (stayed at Disney hotel) and didn’t have a car. We booked a trip for 5 to Legoland as part of our package deal including transportation. Our kids were 4, 6, and 8 at the time. I don’t remember what the cost of doing the transportation was but here is why I would NEVER do that again! We got picked up at our hotel at a set time by a bus that took us to a central tour place where we had to wait (way too long, at least an hour) and get shuffled to the right bus (instead of those going to San Diego Zoo or Sea World, etc) We finally got on the bus and it FINALLY got going (time waiting to get to Legoland moves very slowly so the additional delay was excruciating). We got to the park after the park opened (it was off season so it wasn’t busy) and we had to get back on the bus at 5PM to go back to the hotel. The park was open later but because we had booked transportation we HAD to go back at 5:00. It was a pain because it was an awkward time, too early to eat and finish dinner and get on the bus and it was too late to wait for dinner back at our hotel (oops, we didn’t plan well). Also driving back to Anaheim in 5 o’clock traffic was brutal, stop and go. It would have been much more fun and cheaper to rent a car for one day, get there when the park opened, enjoy the park till it closed (if we chose) and then go get dinner at one of the lovely family restaurants (that we looked longingly at from the bus window) and drive back AFTER rush hour traffic. That’s my 2 cents!!

By: Gwen

Gwen — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:05:23 +0000

This past Feb 2011 was our 3rd trip to Disney Land. Christy, we used your House of Blues tip (bought at 80% off and got 3 for $2 a piece) and had lunch there everyday! The coupon said you may only use one cert every 30 days but I called before we left and the mgr said we could use the coupon 3 times a day if we wanted to. Great food at a great price! Thank you, thank you for the tip 🙂

We have been wanting to go to Lego Land but the cost of a family of 5 to go would just be so expensive. Plus, we’d have to rent a car. I know you can shuttle in but either way seemed kind of pricey. Any thoughts on how to do Lego Land on the cheap?

Thanks again for all the posts! DL is our favorite place and we try to go every year. The only way this is possible is to do it with all the advice given above. Thanks ladies.

By: Christy

Christy — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 07:59:35 +0000

@Maegen – Yes, you can bring your own food into the theme parks, there are some rules like they only allow soft coolers without wheels, no glass, no food that needs to be heated, etc. Bringing your own water bottles into the park is way cheaper than buying them at the theme park.

When we have been there in the past, we have bought food from the grocery store, because our hotel had a kitchen, we were able to fix a couple of simple meals at the hotel. I even packed a package of spaghetti and a can of spaghetti sauce so i wouldn’t have to buy it there. Crazy, huh? I’ll do anything to save a buck!

I have had friends who stayed in a hotel within walking distance, so they would head back to the hotel everyday for lunch, and so the kids could take a nap.

I prefer to bring my own food into the park, for a couple of reasons:
1. You can only take so much park food before you get tired of it.
2. It’s expensive to buy the food there, it really add ups quickly.

I have lots of posts (and more in the works) for doing Disney on a Budget, you can see most of them here:
https://www.thriftyandthriving.com/?s=disney+on+a+budget

By: Maegen

Maegen — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 04:05:47 +0000

So, are you allowed to bring water bottles into the park?
Any other food?

I’ve heard about a lot of people getting food sent to their hotel from SW/Vons, and I guess I don’t quite get it…is the idea to take this food to the park for a picnic, or to eat in your hotel?

These are probably newbie questions….we are thinking about a trip to Disney, but the last time we went was way before kids! I’ve read a bit on the Disboards, but I actually find the amount of info. there overwhelming!

What a fun topic! Thanks for doing it.

By: Hollie

Hollie — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 02:58:22 +0000

oh how funny! I just came back from a 7 day trip last Saturday!! lol! I searched high & low for months before on restaurant.com but since we didn’t want to eat at HOB, we never found any we could use. We don’t rent a car so no driving for us. We were able to take advantage of the free pancake day at IHOP on 3/1 and I brought coupons to use at Cold Stone & we got a great deal on an ice cream treat!

We have done this twice now to save money on food–we order from Safeway.com aka Von’s down there–a whole grocery order with free shipping. We buy bread & turkey etc for sandwiches, sodas & snacks for the kids. We also buy a 6 pack of water bottles, plus a few gallons to refill them with. We would have instant oatmeal or cereal for breakfast. Every day I would pack up before we would head to the park, and it saved us a ton of money. I brought a collapsible cooler & some blue ice to keep things cold. Of course–this is made much easier since I have kids small enough to still bring a stroller!

We are going back in October! Yay!

By: wen

wen — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 01:52:55 +0000

WE just came back from Disneyland for 6 day 5 night trip about less than$300 per person for the whole trip included food, first class flight, transporation, 2 hotel rooms within walking distant from the park, and 3 day hopper for both parks plus more. Not bad. The park is a lot less crowd during the week day and I guess off season helps too. The weather was sunny and warm, I am missing it already.