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My husband and I were able to take a quick 2-day getaway to Disneyland (our happy place)! We worked some Disney magic and were able to feed both of us for under $30 total for both days. We ate breakfast, lunch & dinner out both days, and we even had a snack one of the days. That’s 2 people – 6 meals – 1 snack – all for under $30!!! That is an average of $2.36 per meal per person. Not bad for a Disney Park where food can often be a huge expense. We even ate at some more expensive restaurants too!
I will share with you what we did for each meal to reduce our out of pocket cost. The biggest tip I have for saving money on food and your vacation overall is to plan, plan, plan! I love to plan our vacations. I even plan where we will eat each day (I am flexible, so it’s OK if things are switched up a little). One of the reasons I plan is because our Disney vacations usually consist of my husband and I and our 5 children. We can easily waste 30 minutes just deciding where we want to eat for each and every meal. If I plan ahead of time and make sure we eat at everybody’s favorite restaurant at some point, then nobody can complain. The second and main reason why I plan is so I can save money.
Here was our dining plan for our 2-day trip:
Day One
- Breakfast – Steakhouse 55 (Disneyland Hotel)
- Lunch – Bengal Barbecue (Disneyland)
- Snack – French Market (Disneyland)
- Dinner – Tortilla Jo’s (Downtown Disney)
Day Two
- Breakfast – Earl of Sandwich (Downtown Disney)
- Lunch – Flo’s V8 Cafe (California Adventure)
- Dinner – Cheesecake Factory (Anaheim GardenWalk)
Steakhouse 55 ($0 out of pocket) – Our stay included 2 vouchers for a FREE character meal. If we chose not to have the character meal, we could use the voucher at any Disney restaurant, and it would be worth $43. Instead of using the voucher for a character meal for one person, we used one voucher for breakfast for both of us. The voucher covered our entire meal (including tax and gratuity). There is no money back with these vouchers, so you will want to make sure you don’t waste it on an inexpensive meal.
If you book a package that comes with character meal vouchers, you might consider this as an option. Character meals can be very expensive and using them at other restaurants may make your money stretch even farther.
Bengal Barbecue ($0 out of pocket) – I used my ShopKick points to buy Target gift cards. I then used my Target gift cards to buy Disney gift cards at Target. Since the gift cards I earned from ShopKick were FREE, the Disney gift cards didn’t cost me anything. If you haven’t signed up for ShopKick yet, give it a try. I love being able to earn gift cards for FREE!
French Market ($0 out of pocket) – We wanted to try of the Beignets, so we planned for a midday snack (it helped that we had a small lunch). I redeemed my Disney Movie Reward Points for a $10 Disney gift card, and used this gift card for our treat.
Tortilla Jo’s ($17.34 out of pocket) – We were able to save $30 on our meal, because Tortilla Jo’s is part of the Pantina Group of restaurants, and they offer a $30 restaurant coupon for your birthday. My husbands birthday was in April, so we were able to use the high value coupon on our meal. The remainder of our meal was $8.65, add the tip and our final cost was $17.34. This was a super meal too! We were very pleased with the food and the service.
I highly recommend that you sign up for this great freebie! The coupon will be sent before your birthday and will be good for 60 days after your birthday. The coupon will be good at the following restaurants in Downtown Disney:
- Tortilla Jo’s
- Catal Restaurant
- Naples Ristorante E Pizzeria
- Catal Restaurant & Uva Bar
Earl of Sandwich ($11.03 out of pocket) – We chose to eat a lighter breakfast, because we knew we had a bigger lunch and dinner planned. We both had a yogurt parfait and shared a chocolate chip scone. My husband also had an orange juice and I just had water. My husband has an annual Disney Pass, so we were able to save an extra 10% off our meal.
Flo’s V8 Cafe ($0 out of pocket) – This is the restaurant where we chose to use the 2nd character meal voucher. Since there were only 2 of us and we had $43 to spend, we were able to splurge and get shakes with our meal, which is not something we do on a regular basis. The voucher once again covered the entire meal. Check out my review of Flo’s V8 Cafe, it is my favorite place to eat at the California Adventure park.
Cheesecake Factory ($0 out of pocket) – We like to eat outside of the Disney parks on occasion, this is easy to do at Disneyland, you will find many restaurants within walking distance of the Parks. The Cheesecake Factory is one of your favorite restaurants, and one is just down the street from Disneyland. I was able to get a FREE $50 Cheesecake Factory gift card by redeeming my Best Western Rewards (the points we earned were actually from our last family Disney trip in October).
There are so many ways you can save money when eating at Disney here are a few more options:
- Book a Disney World vacation that includes a FREE Disney Dining Plan
- Bring in your own food and snacks
- Order ice water at restaurants instead of other drinks
- Print coupons (many of the restaurants in Downtown Disney have coupons)
- Earn Disney Rewards Dollars with a Disney Visa
- Share a meal
I’d love to hear some of the ways you save money when dining at Disney!
Do you know where I could get more info on the new Disney promo? We booked through pixie vacations and are supposed to get any promos even after we book but I’m not sure out planner is keeping an eye on that. Well lets just say I want to keep my eyes peeled for deals just in case. Would LOVE to get an extra dining deal.
Mousesavers.com is a great site for promos. Also, restraunt.com has gift certificates for house of blues. Could be used for the one in downtown Disney.
Do you rent yourself out? We’ll have room in our car, since we’re leaving the baby with a babysitter. Are you free for two weeks in July?
@Crystal They deal will be released to the public on May 9th (it’s currently available to Disney Visa Card holders). Here are the basics though:
This special offer is valid for arrivals most nights September 2 – September 25, 2013, and includes the following for each registered guest in your party:
Free dining plan – When staying at a Value Resort, enjoy the Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan, which includes meals and snacks at over 50 select Walt Disney World® Resort quick service restaurants. When staying at a Moderate, Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resort, enjoy the Disney Dining Plan, which includes meals and snacks at over 100 select Walt Disney World® Resort restaurants.
Walt Disney World ® Theme Park tickets – Enjoy admission to one Theme Park per day, each day of your ticket.
@Carrot Jello – Count me in!
You are my hero! Whenever I see you post about Disney Land I must read every word :). Love your savings tips. Thanks for sharing.
Just FYI, Earl of Sandwich has an online birthday club, where you get a free sandwich, and having AAA gets you another 15% off, so even better than the annual pass discount. Love that place — we went twice during our trip!
Thanks for the tip Jenn – I signed up!
Where did you stay that gave you 2 character dining vouchers? Thanks for your tips!
Awesome! Wish I had heard about this before our Disneyland trip last August! (my mom’s birthday is in June) But I will definitely be using this before my cruise in June! (my birthday is in May) I should have asked before I signed up, but it asked what my favorite restaurant was…does it matter? I just picked on in NY since I know that’s where I’ll be lol.
@Shantelle We stayed at Disney’s Paradise Pier, and at the time of our stay they were offering 2 FREE character breakfasts for any stays of 2 days or more.
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When we booked our hotel through Costco we got 4 adult premium character dinning tickets. My two kids are teenagers and not very interested in character meals. So I was looking to use them elsewhere. Your blog was very helpful!
Do you know of which places they can be used at? All I’ve found is at “table restaurants.” But I saw you used them at Flo’s cafe which I saw listed as “counter service.” Any information or ideas would be greatly appreciated! (Feeding 4 “adults” at Disney can be pricey.)
You can use them at any restaurant inside the Disney parks and yes it can be a quick service restaurant. As an example we used ours at Flo’s V8 Cafe and Cafe Orleans. At Cafe Orleans we ordered 2 Monte Cristo sandwiches and shared between 4 people, we shared fries and ordered a kids meal too. It pretty much covered all of that meal, we just had to pay a little extra and tip on the full amount.
Thank you so much for the idea for the Disney movie rewards, I had no idea just entered all mine and getting a $30 gift card that I will use for my trip! Do you know of any restaurants that give kids birthday discounts at downtown disney?
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I have a question about the Patina restaurants- I signed up, but was sent a list of restaurants to use it at in New York- can I use it at Downtown Disney even though California restaurants aren’t listed? There is no way for me to contact them to ask on the email.
@Christy Yes, you should be able to use it at any Patina restaurants. I think it just lists the ones that are closest to you. Mine had the Walt Disney Concert Hall restaurant listed and I used it with no problem.
Any links for downtown Disney restaurant coupons?