PDA

View Full Version : Cheap Meals at Disneyland or DCA



BackSideOfWtr
03-29-2007, 03:16 PM
I've found a few meals that can really fill you up and not hurt your bankroll. One is the chicken finger/fries meal right next to the golden horseshoe in DL. The other is the Carne Asada burrito meal in CA. Both of these meals with a drink is around 10 bucks with an AP discount. Any others I should look for??

PanFan
03-29-2007, 03:22 PM
I'm a big fan of kids meals, especially at the Pizza Port and Rancho del Zocalo--$5.99 and they always fill me up. I've had absolutely no problem getting them, even though they say 9 and under. I can't usually finish an entree unless I'm sharing, though, so maybe my appetite isn't as big as others.

futurecm21
03-29-2007, 03:30 PM
I really didn't think there was such thing as a cheap meal at Disneyland:) Then again, I consider upwards of ten dollars to be expensive. When I'm only at Disneyland for one day I usually just leave the park, eat at a nearby McDonalds, and then get back in.
futurecm21

SoCalSteven
03-29-2007, 03:31 PM
IMO the best deal for a sit down dinner for two in DL is at Cafe Orleans. You each get a cup of soup and a soda and share a salad and an order of Pomme Frites (really good fries), and with the PAP discount it comes in right around $20 before tip. Pretty awesome!

jeffthechef
03-29-2007, 03:37 PM
The take-out window at Tortilla Joe's in DTD is a moneysaver. We usually hit them at the end of our day and take the food back to the hotel room. It's about $7 for a burrito which is big enough to call dinner.

DangerMouse
03-29-2007, 03:56 PM
White Water Snacks is our favorite. The kids' meals are huge enough for my kids to share, and I like to split the steak nachos with my dh, which is around $7.50 with AP discount, I think.

MiaTurner
03-29-2007, 04:00 PM
Packed snacks of course :)

Actually, I've found the best, cheapest dinner for me is simply a bag of grapes and a coke at the stand across from the vineyard in DCA. Those grapes actually really fill you up. ;)

rentayenta
03-29-2007, 07:30 PM
Disneyland food is pricey but because we share, it never really feels that bad.

For the 5 of us; 2 adults and 3 kids some of our favorties are:

Pizza Port: a salad, a pasta, and two slices of pizza. If my memory serves it comes to about $30 which is not bad at all.

French Market: if you request the chicken meal with all legs they will give you 4. It comes with a salad and mashed or fries. The kids share that with an extra order of fries and still they cannot finish it all.

Plaza Inn: everything has huge portions and can be shared between 2 adults.

DD is now 10 and her appetite has increased over the past few months so I am thinking she will be ready to have her own meal and finish it.

I don't mind the cost of the food. What drives me mad is wasting food. The kids can order anything as long as they'll eat it.

THpoohbear
03-29-2007, 08:26 PM
Cheap, and good if you're wanting to avoid some of the longer food lines, is the corn dog cart on Main Street at DL. For about 5 bucks you get a huge and delicious corn dog with a bag of chips. You can ask for the corn dog without the chips too, which comes to under $5.

vegasmommytoDL
03-29-2007, 10:00 PM
I don't mind the cost of the food. What drives me mad is wasting food. The kids can order anything as long as they'll eat it.

My daughter is 5... she is too excited to eat. She will eat about 1 meal a day at Disneyland, if I try to feed her more than that it's a waste. She does snack through the day though!

Of course... once she sees the promo items hanging up, like Buzz Twisty Straws (or whatever the case may be), then she acts interested in eating... we all know what happens! Disney is really good at getting us to hand over our money!

For myself I'll eat a kids meal. I wish they had a place like Whitewater Snacks in Disneyland. You really do get more food for the same price. I usually don't feel like walking all the way to CA just to eat!

yohomama212
03-30-2007, 07:30 AM
My kids are not sharers. They just don't do it, but I have found that they won't eat all their food in the kids meals and I really hate wasting food too. So I make sure their plate comes to me first, then I split it and give it to them. They still don't finish their halves, and I save at least $5.

Liz :cool:

Malcon10t
03-30-2007, 12:48 PM
My kids are not sharers. They just don't do it, but I have found that they won't eat all their food in the kids meals and I really hate wasting food too. So I make sure their plate comes to me first, then I split it and give it to them. They still don't finish their halves, and I save at least $5.

Liz :cool:This is usually how we do it, even when we say share. My oldest son can't "share", no one can even touch his food, without his losing his appetite, so when he "shares" he divides the food. (He's 21 now, when he was younger, I split it up.) If he only knew what went on in restaurants, he'd never eat out again.

tonytone
04-02-2007, 08:11 AM
For the 5 of us; 2 adults and 3 kids...
LOL--that's exactly what my family consists of! I'll definitely keep your meal suggestions in mind!


I don't mind the cost of the food. What drives me mad is wasting food. The kids can order anything as long as they'll eat it.
That's my mindset too! I'm not saying that I don't care how much the food costs--there is a limit as to how much I'm willing to spend on meals--but if I'm gonna spend money on food that my kids vehemently ask for...they sure as heck better finish their meal!

KDCartoons
04-09-2007, 11:19 AM
Cheap, and good if you're wanting to avoid some of the longer food lines, is the corn dog cart on Main Street at DL. For about 5 bucks you get a huge and delicious corn dog with a bag of chips. You can ask for the corn dog without the chips too, which comes to under $5.

Yep, on my family's trip in August we discovered the treat that was those corn dogs at that kiosk.
A bag of chips and a cold drink and we had a "decent" lunch, that surprised all of us as to how filling it was. I think each came to about $7
My step-sons still rave about that meal, and those boys EAT!! LOL!

The thing is that there's so much sensory stimulus in the parks that its easy to forget to eat, so a $7 lunch can go a LONG way in terms of tummy value, and hence be "cheaper". One of the things we did on our trip was indulge in the fresh fruit trays that could be had from various park kiosks. One of those each and a water bottle for breakfast and a later lunch and we'd be well into 8-9pm before we'd all be hungry for something for dinner, and usually have a lighter snack instead of a big meal.
We had a $40 per day, per person meal budget, and never came close to breaching that.

tonytone
04-09-2007, 01:51 PM
I finally tried the beef nachos over at Whitewater Snacks--you folks were right...that is a definite bargain at $8 (or was it $7?)...plenty enough for two people, and pretty tasty too!

Duchess mermaid
04-10-2007, 02:45 PM
Our favorite place to eat when we went last spring was The Cove Bar (part of Ariels Grotto). It was just me and my hubby, we would split an appitizer (the serving's are huge!). thay don't have much on the menu but it's all good. I can't remember how much it was but we spent way less there than at other places in the parks (minus the cost of drinks).

CariBelle
04-10-2007, 03:44 PM
My "cheap" meal is usually at Bengal BBQ, a skewer, breadsticks, and a drink (if I don't have a bottle already with me) is less than $10 I think.

josephfive
04-10-2007, 04:27 PM
Another vote for French Market here. We get the chicken meal and also get a fruit salad. Possible upgrade to the green salad? It easily feeds four of us! I also like the place because you can sit down and listen to the music and let the kids relax for a bit.

The chicken strips and fries at Golden Horseshoe will fill you up, but that feeling will last a looong time. In that kind of too much fried food sort of way.

The corndog cart is good too since I can cut the corndogs in half and feed four of us on 2 corndogs.

Better make dinner; I'm getting hungry.

CaliDreamen'
04-11-2007, 12:57 AM
1

CaliDreamen'
04-11-2007, 01:10 AM
Not only are meals expensive, so is the water!!! I know it sounds like we are spoiled but the water tastes gross compaired with WA state tap water. We took our first trip with our 3 and 4 year old girls in November and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel. This is the first time we stayed at the Resort. I had shipped snacks, bread and other various items I thought we may need at the hotel now that we have children. What I should have shipped was water! We spent way over $100 on water during our week trip.

It had been 5 years since we had been to Disneyland and we stayed off site on all our previous trips. During those trips we were able to buy bottled water cheaply offsite little convience stores in the hotels off Harbor blvd.

But with the monorail not working during our trip and having no stroller except at the parks we had no energy to walk all that way to Harbor Blvd. to get cheaper bottled water. Many occasions while we were walking back to the hotel through downtown Disney holding our tired children