How To Save Money on Food in Disneyland

It’s no surprise, we love Disneyland, but it can be a pricey trip for a larger family. Since there’s not much you can do to get around the ticket prices, one place we really try to save money is on food. We are a family of 5, which means food alone for a trip to Disneyland can occupy a large part of our budget.

1. Stay somewhere with a free breakfast. Food inside Disneyland Park and California Adventure can be expensive, so the very best way to save money is to minimize the amount of food you need to buy there. A great way to do this is to stay at a hotel that offers a free breakfast. Depending on your family, it may even be worth spending a little more on your hotel to find one with a nice breakfast offering.  TIP: Read reviews on the hotel you’re considering to find out what the free breakfast entails; is it a hot made to order meal or just a danish? This is important to know!

2. Stock your hotel room with breakfast items and snacks. I like to fill our suitcase with cereals, granola bars,  instant oatmeal packs, plastic spoons and bowls. Most hotels will sell milk in their gift stores, so it’s easy to have cereal every morning if you hotel doesn’t offer breakfast. Plus, who doesn’t like cereal as a bedtime snack?

3. Take snacks with you. Disneyland won’t allow you to bring in coolers full of food, but they allow just about anything else. We always take backpacks FULL of snacks with us for a day in the park. No matter how big of a breakfast your kids eat, I can guarantee you they’ll start telling you they’re hungry an hour after you walk into the park. And it’s much nicer to hand them a granola bar or an apple from the breakfast buffet then spending more money on snacks. If you didn’t bring snacks with you from home, most hotels will sell these items at a much cheaper price than on the park. We have a ‘one treat a day’ rule when on the parks.  So everyone gets to pick one treat to spend money on outside of meals.

4.  Don’t spend money on water. A small water bottle is over $3 in the parks, which adds up fast if you have a family and each person is going through several bottles a day. Bring in 1 water bottle per person and refill them at drinking fountains throughout the park so you never have to pay for water. Water fountains can be found throughout the Resort, including outside of most restrooms and in attraction ride lines. If you wish to use disposable cups at drinking fountains, feel free to request them from the nearest restaurant or snack shop—at no extra charge. Also, at any Disney restaurants that serve soft drinks you can ask for ice water, and they’ll give you as many cups of it as you want for FREE! 

5. Share Share Share! The nice thing about Disney meals is that most of them are fairly large, and can easily be split. We often go to Alien’s Pizza Planet and grab two pastas, a Caesar salad and ask for two side plates. There is more than enough for five of us.

6. Purchase a whole pizza. At Alien’s Pizza Planet in Tomorrowland and Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta in California Adventure, you can buy slices of pizza for $8 to $9. Or you can buy a whole pizza, which is 7 slices, for $42, saving up to $20. We did this at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta and added a Field Greens salad for another $10, so we could feed the whole family for $52.

7. Order the bread on the side at Pacific Wharf Cafe! Pacific Wharf Cafe in California Adventure sells salads or soup in a large, fresh sourdough bread bowl. It’s a great option because the meals are on the cheaper end of Disney dining (approx. $11 each), but most people who order them eat the soup or salad and end up throwing out most of the bread. If you’re traveling with kids, order your soup or salad with the bread on the side. You’ll end up with a larger portion of salad or soup, and then you get the entire loaf of sourdough bread sliced in a bag. If you ordered the chicken salad you can make a few sandwiches with the sliced bread. If you’re really thrifty, grab individual packages of peanut butter and jam from your hotel’s breakfast buffet and tuck them in your backpack so you can make sandwiches even the littles will enjoy!

#family #holiday