Saving money on food at Disneyland isn’t impossible with a little planning. I find one of the hardest expenses to plan for is food. Even when we eat fast food, it is easy to drop $35 for a meal for our family of 6. But this is also one expense I can have a little control over. I can’t change ticket prices or what hotels charge, but I can make some choices that will impact our food budget.
Once again, planning early is the key. I grocery shop every 2 weeks when my husband gets his paycheck. About 3 months before we left for our trip to Disneyland, I started adding a couple of items to my grocery shopping list every time I went shopping, so that when we left for our trip, we already had a stockpile of granola bars, pudding cups, chips, pretzels, and drinks. By not having to stop and load up on treats every time we stopped to fill up on gas, we saved money as well as time. We were also able to provide healthier snacks like grapes, carrots, celery with peanut butter, and frozen Gogurts. We took a cooler as well as a copy box full of goodies for the two 12-hour long car rides.
I also spent the day before we left doing some last-minute prep work. I baked cookies and muffins as well as putting together deli sandwiches for our picnic lunch on the road. We left early on a Saturday morning, loading the kids up in the car while it was still dark. It was too early to eat, so we loaded up and hit the road. An hour or so later, we handed out muffins and juice boxes.
I am not sure why, but when we travel, it seems that we munch constantly. I am not sure why sitting in a car makes you so hungry, but it is a common problem for us! We were fully stocked with snacks from our previous grocery shopping trips which helped keep our budget low.
For our 12 hour day of travel, we had breakfast and lunch made from home. Snacks came from our stockpile from our grocery shopping. Dinner was a different story. After a day in the car, we were all ready for a break. But I wasn’t willing to blow our tight budget.
I am a fan of Subway, especially their $5 footlongs. I have a Subway loyalty card and have been using the card for a year without redeeming any of my points. We were able to make a dinner stop during our drive at a Subway and score dinner for our family for free. One less vacation expense.
Because we booked at Homewood Suites, we were able to score continental breakfast and a manager’s reception (dinner) for free each day. That just left us to deal with lunch. Eating in the parks can be pretty spendy. It is pretty common for our family of six to spend $60 on a meal in the park. This was another thing we did to spread expenses out over time. We purchased several $25 Disney cards over the course of a year and used those to eat lunch on the parks. We also have a Disney Visa card and were able to earn Disney Dollars. We used those Disney Dollars to pay for food in the park which helped our budget tremendously.
Where do you eat in the parks or can you leave the parks to eat?
This is an individual choice. I know some families who skip lunch and just snack. But with hot weather, long lines, and lots of walking, I know that this solution would not work for our family. Generally the best time to eat at Disneyland or California Adventure for lunch is right at 11 or after 2. Anytime between that and you will probably face long lines and have trouble finding a place to sit down and eat.
There is an IHOP just across the street from the entrances to the Disneyland and California Adventure as well as a McDonald’s up the street a little way. You can also hop on the monorail and head to Downtown Disney for the Rainforest Café or the ESPN Zone restaurants. There is also a LaBrea Bakery where you can grab a sandwich or a salad.
We ate at the Stage Door Café in Frontierland on our first day and ordered corn dogs and fries. The menu was seriously limited-chicken, fish, and corn dogs. But as long as you are OK with that menu (and we were), it should work out for you. The corn dogs were huge! I wasn’t willing to spend money on sodas and they did not come with the meals, so we stuck with ice water. Ice water at the restaurants is free. We ate early and enjoyed watching the canoes and the pirate ship on the river while we ate and planned out the rest of our afternoon.
We have also eaten at the Royal Street Veranda before and really enjoyed their soup in bread bowls. The Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country also has a nice variety of wraps and sandwiches. A favorite treat for us is getting the Mickey shaped ice cream treats. Just be aware that many of the carts only take cash. If you want to use a credit card or a Disney gift card, you need to check and see if the cart has a register. If it has a register, they will take gift cards or credit cards. If not, it is a cash only one.
One of my favorite things to do is grab a huge muffin from the bakery on Main Street and eat it as we sit and wait for the parade to come. The muffins are huge and they are usually a pretty good deal.
As far as California Adventure, you can spot many of the same carts with items like frozen lemonade just like in Disneyland. One of the unique things to California Adventure is the cones from Cars. In Carsland, there are 5 Cozy Cone kiosks for food from churros to Popcone to Cone-Coctions. You can score cone- shaped drink holders, but only at these Cozy Cone food kiosks. The small souvenir cup filled with soda is $9 and the large is $12.
We ate at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta in California Adventure. I found this restaurant a little confusing. The difference between the toddler meal and the kids meal was an extra side for the kids meal. We had our kids just get a larger pizza since the price difference was nominal. There are several pizza choices like cheese and pepperoni as well as some specialty ones like BBQ chicken and one with mushrooms and spinach. We enjoyed eating outside and listening to the sounds of a Scottish band as we ate.
You can bring food into the parks. We carried a backpack with water bottles and some snacks like pretzels, goldfish, crackers, and cookies. You can also rent a locker if you want to bring a full picnic. There are lots of choices to fit every family’s needs from eating in the parks, outside of the parks, and just snacking to hold you over until the next meal.
Check out details on Character Dining at Disneyland.
Learn more about Disneyland Dining.
My name is Julie and I am a stay-at-home mom with 4 kids. With four kids ages 6, 9, 11, and 14 we have to be careful how we spend money to make vacations like this possible. Check out how we were able to make our magical vacation a reality!
The BEST KEPT secret place to eat when you go to Disneyland is to take the monorail to Downtown Disney and eat at Earl of Sandwich! They have breakfast sandwiches for as little as $3.79 (Kinda like an egg mcmuffin at McD’s). The sandwiches are good size and reasonable price. The Soup is really good and less than $4 and generous size. If you sign up for their e-club on their website, you get an email coupon for a free sandwich. It’s a lot cheaper than most meals in DLR and fills you up!
When we go to DL, I sometimes order a kids meal for myself, or share a meal with one of my kids. My favorite at DCA is Flo’s V-8 Café. Their kids meal is a carved turkey or roast beef sandwich on a fresh roll with grapes and drink. It’s the perfect amount and is $7 instead of $14. With all of the walking and rides, a full sized adult meal makes me overstuffed. At DL, we get a bench before the parade, and one person will go to Redd’s Pizza and get a whole pizza to bring back. We can secure an excellent location for the parade and have dinner at the same time. And I agree, snacks are key. I’ve never had a problem bringing in bananas, crackers, beef jerky, and water.
We went in Mid May 2014 during a 100+ degree heat wave. We brought our own water bottles in, and asked for ice instead of ice water. We used the cups of ice to pour our water and a little Mio for flavor. We did not want to leave the park, so we budgeted $100/day for food, and our family of 4 came home with money. We were there for 4 days. A few of the restaurants we ate at: Plaza Inn (GREAT food and hearty portions), Jolly Holiday (very affordable deli style sandwiches), Rancho del Zocalo (It was Meh tasting imo), Taste Pilots Grill (GREAT burger/fries), Lucky Fortune Cookery (Good Chinese food), and lastly Bordwalk Pizza & Pasta (We split a salad/ & pasta between me/DH. Food was VERY good and hearty portions). Overall, if you eat a good breakfast, you can skip lunch and have an early dinner. We brought our own snacks in the park (cheez-its, apples, etc) and minimized on the “sweet treats”.
Don’t forget about the turkey legs either. They are big enough to share…and if you have little ones, there is a microwave in the baby center that you can heat food in. We brought individual MacNcheese in tupperware one day for the kids’ lunch. They stayed hot and the kids really enjoyed it.
I’m a bit confused. When we went to Disneyland/DCA 2 years ago they checked inside all of our backpacks and wouldn’t let us take food into the park, we remember vaguely that they didn’t even allow us to bring bottled water in. Has this changed? We are headed back there in a month.
So glad that others have great dining experiences to share!
Been to Disneyland many times with 4 kids now ages 17-8. The last trip was in January. Some of our favorite places to eat are The Plaza Cafe – don’t be afraid of the price on the menu out front, the plate is HUGE and for $13 a plate we are able to share (3 pieces of fried chicken, buscuit, mashed potatoes and green beans per plate- yummo!) 3 plates between the 6 of us and still have some left (when kids were younger we could share 2 plates). Hungry bear cafe is great, also another great thing to share is the Monte Cristo sandwich at the Blue Bayou (located inside the pirates ride).
What a great article-great details. Has anyone written an article like this for WDW? Can we bring a lunch into WDW? Also, any good input on character meals? Thanks!
We bring our own food into the parks too! This last time we went, we took along my two nephews who had never been to Disneyland. We had an 18 hour drive ahead of us, so we started out at about 7pm (my husband took a long nap early in the day & could drive all night long without having to stop!) Everyone had their own lunch bag and I brought a cooler that fit into the back of our truck with breakfast items, LOTS of snacks & juice boxes, & lunch items. All the kids fell asleep around 10pm & slept through the night so that eliminated a lot of snacking. We got into town just after lunch. We stayed in a friend’s timeshare (only cost us $250 for the entire week!) and we made a big breakfast every morning. Packed snacks & water & we were so full from breakfast we didn’t need to stop for lunch. After the parks closed we made dinner in our suite. We were able to do a week vacation with 6 day park hoppers for all 7 of us for less than $3000 including gas, food, lodging, and park hoppers!
When my husband and I went to WDW last year we planned out our meals and were able to stick to a budget that worked for us. We had plenty of disney treats but we did full meals full of good food at lunch then snacked. It’s nice to sit, recharge and refuel before getting back to fun. However- I am a huge believer in the saying that you are what you eat. Good food is something I believe in spending money on. So many kids and adults have weight issues that loading up on cheap highly processed snacks is something we all have to be aware of. Thanks for the article:)
Julie-Thank you for this great article. I also have four kids and their ages are very similar. We recently bought annual passes because it is only a 5 hour drive for us. I am always trying to find inexpensive ways to eat at Disneyland. One of my favorite places is the Mexican restaurant in Disneyland. The entrees are big enough to share and they offer free refills on drinks. The last time we went, my friend and I took the kids to Pizza Plus across the street. Very reasonable and they have coupons online that you can print out. We also bought gift cards for Jamba Juice and Cold Stone at Costco, which saved us a ton of money. Thanks for the great ideas!
Super article! Thanks for the insight, Julie! And I was glad to read you CAN in fact bring snacks into the park. I just recently started having issues reintroducing wheat after going wheat-free for a few months & was worried how I’d get to snack in the parks without bringing my own.