Save Money on Food at Disney

Have you ever been at Disneyland or Disney World, get thirsty and decide you are going to go buy yourself a diet coke? You walk up to a kiosk where they tell you that your 1 bottled diet coke cost $4.50?! For a family  multiple that by 4-6. That adds up fast! Then you check your credit card at the end of your trip and realize you have spent 500+ dollars just on bottled waters and soda.

One of the biggest expenses (besides your flight and hotel) is the cost of food at disney parks. Here is a quick tip on how to save yourself some money (and sanity)!

At any Disney owned resort (this includes Disneyland, Disney World, Aulani, and other disney properties) you can actually have food grocery delivery services delivery food and drop it off the food at bell service! Disney has fridges/freezers, etc to store your food while you arrive, are at the parks etc, before you check in to your resort!

When we visit Disney world for example, we have to fly in order to get there. We can’t stock up on food along the way. We also usually uber or use disney transportation to and from our hotel since it cheaper for us then renting a car so stopping at a grocery store won’t cut it.

Who we use

Instead of other big delivery services, are favorite grocery delivery service at Disney World is a local one called Vacation Grocery Delivery. These are the reason we love to use local:

1. They are used to buying for Disney vacations, when I ordered eggo waffles, they picked out mickey and minnie shaped waffles!
2. There is a flat fee and no upcharge for food ordered. The fee was $25 for delivery, no matter what. Instacart and other delivery apps will up charge you per item as well as charge you a delivery fee. On our last trip I did the math and they saved me over 100 dollars (on a 300 dollar order). This flat fee is great for large groups.

They were and easy to work with!

If you aren’t going to Disney World (Disneyland, Aulani,etc) instacart is a great option to use and we have had no problem with using them in the past.

What things do I normally order?

We love to eat inside the parks (CHURROS! DOLE WHIP!). If we are staying at a location with a kitchen, we usually order breakfast food, fruit, snacks for the room, and A LOT OF DRINKS. If we are staying in a studio or room without a food kitchen we focus on drinks and snacks. For our last group of 6 when we visited for 5 days I ordered this much to drink to give you an idea:

• 2 cases of 24 waters (2.68 a case vs. 3.50 a bottle at the park)
• 24 powerade (.88 cents a piece instead of 4.50)
• 3 (12 pack) of coke zero
• 16 bottles of gatorade
• 1 case of root beer/Sprite/etc

Some other items we love to order to have in our room

• Tide pods (if you have a unit with a washer dryer)
• Swim diapers, pull ups, wipes etc. This helps you save space while flying
• popcorn, pringles, salty snacks
• Fruit (grapes, apples, oranges)
• cereal and milk
• crystal link liquid flavoring

One of our favorite products to buy is a backpack cooler . This backpack folds down to lay flat in a suitcase for flying. We actually had one of the dads last trip use it as his carry on for the plane and he just filled it with what he normally takes on a plane trip.

Once we are getting ready for the park, we freeze water bottles (or if in a studio use ice) and fill the backpack full of drinks. The backpack will be HEAVY for the first little bit. We stored it at the bottom of our stroller. The backpack is nicer than a cooler because getting on and off transportation, going through security, walking around the park, you can just strap in on your back and keep your hands free for kids.

When we did the math we think we saved about 500+ dollars on drinks last time we went with a group of 6. We also noticed we were way more hydrated because we didn’t feel guilty dropping money every time we wanted a drink.

That a lot of money for a dole whip!!