Homeschooling at Disney - Planning Part 2 - Accommodations and Food
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There are two good perks for going to Disney in the off season. One there are fewer people so wait time for rides are low, and the resorts give a 30% discount.
We decided to stay at the Port Orleans Riverside Disney resort. It is one of Disney's moderate resorts. We needed a room that could accommodate five people. On the morning that the 30% discount on room became available for our travel dates my husband got up and made the reservation for the room we wanted right away.
If you stay at a Disney resort you do not have to pay for parking at the parks or for your magic bands. We are a family of five and a basic magic band costs $13 each so that is $65 savings on magic bands. We went to the parks for five days and parking is $17 a day so we saved $85 on parking.
You can take food and drinks into all of the park so before we left we bought breakfast items, snacks, and some lunch items to take along. I packed a zip lock bag for breakfast and snack for each day before going to Disney. That way while we were there all I had to do each morning was grab a bag out for breakfast in the hotel room and put one of the snack bags and some drinks in the backpack for our day.
We also had a good little lesson on profit when buying our bottled water and chips before going. 35 bottles of water at Wal-Mart cost us $4. At Disney each bottle of water costs $2.50. We did a little math lesson and figured out that by buying that water at home we potentially saved $83.50!
You can take food and drinks into all of the park so before we left we bought breakfast items, snacks, and some lunch items to take along. I packed a zip lock bag for breakfast and snack for each day before going to Disney. That way while we were there all I had to do each morning was grab a bag out for breakfast in the hotel room and put one of the snack bags and some drinks in the backpack for our day.
We also had a good little lesson on profit when buying our bottled water and chips before going. 35 bottles of water at Wal-Mart cost us $4. At Disney each bottle of water costs $2.50. We did a little math lesson and figured out that by buying that water at home we potentially saved $83.50!
We decided not to do a Disney meal plan. If you do a meal plan you have to pay for each person, for each day you are there. Our kids are still little and they just do not eat enough for it to have been worth while for us this trip.
This blog has a good post about cost of meal plans and what is included http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-dining-plan-costs-info-tips/
The other plus of paying out of pocket is not having to decipher what we could an couldn't get with a meal plan. In all we ate about 6 quick service meals in the parks and 3 nice sit down meals. Here is a list of some of the places we decided to eat and liked.
Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney
Fish and Chips in the U.K. at Epcot
Turkey Legs in Frontier Land at the Magic Kingdom
We ate sit down meals at
Bells Castle in the Magic Kingdom
Germany in Epcot
and Ohana at Disney's Polynesian Resort
Ohana was hands down our favorite nice sit down meal. The food was AMAZING!
Fish and Chips in the UK was my husbands favorite quick service meal and the kids loved the turkey legs the most.
Our total expense on food purchased on the trip (including traveling days to and from Disney) was $160 LESS than the basic meal plan would have cost us.
We will definitely eat at Ohana again. We would also love to eat at more of the countries in Epcot and do a character meal some day so we may do a meal plan one day in the future. I would want to plan out exactly where we would use the credits before going though so I didn't have to waste time on my trip figuring it out.
