The Dark Side of Disney - Leonard Kinsey [21]
“That’s pretty fucked up, Dan,” I say, not able to hide my contempt.
“Sure it is, but I’ve probably saved thousands in meals over the years, and I can eat wherever I want and order whatever I want without worrying about being able to afford it.” He smiles. “From my perspective, you’re the one who’s fucked up for paying crazy Disney prices for your meals.”
“I can’t argue with you there,” I sigh.
“Let’s go to Narcoossee’s,” yells Dan, pulling out his spy pen. “My treat!”
Here are some more cheap food options:
Bring food from home. Since Southwest lets each passenger check two bags, why not stuff one with non-perishable snacks like boxes of Cheese-Its, candy, and cookies? I’d also highly recommend bringing your own coffee, too, since there are only a handful of places in WDW to get decent java (the French Press at Jiko comes to mind). If you have a coffee maker in your room, the little airtight single-serving bags work great, and the new Starbucks VIA instant mixes are nice if you don’t have a coffee maker or like drinking it on the go all day long.
Get carry-out delivered to your room. If you were at home and you wanted pizza, what would you do? You’d call out for delivery! Well, there are plenty of places that will deliver to the resorts. Obviously WDW doesn’t advertise this because they’d much rather you order their outrageously overpriced room service, but if you ask at the front desk they will give you a stack of menus from “authorized” restaurants. This can save you a ton of cash!
My favorite food delivery at WDW is by far Giordano’s Pizza. Up until recently there was no place to get decent pizza at WDW (Via Napoli somewhat changed this), so I was forced to seek out local delivery places to get my fix. Turns out that I hit a home run with this place, because not only do they deliver right to your resort, but they make an amazingly tasty and authentic Chicago-Style pie. The Large size weighs as much as a stack of bricks and can literally feed a family of 4 for at least three nights. Plus, if you do a Google search you can find a coupon for a free order of their delicious Tomato Basil Cheese Bread. Yum! The only annoying thing about Giordano’s is that the two local locations (Kissimmee and Lake Buena Vista) seem to randomly decide which one of them is responsible for delivering to WDW Resorts. You might get the runaround at first but with a little coaxing either one will deliver. Even with a decent tip for the driver this is a helluva deal for the amount of food you get.
As of this writing Restaurant.com offers discounted gift certificates for Garden Grove, Kimonos, Todd English’s bluezoo, Il Mulino, and Shula’s in the Swan/Dolphin resorts, and House of Blues at Downtown Disney. At various times throughout the year Restaurant.com will offer discount codes that let you get a $25 gift certificate for $1! There are some restrictions, like sometimes you have to spend over $35, or sometimes you have to get two entrees, but as a whole these are amazing deals and you can literally cut the cost of your meals in half just by using this website!
Grocery Delivery and Fridge Swaps Gone Wrong:
Here’s the biggest money-saving tip of all: Order groceries and have them delivered to your room! There are currently two companies that perform this service: Wegoshop (http://www.wegoshop.com) and Garden Grocer (http://www.gardengrocer.com). While I’ve heard good things about both I tend to use Wegoshop because they’ll clip and use coupons without being asked and will also pick out whatever brand of any given item is cheapest, whereas at Garden Grocer you have to choose specific items from their list at a set (inflated) price. We usually order breakfast foods like bagels and cream cheese, as well as a ton of mozzarella sticks, single-serving bags of chips and vegetables, and bottled water for bringing to the parks. Yes, you are allowed to bring food into the parks in soft-sided coolers, and that’s good because spending $3 for a bottle of water is insane, and the water from the fountains tastes like it