308 days until we stay at my dream resort!

[Hayley In Wonderland]

Good afternoon everyone!

I am so over the moon right now. Me and my partner put down a deposit for a 14 night stay at AKL. It's a resort I have always wanted to visit, and even though its coming out to be a pretty expensive trip (I'm visiting from the UK and its coming in over £3,500 just for hotel and flights!) I am so excited. I was looking for tips on how to save money in other places with the trip. I have already purchased our park tickets, however we are looking to spend as little as possible on our food so we have more money for buying pressies. What is the minimum we should put aside for food for a day? And also what amount would you reccomend for us to take? There is only the 2 of us and by the time we go we will be 23, however neither of us are big drinkers and it's highly unlikely we will drink any alcohol whilst we're out there!

 

[DryerLintFan]

We brought our own snacks and mainly ate from them for breakfasts and lunches. We had a dinner at the restaurants each evening. For QS meals, the dinners usually cost us around $35 a night. We went to Chef Art Smith's and that cost us about double (but so so worth it!!).

I would say that if you're looking to just save money, that was a good plan. You could always take an uber to the store when you get here and stock up on things to eat. BUT you should add in at least a couple sit down meals at great Disney restaurants so you don't feel like you're missing out on the Disney dining experience.

You can look up any restaurants menu on the app, too. Prices are listed so you can price out the meals you want to take.

 

[Hayley In Wonderland]

We brought our own snacks and mainly ate from them for breakfasts and lunches. We had a dinner at the restaurants each evening. For QS meals, the dinners usually cost us around $35 a night. We went to Chef Art Smith's and that cost us about double (but so so worth it!!).

I would say that if you're looking to just save money, that was a good plan. You could always take an uber to the store when you get here and stock up on things to eat. BUT you should add in at least a couple sit down meals at great Disney restaurants so you don't feel like you're missing out on the Disney dining experience.

You can look up any restaurants menu on the app, too. Prices are listed so you can price out the meals you want to take.

Last time we went we did a visit to walmart but mainly bought a load of junk, but that's a really good idea. Does AKL have fridges in their rooms?
We will definitely try to do a few sit down meals. Last time we went we were on QSDP and as useful as it was for money saving, half the time we didn't enjoy the food all that much & got a bit bored of the same veggie burgers and pizzas. Last time I went i was just a veggie but this time I am vegan so I'm excited to see what I can get and try whilst I'm out there

 

[Herdman]

We usually do an online order from Garden Grocer before our trip. They will deliver right to the resort on your arrival day, and the resort will store it for you if you happen to not be in your room at the time. I would assume you can do it from overseas, but I'm not positive about that. We get water, milk, breakfast foods and various snacks for our stay. It has always worked out great.

 

[Think Tink]

Last time we went we did a visit to walmart but mainly bought a load of junk, but that's a really good idea. Does AKL have fridges in their rooms?
We will definitely try to do a few sit down meals. Last time we went we were on QSDP and as useful as it was for money saving, half the time we didn't enjoy the food all that much & got a bit bored of the same veggie burgers and pizzas. Last time I went i was just a veggie but this time I am vegan so I'm excited to see what I can get and try whilst I'm out there

Yes, AKL has mini fridges in their standard rooms so you could store some smaller snacks and drinks. Have fun! I'm staying at AKL in May!

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

Amazon is a good place to order snacks/water from also. Also since you are so far out, you may want to watch for a discounted offer to apply to your existing reservation to save you some $$. I love AKL. It's in my top 5!

Pam

 

[Hayley In Wonderland]

Amazon is a good place to order snacks/water from also. Also since you are so far out, you may want to watch for a discounted offer to apply to your existing reservation to save you some $$. I love AKL. It's in my top 5!

Pam

I know the UK do a free dining plan for that time of year, however I think that there's no way around adding it to my booking

 

[bibbidibobbidibroadcast]

I know the UK do a free dining plan for that time of year, however I think that there's no way around adding it to my booking

Once free dining is available you are able to call up Disney and add it to your booking. If you have already paid your trip off in full, they will refund you whatever is owing. Otherwise, they'll just knock the total of the Dining off of the trip. This is what I'm doing as well. I had booked my trip 499 days out. Free Disney Dining will (hopefully) be announced for my trip in August 2018 or so and I'll be calling up to add this to my trip itinerary. You can do this with any of the package deals, but just remember you can't combine deals. Hopefully this helps!

 

[Hayley In Wonderland]

Once free dining is available you are able to call up Disney and add it to your booking. If you have already paid your trip off in full, they will refund you whatever is owing. Otherwise, they'll just knock the total of the Dining off of the trip. This is what I'm doing as well. I had booked my trip 499 days out. Free Disney Dining will (hopefully) be announced for my trip in August 2018 or so and I'll be calling up to add this to my trip itinerary. You can do this with any of the package deals, but just remember you can't combine deals. Hopefully this helps!

As we're staying at AKL we should be able to add the free dining (standard dining plan) to our package free of charge? That's pretty awesome! I wasn't aware that we could change the booking to that as I thought it was exclusive to people who booked during that offer.

 

[Tuvalu]

Once free dining is available you are able to call up Disney and add it to your booking. If you have already paid your trip off in full, they will refund you whatever is owing. Otherwise, they'll just knock the total of the Dining off of the trip. This is what I'm doing as well. I had booked my trip 499 days out. Free Disney Dining will (hopefully) be announced for my trip in August 2018 or so and I'll be calling up to add this to my trip itinerary. You can do this with any of the package deals, but just remember you can't combine deals. Hopefully this helps!

It doesn’t exactly work this way. Just because you have a room booked and Free Dining is released doesn’t mean you can “add it” to your current reservation, as not all resorts qualify for Free Dining. If the resort you booked is eligible and has rooms set aside for the promotion, then yes you can.

As we're staying at AKL we should be able to add the free dining (standard dining plan) to our package free of charge? That's pretty awesome! I wasn't aware that we could change the booking to that as I thought it was exclusive to people who booked during that offer.

U.K. offers are different than US offers so you won’t be able to do this.

 

[Hayley In Wonderland]

I did not think I would, I spoke to my travel agency last night and they confirmed that in order to get that promotion you have to book it whilst the offer is on.