ideas for meals in the room

[the real Alice]

We are leaving in a little over a month for my DS first trip! We can't wait. We are going on a very tight budget and plan to take a lot of our out snacks a breakfast foods in the room. I'm also taking bread, PB & jelly. We are staying at Pop and will only have the mini fridge. Any other quick fix meal suggestions? I know there are very few options with no microwave.
Thanks!

[faline]

I believe there should be a microwave available in the food court so you might take advantage of that.

[the real Alice]

Thanks Faline. I hadn't thought of that! that will give us a few more options.

Does anyone know if you can still buy a double cheeseburger and an extra bun? if so how much are buns now?

[j2k]

Cereal with milk
Cheese sandwiches
Fruit, granola bars, and yogurt
Salad fixings (lettuce/tomato/cucumber/bell peper, chopped cooked bacon, deli ham, croutons, etc.)

I travel alot for work and these are some of my staples. Hope this helps.

[Buttercup]

My sister always brings a toaster with her!
Cereal and milk is what we usually do for breakfast in our room.
If you have the fridge, you could also put some fresh fruit or yogurt in there. We usually stock ours up with juiceboxes and bottles of water as well.
Then we bring a small soft-sided lunch-bag sized cooler for snacks in the park, like granola bars, fruit, gummies, etc. One year when we were on a tight budget, we even made sandwiches in our hotel room, put them in Ziploc baggies and brought those along for lunch at the parks!

[ANG]

Do you guys like tuna? You can buy the pouches. Also we like taking prepackaged peanut butter crackers.

[the real Alice]

Tuna pouches is a great idea! And that's something that my 3 year old will eat. YAY!
I've got tons of breakfast & snack ideas. I just needed some for lunch. We are still eating dinner out each night. Maybe we can make it on Tuna & PB for lunches

[DonaldDuckUSA]

Cheese sticks! They're a great snack to pair with fruit.

[natstroop]

Along with cereal, you could bring instant oatmeal packets. You can use the coffee pot to heat water.

Just a thought...you could probably almost heat hot dogs in the hot water?

Sliced lunch meats would work good too.

[disneykidsince1970]

when we are on holiday, my kids LIVE on PB&J - we put it on flour tortillas isntead of bread. I don't know why but they loved it when they were little and never grew out of the tortillas. I find that these travel better too. I make them ahead (before overseas flights even) - stick them in a ziplock and then they will eat them over the course 12 hours! It isn't the MOST healthy thing...but there is lots worse.

We also do cereal bars, packaged cheese/crackers, even crackers/hummus (stays cool for a few hrs in park), fruit, low sugar fig newtons, my kids love yogurt-covered rice cakes too!

*If they have micro for your use in hotel, the micro EZ Mac could be good for lunch - and you could keep it warm with thermos-type items.

KUDOS to you for great planning and prioritizing!

Have fun!!

[disneymomma2010]

something to add to the list... bagels with cream cheese.

[Tink#64]

I'm all about cutting costs whenever possible! And we're big time campers, so alot of easy meals in our repertoire! Our first trip I packed an entire suitcase of food for breakfast, snacks & lunch/dinner! We always do breakfast in the room, it's a huge time & money saver! Mostly cereal, bagels, muffins, etc. And we aren't big eaters so we're all ready for mid morning snack from our packs, which include cereal bars, granola bars, raisins, slim jims, anything that doesn't easily melt or crumble!

You won't have a micowave in your room at Pop but there are some in the food court that you can use. My first thoughts were of the staple quick foods that my DH & DS's like, which include PB, on yes on a tortilla shell (which travels well is awesome - especially warmed!), also you will have a frdige in your room with the new upgrades to the Value resorts! You didn't mention, but I'm wondering if you are driving & can bring cooler(s)? Hot dogs are a staple for my guys! You could even bring a can of chili or a bag of shredded cheese! Vienna sausages are a huge fav for mine! My guys love lunch meat - ham or chicken on a bagel! Bagels are more filling & travel/keep better than a loaf of bread! You could do cans of anything from ravioli, chili, soup, etc, bring a couple of microwavable single serve, say 2 1/2 cup Tupperware bowls & you're all set! Not for WDW, but other vaca's, I've even made a casserole prior to trip that only neded to be reheated, toss in the cooler & there's one meal you don't even have to think about! Think outside of the box! I'm sure you'll come up with all sorts of quick & easy options!

[AJ Springfield]

We bring water bottles with us to the parks and add a packet of pre sweetened kool aid at lunch time at counter service restaurants.

Rather than trying to eat cheap in the hotel room, I would recommend sharing meals at counter service restaurants and ordering "sandwich only"-- no combo meals. A pizza ordered at the food court is decent and not too much money. Room service pizza is more, so go to the food court and order it there.

[hope2survive]

I actually bought a cheap toaster on a former trip and packed it and then just left it there. I worry, though, about putting that metal object in my suitcase now with security.

I also have bough a cheap hot pot. You can use that to make ramen noodles, soup, cup o soup, etc. They are relatively inexpensive and easy to travel.

[CuteAsMinnie]

One trip, we packed an entire suitcase full of food. (I was a little annoyed this was the ONLY bag of ours airport security rummaged thru, although I wasn't surprised). We included things like:

Fruit snacks
Individual boxes of cereal we usually don't eat (fruit loops and the like)
Granola bars
Protein bars
Goldfish
PB & Jelly
Plastic bowls, spoons, cups

On board I carried homemade brownies, muffins, cookies

We had limo/town car service w/ grocery stop and purchased
Half gallon of milk
Fruit
Loaf of bread
Case of water
Pop
Juice boxes
And whatever else wee needed

And purchased at the resort more milk and whatever else we needed.

Kids had their own mini backpacks in which they carried their snacks/drinks for the day.

We maybeeee spent $50/day on food at the
parks (family of 4 ). We shared CS meals, and still do cuz the portions are ridiculously huge and scheduled only a few nice TS dinners because we, nor the kids, didn't want to spend a couple hours in a restaurant in Disney (a philosophy we still embrace)

It worked like a dream!

[goofygonewild]

Do most people bring in small coolers to keep drinks cold? If just put in a backpack, I would think drinks would be pretty warm within a short period of time. I have taken a frozen bottle of water before and drank it as it melted, but even doing that, it doesn't take long when it is hot out before the water is warm.

[CuteAsMinnie]

We always ask for a cup of ice at ANY CS at Disney. You can add your water you brought in ou just **** on the ice... That's a Chicago thing but it works !

[Tink#64]

DH & I each carry water bottles that we refill throughout the day at the water fountains. Sometimes we add the bottle drink packets if we get tired of plain water. Some people are adverse to the FL water, but we have no complaints. Usually the only "Coke's" we have are with meals or using our refillable mugs at our resort food court. Which btw, purchasing the refillable mugs make those meals less expensive! We've done the math & after a few days, our mugs pay for themselves! Coffee in the AM, drinks by the pool, and we usually eat lunch or dinner at the food court, so this too is way more affordable than other CS's given the refillable mug!

[Mousemates]

Back in the earlier days of married life when finances were a bit tighter we always did breakfast in the room (for us typically a box of whole grain cereal, a gallon of milk, and some bananas or a bag of frozen strawberries/blueberries to give it some flavor, made for a weeks worth of breakfast at very low cost. (we brought cereal bowls and spoons along with us).

Lunches were a bit more problematic...but tended to be either sandwiches we brought with us into the parks, or we would split counter service meals and supplement with some chips of our own.

As for drinks we each had our own water bottle on a lanyard and carried the individual powder drink mixes...though today I think I would go with the liquid that comes in the small bottles.

By the way, with one in college and another one before too long, finances are starting to tighten up again and we will likely be returning to old habits for a while too.

[LVT]

We share the POP breakfast platters for adults.