Tips for Saving Money on Food at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

My family of 6 recently spent 14 hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and we spent under $200 on all of our food for the day. We planned a last-minute trip to Disney World with our boys and didn’t want to spend much money. Since tickets and accommodations at Disney are already pricey, we opted to keep the rest of our expenses low.

With some research, I created a dining plan for our family that saved us hundreds of dollars. All of the extras included in a trip to Disney can add up rather quickly, but it is possible to do Disney on a budget. It just takes a little time and planning to find the best savings for your family.

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Set a Budget

The first step is to set a budget. Now, you can’t really set a realistic budget unless you know the price range of the meals offered at Disney World. Theme park food is usually more expensive than food you’d purchase at most restaurants. So, a little research will help you create a realistic budget.

I set a budget of $60 per meal for our entire family, which sounds wild, but we mostly managed to stick to it. I also budgeted for $30 of snacks per day. So, if we ate two meals and one snack at the parks, our total would equal $150 per park. We did go over budget at Hollywood Studios, but because we were so under budget at Animal Kingdom, we could reallocate the money.

Create a Plan

The first step was to research our dining options and create a plan. Disney allows guests to bring in outside food, so bringing a picnic lunch is a way to save money on your vacation. However, it wasn’t worth the effort of carrying around full meals for 6 people or renting a locker to store our lunch cooler. We prefer to travel light and move quickly throughout the parks.

Instead, we ate at quick-service restaurants and ordered kids’ meals. Many of the quick-service locations throughout Disney World offer substantial kids’ meals, and anyone can order a kid’s meal, not just kids. One of the great things about kids’ meals is that they all come with a drink. However, not all kid’s meals are created equally. I used the My Disney Experience app to make practice mobile orders to see which meals offer the most food for the lowest price.

Our Plan for Dining at Hollywood Studios

Before we even got to the parks, I knew all the places we would eat for the day. I also knew the options for the food we would order and an estimate of what everything would cost. We told the kids we were on a budget and the plan before we even arrived a Disney to set their expectations accordingly.

Breakfast

We stayed off-property for this trip and ate the complimentary breakfast served at our hotel. Even when we stay on-property, we find it’s quicker and cheaper to eat breakfast in our room. We usually place a grocery order to be delivered to our room on arrival. This way we can have quick grab-and-go breakfast items like muffins, cereal bars, fruit and even cereal available for breakfast.

Lunch at Hollywood Studios

For lunch, we ate at Backlot Express, which has one of the best kids’ meal options at Hollywood Studios. You’ll find that most kids’ meals at Disney offer standard kid fare like chicken tenders, mac-n-cheese, and burgers, but they also offer one or two Disney Check Meals, which appeal to adults. I ordered the Southwest Salad with Chicken and my husband ordered the Teriyaki Tofu Bowl, both of which are kids meals. The kids had chicken strips and mac-n-cheese. All the meals except for the Teriyaki bowl came with two sides and a drink. The side options include yogurt, carrots, apple slices, fries, and a chocolate chip cookie. The Teriyaki bowl only came with a drink. Backlot Express has a refillable drinks station so we were able to refill our kids cups several times.

Our total for lunch was $50.30.

Refillable Popcorn Bucket

We purchased the refillable popcorn bucket at one of the popcorn kiosks around the park. The popcorn bucket costs $13, which includes the popcorn. The buckets can be refilled at all four Disney parks and Disney Springs for a small fee. The fee to refill the popcorn bucket varies slightly by location but is typically around $2.25 per refill.

We purchased the popcorn bucket and refilled it one time for a total of $15.25

Specialty Shareable Snacks at Hollywood Studios

Eating foods you can only get at the parks is always fun. However, purchasing an individual snack for each person adds up rather quickly. So I had two options for specialty sharable snacks: Kat Saka’s Kettle Corn or a funnel cake sundae from Epic Eats. We opted for the Kettle Corn and my husband also tried the Cold Brew Black Caf.

Our total was $13.08

Dinner at Hollywood Studios

We ate dinner at Docking Bay 7 in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. Again, we ordered from the limited kids’ menu, which offers a good amount of food. We ordered the plant-based Ithorian Pasta Rings and Fried Chicken Tip Yip Younglind Meals. Each meal came with a side of broccoli. The meals also come with a drink; however, Docking Bay 7 doesn’t have refillable drink stations.

The total for dinner at Docking Bay 7 was $65.96

A Frozen Treat

To end the night, we bought Mickey Premium Ice Cream bars to enjoy while we watched Fantasmic. This was a bit of a last-minute splurge because it was a long day and everyone was hot and tired. Plus, you can’t go to Disney without eating a Mickey shaped treat!

Our total for ice cream bars was $40.19

Additional Snacks

We also carried a backpack with us that contained plenty of snacks and water bottles, so we weren’t tempted to overspend. Our bag contained crackers, cookies, cereal bars, and fruit snacks.

Total Spent on Food at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Our family of 6 spent $184.78 at Hollywood Studios. While we went over our $150 daily budget with the purchase of our ice cream bars, I think we did pretty well for an entire day of eating. Again, we spent less than budgeted for our day at Animal Kindom, so the overage was absorbed into the trip’s overall budget.