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Friday, July 24, 2015

Disneyland Part 2: Food in the Park

Like I said in the previous post, we planned to spend ~$50 a meal for the 4 of us each time we ate out. We knew there would be times it would be more expensive then that, but we tried to stay to restaurants that kept us close to that budget.

Few pointers (that I couldn't convince my hubby of, but maybe you'll listen better) stick with water. Soda costs $3-4 at least there, times that by 4, you are spending an extra $12-$16 a meal on drinks. (I have no idea was alcohol costs there, because I don't drink, but really stick with water, your body needs it to stay hydrated). By asking for a cup of water (which they will do gladly for you instead of the bottled water) you will save hundreds of dollars over the course of your stay.

Disneyland takes care of you. Tell your cashier at the fast service or server at the full service restaurants that you have allergies and they will have a chef come out and tell you what they can do for you and totally take care of you.

Also, FYI, I'm not relaying what my hubby ate, because he doesn't eat gluten-free and I figured it wouldn't pertain to you. Also, you'll notice that we never ate breakfast, or for that matter dinner in the park. I'll go over that more in my next post, but simply put, we had free breakfast at the hotel and the boys were tired before dinner time so we were back at our hotel by then and just ate at close by restaurants.

Our first day we ate at Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill in California Adventure for lunch. I got the Fire-Grilled Citrus Chicken minus the tortillas. My oldest got a soft chicken taco with a corn tortilla in a kids meal with applesauce and rice. My youngest got a side of rice and beans (he isn't much of a fan of Mexican food and this is what I could convince him to eat).  He ended up eating the drumstick on my chicken, too. My older son, didn't really care for his taco (he prefers beef tacos) and ate some of my chicken, as well. I loved my whole meal, it was delicious. But for the kids, it was mixed, mainly because of their own personal food likes. Our meal altogether came to $46.80 (with 3 sodas included).


That afternoon we also grabbed a frozen lemonade from a lemonade stand across from the Corn Dog Castle. They were delicious and refreshing on a hot July afternoon. For 4 lemonades our bill came to $19.00.

Our second day we ate at Red Rockett's Pizza Port in Disneyland for lunch. They have individual sized Gluten-free pizza and they have Daiya cheese! (I didn't know about the Daiya cheese part prior to going, so we were quite excited). I think this was probably our most successful lunch at Disney, mainly because everyone in our family loves Pizza. I got the GF pizza with Daiya cheese and pepperoni, my oldest got his with pepperoni and regular mozzarella (he can handle dairy) and my youngest got a cheese pizza with the Daiya cheese. The crust has herbs baked into it and was quite a yummy crust and we stuffed ourselves silly with the food. It was delicious and very much appreciated. The really nice part, the GF pizza was only $8 each, my hubby's meal was by far the most expensive, because he wanted pizza and pasta and breadsticks (it adds up). Our meal all together came to $64.26.


 My older son with his pizza 

That afternoon we also got Dole Whips and Floats at the Tiki Juice Bar. Seriously, if you are going to be in a Disney park you need to get a Dole whip at least one of the days. They are dairy-free and amazing! My hubby and I did the floats and the boys had the whips. The floats are essentially the dole whip with pineapple juice added and they were nice and refreshing on a hot afternoon. Just know that there will be a line, this is a popular stop and it will take a bit of time to get your whips. I sent my hubby and kids off for a bathroom break and window shopping while I stood in line and it worked out great. For 2 whips and 2 floats our bill came to $20.48.




The third day of our adventure we went to Edelweiss Snacks in Disneyland and grabbed 2 turkey legs and 2 corn-on-the-cobs (please note that they come already buttered...my little one can handle butter, so we went with it). The turkey legs are huge and will feed at least two people. My hubby wasn't feeling well, so we probably could have gotten away with getting only one turkey leg, but hind sight is better than foresight. Turkey legs are $10 each, so share to make it worth the money. I loved the turkey legs and so did my youngest, but my older son and my hubby weren't the biggest fans (my son because he's not a big meat eater, and my hubby because he wasn't feeling well). With sodas added in our bill came to $46.25.


On the fourth day of our adventure we were back over to California Adventure and stopped at Smokejumpers Grill--seriously amazing burgers, with seriously amazing buns. We tried to eat before the lunch rush each day, but we hit it that day, and it took a little while for the chef to come out and take our order. But he took care of us. I got a bacon burger (no cheese), my older son got a grilled chicken sandwich (no cheese, no sauce), and my younger son got a kid's hamburger (the chef made him a full size burger, because it fit the bun better, but didn't charge us any extra). We all got fries, which are made in a separate fryer, and they gave us fresh toppings to use from the kitchen, so we wouldn't have to use the condiment bar. The kids really could've share one meal, the sandwiches were huge and they both only got through half of their's...lesson learned again. But it really was a fantastic lunch. The bill came to $52.20.



The last day of our Disney adventure also happened to coincide with the actual 60th anniversary of Disneyland. Talk about holy crazy day with massive crowds! We rode a few of our favorite rides, and then decided it was just too crazy in the Parks and went over to Downtown Disney to look at the shops there and ate lunch there as well. This was the only time we chose a sit down restaurant. We sandwiches at the hotel a few times for dinner, which made this lunch doable for us budget wise. We went to Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, because I heard that the Jambalaya was amazing and really wanted to try it. And yes, the Jambalaya is amazing. The server was really good to answer all our questions about the food and to double check everything we ordered. I ordered the Jambalaya without butter, subbed with rice (it's normally a pasta jambalaya). My boys each got a grilled chicken strips kid's meal. My older son had his with fruit, my younger had his with corn on the cob. If I had known how much chicken they would get I would've had them split the meal.  It was three huge tenders, that would equate to at least a breast and a half of chicken. They ate what they could but it was just too much food. The corn on the cob was gross, based on what my son said, but they split the fruit and it was enough for both of them. They also got carrots and celery as an appetizer before their chicken came out, so yeah, it was a lot of food. Since this was a sit down restaurant, the bill was a bit higher. My hubby also got himself an appetizer in addition to his entree and we all got sodas...which made this a hefty bill of $79.55 (including the tip) when all was said and done.



(my son wasn't being grumpy, he just hates having his picture taken)

Overall, Disney does take care of you. They are trained to take care of you and they have options for you.  This vacation was seriously the best in terms of finding places to eat and having excellent food to eat.

This post was shared on Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays and Allergy Free Wednesdays.

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