Is it easy or difficult to opt for healthy eating at WDW

Walt Disney World
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I am going to be doing a grocery shop for our 9 days at WDW.
I am then going to do another order for our 9 days at Universal.

I am basically opting for breakfast items, snacks, & fruit. We are staying at POFQ, which apparently is going to be having a refurb of their restaurant during our stay. I hope I will have access to a toaster for breakfast. I am aware that our fridge in our room is more like a ‘cooler’ than a fridge. Therefore, I will be buying a foam cooler and hopefully filling daily with ice… apparently I/people do this :slight_smile:

I am wondering how easy it will be to maintain a ‘sort of’ healthy diet during our stay. I’m happy to have my fair share of treats, and I know a lot of ‘treats’ will be consumed and enjoyed… but I can get tired of hot chips and pizza etc after a few days. We are basically eating at counter/quick service restaurants as this fits our budget. I definitely need fruit daily, and I hope I can access this easily enough with our grocery order and within the parks.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated by those who have been there and lived with the food options :slight_smile: I am so looking forward to going, but would rather not come back twice the size :slight_smile:

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It won’t be too difficult to avoid having pizza and fries for every meal! There are some really good counter service options in the parks.

At Magic Kingdom, Columbia Harbour House is great. They have a couple of salads, a salmon entree at dinner, a hummus sandwich and a tuna sandwich. They also have fried fish and chicken strips if anyone in your party wants those.

At Epcot, you have so many options! In Future World, I especially like Sunshine Seasons. There are a wide range of options there, and no burgers :slight_smile:

At Hollywood Studios, counter service options are a little more limited. You’ll see more of the fried stuff there, but there are other options. I’m just not as familiar with them. My favorite there is Fairfax Fare, which has a particularly good salad with shredded BBQ pork on top. My mouth is watering thinking about it!

At AK, Flame Tree BBQ is always a popular choice. The ribs are divine. I’ve heard good things about Yak and Yeti, which offers Chinese food. I’ve never been myself, though. Same with Harambe Market - good reviews, I’ve jus tnot been.

For fruit, I think your grocery order will be very helpful! I like to buy bagged apple slices and take a couple of bags into the park with me. I like having them pre-sliced, it just seems less messy at the park. There are also places that sell fruit in the parks, sometimes whole apples, oranges, etc and sometimes cut fruit like strawberries and pineapple.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you’ll likely be running around a lot more at home. You can justify the extra treats by remembering that you don’t walk 10 miles most days. I was trying very hard to maintain my weight on my last trip, and I came home having gained only 2 lbs despite eating pretty much whatever I wanted for an entire week.

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When we last went we had a rental car, so we stopped at a grocery store on the way and stocked up. We bought food to make breakfast and pack lunches for every day, including fruit, snacks, and beer/wine for unwinding at the resort after a long day of touring. We would do TS for dinner, except for one day where we did a TS lunch and then had our “pack lunches” for dinner. This worked out really well for us, as there is only so much “park food” we can stomach and it is very budget-friendly. :smiley: Also, because we had a car we went off-site for dinner one night to Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes, which has a great selection of healthy food.

Regarding fridges, we had no problems whatsoever with the mini fridge in our room - however, we were staying at a VWL studio, so maybe they have a better quality fridge. One general tip for hotel fridges - if they are enclosed in a cabinet, leave the cabinet door open so that it has adequate ventilation. Otherwise the fridge is essentially surrounded by an oven and struggles to keep things cool.

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Also, forgot to ask - 9 days at WDW and 9 days at UOR?? That is one long trip!

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You don’t mention kids or ages, but really the only difficulty I would see would be kids seeing all of the unhealthy treats and asking for them! Otherwise there are definitely plenty of options. I see more and more of the “healthy” carts with fruit or whole grain snacks. I would even consider the pickles pretty healthy! And you could use the salt in the heat.

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I can’t vouch for how “healthy” the food is, but I just plain refuse to eat QS pizza, burgers, fries, etc - and I’ve never had a problem of finding a wide variety of things to eat at QSs.

9 days at UOR??? I hope you are planning on using some of this time for things like Sea World, Busch Gardens, etc. If not, I’m guessing that by the time day 4 or 5 comes along you’ll be asking yourselves “so what do we want to do again today?”.

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Yes, it is a trip of a lifetime. :slight_smile:

When I added up the days, I wanted to make sure I was covered for a rest if needed, as well as back up in case someone gets sick - hopefully not!

At this stage

1 day MK
1 Day HS
1 day EP
1 day AK
1 day BB
1 day TL
extra days will include a half day back at MK, plus EP, maybe AK and also visiting Disney Springs. So I guess I have approx 8 days out of my nine days filled just at WDW.

Universal side includes

IOA
Universal Studios
Busch Gardens
Sea World
Kennedy Space Centre
Aquatica
I am wanting to thoroughly explore Harry Potter entirely as I have Potter mad teens :slight_smile: So, that kind of fills up my 9 days there.

:slight_smile:

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kids are growing fast - 15 and 17. This trip is for us to have the best time as a family before they grow up and move onto exciting adventures of their own and we loose our chance to ever do something this amazing with them. I feel so lucky to be doing this.

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Unless you are all morning people, don’t try to do 4 RDs in a row. Maybe put a BB or TL in the middle, so you have some rest time. You might also want one day that’s just resort/DS, but space out your early morning/late night days so you’re not exhausted. Exhausted (for me) = eat whatever comfort food I can get.

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With all the side trips I am assuming that you are either driving to FL or renting a car. If this is the case then I would not bother with ordering food, I would just stop at a local grocery store to stock up. Also, this gives you the opportunity to go “off site” for some meals as well (and most likely save a bit of money at the same time).

If you do decide to bring lunches and snacks to the parks, invest in a cooler-type backpack, or else you risk turning your “pack lunch” into a “hot lunch”…

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We have not hired a car. We are travelling from Australia and are using Disney Transport to get us around at WDW.

Once we move to Royal Pacific for the next 9 days, apparently we can walk to the Universal/IOA/citywalk. Then we have a tour booked (Greyline Tours) to do the Space Centre.
I have bought an Orlando Flex Ticket Plus, which gives us transport to Busch Gardens. I have yet to figure out how to get to Seaworld or Aquatica.

Hopefully, if I plan well, we will do fine without a car. Happy for any tips if anyone has any… maybe I should make a new topic re this.