Food budget for 10 day trip

DiannaVM · Jul 22, 2016

So last year I had used the DDP for food so this wasn't a worry then, but because not everyone in my party wants the DDP because of its high cost, we are just gonna play it by ear.

I am trying to budget my money however so I can rest easy knowing that we have eating covered and our spending money separated from that. Like I said, we are going for ten days but we won't be eating a TS meal every day. I had originally thought of taking $100 per adult per day, but then I feel it's too much. However I also feel like $50 per day would be too little.

If it helps this is how our tentative days are broken down:
Day 1 - Arrival day with a QS dinner at MK
Day 2 - Possible meal in hotel room (we are bringing breakfast stuff with us) with QS meal at MK and Splitsville dinner (or any other cheaper priced restaurant at DS)
Day 3 - Ohana breakfast then spending the day off property shopping at malls etc. Lungh will probably be at the mall and dinner either at an off property restaurant or Pop Century.
Day 4 - Breakfast at AoA, possible late lunch/early dinner at DAK at Flame Tree BBQ or Yak and Yeti quick service.
Day 5 - room breakfast, late lunch at Sci Fi restaurant at HS. (It would still be lunch according to our adr)
Day 6 - rope drop Epcot so either very early breakfast in room or small breakfast at park. Will be doing Food and Wine throughout the day so no adrs. (I dunno how often we will stop to purchase something though)
Day 7 - breakfast in room and then dinner add at BOG.

Please note I don't really mention lunch because sometimes we don't officially stop for lunch. That was one of the sticking points for me with the DDP, that we always had to stop in the middle of the day in order to eat, even if we weren't all that hungry or it cut into our touring.

Anyway I should also point out that we may have alcoholic drinks, at least one per day, but definitely we wouldn't do dessert (except maybe at BOG for the gray stuff) and if any appetizers, we would share between us two (I am not a big eater so my main meal is enough for me), but we don't usually get any.

Any snacks we get through the day would come out of my spending money, since we will probably carry our own snacks, so the purchase of any snacks would be far and few in between.

Thanks for your input!!

disneychrista · Jul 22, 2016

When doing a rough budget, I always plan on $50 per person / day. This is HIGH and we never spend that much. We are usually under $30/day. We don't snack much, eat breakfast in our room have counter service meals. Our trips to Disneyland we just get iced water. The water at WDW had me in the restroom way too much, so I had to get bottled water which of course adds up.

loves to dive · Jul 22, 2016

While I don't budget I find that we tend to spend an average of around $75 per person per day. This of course varies from day to day depending on our moods. We always get at least one adult beverage at TS and we tend to eat about 4 TS during a 5 night trip. The time of day of those varies, again according to our moods, from either lunch, late lunch, early supper or late supper. Breakfast is hit or miss with us, I'm a breakfast eater so must have something but my son is not. I tend to either get a kid's breakfast platter at the resort or a muffin at the parks. I don't drink soft drinks, my son will. Both of us will occasionally get a dessert at a TS and share it and if we do that we will both get a cup of coffee. If I eat a QS meal during the day, it will usually be a kid's meal if it's early evening or night, I'll get an adult meal. We normally only eat one big meal a day, if my son eats breakfast, we will normally have something light for lunch like something at a QS at one of the countries in Epcot and share it and then have a pretty hardy early supper. We are just all over the place, eating when and if and how we want when we are there. We don't make ADRs in advance, normally we make them the morning of at whatever park we are at or during the day for that afternoon/evening when walking around. Since we are two adults, time and type of food doesn't matter, we like to try different places and we have PHs so park or resort doesn't matter either. We have been known to go to a bar and just eat appetizers for a meal as well.

DiannaVM · Jul 22, 2016

Do those amounts include the tip as well?

TwoMisfits · Jul 22, 2016

Reading what you want to do, I'd budget $75/adult per day and know there are a few days (like the Ohana day) where you might bust that number, but there are also a few days (like the arrival day) where you'll be under. I mean, one regular alcoholic drink a day with tax/tip is gonna average $12/adult/day so there's no way you'll be super low budget. If you want 2 drinks a day (and/or a few snacks), budget the $100/adult/day and if you want 1 drink per day, I'd stick to my suggested $75/day. Nothing worse than not having enough money to enjoy your vacation...

Marionnette · Jul 22, 2016

DiannaVM said:
So last year I had used the DDP for food so this wasn't a worry then, but because not everyone in my party wants the DDP because of its high cost, we are just gonna play it by ear.

I am trying to budget my money however so I can rest easy knowing that we have eating covered and our spending money separated from that. Like I said, we are going for ten days but we won't be eating a TS meal every day. I had originally thought of taking $100 per adult per day, but then I feel it's too much. However I also feel like $50 per day would be too little.

If it helps this is how our tentative days are broken down:
Day 1 - Arrival day with a QS dinner at MK
Day 2 - Possible meal in hotel room (we are bringing breakfast stuff with us) with QS meal at MK and Splitsville dinner (or any other cheaper priced restaurant at DS)
Day 3 - Ohana breakfast then spending the day off property shopping at malls etc. Lungh will probably be at the mall and dinner either at an off property restaurant or Pop Century.
Day 4 - Breakfast at AoA, possible late lunch/early dinner at DAK at Flame Tree BBQ or Yak and Yeti quick service.
Day 5 - room breakfast, late lunch at Sci Fi restaurant at HS. (It would still be lunch according to our adr)
Day 6 - rope drop Epcot so either very early breakfast in room or small breakfast at park. Will be doing Food and Wine throughout the day so no adrs. (I dunno how often we will stop to purchase something though)
Day 7 - breakfast in room and then dinner add at BOG.

Please note I don't really mention lunch because sometimes we don't officially stop for lunch. That was one of the sticking points for me with the DDP, that we always had to stop in the middle of the day in order to eat, even if we weren't all that hungry or it cut into our touring.

Anyway I should also point out that we may have alcoholic drinks, at least one per day, but definitely we wouldn't do dessert (except maybe at BOG for the gray stuff) and if any appetizers, we would share between us two (I am not a big eater so my main meal is enough for me), but we don't usually get any.

Any snacks we get through the day would come out of my spending money, since we will probably carry our own snacks, so the purchase of any snacks would be far and few in between.

Thanks for your input!!

Since you are pretty certain of where you are going to eat, it would be a good idea to check out the menus on allears .net. Calculate your spending based on the most expensive menu items even though you may not end up eating those particular items. Don't forget to add 6.5% tax to all menu prices plus gratuities where needed. Alcohol can be as cheap as bottled beer and as expensive as specialty cocktails served in souvenir cups. $25/day for alcohol for 2 people would be a very conservative estimate.

kj2mom · Jul 22, 2016

You might find this calculator helpful for estimation purposes, http://www.distripplanner.com/

What I did was figure out a rough idea then have that amount on a gift card (plus extra) so it was kind of like all of our food was already paid for.

CatieH · Jul 22, 2016

$50 per person per day sounds more than enough for most folks. We tend to do cereal in the room in the morning and then have snacks we carry in and do special treats like popcorn, ice cream etc.... for the most part we do quick serve but maybe several times we will do a sit down with adult drinks etc... Hope you have a great trip!

McKelly · Jul 22, 2016

We are going for ten nights - family of four - all adults. I looked at Allears, added two appetizers and two desserts to each TS meal (we can have one or the other - budget) and two snacks per person a day and I came up with $3000.00 (including tax and tip). That included 11 TS meals, 2 being fine dining, all but three breakfasts in the room and all other meals were CS. That's still cheaper than purchasing the DP, but holy cow! I'm going to try and whittle that down to $2500.00 - at least.

So, $75.00 a person a day, seems about right for us.

kydisneyfans · Jul 22, 2016

We did a 7 day trip last fall and actually budgeted $32 a day per person for food. We did no table service though, and no alcohol. We did have a $100 grocery delivery made, so breakfasts were in the room and we made a cheap spaghetti meal in during our off day. No drinks were bought, we did water everywhere and had soda delivered.

At the end of day 6, 4 of the 5 of us had over $50 remaining so we went shopping at DT Disney. Food prices have significantly increased since then, so I doubt we could do it that low again today.

Your budget looks like $75 a day would work provided the alcohol remains at a max of 1 per day.

kathy884 · Jul 23, 2016

If I have a condo and am doing some grocery shopping and meals in, I budget $30 pp per day and usually come in pretty close to that. We in this case, though, are doing all breakfasts in, make sandwiches or do counter service for lunch, and maybe two dinners in and four moderate dinners out. It's not as economical eating in on vacation as it is at home, because you don't have staples -- have to buy them and there is more food waste as you are only there for one week. Still I really like not having to have all my meals out. Otherwise (no condo), I budget $50 pp per day, but that is for mostly counter service and moderate TS meals (We are usually offsite and I am talking about going to Steak n Shake, Sweet Tomatoes, Olive Garden -- moderate chains for meals out). For any Disney special table service meals (expensive) I make that it's own budget item -- fun theming, but budget busting meal prices. Note too we usually get water rather than ordering a beverage with meals.

Offsite cool themed places to eat I budget separately too -- my favorite it Café Tu Tu Tango -- a special treat small plates place with artists onsite, taro card readers, things like that and price wise similar to Disney Table service.

In Orlando, though, I never do more than one or two of the special pricier meals in any one week. And on some budget trips I don't do any of these at all.

Onsite I feel trapped a bit food wise, as I don't care for the Disney food courts and think table service meals are pretty pricey.

QVCshopper · Jul 23, 2016

Wow, I was planning much less per person figuring a family of five (3 kids ages 4, 10, and 11) for eight nights would eat $1,000, plus $150 or so in Starbucks and $50 in Rainforest Cafe club money. We are bringing snacks and breakfast food. If we go over, we go over, but I think that's what we are bringing on a gift card. Our only sit downs are at Rainforest Cafe and Kona both breakfast, Beaches and Cream dinner, and Be Our Guest lunch (which is really quick service). The last time we went and paid cash for food was two years ago and we came in at less than $800 for a week. Buffets are now out for us because the two older kids are considered Disney adults, as is the meal plan.

TwoMisfits · Jul 24, 2016

QVCshopper said:
Wow, I was planning much less per person figuring a family of five (3 kids ages 4, 10, and 11) for eight nights would eat $1,000, plus $150 or so in Starbucks and $50 in Rainforest Cafe club money. We are bringing snacks and breakfast food. If we go over, we go over, but I think that's what we are bringing on a gift card. Our only sit downs are at Rainforest Cafe and Kona both breakfast, Beaches and Cream dinner, and Be Our Guest lunch (which is really quick service). The last time we went and paid cash for food was two years ago and we came in at less than $800 for a week. Buffets are now out for us because the two older kids are considered Disney adults, as is the meal plan.

Kona would be $20/adult (breakfast item + juice or coffee + tax/tip) and $10/child for $90 for one meal (4 Disney adults and 1 Disney child).
Rainforest Cafe would be the same $90.
Beaches and Cream would be roughly the same $90 (unless you also add on ice cream - if you skip sodas, you could add this in and stay close to cost).
Be Our Guest Lunch would be $80-$90.

So, your sit downs (which are among the cheapest) for 4 meals would be $360 if everyone got an entree and drink (but skipped apps/desserts).

If you eat all other breakfasts in room and bring all drinks/snacks, that dining out cost will be $0.

You still have 6 CS lunchs and 7 CS dinners to pay for (including the night you arrive + 7 days of meals). 13 CS meals for 4 adults and 1 child getting adult/kid meals as age appropriate plus a beverage would be $15/adult, $8/kid so $68/meal. Times 13 and you are at $884.

So, you could come out in budget at $1244. So, you'd be close if you actually have meals with your Starbucks money, stuck to tap water for all drinks, or if you had your Disney adult kids live with CS kid meals. Note, this has no alcohol or snacks included.

Disney has jacked up food and drink prices the last 2 years, so eating all on site has gotten much more expensive than even a year ago...

monorailsilver · Jul 24, 2016

A few years ago, I checked out all ears and came up with a budget of $40/meal for my family of 5.

This did not include breakfast since we brought our own nor did it include the 2 TS meals we did. All the rest of our meals were CS.

And all but one day we got to $50 because I let 2 of my kids get some smoothie with their lunch. Otherwise lunch fluids were our water, bottle water.

We are planning a trip for 2018 and I have not looked at meal prices and my kids are older/eat more so kids meals just won't cut it so I am sure it will be $50-$60/meal.

I did bring Mac and cheese bowls for my girls for 2 pool days for lunch.

DiannaVM · Jul 25, 2016

After considering all that was posted, I am budgeting $1,000 for our entire trip (which is actually 7 days, not 10 lol. Ten is the total time off I am taking from work when we go).

I figure the day we get there, we are gonna save quite a bit out of the budget, but it will be offset by Ohana and BOG, so I think it will level out. I am just going to have to be very careful with what we order and DH will have to be satisfied with just one beer.

Also, as a side question, is it true that at least only half of your party needs to show up to an ADR in order for it to be honored? I think at least half of my party wants to bail out on Ohana (and possibly BOG) but we dont want to miss out on either one by cancelling and then not being able to find a new one.

jodim · Jul 25, 2016

DiannaVM said:
After considering all that was posted, I am budgeting $1,000 for our entire trip (which is actually 7 days, not 10 lol. Ten is the total time off I am taking from work when we go).

I figure the day we get there, we are gonna save quite a bit out of the budget, but it will be offset by Ohana and BOG, so I think it will level out. I am just going to have to be very careful with what we order and DH will have to be satisfied with just one beer.

Also, as a side question, is it true that at least only half of your party needs to show up to an ADR in order for it to be honored? I think at least half of my party wants to bail out on Ohana (and possibly BOG) but we dont want to miss out on either one by cancelling and then not being able to find a new one.

You can call and let them know that you need to remove people from your reservation.. that way you don't have to worry about getting charged for the people who don't show up AND that possibly frees up space for someone else wanting a reservation

DiannaVM · Jul 25, 2016

jodim said:
You can call and let them know that you need to remove people from your reservation.. that way you don't have to worry about getting charged for the people who don't show up AND that possibly frees up space for someone else wanting a reservation

That's what I was telling my sister, but she said that when she tried dropping a person from one of her ADRs last year they told her that she would have to cancel the whole reservation (which makes no sense to me). I'll try calling and see if they will do it.

mi*vida*loca · Jul 25, 2016

Try www.distripplanner.com We used it for our trip last year and it was pretty accurate.

We did 10 nights and spent $2500 for two adults, one Disney adult and one child INCLUDING tips. We ate no meals in our room. We did 13 CS meals, 9 TS meals including CRT, Cali Grill, Chef Mickey's, Ohana, VN twice, BOG, B&C and Kona. We snacked and drank around Epcot twice. We did a night at Trader Sam's. And we snacked A LOT including for breakfast doing quick stops at CS (Captain Cooks or BC marketplace) for Danish or bagels which I didn't count as a CS meal. We also bought the refillable mugs. Had we done the DDP we still would have paid around $750 OOP with alcohol, snacks and going over our credits.

mi*vida*loca · Jul 25, 2016

DiannaVM said:
After considering all that was posted, I am budgeting $1,000 for our entire trip (which is actually 7 days, not 10 lol. Ten is the total time off I am taking from work when we go).

I figure the day we get there, we are gonna save quite a bit out of the budget, but it will be offset by Ohana and BOG, so I think it will level out. I am just going to have to be very careful with what we order and DH will have to be satisfied with just one beer.

Also, as a side question, is it true that at least only half of your party needs to show up to an ADR in order for it to be honored? I think at least half of my party wants to bail out on Ohana (and possibly BOG) but we dont want to miss out on either one by cancelling and then not being able to find a new one.

As long as someone shows up you don't get charged. I would leave it as is and just go and say the others couldn't make it.

Nohal · Jul 25, 2016

When we went to Disneyland in May and Universal last year I figured $100 a day for me and DH. We had a free breakfast at our hotel in Disneyland and got coffee and something small at Universal. We only did QS at Disneyland and had a few TS at Universal. Since we aren't big eaters we would sometimes share lunch and this was more than enough money with some left over. I never felt that we were deprived of anything we wanted. We aren't big on alcoholic beverages. I would figure around $75 per person per day as you have some days where you have TS. We go to Disneyworld during free dining but always feel like it is to much food, but we can't pass up free dining.

Food budget for 10 day trip

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