How much to budget for meals?

[TML2012]

For 2 adults and 2 kids under 10, I budgeted about $80 for each QS day (QS lunch, QSdinner, snacks) and $120 for each TS day (QS lunch, TS dinner, snacks). This includes sharing some meals. We find the portion sizes at Disney quite large at some places.

 

[drp4video]

Great idea to check the menu's. You will have a fridge at POR and when we stay with a fridge we will buy items to eat for breakfast and eat them in the room. Bagels, yogurt, even little cereal with milk and fruit. We are light eaters as well and we split QS meals, maybe adding a side salad. (when she was younger, we would get an adult chicken fingers with fries for example and a side salad. We split the chicken fingers, my daughter ate the fries, and I put my share of the chicken in the salad. You can pack snacks and bring them into the parks if you want as well. We are just two, but if we bought all our meals and did not share, it would be about $30 per person per day. We don't drink soda pop so we just ask for a cup of water instead of a bottle. Cup is free. Have a great time!

 

[henry72]

For 2 adults and 2 kids (8 and 11 but both will eat off the kids' menu), we budget $100 per day for QS lunch, QS dinner and snacks. (Breakfast is in the room and we do bring some snacks to the park.) This coming trip we are planning 4 TS meals. 3 of those are set prices (and only my DD and I are going to the princess breakfast) and on the other TS, I just looked at the prices and estimated it will be about $70 for that meal. Overall, it looks like it will be about $1000 for the four of us to eat while on Disney property for 6 days.

 

[bcrook]

I just created a spreadsheet of the things I like to eat. We usually eat 1 TS somewhere, but almost always breakfast or lunch. That is much cheaper. I like to eat Counter Service for dinner.

Eating very well, including a snack, dessert at 1 meal, and even a few alcoholic beverages. My meal plan comes out to about $70.00 a day. If I was only eating QS and cut the adult beverages, I could easily eat on $50.00 a day.

For My family of 4 grown people, we spend about $280.00 a day on food now. Up from $200.00 just a few years ago. I was shocked to see that 40% increase since 2012.

Here is a sample: Price/Tax/Tip where applicable/Total

GF Café
Ham/Cheese Omelete 12.99 0.84 2.34 16.17
Press Pot Coffee 7.95 0.52 1.43 9.90
Harambe
Watermelon 3.39 0.22 3.61
YakYeti Kiosk
Koren Barbecue Bowl 10.49 0.68 11.17
Iced Tea 3.19 0.21 3.40
Flame Tree
Pulled Pork Sandwich 10.99 0.71 11.70
Lime Mousse 4.59 0.30 4.89
Iced Tea 3.29 0.21 3.50
Total Day 1 56.88 3.70 TOTAL $64.35

Or

Mara
Croissant Sandwich 6.49 0.42 6.91
coffee 3.49 0.23 3.72
Starring Rolls
Red Velvet Cupcake 4.99 0.32 5.31
Marrakesh
Sultan's Sampler 21.99 1.43 3.96 27.38
Moroccan Symphony Baklava 3.50 0.23 0.63 4.36
Moroccon Mint Tea 2.50 0.16 0.45 3.11
Columbia Harbor House
Battered Fish Plate 8.49 0.55 9.04
Soft Drink 3.29 0.21 3.50
Total Day 2 54.74 3.56 TOTAL $63.34

 

[caroline1851]

DS13 and I spent $500 on food over a 4 night/5 day trip. Here's where we ate:
Garden Grocers (included in the $500) delivered groceries which took care of breakfast everyday and bottled water for the whole trip. In addition, I brought protein bars and trail mix (not included in total) from home for a mid morning snack.
Refillable drink mug from hotel
Whispering Canyon late lunch
Crystal Palace lunch
Earl of Sandwich
Gihardelli
Resort Counter service
Sleepy Hollow for waffles for dinner
Pizza Planet (blah)
Mexican CS in Epcot lunch (blah)
Snack in all the countries that we shared one night for dinner
Yak and Yeti CS
Starbucks a few times for drinks
Dole whip (gross)
Citrus Dole whip

 

[Amunet]

I haven't read the other posts, so apologies if it has already been said.

Prices for food are listed in various places on the web. I like using themouseforless.com

First, price the free dining plan for your family online. THAT is your base.

Second, go through the TS and QS menus as if you are ordering (if the exact planning is too much for your family, do your best guess at their tastes).

When doing the second step, order based off of what you would actually order OOP, not based on DDP allotments because you are trying to get an actual estimate of your spending preferences (which you will spend if DDP doesn't work).

Third, add up your food total as well as the cost of lodging/tickets. Don't forget to add a budget of snacks if your family enjoys snacking.

Fourth, compare your total to the Free Dining total.

We did those exact steps for our 9/9-13 trip coming up. We already have tickets from a previously cancelled trip. Turned out that we save over $150 by taking advantage of the 15-30% off room only deal (20% POR for us).
We are a family of 2 adults that love TS meals

I hope this helps!

 

[Tomh]

We are a family of 4, spending 11.5 days in the world. Our plan includes eating breakfast at our rental house most mornings, and carrying sandwiches and bottled water with us to the parks for lunch many times. Mainly, we have one TS per day, with a couple of TS breakfasts thrown in, and some QS lunches. We budgeted $2500 for our food (including the food we will cook and eat at the house) which is $200 per day, or $50 / day / person.

As others have mentioned, free dining is not always a great deal, it depends. In general, the bigger your family, and the more you eat, the better chance you have of making out good on free dining.

We have used free dining many times, always as a family of 4 or 5, and we are pretty heardy eaters. In addition, we were always staying at a moderate resort (POR). If you are a smaller family, or don't eat as much normally, or are staying at a deluxe resort, then there is a good chance you would actually save more money by purchasing your food OOP, buying tickets from a 3rd party, and taking advantage of a room only discount for your stay.

For our upcoming trip, we rented a house off site, for less than it would have cost us to stay at POR, purchased our tickets from a 3rd party, again at a significant savings from buying through Disney, and we will be paying for our dining OOP.

 

[Aliceacc]

Most people who warn against the DDP say it doesn't substantially save money. For us, it's about a break even, but I like the convenience of the DDP.

So take a look at the cost of the DDP for your family, for the number of days you'll be there, and it will place you into the ballpark for costs.

 

[MrsHammer]

We went in April and spent right at $1000 on food for myself, my husband and our 9 yr old daughter. We stayed 6 days and averaged 2 quick service meals and one table service meal per day, with one snack per person per day. Be sure to include taxes and tips in your calculations.

 

[fla4fun]

I agree that it's best to use the menus to get an idea of what you would spend OOP. Don't forget to include tips for table service meals on BOTH sides, since gratuities aren't included on the dining plan either.

Personally, I budget $40 per day for myself. I eat breakfast in the room, usually items I have brought with me. Most days it's either two QS meals or one QS and a snack or two, and I usually have money left at the end of the day. But everyone dines differently, so you really need to put in the time to review the menus.

 

[bluezy]

QS adult entrees are mostly $10-12 and drinks are around $3. There are some entrees in the $14-20 range, but those are definitely shareable entrees, so your cost comes down with those. Kids meals are $6-7 and include their drink. Snacks are an average of $5. If the adult entree is a combo meal (w/fries, chips, etc), you can get it without the side for a couple dollars less.

Also remember that if OOP you can purchase kids meals for adults if wanted. Also, you can not order the package meals listed on the menu boards. You can delete the fries for example, if not wanted, and lower meal cost by $2-3.

We used to do this almost every meal -- I'd order just the sandwich and steal a few fries from each of my kids (who never finished all of their fries/sides anyway). However, Josh at easywdw indicated in his recent blog posts that he hasn't been allowed to do this recently. I think it happened at 2 or 3 different restaurants on different days so it looks like Disney might not be allowing this anymore. It certainly doesn't hurt to ask, but it might not be allowed/offered anymore.

Quick meals lately range from $9.00 to $14.00, with no drink. Reg. size soft drinks $ 2.99, water $ 2.75, I heard drink prices are going up. Snacks run mainly around $4 to $5.

Regular fountain drinks were increased to $3.29 a few weeks ago. I think bottled water went up to $3. I can't remember off the top of my head what the other drink price increases were.

Personally was shocked at how much food/drink prices had increased between our October trip and last week. Some items normally $10 were $14. Drinks are now $3.29-3.69. I would budget $15 per for QS, more if not getting water. Figure about $5-6 per snack. Based on what we saw last week, the dining plan is a definite maybe for our trip later this year.

QS prices have increased 2 or 3 times already this year. It's making me wish we had booked the QS dining plan for our upcoming trip. The problem is, our daughter is a "Disney adult" but will order off the kids menu every time. And I often eat a kids meal or just order the sandwich and a drink (though I'm not confident that I'm going to be allowed to do this anymore) so we'll still probably come out ahead by paying OOP.

 

[sharonabe]

QS prices have increased 2 or 3 times already this year. It's making me wish we had booked the QS dining plan for our upcoming trip

The QSDP price also went up to $44 per adult. If you figure a $5 snack, you've got to spend $18-20 at EVERY QS meal to just break even. Even with the raised QS prices, that's going to be hard to do every time.

 

[DisneyArie]

I always use this website... http://www.distripplanner.com/

You can input your ADR's and pick a place for everyday of your visit and it will estimate your cost of food. It will show you what it would cost for the dinning plan vs OOP.

I usually figure it the way I normally eat. The way with DP (dessert, snack and mug) and see the difference. That helps me determine what I would be paying OOP normally and OOP like I would eat on DP.

Personally I never buy breakfast from Disney unless I doing a character breakfast. I ship from Amazon food for breakfast items or bring from home. That helps cut cost!

You are heaven sent!! OMG! This has helped me out so much! I can't believe with almost a year of planning, I've never stumbled upon this website. Thanks a million times.