What do you spend per adult per day on food?

[eeyoresmom]

I purposefully did not post this on the budget board because a lot of frequent posters there are more frugal than the average guest ( nothing wrong with that , I am one of them ). Anyway, what do you think you spend per adult per day for food at Disney? I am looking for very general budgets. I have a specific number in mind for our upcoming trip but reading these boards, I'm not sure.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We're seasoned Disney travelers with 51 trips so far and never ever on a dining plan....

We're frugal, maybe cheap even...I've always gone with the pretension that ....

Breakfast per adult:: 8.00
Lunch.... We do pool picnic with sandwich fixings we picked up in route at Publix...
Dinner:: we're not foodies and aren't into the so called signature restaurants but... 15.00 per adult at resort food courts suits us fine...

So, bottom line per adult, let's say 35-40.00 counting a few snacks at the parks

That said, most Disney meals are huge, easily shared ( which we often do )... we often splurge maybe 2 times per 7 day visit with a meal at Yachtsman Steakhouse and Raglan Road... Those are food specific...

As I said, we're at WDW for the parks and relaxation... we prefer homemade food over restaurant food hence our sandwich making stuff from the grocery store... we also purchase alcohol , beer wine and soda at the store and never buy on Disney property...we break around noon or before each day and spend 3-5 hours at the resort pool or room....and consume our goodies so our budget is very small compared to others that go full all out on Disney dining..

 

[Cold71]

I don't blame you for not posting there, I look at a lot of these receipt reports and think to myself "wow...that sounds horrible". My take on it is that I want to enjoy my vacation and eat what I want when I want and me having to eat the cheapest meal every meal isn't enjoying myself. Nothing wrong with that of course, but it isn't for me. In 2010 my wife went down for our first trip in WDW together and my first time in about 9 years. I went down for 8 nights with no dining plan and $1200 in my pocket. Huge mistake.. just on food I burned through that cash in about 6 days. Good learning experience though, I know now to average about $180-$200 a day for two adults. I know some may disagree with this, I've seen "vacation" reports of people spending this in a day on 4 adults but I see this as no way realistic in my opinion.

 

[NDDisneydad]

On an average day around $40-$50, but we do a couple of character meals throughout our trips so those days are more, maybe around $75. We only drink ice water while in the parks so that saves quite a bit of money.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Here is a sample day at MK that closely mirrors how I might eat:
1) Breakfast - we always bring that with us
2) mid-morning snack at Gaston's Tavern
cinammon roll: $4
LeFou's brew: $4.50

3) Lunch, Crystal Palace (my daughter's favorite): $32 + tip ($6)

4) Dinner, Columbia Harbor House: tuna sandwich + drink: $13

5) Late night snack: Dole Whip Float: $5

Total: $64.50

There are days that I would spend more or less and we often share snacks, but that seems like a pretty avg. amount if I just eat in my typical fashion.

 

[MegMac]

I always budget $50-$75/day depending on where we are going. If I know we will only be doing counter service/snacks that day, I figure $50 is fine. This includes a rouge diet coke, ice cream, bottle of water, etc

 

[Dislover1991]

Next year will be the first trip we go on where I will actually be paying for my own meals. I'm figuring about $10 for one CS meal per day (we'll be getting the mugs, so free refills at hotel) and $25 per TS meal per day (we usually just do 1), then about $15-$20 in snacks per day - so maybe about $50 per day per adult?

 

[sturowski]

My typical average day:

Breakfast: we eat in the room( besides character breakfast days). So 0.00. I pack cereal, bagels from home
Lunch: QS: $12 adult
Dinner: TS : avg 20 dinner, $10 glass of wine: $30
With snacks I plan on $50 per day( I am not a snacker so I may only get one or two the whole trip)

On the days we do character breakfast, we skip lunch and eat an earlier dinner...

 

[Micca]

When it comes to food at WDW, we're not frugal at all. I supposed we save a few bucks by stocking our DVC resort with bagels for breakfast, some snacks and beer & wine. But that's mostly for convenience rather than for economic reasons.

We have one substantial meal per day, usually dinner and that will include cocktails. It's not problem at all to get to $50 per person for that meal.

The other meal will be quick serve at somewhere around $15 per person. We probably get some soft drinks a time or two during the day, we'll say $10 for those.

I'll throw in another $15 for an optional ice cream treat or maybe a drink at a lounge.

That total comes to $90, let's call it $100 per day and we might come in slightly under that. Obviously one can do it for much less, but we like to splurge on vacation.

 

[tscrapper]

Pepe of Ohio~ Do you bring in a cooler with sandwich fixings and get a locker or return to your room?

I'm planning a trip for next summer and have the possibility of 6 adults. Two DD boyfriends they eat a lot and I'm trying to make a budget for a surprise grad trip. We will tell them this Christmas.


Disneyland 2004, WDW 2010 Coranado, Disneyland with 4 crazy Girl Scouts 2014

Thanks Tammy

 

[lovin'fl]

TIW user here. And we do breakfast stuff in our DVC villa (quick grab stuff).

1 CS- $10-12
1 snack or drink- $0-8
1 TS- $30-40
-------------

I'd say $40-60 pp/day...we are all Disney adults.

Edit to add: there will be 4 of us at WDW next week for 5 nights. I paid for Luau already and have 5 other TS ADRs. I have $590 in gift card/visa reward cards to pay for rest...hope to not spend much more than that...maybe $60/day more.

 

[L&Lfan]

We (the boyfriend and I) usually eat dinner at signatures and we enjoy cocktails so we budget around $200 to $300 per day for food and beverages.

 

[jwill]

Granted it could go up or down depending on how expensive the sit-down meal is for that day as we try to do one a day.
Breakfast: $5 We share a breakfast place as I'm not much of an eater in the morning.
Lunch: Usually counter service $15 ballpark figure
Dinner: sit-down $35 average maybe
Snacks: $10

Appox: $65 a day. Granted nothing is set in stone and we are on vacation so some days might be a bit higher, some a bit lower but it is good to go in with at least some idea of what it will cost.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I plan about $10 per adult per counter service x2

I use Allears to budget specifically for an adult at TS. I look at the menu and figure my reasonable expectation of what we would order and account for an adult beverage ($10 alone) and/or soda or speciality non-alcoholic drink. Typically try to keep this around $30-$40pp. (This means we offset drinks and dessert with a less expensive entree sometimes.)


For snacks $5x2 per day per adult

So this is about $60-$70 per day. I have done vacations where I budget $100 to do to account for all possibilities. Counter service only, I target $50 per day.

Warmer times I also budget for bottles waters--even when we plan ahead, we have run out.

 

[Princess_taffy05]

We usually figure about 2,000 for food and drinks for a week long stay for 2 adults who enjoy cocktails and signature dining!

 

[excited4disney2012]

We also average around $100 per person, per day.

 

[Princess Mulan]

Average is about $50 per day. A "light" day might be $35 with breakfast, lunch and dinner at counter-service restaurants. A splurge day might be counter-service breakfast and lunch, a couple of soft drinks, a signature dinner and dessert for $65.

We've always eaten very well and indulged ourselves with whatever desserts/snacks/drinks we want at WDW, and yet somehow it always works out to about $50 a day (including any tips).

 

[Princess_taffy05]

Actually..closer to $2,500

 

[Judyfun]

We spend between $75- $100 a day.
Start out at Breakfast in the CL lounge
Lunch around $15
Drink at France $15.00 (loved the Rose Water ones this last spring)
Sit down dinner $45.00
Back in the lounge for desserts and after dinner drinks

 

[ibela]

$60/day on food (DDP) and about $45 for drinks throughout the week because a) I'm not a big drinker to begin with and b) am responsible for my 2 young kids that I want to be at full attention/alert for.

breakfast - usually cereal in the room before leaving, occasional yogurt parfait (~5 or a snack credit) or something along those lines
lunch - QS (QS credit or $10-15 depending if getting drink and/or dessert)
dinner - TS (TS credit or $30-50)

If someone was on a budget and paying OOP, I'd suggest getting some larger meals to share (ex. chicken & ribs combo in Cosmic Rays or the combo shwarma platter at Tangeriene Cafe) or possibly have a kids meal but pick the right QS places (~$6-8) and share some snacks (popcorn, funnel cake, etc). On a budget, I think it could be done for $30pp per day.