$250 to Eat for 5 days at Disney. How would you do it?

[Happyinwonerland]

I am taking my best friend and her 2 daughters with us to WDW for my daughter's birthday ( Long story...trip was planned and paid for, including non refundable townhouse, now DH can't go, and I don't want to go alone, so friend gets DH's ticket. All kids are under 3, so free)

Friend doesn't have a much money, she is a SAHM, her husband is low income. He is giving her $300 for the trip. I want to come up with a food plan for $250 for the trip, so that there is a cushion in case she wants an extra snack or buys a couple souvenirs.

We are doing all breakfasts in our townhouse (cereal or frozen waffles). Her youngest daughter will be 9 months old, and she is bringing formula and baby food with us, so no expense there. The other daughter is 2 and eats like a bird. My daughter is 2 as well, so the girls will likely split most meals out.

We are having a dinner a CRT our first night (Aug. 2), already paid for by me. She wants to include a dinner at Tusker House and I want to do a lunch at T Rex.

Do you think her food budget is enough? How would you structure it? I always plan $1000 for food, but she just doesn't have the money.

Parks are as follows:

8/2: Arrival day- MK 4:00-midnight
8/3: AK, Tusker house reservations at 12:30; Epcot that evening until park close
8/4 Hollywood studios- Probably will bring a lunch to this park, since I 'm not crazy about the food here
8/5 :Open
8/6:Open

I haven't decided what parks we will do the last 2 days. Most likely a whole day at MK for one of those days, and then a half day/ DTD the remaining day.

Thanks for your help!

ETA: We will be bringing all drinks with us into the park, as well as some snacks. No $3.00 bottles of water for us, thanks!

 

[glassslippergirl]

It's a tight budget, that's for sure, especially when you consider that it's for more than one person.

With $250 over 5 days, that's $50 per day. A while back, there was a thread on the restaurants board about doing Disney dining on $40 per day (like the Food Network show). A lot of people had really creative ideas. You might want to look it up.

I would stay away from TS entirely unless you are willing to pick up the entire check. It seems wrong to ask her to use such a big chunk of her daily budget on just one meal.

If you have a car, you can also leave property to eat-- massive savings but time out of parks.

 

[SCmom3]

I agree with forgoing TS if thats something you two would be ok with. For the two-year old's, I'd bring in lunches of inscrutable, juice boxes, etc. My two year old got tired of the cs kids meals but would devour these. For a cheap off-site meal, sweet tomatoes is delicious. The kids would eat free, too.

 

[worm761]

Tusker house you are looking at $50. The kids are under 3 so free but with tip it is $50 for lunch for an adult. That's her whole budget for the day. If you changed that to breakfast then it would only be $40 and give her $10 for dinner. Though she'd have to be creative.

And she is looking at her whole daily budget at T Rex too.

My suggestion would be to carry at least lunch into the parks every day. You'll have strollers so carrying it won't be an issue. I would change Tusker House to breakfast to save that little bit too. So, I'd guess $25 a day for her and her DD to eat dinner at CS. That would cover the Tusker House lunch and T-Rex lunch.

 

[Gru]

I've ordered a kids meal ($6) at counter service restaurants on days when I'm not that hungry. Ask for a glass of ice water instead of getting a soda with meals - you could always add one of those flavor packets if you're sick of plain water. I would definitely have her look over the counter service menus before you leave so you can have an idea of which restaurants have an acceptable menu/price.

 

[worm761]

If you have the time, I would suggest you both start doing Swagbucks and/or Perk. You can cash out for either Landry's gift cards or for Target GC to buy Disney GC for use on your trip. I don't know how long you have until your trip. But Perk Live, even on only one device, could easily make $25 in a week if you/she were attentive to it. You guys have young kids too so surveys on Swagbucks could pay out but they can take up to 30 days to credit. I used to get approved for a ton of surveys when DD was younger. Got paid $10 to use a shampoo on DD for a week once and $20 to try out some baby wipes! Those were surveys I took on SB.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Tusker house you are looking at $50. The kids are under 3 so free but with tip it is $50 for lunch for an adult. That's her whole budget for the day. If you changed that to breakfast then it would only be $40 and give her $10 for dinner. Though she'd have to be creative.

And she is looking at her whole daily budget at T Rex too.

My suggestion would be to carry at least lunch into the parks every day. You'll have strollers so carrying it won't be an issue. I would change Tusker House to breakfast to save that little bit too. So, I'd guess $25 a day for her and her DD to eat dinner at CS. That would cover the Tusker House lunch and T-Rex lunch.

Tusker house is not $50 for 1 adult meal. It is less than $40. I don't mind to get the tip for that meal. And switching to breakfast isn't an option, I just don't like breakfast enough to pay more than a few bucks for the meal.

And I think t Rex can be done for about $30 for both her and her toddler if she is smart about what she orders. A party of 2 women and 3 kids is not going to be ordering appetizers, desserts, and large meals.

 

[worm761]

While true that TH breakfast is under $40, lunch is $37.27. Add in a 20% tip and you're looking at $44.72. I round. I find rounded numbers easier to deal with. I guess I could have said $45 instead of $50.

A kid's meal at T-Rex is $9. That leaves her $20 for tip, drink, and food. Unless you pick up that tip too. It's doable if she chooses wisely. Which I am sure she will. I could do the quesadilla appetizer and call it a whole meal and that's just $11. Thought I normally do the nachos for two and call it a meal and share with DH because it is HUGE and I can't eat it all.

I still suggest carrying lunches every day but your AK day since you will have lunch at TH. That is a really tight budget and those tend to make me nervous. And this way she can maybe have some souvenir money too. There is a thread on the resorts board and one on the budget board aimed at carrying lunches/ food into the parks. I plan to pack lunch into the parks most days on our upcoming trip.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

We likely will bring a lunch of sandwich/salad/fruit, and chips for a snack, at least 3 days of our trip, just to stay on a semi healthy eating routine. For the kids we have planned to bring mac and cheese in a thermos, fruit, cookies, string cheese. We can't do pb&j because DD has a peanut allergy.

 

[ajwolfe]

Honestly, I think I would just pay for her food expenses or the majority of it if that's doable for you. She's going in the place of your DH, so technically if he would have been able to go you would have spent the money on food anyways. I wouldn't want to make her feel like she was skimping on food to stay within her budget or that she was causing you to change your plans because of her budget.
We are not big on carrying in full meals to parks so for us that would be off the table.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I guess the first day we can count as basically free, since we are arriving at MK late in the day and I am buying dinner
Day 2: AK/Epcot Day -Cereal and fruit at townhouse; Tusker House for Lunch: $38.00; Dinner- we will be in Epcot; not sure where to eat here
Day 3: Hollywood Studios :Waffles and fruit in townhouse; Sandwiches, fruit, salad mac and cheese for lunch; Dinner- Pizza planet or Backlot Express for dinner- $20.00
Day 4: Probably MK- Cereal and fruit at townhouse; T-Rex Lunch - $40; Columbia Harbour House Dinner- $20.00
Day 5: Waffles in Room; sandwich/salad/fruit lunch; not sure about dinner; I don't know where we will be.

My other option is to skip park hoppers and do Day 2 AK and Day 5 Epcot. Since AK closes early, we could just have a frozen pizza and salad in the room and swim the rest of the evening.

If we do Epcot on Day 5, we would do breakfast in our room; Lunch and dinner I have no idea

By day 5, she should have at least $125 left,assuming she has purchased a couple mickey bars and citrus swirls throughout the week.

The only Epcot meal I have had was Garden Grill, which was good, but we won't be doing that this trip. I kind of want to try Liberty Inn and the Mexican restaurant that is in the Mexico pavillion.

Does this sound reasonable?

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Honestly, I think I would just pay for her food expenses or the majority of it if that's doable for you. She's going in the place of your DH, so technically if he would have been able to go you would have spent the money on food anyways. I wouldn't want to make her feel like she was skimping on food to stay within her budget or that she was causing you to change your plans because of her budget.
We are not big on carrying in full meals to parks so for us that would be off the table.

Even if DH were going with us, we would be bringing a few lunches and snacks into the park. We always do that , to keep from feeling like we've eaten a week full of bad for you food. I can only take so many high calorie fat bombs before I start to feel gross. We also always bring a stroller cooler of water and some of those Kool aid flavor packets for DD.

You're right, I assume I could pay for all of her food too, and if it came down to it, I would, but I don't want her to feel like a charity case.

 

[worm761]

I guess the first day we can count as basically free, since we are arriving at MK late in the day and I am buying dinner
Day 2: AK/Epcot Day -Cereal and fruit at townhouse; Tusker House for Lunch: $38.00; Dinner- we will be in Epcot; not sure where to eat here
Day 3: Hollywood Studios :Waffles and fruit in townhouse; Sandwiches, fruit, salad mac and cheese for lunch; Dinner- Pizza planet or Backlot Express for dinner- $20.00
Day 4: Probably MK- Cereal and fruit at townhouse; T-Rex Lunch - $40; Columbia Harbour House Dinner- $20.00
Day 5: Waffles in Room; sandwich/salad/fruit lunch; not sure about dinner; I don't know where we will be.

My other option is to skip park hoppers and do Day 2 AK and Day 5 Epcot. Since AK closes early, we could just have a frozen pizza and salad in the room and swim the rest of the evening.

If we do Epcot on Day 5, we would do breakfast in our room; Lunch and dinner I have no idea

By day 5, she should have at least $125 left,assuming she has purchased a couple mickey bars and citrus swirls throughout the week.

The only Epcot meal I have had was Garden Grill, which was good, but we won't be doing that this trip. I kind of want to try Liberty Inn and the Mexican restaurant that is in the Mexico pavillion.

Does this sound reasonable?

The only issue I see is Day 4. Park to DTD for lunch will take, I'm guessing, 3 hours round trip. From MK you could take the monorail/ferry to the ticket center and a bus to DTD and then a bus back. You could drive it but then you'd have to deal with the mess that is DTD, find parking, and then walk to T-Rex. Which is why I suggest Disney transport. If you want T-Rex on your MK day, I would suggest dinner instead and just go after you've done the park.

Are you factoring in travel food?

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Is there a better park to go to DTD from?

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Or maybe do DTD after our AK day and have a later dinner at Trex?

 

[Happyinwonerland]

In December DTD wasn't too bad -we parked right behind Cirque during Soleil with no trouble at all.

 

[ELSA711]

I would recommend snacking around Epcot, they have so many counter service places that are good that you don't need a high priced sit down meal. Split a few things at 3-5 countries and be happy!

 

[worm761]

I think I'd do it after the AK day. Just seems easier to me. Or DHS. I'm not a big fan of DHS and could easily make that a half day.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Although I suppose for the price, we could skip T-Rex and do a character lunch at Crystal Palace or another MK table service, giving us a break from the heat.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I absolutely love DHS, and with the frozen summer fun, DD will be in heaven, but my friends 2 year old can't sit still like my DD, so you might be right about DHS