5 days and $300

[spare+a_pair]

Honestly, I think the only way you can do this is if you bring breakfast to eat in your room, and pack your lunches everyday. You could eat off site in the evenings for a large meal. I know when we go out to eat for a family of 5, even at Chilis (with everyone drinking water) it is $50. My children are younger than yours as well - DS 9, DS 4, and DS 4, so this is with ordering 2 kids meals.

I think you should go with the DDP and not worry about the food - or as OP said, try to save up more money before you go.

I think it would be worth it not to deal with the headache of stressing about money for food.

 

[catsaneda]

Maybe you could do it but how enjoyable would this vacation be? A teenager who was always hungry and grumpy...a little one who would see something that looked good and was told no all the time who would be grumpy...parents trying to appease grumpy kids with from home food, grumpy. Not so much of a fun time I think. Would it be worth it? With almost a year to go, isn't it possible for you to plan a way to save up a little more? And there's always a chance Disney will offer you something extra. Pixie dust be with you

 

[Christine9125]

We are a family of 5 (DH, DD18, DD13, DS13 and myself) unless you are eating 2 meals in your hotel room or sharing meals, I don't think you can do it for $50 a day for food, this is what I normally budget for my DH and I when we go by ourselves.

 

[wdwmickey]

We are considering cancelling our dining reservations to save money. Do you think it would be possible to for 5 of us to eat $50 a day? or am I delusional?

I am thinking of alot of sharing CS meals (double hamburgers, chicken breast nuggets for me and the little one, buying 2 drinks and the rest water once those are gone) and eating sandwiches for the other meal. I thought of bringing PB&J and turkey wraps with fruit and veggies for the other meal.

I see that your teens are the same age as mine--both DDs can eat more than DH at this time There is no way we could eat at WDW for $50 per day. Just a thought, since you have 11 months have the older kids earn some money to put toward the trip. We are doing this for our March trip. The girls have to contribute $50 per month toward the WDW fund, that way they are earning part of the trip expense and are also learning how to budget their money to get something they really want. Neither one of them has a job yet, but, they do get a monthly spending budget (clothes, eating out, books, music lessons, etc) and when the money is gone they are "broke" until the first of the next month. This system has really helped to make them think about what they are purchasing.

 

[Get me to Disney!]

We paid attention to what we spent. For two adults and four children, age 4-12, most of our lunches were 60.00 and our dinners were between 150 and 200. Now, with that being said, the lunches and the cost of them would realistically be what we would have spent for both lunch and dinner. Meaning, we would have not done all of the better places for dinner and the character experiences. We would have stuck with more Pecos Bill burgers and such. But, still we did spend the 60.00 on that.

Good luck

 

[DaParkers]

I'm a little confused. You said 5 days and $300. Wouldn't that be $60 a day. That extra $10 could make a big difference.

 

[SGMCO]

I would go with the DP-then you can relax and enjoy your trip.
It looks like you have 11 months til your trip so that's plenty of
time to save to pay for the DP.

 

[JennSaint]

$50 per day will only get you one counter service meal per person per day.
If you are eating breakfast in the room will your family be able to only eat one other meal a day? Eating a granola bar etc. in the room will only keep you full for a short time. I think you need to count on at least two meals a day per person. If you are not making any reservations and eating only counter service meals (twice a day) I think you could possibly get away with $100 per day. You really need to up your budget or plan to pack a lunch.

Here is a link to the menus at WDW including most counter service places. This way you can look for yourself to get a better idea of cost.
http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

Doesn't sound like a fun vacation to me! I wonder why people think food should be that cheap??? $10 a day per person is just not reasonable - even cooking at home, that is a low budget for THREE meals a day.

A sandwich or salad with no drink at Cosi outside the world is around $8.50 with tax. A soup with bread at Au Bon Pain, no drink, is around $7. Unless you eat 2 meals per person at McDondald's or Taco Bell, I really don't see how you can spend $10 per day on food.

Maybe it's just me, but it hardly seems worth it to go on vacation at all if you're going to count pennies like that!

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

We are a family of 5, and even our counter service lunches came to around $50 each time(and that is with 2 of them being child meals)!

 

[dvcdisney]

I think if you shared a few things at a CS restaurant, you could get by with $50 per meal. However, since you have two teenaged children, I would think that this would not be enough for them and you would need to budget in a snack or two.

Unless you plan on eating only one meal at a CS restaurant per day with no snacks, I cannot see how you can stay with a $50 per day budget.

My son is 10, he eats at least $10-$15 worth of food for lunch and then insists on a steak for dinner (approx $25-$30) and that is not counting the snack he gets. He alone eats the $50 per day. And he is not even a teenager nor is he big. It takes a lot of energy to walk around Disney.

But, you can try to save money by eating your breakfast at the resort and bringing your own snacks and water (it is unbelievable how much you save by bringing your own water ). And as someone else mentioned, if you plan on bringing your lunch so that you just need to pay for dinner at a CS restaurants, you may be able to do it for about $60-$70 per day.

By the way, about 15 years go, when my husband and I went to Disney together for the first time, I had a budget for us of $50 per day for 2. We could not stay within the budget and at the time, we were fine eating at CS restaurants for most of the meal.

I know it is probably not what you want to hear, but I assume that you want a realistic budget. It would be awful for you to worry about overspending each day, it will not be fun vacation for all of you. Good Luck and I hope you find a plan that suits your family.

 

[Darcy03231]

I did a 5 day trip with 3 people back in April at US/IOA. It was Me, DD (17) and DS (15). I've found prices in both parks to be comparable. I brought a small collapsible cooler and we had breakfast in the room every day. I also bought a case of water, some bottles of soda and snacks. We also ate off property two nights with restaurant.com coupons. I had a free $25 gift card for the Hard Rock Cafe and used my AAA card for more food discounts. I averaged around $100/day for the 3 of us. I really don't see how you're going to feed 5 people at WDW on $50/day.

 

[MickeyNicki]

No I dont think 5 people can eat 3 meals a day and snacks for $50 a day...even if we did CS for all our meals we would blow the budget by lunch.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

I can't imagine a senario in which you could feed a family of 5 on $50 or even $60 a day at WDW.

The only possible way is if you are staying somewhere with a full kitchen, where you can prepare all of your meals. Eat breakfast in the room, pack a lunch for in the parks, and go back for a meal in the room at dinner.

 

[aanderson5]

We went one time with a $40/day budget and managed to stick to it pretty well. But we were not a family of 5 spending most of our times at the parks.

There was only 3 of us and DS and only 2 at the time. We were staying offsite in a condo with a full kitchen and had a seperate budget of $75 for groceries. We also drove down so we brought food with us for the car. I picked up a couple of 80% off gift certificates from restaurant.com which gave us big saving. We only spent 2 days in the parks, packed lunch/drinks and only bought a few snacks there.

We were still able to eat a few nice meals out (offsite) by being under budget on other days from the trip.

It wasn't that difficult and didn't feel like we were being deprived but I would never consider such a small budget if we didn't have the kitchen or were spending more days in the parks. Or with a family of five with teenagers. You might be able to swing it with $80-$100/day with breakfasts in the room and mostly packed snacks/lunches. Good Luck

 

[Maren1111]

Y'know, if you have to, you could. We have done Disney when we were broke. Pop tarts & peanut butter sandwiches are cheap easy things to bring into the parks. Ice tap water is available for free at all counter service stops. It's easier to say no to the kids when it's consistently no across the board; they know what to expect when they ask for an Itzakadoodle (probably a glass of free ice water instead). Cereal in little zip lock baggies makes a cheap tiding-over snack. It's not the vacation mentality and it's not the ideal but you'd still be at Disney meeting Mickey. The fifty dollars would probably buy one mid-day meal in which nobody walked away completely full but everyone was happy to be eating something other than pb&js or cereal.

 

[MEK]

Will you have a car or can you bring groceries? It will be essentail that you bring all your beverages into the park. That will cut your cost considerably. I do think you an do it on $50 - 60 a day if you only pay for one meal (either in the park or off site). I think you will need to pack all the other food daily - breakfast and sandwiches.

How about the CS meal plan? I think that works well for a lot of people and includes 2 snacks a day. I am thinking teenager here.

 

[sabrinadv1]

Instead of the regular DDP why not the QSDP? It is cheaper and lots of food. You get two counter service meals and two snacks per day. With three boys of my own I don't see how it's possible. They get very hungry and thirsty.

 

[Pumbaa_]

it all comes down to what are you willing to sacrifice. If your family is willing to eat alot of sandwiches that you make, i think you can.

I know I look at our food budget for Disney and it is what it is at a theme park. Unless you make your own meals, not many choices

I see you are going in 11 months. Are you planning on being there during free dining? Did something change?

let us know

 

[mickeystoontown]

I certainly wouldn't want to try to feed five people for $50 or $60 per day. Some of the counter service meals at Disney are large enough to share but some are not especially if you have a teenager thrown in the mix.

I agree with other posters, since you have quite some time left before your trip, I'd plan on saving/budgeting more money for your meals.