A family of 4 CAN eat for $75 a day! This is how we did it....(LONG)

[disneysteve]

Although I'm all for sticking to a budget we also couldn't eat like that. Thankfully my nine year old prefers not to eat burgers/nuggets/fries and my husband and I choose not to for health reasons.

We ate for $20/person/day and did not live on fast food all week, though we certainly had some. We rarely eat fast food at home so its kind of a treat for us but gets old by the 3rd day. As I said earlier, much of our moneysaving comes from eating breakfast in the room, drinking water and sharing meals. That still allows us to have some good food without spending a lot of money. Last trip, we ate at Crystal Palace and Boma, Wolfgang Puck Express and several other nicer places - not just hot dogs and chicken strips all week.

 

[Divamomto3]

I've never had the nerve to actually add up all we spend on meals in WDW. LOL!! However, now that we have the DVC, we are going this summer for 12 days. We plan on doing breakfast in our room on the 9 nights were are in the Villa. I plan on very casual lunches, either with food in the Villa or counter service. I"m going to insist on ordering less and sharing more because we have thrown WAY, WAY, WAY too much food away in our lives. The trouble is my DS 10, who THINKS he eats like an adult and wants to always order from the adult menu b/c his brother, DS 12 (almost 13 by the time we go to WDW) DOES eat like an adult and gets to order from the adult menu. If we do counter service lunch and only get 1 order of fries to share and we're fighting for the last one, I'll happily go get more, but I know we never eat our own serving of it...nor do we NEED to! However, dinners I can't compromise on and can't help myself! We will have a PS at a nice sit down place for all 11 nights...CRT, Kona, 'Ohana, Boma, House of Blues, Marrakesch, Cape May, 1900 Park Fare, Wolfgang Pucks...you get the picture. I'm sure my DDE card will pay for itself quickly.

Thanks for your tips though...they are amazing! I'm going to really stick to the in room breakfast and water only tips.

 

[Divamomto3]

I've never had the nerve to actually add up all we spend on meals in WDW. LOL!! However, now that we have the DVC, we are going this summer for 12 days. We plan on doing breakfast in our room on the 9 nights were are in the Villa. I plan on very casual lunches, either with food in the Villa or counter service. I"m going to insist on ordering less and sharing more because we have thrown WAY, WAY, WAY too much food away in our lives. The trouble is my DS 10, who THINKS he eats like an adult and wants to always order from the adult menu b/c his brother, DS 12 (almost 13 by the time we go to WDW) DOES eat like an adult and gets to order from the adult menu. If we do counter service lunch and only get 1 order of fries to share and we're fighting for the last one, I'll happily go get more, but I know we never eat our own serving of it...nor do we NEED to! However, dinners I can't compromise on and can't help myself! We will have a PS at a nice sit down place for all 11 nights...CRT, Kona, 'Ohana, Boma, House of Blues, Marrakesch, Cape May, 1900 Park Fare, Wolfgang Pucks...you get the picture. I'm sure my DDE card will pay for itself quickly.

Thanks for your tips though...they are amazing! I'm going to really stick to the in room breakfast and water only tips.

 

[Divamomto3]

I've never had the nerve to actually add up all we spend on meals in WDW. LOL!! However, now that we have the DVC, we are going this summer for 12 days. We plan on doing breakfast in our room on the 9 nights were are in the Villa. I plan on very casual lunches, either with food in the Villa or counter service. I"m going to insist on ordering less and sharing more because we have thrown WAY, WAY, WAY too much food away in our lives. The trouble is my DS 10, who THINKS he eats like an adult and wants to always order from the adult menu b/c his brother, DS 12 (almost 13 by the time we go to WDW) DOES eat like an adult and gets to order from the adult menu. If we do counter service lunch and only get 1 order of fries to share and we're fighting for the last one, I'll happily go get more, but I know we never eat our own serving of it...nor do we NEED to! However, dinners I can't compromise on and can't help myself! We will have a PS at a nice sit down place for all 11 nights...CRT, Kona, 'Ohana, Boma, House of Blues, Marrakesch, Cape May, 1900 Park Fare, Wolfgang Pucks...you get the picture. I'm sure my DDE card will pay for itself quickly.

Thanks for your tips though...they are amazing! I'm going to really stick to the in room breakfast and water only tips.

 

[Divamomto3]

I've never had the nerve to actually add up all we spend on meals in WDW. LOL!! However, now that we have the DVC, we are going this summer for 12 days. We plan on doing breakfast in our room on the 9 nights were are in the Villa. I plan on very casual lunches, either with food in the Villa or counter service. I"m going to insist on ordering less and sharing more because we have thrown WAY, WAY, WAY too much food away in our lives. The trouble is my DS 10, who THINKS he eats like an adult and wants to always order from the adult menu b/c his brother, DS 12 (almost 13 by the time we go to WDW) DOES eat like an adult and gets to order from the adult menu. If we do counter service lunch and only get 1 order of fries to share and we're fighting for the last one, I'll happily go get more, but I know we never eat our own serving of it...nor do we NEED to! However, dinners I can't compromise on and can't help myself! We will have a PS at a nice sit down place for all 11 nights...CRT, Kona, 'Ohana, Boma, House of Blues, Marrakesch, Cape May, 1900 Park Fare, Wolfgang Pucks...you get the picture. I'm sure my DDE card will pay for itself quickly.

Thanks for your tips though...they are amazing! I'm going to really stick to the in room breakfast and water only tips.

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

I originally read the OP's report and thought there was NO WAY we could do this because dh doesn't share anything! He is a big eater.

I gotcha on that one. I marvel at those of you who share. DD21mos is also occasionally a big eater and we usually order for her off the kids menu ––*she can throw it down on some tacos!! I hate that we NEVER know how much she's going to want to eat. I'm hoping to just get by with side dishes (she loves mac and cheese, broccoli and canned veggies) for her and share my entree for our upcoming trip. Luckily, she's still under two and can get in free to the buffets.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Thanks for a great review!

Is the bucket for the cotton candy the same as the popcorn?

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Wow. That was some good info. I'm staying at Pop so some of those suggestions sounded yummy. And really, you did it for most of the trip under about $70 a day. It's that one day anomoly over $100 threw your average up. You also had one in the $80 range. Throw the $100 out of there and you're under 70 I'd think. Furthermore, if you follow the light days on your schedule, you could get that well under $70 too. You've shown you CAN eat for about $65 or so a day if you work at it. It certainly shows some tips on how to do it on a budget.

 

[weluvpluto]

Thanks for taking the time to report all of your dining to us! I really enjoyed reading it - we are a family of 4 (DH, me, DD8, DD10)...we too eat breakfast in the room, drink water with meals, and have learned to share meals - after many times seeing a lot of food go to waste. I was budgeting $100 a day for food (I never kept track of it before ) and in reading your report I feel more confident we'll be closer to the $75-80 a day range.

While the dining plan is good for some people, not all will benefit from it. I'd have to pay $35 a day for my oldest daughter, and she will definitely not eat that much! We're AP holders anyways, so we aren't able to get the dining plan... but we will have DDE

To the OP - I don't know if this was asked and I missed it, but your totals did not include tips, did they?

 

[disneysteve]

I was curious to see the rates for the Disney dining plan. I'm quite sure it wouldn't be worth it for us but was wondering what they charge. Can someone give me the link? Thanks.

 

[Anewman]

$35 for everyone 10 and up.
$10 for 3(maybe 2) -9

That is per night of stay and everyone MUST be on the plan.

Depending where you eat the dinner bill can be well over $40 per person.

But if you dont eat at those right places, and just eat burgers and stuff. It may actually lose you money.

 

[kona-kraft]

We are actually going to try something like this in September.

I am a big fan of the FOOD NETWORK show, " $40 a Day" w/ Rachel Ray". I just love seeing how she stretches out her food dollars, but WDW's food prices are higher than the norm. Since there is just TWO of us, and we do want to have SOME table service meals, we're going to try to stick to $50/day per person ($100/day). I really think we can try to stick to it.....well, I HOPE we can. We have a breakfast and two lunches already included (for on-site events we're attending while we're down there), so we only have to worry about 6-Breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 7 dinners.

I am also looking into the meal package, to see if that would be worth it. I don't know if I can get it, since our room reservations are at a group rate. I need to have our TA check it out for us.

 

[weluvpluto]

I was curious to see the rates for the Disney dining plan. I'm quite sure it wouldn't be worth it for us but was wondering what they charge. Can someone give me the link? Thanks.

Here's more details from the DisneyWorld website:
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/tickets/packageDetail?id=PackageDetailMYWDiningPkg05Page

 

[disneysteve]

$35 for everyone 10 and up.

Thanks. That certainly wouldn't work for us for two reasons. Number one, we stay offsite. Number two, that would come to $45/day more than we spent on our last trip in November. Yes, we could eat some nicer meals but it wouldn't be worth it to us.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

They shared alot of food. That is fine but at my house if you reach your hand into the plate of your neighbor, you come back with a fork in it.

 

[marcyinPA]

Sounds like a good budget, but I couldn't eat all those chicken fingers, pizza, fries and burgers all week. Part of going on vacation for me is eating meals in nice places (not all meals, but some) that I don't usually do at home.

I'd like to see if someone could have the same budget per day and eat less fast food. I know it can be done on the MYW, but can it be done without it??

 

[MEM]

Sounds like a good budget, but I couldn't eat all those chicken fingers, pizza, fries and burgers all week. Part of going on vacation for me is eating meals in nice places (not all meals, but some) that I don't usually do at home.

I'd like to see if someone could have the same budget per day and eat less fast food. I know it can be done on the MYW, but can it be done without it??

My family will be trying it in August! As AP holders we don't qualify for the meal plan and the DDE card would not save us enough money. My stomach can't handle all that fried, fatty food, so there will be some healthy choices but we will have to rely mostly on counter service. The kids get to order whatever they want, since it will be their vacation too. Wish me luck!

 

[bigsis1970]

well we (me DD 11 and DS 8 ) do just 2 meals a day and a snack but we do a Buffet for breakfast so that is like $46 with tax & tip . I allot $10 for snacks . and a counter serve dinner with tax is $19 (I used the menu on WDWIG for Columbia Harbor House 3.99 kids meal - comes with entree cheese crackers and grapes, 6.79 for the starboard sandwich with chips and 6.89 for the captain special chicken fingers & fish w/ carrots) so that is $75 for 3 .. we are hearty breakfast people and could eat cereal and stuff in the room but choose not to . Michelle

 

[bobcat]

marcyinPA - my family of three (myself, DD 12 and DS 9) can do a combination of counter service and sit down meals for under $75. We eat breakfast in the room most days, however we love the huge cinnamon rolls from Main Street bakery and have been known to get them at park closing for breakfast the next morning. We will usually eat at two character meals over a 10 day trip, Le Cellier, Sci Fi or 50's Prime Time, Plaza restaurant, and a couple of more sit down restaurants. Eating at lunch saves money and the portions are too huge that we can't finish them. Our other meals are counter service but definately not all burgers and fried food. I would get sick of that pretty quick. We love lunch at Tusker House, get fruit for a light lunch/snack on days when we will be eating a big meal, snack our way around world showcase, and always get snacks. Ice cream every day on vacation!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

My family will be trying it in August! As AP holders we don't qualify for the meal plan and the DDE card would not save us enough money. My stomach can't handle all that fried, fatty food, so there will be some healthy choices but we will have to rely mostly on counter service. The kids get to order whatever they want, since it will be their vacation too. Wish me luck!

Did you know that you only need to spend $250 on food for it to break even? I was thinking of it for my family of 4---but I would have it for a whole year to use it