Am I kidding myself?

[Knaedudley]

My family of six myself, DH, two teenagers, and 2 DDs 6,3 are headed to Disney the second week of March. No dining plan so everything OOP. We plan on doing counter service and have three TS Cape May Dinner, Ohana Dinner, and Sci Fi Lunch. Can I realistically stay under my food budget of 1400 for the seven day trip? We will eat breakfast in the room and I will not be bringing food into the parks. I just feel like that takes away from vacation because we pack lunches everyday in our regular lives. I have a separate budget for snacks so the 1400 would be for all the lunches and dinners for the six of us. We are definitely open to sharing. Do you think I'm kidding myself??

 

[smiths02]

Well, you can call and find out the exact price for Cape May Dinner and Ohana Dinner. But I would estimate Cape May at $290 with tax and tip included, Ohana at $275 with tax and tip. Sci Fi-4 adult burgers and 4 drinks, 2 kids meals would be about $125 with tax and tip

So that leaves you with about $700 for how many counter service meals?

 

[piccolopat]

A lot depends on what and how much your family likes to eat. I don't think I would budget less than 1800 for your trip. Take a look at the menus that Disney posts or on a site like allears.net and try to estimate your costs meal by meal. Your 3 TS will take up a large chunk of your budget. Don't forget to add a tip to the published per person charges for your TS meals. For Cape May and Ohana you will need to pay the child rate for your 3 year old but since you order a la carte at Sci Fi you can order something separate or let the youngest share.

 

[TwoMisfits]

My family of six myself, DH, two teenagers, and 2 DDs 6,3 are headed to Disney the second week of March. No dining plan so everything OOP. We plan on doing counter service and have three TS Cape May Dinner, Ohana Dinner, and Sci Fi Lunch. Can I realistically stay under my food budget of 1400 for the seven day trip? We will eat breakfast in the room and I will not be bringing food into the parks. I just feel like that takes away from vacation because we pack lunches everyday in our regular lives. I have a separate budget for snacks so the 1400 would be for all the lunches and dinners for the six of us. We are definitely open to sharing. Do you think I'm kidding myself??

Do you drink soda/beverages with meals or ice water? That's $20/meal times 11 CS and 3 TS for $280.

As for food, the 11 CS will likely be $13/adult and $7 kid for $66/meal or $726.
Cape May and Ohana are preset prices for 4 adults/2 kids, so with 18% required tip for group of 6 at current prices, you are at $256.37 for Cape May and $276.50 for Ohana (assuming no alcoholic beverages) or $532.87 for both.
Sci Fi estimate would be mid-line burgers and kids meals with tax/tip, so with no beverage, you'd probably be at $22/adult, $15/kid or $118.

So CS + TS with no beverage add ons gets you to 1376.87.

So, if you want any soda or alcohol (or apps/sides/desserts, since I only did main courses), you're definitely too low. If not, you're just right...

 

[akcire]

If you are bringing a 3 year old. I am assuming your are bringing a stroller. I would plan to bring in simple foods the kids will eat. My daughter does much better with familiar things. Since you are eating breakfast in the room, I am guessing you have some sort of plan for food. Add in a loaf of bread and Peanut butter and jelly on some days. After a couple days eating CS, it is too salty for me. The other thing I would encourage is a water bottle (it can even be disposable) that each of you refill. It gets too costly to pay $3 and up for water or soda at each meal. Especially when the little guys likely do better to graze. At least my daughter does. It is not uncommon for me to wait for a parade or a 20/30 minute ride line and she eats that way. Any snacks she doesn't eat just get brought home in the plane bag.

 

[wilkeliza]

You are going to average out to about $33 a day per a person. I'm unsure with Cape May and Ohana because their prices aren't set in stone. I think you could eat at Sci Fi no problem and keep it lower. If you don't add on any soda or bottles of water at the QS and table serves places you'll be fine but once you start adding on dessert and drinks I think your going to go over. So again it is possible. Sounds like soda and dessert could come out of your snack budget so at meals just get the free glasses of water. Make sure you say you want a cup of water not bottled as cups are free.

 

[capegirl]

I think 1400 will be a challenge, especially with two teenagers. As a pp pointed out, your ADRs alone will consume a good portion of your food budget. Even counter service meals can get pricey, and the portion sizes are not as large as they used to be. You could have pizza delivered to your resort on a couple of nights, and have some sandwiches by the pool at lunch, but realistically, I think you should plan on increasing your budget.

 

[powellrj]

Have you thought of eating some meals off-site. There are lots of places at Crossroads across from Disney Springs that you can eat for much cheaper. Places like Sweet Tomatoes, Fuddruckers will have coupons usually and a little farther down the road will have Steak and Shake, plus there are several pizza places and just about every chain in the area.

 

[wendow]

Your family sounds a bit like mine in terms of two teens and two youngers. We do not take the DDP. We do one character breakfast, two sit-downs (moderately priced ones like Tony's, Plaza, Primetime) and all other meals are CS. We eat breakfast in the room. We do not take lunch into the parks but we do take snacks though we buy snacks also. We typically spend about $1200 for food (including snacks) on an 8 or 9 night stay.

We do occasionally share and my teens are perfectly happy to order off the kid's menu (as am I ). I actually prefer the kid's meals for lunch cause I tend to be more of a 'grazer' anyways so that leaves me room for snacks. We also don't buy sodas, alcohol or tea. I do grab a coffee from starbucks a few times while there but I always have starbucks GC's that I use. We carry water bottles in or get free water from a CS place. Dh even ordered the kid's cheeseburger from ABC Commissary this last trip and thought it was plenty of food for him. But maybe we are just light eaters??

So, imo, your budget would be fine.

 

[wendow]

OP, are your teens boys or girls? If boys, then you may need to bump up that budget or plan to bring in some snacks.

 

[ldo]

I agree with others. Meals are not a bad price in WDW. It's the drinks and snacks that are $$, IMHO. Even just taking in 1 water bottle each saves $20+. We take a small cooler lunch bag with 2 cold juice boxes, a couple water bottles and some cheese sticks, granola bars, etc. We still buy our lunch, but those drinks and snacks really save a lot of $ over a week. Plus, as you are walking a lot, my kids need more snacks and I'd rather them eat something like a cheese stick. I let them pick out 1 special snack like a mickey bar a couple times. If you do this, then it sounds like your budget is fine.

 

[Hikergirl]

That is $200 a day. You have 2 TS meals, 2 of which are over your daily amount so I think you will be very close to your budget. I do think it could be done, if some of you share CS meals.

 

[kymom99]

On the days you are eating at ohana and cape may you could really make do with 2 meals. Just fill up on breakfast and then have a snack for lunch. You will want to save room for a big dinner anyway. I always found that when it's really hot we don't eat a lot of heavy food in the middle of the day anyway.

 

[NinaBella]

We are a family of six and it is doable. First, I usually share a plate. My 24 year old son and I like similar food. My 14 year old I use to share with before she started insisting on fish, salmon, shrimp (I don't eat seafood.) The food portions are huge, so pair up people to share. There is no need for leftovers. You can order an extra side or item or save room for dessert.

 

[stazmatic]

I get what you are saying about not wanting to bring in food, because you don't want it to feel like a bagged lunch. I suggest you bring in your own snacks though. A lot of lines won't let you carry in snacks like a big pretzel, but snacks in your backpack can be brought anywhere. It helps pass the time in long lines, and kids actually appreciate having familiar foods. Plus, there will be times when you can't find a snack stop close by with what the kids want, or each kid will want snacks from a different vendor. I usually pack trail mix, granola bars, ind packages of crackers and cookies, and a bigger bag of candy to share all in a ziploc bag. Look for snacks the kids like that you normally say no to while grocery shopping. For example, I only buy Nutter Butter cookies for trips, so of course the kids all want those first. I pack a variety in the ziploc, and then I pack one ziploc bag full of snacks for each park day. I do this at home to save time and space, and throw it in the suitcase a couple weeks ahead of time. You can reallocate some of your snack budget to your meal budget and have some breathing room so you won't be counting pennies all week. Nothing kills an appetite faster then worrying about money.

 

[stazmatic]

Oh, and order 1 adult meal for the 2 younger kids to share. They will often get more food and it will be cheaper.
If your hotel has a food court, those meals are the best value for your money. It's also easy to order one entree with an extra side to split. You can also order an entire pizza for around $17, 2 of them would feed your family with leftovers for the teenagers to have cold pizza for breakfast (another vacation favorite)

 

[wendow]

Oh, and order 1 adult meal for the 2 younger kids to share. They will often get more food and it will be cheaper.
If your hotel has a food court, those meals are the best value for your money. It's also easy to order one entree with an extra side to split. You can also order an entire pizza for around $17, 2 of them would feed your family with leftovers for the teenagers to have cold pizza for breakfast (another vacation favorite)

We have done the same. We order an adult burger and fries and split it between our younger two kids. That is cheaper than ordering two kids meals. My kids drink water as a norm so not getting a drink is fine. And then when they get their own kid's meal, they do get a drink and it's like the best day ever

 

[teller80]

Are you on site with two rooms? Could you have the dining plan for one room (2 adults and the 2 kids)? That might be a good value.

 

[Bree]

Cape May and Ohana are going to eat up almost half your budget. If money is tight, I would only do one of them. Cape May isn't really hard to get a reservation for so maybe keep Ohana and if you have money left go to Cape May? The prices for those two restaurants can be found here on the Restaurants board http://www.disboards.com/threads/buffet-character-shows-aycte-pricing.3108466/ I would at least consider packing snacks, water (or get a free cup of ice water at the counter service locations) & maybe a juice box for the younger ones. Snacks are expensive at WDW. When I'm planning a trip I budget $5 per snack.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I think you could do it if you bring in some snacks and drinks to the parks. We just did a 10 night trip with 2 adults and a 15 and 12 yr old and spent $1200 OOP. We did pack some snacks and ordered breakfast stuff and fruits and veggies, case of water and poweraid, beer and wine. We didn't make lunches but did toss some fruit and granola bars and trail mix into our bag for quick snacks. Our sit downs were Boma breakfast buffet, RF Cafe, Beaches and Cream, Skipper Canteen. We skipped Ohana and ate at Tambu lounge instead. We found we enjoyed the freedom of not being tied down to too many ADRs and ate CS or snacks when we felt like it. If we were back at the resort and grabbed something from the CS there we supplemented with some fruit or veggies from our room. My kids are all about the icecream or fancy starbucks drinks, so as long as they could get some everyday, they were happy. My dd is a vegetarian though so that played a part in keeping our costs down I'm sure, and also kept me from booking the buffets.