Budget for food?

[lovelylins]

How much money do others budget per day for eating at Disney?

We are two adults + one 6 year old with a healthy appetite, and boundless energy which needs regular refuelling!!

This is our first trip with no car, so will be eating either at the food court at POFQ (no sit down restaurant), or at the parks, or probably a couple of evenings at downtown Disney.

Also I do plan to order some basic items such as cereals for breakfast, and snack items from Gardengrocer for delivery on the day we arrive.

So assuming that we have to eat lunch and dinner out each day - how much will we need? We will be on a fairly tight budget (hence the need to work this out before we go), and will probably be looking for 'cheaper' dining - but as healthy as possible (!!!!) , and maybe 'pushing the boat out' for dinner a couple of times.

I've looked at some of the Disney menus and prices, but would prefer ideas from anyone who has 'been and done'.

 

[Shooby doo]

We normally work our budget out to approx $100 a day,that's 2Ads & 1 teen,basically $20 for breakfast,$20-$30 for lunch & $50-$60 for dinner-in most cases we have a sit-down dinner at night & sometimes a takeaway pizza but it does seem to work out around that figure.If you are going to DTD,you could also consider LBV,it's only 5 mins in a taxi or 15 mins walk if your 6 year old is up to it.There is a good choice of Restaurants & is much cheaper than WDW.On a budget I would recommend:Olive Garden,Denny's,IHOP,Perkins,Golden corral & Uno's.
HTH SD

 

[lovelylins]

......you could also consider LBV,it's only 5 mins in a taxi or 15 mins walk if your 6 year old is up to it.There is a good choice of Restaurants & is much cheaper than WDW.On a budget I would recommend:Olive Garden,Denny's,IHOP,Perkins,Golden corral & Uno's.
HTH SD[/QUOTE]

Thank you. Can you tell me more about LBV (I'm assuming it stands for Lake Buena Vista). Do you mean we get there/catch a cab from downtown Disney? I can't imagine we will walk, having probably walked about all day. It sounds perfect though, as we would all rather not eat 'Disney' all the time.

We have stayed in Orlando before, but have always had a car before, and have gone to some of the restaurants you've mentioned but maybe at different locations (as you can probably tell, we haven't tended to use a map - just driven around until we found something we fancied - hence we never knew where we were!)

Thanks in advance for anymore info

 

[Shooby doo]

Hi no probs,yes LBV is Lake Buena Vista,my advice would be to use WDW transportation to get to DTD/Marketplace then get a cab from there.Sorry I can't tell you how much as we always have a car,I would guess that it's no more than a mile to the Crossroads.There are 2 supermarkets that are close: Goodings & a bit further up Winn Dixie,there is also a Publix a bit further out but my choice would be Winn Dixie as it's cheaper!Register their discount card,you can use your hotel address, & you qualify for special discounts.
If you use the Crossroads as your starting point,in the immediate area are a few shops,Goodings then:TGI's,Denny's,McDonalds,Perkins,Uno's,Chili's,Black Angus,Olive Garden,Kobe,Crab Shack,Hooters(maybe not for a 6 year old! )Pizza hut,Dominos,an Indian,Fortune Court,Dragon Court buffet,IHOP,another buffet that was dearer than normal-used to be Western steer-.If you were planning on going to the Premium Outlets then Golden Corrall is en route & Outback Steakhouse is also just behind them.
We like the area because it is quieter than I-Drive so we feel a bit more comfortable being able to walk about after dark.
HTH SD

 

[fuse04]

For us 2 adults and a child we would budget about $120 for the day but that includes a table service meal or some sort.

 

[Goofyish]

You can check out the menu and prices on the DIS Dining Pages:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningmain.cfm

 

[gemmybear83]

We also found that if we ate a breakfast (we usually had an omlette in the foood court) we were not hungry until dinner time so only needed two meals a day, and if skipped breakfast we only needed lunch and dinner as the food portions were so big in disney.

Saying that a few days we did have some tasty snacks .....


We didnt spend as much money on food as we thought. We ate at the counter service most days, and treated ourserlves to a few table service meals, as everything was cheaper than expected we could actually treat our ourselves to a couple more table service meals!

There are healthy choices at all the counter services - its not all burger and chips! We were at pop century and I was impressed by the salads etc, all nice and fresh and you can ask for no dressing or just a little. We were liked the counter service at Epcot as in world showcase there is so much choice. We were disapointed with the food choices in Magic Kingdom (but we went in Jan when not everything was open) as the choice seemed to be burger and chips or burger and chips!

 

[LORNA ANN]

We go once or twice a year & have never taken car it is approx $10 to LBV, Golden coral, Chillies etc. So not too expensive but add this to the price of a meal say at Wolfgang pucks and not a huge saving an EXTRA $20 on to your original meal price will buy you nice meal at Raglan Rd, Plaza in MK etc.We love Chillies & Olive Gardens so always pay taxi to go.!!

 

[epcot1stfave]

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[crabbie1]

Like others have said it depends on budget.The first year we went we stayed on Idrive and could eat quite cheaply with lunch and dinner at the parks ,but when we stayed in the disney complex we found the food dearer.We now do the dining plan as it costs approx £20 per adult and £6 for our daughter working out to less than $90.With this we can eat at some nice resturants especially the buffets which for the 3 of us is $60 dollars alone.Admitadly we have to put a tip on top.I would definatly go to LBV.If your feeling fit you can walk from DTD to the crossroads and get a taxi back to DTD where you can get the resrt bus back-saving you a few dollars.

 

[TOONMADLAD]

While inside Disney Agree with above posts but you have to factor the buying of drinks as well, we find that we tend to spend quite abit on drinks, we don't drink the fizzy drinks its always the bottled water, so the refil cups are no good to us, we go through a few bottles of water during the day and the costs soon mount up, I just wish the water fountains tasted ok, it would save a small fortune.

 

[tttessa]

Hiya -
with you on the foul tasting water fountains!!! We just told the kids it was special Mickey Mouse water that makes you strong and quick as a mouse.. added a few eeks for effect after every drink and made a game out of finding the next one (can't go past one without a drink..) .... mean, but saved a lot on buying fluids for 4 !!

We also ate out twice a day - breakfast/brunch - came to about $20 -$30 for the 4 of us (2 kids aged 5 and 7) and evening meal around $30 - $40 for standard pizzahut/Denny's fare, same for counter service in the parks or $60-$100 if table service at the parks.. (all figures inc tips and soft drinks)

Our priciest meal was a princess breakfast at Epcot - over $90 inc tip - but worth every cent!! - and we got an ice cream for lunch and KFC takeaway for tea - so not much else was spent on food that day.

Tessa