budget for food.

[Debs1963]

What has peoples experience been budgeting for food? We are a family of 4-me, husband and 2 children ages 4(boy) and 6(girl). Going to Disney from 5/14/05-5/21/05. We cannot get meal plan because we are getting a discoun ted room. We plan on doing some food shopping when we get there-maybe eat a couple of breakfasts in the room. The remainder will be eaten at resort food court. For lunch we plan on packing snacks and sandwiches most days with probably a couple of counter lunches in the parks. Dinner we we will probably order in pizza at least one night. Have one character dinner planned(1900 Fare). Will probably eat a nicer sit-down one night like Boatwrights. Would also considerwill probably some other type of alll you can eat buffet. The remainder will be eaten at counter service/food court type places. If the week goes on and seems like we are spending too much money on food then we can always cut out Boatwrights. We are all average eaters. What do you think we should budget to spend.? I have looked at menus but it gets overwhelming . Was curious on what other families have spent and what experienced Disneygoers think. I am terrified that we will spend life savings on food! Feedback please!! Thanks Deb

 

[Drewandwendi]

Hi Deb. I am still learning, and this might be overkill, but I printed up a calendar for the dates w/ breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack columns. I then browsed the menus for the parks and found restaurants that would meet our budget AND that appealed to us as a family (DH is a VERY picky eater). I then co-ordinated the restaurants w/ the days I plan to spend in each park. I added $ for in room breakfasts as well as planned off site dinners/lunches. Including the travel days, I'm alloting between $650-$750. This includes 1 character meal at Crystal Palace for dinner, and places like Shoney's, Pizza, Subs off site. Last visit, we averaged about $100/day in the parks. BTW, we are a family of 4 also-DD's are 6 and 12.

HTH,
Wendi

 

[happybratpack]

I've made a ton of different food plans, some worked and some didn't. The biggest continuing factor of them all is that I planned too much food. Even when we ate a LOT we didn't do everything on the plan. This last trip we came home with 12 extra Q&C vouchers.

Good luck & have fun!

 

[KristiKelly]

We are a family of 4 and we average $100 a day as well, some days we go over but then on other days we stay well under. We always say that we're going to eat off-site but we never quite make it . I've mentioned on another thread that you can visit www.allearsnet.com, there you can read the menues & prices for all of the restaurants in WDW. This really helps when planning a food budget. Most buffets are expensive.
Last year we ate at Cape May Cafe, DH, DS, DD & myself, DH ordered 2 beers with his dinner & we all had regular drinks, with a tip our bill was $104!!! . I don't know if we'll be going back there.
Some days we ate at Cosmic Rays for lunch or dinner, for the 4 of us it was around $25.00. On our last night, I went to Downtown Disney by myself while DH took the kids to the pool. I went to Wolfgang Puck Express, ordered a Lg Pepperoni Pizza & 2 different kinds of bread, to take back to the hotel, my total was $22.00. We will definitely be going back there.
Have a great trip!

 

[newholidayx2]

Im planning on $70/day for both DS13 and myself
$5 brkfst ea
$5 snack ea
$10 counter ea
$15 PS ea

I know this is just a ballpark figure. The character meals will cost more. There may be days we skip the counter if we have a late PS, etc. Bringing some brkfst items & snax so may not always need that money too.

 

[canwegosoon]

There's also tons of great tips at www.mousesavers.com I remember reading different ways of saving money on food. It really depends on what you are willing to do and still be on vacation...

 

[cobbler]

We spent 650 for food last year for me, hubby, ds7 and ds3. We did 2 character meals, the luau and ate breakfast in our room every morning but one. I also did a character meal alone with a friend. We were at Disney for 9 nights.

 

[MouseMan]

Debs1963, one of the ways our family saves a few bucks is by eating breakfast in the room and taking snacks with us to the parks. If your are driving to Disney no problem just stop at a local food store and stock up. if you are flying, again no problem just packup some breakfast ceral, snacks, juice boxes, etc. and ship it to your resort. The resort will hold the package for you. Just remember to write your name & reservation number on the package & remember to ship it so that it arrives around the same time as you. Hope this helps......

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

We don't have to worry about this anymore since we stay in condos with kitchens, but I remember the on-site trips with our family and some major money was spent. (But boy, did we have fun! )

I would figure $100 a day. The more character meals/buffets, that figure may go up.

I would look at the menus on Deb Wills site (allearsnet.com) and figure out a few days and get an average.

Good luck and have fun planning.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

I'm going solo and am budgeting $75 a day on food.