Ever wonder how much $$ to feed a large family?

[Belle5]

I just figured out our dining plan for May. This will be our 16th family trip. We will be there for 8 days. I always count the cost ahead of time. Because we have so many "adults" now (by WDW standards) I have tried to cut out most character meals and meals where you are charged "per head". At some restaurants I plan on the older kids getting kids meals supplemented by salads and desserts. We will spend $200 per day for a family of 7. Our sons are 16, 15 (while at WDW), almost 13, 10 and 5. I have included tax and gratuity in my figures. I make a note to myself on each meal on whether we will order drinks and/or desserts. I try to guess what each person will order and I'm usually right. (DH is the one who will stray a bit from "the plan".) On three days will will have 3 WDW meals. Two of those are water park days which will start with a big WDW breakfast. 5 days (park days) we will have breakfast in our rooms (yep, two rooms for 8 nights) which I have not calculated into our food costs. Those 5 days we will only have 2 WDW meals.
Here are the restaurants we plan on eating at and the cost associated with each meal.(No alchohol included which really runs up the cost of already expensive family dinners.)

San Angel $115
Brown Derby $109
Spoodles Breakfast $87
Trail's End dinner $118
Teppanyaki $133
Nine Dragon's Lunch $105
Kona breakfast $90
Maya Grill Breakfast $90
Shutter's $135
Castle lunch $80
Garden Grill dinner $164.50
LTT lunch $80
Counter service restaraunts we will average $45. We are doing many of these.
We have included a stop at Beaches and Cream for ice cream..Cost should be about $35

Restaurants we thought about but didn't make the cut once we saw the totals:
Le Cellier--been there and loved it but not for $171
Narcoosee's--sounded so good but not for $224
Coral Reef--thought it would be a nice change of scenery but not for $177

We have spent around $1700 on 5 day plus hoppers. We will also include a few hours of sprite boating. We are driving from Texas. We stay in hotels for one night each way and pay for 4 days of "on the road" meals. (Cracker Barrel, McDonald's, etc.)

This is how we do it with 5 kids. What do you think?

 

[mrsmom]

That sounds about right, I have four kids and we had that much put back a day for ours and we didn't spend it all, but you have one more kid, so i would say your right on the money~!
Mrsmom
allstar resort Dec 95'
Holiday inn sunspree Oct 98'
Westgate lakes resort sept 2000
hotel royal plaza Feb 2001
Wynham palace and spa Sept 2001
Westgate lakes resort May 2002
P.O.R. June 2002
Allstar music and Poly Oct 2002
CBR may 2003

 

[jpmom97]

Wow that is good budgeting. My family is going next Feb and there will be 4 adults, one child, and one baby and we planned on $3500 for 11 days. We do have a lot of character meals since this may be our last trip for a long time.

 

[Gaiusrex]

My wife and I and our 2yr old daughter are budgeting $200/day for food as well. Scary, considering the 2yr old shouldn't get charged at the character buffets.

I'm only planning a couple snazzy dining moments; Le Cellier is one of them, and I will probably have a couple drinks. That's where a lot of money can go.

 

[patsal]

Curious? What are you planning on ordering at the castle for lunch and only spending $80 on? I'm always looking to get away from there at lunch for 4 for less than $100.
I'm going to be faced with the adult prices for children eating in 2004 and want to plan as much ahead, as always, for this "tragic" event!!!! I have, like you, planned on cutting the buffets, but other things I just have not prepared for yet. Thanks for your heads up in an area I know I have to give consideration to in the near future.

 

[ducklite]

Wow! We generally plan on $125-150 (on average) per day for just DH and I.

Anne

 

[Belle5]

ducklite,
If it were just DH and I we would do the same thing. Obviously, when taking the crew and paying extra for hotels and tickets we have to try to keep it down. If we can ever get away by ourselves we will dine at all the places that would cost too much when taking all the boys. We have done Cali-Grill, Flying Fishl and some of the others when the kids were younger but it's just too much $$ now that they are older. I think it would be around $350 for our family to try Hoop De Doo so that's one I imagine we'll never get to... should have done it before they turned into "adults"!

 

[Belle5]

patsal,
I learned from this board that teens can order from the kids menu and that has helped a lot. At about 1/2 the restaurants I'm planning on my older guys wanting burgers or chicken fingers istead of "weird" sounding adult foods. When I saw that the kids meals at the castle came with something besides french fries I was thrilled and knew this would be one of the places I would tell the 14 and 16 year old to order off the kids menu. (They get corn and mashed potatoes.) If they are still hungry (which I doubt they will be) when we leave we'll stop and get a Mickey bar!
2 salads--$8
2 Mariner sandwiches--$26
5 kids meals--$25
2 cokes-$4
total--$63
tax--$4
tip--$12.50
grand total--$79.50

 

[TRAPPED-PARENT]

Amazing !!!

 

[patsal]

Belle5,
Wild!! Thanks so much for the info., I never thought I'd be able to keep the cost down like that!

 

[BCV23]

Amazing example of planning. I wish I was so organized.

My DH says we spend on average $350/day when we eat all 3 meals at WDW. We do have some dinners when our younger son who is 20 is too tired and just wants a burger in the room. That cost does include "adult" drinks. We're a family of 5 with kids 22, 20 & 17. Ooops, oldest just turned 23!

Just a note on CRT lunch Belle. Younger son always orders the burger. It is not a mini burger but it is small. Like a regular McD burger perhaps. Our son is very small for his age (Down's Syndrome) and polishes his meal off and then has part of my Coachmen's sandwich. Your boys will probably want more if they're more typical teens I would guess.

 

[Magic2000]

We're a family of five - and yes, it can be expensive feeding four "adults"!!! But at many of the WDW restaurants (and even here at home), my teenagers often order from the kids menu - especially when they want to make sure they have room for dessert!!! We also share a lot of our meals at Disney - I find the portions are huge! (Often two people can share and be full, but not necessarily stuffed.)

I also check Deb Wills' site before we go so I can check on approx prices of meals before we go.

 

[Belle5]

BVC23,
That's a good warning on CRT. We will order a little more there. Some places I've planned on that (extra salad or dessert). We may not always order the extras I've planned so at the restaurants we need to we can order a little more. A few dollars over won't kill us but at least we have some idea of where we're at.

 

[punkin]

My 4 yr old lives on chicken strips so she's no problem, but my older one invariably orders the most expensive thing on the menu (even tho she qualifies for the childrens' menu). We typically spend about $325 per day for 4 or us. This time, I am trying to eat on a budget and cut it down to under $200 per day. We'll see if we can do it.

 

[wilderness01]

Have you ever eaten at San Angel before? That place is very expensive and the kid's portions are small. I went by myself as my husband had the kids at another event. I ordered a coke with my meal (tenderloin tips and rice) and my bill with tax/tip came to $28.50 for one person! You might have underestimated that bill. Just friendly advice.

 

[Belle5]

wilderness,
We've dined at San Angel at least a dozen times. We're just not at Epcot until we eat there. We think it's one of the best values in Epcot and we always leave stuffed. I have never ordered the particular entree you mentioned, however, and will be sure to steer clear of it based on your advice. The beef tenderloin entree (with the plaintains, etc.) is massive. I could never eat it all! We are originally from Arizona and now 16 years in Texas and consider ourselves experts judging good Mexican food. While we avoid the most easily recognized entrees (burritos, etc.) we have found their specialty items (meats and fish) to be filling and delicious.

 

[wilderness01]

You are right about the size of the meal. It can definately feed two and I took half of it home. I however did not feel like it was a good value at all as all but 1 of their meals (to my memory) was over $20. There was not even fajitas on the menu, which in my opinion is a staple at a Mexican restaurant. Mexican food is generally cheap (even at a nice restaurant) and I did not feel San Angel was a value. We lived in Texas as well and I do not remember Mexican food being expensive.

Just my opinion and we were just at WDW last month. To be fair though we have only eaten in Epcot a few times and tend to go to the other restaurants.

 

[Princesstimes2]

Belle5, I am impressed. You are so organized. I need to take lessons from you and I only have 2 girls. I can't imagine feeding boys, much less teenagers. I am going to get busy and try to do the same thing.

 

[Muffy]

Wonderful planning! Good for you!

 

[rbuzzotta]

Wow! We just spent 2 weeks at OKW last summer and our dining bill was outrageous for our family of 5. Yes, the hoop de do was in there as were other higher price restaurants. My 3 DD's eat like birds!!

I already told DH that wee will NOT be spending another 5K on dining out this summer. DD #1 will be having a friend spend the last week with us and that will be another mouth to feed (although another bird!!) but both of them are considered adults now and only eat mac and cheese and chix fingers!!

I need to get organized and plan like you did. I do know, they want to go to Teppanyaki one night so I may make that the big night out when her friend is with us.......