Family Average on food

[Mish]

We are a family of 7, 5 adults (one who is 17 year old fussy eater) and 3 year old and an infant. I am wondering what people spend on food. We have always done the dining plan but i am having a hard time justifying $3500 for it. I have no idea what a family would spend because I have never thought about it. I tried to figure it out. I went to the restaurant we are eating at picked the most expensive item, added a drink tax and tip and added 80 a day for lunch and it seems close to even. I know everyone is not going to order the most expensive item. We are eating at 2 buffets one lunch and one dinner, Tappen Edo, Viva Napli, Sci Fi, Be our Guest, Cape May and Liberty Tree Tavern We pre paid for Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue,

Thanks,
Michelle

 

[minnie mum]

We just use the cost of DDP as a ballpark figure, knowing that we don't eat exactly how the plan would require us to. I also add in the cost of the groceries we buy for breakfast and snacks in the room. But since we often share a CS meal between 2 adults because the portions are so large, and rarely want to order the most expensive TS entree or want dessert, our costs are still less than the plan would be.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Google Disney dining calculator and put in your dining choices. This will show the OOP cost and DDP cost to compare, very helpful for me. We always come out ahead doing OOP but there is only 2-3 of us each trip and we sometimes share meals.

 

[cdnjason]

We are a family of 7, 5 adults (one who is 17 year old fussy eater) and 3 year old and an infant. I am wondering what people spend on food. We have always done the dining plan but i am having a hard time justifying $3500 for it. I have no idea what a family would spend because I have never thought about it. I tried to figure it out. I went to the restaurant we are eating at picked the most expensive item, added a drink tax and tip and added 80 a day for lunch and it seems close to even. I know everyone is not going to order the most expensive item. We are eating at 2 buffets one lunch and one dinner, Tappen Edo, Viva Napli, Sci Fi, Be our Guest, Cape May and Liberty Tree Tavern We pre paid for Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue,

Thanks,
Michelle

Select where you plan on eating during your trip and it'll calculate your meal budget for you, and compare cash with the dining plans:

http://www.distripplanner.com

 

[LuvOrlando]

I think there is a website that lists all the restaurant menus. From that you can probably make a good guess as to what each family member will choose and go from there. This helps me pick the restaurants we eat at

 

[mom2my3kids]

The dining plan is more expensive then the food we would eat anymore..I think most people add it on just to take the pain out of it and the food is paid for..I just cant justify the cost for us, we don't eat a table service every day and the ones we eat at are not the high priced end places...

 

[LovesTimone]

Depending on the time of year you are going will make a difference in the cost of the Character/ Buffet meals. So I was looking at Crystal Palace and Chef Mickeys this morning, it shows 35 to 59.99 per adult. We had breakfast here during the holidays (CM 2015) an it was around 52.00 person x 4 adults =208.00 plus tax and tip - If you go at a less expensive time of year, 5 adults would be 175.00 plus tax and tip for 1 meal. Plus with 7 you will be automatically charge 18% for tip.

There is always a lot of discussion about the DDP for some family it works, and for others it doesn't. For someone who has been on the DDP and is use to just using their magic band and paying for tip and adult beverages. Its quite a shock when you get the bill for breakfast and its over 200.00 dollars. When running the numbers make sure to include if you are having grocery items delivered to your resorts, or any additional grocery items that you will buy for the room and such into the numbers.

 

[Hopefully]

It works for us. We are 3 adults and we eat the way the plan is designed. DH and DS do eat dessert at each meal. We do not try to "maximize" the plan by eating the most expensive item, but rather we order what we want. We usually eat a QS lunch and a nice sit down dinner. This is how we would eat at home.
We probably come out about even, if not a little ahead.
The link provided can be misleading. It uses only average prices, which may or may not be what you order. It was inaccurate for us.
If you have looked at the menus and done the math, I would go with that.
Good Luck

 

[AFwifelife]

We always pay OOP because we don't eat the way the DDP has you eat. The convenience of not needing to look at prices and having things paid in advance isn't worth it to us.

That said, we budget as if we did buy the plan then end up a little ahead at the end of the trip since we don't actually spend that much.

 

[GillianP1301]

We do a deluxe dining plan upgrade from a free dining promo, so our food costs are about $600 for our 9 night trip (we are 1 adult and 1 child). I calculated what our food costs would be if I were to pay OOP and it worked out that it would be about $1500 for the two of us, which is about $160/day (that includes 3 meals a day + a couple of snacks).

The best way to really figure this out is to check the menus of the places you plan to eat and total up the food you would most likely order and total it all up and then compare it to a dining plan cost (include any OOP charges in that calcuation in case the DDP is not covering everything you plan to eat). For the most part, it usually ends up being pretty close to break even with an advantage to dining plan if you have disney kids (under 10) and you have a lot of character meals planned.