Food Budget for 2 adults

[FredEthelsMom]

I haven't been to WDW in 10 years. Planning on a trip for fall 2016, staying in FW cabins. What do y'all budget per day per adult? I want enough $$ budgeted, but I'm awful close to having to shorten my trip, so I'm walking a fine line.

Also, are there Disney avatars I can put on this profile? TIA!

 

[Alesia]

It really just depends on how much and where you like to eat. Taking a look at the menus at http://allears.net/dining/menu can help you figure it out.

 

[princessnikitaa]

This depends on what kind of food service you are looking for!
We used to do the dining plan, but found that it was much too pricey for too much food. I know that sounds silly, but the way I see it, we were on the go most of the days, so we didn't really want to eat all that food.. or couldn't because we would get full off of the large portions.

The process that we have found that works for us, that we are able to still able to enjoy the luxury of eating at WDW, is as follows:
Breakfast - We actually order our length of stay worth of Breakfast from Garden Grocer, granola bars, cereal, oatmeal, things of this sort. We usually order $35-50 worth of breakfast depending on our stay, which beats around $10.00 per person each day for a food item and a coffee.

Lunch - We try to do quick service for lunch. These meals run anywhere from 7 - 15$ per person, depending on what you are ordering. A quick tip, is that if you are an adult who doesn't really eat much, you can always either: a.) split a meal with someone, or b.) order from the kids menu, which offers smaller portions, and in turn lower prices.

Dinner - We usually eat at a sit down restaurant, but this really depends on our length of stay. Sometimes we are so exhausted, that we actually head back to our hotel room and eat quick services instead. But for sit down meals, we budget, at least $25.00 per person. There are ways around this, as in ordering an appetizer for a meal, or even ordering just the meal and water.

So the minimum I would budget per person is Breakfast: at least $8.00 (I'm sure you could get away with maybe a bottle of orange juice and a pack of grapes for way less), Lunch: at least $15.00 (you could honestly get away with ordering and salad and water for under $10) and Dinner: at least $25.00, (this being that this is a sit down meal, quick service would be $15-$20).

Keep in mind the snacks you would want in a day, too!

It's very doable, having a low food budget. Sometimes I have to pinch pennies; there are ways around not having to spend so much.
Sharing meals, ordering from kids menus, ordering just the meal and having just water, ordering quick services vs. sit down meals, and ordering appetizers are all ways of saving!

Good luck and I hope this helped. Also, taking a look at their menus and menu prices can help you plan accordingly!
This is just what works for me! I'm sure you could even get away with spending a little less, but it's better to over estimate than under estimate!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Disney Vacation Counts:

Disney Resort Vacations: 9
Disney Cruise Line Vacations: 4

 

[davper]

I personally am planning $100 a day per person for food. But you can easily do it on the cheap. Get some groceries delivered. You can have cereal, pastries, or fruit for breakfast. Do cold cut sandwisches for lunch or dinner.

 

[maxiesmom]

For my trip in a few days I have a budget of $100 per day for food. But we are doing at least one table service meal a day, and some days two. That cost doesn't include what I have ordered in from Garden Grocer either.

 

[joannamet]

I personally am planning $100 a day per person for food. But you can easily do it on the cheap. Get some groceries delivered. You can have cereal, pastries, or fruit for breakfast. Do cold cut sandwisches for lunch or dinner.

...and mine is $100 per day total for 2 adults and 1 child. Just shows how differently we all do disney.

I always make a list of our dining choices and use the menus posted online to estimate the cost based on what I think we'll eat. It's easier and quicker than it seems and its really the only way to set a reasonable budget for your group.

 

[Marionnette]

I haven't been to WDW in 10 years. Planning on a trip for fall 2016, staying in FW cabins. What do y'all budget per day per adult? I want enough $$ budgeted, but I'm awful close to having to shorten my trip, so I'm walking a fine line.

Also, are there Disney avatars I can put on this profile? TIA!

I just returned from 8 nights at Disney for Food & Wine. After tallying up the receipts, it turns out that we spent about $50 per person for two adult females. That included alcohol and snacks. We did 8 TS meals during that time and 3 QS meals, as well as sampling quite a few selections from the festival.

 

[damskipi13]

When I go with family we tend to go pretty frugal, so if I were on a tight budget it would look something like this:

Breakfast in the room all days except one: ~$2/person/meal for cereal and milk or toast and eggs
One QS breakfast: $8/person/meal

Daily lunch brought to the park in cooler: $5/person/meal for sandwiches, chips or cookie, and a drink

QS dinners most days: $15/person/meal
1-2 TS dinners: $25/person/meal

Daily snacks: $5/person/day

So for instance if I had 2 people on a 5-day trip, there would be 4 breakfasts in the room ($2*2ppl*4 = $16), 1 QS breakfast ($8*2ppl*1 = $16), 5 carried lunches ($5*2ppl*5 = $50), 3 QS dinners ($15*2ppl*3 = $90), 2 TS dinners ($25*2ppl*2 = $100) and 5 days of snacks ($5*2ppl*5 = $50) for a total budget of $322. Then I round up, so I'd budget $350 for this trip. That gives me a little play money in case I need it. This works out to $35/person/day. You could spend a little less if you traded TS meals for QS, pack in snacks, etc. If we were eating all meals in the park, I'd be looking at a budget of ~$50/person/day. So it really depends on how you eat and whether you are willing to prepare anything in your cabin.

Also note that we always get a car, so it's easy for us to buy groceries on the cheap. If you won't have a car but want cheap groceries, you can always bring shelf stable items in your luggage. It has the added benefit of clearing out souvenir space for the trip home

 

[worm761]

We just got back home Sunday from Disney. This trip I found myself ordering a lot of kids meals. Breakfast at the resort was always a kids breakfast platter. I ate the eggs and potatoes and gave DH my sausage and bacon. At home I eat a single scrambled egg if I eat breakfast at all so this was plenty of food for me.

At Cosmic Rays I ordered the kids turkey sandwich. It came on the whole wheat Goldfish bread, had 3 or 4 big slices of deli turkey. I added lettuce, tomato, and ketchup at the fixins bar. It also came with fries, grapes, and a drink. I ate the sandwich and fries. DD had the grapes later for a snack. Other times I ordered adult meals and just ate what I could because the kids menus tend to be lacking in variety (though that works great for my picky DD!).

When budgeting for food I look at the most expensive thing on the menu that each person would want to eat and budget for that. This way no one needs to feel like they have to order cheaper than they want to. Often we do order cheaper based on our wants at the time but I like to have a padded budget just in case.

We like table service meals at lunch. It's a nice break in the AC and off our feet. We do this instead of afternoon breaks. It works for our family.

 

[bookgirl]

I've done it as cheaply as $20 a day, and as high as $50 bucks a day. Just depends. But I like more smaller meals/snacks as opposed to three big meals a day. I even will get a kids meal over an adult meal for lunch cause I'm just a chicken fingers kind of girl. Plus I rarely drink soda or juice and I never drink tea. Usually morning coffee and then water.

I did around $20 a day including snacks once. (actually didn't mean to but after the tally at the end of the trip that's what I had spent). Bringing my own breakfast items including Via packs to make my morning iced coffee in the morning. (hate food courts in the morning and they don't have iced coffee, plus I'd rather spend my time on the rides in the AM). I would usually snack (by that I mean I'd grab a hot dog or just a small entrée item no sides or get popcorn) for one meal and then did a CS or TS (did 2 on this trip) for the other. Sometimes I had big lunch and then snacked at dinner, sometimes I snacked mid day and then had a big dinner. I've even been known to take leftovers and eat them later. I also think that was the trip where I only had one soda and that came with my meal.

But that was like one trip. So I'd say the $50 budget per person was the more reasonable and bump that up if you plan to do Table Service meals. When my mom is with me we run closer to $75 per day except for days when we do TS then we're closer to $100.

We tend to share meals or do snacks but because there's two of us we get a few more. She and I have the same dining style, but the TS meals will bump you up.

 

[LovesTimone]

As others have stated before me, it depends on how you enjoy eating, if there are any special celebrations on this trip so you might want a romantic table service.

For 2 people having groceries delivered can be if'y, there normally is a minimum order amount, and delivery charge that of course is depending on the amount some wave the deliver charge if your order is large enough. If you are flying I suggest packing some quick breakfast items in your suitcase, granola or cereal bars, pop tarts, those small individual cereal bowls ( you can purchase milk in the gift shop or food court) coffee tea or hot chocolate. If you are using a car service see if they will make a quick stop for you to pick up a few things make sure to have a list ready. When ordering sometimes you order more than you need, so be mindful when ordering if you go this route.

There are lots of QS meals with portions that are shareable, this really depends on how much you eat or feel like eating. Head over to allears.net, they have current menus and prices that I have found pretty accurate.

You could do an appetizer night which is always shareable, then grab dessert later on.... like in France... Yummy... just saying.

Some of the TS restaurant meals are very shareable, most will spilt in the kitchen for you, some just bring you a extra plate. But do tip the server for two.. Or course buffet and family style don't fall into the shareable option.

Also you could do a character meal for breakfast as we find breakfast the less expensive option for table service, most are buffets or family style, then snack or do quick service the rest of the day. Epcot is the perfect place for this...

Check out the kids meals offerings.

Also don't be afraid to head over to other resorts and eat in there food courts, there is a lot to choose from and a much larger menu offerings. While over there check out the resort, its a nice way to take a break from the parks.

Do budget in for adult beverages, if you enjoy this.

 

[msmama]

As you can see, you get a wide range of answers.

But another factor to consider is the time of year you go. Personally, I eat a lot of smaller meals/snacks throughout the day when it's hot out where as when its cooler I'm more likely to stick to three meals a day. Also are you willing to share meals or do you want an app, entree and dessert for every meal. There are obviously plenty of ways to cut food costs if necessary.

Remember you can get free ice water at counter service places (even if you're not getting anything else). Still, I don't think I've ever done a trip where I haven't had to buy at least one bottled water.

 

[FredEthelsMom]

This depends on what kind of food service you are looking for!
We used to do the dining plan, but found that it was much too pricey for too much food. I know that sounds silly, but the way I see it, we were on the go most of the days, so we didn't really want to eat all that food.. or couldn't because we would get full off of the large portions.

The process that we have found that works for us, that we are able to still able to enjoy the luxury of eating at WDW, is as follows:
Breakfast - We actually order our length of stay worth of Breakfast from Garden Grocer, granola bars, cereal, oatmeal, things of this sort. We usually order $35-50 worth of breakfast depending on our stay, which beats around $10.00 per person each day for a food item and a coffee.

Lunch - We try to do quick service for lunch. These meals run anywhere from 7 - 15$ per person, depending on what you are ordering. A quick tip, is that if you are an adult who doesn't really eat much, you can always either: a.) split a meal with someone, or b.) order from the kids menu, which offers smaller portions, and in turn lower prices.

Dinner - We usually eat at a sit down restaurant, but this really depends on our length of stay. Sometimes we are so exhausted, that we actually head back to our hotel room and eat quick services instead. But for sit down meals, we budget, at least $25.00 per person. There are ways around this, as in ordering an appetizer for a meal, or even ordering just the meal and water.

So the minimum I would budget per person is Breakfast: at least $8.00 (I'm sure you could get away with maybe a bottle of orange juice and a pack of grapes for way less), Lunch: at least $15.00 (you could honestly get away with ordering and salad and water for under $10) and Dinner: at least $25.00, (this being that this is a sit down meal, quick service would be $15-$20).

Keep in mind the snacks you would want in a day, too!

It's very doable, having a low food budget. Sometimes I have to pinch pennies; there are ways around not having to spend so much.
Sharing meals, ordering from kids menus, ordering just the meal and having just water, ordering quick services vs. sit down meals, and ordering appetizers are all ways of saving!

Good luck and I hope this helped. Also, taking a look at their menus and menu prices can help you plan accordingly!
This is just what works for me! I'm sure you could even get away with spending a little less, but it's better to over estimate than under estimate!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Disney Vacation Counts:

Disney Resort Vacations: 9
Disney Cruise Line Vacations: 4

This was super helpful, thanks! I'm all rusty on the many different ways to eat at WDW. DH and I are not big eaters, but we probably can't agree on a meal to share either! Kid's meal idea is great. Already headed to the idea that the DDP will not be a good value for us. Trying desperately to squeeze another night out of our budget!

 

[FredEthelsMom]

Gosh, all of y'all's replies were really helpful. I had initially budgeted $80/day, but that was a shot in the dark. I have since lowered the budget to $60-$65/day, and could probably go lower. I will definitely check out the menus and fine tune my budget. It helps a bunch that I love the cabins so much, as they come with a full-ish kitchen. Real coffee pot, big fridge, microwave, dishes, utensils, etc. Plus a pleasant place to eat, not feeling like I made a poor choice because I'm eating breakfast sitting at a desk in a hotel room. I travel for work, so hotels are absolutely not fun places for me. WDW has so many on-property options to stay, it's awesome.