Food budget for 3 days?

[TheChapman6]

I don't think we will do any character meals. We are staying at the Disneyland Hotel. I have 2 boys who will be 7 and 8 when we go. Plus myself and my Mom. I see several posts about sharing meals and such. I'm working out a budget or at least trying to.

Hotel 855 plus tax makes it 1000.XX

Gas 400 budgeted high for prices increases

Food

Parking 60

shirts/hats/pencils etc. 300.00?

What am I missing and what would you include for food?

We are driving from Colorado to Vegas. Staying at my Mom's and then driving to Disneyland. We plan to bring some snacks with us.

 

[ArchOwl]

I don't think we will do any character meals. We are staying at the Disneyland Hotel. I have 2 boys who will be 7 and 8 when we go. Plus myself and my Mom. I see several posts about sharing meals and such. I'm working out a budget or at least trying to.

Hotel 855 plus tax makes it 1000.XX

Gas 400 budgeted high for prices increases

Food

Parking 60

shirts/hats/pencils etc. 300.00?

What am I missing and what would you include for food?

We are driving from Colorado to Vegas. Staying at my Mom's and then driving to Disneyland. We plan to bring some snacks with us.

How many days? And will you be doing all meals in the park/resort area?

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Take a look at this site to get an idea of what meals cost:

http://allears.net/dlr/din/menu/menus.htm

We don't eat at many of the more expensive places, bring our own breakfast for the hotel room, bring a lot of our own snacks but do buy a number of treats. We usually eat 1-2 meals in the park or DtD each day. We like to share at Plaza Inn and Pizza Port. Sometimes we get the boys each their own kid meal, and other times we have them share an adult portion. We usually all choose water rather than buy drinks. I'd say without our AP discount, our food budget for 3 days would be somewhere between $300 and $350. We spent about $260 last month with AP discounts for a Sat-Tues trip. That's probably on the low side for many on these boards.

 

[TheChapman6]

Oh and parkhoppers for 3 days 702

 

[TheChapman6]

How many days? And will you be doing all meals in the park/resort area?

3 days we will leave the third day so we may do dinner elsewhere?? Yes they will all be in that area. I want to have the Mickey Mouse ice cream bars and such as snacks too. We can bring breakfast stuff and snacks along with us. I know we probably will for MM so we don't have to get up so early LOL

 

[ArchOwl]

LOL, yes the PHs to Disneyland would be a good idea!

You could spend a LOT of money for meals or very little depending on where you eat and if you eat your own snacks for breakfast or in the park. So I would look at the menus provided by the PP to get an idea of what you would like to spend.

You can easily share many entrees, although there may be split fees at some sit down places, so to avoid those, eat at counter service spots. The plates at Rancho del Zocalo are huge and your sons could easily split (and perhaps you and your mother).

And don't forget to add in the costs for goodies like cookies, ice cream, and other treats that your kids will probably want.

ETA: just did the math on our last trip and we averaged $130 per day per person! eek! But we ate at Napa Rose, Club 33, Jazz Kitchen, and Cove Bar. You could easily spend that per day for your entire group if you did breakfast on your own and split lunches and dinners.

 

[Nanseev]

I do think it truly matters about how big of eaters you and your mom are. If you plan on splitting meals, it will keep the costs down. But I will say that DH and I don't really split meals that often. If anything, we will get an appetizer and a meal and split those.

On average, I'd say $100-$150 per day will cover everything without skimping. There are definite ways to cut the expenses, but it just depends on what you're willing to do.

Breakfast - you can always go cheap and have something in the room like oatmeal or cereal. That will save big $

Snacks - bring your own snacks and drinks. Refillable water bottles can save your budget rather than buying multiple drinks throughout the day

Meals - Sharing meals will save $$. Ordering water instead of soda will save $. Even going to McDonalds/Subway for a meal instead of a sit down will save $.

 

[TheChapman6]

Take a look at this site to get an idea of what meals cost:

http://allears.net/dlr/din/menu/menus.htm

We don't eat at many of the more expensive places, bring our own breakfast for the hotel room, bring a lot of our own snacks but do buy a number of treats. We usually eat 1-2 meals in the park or DtD each day. We like to share at Plaza Inn and Pizza Port. Sometimes we get the boys each their own kid meal, and other times we have them share an adult portion. We usually all choose water rather than buy drinks. I'd say without our AP discount, our food budget for 3 days would be somewhere between $300 and $350. We spent about $260 last month with AP discounts for a Sat-Tues trip. That's probably on the low side for many on these boards.

Thanks, that site is sooo cool I can't believe the monte Cristo is 24.99 I'm getting it anyway LOL

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Thanks, that site is sooo cool I can't believe the monte Cristo is 24.99 I'm getting it anyway LOL

Well, in my opinion, part of the fun in going away somewhere, Disneyland included, is getting to eat out and treat yourself to things you don't or can't eat regularly at home, so go for it! I've never tried the Monte Cristo, but I have read many descriptions of it on these boards. Some people report that it's a big enough sandwich to share, so you might consider that if another person in your group wants to split with you. To avoid the split plate fee, just ask for an extra empty plate, don't ask them to split your meal. If you feel that you will each prefer to have full sides though, go ahead and ask them to split it and pay the cost. It's still cheaper than two meals. The added benefit to sharing is you still have room for dessert.

 

[usschmidt]

We're a family of 4 and I budget $100/day. Some days it's more, some less. I try to offset my "dining" budget by eating breakfast in our room, drinking water, and limiting snacks.

In my opinion it is not cheap to travel anywhere. Also, I try to make decent choices, but I don't kill myself if I'm not the model of nutrition. It's a special occasion kwim. Unless you have food restrictions b/c you will become ill and/or die, cut yourself some slack (For example, my older daughter is allergic to nuts. I would never tell her to throw caution to the wind and eat something w/nuts. But if she wants a Dole Whip just b/c it's tasty and fun, I say yes. We have the rest of our lives to be "healthy")

Sorry if I sound like a witch. I was just talking w/my neighbor about DLR. She takes her daughter every year but they barely eat outside the hotel room b/c the food is not healthy enough. Her family is a healthy weight, no diabetes, Crohn's, etc. I just don't get the all-or-nothing kind of thinking. It's an amusement park, not a health spa kwim.

 

[CrazyDuck]

$50/person/day is a good starting point...

 

[pixiewings71]

We are a family of 4 and we also budget $100 per day per person. Some days we don't use it all, some days we go over, but we are usually under the $100 per person per day budget amount.

 

[Faithful Raider]

We're doing 6 days (maybe turning into 7) at DLR and to save a little we got a suite with full kitchen and fridge. Our hotel has a full breakfast (not just a continental) so we factored that meal into our hotel budget, leaving just lunch and dinner. Lunches/snacks we will probably pack (or can head back to the room if its a very hot day), and we are planning on cooking dinner at the hotel (while the DD5 gets some rest). With spending 6 days, we won't feel like we have to rush, and can spend an hour or so eating dinner outside the park. Hopefully that leaves a nice big budget for goodies! That, and the wife says we're eating at least once at Blue Bayou.

 

[pinkprincess30]

I do think it truly matters about how big of eaters you and your mom are. If you plan on splitting meals, it will keep the costs down. But I will say that DH and I don't really split meals that often. If anything, we will get an appetizer and a meal and split those.

On average, I'd say $100-$150 per day will cover everything without skimping. There are definite ways to cut the expenses, but it just depends on what you're willing to do.

Breakfast - you can always go cheap and have something in the room like oatmeal or cereal. That will save big $

Snacks - bring your own snacks and drinks. Refillable water bottles can save your budget rather than buying multiple drinks throughout the day

Meals - Sharing meals will save $$. Ordering water instead of soda will save $. Even going to McDonalds/Subway for a meal instead of a sit down will save $.

Are you suggesting $100-$150 per PERSON per day, or total for a group of four? $100 per person seems like a LOT!

 

[Sephrina]

On our GS trip in March, we budgeted $35 per person per day and easily stayed under it. Our motel had a continental breakfast, and we brought snacks with us and any bought in the parks were the girls' responsibilty. Total for Sunday through Thursday (arrived for lunch Sunday, left after lunch Thursday) was around $1200. We only ate at Subway once and only one girl had McDonalds. I think our most expensive meal was the WOC picnics, though on a per person basis IHOP was a close second (only 4 of us ate there).

 

[alohagirl808]

Our family (2 adults and 1- 6 yr old) budgets $130 a day for meals/drinks/snacks. That includes a cheap breakfast at hotel or mcdonalds. We also save money by bringing bottled water, refilling it at the water fountain, and using crystal light packets. For lunch and dinner, our meals in DL usually average about $45 for the 3 of us.

 

[wvnative]

I travel with my DD (20). We generally go for 3-4 days. We eat breakfast in the park once, always at Carnation. We have a snack for lunch, bring snacks in the backpack and refill water bottles at the filtered water stations. We eat dinner wherever we feel the need. We also do one character meal per trip. My typical food budget is 200-275 per trip. While a lot of htings are large enuogh to share, we don't find that we do that very often because we're rarely hungry for the same thing. I can tell you that we got a burrito meal of some sort at Rancho that we easily split.

I haven't done the budget for the next trip. It'll be a little different due to different travelers and us celebrating a milestone birthday.

 

[CMG1]

I typically budget $50 per day, per person for food, this also includes any tipping for any sit-down restaurants we might go to. Also, I like to stay at the Park Vue Inn, not only for its proximity to the park but they also have a full breakfast to choose from which saves us a bunch of money. I also hear they now have evening snacks or something like that now, which will save us even more on the food budget.

 

[Cagirl767]

We are a family of 4 with kids just 4 and just turned 6. None of us has ever split a meal, although I do hear a lot of it here on the DIS. You do possibly have a kid's meal option for a lighter eater that's 7 or 8. And once in a while we decide we're too full from snacks for a full meal, so we'll opt for something light like a Mickey pretzel and a bag of grapes. You can split snacks such as candy, popcorn and churros. We bring baggies for splitting.

We stay at a hotel with free breakfast and take advantage of that and also a free light weeknight dinner. But if we buy 2 adult meals per day and 2 kids meals at moderately priced restaurants and walk ups, and maybe 1 or 2 drinks total for DH, and 2 snacks each in the park (we don't bring in snacks), we will spend around $130 a day for the 4 of us.
We do usually drink only water in the parks, the kids also drink milk included in their kids meals. If we bought water, that'd be around +$25 a day.