food budget for a family of 8

[fortheluvofpooh]

trying to do the math and do you think $320.00 a day for food is plenty? We are also going to eat off site for meals. Only 1 sit down for the trip and that is at Chef Mickeys. So that is no included in the daily budget. that will have its own budget.

 

[Marionnette]

trying to do the math and do you think $320.00 a day for food is plenty? We are also going to eat off site for meals. Only 1 sit down for the trip and that is at Chef Mickeys. So that is no included in the daily budget. that will have its own budget.

A lot will depend on the ages and appetites of those 8 people. Also, whether you plan to eat out for breakfast or eat something in your room/condo.

Whenever our family of 5 went to Disney together, we budgeted $50 per person per day. But we were 2 adults and 3 teens. Two of those teens were growing boys. And we usually did one table service meal each day. We stayed onsite and didn't eat offsite at all. That was probably about five years ago. I would certainly go higher with that number today.

I think that you will be able to do it on $320 per day for 8 people. You won't starve. But I don't know what kind of meals you can expect to eat for that amount without knowing how many kids and their ages/appetites.

 

[Jenny-momof3]

We spend significantly less than that for our family of 6....and included in that is several onsite table service meals.

 

[ccgirl]

I would think that is way more than enough. Sign up for the Orlando MagicCard if you are going to eat off site. That gives a discount. Also, check out Restaurant.com there are a lot of gift certificates to Orlando places. I was able to get $25 gift certificates for $2 at the end of a month. House of Blues at DTD is included. That is a great way to keep it down. If you are staying outside of the park, you can also bring food in.

Have fun!

 

[growinupdisney]

trying to do the math and do you think $320.00 a day for food is plenty? We are also going to eat off site for meals. Only 1 sit down for the trip and that is at Chef Mickeys. So that is no included in the daily budget. that will have its own budget.

Are you staying on site? What are the ages of the children? How many adults?


I would go on allearsnet.com look at the menus on there of all the restaurants in WDW it will help you.

We are a family of 5 and we average $120 a day I have done this for the last 8 years, Some times it's right on and other time less. But, we do not buy drinks in the parks we bring water bottles so that right there is couple hundred dollars for a week. We do buy snacks in the parks plus bring some in but we do not eat Breakfast out we eat in the room(this is cheaper as well as a timesaver) We do split some meals because the cs meals are large we just started doing this because we noticed alot of food getting thrown away because we couldn't eat it all.

Even though I don't know the ages yet of your family Iwould still say the $250-$275 a day should be plenty especially if you are eating cs

 

[purplepixiedust]

We just sat down and tried to go over menus and do a rough estimate of what the four of us (two kids ages 8 & 10 and my husband and myself) would typically eat in a day at counter service plus snacks and drinks. We tried to base it off our last trip and waht and where we ate that trip (we did QS dining plan and were trying to figure out if it was worth it again next trip). My kids could often share a meal and just needed a seperate drink.

We are not breakfast eaters (last trip kids ate bagels,pop tarts, cereal in the room etc) so we didn't budget too much on that and came up with about $100 total per day for the four of us to allot for eating at Disney parks since we stay on site.

 

[StitchBuddy]

Hmm, have you thought about the quick service dining plan??

 

[kellydizfan]

I would purchase the dining plan. Family of 5 here. Last time we went, we decided we would do Dinner off site, eat breakfast in the room and lunch we would purchase stuff at grocery store and bring it with us. What a pain in the kazoo to go off site, shopping and to eat. We also stayed on site at Port Orleans. It ended up costing us as much as the quick service would have. I will never never do that again. We are hoping to go in August - have my free dining trip booked with Pop Century this time. I was going to upgrade the dining plan but decided against it - saved some money that way and my kids really don't eat that much and we usually eat sit down at the same places. Quick service it is - maybe one night I will give in and we will do T-Rex again. We did do Chef Mickeys in 2009 for the 5 of us - all adults due to the age of my kids and the bill was $180.00. Not worth it. If you do the dining plan - then yes it is worth it but not to shell out that kind of money when the kids don't eat much.

 

[Mic]

$320 a day should be plenty if some meals will be offsite. I have taken groups of teenagers to Disney several times, and I tell them to bring enough money to eat lunch in the parks each day(counter service, @$15 per person), plus $5 for snacks, for a total of $20 per person. We have breakfast in the room almost every day, with the exception of Chef Mickey's or 1900 Park Fare, which we budget separately for as well. Offsite dinner is usally pizza to go
($40 for 4 large pizzas), Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, and other similar chains. Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney is great, and costs $8-10 a person. Wolfgang Puck Express is good also, and is reasonable. It rarely ever works out for us to add the dining plan, unless it's free of course!

 

[bfrosty]

Just my .02

Earl of Sandwich is AWESOME!!!!.....and very reasonable...I guess that's why it is always crowded at meal times....they are quick though.

That's my favorite in DTD.

Bfrosty

 

[Disneycrazymom]

I think $40 per person is reasonable. A kids meal will be $4.99 just about everywhere (it includes a small drink). A counter service meal will be between $10 - $15 per person - drink seperate. Drinks/snacks figure $3 - $5 for each one. So you could do 2 counter service meals (lunch and dinner) for $30 per person and a couple drinks or snacks and be at $40. I would plan to have breakfast stuff in the room and even some snacks. If you take the little packets of koolaid you can ask for a water free. We don't care for the taste of the water but adding the packets really helps.

I don't really like to go off site for meals as it does take some time out of the day. But we don't mind having a sandwich from our cooler out by the pool during the afternoon break. I know there is a Steak and Shake near by and a MCd's near the All Stars. There are lots of restaurants at the crossroads too.