Food budget for Oauh?

[tikilyn]

We're a family of 4, two adults, dd 14 and ds 12. We'll be in Hawaii for 8 days 7 nights. Is 100.00 a day for food only enough money to eat on? We're not fancy eaters and will be eating most breakfast in our room.
We want to hit up some food trucks and dinner plate specials. We already have PCC luau prepaid and Cheesecake factory (gc from christmas) that won't be counted towards the 800.00.

Thanks

 

[chateau]

I have the Entertainment Book for Hawaii. It covers the whole island. I mapped out all the restaurants with coupons, but did not put in Waikiki, due to traffic. I have about 20 spots marked, all less than 20 miles from Aulani. I looked at the menus and the food choices look pretty good.
Where's the Cheesecake Factory?

 

[Dean]

I have the Entertainment Book for Hawaii. It covers the whole island. I mapped out all the restaurants with coupons, but did not put in Waikiki, due to traffic. I have about 20 spots marked, all less than 20 miles from Aulani. I looked at the menus and the food choices look pretty good.
Where's the Cheesecake Factory?

CF is downtown Waikiki, I wouldn't brave Waikiki and it's difficult and expensive parking just to carve a meal out of the budget.

One can certainly eat on an average of $100 a day for 4 but it's could be close with tips if you do much for sit down choices. Just remember that a couple of high end meals can blow a large chunk of it. Roy's nearby could easily blow 2 days budget in one sitting depending on choices. It also depends on your eating habits. We often find early bird options and frequently share meals which keeps us from over eating as much and we usually only eat out once a day OR eat a very light meal for one of 2 out often doing lunch as the large meal. For Oahu, one of our budget savers and a place we really like, is the Old Spaghetti Factory in Ward Warehouse on Ala Moana just before you hit the Mall headed toward Waikiki.

 

[Anal Annie]

The Cheesecake Factory is in Waikiki Beach by the Outrigger Waikiki.

Based on our experience, NO - $100 / day for meals is not enough and we were fairly frugal. We are a family of 3 (DS was 17 last summer when we were there) and also ate breakasts in the room and "out" most days for lunch & dinner. We picked up some lunchmeats & cheeses & stuff at Target & made sandwiches to bring down by the pool 2 days. I would say realistically unless you want a hot dog for lunch & pizza every night for dinner that is not enough to budget for 4 people per day. I brought my usual stash of Disney gift cards to use for meals at DL and Aulani (I buy a $25 card ever week with my groceries) along with $100 in gift cards to use at Roy's & a $50 one to use at the Hard Rock for lunch one day (neither of those gift cards were enough to cover the entire tabs but they covered probably 75% or so and the HR validated several hours of parking for us in Waikiki). The small limited lunch / dinner menu at Ulu Cafe is going to run you probably $12-15 pp. There would not be a tip involved there as it is CS and if you buy the refillable mugs and order the cheapest items you could get by for $50ish per meal. The Pizza Corner across the street was reasonable - a Lg. was something like $25. The little place on the beach at Aulani that serves lunch was about the same price as the Ulu Cafe so allow $12-14 pp…the hot dog stand was the cheapest at around $6 I think for a dog. We ate lunch at a shrimp truck on the N. Shore one day - I think the shrimp plates were around $14-15 each. Shave ice will also run several $ each. We did not eat at Ama Ama but did eat eat Makahiki (sp?) one night - that was like $40ish per "Disney" adult. But for example if you did Ulu Cafe for lunch and then Makahiki for dinner I think you would be looking at closer to $225 for 4 people. Dinner at Monkey Pod was what I would call reasonable but still ran us close to $90-100 with tip and drinks….

I think to be safe you should plan for closer to $130 or $150 a day. Your kids are old enough to eat like young adults, not toddlers. Some days will be less and some days more but that way you won't be scrimping to the point that you will only order the cheapest things available rather than what you really want. JMHO.

 

[JonLouisB]

In addition to breakfast in your room, you should try to buy enough groceries for a few dinners in your room too. If you limit your spending to one meal outside of your room per day, $100 a day is doable.

 

[tikilyn]

Thank you everyone. I'll up the budget.

 

[deedisneydream97]

Are you staying in a one bedroom or a studio? DH and I ate very well on very little money, but had a one bedroom for 7 of the 10 days we were there. All breakfasts were in the room. We bought lunch meats and stuff from Target. Nice produce from the produce store in the same parking lot as Target. Steam Fresh veggies, baked potatoes for the microwave. they have very nice gas grills at the resort, and we also purchased hamburger patties and some steaks. The taco place across the street gives you a lot of food (we had enough left over for lunch the next day). I do NOT recommend eating at the Chinese food place across the street. The Island Market across the street has a nice deli dept. that does made to order salads and has some ready made food too, like fried chicken. I found them pretty reasonable. We did not do any fancy sit down places this last trip.

We were more into packing a lunch into our backpacks and heading out for a day of exploring (we did one day exploring, alternating with one day at resort)

Also, the front desk used to give you a map with local food places. We would also ask some of the local cast members where they like to go to eat.

I just checked the photo I took of the Giovanni's shrimp truck on the north shore, and in Jan. 2014 the garlic shrimp plate was $13.

 

[tikilyn]

Thanks deedisneydream9! We're staying in a studio but do plan to use the resort grills at least once. We're getting really excited as the trip approaches.

 

[christmas angel]

A lot of people have recommended going "across the street" to MonkeyPod or the Sushi place. How far a walk is it from the main entrance of Aulani to MonkeyPod? And can anyone tell me how far a walk is it to the main entrance of the Marriott next door? Thanks so much.

 

[deedisneydream97]

Thanks deedisneydream9! We're staying in a studio but do plan to use the resort grills at least once. We're getting really excited as the trip approaches.

Since you are staying in a studio, can you pack one of those collapsible coolers (we get the coors light ones) to use for additional cooling space? Or even pick up a cheapo one at target. We did some microwave breakfasts and some frozen type dinners when in the studio. Not the healthiest in the world, but we were trying to be frugal this trip.

A lot of people have recommended going "across the street" to MonkeyPod or the Sushi place. How far a walk is it from the main entrance of Aulani to MonkeyPod? And can anyone tell me how far a walk is it to the main entrance of the Marriott next door? Thanks so much.

From the front door of the resort, it is less than 10 minutes, and that is mostly because of the pedestrian traffic lights at the intersection. Our first trip there it was kind of dangerous, but they have since installed flashers and such. But you still need to be careful, as I found people don't pay attention when driving. The Marriott is literally steps away. They share the beach and the lagoon. There is another Marriott in the other direction, but also not very far.

 

[Anal Annie]

A lot of people have recommended going "across the street" to MonkeyPod or the Sushi place. How far a walk is it from the main entrance of Aulani to MonkeyPod? And can anyone tell me how far a walk is it to the main entrance of the Marriott next door? Thanks so much.

It's like a short block...not far at all....which is why everyone says "across the street". Roy's is about the same distance, maybe just a smidge further, but in the other direction.