Food Money - How much should we set aside?

[Disneyorbust05]

Hello Everyone! We will be going to Disney this May and were wondering how much money we should set aside (now) for food? There will be 4 of us going (2 adults and 2 small children for 7 days) and I know I should probably take a look at the menus and calculate from there, but since you guys are the experts, I thought I would ask here first. I can tell you that we are all breakfast, lunch and dinner eaters - so I was hoping that some of you could give me a ballpark $$$ amount for the least amount of money we should budget for food for a week. We will eat 2 sitdown and 1 counter service meal per day- most likely.

I know some of you have already posted budget amounts before and when I did a search on it, it was too jumbled - so I was hoping that you could help me out better if I started my own thread.

I am not picky about the delivery of your response - if you want to go into details - wonderful, if you don't and want to just give me a rough estimate number, that would be wonderful too.

THANKS!!

 

[LauraAnn630]

2 adults and 2 children ( 2yr old & 7yr old)
breakfast in room
Chef Mickey $60.00
Crystal Palace $60.00
counter service
7 days $560.00
snacks & drinks $70.00
Rainforest $70.00


So about $820.00

Kids ate alot of chicken strips and pizza.

Didnt like the Rainforest! Kids food was awful! Low grade chicken nuggets and hard fries! Our food was expensive with small porportions.

LOVED CRYSTAL PALACE for dinner!
LOVED CHEF MICKEY for breakfast!

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

It's very difficult to guess what another family will spend on dining. We have different dining preferences from the norm. DD14 is vegetarian. We eat a small breakfast, large lunch and do counterservice for dinner. Our dining budget for 4 "adults" is in the range of $125/day.

You can probably get a better idea of what you would spend by visiting AllEarsNet.com - Menus From Around the World and pricing it yourself. Don't forget to add 6.5% sales tax and an appropriate tip for sitdown meals. Character meals and buffets almost always cost more than a regular sitdown meal. Lunches are less expensive than dinners in the sitdown restaurants. Portions are pretty large and can often be shared.

 

[Disneyorbust05]

Thank you for your response! Info. like yours helps a lot!!

I do have one more question though - a friend of ours swears by Rainforest Cafe - yet I have read a lot of the same input about the food as yours and that scares me. Would that be a good place to just get dessert & coffee rather than dinner? I hear the ambiance is not to miss!

 

[disneysteve]

We eat breakfast in the room always. Last trip, we were 2 adults and DD-9. We averaged $20/person/day for all meals, snacks and beverages. Last year, we were 3 adults and DD-8 and we averaged $17/person/day.

 

[disneysteve]

a friend of ours swears by Rainforest Cafe

We like Rainforest. Have eaten there numerous times at Disney and other locations (Atlantic City, Connecticut, Virginia, etc.). The best thing is the portions are HUGE and very easily shared. If we go for lunch, or even for dinner, DW and I will usually just order 2 appetizers. The main courses are just way too big. DD will get a kids meal and never had any complaints.

 

[sweet maxine]

My family and I ate at the Rainforest Cafe last month, and while I think we didn't do as well with the VKL vouchers as others have, the food was quite good. We did share among a group of 6, as the entrees are large servings. We didn't have any food leftover, so I guess that speaks for itself about the food quality. We especially enjoyed the Volcano dessert, as it is made for sharing!

As far as making a food budget goes, just be aware that eating all of your meals on property will be expensive. I agree about eating breakfast in your room---that's a good moneysaver! I also feel that if you must splurge on breakfast, give the Golden Corral located at the Marriott Village area a try. For $5.99 with drink included, it's a mindboggling breakfast buffet! We ate at Crystal Palace on the same trip, and my kids actually preferred the Golden Corral. If you really want to do a character breakfast, just make that the splurge of the day. You probably won't be too hungry for a heavy meal again until late in the afternoon. Just read the menus and prices posted on Deb Wills website, and that will give you an idea of what a day's worth of meals will cost. Remember that there are always alternatives to eating onsite once or twice a week during your stay. We spent somewhere in the ballpark of what disneysteve posted as a per person/per day figure, and we were definitely fed well.

With 2 small children, you may want to look into at least one character meal. Have fun with whatever you do, and don't deny yourself a splurge or two. I also want to add that my family enjoyed eating at the Earl of Sandwich in DTD. Their sandwiches were yummy, and easy on the budget. I can't remember if there was a child's menu there, though.

 

[PrincessCandaceMarie]

It all depends, look at the menus at All Ears too.....

 

[Taja]

I've never gone to WDW with children, so I'm not sure about costs for them. Snacks and drinks in the parks are a killer, though. Bottled water is $2 per 24 oz. bottle, soft drinks the same for 12 or 16 oz. Snacks range from about $3 to $8 (turkey legs in the upper range). Mickey Bars are (or were in December, 2004) $2.50 each. It's easy to spend $5 to $6 per person several times daily for snacks!

Counter service combination meals: About $7 to $10 per adult, including tax.
Buffets and moderate restaurants: About $25 to $50 per person (excluding alcohol) including tax and gratuity. Some buffets include non-alcoholic drinks, others don't.
Character meals range from about $20 per adult for breakfast to about $35 per adult for dinner (including tax and gratuity).

Definitely recommend purchasing beverages and snacks off site, if possible, as well as simple breakfast items. If you have transportation, eating off site at least one meal each day will help the budget. Crossroads Shopping Center (avoid Goodings grocery store, if possible--quite high prices over all) has Perkins, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Taco Bell and McDonald's that I can recall. Others, as well, just don't remember what. There are a number of other shopping centers nearby with full service and counter service restaurants.

I found Perkins to have similar pricing to home, but the fast food chains were about 30% higher.

 

[Disneyorbust05]

I appreciate all of the responses. This input will help us a lot in our planning - thanks!!