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!!

 

[Marla Hellwig]

I am going to move this to our Restuarant board for you

 

[Disneyorbust05]

This is on the lines of what we were thinking, but I wanted to make sure. Thanks for your quick reply!!

 

[dvcgirl]

DisneyorBust...

First of all, if you are going for 7 days and plan on eating three meals a day....seriously consider ordering the Disney Dining Experience Card. This card has previously been available only to Florida Residents but is now available to the general public. The price is $75 (or $50 if one of you has an annual pass). This card will get you 20% off food *and alcohol* at many of Disney's sit down restaurants and even a few of the counter service restaurants.

Here's a link that explains the Disney Dining experience

http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dde.htm

 

[shatzjsl]

Just as an FYI you will need to spend around $500 on food to make the card worth the $75.00. I honestly don't think you will end up doing two sit down meals a day. We also are three squares a day type people at home but at WDW we usually have one sit down meal a day and had counter service or snacks the rest of the day.

 

[brermomof2]

Two sit downs a day, every day, with little ones seems like a lot of time spent eating, but just depends on what type of vacation you want. We are always too anxious for a sit down breakfast, although I have wondered about trying Chef Mickey's. For lunch it's always counter service, but at EPCOT you might want to try some in the World. This is where comparing menus is a must because you can try many of the same foods for a smaller portion and price. Or maybe that would be the place to do 2 sit downs a day. I just can't imagine eating that much. Also, the World is the only place we really like to eat at sit downs. Except at MK we love Crystal Palace, oh and the Plaza, and Liberty Tree is pretty good.... ok scratch that about only liking EPCOT for sit downs. I ALWAYS overbudget for food. I would HATE to spend my vacation stressing about that and thinking, "Can we afford this Mickey bar?" Plus, that way we always come back with money and I've impressed my DH with how much I saved him . Last time I convinced him to use some of the left over money to buy a beautiful ceiling fan for our bedroom. That sure helped with those "back from disney blues" . I would say $200 a day should be fine, but extra for any dinner shows. Also, don't forget to include travel/arrival/departure days, whether driving or at airports.

 

[chrisn]

We also take $200 per day for the 4 of us. We do 1 sitdown per day and then counter service and snacks just like the previous poster.

 

[fanofdisney]

Really is hard to say..

But based on what you said, I would figure this:

Sit Down Breakfast: $50 for all 4 including tip.
Counter Service Lunch: $30 for all 4.
Sit Down Dinner: At least $60.

Snacks and drinks is totally unpredictable. I can tell you that myself, I budget about $100 a day for food and drinks. Granted, that includes a couple of beers at night, but I also only eat fast food for breakfast and lunch.

From the sounds of it, it seems like you might need about $200 for the day.

That sounds about right. We were very surprised last time we went at the cost of food. If you're prepared ahead of time for the "sticker shock", your trip will be more pleasant. We are taking a lot of money just for food so we don't have to worry about getting out the calculator.

 

[kimmar067]

...between $150 - $180 since your children are small. Did you ever consider sharing your meal with one of the young ones? For an optional fee, a CM can bring you a child-size plate and you can actually share a portion of your meal with him/her. (this only pertains to actual sit-down, non-buffet type restaurants). Just a thought....

 

[anne]

Hi - I have just been figuring this out myself - definitely look at the DDE card. Even if you assume one sit down per day, and check the restaurants you definitely want to eat at, you can see pretty quickly whether or not the card is worth it.

 

[goofy4wdw2]

the actual breakeven point for the price of the DDE card:
-At $75....you need to spend $375 on meals
-At $50 (AP rate)...you need to spend $250 on meals

sounds like a good deal!

 

[jtdl]

WOW, I couldn't imaging spending $200 a day, every day! There are 4 of us also. DH is the only big eater so there will always be a shared meal, either the two kids or me and one of the kids. I figure we don't have time for one sit down meal every day (never mind two), so most will be counter service. For breakfast we usually grab a muffin and yogurt or something to eat in the room while getting ready. We take a cooler and buy these items at the grocery store. Then we have an early lunch at the park. The rest depends on when our bellies are growling. We may have an early supper or we may wait until we get back to the resort and eat in the food court. We're on vacation - the only "for sure" meal we'll be eating is a character breakfast at the Crystal Palace. All other meals will be based on when we're hungry. I allocate $100 per day (the character breakfast day requires more than that) and think that there'll only be some days that will require that much!

 

[Grumpy92]

Figure $10-20 for Breakfast
$10 for Counter Service Locations, Lunch/Dinner
$20 or More for Full Service Restaurants Lunch/Dinner

That is per person.
Alot of the restaurants have sit down lunches that have pretty much the same menu as dinner but lower prices.

 

[jtdl]

If you happen to have a package you could add the MYW Dining plan to it and it would save you quite a bit of money - $35/adult and $10/child.

 

[TSirgey]

I also agree that two sit down meals with young children is a bit much. Our dd was not a big fan of wasting any precious time at the parks, so she was a bit impatient. We tried to do one sit down meal per day. For breakfast, we always grabbed a quick bite at the hotel (bagel, muffin, etc.). Other than our Character meal, we were in a hurry to get to the parks and did not want to waste time. We were able to get to the parks early and ride our favorite attractions, then take it easy the rest of the day. I liked going cheap for breakfast because then I didn't feel limited on my spending at dinner. We budgeted $150/day for 3 of us, but didn't always spend that much.

 

[Cameo]

We also have two small children and although I was figuring about $150 per day, I figured all the menus and what we were likely to order and I came up with closer to $170. (That included a trip to the grocery store for hotel room snacks, tips at meals, bottled water for my daughter since she can't drink Florida water, etc.)

We will eat most breakfasts in the room as my kids are not big breakfast eaters. We do hope to do two character breakfasts. We have at least one sit-down meal per day, with several being character meals.

It is amazing to me how quickly the meal prices add up. We like to sample new foods and also like to eat desserts while on vacation. We could certainly share at some meals, but it is so much fun to try new things that we all usually order something. If we had to be on a budget trip (which we may have to do in the future), we would need to eat differently, but since the next trip fits into our budget, we will try many new places.

Do keep in mind that sit-down meals can take anywhere from 1-2 hours and little ones can sometimes be overwhelmed by all the characters and commotion, especially after a full day of park activity. I try to balance the big character meals or sit-down experiences with slower park days or days of swimming, etc.

 

[Disneyorbust05]

WOW....everyone has been so helpful. This is fantastic information and we will definitely apply some of this knowledge to our trip! Thanks to each and every one of you again!!