Help me budget for WDW food!

[Jen cook]

This is our first trip to WDW. We usually do Disneyland. This is a graduation trip. we are going June 26-July 7. We will be in the parks 8 days and have typhoon beach bash tickets for one night and reservations for Ohana one morning. We have here kids (17,13,6)

I’m trying to decide how much to budget for food/snacks. We usually do one meal in park. These are the meals we are doing (so far)

Liberty tree
50’s cafe
Tusker house breakfast
Ohana breakfast
Crystal palace dinner
Mama melrose (my sons 18th bday)
Be our guest lunch

I plan to order waters drinks snacks and breakfast items to be delivered to the hotel. Planning on 1 snack/treat a day in parks.

So there’s 5 of us, we don’t have a dining plan because we are staying at the Dolphin.

I’ve looked at the menus and come up with how much maps will cost on our dining reservations, but in addition to that how much would you budget per day?

Thank you!!!!

(Cross posted)

 

[3 DD love princesses]

I use $16 a person for qs and $35 for table service. This way I have enough and sometimes it’s less. Depending on what you order will depend on your total. Our family of 5 with three kids spends $1500 for a week on meals but that’s eating 2 meals in the parks. Some table service and some qs.

 

[kreckl]

We usually have a rough estimate of $200 day for the three of us if we aren't staying DVC with a kitchen or studio kitchenette. Its an insane amount of money and there are days we don't spend anywhere near that, but its a number I'm comfortable with. I'd rather have money left over, not worry if we all want lemonades, or an extra treat....We tend to do one TS meal each day.
Of course its possible to eat much cheaper. You could fill your little fridge and pack your meals in. We've done that too, it depends on the trip or day.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

And don't forget to budget tips into the table service meals! I tend to forget about those and they can really add up.

 

[Marionnette]

This is our first trip to WDW. We usually do Disneyland. This is a graduation trip. we are going June 26-July 7. We will be in the parks 8 days and have typhoon beach bash tickets for one night and reservations for Ohana one morning. We have here kids (17,13,6)

I’m trying to decide how much to budget for food/snacks. We usually do one meal in park. These are the meals we are doing (so far)

Liberty tree
50’s cafe
Tusker house breakfast
Ohana breakfast
Crystal palace dinner
Mama melrose (my sons 18th bday)
Be our guest lunch

I plan to order waters drinks snacks and breakfast items to be delivered to the hotel. Planning on 1 snack/treat a day in parks.

So there’s 5 of us, we don’t have a dining plan because we are staying at the Dolphin.

I’ve looked at the menus and come up with how much maps will cost on our dining reservations, but in addition to that how much would you budget per day?

Thank you!!!!

(Cross posted)

A lot will depend on what you consider to be a "snack". When my sons were in their late teens, a "snack" consisted of an entire frozen pizza for each of them!

If you've done the budgeting for all of the above meals already (including 6.5% tax and an appropriate tip for the TS meals), and you're only expecting to do one snack in the parks (no lunch?, my sons would have mutinied!), then I would budget $6 per person per day. That would be enough for a frozen drink at Starbucks or Joffrey's, an ice cream from one of the carts, popcorn, a soft pretzel or a large cookie. Some snacks will cost more than others and some would be big enough to share. But $6/person per day would allow you to make two snack stops and share them.

 

[Darcy03231]

This is really subjective, because it depends on how your family eats. My mom and I are both light eaters and tend to share meals. We spent a week at WDW and spent about $350 between the two of us on food in the parks and probably another $100 on stuff we bought a the grocery store.

If it's my son and I, I can easily more than double that as he's a young adult and big eater.

I generally plan $100/pp per day for everything, including all three meals, snacks and drinks, although I always bring money home. I'd rather plan too much than too little.

 

[Jen cook]

Thank you. We plan to do lunch we usually leave the park for a small break with the 6 year old so we will do lunch likely outside the parks. I appreciate all the feedback. We will bring a few snacks into the parks as well. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[stsomewhere]

I plan $100ppa day. SOmetimes we are over, some days we are under.

 

[Jen cook]

This is really subjective, because it depends on how your family eats. My mom and I are both light eaters and tend to share meals. We spent a week at WDW and spent about $350 between the two of us on food in the parks and probably another $100 on stuff we bought a the grocery store.

If it's my son and I, I can easily more than double that as he's a young adult and big eater.

I generally plan $100/pp per day for everything, including all three meals, snacks and drinks, although I always bring money home. I'd rather plan too much than too little.

Wise advice. Someone said $60 pp per day and for our entire trip (11 days that’s over 3k, that wounded crazy! But I’m seeing it’s probably accurate and we will bring $ home. I can see $60 for the 17 year old and Husband but the girls and I are light eaters, so $30–$40 seems more reasonable. I guess I would rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it. Thanks!

 

[holden]

We pay for all of our food with Disney gift cards purchased at BJs. It’s $96 for a $100 GC, so that’s a 4% savings right off the bat!

 

[katmatry]

There are 5 of us, kids are 19, 17, 13. I budget $350 a day for spending. Spending includes, all meals (usually 1 TS a day), snacks, drinks, shopping and extras like a surry bike or pontoon boat. We've been enough to know that this is the number that works for us.