How much do you budget for food for a family of 4?

Yes, I've run all the numbers for different options, and staying at the Wyndham Garden (?) was definitely the most affordable for them. No QSDP fit into their budget anywhere.
We chose not to add Park Hoppers to save the money since they will only be there 4 days. As I mentioned, coming from the other side of the US, the flights are pretty much the entire day. We generally don't get to MCO until around 5-6pm, and to resorts about 1.5-2 hours later. So not worth paying for an extra day of tickets. But being so close to Downtown Disney (I just can't call it anything else...) they'll have that to do that first night, and the morning before they leave if they want to. Plus, this is their first trip to ANY Disney park so we all figured they'll find plenty to do all day in one park at a time, and especially to make the most of the short time they have.

There are 3 Wyndham resorts right around Disney, 1 at Bonnet Creek and 2 located on Hotel blvd, they have the same address but one has a B at the end of the numbers for the address. There also is a Wyndham Garden and its located on I-drive so make sure to check the address's. None of these provides free transportation to and from airport, so they will have to taxi ( around 60 to 85 plus tip for a family of 4 from airport that's just one way so you have to times that by 2) or rent a car which is another cost, and at some resorts there is a fee for parking at resorts not on property anywhere from 20 to 35 a night. So that needs to be added into the mix, also some of these resort add in a resort fee per night ( which is around 20 to 35 depending on the resort) on top of the per night cost, so add in another cost, also wifi is another thing that most people want, is it free or another cost. Plus if they drive to the parks there is a parking fee at the parks anywhere between 20 to 30 dollars depending on time of year, if the resort offers transportation is it free or a fee, normal it will be per person per day.

As I said before my friends thought that they were getting a better deal staying offsite, here was the break down and how quickly things started to add up.

They booked the Hilton at DTD for 150.00 a night standard room 2 beds (from a hotel website site) x 7 nights - so - 1050.00
resort fee was around 30 per night X 7 nights . 210.00
Rental car - 150.00 ( not including gas or insurance)
Parking at resort per night was 27.00 X 7 - 189.00
They drove to the parks, it was 20 X 5 for parking 100.00
Total 1699.00


There was a charge for wifi but she could not remember what it was so I did not add it in.

This is what they spent and had not even gotten tickets, or anything to eat yet. Also her husband could not get over all the driving, sitting in traffic, parking, traming back and forth to the parking lots and parks

With this being their first trip, staying in the magic and being able to use extra magic hours, might be well worth it. It is much easier to ride a WDW bus back to the resort if you forget something, or someone doesn't feel well, then schlepping all the way back to the resort off site.

Time is money especially when its your first trip. Keep checking for free dinning, and the packages, something will turn up. There are lots of ways to add to the budget, garage sales, take the kids clothing and any toys they have outgrown to a kid to kids, or sell on ebay, lots of other ways ask family for Disney gift cards for birthdays, Christmas, eat at home more and take your lunch to work, lots of ideas to add to the budget.


Yes, we did factor in a taxi to/from MCO, but that $100 total didn't offset the cost enough to make it not worth it (and there would be no parking fees). We also considered the resort fees, but again, we are basing it on them going during the lowest rate time, so that would still keep them under other costs. (and they wouldn't use wi-fi, we did talk about that one! LOL) As I said though, if there is a great discount out for the time when they are able to go, we'll absolutely try to get them on-site!! These initial, early plans are just based on getting them there as cheaply as possible, and without specific dates or being able to know the discounts for next year, this looks like the currently most affordable option for them to rely on as far as an idea of what they need to save.
 
We use garden grocer for breakfast and drinks and save a good bit that way. My $80 order will feed the 3 of us breakfast and cut out 2 drink purchases per day, with a few snacks to have at the resort thrown in. A CS breakfast for us runs about $30 a day, and 2 drinks per person is easily $20 so we will be saving $50 a day. We will eat breakfast in the room, take a bottle of something with us in the morning, and have drinks in the fridge when we get back in the evening. It helps that our DVC studio will have a microwave so we can do hot things in the morning.
 
We just returned late last night from a quick 4 day trip. A lot will depend on how much they eat, of course. For example, DD13, DD9 and I split the nachos and churros at La Cantina for lunch one day. It was 16.19 total and we actually threw away some of the nachos. But, bigger eaters might each need their own.

We did something different this trip, and instead of getting DDP, I gave each of us a budget of $175 including souvenirs, plus I paid for 1 meal (we love the dinner buffet at Cape May Cafe, which was $150 after TIW). They get to keep whatever they didn't spend. We also ate at Mama Melrose, but DDs split the steak, and we used TIW there as well. It ended up that I was the only one who spent over $100 over the course of 4 days (arrived 840am Monday, got on ME at 530pm Thursday, but our budgets included airport food), partially because I shared with the girls but didn't "charge" them. The only time I didn't get food when hungry was because I wanted to be hungry for Cape May. I spent 107 on food, DS15 spent 70, DD13 spent 62 and DD9 spent 70 (and that includes their steak dinner!). They were all happy with this set up, and the only food we took with us were 4 cans of pringles (1 came back home too) and some twizzlers. So, I could definitely see lighter eaters spending well under $100 a day.
 
Those of you that carry lot of snacks including water/juice to park, how do you manage them while on rides ? Do you typically rent a locker or something ?

No locker. We did use a stroller but we graduated from that in 2013. My girls had a crossover bag although my youngest at the time was 7 and she got tired of carrying it and my son had a cinch sak and the all kept heir water in there. They have the metal double insulated thermos containers (still use the same ones for school) which kept their water super ice cold in the summer heat. Dh Had a light back pack and I had a crossover too. I carried my water and my camera and dh carried extra water bottles. Dh and I just had the double insulated plastic water bottles which kept the water cold but not like our kids, since then we bought thermos ones for us too.

We must kept water in it, no juice.

Snacks were small enough to keep in there as well.

Rides, we held them except for Everest and Kali (I think both) and they had the comlometary lockers.

We just don't bring everything as we take a mid day break. We don't bring a change of clothes and no diapers (if we did we'd leave them in The stroller).

Typically our bags have a phone, credit cards (ok that is in dh wallet), park map, water and one snack per person if needed oh and water. Me a camera but sometimes I hold it in my hands or I just don't bring it.

Tell them not to buy sodas with their meals. Drink water. That will save over $10 a meal right there.
We only do QS meals these days, as the TS meal costs are too expensive when on a budget. So many QS restaurants have good choices these days, that we've never had a hamburger while at one.

We did that in 2013, best thing ever since it saved so much money!
 

Yes, we did factor in a taxi to/from MCO, but that $100 total didn't offset the cost enough to make it not worth it (and there would be no parking fees). We also considered the resort fees, but again, we are basing it on them going during the lowest rate time, so that would still keep them under other costs. (and they wouldn't use wi-fi, we did talk about that one! LOL) As I said though, if there is a great discount out for the time when they are able to go, we'll absolutely try to get them on-site!! These initial, early plans are just based on getting them there as cheaply as possible, and without specific dates or being able to know the discounts for next year, this looks like the currently most affordable option for them to rely on as far as an idea of what they need to save.


I had another thought, what about renting DVC points, my girlfriend just scored 5 nights at either AK value studio or old key west studio for under 750.00 to 800.00 dollars depending on which week they go late in February. They are looking at David dvc rental, it is advertised on here ad they have rented from them before and it has been great. This way they have kitchenette, there is a frig and microwave, they provide paper plates, glasses, and so forth. Check them out on You Tube for a real look into the lay out, with this they get to use magical express, to and from and extra magic hours. They also can help you with tickets. Just another suggestion. Have fun planning with her, sending lots of pixie dust your way...pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:
 
Just make surre they know, if they rent points, it is non-refundable. That may be a problem if they need to cancel.
 
Just make surre they know, if they rent points, it is non-refundable. That may be a problem if they need to cancel.

This, for sure. Renting points is great for getting a deluxe on a value/moderate budget, but with no set date and not even a value budget....
 
We drive so we are able to bring food with us and easily stop by the grocery store before we check into our resort. We are arriving next month and this will be our first onsite stay. We rented DVC because we feel it isn't really a vacation unless DH and I have our own room. We also prefer having a kitchen, washer and dryer.

We are a family of 3 (2 adults and DS6) and our budget for food is $600. All of our food will be purchased on gift cards that we purchase at a discount or through credit card rewards. We save 5-15% on Disney gift cards and 20% on Landry's gift cards (I suggest joining Landry's Select Club if only for the priority seating but it has many other benefits). We plan to bring $600 in Disney and $150 in Landry. The Disney gift cards will also be for extras or souvenirs (although we typically skip those). We eat at several TS meals including 1 character breakfast ('Ohana and 1900 Park Fare are wonderful and the lowest priced), bring food and water into the parks and find that a kids meal at certain CS locations is more than enough for an adult. If we didn't do table service meals we could easily spend much less on food. We also split meals as we don't like to waste food!

At T-Rex DH and I will share the stuffed chicken entree as it's more than enough food. At Be Our Guest lunch we order the child's pork entree, it's a lot of food and comes with a drink (we typically drink water but sometimes you want something else). At Pinocchio's Village Haus we order the kids pizza with grapes, fries and a drink. The kids pizza is half of the adult flatbread. We have also ordered the chicken parmesan at dinner - it comes with a side salad and we order an additional salad one then split the entree with water to drink (it's a ton of food). We used to order the kids burger at Peco's Bills but they changed the menu. At TS meals we almost always share entrees, order water and skip dessert. We almost never order the $30+ steak but get chicken or pork. We split snacks in the parks other than a Mickey Bar and typically get 1 snack per day. We also buy a few alcoholic beverages.

For us, we are so busy that we tend to eat less when we are at Disney World. This upcoming trip is to celebrate DS's 6th birthday so we will have a full sized stroller. DS never used a stroller and during our 1st trip when he was 4 we thought we didn't need one. After our first day we had to go to Walmart and purchase one. We have a cooler backpack and bring water, snacks and food with us into the parks (and store it in the stroller). This trip we will bring in grapes, baby carrots, pretzels and cheezits along with PB&J for DS and turkey sandwiches for me and DH. DS will have a sandwich each day and DH and I will have one 3-4 days. For breakfast we are bringing pre-cooked bacon with toast or frozen waffles and fruit. I don't plan to cook any meals in our kitchen.

I have found Allears to be a good source for menu information but Disney also has the menus with prices for each restaurant, although they do not list the prices on the buffets. Allears has buffet prices along with food descriptions - I use both to plan our meals. I don't like to have a strict schedule for park days but Disney kind of forces you to. I make lists of different restaurants for different parks with the entrees that we would share or order from the kids menu.

I have never stayed onsite before but IMO with not having a car, even if it looks like they will save $1-200 it might be better to just stay at a value. It might also be a better option to rent a car for a week and rent a timeshare from Armed Forces Vacation Club or Sky Auction. We typically rent a timeshare unit for under $300 for a week - but again, we drive so we already have our car. It sounds like this will be more of a once in a lifetime trip and not something they will do every year or so. Staying in a value really might be the better option, especially without a car. Bringing instant oatmeal is easy when flying and having Garden Grocer deliver water and sandwich supplies will really help them save money on food. They could also have water shipped to the resort, buy a loaf of bread at the resort and pack peanut butter, jelly and oatmeal along with some snacks.
 
One of our money-saving vacation traditions is to order a pizza. I just looked at the receipt from our recent visit and we got a large Pepperoni pizza at Pop Century for $16.50. That was enough to feed three adults so I think it would fit your sister's family.
We drink water, and you could always throw in a salad or fresh fruit for a little more. Either way it's a cheap meal.
Of course it's easier if you are staying at a resort with a food court, but if you aren't you can get a bus from the park to the resort and eat a pizza. Then enjoy a stroll around the resort and go back to the park. It's a nice break, a cheap meal, and you get to see something new.
 
We're budgeting $900 for 6 days (4-5 in the park). Not planning on any restaurant meals in the park, will bring our own breakfast, and may leave the park for Earl of Sandwich or McDonalds at times. When we went last time we had 5 people and did not even hit this number (but I had already prepaid for 2 character meals).
 







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