How much do you budget for meals w/o DDP?

[lfeikert]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but it is a dining question!

If you don't do the dining plan, about how much would you budget to eat per day? I know it would vary with the type of restaurant, but what's a rough estimate?

We'd probably do a few character breakfasts, counter service or snacks at lunch and then probably sit down dinners several nights.

The reason I'm asking is because we are trying to decide whether or not to take the teacher discount and stay at Swan. If we do, we wouldn't be able to get the dining plan. We are trying to decide if it's worth it to take the discount and pay out of pocket for meals or if we wouldn't really be saving that much. If it's not the Swan, it's probably another deluxe like Poly or WL.

Sorry if that's confusing!! We are a family of four--Me, DH, DD6 and DD3.
TIA!!

 

[MandM-Mom]

You should look at the places you want to eat and at their prices and figure out a rough estimate of your dinner bill, if its more than what the dining plan is for 1 day then its probable a good deal for you to take the plan, but I guess if you are getting a really good deal at the Swan it may be a wash if it will be alot more for you to stay some where that participates in the plan. When we went last time and used the dining plan it was a phenominal deal for us because most of our dinners alone came to over $100 and we only paid
$ 80.00 for the plan for 2 adults and 1 child back in 2005. So the CS and snacks were basicly free. Good luck and have fun planning!

 

[veraletta]

I've always do the $10 per day, per person per meal which would be $30 for each person.
Even if its a child I use the same rule, this always seems to work out for us. As we eat only 2 meals at the park a day.
We will do a few meals at rainforest cafe, one at sci-fi and Crystal palce.
Now I do count the drive down and back home the same way.
We will leave on June 30th and we be back home on the July 9th.
So for 10 days, for 4 person I will bring $1200 I alway have money left over.
We bring water and snacks (crackers, slim jims, tuna and fruit snacks) with us on the park.
We do buy ice cream and pop.

 

[shellybaxter]

DH and I like to eat at the signature restaurants. We also like to have adult drinks during our meals and during the afternoon and evening. I like to have two sit down meals some days or one sit down and one counter service. I budget about $125.00 per day average. Some days we go above that and some days below.

 

[cslittle999]

I agree with MandM-Mom you should look at the menus at http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining.htm and figure out rough costs. Buffets are the easiest to decide since you will have to pay for each member of your party. Other table service is trickier because you may choose to have the kids share with one of you or each other. The same is true of counter service. It really depends on how big of eaters your two DD's are.

 

[erin.w]

The Passporter book (must-have!) has a chart to use to see if it would be worth it for the DDP or not.

I don't know how accurate it will be for your situation but here it is:

Breakfast:
CS - $10.46
TS a la carte - $21.72
TS buffet - $23.77

Lunch:
CS - $12.51
TS a la carte - $34.31
TS buffet - $27.55
TS signature - $41.80

Dinner:
CS - $12.51
TS a la carte - $40.56
TS buffet - $33.75
TS signature - $61.10

Some of these numbers seem high compared to what we spend but they will give you an idea.

 

[Hope73]

It is up to you. the one person that said 10 per person per meal is not feasable. If you want ot do a few character meals it won't work out. Most character meals are 30 per adult and that would pay for your ddp for then day and you will have a snack and csm left over.

My family. If we didn't do the ddp my husband would try to cut every corner possible to save money on food. For us it is mindless and cheaper in the end. If you budget 1200 for food aand that is a budget that you will have to watch and cut corners to maintain I would guess the plan will cost about the same without the headache.

Good luck.

Our first trip was 7 nights, my kids were little, we did 6 character meals and they loved it.

 

[bride03]

When you get DDP, do character meals count for the "big meal", I forget if it's called table service or what. I was wondering because we are thinking about getting the DDP but we'll only get it if we can do character meals for those. Thanks.

 

[blue_eyes5212]

When you get DDP, do character meals count for the "big meal", I forget if it's called table service or what. I was wondering because we are thinking about getting the DDP but we'll only get it if we can do character meals for those. Thanks.

The character dining (Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace) are TS meals on the dining plan and are 1 credit per person.

 

[DVC Grammy]

Yes, Character meals are TS meals (IIRC, just about all are 1 TS). If you do a big breakfast, such as Crystal Palace, Cape May, etc., you'll probably find that for the rest of the day, CS meals/snacks would be enough!

Those buffets have lots of food!

 

[Tink10]

Now, first let me say that we don't hold back on vacation. We go to WDW to have a good time and food & drink is a big part of that. We drink around the world, we eat what we want. So, when DH & I are by ourselves and not on the DDP, we generally figure about $300 per day in food & drink. If our DD is with us, we figure about $400 per day. We dont take snacks, water or...... tuna

When we're on the DDP, we half everything......$150 per day for DH & I or $200 if we have our DD.

 

[kjs1976]

I go to Deb's site as well to figure what we'd spend in one day with the menus and weigh it against the cost of DDP. I know where we'll eat and what because we have our favs, give or take an entree or two. It works out great.

 

[MickeyNicki]

For DH and I:

CS for breakfast and lunch, share snacks and a TS dinner....$110 per day

 

[danny1649]

For me and DW we stay 6 full days so $600.00 for us.The last two visits though we spent about $450.00.I am a diabectic so we split some meals and that lowers our dining bill.I like the DDP but it is just to much food for us.

 

[mickeysaver]

We used to budget $100/day for the two of us, but have increased that to $125/day + $100, just in case. We take whatever is left over and buy a special "bonus" souvenier on the last day. Maggie