How much do you spend on food?

I am updating my Finance briefing to servicemembers who are new to the service and/or So. CA. Many (or vast majority) get stationed/assigned to southern CA are in for a huge shock at the cost of living here, but on a budget...its mangeable. Part of my briefing includes planning ahead when visiting "theme parks" but I generally focus on DL and DCA (since I have an AP I am kinda biased but I try not to be). I would like a realistic look at what visitors usually spend on food and drinks on a typical DL and DCA visit for the following catergories:
-going alone
-going as a couple
-going as a family of 4 or more.

Anyone have an input they would like to share?

The #1 best source of food budgeting I use for a Disneyland trip is http://allears.net/dlr/dining/menus.htm. They have all of the menus and pricing on their website. Some ways that our family saves $$ on food for a Disneyland trip:
  1. Bring a water bottle with you. Fill it up for free at any CS (counter service) restaurant. You basically ask for as many free ice waters as you want. Fill up your water bottle with that.
  2. If you or members of your family don't like plain water, bring some of those flavor packets or one of those small Mio containers.
  3. Bring snacks with you in your park bag (backpack or whatever bag you use for the day).
  4. Don't stay at an on-site hotel. Stay off site at a hotel with a fridge & microwave. Bring food w/you to have a quick breakfast in the room.
  5. OR stay at a hotel that comes with a free breakfast. Usually the free breakfast has fruit that you can take with you. 1 banana or apple per person can be the perfect snack to keep the hungries away mid-morning.
  6. Skip TS (table service) restaurants. The CS restaurants have a wide range of menu offerings and it's more affordable.
  7. Don't buy soda in the parks. That's probably $3.50 per 20 oz bottle of soda. Multiply that times 4 people and 2 meals per day and you've saved $28 right there..
  8. Good CS value at DL - the fried chicken meal at the Plaza Inn. Often, 2 people can share it.
 
I went by myself to DL for the day about a year ago and I spent about $40 on food using the suggestions I listed above.

We are a family of 4: me, DH, ODD (11), YDD (9). We went to DL at the end of May and stayed for 5 days. I figured $175/day for our family of 4 and that worked out pretty well. On some days, we spent more on food because of some TS meals. We ended up spending about $1000 on food because of the TS meals.
 
We budget about $175 a day for a family of 4 (a 12 and 14 yr old). This does not include breakfast that we eat at the hotel (we bring simple breakfast stuff with us). Some days we are under this budget and some days we are way over if we’re doing a character meal.
 


I think for us the food is a big part of the experience, so we budget accordingly...

This is an important point. If visitors really want to make the food part of the experience, then they will need to research the menus and prices, decide on TS/CS/character dining, and budget accordingly (round up!). If food will be a necessity, but not an "experience," then the budget can be trimmed quite a bit and the subsequent savings spent elsewhere, e.g. souvenirs.
 
We are foodies too, and tend to snack our way through the park. That being said, me and DS11 spent $75/day this last trip. We share a lot and drink water, but also do not hesitate to get mint juleps or fancy desserts or lobster nachos whenever the mood strikes us. Oh, if you're going in the next month or so, keep in mind the Festival of Holidays booths will get ya ... if I weren't expecting atm I would have spent a lot more on all the beautiful cocktails! As it was the sherbet punch and caramel apple lemonade still drew us in ...
 
Hmmm, I am budgeting about $160 a day for 2 of us for an upcoming trip. This does include a BB Fantasmic package, as well as Carthay Circle and Cafe Orleans lunches. It also takes into account a hotel breakfast. I seem to be coming in a little high compared to others in this thread, but when I crunched the #s for a couple of sample days I was worried that I needed to make it even higher.

Example- a lunch at Carthay Circle with biscuits, entrees, coffees and a shared dessert comes in at around $120 (or higher) with tax and grat. Add a $40 QS supper for 2= $160 And that isn't counting any alcoholic beverages, breakfast or other snacks...
There will only be my adult daughter and I, and I find it difficult to figure out, because we are staying off property for 4 nights, then 2 onsite, neither hotel offers breakfast, but we plan on doing early mornings, and will probably walk to Panera to get a quick bite before we head over, or just take some breakfast type bars and maybe fruit cup from the little mini mart in the hotel. Lunch is where we will spend $$ because we want to sample a lot of the offerings at the Festival of Holidays, she's an AP so we are buying a couple of the $45 deals (you get 8 items, not sure if it includes drinks though) one night we have WOC dessert booked, but I've already paid for that. Then Thanksgiving is about $43pp, not including tax & gratuities, so I figured $120 for both of us? We also have a reservation at Cafe Orleans, but the only thing I want there is to share pomme frittes, have a cup of gumbo each and share Mickey beignets. We take our food planning seriously! lol!! We are also eating at other favorite spots like Bengal BBQ, and will share a lot of meals, especially the Food & Wine. We also love Trader Sam's so will likely have some nips & nibbles there. Plan on sharing the tableside guac at Tortilla Jo's, getting snacks like Mickey popcorn, occasional churro, Christmas gingerbread and other sweet treats, dole whip! Oh and with our Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour, it includes lunch that day. Would $50-$60pp per day be too little to budget? I feel like I'm going to gain 20 lbs, oh my gosh!!
 


she's an AP so we are buying a couple of the $45 deals (you get 8 items, not sure if it includes drinks though)
It doesn't include alcoholic drinks. I'm figuring this out for our trip as we speak, and if my math is right the pass only saves you money on items that cost more than $5.50. Like you, we plan to share items so we can sample as much as possible. After going through the list of offerings and taking out alcohol, items that cost $5.50 or less, and items that don't sound appealing (not many), it looks like a second $45 pass is only worth if we buy multiples of things, which is not the plan. The cost works out better if we buy only one pass and use it on the items that cost over $7, and pay cash for everything else. Just something to consider.
 
I think for us the food is a big part of the experience, so we budget accordingly. I'm pretty sure if I brought a whole bunch of healthy snacks, it would go over like a lead balloon. :goodvibes
The healthiest snack I've been able to get the family to eat enthusiastically has been beef jerky. We're into the TS dining experiences as well. It's a huge part of the budget for sure. I was just able to get the Fantasmic! DP for BB and was/am super excited but just realized we're also having a $232 meal now. THAT makes me sick so I like to get gift cards so the money is already spent and I don't feel like I'm being frivolous with money (even though I totally am!). I don't have time to get to Target but one way I have stretched my money is by getting Disney entertainment cards ($50 cards) with my Red Debit card which saves 5%. So $100 in cards for $95. Not huge savings but makes me feel slightly better!
 
We are very frugal, so we can afford the trip a little more often. As a family of 6 (our boys are 15, 12, 3, and 1), our budget is around $100 a day.

We eat breakfast at the hotel (included or something easy like instant oatmeal that we bring from home).

We have lunch at Disneyland and stick to buying 4 entrees that are around $10 each. My husband and older boys get their own, I share with the youngest, and we bring food for our 3 year old (he has food issues). We fill up water bottles to drink.

Dinner at the hotel is something inexpensive. Last trip I bought $100 in gift cards to Bucca di Beppo for $75 from Costco. Signed up for coupons and ended up getting more than enough food for two nights out of it. Next time, I think we will do that again, try Marri's pizza, and do burgers or Chick Fil A. We bring drinks from home to save there, too.

We usually get one treat a day or I make stuff at home and take it with us. M&M pretzel rods are easy and good. They like my cookies and brownies better than Disney ones anyway. My kids usually want the homemade treats and my husband and I like to get a carmel apple to share.
 
We are very frugal, so we can afford the trip a little more often. As a family of 6 (our boys are 15, 12, 3, and 1), our budget is around $100 a day.

We eat breakfast at the hotel (included or something easy like instant oatmeal that we bring from home).

We have lunch at Disneyland and stick to buying 4 entrees that are around $10 each. My husband and older boys get their own, I share with the youngest, and we bring food for our 3 year old (he has food issues). We fill up water bottles to drink.

Dinner at the hotel is something inexpensive. Last trip I bought $100 in gift cards to Bucca di Beppo for $75 from Costco. Signed up for coupons and ended up getting more than enough food for two nights out of it. Next time, I think we will do that again, try Marri's pizza, and do burgers or Chick Fil A. We bring drinks from home to save there, too.

We usually get one treat a day or I make stuff at home and take it with us. M&M pretzel rods are easy and good. They like my cookies and brownies better than Disney ones anyway. My kids usually want the homemade treats and my husband and I like to get a carmel apple to share.
Those are some great tips! Have you ever tried Pizza Press? In 2012 when we discovered it we stumbled across it and found it to be the best deal around. I don't remember what the prices were in January (I was super overwhelmed that trip). The oatmeal for breakfast is a good idea for everyone--we would stay at BWPPI and eat at Captain Kidd's and within 30 minutes my nephew was "starving" to the point of not being able to go on...he was weeks away from being nine.
 
Those are some great tips!... we would stay at BWPPI and eat at Captain Kidd's...

One food tip for everyone, no matter what the budget, stay away from Captain Kidd's! Seriously, that place is not safe for anyone. More posters here have reported getting sick, food reviews have reported unsafe food temps, flies on the food, unsupervised food (who knows who could tamper with it?), etc. That place was voted worst restaurant in OC by the OC Weekly several years ago, if I remember correctly. Eat there at your own risk. No amount of food budgeting is worth spending the night on the bathroom floor with a bottle of Pepto Bismol.
 
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I always budget $50 per person per day. That includes lunch, dinner, and a snack (we are not breakfast ppl and usually just grab a drink and fruit at the hotel breakfast). Sometimes we spend less, sometimes more - depends if we share snacks, or go to a more expensive ts etc. - it all balances out in the end. There are 3 of us, when DD was younger (she is 15 now) I budgeted $50 for adults and $35 for DD.

One food tip for everyone, no matter what the budget, stay away from Captain Kidd's! Seriously, that place is not safe for anyone. More posters here have reported getting sick, food reviews have reported unsafe food temps, flies on the food, unsupervised food (who knows who could tamper with it?), etc. That place was voted worst restaurant in OC by the OC Weekly several years ago, if I remember correctly. Eat there at your own risk. No amount of food budgeting is worth spending the night on the bathroom floor with a bottle of Pepto Bismol.
We always joke about going to Capt. Kidd's! Never have but I've read so many reviews it has becomea running joke with us.
 
I always budget $50 per person per day. That includes lunch, dinner, and a snack (we are not breakfast ppl and usually just grab a drink and fruit at the hotel breakfast). Sometimes we spend less, sometimes more - depends if we share snacks, or go to a more expensive ts etc. - it all balances out in the end. There are 3 of us, when DD was younger (she is 15 now) I budgeted $50 for adults and $35 for DD.


We always joke about going to Capt. Kidd's! Never have but I've read so many reviews it has becomea running joke with us.
The breakfast is "fine". I've heard to avoid it at all cost for any other meal. It's super generic though--cereal, yogurt, scrambled egg, sausage pucks, etc. But they don't seem to care if you take anything with you--actually the host at the stairs seems completely apathetic to everything.
 
One food tip for everyone, no matter what the budget, stay away from Captain Kidd's! Seriously, that place is not safe for anyone. More posters here have reported getting sick, food reviews have reported unsafe food temps, flies on the food, unsupervised food (who knows who could tamper with it?), etc. That place was voted worst restaurant in OC by the OC Weekly several years ago, if I remember correctly. Eat there at your own risk. No amount of food budgeting is worth spending the night on the bathroom floor with a bottle of Pepto Bismol.
I thought that was taken care of years ago? I remember when they failed a health inspection when I was researching them in 2011. I've stayed there twice and eaten there between the two trips 14 times, continental breakfast only, and didn't have any issues. And there were always people stocking the line. They all look like they hate their jobs, but they were all following health code rules on the continental line--at least in front of the customers. I don't know what they do in the back.
 
We budget about $20/25 per meal/person. Of course no law says you gotta spend that much.
 
The breakfast is "fine". I've heard to avoid it at all cost for any other meal. It's super generic though--cereal, yogurt, scrambled egg, sausage pucks, etc. But they don't seem to care if you take anything with you--actually the host at the stairs seems completely apathetic to everything.

I think I read somewhere that the hotel is responsible for providing the breakfast (just using the restaurant as a venue), but the restaurant is responsible for the other meals. That could account for the difference in food safety between breakfast (safe, if not exciting) and everything else. I haven't heard any illness complaints about breakfast, but there have been issues with the other meals reported on this forum as recently as this year or last.
 
Before you figure out your food budget, what you should probably first determine if your trip is going to be show & attraction focused or food focused.

If you're on a food-focused trip and if you're an uber foodie person, then maybe you'd devote more of your budget on food and you'd consider a TS reservation or even a meal at some place more expensive & fancy like Carthay Circle (in DCA) or Napa Rose (in GCH).

The Disneyland edition of the DIS Unplugged had some podcasts about a year or 2 ago where Tony did food reviews of various breakfast & lunch options for a family of 4 where the total was $40-$50. I'll go hunt for them and will post them in this thread because those podcasts are really helpful.
 
Eating in the parks really is a big part of the experience. There's just nothing like relaxing with a good meal and watching all the activity on Main St. or any of the other heavily traveled paths.
 

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