How much for food for three for a day at DL?

jacobsmommy

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 16, 2006
Messages
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We plan on doing pretty much all counter service meals during our three day stay at DL. We will probably get some quick breakfast stuff for on our way to the parks. We'll probably eat lunch and dinner in the parks with maybe a snack or two. It'll be me (almost four months pg at the time), dh and our three year old. How much should I expect to spend each day for food? We plan on taking some snacks and juice boxes/water bottles into the park with us.
 
I recomend you take a look at www.dlresortinfo.com for menus. You know your families eating habits the best. For our family of 4 (2 adults 2 kids 5 and 8) we usually spend about $100 a day. Somedays its less, but the days we do a character meal it's more. We eat breakfast at the hotel (free at CCI), and a meal or two and snacks in the park.
 
For a family of 6 we budget $150.00/day. Since the KIDS 14,16,18,20 and two adults we eat fair size meals that have lots of greens, fruit and an entree. With a character meal and maybe a trip or two to DTD dining the budget is realistic for us.

Jackpirate:
 
Most counter service meals are fairly large and you may be able to share your meal with your DD. I like to order a children's meal. It's just the right amount of food for me. When we went two weeks ago, me, dh, ds (17), dd(14), we spent at least $10 each/meal.
 

There is 3 of us also, myself, husband, and our son that is 9. I save anywhere between $60-80 a day total. We eat out of the park a lot though, McDonalds for breakfast or lunch ect... I also save extra beyond that total for special meals, like character meals, sit down ect.. If we eat in the park more, it's closer to the $80 a day.
 
I' estimate $100-$140 a day.

It cost us $48 to buy 4 meals at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon to eat while watching Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. Live and learn: we would have been satisfied w/ sharing 2 meals and 4 beverages.

We saw "family sized" pizza at a downtown Disney resturaunt for $49.

Even snacks get pricey ... unless there is some type of food in Disney that you really, really want (like Dole Pineapple Whip ;) ) --- If you want to keep costs down I'd suggest checking out Harbor Blvd ... there's several restaurants, even some w/ wait-service less than a 10 minute walk from the spot where the parking lot trams drop/pickup people.

Get your hand stamped, walk out, eat, come back. If you have kids under 8, sometimes it's worth doing this to temporarily remove them from the park before they get over-stimulated, kwim?


Happy planning!
 
If you are just doing counter service I would say $75 a day would be a generous estimate. That would be a couple of meals and a couple of snacks. Most snacks are between $3-5 each. As others have said, the portions are huge at Disneyland. For instance the fried chicken meal at the Plaza Inn has three pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and a biscuit. My husband and I share one and get a side salad. And generally we share that with one of our kids as well! If you budget that $75 you should be fine and will likely even come in a bit lower.
 
We budget $90 per day (more for a character meal day). This covers my husband, myself and our 5 kids (9,8,6,3 and too little to eat :lol: ). We eat breakfast free at our hotel and take snacks in, allowing for 1 - 2 snacks bought at the park per day per person. We order 4 kids meals @ $6 per child and my husband and I are easily able to share most meals at the park (average $10 per meal). Depending on what time we leave we opt to hit Del Taco on the way back to the hotel for an inexpensive meal.

(my kids each wear a small backpack with their own treats/drinks inside. Anytime that they are hungry/munchy they can delve in and grab something. They still get a special treat or two at the park each day, but aren't constantly asking for something. I generally stock them up each day with a water bottle, juice boxes, Disney themed fruit snacks, granola bars etc. )
 
We are a family of three with a son about to turn three. We have annual passes and try to go to DL and DCA every week. We got it down to about $4o a day for lunch and dinner. @ DCA we stop by Burger Invasion (McDonald's) or the Pizza place next door and get a pretty good meal. Our son gets a small portion of whatever we get and some of his own snacks/food. Try also Award Wieners and DCA, they have some quick meals w/ fries for about $6 each. At DL Pizza port is recommended as well as Hungry Bear (next to Pooh's ride, u can feed the ducks there looking at Tom Sawyer's island). Also the Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante next to big thunder mountain RR is halfway decent Mex food and good chicken stirps and fries at the Golden Horseshoe across the way (stage show as well there). Hope this helps!!!
 


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