How Much $ For Food?

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I'm not sure where to post this so I thought I would start here. In order to get the most out of that fall discount we upgraded our room to CL but had to drop the dining plan. This will be our first trip without it. We are now planning on eating all counter service and snacks (my son is an all day grazer). There are 4 of us gong. I have an idea of what the meals cost but I won't know where we are eating until we get there. Can anyone share their experiences? Thank you

 

[Southernmiss]

I'm not sure where to post this so I thought I would start here. In order to get the most out of that fall discount we upgraded our room to CL but had to drop the dining plan. This will be our first trip without it. We are now planning on eating all counter service and snacks (my son is an all day grazer). There are 4 of us gong. I have an idea of what the meals cost but I won't know where we are eating until we get there. Can anyone share their experiences? Thank you

Allears.net has menus and current prices for restaurants at Disney.

 

[Dayton Flyer]

I'm head of a 4 person household... I have 2 boys who are now 14 and 12, but used to eat kid's meals.

Back when they were both getting kids meals (10 and under), I would plan about $40 / meal, which is 2 adult meals, 2 adult soft drinks, and 2 kids meals in a standard CS. I would add $5-8 per person that won't be eating kids meals, depending on the place. And that doesn't include dessert like the DDP would.

That budget held pretty strong. Usually if we could hold off and eat fast food outside of the parks for dinner (we're commando tourers that would eat in-room breakfast, be at the gates at 8:15, and be done by 4-5 PM usually), then the fast food dinner would be $20 or so less than the CS Disney meals.

But we would always make a stop at Norway and France for snacks too on our 2 Epcot days, which would usually be something like $20 total per snack stop if everyone got something.

 

[MegMac]

Allears has menus with prices. We never pay out of pocket for the dining plan because for our group, it's too much food. (We take full advantage when it's free for us!). Typically, we just decide where we think we will go eat on that trip based on where we think we will be that day. The big thing to consider is if you will be splitting meals. We usually split 2 counter services (for 3 adult women) so we can eat popcorn and ice cream and everything else as snacks during the day. We save a TON doing it this way. So while it takes the fun out of being a "fly by the seat of your pants" trip, it does help in terms of a budget. We also usually do Disney gift cards (from Target and save 5% using my debit card) for a close dollar amount...if we think we will spend around $175/$200, we do $150 so we don't go over and just pay cash for the difference on the last day or two. Hope this helps!!!

 

[HarkiQuinn]

We like to split breakfast and sometimes lunch depending on how hungry we are. Oh and ask for cups of water to save you extra $$. And like everyone else said, all ears has the most up to date menu. I lived on that site when preparing for my last trip.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

My older son no longer eats kids' meals and I've found that for 3 adult meals and 1 child meal at a QS restaurant, we spend an average of $50. Some places might be $45, but others are $55 (Sunshine Seasons comes to mind). So I'd budget $100/day for 2 QS meals, plus another $10-20/day for snacks (especially on an Epcot day where we're going to hit the caramel shop in Germany!).

 

[eliza61]

I also suggest checking out the menus at allears.net.

First, figure out how your family would eat realistically. I like soda with my pizza so for me to budget only drinking water would cause me to blow my budget because sooner or later, I'm switching back to soda. LOL. So now I fit that in my budget and if I do only drink water that's cool a few dollars saved but if I don't I won't feel guilty.

For my family, we like one ts a day. it's more about being able to sit down and relax and talk with one another, often reviewing the day. Most often is lunch as we go in hot weather and it gives us a chance to get cool.

If you're son is an all day grazer can you bring his favorite snacks to the park with you?

Have a great time.

 

[Steph01002]

We do a lot of meal sharing in Disney. It works great at QS so we don't have leftovers or over eat to the point where we are too full. When we get hungry again we get a snack or split another meal. We spent $700 on an 8 day trip last year for four with all of our meals, snacks, and even a dinner at Biergarten for four and Captains Grill for DH and I. We ate what we wanted and never went hungry, so it's not like we were really thinking budget minded. Meal sharing is perfect for the QS in the World Showcase... We each got to try a little of everything.

 

[gilby]

We will do a lot of sharing or buying kids meals. Its way too much food and I hate throwing food away.

 

[TravelMommy]

I look at the most expensive meal/drink combo and make that my starting point and since you are doing all counter service you could easily look at the most expensive in each category for a few and guestimate. I consistently spend less than I budget for.

I have also heard of people budgeting out the price of the DDP on gift cards and using that as their spending plan, probably very close to what I do too.

 

[Anthony1971]

It depends on how you eat and the ages we were 2 adults and 1 8YO...
we were there for 8 nights a few weeks ago we spent a grand total of 550.00 for food not including Breakfast as we make our own in our room (DVC)... we also had some snacks in our room as we spend time at the resort.
We ate at Boma, Beirgarten, TRex, Rainforest, Yak and Yeti, Portobella and varies CS locations --first night we arrived late and last day we left early so we did not eat at Disney those 2 days this is based on 6 full days....
Alcohol was not purchased with meals but we did other times and was not included in the 550. Portobella and Beirgarten were lunch menus. we had 2 meals a day purchased at Disney except for Boma which when we were hungry for lunch it was to late as we ate there at 5:30 so we had a snack.
BTW Boma was great at that time as it was not crowded at all and I got the ends of the Beef if you like the ends....in the end I am still not a huge fan of Boma but it is one of the better Buffets if you are going to spend the Dinner price and enjoy buffets.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Our party will consist of myself and DH, DD14 and DS 11. We will be staying BC club level (the upgrade was the reason for canceling the DP). I am thinking we will be snacking in the CL lounge. I am also planning on DH and I each having 2 drinks a day (probably less but still I'm thinking estimating on the higher end) . I'm estimating 1,000. If this covers no TS meals and only QS and snacks this would still save us a lot of money on the trip.

 

[DocMcStuffins011614]

We always stay 8-10 days when we go to Disney. We've been there 16 times in the past 10 years... We've always budgeted $1,000 per person for food & snacks. That's breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We usually like character meals & sit down meals so with the $1,000 budget we don't have to worry.

 

[DocMcStuffins011614]

Oh and we also did do one trip with all Quick service meals, that ran between $500-600 each person

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

We always stay 8-10 days when we go to Disney. We've been there 16 times in the past 10 years... We've always budgeted $1,000 per person for food & snacks. That's breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We usually like character meals & sit down meals so with the $1,000 budget we don't have to worry.

wow I don't think I would want to pay that much. I know it's vacation but 4,000 for a week of food seems like an awful lot of food. I'm going to do some quick math because it would be much cheaper to add the dining plan. I was thinking more along the lines of 1500 total and that's with 2 TS breakfasts. We are also staying club level so breakfast is taken care of the other days.

 

[tomeaine]

wow I don't think I would want to pay that much. I know it's vacation but 4,000 for a week of food seems like an awful lot of food. I'm going to do some quick math because it would be much cheaper to add the dining plan. I was thinking more along the lines of 1500 total and that's with 2 TS breakfasts. We are also staying club level so breakfast is taken care of the other days.

Yikes...4000 is more than what I paid for 4- 5 day hopper, round trip flight and hotel! IMO since I haven't been to the parks in over 12 years and first time for my kids, I don't want to spend allot of time for dinner. give me the quick and easy for a week and enjoy every minute of my kids amazement in the parks.

 

[EMode]

Our trip last summer we spent around $1100 for food for the week for our family of 5. That doesn't include breakfast because we stayed club level and ate in the lounge every morning except for one at ohana. It does include snacks and cocktails though.

 

[gilby]

How do you spend 4000 on food? we were there 3 of us for 9 days, one qs, ts, and snack and spent about 1200.

 

[MomofDisneyLoversx3]

How do you spend 4000 on food? we were there 3 of us for 9 days, one qs, ts, and snack and spent about 1200.

It all depends on where and how you eat. My dds are not fan of kids meals. We like apps and wine with dinner. So (as an example) dinner at Jiko is 4 adult meals, 2-3 glasses of wine, 2 apps for the table and a kids meal. over 16 days, that adds up.

OP- there is a website (I don't want to post the link in case it's a no-no) that you type in your eating pattern. If you do a google search for Disney dining cost, i think you should find it. It's mostly drop down boxes. You can choose "average meal" or the specific restaurant you are eating at. It will give you an approximate OOP price. When we stay club level (excluding wine and dine), we typically do breakfast in the parks, sometimes grabbing an apple, banana or yogurt for the road, do a midafternoon QS often with meal splitting, and then apps/drink in the CL before dinner. Some night we do a TS and some nights we dont even want anything other than a snack. Before I used the website, I planned to pay what the cost of the DDP would cost us, because for us it was a matter of the plan not covering what we actually at as opposed to a huge price difference. What always kills my budget is Epcot. So many yummy drinks and snacks!

 

[Zooshoveller]

I usually plan $15 per meal each day, and $5 per snack. So for a family of 4, you would need $200 each day. That's just for a basic idea. I adjust after checking allears. But I have no idea what food will be supplemented/replaced by staying CL.