How much per day ???

[baybeecakes08]

We are a family of 5. my husband and I and 3 kids (5,3,1)

how much should we budget per day to have at disney ?? All our meals will be on disney property

 

[CopperWife]

I don't have an exact number to give you, but if I were you, I would check out allears.net and take a look at the menus. Take a look and see what the prices are so you have an idea of how much to budget. There's lots to consider - are you going to eat all counter service meals? Or will you do some sit-down meals as well? This will affect your budget HTH!

 

[Lisa71]

Look at getting larger adult meals and sharing with the kids. If the adults are not big eaters it works great. I have also had some kids meals myself when not too hungry. CS lunch is cheaper but by no means cheap.

 

[katiee37]

With small children take into consideration any souvenirs you might buy for them and for yourself. Try to have breakfast in your room as well as water, milk, juice boxes or whatever else your children drink. Consider a Garden Grocer delivery in order to reduce costs in the parks

 

[baybeecakes08]

thanks everyone
i was thinking around 3-400 a day. thinking that should be good,

we will be doing both sit down and counter service meals

 

[pepe of ohio]

Back in our budget days, I allotted 40.00 a day per person... That was 10+ years ago, would still use it as a base...

Breakfast: 10.00
Lunch: 10.00
Dinner: 20.00

We rarely at lunch (we tend to eat differently in WDW in the heat, plus we do picnic pool lunch with groceries)

We're not foodies and WDW is about the parks, pool and fun... Not TS meals

Wife and I just came back a month ago, 7 nights... Food bill was less than 300.00 for both of us all week!

 

[noahdove]

I was thinking that I eat don't eat lunch either...I do bring granola bars for my midmorning or afternoon snack..Snacks usually cost $ 5.00 give or take a few cents...Be sure to check www.allearsnet.com they have current prices ...

 

[Wild about Walt]

We also are a family of 5. Our kids range from 6 to 12( a little older then yours lol). We got them each a $50 Disney gift card to spend on souvenirs at the parks. This way they have to stay on a budget and make their choices accordingly.

You are allowed to bring soft sided cooler bags to the parks. We do our breakfasts in the room and pack snacks/lunches in our backpacks. This way we can spend our hard earned dollars on the more expensive items like character dinners and activities (ie BBB, Pirate Cruise and surfing etc).

Hope this helps when factoring in your budget.

 

[baybeecakes08]

We also are a family of 5. Our kids range from 6 to 12( a little older then yours lol). We got them each a $50 Disney gift card to spend on souvenirs at the parks. This way they have to stay on a budget and make their choices accordingly.

You are allowed to bring soft sided cooler bags to the parks. We do our breakfasts in the room and pack snacks/lunches in our backpacks. This way we can spend our hard earned dollars on the more expensive items like character dinners and activities (ie BBB, Pirate Cruise and surfing etc).

Hope this helps when factoring in your budget.

oh thanks !! i love the idea of the gift card for the kids !! my 4 year old would love to get to use his own "debit card" (his words)

im thinking breakfast in the room will be a smart idea so i know the kids will eat and not be distracted (since they are so young)

 

[melanell]

When we go on any trip with our kids, we always pack or buy food to have breakfast in the room. My kids get so cranky if they have to wait too long too eat. And just the time it takes for all of us to get ready each morning is too long for them.


So we keep happy kids and we spend less per day by doing that one small thing.

 

[ashley23]

I don't think I've ever spent less than $100 a day per person. When I've had my trip covered by others it easily is more than that.

 

[Hootch]

$300-$400 include room and/or tickets?

We just returned from our trip. Here are some costs we incurred.

Room - roughly $200/day with AAA discount for POFQ
Tickets - worked out to be $240/day with park hoppers
Food - we ate mainly at CS locations. With four people including 10 and 14 year olds, we averaged around $40 per CS meal. (That's 14% higher than two years ago.)
Snacks - probably averaged around $30. We went through about 35 half liter bottles of water that we brought with us and bought three resort cups or that would have been much higher.
Souvenirs - on a per day basis about $35.

 

[monorailsilver]

We do breakfast tin the room as well. I ship down cereal or pop tarts, etc.. Bowls and spoons too. I buy milk at the resort and yes it keeps the little ones from being distracted but it also saves time (and money...). My Dh and I would shower while the other gets breakfast served. They'd eat and by the time we were both out they had breakfast, were dresses and slathered with sun screen and our park bag was packed.

As for how much per day, it varies. I estimated about $80/day for my upcoming trip, that doesn't include breakfast. We will split meals where we see fit. My oldest is 12 and a Disney adult so the dining plan wouldn't work for our budget.

One of my sisters lives in fl so she will bring us water or we will take her car on our arrival day and do a quick grocery run for fruit and water.

We will drink water in the park and we will have the refillable mugs so I told my Dh he can have his soda fill then.

 

[darthbrazen]

We are a family of 5. my husband and I and 3 kids (5,3,1)

how much should we budget per day to have at disney ?? All our meals will be on disney property

If you have the Free Dining, just budget for spending each Day. I gave my kids a gift card of $25 each day, and they could spend it on anything except meals, because those were included in our dining plan.

 

[mrsarbogast]

Definitely doing the gift card idea for my littles. They will LOVE that!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Freesia123]

I'm budgeting $50 a day for myself, dd1 and dd4. Ill be bringing snacks and water, and we have two sit down meals planned over 7 days. I added $50 extra to cover them, so $400 in total. It's going to be tight but I think we can do it. I'd suggest $100 a day for your family for food.

As for souvenirs, everyone is different. I have $35 each for my girls to spend and $35 for me as well. I can afford more, but I find my kids are spoiled just getting to go! It's enough for a stuffed friend and a pair of Minnie Mouse earrings each. If there's extra they can get a small something else. I want them to learn you can't always get everything. Unfortunately that means the same budget for me, too.

 

[baybeecakes08]

$300-$400 include room and/or tickets?

We just returned from our trip. Here are some costs we incurred.

Room - roughly $200/day with AAA discount for POFQ
Tickets - worked out to be $240/day with park hoppers
Food - we ate mainly at CS locations. With four people including 10 and 14 year olds, we averaged around $40 per CS meal. (That's 14% higher than two years ago.)
Snacks - probably averaged around $30. We went through about 35 half liter bottles of water that we brought with us and bought three resort cups or that would have been much higher.
Souvenirs - on a per day basis about $35.

no our hotel and park tickets are paid already !

 

[baybeecakes08]

we are not doing a dining plan so the budget is for all meals and anything we want during the day

 

[jess1662]

$300-$400 include room and/or tickets?

We just returned from our trip. Here are some costs we incurred.

Room - roughly $200/day with AAA discount for POFQ
Tickets - worked out to be $240/day with park hoppers
Food - we ate mainly at CS locations. With four people including 10 and 14 year olds, we averaged around $40 per CS meal. (That's 14% higher than two years ago.)
Snacks - probably averaged around $30. We went through about 35 half liter bottles of water that we brought with us and bought three resort cups or that would have been much higher.
Souvenirs - on a per day basis about $35.

At CS, we averaged $40 per meal, too, no matter where we ate or what we ordered! It got to be a running joke with us

 

[dayvewc]

we are not doing a dining plan so the budget is for all meals and anything we want during the day

When I travel (generally just me and a friend) counter service meals generally are $40 +/- for the two of us.

Table service usually runs $100 +/-.

Most times, I do a food run on arrival day and pick up cereal, donuts, poptarts, granola bars, trail-mix, fresh fruit (bananas and apples), dried fruit (banana chips), some microwaveable dinners, and bottled drinks (1 case water, 1 case 20 oz sodas).

Breakfast is in the room, we take a soft-side cooler to the park to snack on until we decide we are either *hungry* or tired. If hungry, we stop for a CS meal usually (exception is DTD or AK - we both really like Rainforest Cafe). If tired, we go back to the hotel and heat up a dinner, cool off a bit, maybe nap, and then head back to the parks.

Last year, with 3 adults, we spent about $150 at Wal-Mart getting the food, then about $300 at the parks. (5 day tickets).

One thing, my soft-sided cooler is a "large" lunch cooler. Pretty easily holds 6 bottles and then several small snacks (bag of banana chips or trail-mix or several granola bars). I freeze the water bottles and use them to keep the bag cool. When I pack it in the morning, I grab a frozen water and a soda bottle for everyone, then stuff as many snacks in and around as I can. This lets us have our mid-day caffeine fix, and by late evening the water has melted enough that we have cold water to drink.

Hope that helps some. May not be the best option with 5, and like I admit - I don't generally travel with small children, so YMMV.

And I learned after my first trip - there is no money left. If I take it, it is spent!!