How much per day?

[shana398]

My DS4 and I will be at Disney for 8 nights and nine days the first week in September. We do not have a dining plan. We have a couple of character meals booked, Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace. I have the Fantasmic Dining Package at Mama Melrose and maybe one Table Service meal per day the rest of the week. We'll be splitting QS breakfasts and probably most of our QS lunches/dinners. How much cash would you plan on taking for food? We usually do the dining plan. This is our first time without it. Do you think 100 per day will be enough? Thanks!

 

[jiminykrikkit]

When I try to figure this out, I look at the menus for the places that we might want to eat and figure an approximate amount. It may seem tedious, but like food so it's fun haha.

 

[Kathryn777]

100 a day for 2 people including your character meals seems low

 

[Travis B]

Maybe round it up to $1000 to give yourself a little wiggle room. I think $100 per day would be totally workable depending on where you eat and how you order, what you do for snacks, etc.

 

[Fizban]

We budget $100 per day per adult (anyone over 14 in our view), so for just an adult and a small child i would offer $125.00 a day.

 

[Jobie]

I just recently tried to figure this out for my wife and I. What I did was make a spreadsheet, using google sheets, and priced out everything that we would spend if we did not have a budget. I did this to determine if getting the dining plan was worth it or not. We also usually had the dining plan for free, so I really wanted to see how much money we would spend. We usually don't eat breakfast there (have cereal/fruit/yogurt in the room) Here take a look: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N-2i-ARxNkFXZUMf0acqUIlIP4kr9aEojE9JTTMyPVY/edit?usp=sharing

I tried to enter the cost of the entres that we would purchase if we had no budget to get a true idea of what it would cost if we got exactly what we wanted. I got the prices off of various sites that show the menus. Also, I know that our choices may change on the day we get there, but it still gave us a good idea. For the drink, dessert, and snack columns, I took added the average cost for those items. My wife and I usually will not purchase a drink with our meals (we drink mostly water) and won't always get a dessert. So I did this to see what would it cost if we did it every time.

Because we will probably some days get a snack, dessert, or drinks with meals, using this spreadsheet I am budgeting around $800 for us in food.

Anyways that was my method. It is hard to say what would be someones average cost, without knowing their exact eating habits and likes. Hopefully this spreadsheet will help you a little bit

 

[jiminykrikkit]

I just recently tried to figure this out for my wife and I. What I did was make a spreadsheet, using google sheets, and priced out everything that we would spend if we did not have a budget. I did this to determine if getting the dining plan was worth it or not. We also usually had the dining plan for free, so I really wanted to see how much money we would spend. We usually don't eat breakfast there (have cereal/fruit/yogurt in the room) Here take a look: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N-2i-ARxNkFXZUMf0acqUIlIP4kr9aEojE9JTTMyPVY/edit?usp=sharing

I tried to enter the cost of the entres that we would purchase if we had no budget to get a true idea of what it would cost if we got exactly what we wanted. I got the prices off of various sites that show the menus. Also, I know that our choices may change on the day we get there, but it still gave us a good idea. For the drink, dessert, and snack columns, I took added the average cost for those items. My wife and I usually will not purchase a drink with our meals (we drink mostly water) and won't always get a dessert. So I did this to see what would it cost if we did it every time.

Because we will probably some days get a snack, dessert, or drinks with meals, using this spreadsheet I am budgeting around $800 for us in food.

Anyways that was my method. It is hard to say what would be someones average cost, without knowing their exact eating habits and likes. Hopefully this spreadsheet will help you a little bit

I love stuff like this. Thanks for sharing!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I really like this site to calculate our food.

www.distripplanner.com

 

[MataHari22]

I use the DDP calculator. It will give you the total of the meals.

http://www.distripplanner.com

 

[Eandbmom]

We also use http://www.distripplanner.com/

 

[shana398]

I just recently tried to figure this out for my wife and I. What I did was make a spreadsheet, using google sheets, and priced out everything that we would spend if we did not have a budget. I did this to determine if getting the dining plan was worth it or not. We also usually had the dining plan for free, so I really wanted to see how much money we would spend. We usually don't eat breakfast there (have cereal/fruit/yogurt in the room) Here take a look: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N-2i-ARxNkFXZUMf0acqUIlIP4kr9aEojE9JTTMyPVY/edit?usp=sharing

I tried to enter the cost of the entres that we would purchase if we had no budget to get a true idea of what it would cost if we got exactly what we wanted. I got the prices off of various sites that show the menus. Also, I know that our choices may change on the day we get there, but it still gave us a good idea. For the drink, dessert, and snack columns, I took added the average cost for those items. My wife and I usually will not purchase a drink with our meals (we drink mostly water) and won't always get a dessert. So I did this to see what would it cost if we did it every time.

Because we will probably some days get a snack, dessert, or drinks with meals, using this spreadsheet I am budgeting around $800 for us in food.

Anyways that was my method. It is hard to say what would be someones average cost, without knowing their exact eating habits and likes. Hopefully this spreadsheet will help you a little bit

Thanks! I think I will do this myself. I don't have everything figured out exactly, as far as where we will eat. I'm leaving some of that up to how we feel and what we're in the mood for when we're there. I kind of figured that since the dining plan would cost us about $81, $100 ought to do it because we won't eat desserts with every meal, or even very many meals. Also, we are not huge eaters. Anyway, thanks again!

 

[JennyDrake]

Here is a quick, straightforward estimate based upon MY experiences the last 2 years--certainly YMMV.

For each counter service breakfast of one entree and one drink I budget $12; for each lunch and dinner $18 (I'm just back and found the prices have bumped up since last year's estimate of $14-15) would be $48 with any snacks or additional drinks.

For each buffet dinner I budget $50-55. For each sit down (non buffet) dinner I budget $75 for entree, drink and appetizer or dessert.

None of this includes alcohol. For every mixed drink I would budget $12-14 based upon prices last week; this would not include a tip if a bartender was involved.