How much should a family of 3 be prepared to spend (food)?

[Kitty & Covs Covs]

All I know is I had to have a long talk with my daughter about NOT ordering the $19 lemonade at BOG to stay within our budget...those drinks will get you quick!

 

[easyas123]

I think the biggest factor is beer/wine/cocktails or no - booze can double your budget.

Agreed.

We are drinkers, 2 adults and we budget $400 a day, some days we spend more, some days we spend less. Some days we have two sit down meals, some days we have none...we are spur of the moment types w/ dining so I budget for what we might spend 'worst case scenario'. A decent sit down meal with a few drinks can really add up fast, multiply that per day or per stay. We aren't huge snackers, but also do the parks bag free and are big water drinkers, so we buy a lot of bottles of water.

 

[JennP78]

As everyone has said it really depends but I'll add that if you are getting one of those special crazy expensive drinks in a gimmicky glass you can ask for the drink in a regular glass and it will be cheaper.

Also, at certain quick services you can usually ask to skip the side (if it's something you don't eat) and they will take off $2.00.

Character meals and buffets are super expensive, usually for not the best food, although I don't even know how they are handling them right now anyway.

I went with just DS (8 then) two years ago and this is what we spent, roughly:

Breakfast at POR was several ala carte items that we split (i.e. fruit salad, cinnamon roll) with chocolate milk for him and cappuccino for me ~ $23.00

Average quick service for the both of us ~ $25.00 - $30.00. Sometimes he got a kid's meal, sometimes not.

We're snackers, so there was always at least a Mickey pretzel for each of us and maybe a frozen drink or two at the pool. I'm sure that came to $40-$50 a day but it often replaced a meal.

Our sit downs were cheaper (i.e. The Plaza in MK) and we didn't do many.

Overall we spent $110-$150 a day total depending on poolside drinks (obviously only mine had alcohol but they are still expensive) and whether we did a sit down.

We could have cut that down further if I had brought breakfast for the room.

 

[Ursula J]

For our January trip, we didn't really try to go cheap on stuff, and we averaged $60-70 pp/pd for 2 adults and a teenager (so 3 adult appetites!). We don't drink any alcohol, so that would have definitely upped the bill, but we also didn't bring along snacks or anything--just got what we wanted!

 

[Ursula J]

As everyone has said it really depends but I'll add that if you are getting one of those special crazy expensive drinks in a gimmicky glass you can ask for the drink in a regular glass and it will be cheaper.

Also, at certain quick services you can usually ask to skip the side (if it's something you don't eat) and they will take off $2.00.

Character meals and buffets are super expensive, usually for not the best food, although I don't even know how they are handling them right now anyway.

I went with just DS (8 then) two years ago and this is what we spent, roughly:

Breakfast at POR was several ala carte items that we split (i.e. fruit salad, cinnamon roll) with chocolate milk for him and cappuccino for me ~ $23.00

Average quick service for the both of us ~ $25.00 - $30.00. Sometimes he got a kid's meal, sometimes not.

We're snackers, so there was always at least a Mickey pretzel for each of us and maybe a frozen drink or two at the pool. I'm sure that came to $40-$50 a day but it often replaced a meal.

Our sit downs were cheaper (i.e. The Plaza in MK) and we didn't do many.

Overall we spent $110-$150 a day total depending on poolside drinks (obviously only mine had alcohol but they are still expensive) and whether we did a sit down.

We could have cut that down further if I had brought breakfast for the room.

I'm just going to sit over here pouting at the mention of POR. I wish they'd reopen!

 

[JennP78]

I'm just going to sit over here pouting at the mention of POR. I wish they'd reopen!

Oh, I know! We loved it there and can't wait to go back.

 

[sullyfam]

As everyone said - depends on your eating style/preferences, whether you're going to do mostly QS meals or TS meals, or a combination of both and whether you'll be buying cocktails, eating breakfast in the room or getting pizza delivery at night etc. Most people do a combination of options while at Disney and I would say for the "average" person to plan between $50 (low end) - $100 or more (high end) per day per person depending on all of the above factors. If you budgeted $1500 for food for a family of 3 for a 5 day trip I would say you're probably in a nice comfortable range and would be able to enjoy a variety of options available.

However, keep in mind that one expensive meal can really throw things off - signature dining for example with all the offerings (apps, drinks, entrees, dessert and coffee) can easily spend your daily budget in just one meal. My family of 5 is doing CRT for lunch one day in April and we had to prepay - it was $350. So that's $70 per person just for lunch that day. So keep that in mind when making your reservations and plan accordingly. For us, dining is a big part of our trip/enjoyment. Others are perfectly fine with 3 meals of QS per day or making sandwiches in the room. Just depends on your touring style and tastes. Have fun!

 

[Woodview]

Question Will you have a car ?

If yes Then Drive to Hwy 192 Animal Kingdom end & there are loads of places to eat.

Evening meals from $ 20 per person

Longhorn SteakHouse , Manny' s Chop House Cracker Barrell & others

 

[LeeLee'sMom]

As everyone has said it really depends but I'll add that if you are getting one of those special crazy expensive drinks in a gimmicky glass you can ask for the drink in a regular glass and it will be cheaper.

Also, at certain quick services you can usually ask to skip the side (if it's something you don't eat) and they will take off $2.00.

Character meals and buffets are super expensive, usually for not the best food, although I don't even know how they are handling them right now anyway.

I went with just DS (8 then) two years ago and this is what we spent, roughly:

Breakfast at POR was several ala carte items that we split (i.e. fruit salad, cinnamon roll) with chocolate milk for him and cappuccino for me ~ $23.00

Average quick service for the both of us ~ $25.00 - $30.00. Sometimes he got a kid's meal, sometimes not.

We're snackers, so there was always at least a Mickey pretzel for each of us and maybe a frozen drink or two at the pool. I'm sure that came to $40-$50 a day but it often replaced a meal.

Our sit downs were cheaper (i.e. The Plaza in MK) and we didn't do many.

Overall we spent $110-$150 a day total depending on poolside drinks (obviously only mine had alcohol but they are still expensive) and whether we did a sit down.

We could have cut that down further if I had brought breakfast for the room.

I agree, when me and my DD15 recently went twice last year. We averaged about $125-$150 a day and we ate what we wanted when we wanted. I do have to say many meals were easily shareable but we ate well and had snacks. Breakfast, except when doing a TS was actually quite cheap, she would order a meal around $10-11 with our refillable mug and I am not a big fan of Disney breakfasts unless it's sit down, so most of the time I just had the kids Mickey waffles and a coffee or bagel and a coffee at our resort. Add alcohol to any meal and of course price goes up but I had drinks here and there and still was happy with the amount.

 

[Blondie58]

Me, wife and daughter are going to Disney World this summer for 5 days. We will be staying at the Pop Century resort. Looks like they don't have meal plans this year so how much would 2 adults and a 8 yr old be prepared to spend on food? Yes I realize this is an impossible question to answer but any suggestions/tips/things to stay away from would help.

So difficult to answer. Are you big or small eaters? Do you eat two or three meals a day? Do you like sit down or quick service? I would decide how many times a day you are going to eat out and then look at menues and get an idea. When I travel to WDW alone, I eat once a day. I take an energy bar for breakfast, usually eat lunch out and just find a snack at the food court grocery for dinner. If I am taking a tour that has a meal included then I do not eat out that day. I can get by very very reasonably. However, when with DH and or friends, we eat out at least twice a day and cocktails are involved so the price goes way up. So many questions to be answered to come up with a price.

 

[FCDub]

Again, look at the prices on the online menus. This is an easy one!

 

[StuckInKS]

As a party of 7 with 2 real adults, 2 teens and 3 kids who will be getting kids meals, I am budgeting $250/day for 2 QS and 2 snacks per person. I think each "adult" will probably spend $40 and each kid $30 per day. So I would do $110/day for 2 QS & 2 snacks per person for a family of 3. TS or alcohol will drive up the price.