How much to budget for eating?

[Jilligan]

Hello All,
I am bringing my DD almost 8yo to DL next week from Mar 12-16 and I'm trying to figure out how much money I should plan to budget for eating? We are planning on going to Ariel's Grotto for lunch one day, especially since Ariel is her favourite Princess, and then I was thinking of getting some snack items from Target. But other than that I have NO idea how expensive it is to eat or even what my best options are. She is fairly easy to please, I'm sure she would eat hot dogs or McD's every day for every meal!!! We will be staying at the Crowne Plaza Resort and I'm not even sure what is around there for options. Any and all help would be so much appreciated!
Thanks,
Jill

 

[awdsmama]

Check out this link to sort by menu/price range you prefer etc and it will show you the various places in DL/DCA that fit, along with menu's and prices

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneyland/dining/menus.cfm

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Here's another great site for looking up menu prices:
http://allears.net/dlr/din/menu/menus.htm#dl

 

[skiingfast]

Since you don't get free breakfast, like some hotels offer, per person it can be as low as $40 and upto $75. B$10, L$15 and D$15, to B$10, L$25, D$40. It depends if you go with couter service the whole time or table service.

If you eat out of the parks, you can bring those down to $25 or $15 eating at the Joe's Crab Shack or Red Robbins in the hotel parking lot. If you leave the parks, eating at Quiznos or McDonalds will keep them under $10. They are both close to the Harbor entrance.

 

[CDanger]

Keep in mind that most food vendors on Harbor Blvd have about a 10-20% up-charge from their normal rates. We saw this at McDonalds, Quiznos, and Dennys. Subway appeared to keep its normal prices (Harbor @ Katella).

 

[awdsmama]

Also do some reading on the food posts on here, you'll see there are a LOT of food choices in the park that are big enough to actually split between two people which would help save money as well.

 

[Jilligan]

Thanks for the links and tips. I will definitely check them out! We are leaving one week from today! So excited! We are surprising my daughter, because quite frankly I don't think I could deal with the daily talk and excitement! This is her first trip and I haven't been in 20 years, so it'll be a lot of fun I'm sure.
Jill

 

[awdsmama]

Just gooogled "splitting meals at disneyland" and a lot of results came up


Also I've read on here that the kids meal chicken nuggets are only like 4 nuggets so may not be enough for your kiddo

I have read that the portions at the Plaza Inn are very generous and you could easily split their chicken meal. As well they have a large kids pasta dish.

 

[Jilligan]

Thanks for the help awdsmama. It looks like you are in the final planning stages as well? Thanks for the wealth of information

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

We're doing breakfast at our hotel and bringing in sandwiches or something for lunch..so we're only planning on one meal a day (and snacks) in the park. If it's just the two of you I'd totally consider splitting some of those meals! Our thoughts were that we'll be buying our two older kids one adult meal to split and the younger will probably share with me.

Our family of five with the above info taken into account.. We're planning on about 60-100 a day. This is probably WAY more than we'll use tho

Definitely check out the menu link above. Disneyland corndogs are AWESOME And they're inexpensive as far as meals go in DL/DCA

 

[awdsmama]

Thanks for the help awdsmama. It looks like you are in the final planning stages as well? Thanks for the wealth of information

You're welcome and YES I AM!!! So excited.