How much to budget per person/ per day for food?

[Jen cook]

we are taking our first trip to WDW in June. We have three kids (17,13,6). We are not doing a meal plan because we are staying at the dolphin.

So how much per day should I budget per day for food and snacks? We will be in the parks 7 days.

Also, where are your must eat at faves? I’ve heard Beasts castle is a must.

Thanks!

 

[Alesia]

It depends on what, when, and how often you eat. You can find menus here: http://allears.net/dining/menu

 

[Marionnette]

we are taking our first trip to WDW in June. We have three kids (17,13,6). We are not doing a meal plan because we are staying at the dolphin.

So how much per day should I budget per day for food and snacks? We will be in the parks 7 days.

Also, where are your must eat at faves? I’ve heard Beasts castle is a must.

Thanks!

So much will depend on how you eat and how much you eat. Will you grab a quick continental breakfast in your room before hitting the parks or will you opt for a character breakfast somewhere? Do you intend to eat in signature restaurants each night or will you order a pizza to split among your family? Are you planning to pack a cooler with sandwiches to carry around the parks or will you stop at the closest quick service for a meal? Do you enjoy an alcoholic beverage with your meals or does everyone order tap water? All of those factors will influence what your dining costs will be.

I would use the cost of one of the dining plans to calculate the amount of money you need. The plans typically cost more than most people would actually spend if they were to just eat whatever they feel like having instead of looking to get the "biggest bang for their buck" using the plans. But using the cost of the dining plans as a guide, you should arrive at a number that will cover your dining costs.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-dining-plan.htm

 

[Eastern]

I agree to use the dining plan cost as a guide. Pick the plan that most closely resembles how you will eat. Another thing you could do is actually plan your ADRs and then price them out with the online menus. Takes time but might give you a better idea.

Snacks and waters can add up, so you might want to pack a few snacks for convenience. Ask for cups of water at the CS places so you don't have to buy bottles of water, even if you are not making a purchase. They usually have them set up and ready to go because everyone does it.

Table service restaurants in general and character buffets can add to your cost so try to at least price those out. For CS, figure $12 pp to get a ballpark figure. $4pp for snacks and $3pp if you buy bottles of water.

 

[LovesTimone]

When budgeting for food, take into consideration how you normally eat, (3 full meals or grab and go all day and maybe dinner at home in the evening) and what do you drink at home and when you go out what to you order, do you share meals, and are adult beverage need to be added in, and other fun drinks like milk shakes or smoothies for the kids, coffee at Starbucks, are you an appetizer and dessert family, is everyone willing to share, any big eaters.. I see you have teenagers they can really eat some of them...are you planning ordering water and other snacks for the room, and to carry into the parks. Are you doing all QS meals or a mix of TS and QS options...

I would spend sometime looking at the menus, checking out the price points and start there, this way you have a plan of where you want to eat, and a ball park of what its going to cost. then I would pad it some.

DH and I spent Christmas day at Epcot... For lunch we stop at Lotus blossom café ( China) and shared an order of shrimp fried rice w egg roll, an order of dumplings and a couple of cokes for under 30.00 then we had dinner at Chefs of France .. We each had appetizer, entrée and dessert and some adult beverages all that and tips was just over 160.00 and that was for the 2 of us.

I have friends that only have 1 meal a day in the parks, the rest they eat at the DVC and have food delivered... She says they can eat for 100.00 to 150.00 a day for their family of 4, but she doesn't count the food and drinks they ordered for the room into that number "as that's eating in the room".

I just want to throw this out there, make sure to include travel days into the budget, airport food, or if you driving food on the road...

 

[hsmamato2]

It depends on what, when, and how often you eat. You can find menus here: http://allears.net/dining/menu

yes...what they said.... how many meals outside the room? I like to eat a simple in room breakfast like cereal etc. so that leaves 2 meals a day (plus snacks this is vacation lol) I budget around 100-120 per day for 3-4 'adults'. based on Allears menus which are accurate. It all depends on what you buy/where you eat also. We only eat table service maybe once or twice over a week. so that number I calculate (say $100 per day) averages out over the length of our trip. Some days we eat TS are pricier, while many other days are less b/c we eat counter service mostly. We also don't drink soda,just free water which is a money saver. (we get free water whenever we want, we don't buy it)
BTW the dolphin has a nice grab'n'go place in the lobby,along with a decent priced cafeteria in the bottom floor(AAA discount!) which helps also. so for my trip,if we go for 10 days I'm guesstimating about 1000-1200 for food for 4 people. So far we've been spot on, but I like the menus at allears for reference. there are lots of really decent cs places to eat also all over property.

 

[hsmamato2]

I figure (on average) for cs food for 4 is approx $45 (we drink free ice water and usually share the sides too) and a cs dinner for us is approx $50-$60....(we order more than lunch) and depending on the day/weather, maybe a snack or two mixed in there at about $5 apiece(we sometimes share,like a cupcake or popcorn etc) and so on. But I order kids food at cs if I like the options,as I don't want a giant meal at lunch usually. So it works for us,but we also don't mind sharing our food if we want either.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Put in your plans of QS and TS on www.distripplanner.com We used it last trip and it was pretty accurate. It really depends on if you will be doing mostly QS or TS or a big breakfast and snacking for lunch.

Last trip there were 4 of us. Two adults, DS15 and DD9. We did 9 TS (CRT and Cali Grill included), 14 QS, two nights of eating and drinking around Epcot, one night at Tambu Lounge and one night at Trader Sams. We didn't share meals, DD sometimes got adult meals and we spent about $2500 over 11 days. So about 225 a day for four of us, 3 being adults.

Next trip it's just DD12 and myself. We are only making 3 ADR's and winging the rest of the trip with QS and same day ADR's. I'm budgeting 125 a day for food.

 

[cruiser21]

Put in your plans of QS and TS on www.distripplanner.com We used it last trip and it was pretty accurate. It really depends on if you will be doing mostly QS or TS or a big breakfast and snacking for lunch.

Last trip there were 4 of us. Two adults, DS15 and DD9. We did 9 TS (CRT and Cali Grill included), 14 QS, two nights of eating and drinking around Epcot, one night at Tambu Lounge and one night at Trader Sams. We didn't share meals, DD sometimes got adult meals and we spent about $2500 over 11 days. So about 225 a day for four of us, 3 being adults.

Next trip it's just DD12 and myself. We are only making 3 ADR's and winging the rest of the trip with QS and same day ADR's. I'm budgeting 125 a day for food.

I'm traveling with my 13 year old son. My plans are similar to yours. I'm budgeting 150.00 per day. Hopefully I'll spend less. I'm sure there will be days when were over 150.00...California Grill and HHD days, and days when were under 100.00. If my DH and older son were going I can't even imagine what we'd spend on food since my dh would want to eat TS every night. When the kids were under 10 we always got the DxDP it was such a good deal back then.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I'm traveling with my 13 year old son. My plans are similar to yours. I'm budgeting 150.00 per day. Hopefully I'll spend less. I'm sure there will be days when were over 150.00...California Grill and HHD days, and days when were under 100.00. If my DH and older son were going I can't even imagine what we'd spend on food since my dh would want to eat TS every night. When the kids were under 10 we always got the DxDP it was such a good deal back then.

Well I’m not counting our prepaid HDDR and dessert party. If i add those we are at 150 a day.

If my SO and DS were going we would be at an obscene amount if we did TS everyday. Especially since DD is an adult now.

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Put in your plans of QS and TS on www.distripplanner.com We used it last trip and it was pretty accurate. It really depends on if you will be doing mostly QS or TS or a big breakfast and snacking for lunch.

Last trip there were 4 of us. Two adults, DS15 and DD9. We did 9 TS (CRT and Cali Grill included), 14 QS, two nights of eating and drinking around Epcot, one night at Tambu Lounge and one night at Trader Sams. We didn't share meals, DD sometimes got adult meals and we spent about $2500 over 11 days. So about 225 a day for four of us, 3 being adults.

Next trip it's just DD12 and myself. We are only making 3 ADR's and winging the rest of the trip with QS and same day ADR's. I'm budgeting 125 a day for food.

This link is awesome! I can't believe I've never used this before!! Thank you!!!

 

[RamblingMad]

My budget is $150 per adult per day. Kids would be far less. You can reduce this by cutting out sit down meals and soda and liquor.

I’ve found QS to cost around $20-30 a person after tax if you drink soda. So if you just QS two meals a day, then you can come in at $60. If you’re buying food for breakfast, then figure something on top of the $60. This assumes no sit down meals. I don’t see this as being very realistic especially if you’re there for a week.

Character meals will cost you more as well.

I’d budget for more than you expect to spend since plans can fail due to weather or just how you’re feeling.

Also, since you’re walking about 7-10 miles a day. I’d factor that in as well.

And kids will have meltdowns at some point. This should be figured in as well.

Of course, folks will say my budget is crazy, but I know I can keep within it without stressing myself out when I get there.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I’d estimate $20 per person quick service and $50 per person table service.

This is to get a rough estimate. As you get closer, you can break it down more.

I budget per meal, because we eat a full breakfast.

We aren’t big snackers, but $6 per snack is good.

I don’t know how much drinks are a piece.

 

[tzeitel]

We are going in May and also staying at the Dolphin. We will rent a car to get from MCO to the resort (one day rental and will return at the Dolphin so no parking fee) and stop at Publix to pick up water and a few other things. The rental will be $86 and we are getting an SUV for 5 of us.

I budget $15 for CS, $35 for TS, $10 for snacks per person per day. We sometimes go over but other days we are under. Of course there are special meals that would be more - CG brunch is on our list.
I look at menus and make a list of what we might eat, but it really depends on the day. It can get so hot we just don't eat very much.

As for must do's - it's been a few years since we have been to WDW, DLR is now more convenient and cheaper for us - our list includes Skipper Canteen, Spice Rd Table, Yak & Yeti, SciFi, Sebastian's, Satuli Canteen, CG brunch, Homecomin and HDDR. Everything else is a bunch of maybes. We got really spoiled not having to make ADRs so far in advance when we go to DLR so I am a bit meh about making ADRs for every day.

 

[kathy884]

I budget $50 pp per day and if I am doing any table service at Disney or fancy meals I put monies for those separately. I usually stay offsite, though, so this includes monies for grocery type items/snacks, lunches and snacks at parks, and modest table service dinners at places like Sweet Tomatoes or Olive Garden.

 

[neatokimmo]

At an absolute minimum, plan for $15 pp per meal. There are a lot of quick service meals in the $12-13 range in the parks. If you skip the cokes and drink water, you will save a ton (and probably feel better in the heat).

 

[easyas123]

Of course, folks will say my budget is crazy, but I know I can keep within it without stressing myself out when I get there

Naaa. Not crazy to us. We budget $150 per day per person as well. Sometimes we spend more, sometimes less, it just depends on where the wind blows us on any given day of our trip in terms of what & where we end up eating.
We enjoy our cocktails as well, so that adds up.

I hate nickle & diming myself while on vacation, so we set aside as much as we need plus a bit more, even if it means more time inbetween trips.

 

[Marionnette]

Naaa. Not crazy to us. We budget $150 per day per person as well. Sometimes we spend more, sometimes less, it just depends on where the wind blows us on any given day of our trip in terms of what & where we end up eating.
We enjoy our cocktails as well, so that adds up.

I hate nickle & diming myself while on vacation, so we set aside as much as we need plus a bit more, even if it means more time inbetween trips.

Same here. I am relatively thrifty the rest of the year. But when I’m on vacation, the last thing that I want is to deny myself a frozen lemonade margarita because it costs $12 and would mean I had no money for lunch.

 

[bitcohen]

We pack meals all the time. We make turkey sandwiches and hit the condiment bars at QS spots for mustard/mayo napkins, etc. My folks used to do it when they took us as kids, and I started doing it when we started taking our kids.

For us its as much about saving money as it is controlling kids meal plan...they'd eat nothing but chicken nuggets and french fries if we bought food. There is always a lot of grumbling if they don't get to order exactly what they want, but they happily eat whatever sandwich we put in front of them when it comes out of the cooler.

 

[firefly_ris]

Depends on what you're doing and what your personal eating and drinking habits are. My family of five spent about $500 for 7 nights including an Amazon Prime Now order. We did 3 TS, ate breakfasts in room, and the rest was QS and snacks. A few alcoholic beverages throughout the week but I'm not a big drinker so not much. Wr also don't drink sodas and such with meals, just water.

So I think it's better to write down what places you plan to hit, have a look at menus and get a general ballpark of what you will personally do.