How much to plan?

[dmc6469]

First trip and wondering, on average, what you think is a good amount to plan on spending? Not counting hotel (staying in our timeshare for ridiculously cheap), and not doing Disney Dining. We are only eating at sit down meals 3 out of 6 days (most will be counter service and I don’t eat breakfast) and have no kids. Just wondering on those that have no kids, don’t eat every meal, etc have spent for the week.

 

[davper]

I have no kids and I don't do sit downs everyday.

I budget my food at $100 per day per person. I don't spend $100 everyday. I may eat something in my room snack all day and have CS for dinner. Or I might have a big breakfast buffet, a light lunch, and a Signature Restaurant sit down for dinner. That $100 allows me enough to not worry if I have enough budgeted. The last thing I want to think about when I am on vacation is whether I have enough money. Too much stress when I am trying to relax.

 

[dmc6469]

Thank you for your input. I don’t use credit cards and pay cash (or debit card) for everything and I hate that whenever I am on vacation I always am thinking “do I have enough for that? I really want it but will I have enough to last the next few days,” while my sister is getting whatever she can. Living paycheck to paycheck sucks and saving for this trip since January and want to make sure I can be comfortable that week. Looks like I’m good with the way that it seems we both do our vacations. Thank you!

 

[marinejjh]

Thank you for your input. I don’t use credit cards and pay cash (or debit card) for everything and I hate that whenever I am on vacation I always am thinking “do I have enough for that? I really want it but will I have enough to last the next few days,” while my sister is getting whatever she can. Living paycheck to paycheck sucks and saving for this trip since January and want to make sure I can be comfortable that week. Looks like I’m good with the way that it seems we both do our vacations. Thank you!

Cash is king

 

[FTM22]

Someone may mention this elsewhere, but there are websites which have the menus for ALL the restaurants in WDW. You can look at the prices and plan accordingly as well. I can't remember the rules on the DIS about posting the names but you can find them easily by searching I am sure. We use DDP because we have teens who make it worthwhile and we tend to get free dining too. Cash is the best for sure. We actually store our vacation funds in an extra account and then link a card on that account to our magic bands. Then we can "charge" to the room but it's cash money for us.

 

[njpyro]

For my husband and I, we usually plan $50 per person per day, then one nice meal not included in that (this upcoming trip will be Ohana- an extra $100 in addition to the $400 planned for 4 days). We usually bring some granola bars and snack bags of almonds, pretzels, etc (whatever travels well in a carry-on bag) and refillable water bottles. That $50 covers a sit down and a counter service, depending on what you order, or two counter services. Keep in mind that we usually just get water as a drink and refill water bottles throughout the day, but when we want ice cream or a snack, we don't think twice and get it.
The only time we went over budget was during star wars weekends and we felt the need to buy all the souvenir glasses and popcorn bucket (great investment- still use them at home!).

 

[kathy884]

For food I budget $100 per day for three of us, and $50 on travel days for the three of us. But note: We do all breakfasts in. We do some lunches and dinners in too. We always have a condo with a kitchen. At the parks we eat counter service. I bring snacks to the park too and sometimes even bring sandwiches to Disney. Meals out -- usually two or three dinners on this budget are places like Steak n Shake, Sweet Tomatoes, and Perkins. // Any higher end dining planned or Disney table service is a budget buster and I budget separately at about $40 per person. I usually in a week just do one meal like this. It used to be a Disney table service place, but most recently I'm favoring Café Tu Tu Tango offsite for my one higher end meal (small plates restaurant with artists onsite -- fun atmosphere). At restaurants DH gets coffee and my son and I just get water which I think does save some dollars over time too. With this budget too, we usually on our park days get some sort of treat or snack -- e.g. Mickey Bar or popcorn for example. // Note too we are probably unusual in that in a six day trip to Orlando, we typically only do three theme park days.

 

[Lori day]

I would got to a store if you go to downtown Disney and walk down hotel blvd there is Goodings it's kind of over priced store for some things but get your self a loaf of bread,a pound of meat,cheese ,and mayo some carrot sticks or some chips whatever you like to eat and if your walking stick in your backpack and take back your hotel if you have car even better and put it in the freg.
When you get hungry and your at the hotel you will find it cheaper just to make your own food .Plan a couple of nicer meals and use the quick service places when in the parks .Anything at Disney is going to cost you but try things like order a pizza eat half of it the first night and put the rest away for the next night .Bring a water bottle and fill them up to save money on drinks as they will cost you in the parks .

 

[LJSquishy]

We budget $50 per person per day for food. This is generally enough for a counter service breakfast, counter service lunch, and a table service dinner (no beverages, no desserts). Some days we'll be under budget and other days over budget depending on what entrees we order or whether we decide to skip a meal if we're not hungry, etc.

This trip we'll probably only do a few table service meals and stick mostly to counter service just for more flexibility so planning on 3 counter service meals most days will save a bit of money (plus no tips on those days).

 

[brazzledazzler]

I have no kids and I don't do sit downs everyday.

I budget my food at $100 per day per person. I don't spend $100 everyday. I may eat something in my room snack all day and have CS for dinner. Or I might have a big breakfast buffet, a light lunch, and a Signature Restaurant sit down for dinner. That $100 allows me enough to not worry if I have enough budgeted. The last thing I want to think about when I am on vacation is whether I have enough money. Too much stress when I am trying to relax.

I do the same as davper. DH & I budget $100 a day; although tracking our past 2 Disney visits since we got APs, I found that we averaged $83 a day on food. We eat breakfast in our room, usually make our own coffee and bring breakfast stuff for the fridge; we usually have a late sit down lunch 3pm-ish and then have a snack later in the evening. That's the "general" plan, but some days we do only QS meals. We bring many bottles of water into the park, pack snacks in our daypack and if we do QS, I usually hunt down the QS restaurant that allows free-refills (Backlot Express in HS is great for this!). DH & I are budget conscious, but we realllllly like to do sit-down meals and have the occasional beer or drink, so we make cuts in other ways on food.