How Much $ Will I Spend

[PrincessDreamer]

So, in trying to figure out my Disney budget, the hardest part is definitely how much I'll spend on food. Assume I'm not on a Dining Plan. How much does the average person spend per day on food in WDW? I'm really just looking for an estimate so I know if I can afford this vacation.

 

[Disney Crazy Debbie]

How much you spend depends on how much you want to spend or want to budget. If you get a WDW Passport book, or even just look on the disneypark.com website, it gives you an estimate of how much you will spend at each restaurant. Of course, the cheaper ones are counter service, but the buffet meals run around $25.00/adult and if you use it for one meal (lunch or dinner) and counter service for the other. Then you can get reasonably priced stuff at the stores/counters in the hotels.

 

[Tricia1972]

It depends on how you eat. For us:

Breakfast - Cereal or similar in the room

Snacks - some from the room. We stock up with peanutbutter crackers, fruit snacks, fruit, etc. we bring them to the parks and will munch on them for a mid morning snack.

Lunch - CS meal - sometimes we order our own sandwiches (most of the time), we never get the desserts (gross in our opinion) and order a beverage per adult. Average cost per adult is $10 Children are under $5

Dinner - TS meal - we go where we want and order what we want. Kids meals are $7.49 each.

For our group of 5A and 1Child:

LeCellier - $171.24
Beaches & Cream - $92.66
Tony's - $120.69
Jiko - $204.34
Crystal Palace Lunch - $128.95

Those meals could be easily split.


For us it breaks down like this for a 7 night/8 day vacation: (5 Adults 1 Child and 1 Infant)
$50.61 - Appetizers
$864.87 - Entree
$21.99 - Dessert (Kitchen Sink)
$113.60 - Beverage
$75.34 - Children's Meals
$125.21 - Gratuities (18%)
$146.62 - DDE Discount
$58.79 - Tax with DDE ($68.32 - Tax without DDE)

 

[PrincessDreamer]

Thanks for your help. Should I put tell everyone to put aside $50-60 for food each day or more just to be safe? Breakfast and lunch will probably be quick grab and go meals while dinner will be more sit down. But I do want to go into Magic Kingdom early one day for breakfast.

 

[Tricia1972]

Thanks for your help. Should I put tell everyone to put aside $50-60 for food each day or more just to be safe?

How many TS restaurants do you plan on going to? I would think that unless you don't want to be tied into a certain eating plan, if I was going to spend $50-$60 per day then I'd just buy the DDP for $37.99/night.

 

[Pirate's Princess]

If you're going to be spending 40+ per day, eating 1 sit down, 1 cs and a snack, go for the meal plan. There is a ton of food.

BTW if you want to save $$ and like water, you can go into any place that serves fountain sodas (at CS and snack stands) and get a free glass of ice water. Some were skimpy (tiny cups) and at some I got the super mega cup (and I never indicated size)

 

[lindakmonty]

I go on allears.net and look at the menus and figure out where I want to go and what we're most likely order. you can seriously eat on a slim budget at some very good counter service restaurants and of coarse you can go WAY overboard and spend a fortune.

 

[Tricia1972]

I go on allears.net and look at the menus and figure out where I want to go and what we're most likely order. you can seriously eat on a slim budget at some very good counter service restaurants and of coarse you can go WAY overboard and spend a fortune.

I agree! We are spending an average of $25.90 per person per day even eating at the 5 TS locations I indicated.

 

[mickeystoontown]

So, in trying to figure out my Disney budget, the hardest part is definitely how much I'll spend on food. Assume I'm not on a Dining Plan. How much does the average person spend per day on food in WDW? I'm really just looking for an estimate so I know if I can afford this vacation.

I would suggest you check out the restaurant menus at www.allearsnet.com. Click on Dining and scroll down to Menus. There, you will find the menus and prices of each and every Disney restaurant.

Make a chart for each day you will be at WDW. For each day, write down where you think you will be eating and the cost of the meal using the Menus at www.allearsnet.com.

This should help you with your budget and give you an idea of what is out there to eat.

 

[pat fan]

I agree with checking out www.allearsnet.com and going from there. They have about every food on there, from the hotels to snacks and meals. I do this every trip (prices don't change much, but some).

Breakfast is usually cereal from home and we only have to buy milk and fruit from the food court.
Lunch is usually our TS meal, if we're going to have one. About the same food for less $$. Otherwise, it's CS or food court.
Supper is CS or food court.
We only plan 2 or 3 TS meals our whole trip. One is a character meal, usually CP with Pooh for brunch (gets bkfst. and lunch done in one fell swoop!) and then maybe one or two more TS, just to try somewhere new.
We always planned on $100 a day for our family of 4 and never ran short. Some day we ate less than that, some days a little more. It all evens out in the end!

Also, make sure you stop somewhere for a case of water on your way in. This is the biggest money saver you can do. 1 bottle of water in the parks is around $2-$3. You can buy a case for around $5 and bring a few bottles with you each time you head out.

 

[Chellymouse]

Prior to the dining plan, we usually budget $100 day for 2 adults for food. That usually got us 2 counter service meals a day, a less expensive TS and a couple of snacks. We've gotten wiser though! Now we take water and snacks with us and we're not sure about the 2008 DDP. We have a couple of trips planned so we're waiting to make a decision especially now that we are DVC members. If you are not planning on using the DDP, plan to eat in the room or CS for breakfast and do a TS as a late lunch/early supper and get a snack or CS in the evening. TS prices are different for lunch/dinner and the menus are very similar. We haven't seen a difference with portion sizes between lunch and supper.

 

[Luv4Disney]

It sounds like a lot of work, but first we picked out the restaurants we wanted to eat at and then looked at the menus. We picked out what we'd most likely eat including apps, desserts, etc. and added it up with tax. We have the DDE card so that would take care of the gratuity. From there we got an approximate cost of what food would cost us. We added some extra money in at the end to cover snacks and to have a cushion in case. Let's see if it works!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I have to chime back in here. Before we purchased the Disney Dining Plan, we would be in WDW 10 days and the majority of our meals were counter service. We might throw in two table service meals. After the Dining Plan, I couldn't believe we could ever have eaten so many burgers, pizzas, chicken strips, etc. I would never go back to just counter service meals again!

 

[PrincessDreamer]

Thanks! I looked at the menus and chose meals for myself pretty quickly, which estimated to be around $40 a day. So I think if I research the good bargains really well, that number could go down a little bit more. So now I'll be addicted to the boards looking for the good deals, haha.

 

[LuvTigger]

Great advice in all of the posts, and I especially echo the advice about looking at menus from some of the other sites to get a general idea of what kind of food you might want to eat. Of course, it really depends on your eating habits, how tight your budget is, and if you generally bring some food with you or not.

I budget around $120-$130 per day for DBF and myself, but this is because we are completely dependent on buying food for all our meals and we generally have at least one sit down meal per day. Some days we spend more than others, but it usually evens out and all told, the average ends up being $120-$130 per day.

A typical day for the two of us:
Breakfast at food court or a quick breakfast in the parks ($20-$25)
A counter service lunch ($25-$30)
A table service dinner ($75-$100)

For our table service dinners, we usually each order a non-alcoholic beverage, a soup or salad each, and an entree each. Sometimes we also order an appetizer or dessert to share. We might have a snack here and there, but probably not every day.

As I said earlier, we don't eat this way every day and of course the prices can vary, so some days we won't even spend $100, and on other days, we may spend closer to $150. When planning my trip, I usually make a list of the "must eats" and make ADRs whenever possible.

 

[mom2my3kids]

We are going to be at disney for 6 days and we are eating at 3 TS and the rest CS or downtown disney. I have added up and its under 600.00 so not to shabby.

 

[myladyisatramp]

Going with my 3 grown children. I think we are doing the DDP as I don't think I can eat hamburgers Hot dogs and such each meal after a day or so that gets very old. I would like a nice sit down meal at the end of a magical day.