If you read thru the eat at Disney on $40 a day thread, I think you would see that $250 would be WAY plenty, especially with 2 of them being kids. A character meal will inflate the average, or an expensive dinner show, but they were coming up with very good meal plans at $40 a day for breakfast, CS, TS & snack days.
We are basically planning $45 a day average, as we only have 2 TS meals the entire trip and we will drink water (cup) at least one meal per day. Otherwise counter service is very easy to do under $15 pp in nearly every case.
I haven't had time to read through that thread, but I will agree that $250.00 for 2 adults/2 kids is plenty. We have eaten pretty much everywhere - been doing 2-3 TS meals per day for years (mostly paying cash - DxDP a few times), so I know prices, and that seems high, since there are 2 kids in the mix.
I should clarify that I don't anticipate the OP means she is going to eat 3 character meals per day, as that amount wouldn't be enough, but if she did 1 character meal, plus a quick serve, a few snacks and a reasonably priced TS (non character), than $250.00 will definitely be enough. Also, if they drink alcohol, that will eat up (pardon the pun) the budget as well. There are very reasonably priced TS restaurants on property, and, you can order adult meals for the kids to share, and that also saves money! Been doing this for years too.
As an aside, at most restaurants (exception of Epcot World Showcase & Downtown Disney restaurants that are not run owned by Disney), you can do kids' meals a la carte, which means that if you don't want dessert, you don't order and don't pay for it. This will save some money, as we've done it many times, as my kids prefer food, and not dessert.
I wish OP luck in figuring out her dining budget! Tiger
we are lucky enough to get the CM discount on our room and we can not add dining.
