I'm sure it's been asked, BUT......

[Carlyzmom]

How much do you generally (you frequent Disney flyers) budget for food daily for: 2 adults and 2 kids (mine will be 5 and 8)???
Other info, we will probably do some breakfast in the room and some character, lunches will probably be counter service, and dinners will be table service - casual to nice.
Ballpark figures please! I am trying to figure out how much money to save. THANKS in advance!!

 

[Carlyzmom]

I was asking "per day". Is is $100, $150, $200? I just want to know how much to bring.

 

[Metsoskil]

I'm not sure "per day", since every day is different, but we usually budget $35 for CS meals for 2 adults and 2 kids, and $100 for TS meals. The CS is probably a bit high, but we feel it's better to be on the safe side. The TS amount includes tip and tax. We may adjust that # for set price meals by looking at the menus and prices online.

 

[Disneyfan1977]

We do the dining plan but with that we still have to purchase 1 meal on our own. I would say that last year we would buy that one meal at a counter and would spend no more than 35-40ish. Thats for me, my dh, my dd, and my ds.

Maybe sometimes a bit less....

 

[alldiz]

With the DDP we didn't really buy much food.

Bkfst....either snack credit...or stuff in the room that I had shipped down.
Lunch...counter service.
Dinner...Table Service.
Happy Planning.
Kerri

 

[buzzgirls&dad]

I was just looking at menus as my ADR time is coming up. We are 2A & 1C(8)
We eat breakfast in the room have CS for lunch and TS for dinner for the most part. DH and I will have 1 or 2 Adult beverages at dinner. We are staying 12 days and have 3 Dinner shows. We are looking at $1500 (dinner shows are almost $500 of that) If you take out the Dinner shows it is around the $100 a day mark. HTH

 

[bigbabyblues]

Our budget would be $175 give or take per day for our family of me, DH, DS7 (turning 8 on the trip) and DS5.

I'm basing that on our 2004 trip. That year, our budget was $140 a day and we used almost all of it. At that time, our youngest was 2 and ate for free at the buffets and character meals. We did one ts meal per day, two of the days we had two ts meals, and the rest counter service. We did not have food in the room, except for the day we were stuck in there due to a hurricane.

My best advice would be to go to allears or click on the Dining tab at the top of the boards and check out the menus. You don't know exactly what everyone will order, but it will give you an idea of the prices.

 

[pooch]

its $38 for adults and $10 for each of your kiddies, so just shy of $100 per day. You get 1 snack, 1 Counter Service and 1 Table service per person per day. If you plan on eating at a TS restaurant every day, I really think this is the way to go especially because your kids are still Disney "kids" (changes at 10 yrs old). A previous poster said that you then had to pay for one meal per day but we found the Counter Service portions to be SOO big that we normally shared 2 CS meals between the 4 of us (and my kids aren't "kids" anymore, 23 & 17) and basically get 2 meals out of our CS credits each day. I liked the convenience of having meals pre-paid and being able to order whatever we wanted at dinner without looking at the price. We probably spent $20 per day over and above the DDP and this will increase this year as tips are no longer included but you'd have to pay those without the DDP too so that's a wash for me. Hope this helps some, JMHO, and have a great trip!

 

[Mr Man]

We are a family of 4 & generally budget food as follows:

Per day w/ DDP: $50
Per day OOP: $180

Of course, this is skewed because we now stay at DVC resorts and always have a full kitchen (some meals we prefer to have in room for convenience). Seeing as how we order our groceries online and have it delivered to us at our room, it usually comes out pretty close to above $180 per day.

 

[Disney8704]

For DH and I, we are ranging between $130 - $150 a day (12 nights / 13 days), depending where we eat each day. Couple days we just have 1 TS meal planned and the rest CS. Mostly though its 2 TS meals and 1 CS for the other days.

Breakfast - CS $20.00 / TS average $45
Lunch - CS $30.00
Dinner - CS $30.00 / TS average $58 - $85 (not including CRT which is pre-paid $100 and Hoop Dee Doo which is prepaid $120)

Overall we are taking $1600 down with us and that includes our meals (includes tax and tips) and $240 in snacks ($10 per person, per day). We are buying filtered water bottles and taking them with us ($60 for 2) and getting them filled at CS so we dont have to buy water. Saving money doing it that way.

 

[BabyFu18]

We budget about $100 a day for food, that's for 3 adults though. Some days we may spend more than that, but some days we will spend less so it seems to even out.

 

[Carlyzmom]

Thanks everyone for the great advice. That definitely gives me a place to start.