Is it reasonable to budget $100/day?

[MeganFyne]

Hi all!

My BF and I are going (YAY!!!) Feb 6-12. I haven't been in years, certainly not as an adult, and not for so long a period of time. I was wondering if $100/ day is a reasonable budget per person, including food. We are planning on having one sit-down meal/ day, and have probably at least one drink each day. We are not huge on souvenirs, however I have nephews and and a niece that I would like to bring something back for. I appreciate your help!

 

[famgel]

For $42/per person you can have a table service, quick/counter service and snack for the day on the meal plan. Our most expensive meal recently in Jan at Le Cellier came to almost $300 for 4 adults (inc 2 alcohol drinks), but we were on the meal plan so we only had to pay for drinks and tip. Only thing with the meal plan is you have to have reservations ahead of time so if you're considering this go online to disney dining and make believe you want to make a reservation for your stay and see what your options are. It's really late in the game because you can make ressies 180 days out from your first day of vacation.

 

[deerhart]

You don't have to have reservations to be on the meal plan, but it can help especially if you want to eat at some of the more popular places or at prime dinner time.

When DH and I went on our honeymoon, we were there for 5 days 4 nights and we easily spent $400+ on food/tips without alcohol. With our trip we only had 1 free sit down meal (this was before the dining plan existed) and it was at the Coral Reef. Our bill for the two os us was well over $100.

Expect a sit down meal to run the two of you with 1 drink a piece to be $60 on the cheap side and $80-$100 on the average. If you go in and just have a single drink plus the cheapest item on the menu, you'll spend about $30 per person before tip (drinks run about $8-$10 and the cheapest entrees will still be $15-$20). Your counter service meal for two will run (with sodas) about $10.00 each (give or take). You haven't even discussed snacks and they run $2-$4 each. For our family of 4, (with a meal plan) we plan on $75-$100 a day for souvenirs, the trip to lego store and my trip to basin, tips, drinks, and extras (like the 3 miso soups my kids had EACH)

I would plan at least $100.00 a day for food and then extra on top of that for souvenirs. Or you could add the meal plan on (if your staying onsite) for $84.00 a day for the two of you

 

[amandamims]

I sure hope so. I'm planning a trip for August 2010 hopefully and spending more than 100 a day is craaazzzy in my opinion.

 

[MeganFyne]

We've made ADR's for 4 of the days. Is it possible to get on the dining plan if you are not part of a package? We've booked rooms only at the CBR and have gotten tickets from Undercover Tourist. Also, I am a vegetarian so my meals do tend to be on the cheap side (BF is NOT, he'll eat any animal that passes him!) so would this be a consideration? I'm not terrified to go over budget as we've been saving for a while and I tend to budget conservatively, I just would be pleased to not have to dip into what I've called my "vacation reserve fund!"

 

[MeganFyne]

OH by the way thank you all for replying! How wonderful you are!

 

[deerhart]

I believe you have to get tickets but unsure (since we always buy packages).

Allearsnet has menus with prices on them for most of the restaurants, yo you can look at them and get an idea of the cost of each meal.

 

[dizneemom]

I believe you would have to buy atleast a one day ticket (per person) through Disney to be able to get on the dining plan.

 

[roadtripper]

We budget 100/day for a family of four, so you should be fine
We eat breakfast in the room, bring snacks and water bottles to the parks, and eat one counter service or sit down per day. So 200/day would be lots of dining and souvenirs!

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I think $100/person/day is plenty. My husband and I took an anniversary trip 2 years ago to WDW and spent less than that. We had dinner at The Plaza Restaurant (Magic Kingdom) for about $50 including tip and dessert. We had lunch at Mamma Melrose's (Studios) for, again, about $50 including tip. No alcohol, though, which is pricey. We ate counter-service meals in the parks at Tangierine Cafe (Epcot), Flame Tree BBQ (Animal Kingdom) and Earl of Sandwich (Downtown Disney), each was about $25. We ate breakfast at the resort's food court every morning (Port Orleans French Qtr) for about $15 total. We were there 3 nights and ate 8 meals for under $250. Definitely do-able!

 

[RachaelA]

$100/per person or $100 per day??

We probably spent over $100 a day on food alone on our honeymoon, but we were on the dining plan which meant that we got deserts when we normally wouldn't and drinks (non-alcoholic) when we'd normally get water.

$100 per day is doable but I don't know if it can be done if you plan on buying alcoholic drinks at $8-$10 a drink and buying gifts for multiple nieces and nephews.

 

[a1tinkfans]

If you can afford to budget for the 100/day you really should consider the meal plan. Its been described before, so I won't repeat it again. BUT, realize that IF you go to ANY of the higher end places, you will easily see that the one sit down meal will almost break your budget without the meal plan. Two years ago when they used to provide the receipt showing the actual cost we saw that Disney food would have cost us over 1300. and yet we got it for FREE thu (free dine). We have gotten FREE dine for 4-5 times, this trip it is OOP for us, but STILL, I'd never go without it!
I/we also like to just "go" and not worry about cost (how much is this/thayt to eat) , so any extra's we add on (like apps, alcohol) during the stay go to the room (KTTW) and then I use Disneys FREE $$ from Disney Visa and pay it off, so for us it is a no brainer....we LOVE the meal plan, regular, not deluxe which for us was WAY overkill, just too much food, too much time away from parks......

Whatever you choose have a YUMMY vacation.

And by the way, get those ADR's in place NOW, perhaps before you even consider the meal plan, I mean if you cannot get a reservation/s, you may be at the counters for all your meals anyway. We had it happen to us in the past and swore we'd never go again without dining reservations in place. It is easy to cancel, but can be very Difficult to Get!

Good Luck and have a wonderful trip!

 

[MeganFyne]

Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[jenseib]

You have to buy a 1 day ticket and make your room bascially a package to do the meal plan (and be staying onsite). But I think it's too late to do it. I know you have to have the meal plan added so many days before you arrive, and I can't remember how many, but it might be 3.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I budget about $100-$125 a day for my bf and I and we generally eat at 2 TS meals a day (but we don't usually get alcoholic drinks either). I'm a pescetarian but eat mainly vegetarian when at WDW (my bf is a meat eater). I find it's usually cheaper for us to pay out of pocket than to do the dining plan as we save so much money with the room only discount and getting our tickets through undercovertourist (I buy 10 day non-expiration hopper passes every other trip). Plus we don't get the most expensive thing on the menu (although we don't limit ourselves if that's what we want) and rarely get dessert as we're so full. Here's how an average day breaks down for us (oh, we don't "do" breakfast either, we sleep in just about every day and get to the parks about 10-11):

Lunch (usually TS, sometimes CS but I save/budget like it will be a TS meal):
$40-45 with tip

Snack (sometimes we get one in the afternoon or in the evening depending on how full we are, some days we don't get one at all):
$10 total per day

Dinner (almost always TS, many times the best vegetarian option will be an appetizer which I'll get with a house salad):
$65-70 with tip

Sometimes we spend a little more, sometimes a little less (like when we eat at Ohana's it's a little more but it seems to balance out in the end as I almost always have money left over [I don't buy any souvenirs; we're not souvenir people]). You could obviously spend much less at lunch or dinner by doing CS instead. I think your budget is very doable even with alcohol!

 

[klynn]

$100/per person or $100 per day??

We probably spent over $100 a day on food alone on our honeymoon, but we were on the dining plan which meant that we got deserts when we normally wouldn't and drinks (non-alcoholic) when we'd normally get water.

$100 per day is doable but I don't know if it can be done if you plan on buying alcoholic drinks at $8-$10 a drink and buying gifts for multiple nieces and nephews.

OP said $100/day per person--so $200/day. I think that is more than enough!