Just curious on average everyone spends on food

[wvnative]

For our next trip, I think I have budgeted $250. It may change though since we are celebrating my birthday. lol There will be 2 of us. We'll have breakfast at home before we leave and on the 2 of the 3 mornings. We'll do counter service or a snack for lunch each day and have dinner in the park. We'll grab lunch on the road somewhere on the way back and I've included the cost of having pizza delivered for dinner the night we get home.

 

[spacemermaid]

Just skimmed all the previous replies & didn't see that anyone had posted this yet: http://allears.net/dlr/din/menu/menus.htm .

It's a list of all the DLR restaurants (including the ones at the 3 hotels & DTD) that has prices; you can know ahead of time how much it'll cost to eat...I've found it to be invaluable when budgeting a trip.

 

[kikikiki]

thanks for the menu link,very helpful! and yummy! what is the sales tax applied to food?

 

[gokdog]

We generally try and have one big meal event per day, so if we do a character brunch, we just get a simple dinner or vice versa. Probably a total budget of $150 per day for 4 of us, not counting drinks.

 

[Caseystigger]

The planner in me I used various websites and a DL Dining app I added everything we knew we wanted to eat to my spreadsheet with prices and for two of us we are budgeting $150-$200 per day. For the two Character breakfasts we are planning we decided to purchase those vouchers in advance and were able to use our AAA discount so that is a little less to worry about.

 

[yngsj]

We spend around 125.00 a day for 2 adults and 2 teens. We eat a free BF at our hotel or if staying at the HOJO we pack BF bars, spend around 40.00 for counter service lunch, 60.00 for a nice dinner outside the park, and about 25.00 for snacks. The one thing that sometimes spoils our budget is water, if it is hot.

 

[cyclenut]

A strategy I use at the parks here at home that I plan to use during my DL trip is to rely only on water bottles for drinks during the day. Saves a lot of cash. I'll just buy a bottle of water at one point (I bring one from home for the parks here) then refill it throughout the day. Saves about $3 for each meal. Depending on how hungry I am or what is offered, I'll get a kids meal to save even more.

I second this. As a local and AP we don't really look at DLR as a vacation but we do have those occasions where we have "hosted" relatives. We try to avoid buying any beverages in the park, ever. They are much more expensive than they need to be and the costs can really add up. Another tip on the water bottles is to freeze a few (if you can ... some rooms have a small freezer). Everyone has some sort of water bottle carrier or strap and puts the frozen water bottle in it. As it begins to melt, they have cold water. That can be topped off with fresh water later in the day. They do "sweat" so you've got to plan for that, but I carry water bottles in a backpack with our lunch and snacks and we only eat one meal in the park (if we're going to be there all day).

I'm splurging on this trip because it's special, but on the days we're doing a premium meal (Goofy's and WOC) I'll be frugal with food spending for the rest of the day. So, for one person, I'm aiming for no more than $30 a day, with the exception of 2 days to cover the premium meals and other food. The rest of my budget goes to hotel, transportation, and other unforeseen costs. I'll be going light on the souvenirs since I'm sure most stuff I can get here at WDW.

It's nice to splurge once in awhile! We're doing that on our upcoming cruise!

 

[Jenasweetemotion]

thanks for the menu link,very helpful! and yummy! what is the sales tax applied to food?

food? or restaurants? some foods aren't taxed while a restaurant/fast foods and such will charge 8.75% (someone can correct me if that is not the current sales tax) but I am sure it is. Where I live it is 9.75% and I thought Anaheim/Orange County charged a 1% difference from our sales tax.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

food? or restaurants? some foods aren't taxed while a restaurant/fast foods and such will charge 8.75% (someone can correct me if that is not the current sales tax) but I am sure it is. Where I live it is 9.75% and I thought Anaheim/Orange County charged a 1% difference from our sales tax.

Correct. 8.75% is the current sales tax in Anaheim. As far as I can tell, all foods are taxed in the parks. Candy shop items and other Disney branded food items in the shops are taxed since they are classified as souvenirs rather than groceries or snacks. The prices for things like churros, ice creams, pretzels, and popcorns and stuff from the carts do include the tax though, so you don't have to add on there.

 

[starshine514]

It really depends on how you are going to eat. We ate breakfast at the hotel, brought trail mix and PB & J sandwiches (along with water), got a few snacks each day (popcorn, pretzel, Dole Whip, even a corn dog), picked up dinner normally at a fast food place on Harbor, or sometimes at DTD. I think we ate 2 actual meals in the park, both at DCA - Taste Pilot's Grill and Pacific Wharf Cafe.

I would say, on average, we probably spent $30-$40 a day on food for the 4 of us. However, we didn't spend much of that in the parks and did spend a little on trail mix, peanut butter, etc.

 

[alyssa810]

We budget about $80 per day, with 2 adults and our DS who will be turning 4 when we go in September. We used to budget about $100 a day, but it was too much. There are days when we don't spend that much, and days when we go over, so we average....We also usually do NOT have a sit down breakfast, but we try to sit down for 1 meal a day. We usually have a smaller breakfast, like a muffin or pastry and a drink, and we might or might not have a snack during the day.

 

[pycees312]

i highly suggest visiting allears dot net to get an idea of the things your family may eat etc. food pricing is listed there.
it depends on how many days, how you like to eat and drink and how many snacks you prefer to have. for example i know my lil request a churro daily while in DL. Does your family prefer to sit down, or eat on the fly, if it's hot they may want icecream, how important are character meals etc.
our family of 5 when we go without character meals. each meal usually averages 5.50-10.00 for grab n go, and 10-15 for sit down. and average 2-5 for snacks and drinks we have annual passes so we use our discount all the time.

 

[disneychrista]

We eat breakfast at the hotel, so this is included in the price of the hotel.

Lunch/Dinner is between $10 - $15 per person per meal

Snacks between $5 - $8 per day.

Extra drinks (in addtion to drinks with meals) $3 - $6 per day.

 

[rentayenta]

I have no idea. We eat well, lots of goodies too. I think what saves us from going broke is that we share.

 

[CMG1]

We budget $50 per day per person. We eat breakfast at the hotel.

 

[Thundergod]

I really don't have a budget for food, I mean I have roughly figured out what it might cost us and such and just did a rough estimate.


With tickets and rooms already paid for I'm taking 4,000 cash for gas food and extras.. If I can't do a week trip for that then someone shoot me.

 

[SpaceMania]

I really don't have a budget for food, I mean I have roughly figured out what it might cost us and such and just did a rough estimate.


With tickets and rooms already paid for I'm taking 4,000 cash for gas food and extras.. If I can't do a week trip for that then someone shoot me.

DANG! How many people are you going with?! i don't think i could spend 4,000 on food if i tried! unless i was there for a few months...

 

[WannaseePooh]

Last trip we took $4500, I just didn't know what it all would cost. I ended up spending around $1500 for everything. We were basically begging the kids to buy stuff for themselves all they wanted to do was ride rides, they are not the shopping or eating types This time I am taking way less, but we are adding an extra day to this trip and a rental car, so we will see what the final bill is.

 

[IndayMichelle]

....and did I mention the MIMOSAS at La Brea Bakery Cafe???

I now have to make special trips to La Brea! How did I not know this?


I spend too much on food at DLR! I can't help it. It's vacation! Also, I never to go DLR for long trips, so I try to cram it in. I think I spent $75 on food in one day last April. Spent less in November, but we had the concierge lounge at PPH.

Our July trip will be a little pricey. We have a table service meal planned each day that we're there, and I have a serious Disney popcorn addiction. I have four empty buckets sitting on my kitchen counter right now.

I've done the bring your own snacks and pbj sandwich thing before, and you certainly save money, but I would definitely allow for more than just one or two treats in the park. It IS Disney and it IS a vacation.

 

[Dostert9]

Ok...just ordered about $331.00 of groceries and water from Vons and I think we will have anywhere from $800.00 to $1000.00 for transportation to and from airport, long term parking here at our airport, souvenirs, a couple sit down meals and small treats for $6 days and nights for 11 people. 4 older kids have their own spending money for souvenirs so that helps Our only sit down meal that I know of is at Rain Forest Cafe and probably will total about $200 with tax and tip!
One week and counting!!!