Please help me with this

[ilovdisney2]

We are going to WDW on 12/17 and staying for 6 days. There is 2 adults and 4 children ages 14, 11, and two 9 year olds. Could you please help me decide how much we will need for food and extras. I have paid for the room and tickets but need to know how much to budget for food and souvineers. Please help me with this. I don't have long to save!

 

[HaleyB]

It really depends on your style.
We eat very lite in the world, no one seems to want to give any time to eating so we do a lot more snacking than anything else. 5 of us spend anywhere from 50-100 a day. We always breakfast in the room (thank goodness for Pop tarts!) and never buy drinks (water is always free if you ask). We go to WDL at least once a year (used to live in SoCal and had AP's for 8 years). In WDW it was about the same.
If you go to the second post in the "Everything you want to know about vouchers" thread there is a link to menus and prices for WDW. Serving size is average-large imho.
Other expenses always kill us as my DH and I both have a weakness for Disney stuff (and so do our kids, go figure). We try to limit each person in our group to $25 at DL, since we only go to DW every few years, and there is more to buy, we budget over $100 each for those trips.... so we spend more on 'things' than food!

 

[ripleysmom]

One piece of advice that I can give you is to decide on dollar amount for souvenirs and then give that to the kids. Tell them that that is their spending money for the week and once it is spent it is gone.

You'd be surprised to see how frugal kids can be when it is coming out of their "own" pocket.

 

[mmeb144]

I agree with the "give the kids their own money" post. We do this and it works great!

For the meals, I would try a lot of counter service. One of the standouts in this area is Cosmic Rays in the MK. My DD says that we have to visit the singing alligator. It's really fun to listen to Sonny Eclipse! He's supposed to be an alien, but I guess you could say he's a lounge lizard. He plays the "piano" and sings and tells really bad jokes. We love it! The food is ok and the portions are huge! You can easily share a meal.

Marie

 

[mmeb144]

I'm just full of myself tonight. Try this link for menus:

http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

Marie

 

[Lewisc]

Where are you staying? Will you have a rental car?

 

[ilovdisney2]

We are staying at POP Century and No, we will not have a rental car. We will eat a couple of times at McDonalds at DTD and we do have a few character meals scheduled. (one at Chef Mickeys for Dinner when we arrive, one at CP for breakfast and one at 1900 Park Fare for Dinner for Me and the 2 nine year olds.) How much $ per day do you usually spend on food?
2 adults
1 DS age 14
1 DS age 11
1 DD age 9
DD's friend age 9
Could you give me an approximate $$$$$ to budget for food?
Thanks for all your help