Realistic Dining Budget?

[teachmedis]

We've budgeted about $2500, for 9 nights. We are also a family of 4--with 3 Disney adults. We are rope droppers so breakfast is in the room. We have Topolinos breakfast, Steakhouse 71, Sci Fi, Trex and Ohana booked. Then we do mostly counter service. We aren't huge snack buyers, a couple a day. I will also buy quite a bit of goodies at Disney Springs. We don't drink much alcohol (I don't drink any, my husband has one here or there). We also aren't coffee drinkers-- I think that stuff adds a lot to the over all cost. We will make meals out of the items at Flower and Garden. Last year we budgeted 2k for an 8 night trip. We ended up spending quite a bit of that on merchandise. So this amount seems to work for us.

 

[_19disnA]

What someone else spends on food may/may not be of value to you if your family has different eating habits. Do you typically eat breakfast in your room (cereal/bagel/etc.) or do you want a full meal? Do you eat lunch at the park, mostly eat snacks or return to your hotel? Do you have a car and ever plan to eat dinner off-site which tends to be lower cost then Disney? I would take 1-2 sample days of what you think you will 'typically' do and price it out. I think that would provide a good enough sense of what it might cost and then you don't have to try to price out every day. Your budget and personal eating preferences/habits are probably the biggest factors in determining what you might spend.

 

[B-Ride]

Realistic? I thought you were going to Disney World.

 

[daisylovesdisney]

I semi budget by previewing menus and gearing our choices for counter service and more casual a la carte table service restaurants. We'll usually do 1-2 character meals usually for breakfast but may skip it on our next trip (coming up in August). I figure 1-2 snacks per person per day. It ends up being pretty reasonable imo.

 

[mouschievous]

We also do a mental budget of $100 per person per day. We're a family of all adults; if we had kids I might do more like $75 per kid. Most days we don't come close to that, but I figure it's a good average. Breakfast is not typically part of our budget, as we eat breakfast in the hotel room (bagels and cream cheese, etc. that we get in a grocery delivery).

 

[gharter]

It really depends where you plan to dine and how many meals.
As only 2 adults, we do breakfast in the room (DVC, purchased items from the store on the way in) a QS for lunch and generally Signature at dinner.
Your budget could easily be $75-200 per person per day. Our budget tends to be toward the higher, but when our kids were younger, we were toward the lower end.

 

[Jacq7414]

We didn’t budget. Just spent whatever. Probably not the best idea . I have no idea how much we ended up spending. We did one sit down meal a day.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

On our recent 5 night trip with 2 adults, and 3 teen girls, we spent $2500. We had some TS and QS, basically let the kids get whatever snacks they wanted. We spent between $200-500 a day on food and snacks, and some souvenirs (maybe $150 each kid in souvenirs). Hope this gives you a better idea. I do make a spreadsheet and plan in advance for costs.

**edit to add, these teens will eat kids meals at QS for the most part, teen girls, not huge eaters

 

[tguz]

We were there for 10 days back in Dec 2021. We ate mostly QS meals and for the 2 of us, we rarely had a bill that was $40, usually around $35. That was without alcohol or dessert. We tend to like a couple snacks during the day versus dessert with a meal. For our 5 sit down meals, I budgeted $100 total per meal and we never hit that either. I'd say we averaged $60-$75 per meal plus tip. Some sit downs are not that expensive (Sci Fi Diner). I think the most expensive 2 were Yak & Yeti and San Angel Inn.

 

[RamblinWreck]

We just (December) hosted our family of 37 for a week at the Riviera for our 50th anniversary celebration. Our family consists of 15 adults and 22 grandkids ages 2-18.

We provided one catered group dinner and $65 per person per day food allowance. It worked out about right.

Can you adopt me, please?

 

[Figment Mom]

I spent $780 on our last trip.
$322 cash
$458 in room charges

We don't buy souvenirs, so that included all meals and snacks.

There were two of us (1 adult and 1 9-year-old) and we were there for 11 days. This was a few years ago, but we generally did one TS each day, including 2 character meals.

We brought a few snacks with us but bought water (and lots of frozen lemonade!) in the parks. No alcohol.

We also did Hoop Dee Doo one night which was prepaid and not included in the above, so add another $100ish.

Going this year with a teenager (who doesn't eat as much as you might expect) and a 7-year-old who doesn't eat much, I expect we'll be sharing most meals and having snacks as meal. We're doing 1 TS per day. We will do a grocery delivery with water and a few breakfasty things.

I'm hoping to come in well under $2000 (closer to $1500) for our 12 days, but I'm not going to cut us off if we go higher.

 

[JBelle19]

Our budget is around $2500

I sat down and made a spreadsheet based on what I think we will eat, and tried to add in tax and tip as well. We are a family of four, and will be there 6 nights. DDs will typically eat kids meals other than the pre-fix meals where they will be charged "Disney Adult" prices. They're even likely to split kids meals at some places, they aren't big eaters. I'll likely eat kids meals at QS as well, and we will get some snacks and eat a few breakfasts in the room. We have Skipper Canteen, The Edison, Sci-Fi, Og's, Tusker House Breakfast, LTT, Space 220, and Whispering Canyon booked. I also figured in for Geyser Point, as we will do a dinner there on our water park day. We won't drink other than DH having a couple beers. Even at Oga's I'll probably get a non-alcoholic drink.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Do you all set a "budget" for dining or just spend whatever and it costs what it costs? I'm struggling with figuring out how much to budget for our family of two adults and two young kids (6&8) the plan is mainly QS meals, two character meals... will bring some snacks into the parks but staying at AoA so not a lot of storage in the room for food....6 park days, 2 relaxing days and 2 days at Universal... plus have to factor in the exchange rate because every CDN dollar I save is only 75cents USD so I have to save more than we actually need.... I know I can look at all the menus online and price out a typical meal but I feel overwhelmed

So, as of late, we don't really budget since we've gone enough, we sort of know what our total out of pocket is with food, drinks, gifty things, etc. We are a family of 4, two teen girls, and we (adults) do drink but not all the time. We might have a beer or margarita once or twice so most of our food expenses are really food and of course, coffee and snacks.

We average about $200/day all in for the 4 of us and that's no table service, all QS. We also mostly purchase our breakfasts out too. Some trips we will do breakfast in the room. We do table service more during our summer trips so we have a dedicated place to go to get out the heat and if we do that, I'd guess that would put us closer to $275-$300/day for the 4 of us. A good strategy if you're concerned about on property expense, buy some disney gift cards in advance and use them at restaurants or for your mobile dining orders. You can get a 5% discount on the GC if you purchase them at Target with your red debit or credit card. It's not much but it's a little bit of saving and makes the trip feel more all inclusive. Having younger kids you may save a little $$ since my kids are disney adults, but we're not super big eaters and even on some of our trips, we will split meals or skip meals especially if we've over snacked.

 

[Bostonjetset]

As I’m recently back (last month) from a 4 day trip I still have my spending records so will share so you get an idea of spending for two adults who don't drink much alcohol.

Three Bridges (dinner): $93.39 incl tax and tip. 1 appetizer shared. 2 entrees. 1 dessert shared. 2 soft drinks.

Chefs de France (dinner): $160.55 incl tax and tip. 2 appetizers. 2 entrees. 2 desserts. 1 soft drink. 1 glass of wine.

Skipper Canteen (lunch): $104.00 incl tax and tup. 1 appetizer shared. 2 entrees. 1 dessert shared. 2 soft drinks.

‘Ohana (dinner): $177.10 incl tax and tip. This is a $55/pp prix fixe dinner and we each had 1 cocktail along with it.

Tiffins (lunch): $193.56 incl tax and tip. 2 appetizers, 2 entrees. 2 desserts. 2 soft drinks.

Just those five meals totaled $728.60 and does not include any snacks, or breakfasts. We spent about $25 each at the Flower and Garden Festival booths for lunch on Epcot day. We also had a school bread, cake, and frozen coffee drinks in the Norway pavilion. Cheshire Cat tails and iced coffees at MK. Mickey pretzels for breakfast at Epcot (they REALLY need some breakfast options at Epcot before 11am!!!). And breakfast sandwiches one day (donuts the other) at the Coronado Springs QS before heading out. Oh and coffee drinks with desserts at Dahlia Lounge one night. We easily spent over $500 each for 4 days (really only 3 full days as we arrived Sat evening at 8pm and left Tuesday evening at 5pm.)

 

[MICKIMINI]

I am at the "it costs what it costs" point. I have found myself doing table service breakfasts a lot more often now than I did in the past. With the bounty platter running $13 (with no discount) I would rather have a relaxing breakfast cooked to order. I think Crystal Palace is a good deal right now without the characters - $39. I also had the Chef's Platter at Boatwrights a few weeks ago, and I thought that was a good deal. I am heading down for 2 weeks in July and I am thinking I will average about $75 a day, not counting the occasional alcoholic drink.

We're also at "it costs what it costs", however we're spending at least twice what you spend (averaged as we don't do sit down daily) and we don't drink alcohol! We often split meals or get kid's meal at QS as we are not big eaters.

We eat breakfast at our villa and bring a bottled water or bottled coffee (or both) into the park. Our new favorite sit down restaurant is Toppolino's (RIV) for consistently good food and service. Prices are fair. We had a disappointing meal at our former favorite Le Cellier (3 out of 4 steaks were way undercooked) and have retired that choice.

I look ahead for discounts: DVC, AP (usually 10%) or Disney Visa 10%. I pay by Disney gift cards I bought at 5-10% discounts which can double my discount. Unfortunately, everything about WDW is expensive AND takes research! Good luck!

 

[jimmymc]

Quick service platters are usually $12 to $16 per adult, plus $4 for a drink. Child's platters are $8 each.

Character breakfasts are about $30 per person, dinner can be $50 to $70 per person.

I usually budget $140 per day since I'll buy some drinks at dinner and eat at a lot of signature places, but $100 per day should be plenty of adults, and $60 per child.

 

[gorkt]

I look at this website ( https://allears.net/dining/menu) and look at typical meals that we would eat and make an estimate. Buffets and character meals are easy. Most QC meals are around $15-20 or so for adults, cheaper for kids. Snacks are $5-8 and I'll budget in a few a day.

 

[k5xs]

Can you adopt me, please?

LOL. Sure. What's one more?

Beware, however, that if we do this you'll be responsible for working Genie+ and LL reservations for the whole family.

 

[RamblinWreck]

LOL. Sure. What's one more?

Beware, however, that if we do this you'll be responsible for working Genie+ and LL reservations for the whole family.

So it'll be exactly like being in my family, except I won't have to pay! You have yourself a deal!

 

[Brett Wyman]

6 days at Disney for 4.

QS breakfast/lunch/dinner x 6 days(4 park + 2 relax). QS Breakfast - $20 for Kids & $30 for Parents. QS Lunch & Dinner - $40 for kids & $80 for parents x 6 days = $1020

QS Breakfast/lunch x 2 Days. QS Breakfast- $20 for Kids & $30 for Parents. QS Lunch - $20 for kids & $40 for parents. Character Dinner - $70 kids $110 for adults x 2 days. = $580

Universal - $400 both days.

Snacks $5 x 4 x 2 per day = $40 x 8 days = $320

1020+580+400+320 = $2320

Obviously a lot of room for variation there but you would be safe with that amount(please convert to CND$).