Realistic Food budget for family

[Pamb]

I am trying to get an idea of a budget for our trip and would like some ideas for a food budget. I do expect DL will cost at least a couple of fingers if not an arm and leg but don't want too much sticker shock. How much to you usually plan per day for food?

Also, can I take water and a few cereal bars into the park? How strict are they with outside food/drink?

I would like to splurge a little but still not go into debt for our trip. I know we will be having breakfast in our hotel most days,eating at Ariel's once , and for sure an IN-N-OUT run (or 2) . Other than that I am not sure what to plan. I am thinking if we have one "nice" meal a day, possibly a late lunch, and then healthy snacks the rest of the day and we will be okay. It will be me, DH, DD's 7 & 5 and DS 2.

Now...pour out your wisdom you DL fanatics!

 

[NWPrincess]

My suggestion would be to look at all the food item pictures on the Sticky at the top of this board to determine what you want (warning: they all look good!)

Then, go to http://allearsnet.com/dlr/din/menu/menus.htm#dl to find the menus with prices.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

Yes you can bring bottles of water (plastic only, no glass) and cereal bars. The only time I've seen someone have trouble with food was when they tried to bring in a HUGE ice chest full of food. But stuff in your backpack won't be a problem.

It really depends on how much you plan to splurge and where. We are planning about $60-80 a day for the 3 of us. We do maybe 2 nice meals in the park/DTD. So I save extra for those meals.

 

[gramto2boys]

I purchased the meal plan. I did this because I could pay for it over time and not all at once. I got the 6 day meal plan which has always been more then enough. ( and then some) it insures we get 3 caracter meals, and plenty of sit down and on the go meals. I can pay for it over time, and there for not go broke at the end when we go.
We are excited !!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i like the meal plan if i were to do a package though disney for any futre trips i would get it.

 

[avalon451]

We ordered groceries and bottled water from Albertsons.com. For $10 they deliver it to your hotel. That way we had fruit, cereal, milk, juice, and yogurt for breakfast in the room. We also brought Clif bars, cheese 'n crackers snacks and goldfish snacks. Each day the kids would put some of these snacks into their hip packs and clip a small Nalgene bottle of water onto their hip packs with a carabiner clip. Officially, you're not supposed to bring in outside food and drinks, but security has instructions to overlook pretty much anything short of a full picnic. Lots of people bring in sandwiches in their backpacks.

With breakfast in the room (well, ok, standing in line waiting for opening), snacks in our hip packs and a few treats in the park, then one nice evening meal, we were all set.

 

[twinspluscade]

One thing I've been doing is checking out the menus on allears. I am an extremely picky eater, and for that reason like to know ahead of time even which counter service places we'll eat at. So that makes it easy as far as budgeting goes; since I can look at the menu and already know what I will order (one good thing about being picky...usually there's only 1 or 2 things on the menu I'll eat ). My kids will get the kids' meals--which seem to all be about the same price--and I'm usually pretty good about guessing what dh will order.

We're driving, and I'm planning on bringing bottled water, juice, pop, breakfast items, and snack items from home. So hopefully the only things we'll have to buy food-wise in the parks is lunch and dinner, plus maybe a treat or two.

Also--what is In-n-Out? I've heard it mentioned on here a few times now, and not sure what type of restaurant it is. We must not have any around here; I've never heard of it before.

 

[cccdisney]

One thing I've been doing is checking out the menus on allears. I am an extremely picky eater, and for that reason like to know ahead of time even which counter service places we'll eat at. So that makes it easy as far as budgeting goes; since I can look at the menu and already know what I will order (one good thing about being picky...usually there's only 1 or 2 things on the menu I'll eat ). My kids will get the kids' meals--which seem to all be about the same price--and I'm usually pretty good about guessing what dh will order.

We're driving, and I'm planning on bringing bottled water, juice, pop, breakfast items, and snack items from home. So hopefully the only things we'll have to buy food-wise in the parks is lunch and dinner, plus maybe a treat or two.

Also--what is In-n-Out? I've heard it mentioned on here a few times now, and not sure what type of restaurant it is. We must not have any around here; I've never heard of it before.

It is a fast food restaurant from Southern Calif (but now all over Calif).
They serve ONLY burgers, fries, and milkshakes. And of course soft drinks. They are fresh and good at what they do! Good prices also!
Had In-n-out for lunch today - after reading about it for a day or so began crazing a good cheeseburger!

 

[blackjackdelta]

One thing I've been doing is checking out the menus on allears. I am an extremely picky eater, and for that reason like to know ahead of time even which counter service places we'll eat at. So that makes it easy as far as budgeting goes; since I can look at the menu and already know what I will order (one good thing about being picky...usually there's only 1 or 2 things on the menu I'll eat ). My kids will get the kids' meals--which seem to all be about the same price--and I'm usually pretty good about guessing what dh will order.

We're driving, and I'm planning on bringing bottled water, juice, pop, breakfast items, and snack items from home. So hopefully the only things we'll have to buy food-wise in the parks is lunch and dinner, plus maybe a treat or two.

Also--what is In-n-Out? I've heard it mentioned on here a few times now, and not sure what type of restaurant it is. We must not have any around here; I've never heard of it before.

Great hamburger joint a few blocks away.

Jack

 

[princessnicchia]

We went in March. For a family of four, with 2 normal eaters, 1 non-eater, and 1 very big eater, we spent about $70 a day. That was having breakfast at our hotel and mostly bringing in snacks. We had days that were more and days that were less, but I think that is pretty close (not including our prepaid character meals which are crazy expensive).

We were trying to be frugal but still have a good time, so limited ourselves to one meal in the park and tried to minimize snacks, though we did buy cotton candy (my favorite), watermelon which is huge so not a bad deal, and there is a little stand between FL and Frontierland which has huge muffins and cocoa which gave our entire family a little snack to share for $5.

A few tips:

They let you bring in snacks, and we brought raisins, crackers and cheese, water, and those organic fruit strips everyday to try to fend off the munchies. We brought in water and refilled it at the fountains.

Share---often the portions are pretty big. We wasted a lot of food, I think if I had used the allears menus ahead of time we could have had a few meals that my girls and I could have shared and shave some money off.

If you don't have to have a soda and can get by with water in the park....do it. My DH couldn't stand paying $3 plus for a drink so he saved us money. I on the other hand, would rather forgo food than caffiene, so $3 or no, I had to have a soda. At least one of us tried though.

Have a wonderful time!

 

[pitchmom]

Also--what is In-n-Out?


OMG! Only the best Burger Ever...

 

[hlbtimes2]

We budget $100 a day for our family of 4 (kids 6 and 9). Some days we come in under budget other days slightly over. We typically eat breakfast at the hotel, then two meals in the park. Sometimes its a big meal, like a character brunch then a smaller meal like soup in a bread bowl or a corn dog. Some days its a couple mid size meals. We also buy snacks and drinks in the park. We usually start out with some water with us, but it gets heavy so we dont take a lot.

A few tips- share meals. Often my 9 year old and I will share. She doesnt care for most of the kids meals and 2 regular meals would be too much food. I've also been known to order from the kids menu, especially at Pizza Port.

 

[silence]

I would really recommend SHARING meals. I don't know how big of eaters your kids are.....but I swear we waste SO much food each trip, especially if for whatever reason, we all 4 end up getting meals.

We finally got smart and didn't buy my DD her own meal once this past trip, except for the character meal. She ate off our plates every other time. DS only got a meal of his own once, at Carnation because they had the PB&J platter that he eats ALL of.

We save soooo much money this way....and also don't feel like such slobs wasting a ton of food.

 

[Pamb]

Had In-n-out for lunch today - after reading about it for a day or so began crazing a good cheeseburger!

Lucky! My mouth is watering thinking about it. I hope I am not disappointed when I finally get to go there again.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

also hint any one can eat a kids meal. I will eat them if thats what i want next time. im very picky eatter too. u just order 3 kids meals in stead 2

MC d's frys are big enough for my family to share for a snack

 

[davidsprincess]

We are budgeting $100.00 a day. We are only a family of three (and daughter will only be 3 when we go) and I know that we won't spend that much every day especially with the breakfast at the motel. I just wanted us to have that "extra" amount in case we wanted to splurge whether it be at the park or outside the park. I plan on eating a lot of kids meals while at the park. I also love checking dlsresortinfo.com to see what the price of most meals will be in the park. This way we can plan what we will eat before we go. Hope that everyones's posts will help you to decide how much to budget. Remember, if you don't use all the $$ that you budgeted that day, then you can spend that at the stores in DL!

 

[mariezp]

We, too, average about $100 per day. Seems like everytime we sit down the bill comes to nearly $40, with the exception of our splurge at Blue Bayou. We only eat 1 meal in the park and order 1 meal take out after we leave. Of course, there are also a few snacks and drinks too. We usually bring in bottled water flavored with Crystal Light which does help cut down on those $3 drinks.

 

[mommaU4]

Also--what is In-n-Out? I've heard it mentioned on here a few times now, and not sure what type of restaurant it is. We must not have any around here; I've never heard of it before.

They are only located in CA, AZ, and NV. (coming soon to UT)

Here is a link to their website:
http://www.in-n-out.com/default.asp


And a pic of one of their burgers:

They have what's called a "secret menu" which isn't so secret anymore since it's on their website now, but you can order things different ways. For example, you can ask for your fries to be "animal style" which means with secret sauce, onions and cheese.
Here's a link to some info on that:
http://www.badmouth.net/in-n-outs-secret-menu/


OKay, sorry. Didn't mean to turn this into an In-n-Out promo!! Back to the regular thread.

 

[LuvEeyore]

We share and eat small and frequently. At sit down places, we order small and then if someone is still hungry we order a desert. Also we share, try others. If one of the girls gets full them one of the guys will usually eat their leftovers.