What are you planning on $pending for food

[DisneyMomma81]

I have already purchased 4 $50 disney gift cards and we don't leave till 12/8 ~ I hope to have at least $100 more. I've already purchased vouchers for DD & I to have dinner @ Ariel's place. I want to stop by our somewhat local Mimi's a pick up a gift card ~ we're staying @ HoJo's so I imagine we'll eat a couple dinners there. We'll take care of most breakfasts in our room. We'll have breakfast @ Goofy's or Storyteller's, dessert only at BB (possibly DS getting a kids meal (he likes the fried uncrustable??) **nevermind ~ looks like the fried uncrustable is no longer available ~ I could see him getting the Seared Salmon Filet** and DD & I splitting the kids prime rib) We'll have lunch or dinner at Redd Rockett's Pizza Port (love the chicken fusilli, that's something we can share) & we'll probably pick up a corn dog or 2. We might have a lunch at White Water snacks. I'll purchase Disney Dollars with a gift card for churros and whatnot.

I might try to purchase 1 big gift card by combining all my $50 gift cards (4+) once we get there, I think I'd rather have it all on 1 card.

We drink water, maybe I'll pack some Crystal Lite packets.

DD eats very little but DS can now out eat me so we'll see how sharing goes.

I haven't answered how much I plan to spend have I Well whatever it is I hope to have most of it prepaid with gift cards and vouchers.

 

[Gisele]

Tigger NZ,


No worries, I am only embarrassed a bit, over the bacon butties, from the stand point that no matter how many times, I had hear the character Onslo, from Keeping Up Appearances say that name, I could have sworn it was buddies, I guess I need to clean my ears out better! He He! I actually appreciate the correction, so when I finally!! make it to London, I will not embarrass myself by asking for bacon buddies, but rather bacon butties, I won't ask why they are called butties, now that part sounds a bit scary! but then it is almost Halloween! he he!
Over the years, I have learned a number of British terms, both formal and slang, I do not doubt that I still have more to learn! I am even planning of trying out my British accent, well until my American West Coast accent kicks in, by accident! then the jig is up, oh well. ha!

 

[Vacation Dad]

We spend probably about $80 a day for a family of 5. We usually stay at the BWPPI across the street and eat breakfast at the hotel. We also head back there for lunch and a short break in our room in the afternoon. We will usually eat dinner in the park at the Village Haus or something similar for about $10 per person for a meal. We might get a meal at McDonalds or Quiznos on Harbor if the timing is convenient, and we always take in our own water bottles/soda/snacks. I might be underestimating (or mis-remembering) a bit but I’m not far off. With our kids being older, meals are not that big of a priority for us. When it comes to food vs. rides, they prefer to eat quickly and move on. Meals are mostly just a way to take a short break and fuel up for later in the day. It does help that we make a stop at a grocery store between the airport and our hotel to stock up on fruit, snacks and drinks first.

That being said, I know that meals are a higher priority for many folks. We did eat at the Blue Bayou many years ago and our kids still remember it fondly. I’m sure the character meals would have been a big highlight for them.

 

[heatherleigh]

Originally, I was figuring $100 per day. I have since changed it to $150 per day. This is for two adults, and three kids under the age of 7.

 

[tonaly]

I'd love to get my food budget down some. Can you share some of your money saving tips with all of us? Thanks!

I'm not so much worried about the itenerary as the money. If I had all the money in the world, I could be more free like Gisele, but I don't. I have to budget so that 3 days into the trip we aren't left starving from lack of funds!

Sorry it took so long for me to reply! I just checked back on the thread!

We are staying at a Homewood Suites in Anaheim. We will eat breakfast there every day for free. They also serve a "light" dinner Monday - Thursday, so if we go back to the hotel for some rest time we will definitely time it so we can eat there for free again. We will carry a small backpack and bring a couple granola bars or Clif bars in it. If we buy lunch in the park, we will likely share meals. We don't do much snacking (especially when "snacks" are $6 each and we have 3 kids!). We will probably make a mental list of the "treats" we want to have and spread those out over the time we are there, and we'll do lots of sharing if there are lots of different things we want to try.

We are using time share points for our hotel, and we had a TON of points so we are going for 2 weeks. So we most likely won't be IN the parks every day, and we'll save money on those days. We will probably splurge once or twice and do Ariel's or Minnie's or Goofy's for a meal.

I guess we are probably a little different in our approach to Disney since we live fairly close (under an hour drive) and we'll be getting APs this year and will probably try to get over there at least once a month after our initial 2 week trip. We don't want to set our kids up to expect a character meal every trip or treats every time we turn around. If this was a trip that we did only once every 3-5 years we'd probably go a little crazy and eat more in the parks. Even in that case, though, we'd most likely eat snacks that we bring in (or put in a locker) during the day and have a nice dinner, or scrimp some days and splurge others. We just don't like to spend a lot of money on overpriced food, so we try to spread it out

Alyson

 

[TiggerNZ]

Tigger NZ,


No worries, I am only embarrassed a bit, over the bacon butties, from the stand point that no matter how many times, I had hear the character Onslo, from Keeping Up Appearances say that name, I could have sworn it was buddies, I guess I need to clean my ears out better! He He! I actually appreciate the correction, so when I finally!! make it to London, I will not embarrass myself by asking for bacon buddies, but rather bacon butties, I won't ask why they are called butties, now that part sounds a bit scary! but then it is almost Halloween! he he!
Over the years, I have learned a number of British terms, both formal and slang, I do not doubt that I still have more to learn! I am even planning of trying out my British accent, well until my American West Coast accent kicks in, by accident! then the jig is up, oh well. ha!

Hi Gisele, don't be embarrased, I thought it was quite a funny mistake. Glad you weren't offended by the correction.

I have no idea why they are called Butties either (Butty for singular ) it is a very Northern English term, but widely used.

I have totally lost my british accent now, just sound like a New Zealander now

Good luck with your plans to get to London - to live, or just to visit. I love London so hope you enjoy it too when you get there.

 

[tonaly]

Thought of a couple more things...

We never buy drinks. We'll bring in water bottles or drink from water fountains. I'm the only one that occasionally drinks a diet coke, but I can throw a couple of those in the fridge in our room and have them there on our afternoon break if I want. I just can't handle spending $4 or $5 on soda!

And my $25/day is just my budget INSIDE the park - so if we go one day for just a few hours and don't spend any money, that means we have $50 for the next day! But with the free meals at the hotel and having a full kitchen in our room, our outside the park expenses will still be minimal. We'll either hit a grocery store out there or stock up a cooler from home.

Alyson

 

[8gr8mouseketeers]

I'm feeling cheap now. We budgeted $100 a day for our tribe of 8. We were just there last week and pretty much stuck to it. We had a few days we were under and a few we were over. We had groceries delivered to our room. I'm not counting that obviously. Luckily our suite at AP had 4 fridges! We were there 8 days and ate all our breakfasts in our room. We also never bought drinks. All our water, pop, and juices were delivered with our groceries, and we brought them into the parks. We did not do any character meals this trip. We ate mainly counter service in the parks (Hungry Bear, Golden Horseshoe, Taste Pilots, Rancho del Zocalo, etc) and hit some places on Harbor as well. I had coupons for Dennys & Mimi's. We ate our big meal at noon, and some days only opted for snacks in the evening. We ate at Gibson Girl and Burrrbank more times than I can count. In fact, I'm still trying to get back on a more sensible eating plan.

 

[B&Bforever]

When my DH and I were there last year we didn't spend more that $30 a day.

We got up and ate snacks, granola bars, bagels, etc that I brought with us. Then we went to the park and ate between 10 and 11 then we would eat dinner about 5 all on counter service.

I always carried snacks in my bag and we carried a bottled water and mix ins and when we got thirsty we would just find a water fountain.

We had 1 character meal and another offsite seafood meal that were expensive.

This may not work for those with little ones if they need a hot breakfast but for the grown ups its was great.

 

[NAOMIPPB]

We Ate For About $100/day, That Was Two Adults And 2 Kids (5&7). We Ate A Good Breakfast In The Morning At Mimis Cafe, Then Brought Snacks In The Park And Bought A Snack, And Then Ate Dinner Out After We Got Done At The Park. It Worked Good.

 

[LittleBlackRaincloud]

This has been one of the most helpful threads I've ever read here.

This will be our 1st trip to DLR we have always gone to WDW before. I am use to being on property all the time, and being in the parks from sun up to sun down.

This time, we have two little ones and the King suite at HOJO's with a frig, and microwave. We will be back in the rooms every afternoon for naps, and will have breakfast at the hotel. I think I'm over budgeting, and that makes me very happy! Whatever I don't spend on food allows us to do more fun things such as the holiday tour.

Thanks for the tips everyone!

One question: Do they frown on you taking in drinks, or do they not care? I don't want to end up with troubles at security.

 

[davidsprincess]

We Ate For About $100/day, That Was Two Adults And 2 Kids (5&7). We Ate A Good Breakfast In The Morning At Mimis Cafe, Then Brought Snacks In The Park And Bought A Snack, And Then Ate Dinner Out After We Got Done At The Park. It Worked Good.

This is exacty our plan right down to the $$$ amount!

 

[Eeyore76]

It's just my hubby and I going, but I figure an average of 100 bucks a day will be fine.

We're doing an anniversary dinner at Steakhouse 55, a character breakfast, and Blue Bayou, which are all pretty pricey, so that kind of drove up the food budget.

For other meals, it'll be counter service, and snack carts.

 

[NicksMommy]

Well I just checked the prices online and think that for my ds, dh, and I 300 -350 a day will be good! This leaves room for snacks and things that we are tempted by... "hey were on vacation!" I remember last year we tried alot of things and wasted alot of food, because everything is huge! I will remember that this year and order one of something for example ice cream and we can share!

I have planned a character meal everyday we are there as well as BB and carnation cafe. Are there any good counter service places last year we did some counter service but ended up throwing food away... Mainly TT, yuck!

 

[Gisele]

I am not a big breakfast eater, so when I am going to visit Disneyland, I will either have cereal, and or toast, and orange juice, via the continental breakfast that is being served, which can be pretty bare bones, depending upon the particular property, or I will eat at Dennys.
Sometimes, I will just have orange juice, then have a bit of a snack, that either I will have brought into the park, one of my favorites is Targets Chocolate Monkey Mix! yum! I also like to bring in a piece of fruit, alas, bananas bruise so easily, so I have to eat that earlier in the day,otherwise it ends up looking like it had a fight with I don't know what in my bag, and it lost. he he! One morning I decided I did not have time to eat anything from the properties breakfast, I actually decided it would be a waste of my time, wow! being a foodie, hard to believe! he he! anyway, so that particular morning, Disneyland was allowing people into Main Street before the rest of the park opened, which was great, for I had more than enough time to buy orange juice and a chocolate croissant at the Blue Ribbon Bakery, I believe it was, I have a tendency to forget names, of the the various bakeries, et al, except for Marcelines Confectionery of course! ha
I loved it! for while noshing on that, one of the drivers of the small antique like car, gave me a ride, so I could catch up with the horse drawn wagon, that stops in front of Main Street, I was determined to not miss it, she could not stop where I was at the time, policy, (ugh) anyway, so it was so nice for me, for I love horses, there I am with o.j. in hand, and my croissant, while enjoying the ride. I wish that the ride was longer, one can always go on it again. So I finished my drink, and put the rest of my breakfast into my bag, and nibbled upon that over the course of the morning, then it goes from there, trail mix, fruit, Bengal Tiger BBQ, Pomme Frites later in the day, which of course I had to try the Pirate Punch too, it is tasty.
I had a p.s. for the next day for lunch at the Blue Bayou, which has been (so far) very nice. Anyway, that was more or less, my eating habits on my last (but not final!) trip, I ate off site too, something quick, like Pizza, or a hot dog.

 

[Vacation Dad]

LBRC -- They don’t mind if you bring in your own drinks, we have taken in water bottles and pop many times. Just make sure they are plastic, not glass, and there should be no problems.

 

[kkmcan]

We don't enter a park without a couple of water bottles now. The one time we did everyone got so thirsty and we ended up buying sodas for $3.xx each and those we gone in minutes leaving us thirsty again an hour or so later.

I sucks lugging around water bottles but really it hurt more paying that much for sodas. I don't even like soda. I really wanted my water and I completely forgot I could have asked for a cup of ice water for free!

 

[fairykin]

I'm with Eeyore76 on this one..this trip is just DH and myself. We are thinking $100 a day give or take.

When we used to go to WDW ..we would get their premium dining plan..and it would pay for all your meals at all resturants in the park except of course for cart stands. You just showed this little credit card and it took care of everything.

It cost a little more but prepaying for it made it so nice as You just went and enjoyed it. It also included character meals so we went to Lots of them!

Too bad Disneyland doesn't do anything like that.

I know they have a mealplan with a set dollar amount but that seems like a bit of a hassle.

I will say this.. when we land at John Wayne airport..we will pick up a couple of salads at the Wolfgang Pucks stand and some yogurt parfaits from the McDonalds there at the airport before we pick up our luggage and get in the cab. Our hotel has a fridge in the room..so that way we will have something to snack on.

 

[Eeyore76]

I'm with Eeyore76 on this one..this trip is just DH and myself. We are thinking $100 a day give or take.


I will say this.. when we land at John Wayne airport..we will pick up a couple of salads at the Wolfgang Pucks stand and some yogurt parfaits from the McDonalds there at the airport before we pick up our luggage and get in the cab. Our hotel has a fridge in the room..so that way we will have something to snack on.

What a good idea fairykin! I hadn't even thought of picking up stuff at the airport when we land. Our room has a mini-fridge, so this is a great idea, because I'm not a big breakfast eater. (We're doing the Goofy's breakfast mostly for the experience.)
Thanks for the tip!

 

[DisneyAprilFool]

Wow! I guess we're cheap because with 5 of us, we usually spent about $100 a day- if that! But we don't usually do character meals- usually CS for lunch, a snack, and then we get a pizza to eat at the hotel on our way home.