What are you planning on $pending for food

[kkmcan]

We always eat breakfast in the room (muffins, cereal, fruit etc), bring in our own snacks (nuts, cheese and cracker packs, granola bars). We eat lunch inside the park and then dinner outside the park during our afternoon break before heading back in.

I'm budgeting for our M-Sat trip $350 which is about $25 for lunch, $40 for dinners, $10 per day for treats and Mcdonalds on the way there and on the way home. It may actually be less than this because we are staying part of our trip at Dolphin Cove Timeshare. Last year they offered BBQ night for $5 each and Wine and Cheese night for free so that was 2 of our dinner meals.

Also we have $150 in reward money which we plan to use on 3 of our most expensive meals.

 

[NicksMommy]

Yeesh, I think we are kind of cheap. We'll probably average $25/day (some days will be more, some days might be none!). We'll probably have 1 "splurge" day where we do a character dining.

Alyson

WOW what do you plan on eating for that low of an amount??

 

[RuthieT]

On our last trip we didnt really splurge on goodies, except one character meal and so we spend around 100 to 150 a day for the 3 of us, Me, DH and DD (4) This time around we are gonna try more places and do 2 character meals and so we will budget around $150 to $250 a day

 

[Brady's Mom]

I also think it just depends on your touring style. We don't do character meals because that takes too much time and we can almost always see all of the characters we want at DLR. (We go off season) We also have a wide range of ages in our family, so that makes sit-downs more complicated and once again ps's take time.

We take lots of snacks and my kids seem to like that. We include some things that we don't often get at home and that makes it fun. We don't drink soda - who needs kids hopped up on sugar and artificial food color??? And we share meals. We've done Stage Door Cafe and for the 6 of us, who were there, only got 4 meals and that saves money (we also had some leftovers). We NEVER eat pizza in the park, we made that mistake once and won't do it again. It was the worst pizza I have ever had. (Pizza Oom Mow Mow) YUCK!!!

We always ask for ice or ice water at any place we go for food and then we just keep filling the cup with our water bottles. My kids drink from the cup/straw better than the water bottle. But it works for us.

So for the 5 of us I will probably only plan about $100 a day. We also eat breakfast in our room and will sometimes go outside of DLR to get pizza or chinese take out delivered to our hotel room.

 

[NicksMommy]

I also think it just depends on your touring style. We don't do character meals because that takes too much time and we can almost always see all of the characters we want at DLR. (We go off season) We also have a wide range of ages in our family, so that makes sit-downs more complicated and once again ps's take time.

We take lots of snacks and my kids seem to like that. We include some things that we don't often get at home and that makes it fun. We don't drink soda - who needs kids hopped up on sugar and artificial food color??? And we share meals. We've done Stage Door Cafe and for the 6 of us, who were there, only got 4 meals and that saves money (we also had some leftovers). We NEVER eat pizza in the park, we made that mistake once and won't do it again. It was the worst pizza I have ever had. (Pizza Oom Mow Mow) YUCK!!!

We always ask for ice or ice water at any place we go for food and then we just keep filling the cup with our water bottles. My kids drink from the cup/straw better than the water bottle. But it works for us.

So for the 5 of us I will probably only plan about $100 a day. We also eat breakfast in our room and will sometimes go outside of DLR to get pizza or chinese take out delivered to our hotel room.

where do you get chinese delivered from??

 

[JadeDarkstar]

before we gave up and got the dinning plan. i had two charcter meals planed and was gona buy from vons or albertsons for 50dollers worth food drinks. Then we would of had 40dollers a day for the three of us..we droped that idea and got the meal plan that worked best for us 5day plan

 

[NicksMommy]

where did you purchase your meal plan? And what do you get on it?

 

[cheshiregirl]

Our last trip cost about $450 for food for DH, DS1 and me over the course of 3 full days and 2 half days in the parks, with the Premium AP discount, so roughly $100-$120 per day. However, I will warn that a small fortune of that ($50 at least) was spent on VitaminWater (DH is addicted) and other drinks in the parks. Also, DH has a huge appetite and we have very different tastes in food, so little to no sharing ever occurs between the two of us. However, DS tends to eat off both mom and dad's plates.

We had TS meals at Carnation Cafe (dinner), Wine Country Trattoria (dinner), PCH Grill (breakfast w/ Lilo & Stitch) and Storyteller's Cafe (dinner buffet).

We also had CS meals from Little Red Wagon (dinner), Pacific Wharf (lunch), Award Wiener's (lunch for DH), Stage Door Cafe (lunch for me), and Riverbelle Terrace (lunch for DH).

Snacks came from Refreshment Corner, Bengal Barbecue, the treat counter at the Winnie the Pooh shop, numerous fruit carts, and countless drink and slushie stands (the frozen cherry lemonades and frozen apple juice are to die for!)

The only out of park meal we ate was DS and I went to LaBrea Bakery for a sit down breakfast on Sunday morning while DH slept in.

One thing to keep in mind is that most of the character buffet prices include tax and gratuity. I knew this in the back of my mind, but still forgot and added a generous tip on top of the gratuity that we had already paid.

I know that most people automatically think that CS is way cheaper than TS, and in some cases it may be. But, for us, we have found that TS is comparable if not less expensive in many cases.

For instance, all TS provide free refills on soda and ice tea. Additionally, when we ordered juice for DS it was provided free of charge. Also, DS is very big on fruit and we were able to adequately feed him off our plates rather than stopping by a fruit stand to pick up a meal for him before grabbing CS for ourselves. Furthermore, our CS lunch at Pacific Wharf cost more than our TS dinner at Carnation Cafe that night!

So, I think that it is important to plan ahead and find those places that fit your budget and your palate... good luck!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i think it was 179 for adults and 139 for kids. it includeds 2-15doller voutchers
3-10s
1-5
3-snacks (worth 6.69)
dinner with goofy
charcter lunch or dinner
charcter breakfast
and breakfast in the park (10.79) -pay extra to go to minnies it what we doing)

kids have 2more 5s i think and 1more 10 and snacks 2 more no 15s

 

[JadeDarkstar]

from disney
can also buy voutchers from getawaytoday.com

 

[disney-inspired]

Since I only pay for myself, I try to aim for only $10 - $15 per meal. I'm not one to go sit down at the carnation cafe. It's a bit to steep for me.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

There is only 3 of us as well, and we figure $80-100 a day. We do a lot of offsite eating. Maybe 1-2 really nice sit down meals a trip. I can't imagine planning for $200-300 a day! Yikes!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

after braking down the meal plan im paying about 100 a day, and still have 150 extra 650 for the 6day visit

 

[mvaneps]

I mentioned a nearby deli in my earlier post but couldn't remember the name. I looked it up and it is called Subs and More at 1201 E. Ball Road. They are only open for breakfast and lunch but are a cut above normal fast food and still relatively cheap. It is in an industrial area and probably caters mostly to the surrounding businesses. Check it out if you are into that sort of thing. You can get carry out too. I will run out and pick up some breakfast sandwiches or breakfast burritos while the family gets ready in the hotel room. We also grab lunch there too.They have a little bit of everything.

 

[LittleBlackRaincloud]

Great tips everyone!

I have $30 a day set aside just for snacks becuase we are big drinkers. I wish they had a refillable park mug. I'd be in drink heaven then!

Back in the day, I used to have a Brita water bottle that filtered the water, and would get water out of the fountain. I wonder if they still make those.

Don't most TS places charge a plate split fee? I was thinking of just getting one appy and one entree at BB for DH and I to share, but with the added fee, it wouldn't really be worth it in my mind.

At any rate, I'd rather over budget and have extra left over then to under budget, and have to dig into money not set aside for the trip.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

We went to Target and got a big flat of water bottles to take in to the park. Saved us a ton of money that way. Buying drinks/water in the park really adds up!

 

[SANDIEGOFAN]

The only meal we eat at the parks is lunch. We bring breakfast food (unless the hotel provides it) and eat before we go to the parks. Dinner is out of the parks, usually DTD unless we're at HoJo's then its Mimi's. For lunch, churros, popcorn and frozen lemonaid we spend about $60-$70 a day in the parks. $120-$130 a day total. Wow, never thought about it much but that is quite a bit more than I thought we averaged. Good thing we bring our own waters and additional snacks. Bad thing is I love the Cove Bar so another $30 in drinks between the wife and I a day - and that's only two watered down drinks each.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Ok so I was thinking about this some more. This is what we plan to do. Our hotel has a microwave and mini fridge.

Bkfast at the hotel..there's a free bkfast there and we'll probably get some other things to make at the hotel too if we don't feel like going down.

Lunch in the park. No sit down places to speak of..so quick burger/corndog/etc.

Snacks when we really feel the urge. We're soda drinkers so that'll probably happen a few times.

Dinner..I'd like to say we'll head back to the hotel every night for this. The park closes at 8 almost every night we're there..so it could very well happen. Our kids are used to going to bed at 7 anyway. So perhaps a snack to tide us over til we can eat dinner at the hotel or at the ihop outside the park.

 

[wannagoback]

I packed some snacks to bring with us. I brought a pack of tortillas, some peanut butter and jelly and made "roll-ups" for DD each day. I put 3 or 4 in a zip-loc bag and brought it with us to the parks for her to have as a snack or lunch. I also brought 2 reusable water bottles and some crystal light individual flavor packs so that we weren't tempted to buy juice or soda. I brought some healthier snacks (nuts, fruit bars) to have in our bag in the park.

A bonus was that I didn't have to bring the food back home with me, so I had room for souvineers in my suitcase.

 

[mousefit]

$300 a day should be plenty. Bringing your own snacks and drinks helps a lot too. When I go with a group I like to bring plenty of snacks in a backpack, which everyone appreciates. When with kids, I bring snacks, water and Gatorade. You can even put your snacks/drinks in a locker so you don't have to lug them around but having them on hand is great. Also by saving money on snacks you could spend more on souveniers. But yeah $300 a day should work.