What should we budget?

UGAFan0829

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 21, 2004
Messages
4,456
The DH and I leave for WDW in 30 days for our first trip. We'll be there for 3 nights, eating breakfast at CP once and at the resort the other days. Also eating at 1900 Park Fare, 50's Prime Time and SC-Fi all for dinner, and then probably a quick CS meal for lunch. Just wondering what y'all think we should budget for food? Since this is our first time, and I don't know how much the CS and food court meals will cost I was wondering if someone would maybe have better insight so that I would know what to plan for. TIA!
 
First off, did you consider adding on the dining plan? Are you staying on property and buying tickets? You might want to look into this, even for 3 nights as you probably will save some $$. It's 38.99 pp/pn, but this gets you 1 table service, 1 counter service and 1 snack per person/per night and it includes tax and 18% gratuity.

You can learn more about it, and find all the menus with prices at allearsnet.com.
 
We usually use the Menus page from AllEarsNet.com to help us figure it all out. I believe you will find pricing that is pretty up to date for almost all of your dining spots.

We are just 2 adults, but we typically budget for $100 a day. When you add in bottles of fluids, the occasional Mickey Bar, taxes, and tips we are usually about right over the course of several days. Some days are more than others. We have budgeted $350 for our upcoming trip and that covers 2 meals outside of Disney on our travel days, 9 meals at WDW (2 TS and 7 CS), and we are shipping bottled water to the resort via Staples to help control the amount we spend on beverages. Being that our trip is going to be when it's OMG hot and humid, we know that those bottles of Powerade and water add up quickly. I would rather spend $7.00 on 24 bottles rather than $48+. We plan to bring along a few of those single serving packs of Crystal Light, Gatorade, and Citrus Green Tea for some variety...and it's still way cheaper than what Disney would like to sell them to me for!

Have fun planning! Maggie
 
We're a family of 5 so keep that in mind. We averaged $100 per day. Now keep in mind that is an average. We ate at Boma, CP, GF Cafe, CM and Cape May, plus a few others I can't remember at this moment. We didn't eat table service every day because we just don't feel like eating 'big' all of the time. So if you are on a budget, set it, then find ways to stay within it. It's really not that hard. For us the dining plan wasn't worth it. We wouldn't have eaten over $1,800 for our trip which was 9 days. Actually we spent right around 950 and I don't feel like we were 'cheated.' We ate dessert, not appetizers because we just don't eat that way, and drank a lot. Make sure you do budget for those Mickey Bars!
 



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