How much $ do you typically spend on food?

[natalia1681]

It's me and my husband, we're going for 6 days to the parks. We'll be staying on property, so we'll be eating in disney for all of our meals.

How much $ do you typically spend on food?

I'm trying to decide if the dining plan is the better deal, or if it's a better deal to go with my CM friends room discount and then pay for all of our meals separately.

Thanks for all of your help!

51 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Hakunamatata]

On average we budget about $15 per meal per adult for lunch and dinner. About $10 for breakfast. There are the high ends with the character meals once or twice and the low ends when we take along a breakfast bar or something like that. But for budgeting purposes, the above stated amount is what we go with....

 

[Rinxman]

For dinner at a counter service restaurant my dad, my brother, and myself totaled abot $30. The total was well in the hundreds for food.

 

[unkadug]

I always figure on $100.00 a day for two people. Some days I would go over a little and some days I wouldn't spend it all, so it worked out.

 

[Firewolfe51]

Well it certainly depends on where we eat. Just inside the park: $20 at each meal. Outside: $100 each meal. We like to splurge on vacation and we like to eat at nice restaurants. :slurp:

 

[Yellow Shoes]

It also depends on how much you eat.

I am not petite by anyone's standards, but I find the portions to be huge. (Yes, I can eat all of it, but am miserable and don't have room for a Mickey bar or Dole Whip.) I find that I am satisfied with about half an entree.

That said, there are ways you and your husband can save money while eating exclusively in the parks.

Look carefully at the menus. Pecos Bill's 1/2 pound burger costs $1 more than a 1/4 pound burger. 2 adults could buy one 1/2 pounder with fries and call it lunch. Don't blindly get 2 burger and fries meals. Share drinks when possible. If the weather is warm, water is your better choice anyway.

At table service meals, one entree, one appetizer, and dessert may be just the right amount. I have never run into problems with splitting a meal. Even if they charge you $5 more to do so, you are still money ahead.

Share snacks such as turkey legs, ice cream, churros, etc. Not only will you save some $, but you will get to try more stuff.

Then there's the obvious stuff--a granola bar in the backpack, water bottle from home, etc.

By doing these things, you will probably spend less than the $35 per day that the dining plan costs.

All of this assumes, of course, that you aren't scared of getting cooties from your travel companion.....

 

[Master Yoda]

Yellow Shoes described the perfect want to save a ton on food at WDW. However if you plan on going full tilt bozo on dinning (a lot of table service, character meals etc.) dinning costs can easily run into the 75-100 dollar range per day per person. Allearsnet has a great dinning section complete with restaurant descriptions, menus and pricing. If you want to lock down a price for dinning you can figure it to the penny if you plan all of your meals ahead of time.

 

[righttrack]

I would allow $50 per person per day, and thats on the low side. Here is the breakdown:

Breakfast I (sitdown at resort): $18
Breakfast II (counter coffee/egg sandwich): $7
Breakfast III (counter coffee/danish or breakfast bar) $6

Lunch I (sitdown in park): $12-22
Lunch II (counter service in park): $9-16

Dinner I (sitdown in park/resort): $20-40
Dinner II (counter serv in park/resort): $9-16

Water, water waterin parks/resort) $3/bottle
Water, water, water: (bought at grocery store) .75/bottle

So, doing the math, plus the reccomended liberal water drinking, you are talking $30-75 per person. You'll have $30 days and some $75 days if you are making different choices each day.

 

[BRER STITCH]

Cut through it all.....

$50 a day per person will work!

Any extra is for souvenirs!

HAVE FUN!

:wave:

 

[wannab@dis]

I always figure on $100.00 a day for two people. Some days I would go over a little and some days I wouldn't spend it all, so it worked out.

Same number we use... $50/person/day. Over some days, under some days. :wave:

Edit: Looks like other use the same number, but in a big red font. :lol:

 

[DeborJohn]

Yesterday, my husband and I figured where we would like to eat for the trip. We used allearsnet.com and found the menus for all the places, so it was a very good estimate. We figure we will save $100 for the family of 4 (children's dining plan is only $10) if we use the dining plan. We will be eating at some nicer places (Chef Mickey's, Liberty Tree Tavern and hopefully, breakfast with Cinderella). Some days, it seemed like the cost would be cheaper than the dining plan, but overall savings of $100 seems worth it to me. Also, I won't have to say no to the kids when they want dessert or something too costly from the menu!

 

[Nemo14]

When it's just the 2 of us, we eat a big breakfast (Boatwright's Stuffed French Toast comes to mind :slurp: ), then just a snack mid-day (Dole Whips!). In the early evening we'll usually try one of our favorite Epcot restaurants (Biergarten, Le Cellier), and maybe an appetizer-type snack later that night at the hotel. All this can be done for about $50 per person. We bring our own Brita bottles for water and save a lot that way. Neither of us drink soft drinks that often, so we order water with our meals too.
When we bring our kids (2 teens), it naturally costs us more, because they eat non-stop! We figure about $80 per person then, but it probably amounts to less than that.

 

[FanofDinsey1981]

We average about 100 dollars a day for two people, with some days being higher than others. That includes water, cokes, snacks, and meals. The meals usually are one meal small (usually breakfast, a muffin or cereal or fruit), one counter service, and one sit down per day.

 

[bgraham34]

Its so hard to say cause we either have breakfast or lunch and a snack and then dinner. So I really dont know.

 

[mrtoad]

As mentioned, it will depend on where and what you eat. What we do is look at the menus on allearsnet.com and decide where we want to eat. My wife makes a spreadsheet to keep track of our reservations. We add the days money and add $20.00 on top and that is what we go with. We bring cash/travlers checks because if you charge to your room you usually get a big surprise at the end and go over. But that could just be us.

What we do is break down each day's money and ruberband it, clip it, whatever and put a sticky on it with the total and the date. We leave all the clipped money in the safe in the room except for the current day. We carry over the extra. We usually come home with extra money and some extra souveniers. This trip we came home with $150 exactly which is nice as it goes to the next trip...

Sounds like a lot of work but it really isn't if you like thinking and planning out your trip. We like to look at the places we want to eat and allears gives the menu with pricing. The only time that scares me is going from home to the hotel with the cash. Once I am there, my mind is at ease.

Here is an example from our recent trip what we had for day one listed:



Breakfast $10.00 Plane
Lunch $45.00 Liberty Tree Tavern
Dinner $30.00 Columbia Harbor House
Snacks $35.00

$120.00 Total for day

First day and last day are the cheapest as you are traveling and have a shortened day so less snacks or as you can see in this case ate on the plane so the $10.00 was not even needed but put in as just in case.

 

[swimmom]

We also average about $50.00/person/day. The days we have a sit down meal is more and the days we eat at counter service restaurants to save on time are less.

 

[gboiler1]

We were at about $70 avg per day for 2 adults and a child on our last 2 trips. We usually did food court and counter services w/some snacks throw in there too.
If you want sit downs expect to spend more.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I would just say it depends on how you plan on eating.

If you're going into your trip wanting to view your meals as a way to conserve as much money as possible, then the dining plan is not for you... Some of the suggestions mentioned earlier about ways to save would be the better choice for you.

BUT... If you're going into your trip thinking that your meals are going to be part of your vacation experience (rather than simply a costly necessity), then the dining plan IS easily for you.

Think of it this way... If you're planning to eat like a king (or queen), the dining plan makes sense. If you do a thread search, you can even find posts here by people who "show the math" and what the plan does for you. That being said, it's still cheaper to do as one post here said and buy a double cheesburger at Pecos Bill's and split it than any dining plan cost would allow!! :wave:

 

[BRER STITCH]

Same number we use... $50/person/day. Over some days, under some days. :wave:

Edit: Looks like other use the same number, but in a big red font. :lol:

Thanx for noticing my big red font! :wave:

...and they said size didn't matter!

:lol:

 

[wannabeBelle]

I generally go with $60 a day for an adult per person. That usually covers me and leaves me LOTS of leeway!!! Belle