So how much do you normally spend on food at Disney

[Disney_Dad88]

We are going fo 8 days 7 nights in January and Im trying to just get my budget for Disney in order. I know it will probably be hard to stay on it once I get there, but Im just trying to find ways to save money on food so we can spend it on other things. What Ive come up with, is before we go we are gonna go buy some things like poptarts and muffins to eat for breakfast, as well as some chips and drinks. I figured only eating breakfast on the one day we don't actually visit a park will help us save a lot. While we are out in the parks, I figured just hitting up some of the quick service places. Now as far as dinner is concerned, we plan on eating very well every night. Be Our Guest is in line for the second night, with other restaurants of that caliber for the rest of the week. Also for what its worth, it will be Me, My Wife, and My DD(5) and DD(7). What Ive come up with snacks and everything, is about an average of 150 dollars per day. Does this seem like a lot or is this realistic for my situation and ideas on eating. Just wondering because I haven't been to the world in a while and I would like to hear it from people that have been there recently.

 

[Susan Savia]

We stay offsite and usually have something light in the morning like McDonalds egg sandwich or poptarts, etc. If we eat a lunch in the parks we don't eat dinner but rather have something light in our room later. If we plan to eat dinner we snack at noon time and then enjoy dinner. With the size of portions today, two huge meals a day is far too much food for us. When the 3 of us eat at a CS in the parks it runs about $35. Not sure about dinner, as we rarely eat dinner there, but prefer going offsite where its much less. We skip buying desserts when we do eat out as we have snacks in our room should we want something more.

 

[Disney_Dad88]

Well I wanted to eat a nicer dinner nearly every night, so eating light during the day is probably what we are gonna do. My two daughters don't eat a lot anyway so they can probably share a lunch. It would be a waste to get each one something separate because I know they aren't going to eat all of it.

 

[SMS55]

If you drive that is one way to save money. We drive, so we'll drive off property to eat. We buy ham and bread and make sandwiches to take with us to the parks too. The combination can save a lot of money on food. Sometimes we'll get gift cards to chain restaurant like Chili's and Applebees for the holidays. We don't eat out much so we save them for Disney. If it's summer I will keep a water or soda bottle with me and refill. You are going to refill constantly in the summer.

 

[Disney_Dad88]

If you drive that is one way to save money. We drive, so we'll drive off property to eat. We buy ham and bread and make sandwiches to take with us to the parks too. The combination can save a lot of money on food. Sometimes we'll get gift cards to chain restaurant like Chili's and Applebees for the holidays. We don't eat out much so we save them for Disney. If it's summer I will keep a water or soda bottle with me and refill. You are going to refill constantly in the summer.

Yes we will be driving. We don't live but 8 hours from Disney. Its barely gonna cost 150 for gas.

 

[allgiggles]

I think you're probably ok on your estimate. On our trip last month we ate breakfast in our room every day (7 days); ate at all CS restaurants for lunch and dinner; bought all of our water and snacks during the day (didn't carry water bottles or snacks with us to the parks. We did have those in the room though for times that we weren't in the parks); had refillable mugs. We were a party of 6 consisting of 3 adults, 2 teens, and 1 8-yo. Our total cost for food for 7 days (2 meals, snacks, drinks) was $1200. We weren't on any kind of a budget for food, so we ordered whatever we were hungry for whether that was an entree with sides and dessert, or just a bowl of soup. As far as the drinks, breakfast foods, and snacks we had in our room, I think we had about $75 worth of stuff. I guess that makes our grand total for food and drinks (though some of the stuff from our room made the trip back home with us) closer to $1300 for 6 people for 7 days.

 

[SMS55]

Yes we will be driving. We don't live but 8 hours from Disney. Its barely gonna cost 150 for gas.

Take World Drive down to 192. You can go either way and find tons of restaurants. If you go west you'll find plenty of stuff to dine on that's quicker. There's fast food and places like Chili's, Carraba's, Golden Corral and Cracker Barrel to name a few. If you go east you have to pass I-4 to get to Kissimmee and you are driving farther for the same places. If you want some of the dinner shows like Medieval Times you'll have to head towards Kissimmee.

 

[SMS55]

You can also take Buena Vista Dr. past Downtown Disney and on SR535 there some places too. A lot of the same places (Chili's, Golden Corral) but a Fuddruckers directly across the street and an Ale House just down the street.

 

[Disney Diva]

Get the dining plan!

 

[Disney_Dad88]

Take World Drive down to 192. You can go either way and find tons of restaurants. If you go west you'll find plenty of stuff to dine on that's quicker. There's fast food and places like Chili's, Carraba's, Golden Corral and Cracker Barrel to name a few. If you go east you have to pass I-4 to get to Kissimmee and you are driving farther for the same places. If you want some of the dinner shows like Medieval Times you'll have to head towards Kissimmee.

We don't really plan on stopping too much in between. I just want this trip to be totally Disney since Im the only one that's been and its been nine years for me, and I doubt we eat outside Disney World. We are going to leave at 4am the first day, and my goal is to be checking in at 3-4 PM. Google maps has it listed at about an 8 hour drive. I usually drive 75-80 so we can probably make a little better time than that. When we stop for gas is when I plan on stopping to eat, and we will probably take about an hour for that and maybe a couple of bathroom and stretch breaks. If I factor that in with the time change (Im in Central Time) I figured 8+1+1 would be about 10 hours, which would actually put us there at 2 PM. Of course, this all sounds good on paper lol, and Im sure my family would want to make at least one pit stop at those locations.

 

[Disney_Dad88]

Get the dining plan!

Is it worth it though. I haven't really read too much into it.

 

[Mot]

Get the dining plan!

What you would spend on the Dining Plan normally equals what you would pay. We found based on actual $'s on the receipts added up to just 10 or 20 dollars over the DP. We prefer to pay for it ahead and not worry about money when we get there. We also have a pastry and coffee in the morning that may run $10 for two people each day. Hope this helps.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Is it worth it though. I haven't really read too much into it.

The basic dining plan is 1 snack, 1 quick service, and 1 table service meal per day (drink, entrée, dessert). Value all comes down to the person using the plan. For us, it just doesn't pay since our dining preferences don't come close enough to the plan...i.e. we still end up spending a lot OOP for extra TS and appetizers and wasting a number of quick service meals- but that's us. You can try and map out your quick service and table service costs based on where think you'll go and what you'll order and see how it measures up to the per day cost of the plan. You can also factor in the breakfast food and snacks you'll be bringing along and break those down to pp costs vs. the plan provisions.

I pulled this pricing info off of Allears
How Much Does it Cost?

For all bookings after June 17, 2013, the addition of the Dining Plan to a Magic Your Way Vacation Package (prices subject to change) is as follows:​

-- $58.66 per night per adult or junior (ages 10-17)​

-- $18.88 per night per children ages 3-9​

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[LucyK]

We always prepay our food with the dining plan. Last trip the DDP was around $900 and we spent around $200 more between appetizers, tips and a second snack per day. Let's say U$1,200 for a ten day stay at a Disney hotel.

 

[stevehousse]

I would go with the dining plan the way you want to eat, that way it's paid for up front and you won't have to worry about anything except paying for tips or alcohol. I always get the fear of not bringing enough food money or over spending on souvenirs and not having money to eat! When are you going? They are extending the free dining all fall and winter for everyone so I would see if it going at the time that you are!

We are doing the free dining however to save money we chose to stay at a value resort and just upgrade to pay te difference between the plans offered at that hotel. To go up from the quick service plan to the plus plan, was barely over 150 dollars instead of paying several hundred for a moderate resort...

 

[SMS55]

I figured 8+1+1 would be about 10 hours, which would actually put us there at 2 PM. Of course, this all sounds good on paper lol, and Im sure my family would want to make at least one pit stop at those locations.

Probably won't happen. The women will always want to make an extra stop or drag out a planned stop. I've come to that conclusion over the years. For myself I just need to use the bathroom and I'll grab something I can eat in the car. I just want to get there. At least they removed Starbucks from the rest stops on the Turnpike. My wife needed her fix about twice on the trip up from Miami.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

The dining plan for you (based on a 7 night stay and adding an average $20 tip) will cost you $175 a day. The only person who can decide if it is worth it for your family is you. If your girls don't eat that much, it might not be worth it. The mugs are included, it may be worth it. We've done all the dining plans through the years and sometimes just winged it with a few ADR's where we really wanted to eat.

 

[allgiggles]

The dining plan doesn't save us any money. I've already posted the dining details from our recent trip in my post up thread so I won't repeat them here, but the QSDP (2 QS meals, 1 snack per day) would have cost $1400 for the 6 of us for 7 nights. Our total OOP cost for food on our trip last month (not including the $75 worth of food we brought with us for breakfasts and snacks/drinks in the room) was $1200. Of that $1200, $200 was for drinks and snacks above and beyond what the QSDP would have included. So our total cost with the dining plan would have been $1600. We saved $400 paying out of pocket.

That being said, if you definitely want to do one table service meal and one quick service meal every day AND because you have 2 kids under 9 (the dining plan cost for them is reasonable), you *could* come out ahead financially. However, that's assuming you want the amount of food the dining plan provides (entree, sides, dessert) and that you won't decide you're too tired or too stuffed to eat every table service meal. My 26 yo DS and his girlfriend did the regular dining plan last month (1 QS, 1TS, 1 snack per day) and they didn't even get dessert for 2 of the TS meals because they were just so stuffed and they weren't going back to their room for a few hours so they didn't want to carry dessert around the park. The girlfriend didn't eat half of the food at most of her meals because the portions were just too much for her. We all ate most of the QS meals together and even at those meals they didn't eat most of the desserts and rarely finished all of the food they got. When they got home, they looked at the online menus and priced out what their meals would have cost if they had just ordered exactly what they wanted and paid out of pocket for everything and they realized they could have saved over $100 by paying out of pocket. They also said that after day 3, they wanted to cancel a few TS meals because they knew it was going to be too much food, but since they had already paid for the meals, they felt they needed to keep the ADRs and just eat what they could. The big thing for them was that they didn't realize just how much food was involved and being there in June when it was hot, none of us had a huge appetite.

 

[SteveW]

Instead of doing the DDP, you could still prepay your food budget by getting a Disney gift card. Since your driving, stop and get breakfast items, snacks and drinks before going to your resort to save some.

I'm planning on doing that this December. I love arriving with the trip paid for except for souvenirs and tips, but would like more flexibility on my meal choices.

 

[gwhb75]

I'll chime in...I was doing some analysis on the meal costs for our upcoming trip trying to figure out if the meal plan was worth it or not (yeah...in addition to being a Disney geek, I'm also an accounting nerd). Specifically, I wanted to see if Tables in Wonderland would be the better deal than the meal plan (which it is by quite a bit, but our 2 kids would be considered adults so we'd be paying almost $240/night for our family on the meal plan).

Based on what we came up with, we were looking at around $210/day in a worst case scenario (before the Table in Wonderland discount), but this include us getting the most expensive item on each menu at our ADRs and getting full lunches (including drinks and desserts) which we won't. We are basically following the same kind of meal "plan" you have (breakfast in the room, QS lunch and table service dinner).

We used to love the meal plan (the idea of having the meals paid for in advance meant we knew the costs were fixed), but the double price increase this year was excessive.

An interesting idea I have heard of is to take the amount you would pay for the meal plan, and load it on a Disney gift card then use that gift card to pay for your meals. The risk is that you'll spend more than what is on the card, which means that you would have been better getting the meal plan. The benefit is that you could end up with extra spending money if you don't spend all the money on the card on meals.

The interesting thing about the meal plan is that it almost makes you overeat or get the things you don't necessarily want because you have to at least break-even. As a result, there may be some nights where you feel like a burger at your table service meal, but you won't because the $20 you'll spend on the burger is significantly less than the amount you need to spend to break-even that day. I'm not saying you can't break even or even save money on the meal plan (e.g. if you love steak every night and full lunches every day then the meal plan is proabably a good investment), but if you don't want to feel like you have to get the more expensive things, then paying out of pocket is most likely the way to go.