Spendings per day...

PrincessJasmyn

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
How much money do you recommend per day at WDW?
Its 2 adults, 4 nights, 3 full days at the parks, at least 1 or 2 dining reservations have been made per day (1 dinner is Cinderellas Royal Table so that's already paid for).
Last time we were at WDW, we only bought quick service food, no real sit down meals, and didn't spend much on merch (we were on a really tight budget!)

I would LOVE to know how much you allow per day (or even per person), just to give me a rough idea of how little/much we could use :)

*yes I know everyone is going to be different - just curious how other do it :)

We are coming from Australia and trying to plan how much money we will need for 3 full weeks in the US, and I'm 99% sure WDW is going to be our most expensive part of the holiday.
 
kybred72

kybred72

Active Member
I haven’t been to Disney in 7 years so I can’t help with current cost per person but I can say Welcome to the US! Have a magical time!
 
Hakunamatata

Hakunamatata

Le Meh
Premium Member
If this amount you are asking aboit includesfood cost I would recomend taking a look at the menus and see what you might order. Also depends how how much stuff you buy. Tshirts run about $40 USD. Sweatshirts/long sleeve shirts about $60 USD. Mugs, cups about $15 USD. Its hard to say.
 
PrincessJasmyn

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
kybred72 said:
I haven’t been to Disney in 7 years so I can’t help with current cost per person but I can say Welcome to the US! Have a magical time!
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Thanks so much!! I can't wait to be back. I love the US!!

hakunamatata said:
If this amount you are asking aboit includesfood cost I would recomend taking a look at the menus and see what you might order. Also depends how how much stuff you buy. Tshirts run about $40 USD. Sweatshirts/long sleeve shirts about $60 USD. Mugs, cups about $15 USD. Its hard to say.
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Yes I've already had a look at menus etc. I think I know how much I want to take - would love to know how much others normally budget for too :D
 
Disney Hound

Disney Hound

Member
DH and I tend to budget $100-$150 per table service meal depending on the restaurant. We then budget a further $150 per day for souvenirs, drinks, snacks etc. We always seem to come out ahead!
 
JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
DW and I usually do well by taking $100/day for souvenirs and assorted snacks but most days never use it all. Being a pin collector I tend to spend more of my money on pins. We also have Disney gift cards that weve gotten as gifts or accumulated throughout the year. We also have a Disney card that we will have reward points to use ... I think DW figures we will have about $600 available on that when we go in May.
 
Kevin_W

Kevin_W

Well-Known Member
We tend to buy very little in the way of merchandise (1-2 souvenirs for an entire trip totaling $25-50), and budget ~$150/day for food for our family of 3. we typically have 1CS and 1TS meal, plus a couple snacks. The cost for that can be closer to $100, depending how we eat, but a character meal or the like can also raise it over $150 pretty easily.
 
Weather_Lady

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
For the adults in our party, we generally spend, per day:

$0 on breakfast (we bring our own food from home);
$15 per person on a counter service meal;
$6 per person on a snack;
an average of $45 per person on a table service meal with gratuity (I'm averaging something at the low end like Sci-Fi dine in for $30 with tip, and something at the high end, like 'Ohana at $60 with tip);
an average of $10 per person per day toward a single, personal souvenir for each person at the end of the trip. We don't buy much merchandise in the parks -- if we want Disney stuff, we buy it ahead of time on the Disney Store website when there are discounts available.

The total for two adults, using my family's numbers and spending habits, would be $132/day for food and TS restaurant gratuities, and $20 per day toward two souvenirs. (Incidentally, the DDP would cost us $151/day for food for two adults even without TS gratuities, so we come out ahead not using it.)
 
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KBLovedDisney

KBLovedDisney

Well-Known Member
Normally, we over budget our trips because yours truly sees something else that is shiny and wants to buyeee. Anywho, here is what I normally come up with each trip (not including tip or tax):

Table Service for 2 people = $60 per meal

Quick Service for 2 people = $30 per meal

Souveneirs = $300 ($150 per person)

Gas = $100 (if you are driving)

Emergency = $100

So, we normally eat up to two Table Services per day and a QS normally for lunch. If we did only 4 days, with all of the other costs expenses, you would be looking at $480 for TS + $120...

About $1,100. This doesn't include hotel costs or Disney Park tickets, but this is just how we do things. :)
 
righttrack

righttrack

Well-Known Member
Here is what I would consider per person, per day:

Breakfast (we grab and go coffee and snack like nuts or something bready) $8
Lunch (typical counter/quick service meal) $15
Dinner (typical sit down meal, Entree, Dessert +20% tip) $57
Additional non-meal Water/Non-Alcoholic Beverages (consider this, Florida is hot, it adds quite a bit to your cost) $7

What we do that saves money:

We use gardengrocer.com (an online grocery store that delivers to WDW) to purchase 1 case of water, per week, per person and we get packets of nuts or apples or some kind of croissant to eat for breakfast/snacks. This brings the cost way down. They will let you carry one bottle of water into the park. Bring two, drink one while waiting and carry the second in.

Remember that the US is a tipping culture and that you will typically tip 20% for sit-down dining, taxicabs, and $2 per bag if you use the bell services at the hotel to bring your bags to and from your room and $2-5 per night for housekeeping. You don't tip for quick/counter service food, only sit down restaurants.

Alcohol will (significantly) add to your budget so plan accordingly. Plan on $10-12 per drink +tip.
 
JosieBee

JosieBee

Well-Known Member
Jasmyn said:
How much money do you recommend per day at WDW?
Its 2 adults, 4 nights, 3 full days at the parks, at least 1 or 2 dining reservations have been made per day (1 dinner is Cinderellas Royal Table so that's already paid for).
Last time we were at WDW, we only bought quick service food, no real sit down meals, and didn't spend much on merch (we were on a really tight budget!)

I would LOVE to know how much you allow per day (or even per person), just to give me a rough idea of how little/much we could use :)

*yes I know everyone is going to be different - just curious how other do it :)

We are coming from Australia and trying to plan how much money we will need for 3 full weeks in the US, and I'm 99% sure WDW is going to be our most expensive part of the holiday.
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When I was there this past October for three days, I spent around $400 on food and merchandise. I did not do the dining plan as I had crunched the numbers and found it would be about the same so I passed and just paid as I went, so to speak. The $400 was just for me as I was meeting up with other family so was just paying for myself. Food expenses over the course of the three days were a muffin and juice each morning from the food court, lunch at Be Our Guest, dinner at 1900 Park Fare, a Le Fou's Brew, a Dole Whip Float, a sandwich, soda and chips from the food court (twice I think), hot dog and fries from Casey's Corner, lunch at Tusker House, and a Night Blossom drink in Pandora. Food was most of the expense as I'm not the biggest shopper, but did buy two Christmas ornaments, a Disney Pin, a ceramic mug and tumbler mug, and a plush toy. Of course, the character dinners were expensive so food costs would have gone down without those. We packed a lot into three days and if I had been there longer, I would have balanced it with some cheaper meals throughout the stay. It was a bit pricey, but I'm usually pretty frugal in my everyday life so it was a nice splurge for myself and we had a great time, made lots of memories, so I consider it money well spent! Next time I go, I plan on packing some boxes of breakfast foods like granola and cereal bars to get me going in the morning to cut down on the $10 each morning. I'm not usually a big breakfast eater so that would trim some dollars there.
 
21stamps

21stamps

Well-Known Member
Depends how much you drink/what you drink. ;)

I don’t buy any souvenirs for myself at WDW, but I do get a few cocktails at the pool, a couple of evenings, at Epcot, and I avg @ $100 for myself and a child at Trader Sam’s with small plates and drinks.

If you don’t drink alcohol or speciality drinks..and if you don’t do a lot of table service restaurants, then you can eat/drink for a fairly reasonable amount per day.
 
correcaminos

correcaminos

Well-Known Member
So it's hard to say without knowing your eating habits really.

We do breakfast in the room. We do simple meals and I'm not a huge breakfast eater anyway so that's always little things. We spend about $75-100 on groceries for the week to have milk, bagels, cereals, yogurts, and then fixings for light meals like sandwiches and of course lots of fruits etc.

We then do one meal out of the room for sure. If TS, we vary a little per adult. I am about the size of my 10yo son and literally can fit into kids clothing. My meals are sometimes splitting an adult with said 10yo and sometimes just getting appetizers. My husband will eat a full meal. We do not usually do signature dining either. Lunches can be cheaper than dinners too.

So really I suggest starting with where you plan to dine for sure. Then see what might appeal knowing how much you do eat. QS meals I say are about $15 for an adult on average.

We do save by having a meal or two in the room. I also do not eat full meals so I split or the like. I never feel like I am going hungry. We sped far less than average though but don't feel like we are missing out. It's just really hard to say how much to save for it since we all eat differently. Like for me $50-60 for a sit down per person is high but we don't do single desserts or appetizers *and* meals.
 
MichiganDisneyDad4

MichiganDisneyDad4

Well-Known Member
We just got back from WDW and spent a little under $2000 for a 6 night stay. We averaged close to $325 a day. I felt that we did everything we wanted and bought everything we wanted to buy. Our day at Disney Springs costed us about $600 and one day at Epcot (shopping around the world) cost us about $400. We ended up doing 4 TS meals, ranging from $65-$125. The rest of the meals came from QS at the resort (Pop) and the Flower and Garden Festival along with many Mickey pretzels and bottled waters. We let the kids basically buy whatever they wanted. Long story short, I am confident we could have gotten away with spending closer to $1100-$1400 if we didn't do all the shopping. Not going to lie though, it felt really good to let the boys, my wife and myself buy as we pleased.
 

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