Getting really nervous about food budget - PLEASE HELP

[lmmmdtmlem]

This is our first trip to WDW as a family. Dh and I haven't been there since we were teenagers! We are down to eight weeks and counting and my husband is getting very worried about the food budget - especially when I told him that I was thinking about $100 per day. We are a family of five - dh, myself, dd 10, ds 7 and dd 4. We are staying at HIFS so will take advantage of the free breakfast buffet there and really eat heartily at breakfast and take some things back to the room for snacking later. We will probably be doing some counter service at the parks and sometimes coming back to the hotel to do lunch - kids will eat free at the hotel for lunch. We would like to do just a few sit downs for dinner. We do has PS at Chef Mickey's for dinner one evening. We plan to eat most dinner off-site as we will have a car. How much do you think we should realistically be budgeting per day for food? Thanks so much in advance.

 

[fostrmom2mny]

With the conditions that you have listed, I would say that the $100 a day will work. There may be days that you run below, and perhaps if you add snacks it may run over. Make sure since you are going to eat off site that you take advantage of the local coupons for food in the Orlando area.
Gerri

 

[veraletta]

we have always saved $10 per meal- per person and found that we had enough.
and since you are getting breakfast paid for yes...... you have to remember its hot and you dont eat as much when its hot out...

 

[LuvTigger]

As noted above, this all depends on your "eating style," I guess you could call it!! Personally, we (2 adults) allow $100-$120 per day for the two of us, but we eat pretty differently. We usually buy a couple of pastries and OJ's in the morning, have either a fast food lunch or dinner, and one sit-down meal per day (some of them are kind of expensive). We splurge on one character breakfast per trip. It usually evens out, some days the sit-down meals are not as expensive and we won't spend as much, but the "leftover" ends up going towards a more expensive sit-down.

If you eat off-site most dinners and just splurge on a couple of on-site dinners, I think $100 per day sounds reasonable. There were a few places in Crossroads of LBV that were pretty reasonable. There was one we at at 3 times!

 

[tripben]

We are a family of two adults one 12 year old a six and seven year old and a 10 month old infant. On our recent trip from Thursday through Monday we spent about 100 per day.

We did one charactor breakfast at the castle, a sit down lunch at Kona Cafe, 50's prime time for dinner, Pinocchio's for dinner, Beaches and Cream for lunch, dinner at the lounge in our resort, lunch at Buzz Lightyears Pizza Planet, breakfast at the counter service at the resort, most breakfasts and snacks we did bring with us though, and various counter services for the remainder.

We ate well, and did eat some snacks at various places not included in the 100.00 per day. But it is easily do-able if you plan smart. The portions at some resturants are large and you can split them. Planning the meal times is important too. Most people don't get up at the crack of dawn and go to bed at midnight after a long day in the parks for days on end. You will need to plan for the extra hours you are up and on the go. Keeping filling, nutritious snacks with you throughout the day is a good idea. We packed raisins, peanut butter crackers, nuts, beef jerky sticks and granola. In the room we had carrot sticks, cheese sticks and snackables, fruit, milk, and sodas. Pretzel sticks and a jar pf peanut butter with a glass of milk do wonders for a cranky child.

Good luck.

Sam

 

[hercamore]

Leaving the parks and eating offsite can be a real pain and a waste of your park time. My teens and I share meals all the time at the parks, for example, eat at the Land at Epcot. Splitting subs, chips and pop will cost about $l5. Good soup there is $2.99 and very filling. Buy one or two pops and split them , or drink water.

 

[ceecee]

Drink water, skip the sodas and you'll save a lot. Fast food vs sit down you will save too. Chef Mickey's will cost a bit, so you may have to make up for that on another day. You should be able to do it, if you stick to the lower costing resturants. I personally enjoy eating at the parks.

 

[aprincessmom]

I agree with LuvTigger -- it's definitely an eating style thing. Be honest about how much your family does eat at a meal. If you aren't used to filling up at breakfast, eating lightly at lunch or eating a big dinner your style won't change just because you are on vacation or because you are "telling" your body to do so.

My dd and I have similar eating styles -- we are more grazers than meal eaters -- so we carry snacks with us. We also don't drink soda so water is a must and we bring it into the park. DH on the other hand is a big person -- 6'3", 245 lbs. -- and is used to eating a lot. He eats as he does when he's at home (he works heavy labor so he eats a lot!). We can easily spend $50-$40 on him alone for food -- and he's also a soda drinker which adds up. $100 a day works for us with him maintaining his regular eating style. Some days it's less, some more. It averages out over the vacation.

DD and I usually eat breakfast in the room. DH heads to the food court for his power breakfast -- a bowl of cereal doesn't cut it for him. We try to do one sit-down a day, which is sometimes a character meal, and one counter meal.

To keep expenses down, since you are staying off site anyway, consider stopping by the grocery store to pick up snacks. Water, rice cakes, crackers, pb&j, bagels, fruit, raisins...all things that are portable, easy to store and keep hunger at bay any time of the day or night.

 

[schulzk]

This is really weird - I posted the same question on another site a month or so ago and when I was reading your post, it was like you were talking about us!! It is our first trip as a family also and DH and I haven't been since our honeymoon which was 14 years ago. We are going in 6 weeks and also staying at the HIFS!!! You betcha, we are taking advantage of the free breakfast buffet also. Our family enjoys having a big breakfast and just a couple snacks during the day and then not eating again until supper, so that should work really well for us. I am stocking up on snack items to keep in the room and take in our packs for at the parks. Here's another suggestion that our travel agent told me about - go to the Pizza Hut in the HIFS food court and get a couple personal pan pizza's (the kids' will be free there also) the night before and put them in your room fridge and then throw them in your pack for the kids to snack on in the parks. Kids love cold pizza, so you can't go wrong.

You didn't say how long you are staying, but I think you should have plenty. We will be there 9 days and we are only budgeting $600 for food and I was told by many people that would be enough because of the free breakfast. We will also be eating offsite because we like all the different restaurants that are offsite.

Enjoy!! We certainly will!!!!

inkbounc

 

[curlyjbs]

Hey, I'm worried about our food budget also. I was thinking $100/day for me, dh and dd's 9 ,7, and 5. We are also staying at HIFS and and plan on taking advantage of the free breakfast and "kids eat free" program. We booked one chef mickeys dinner which is not included in the "daily $100" and one Pirates Cruise also not included. I think we should be ok though because we aren't big eaters in the parks. Packed snacks and maybe a lite lunch should be fine and we plan on eating most dinners off site. so....I guess we'll do ok.

I'll let you know when we get back.

curly 23 more days!!! eeeeeeeeeeeek!

 

[TinkerbellRules]

We (DH, DD & I) have spent an average of $80/day on our last three trips onsite (never will we go off site because I love being at WDW all the time!). You can plan your meals and the prices for all onsite locations because there are menus available. I totally agree about drinking water instead of pop to save $$. I do that around here plus the water is better for you. I do, however, by my DD milk or Sprite (sometimes). I would suggest planning all the meals ahead and add up the cost. Of course, you've got to add for the unplanned snacks as well We normally eat in the room for breakfast.

Oh, there is also a McDonalds at DTD (?) and All Stars as well. The one (if it's still there) at AK is $$, but they are (were) real hamburgers

 

[robinb]

I kept track of every food receipt for my 10 day stay in November 2000 with my year old DD and my DH and added them up. We ate at a variety of places, the California Grill, McDonald's, CBR's food court, popcorn stands, Jungle Jim's, Sweet Tomatoes, etc. We averaged $80 per day. I could never feed a family of 5 at WDW for $100 per day, but that's me. My take on your message if that your DH thinks that $100 per day is too much and not too little. I think you'll be lucky to do it for $100 a day, even if breakfast is included and lunches at the hotel are free. Even counter service is expensive at WDW! You will be able to save money if you eat off-site, but you'll need a car for that. You'll also waste a lot of time driving from here to there. *sigh* Good luck, I hope everything works out for you.

 

[LKS]

We are also a family of 5 (kids will be 10,8 and almost 5). We will be staying on-site next year, but will bring breakfast food in our cooler and eat mostly PB&J lunches back in the room. We don't mind doing that since we usually come back for a swim anyway. Even so, as I plan our food budget which pretty much has one all out sit-down meal per day, I am coming up with a budget of about $115 per day (I adjusted out the V&A splurge for our 15th anniversary). The way I came up with it was to list everywhere we wanted to eat, then search the menus to come up with what I thought we'd spend, then I added $25/day for snacks. I just counted 12 purchased meals for 10 days - that's 2 breakfasts and 10 lunches and dinners (mostly dinners.) For the 5 of us, at any nice sit-down restaurant, we are looking at $70-80 for a meal once you include tax and tip.

So, I think $100 could work if you did 2 counter service meals or only one sit-down a day. On the days you do a sit-down meal, make your own sandwiches for the other meal. With that HIFS breakfast buffet, you may very well only want a snack in the afternoon, then you could do the dinner somewhere nice. We ate one dinner at HIFS, and only one. Yeah, the kids ate free, but the adult charges paid for their buffet. I'd rather eat somewhere good and pay for the kid's meals, or eat sandwiches in the room. I did think eating at the counter service places there was a good deal, although service was slow.

 

[MaryAnn B]

You should be able to do it for $100 a day. But like others say it depends on your eating style.
Having the breakfast is a big plus. I would take some fruit or snacks and eat those for lunch
We found that we got so busy waiting on lines and all the time it took to go on rides
that actually we wound up eating only 2 meals with a lite snack. I also share a lot with
my daughter (11) who eats small amounts. The counter service at some of the parks
you can get enough to share.

Also stay away from the pop as much as possible.. I have found out that it really starts to add up if you drink
pop a lot. If you have a refrigerator, I would freeze water and take juice with me, we do
that and put it in a backpack and can have something to drink whenever. And we save
the pop for actual dinner times. The CM have always been good about giving me a cup of ice and
then I fill up at the water fountains.

 

[bigsis1970]

I am getting ready to "bombed" on this but here goes.. I am only setting aside $850
for 14 days with Me ,DS 5 and DD 8 .. I have looked at the menus extensively
on www.wdwig.com and found what we like and which park we will be in and what is
offered at the food courts in the hotel.. I have planned 3 character meals and a nice sit
down at Kona's.. The buget includes Breakfast, Lunch, Snack and Dinner.. We will be
getting the refillable mugs for the resort and will drink water mixed w/ powdered drink
mix i will be bringing from home and we will also have a car and will eat off-site sometimes
and be going to the grocery store ..

84 more days til we go

 

[hercamore]

big sis, I think your budget is fine. Two weeks is a long time to be "eating out" and you'll find disney meals can get old fast. Mixing it up with grocery store deli food, eating out of the parks once in a while is a good idea. Buy milk from the cooler in the store at CBR. Same size milk as at the food court priced less.

We spent about $600 for a l0 day vacation last month with two teens and myself. We did stay 4 days on the coast, where meals were better priced.

With your age kids, you should be able to split a lot of meals, too.

Have fun.

 

[bigsis1970]

Thanks for that .. I had orginally posted about $600.00 for the 14 days ( at that point
we were staying a HIFS and eating the free breakfast and kids eat free program ) and
boy did I get lots of responses stating they thought i was really low, so with moving on
property and now having to buy all meals i was expecting to get it again.. Glad to hear
you and family did it for about what i have planed.. I know how my kids eat at home so i
am not expecting it to be much different on Vacation except maybe more fast food . I also
have read many post stating that the portions are large and we are not opposed to meal
sharing at all.. Thanks again for the encouraging words... Michelle

83 days to go