Realistic Dining Budget?

[DisneyMama811]

Do you all set a "budget" for dining or just spend whatever and it costs what it costs? I'm struggling with figuring out how much to budget for our family of two adults and two young kids (6&8) the plan is mainly QS meals, two character meals... will bring some snacks into the parks but staying at AoA so not a lot of storage in the room for food....6 park days, 2 relaxing days and 2 days at Universal... plus have to factor in the exchange rate because every CDN dollar I save is only 75cents USD so I have to save more than we actually need.... I know I can look at all the menus online and price out a typical meal but I feel overwhelmed

 

[Wayland10]

I didn’t figure out the average meal- I looked at the menus of the places I’d pre-selected and figured out what we were each most likely to want, added them together, added the tip, and figured out my budget from there. It’s pretty reliable, but it does take some planning!

 

[jsbowl16]

This is why I miss the dining plan.

We make a budget and then try to figure out what we would likely to eat from each place and put it all together to stay under our budget. We always eat breakfast in the room and then eat lunch and dinner at the parks, DS or resorts. We do not include snacks in between meals in this number. We just adjust the number of TS and QS meals based on what we can do to stay under our budget. We try to do one of each each day if financially possible.

 

[KrzyKtty101]

I do the same as Wayland 10, but I get why that might be overwhelming over the course of were the course of 7 to 8 days. Outside of that, I would say I would say at minimum a $100 per person per day. I actually plan closer to a $150 per person per day for my family, but it's because we tend to eat to eat at a lot of sit down dinners.

I find with drinks the average quick service adult meal is still going to be close to $25 with tax, and children will be close to 20. Multiply that by 3 you're already at $75 A-day for an adult and that doesn't include any snacks. So a $100 A-day is probably a good conservative estimate.

 

[jillt2ph]

I am at the "it costs what it costs" point. I have found myself doing table service breakfasts a lot more often now than I did in the past. With the bounty platter running $13 (with no discount) I would rather have a relaxing breakfast cooked to order. I think Crystal Palace is a good deal right now without the characters - $39. I also had the Chef's Platter at Boatwrights a few weeks ago, and I thought that was a good deal. I am heading down for 2 weeks in July and I am thinking I will average about $75 a day, not counting the occasional alcoholic drink.

 

[FCDub]

You’ll literally just need to do the math yourself. Everyone’s situation is different. Day by day. One restaurant at a time. Break it down and it won’t feel as overwhelming.

 

[Bostonjetset]

As KrzyKtty said above, I would budget at least $100pppd. And that’s really conservative. Last month when I was there I don’t think we had one meal outside of QS breakfast that was less than $50pp once tax and tip were included. Most sit down meals were closer to $80-90 pp and we don’t drink a lot of alcohol (though did each get one drink at ‘Ohana). With drinks the prices could be much higher.

 

[FreeCA]

We did the same as Weyland and went through menus and did a best guess.

In the end we spent a lot less (at least 1/3 less) than we thought. We are a group of 5 (2 adults, 2 Disney adults over age 10, and a child)

Turns out we didn’t end up keeping most our table service reservations. We also did well getting 2-3 quick service meals and splitting it between our group with occasional snacks.

All that to say it’s a good idea to over budget and be prepared, but often a successful Disney trip includes modifying plans as you go which really makes the planning more challenging.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I make an excel spreadsheet. I put a column for each of us and a row for each restaurant we are interested in. I always have a pretty good idea what each person in our party is likely to order. When in doubt, I go with the highest price. I total up each row to figure out how much each meal us likely to be. Then I list out our days and what parks we will be at and start plugging in meals. I start with any TS, then add in the QS in order of which ones we are most interested in. And it helps me to make sure we are having variety and not 3 days off all burgers followed by 2 days of pizza, ect. Once I have a rough estimate of where we are eating, I plug in costs and add 20%. That will cover gratuity and extras like drinks or desserts I might not have originally included. I also usually add in s snack budget of $25/day for dole whips, popcorn ect. I’ve been within $50 of my budget the last 5 trips. For my family of 4, we can do 6-7 days in the park for about $1200 in food. That’s usually 3-4 TS meals and at least one park snack a day. We eat breakfast in the room, bring water, and usually a cheap snack like granola bars or something for getting hungry in lines. And I don’t always stick exactly to what QS restaurants we originally picked. But it gets us close and I go into each park knowing what restaurants have things we want to eat instead of wandering through looking at the menus while there. I make 3 top choices for each park.

 

[igrsod]

I would budget $100 USD per person per day. That's what we do. I prepurchase Disney gift cards from Loblaws or Shoppers Drug Mart (Ontario) with the amount for our dining budget and use those.
That way it feels pre paid and there is no worrying while on vacation. I start buying months before the vacation as I have extra money here and there so it doesn't sting as much.
There is a website I used to use that would calculate a rough estimate of how much you would spend based on your dining preferences (it also compared whether it was worth it to get the dining plan). It may still be around, possibly a little low in prices due to inflation, but at least it would do the major math for you. Just google Disney dining plan calculator.

 

[isabellea]

We will eat breakfast in room while we are getting ready so that saves us a meal (individual cereal boxes, oatmeal and Kind bars).

For QS, I budget 50$, TS 100$ and prix fixe 200$ for the 4 of us. We rarely get apps and desserts at restaurants (too much food) or alcohol. No character meal planned but for I would budget at least 250$ for those. Finally, we are 3 Disney adults and 1 child but my 12 yo will probably mostly order from the kid menu at QS and regular TS.

 

[kwdw]

I agree the $100 US dollars per day per person is a good estimate unless you are planning more TS meals than you suggest in your posting. If multiple trips for coffee QS or an alcoholic drink per day is a given, take that up to $150 per adult. Things that raise costs a lot are fancy coffee drinks, alcohol, and a lot of snacks. For me, the cost of buying a bottle of water or soda definitely add up. I find carrying a reusable water bottle that I refill with cups of free ice water can easily save me $10-$12 per day, and that’s just me. Also, not letting yourselves order more than you can really eat at QS can help. Splitting a meal and adding an extra side, is often enough for two people, especially if snacks are in your future. I was skeptical when folks told me that at first, but after 20 plus trips now, it really is advice to think about. When traveling with my partner, we frequently order one entree and add either an appetizer, a side, or dessert and we are full. And we aren’t small folks…we are both overweight, big eaters!

To keep costs down, consider a grocery delivery order for things like bottled drinks, breakfast food, snacks. I bring some non perishable snacks from home in the suitcase and eating them also gives me extra space for souvenirs. Unless I am planning a TS breakfast, most breakfasts are eaten in the room regardless if it’s a solo trip or family trip for me.

But if you really want a budget, you do have to do it yourself, day by day for each person. Excel is great for this, but paper and pencil will work. I’d set up three meals and three snack/drink purchases per person each day and fill it in. After you do a couple of days, it gets easier because you will understand typical QS pricing better. So, it’s not as overwhelming as it seems once you get started.

 

[Baldy]

Hello OP. Fellow Canadian here. I feel your pain.
It really depends on your family, but for us, we prepurchased $100 Disney gift cards assuming that they would work out to about $75 USD. I literally went through menus to price out what I thought we might eat. Luckily we are very predictable as far as favourite spots and food choices. We are pretty frugal and not big eaters but one card per day was enough per adult and one could cover both kids. That was with 9 quick service meals and 3 table service meals but no character meals. (Averaged out over 6 days).

 

[GAN]

I agree with the others that have said to budget $100/day/adult. I just came back from 9-days and my food, alcohol, epcot booths came pretty darn close to that number. I generally had a late-ish breakfast and dinner(so not 3-meals) ...also had several alcoholic beverages every day which add up.

You could always order from Walmart or any other service that delivers things like water, light breakfast items, fruit, snacks and cut some money that way -if you're spending $5 on a water in the park your budget will erode quickly ...I bought a case of (32) waters for $5! Walmart dropped the stuff I ordered right to my door at Poly for a $5 delivery charge(plus tip).

 

[snikki]

I mentally budget $100/day/adult but I'm also at "it costs what it costs" point. If we go over $100/day/adult then we go over. I'm not going to not eat because we've gone over.

I don't think we will have an issue sticking to this budget next trip. We have cut down our TS meals due to G+ and wanting to keep our days open for LL availability. For 9 nights/10 days we are planning on doing 3-4 TS with one being HDDR which will be paid before arrival. We do a grocery order with breakfast foods (cereal, milk, fruit, bagels) and water so that saves us money. We may do one character breakfast and get Mickey waffles 1-2 mornings. We will then fill in with lounges, booths, snacks, QS and the few TS meals we have planned.

 

[k5xs]

Do you all set a "budget" for dining or just spend whatever and it costs what it costs? I'm struggling with figuring out how much to budget for our family of two adults and two young kids (6&8) the plan is mainly QS meals, two character meals... will bring some snacks into the parks but staying at AoA so not a lot of storage in the room for food....6 park days, 2 relaxing days and 2 days at Universal... plus have to factor in the exchange rate because every CDN dollar I save is only 75cents USD so I have to save more than we actually need.... I know I can look at all the menus online and price out a typical meal but I feel overwhelmed

We just (December) hosted our family of 37 for a week at the Riviera for our 50th anniversary celebration. Our family consists of 15 adults and 22 grandkids ages 2-18.

We provided one catered group dinner and $65 per person per day food allowance. It worked out about right.

 

[xipotec]

For us,
roughly 20 per meal per person . Sometimes more, sometimes less…but overall, it seems to work out to that average.

Only exception is high end places, then 50 per person

 

[3gr8boys]

Do you all set a "budget" for dining or just spend whatever and it costs what it costs? I'm struggling with figuring out how much to budget for our family of two adults and two young kids (6&8) the plan is mainly QS meals, two character meals... will bring some snacks into the parks but staying at AoA so not a lot of storage in the room for food....6 park days, 2 relaxing days and 2 days at Universal... plus have to factor in the exchange rate because every CDN dollar I save is only 75cents USD so I have to save more than we actually need.... I know I can look at all the menus online and price out a typical meal but I feel overwhelmed

I don't set a budget or research prices, but I do set money aside before our trip so we can just eat what we want and charge everything back to a (cash back ) credit card knowing the money to pay it off is waiting. Gives me an already-paid-for feeling. Because the dining plan always cost more than we actually spent on food, that is the $ I use. Our last two trips l I set aside in a savings account what the regular dining plan (the one that had 1QS 1TS and snacks daily) would have cost (obviously you would have to use what it cost before being discontinued with covid). Both times it was more than we had actually spent. For reference - We do at least one TS per day (including one or two fixed price meals), we do not get the resort refillable mugs, we like to order appetizers, we don't usually order desserts and we don't usually order alcohol.

ETA- I think the child price for the dining plan was more reasonable than the adult option when compared to meal prices. If I was using the child's historical dining plan price as a guide for what to set aside, I would probably add a cushion to it. My kids have been "Disney Adults" for a long time.

 

[afgoplen]

We will eat breakfast in room while we are getting ready so that saves us a meal (individual cereal boxes, oatmeal and Kind bars).

This strategy also helps with rope dropping success. Thanks!

 

[MassJester]

We will eat breakfast in room while we are getting ready so that saves us a meal (individual cereal boxes, oatmeal and Kind bars).

For QS, I budget 50$, TS 100$ and prix fixe 200$ for the 4 of us. We rarely get apps and desserts at restaurants (too much food) or alcohol. No character meal planned but for I would budget at least 250$ for those. Finally, we are 3 Disney adults and 1 child but my 12 yo will probably mostly order from the kid menu at QS and regular TS.

I've had a history of eating breakfast in the room too--saves on calories and money.

I'll probably do sone shopping at a grocery store next time rather than relying on the resort because I spent real money last time.