How much do you budget per day for food/misc?

[Grim Grinning Marathon Runner]

The wife and I are planning one last fling to Disney before we adopt our little one from China. We've been to Disney together three times since we were married 7 years ago, and, as you may have guessed, I have run the Disney Marathon once.

Can you tell that we LOVE Disney??

My question is, how much do you realistically budget per person for dining and misc expenses per day?

We are going to stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort (love it), and we may be able to bring some breakfast items, since we're driving down to Disney.

Thanks!
Michael

[Momof2boys]

We "budget" $100 per day per person - this is for food, snacks, water/soda in the parks, and any souvenirs.

Using our estimates --

Breakfast - $5
Lunch - $15
Dinner - $25
Snacks/Drinks (4 per day) - $20
Souvenirs - $35

[Goofy_Guy]

graemlins/clappy.gif Welcome to Intercot!! graemlins/clappy.gif

My wife and I, as well as my sister and her husband have been going to WDW together for the past couple of years. In our experiences we have decided that about $100 - $120 a day per couple is enough to cover your dining and misc. expenses. That being said, we almost always enjoy a nice sit down meal per night. graemlins/beer.gif If you do not eat at a sit down restraunt then that estimate will be a little lower. If you do enjoy a sit down meal nightly I would also recommend looking into the Disney Dining Experience membership. This can save you 20% on most sit down dining. You can see a complete list of restraunts here http://www.intercot.com/infocentral/dining/dde.asp. Hope this helps. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

[Turkey Leg]

If your not buying Souveniers on given days you can easily get through most parks on $40 to $50 a person. That gets you a lunch, snacks, drinks..etc. It's when you factor in a restaurant, shirts, and trinkets thats when you jump up close to $80 a head! It will fluctuate but you should be ok budgeting $50 a person per day.
smile.gif

[imported_PolyGirl40]

I'm going to bounce this down to the Vacation Planning forum for you. smile.gif

[SlinkyDog]

The last time i was there my girl friend and i spent about 600 in 4 days and we didnt go out and party at night.

[delarosa]

I am budgeting about $120 per day for dining for 1 adult, 1 12 yo, and 1 9 yo. The girls have their own speninding money for shopping and I have my own stash of mad money as well.

We have a sit-down or character meal planned for almost everyday. We also don't really do breakfast at all except for Cindy's once during the trip.

[Golf Grumpy]

We usually budget $50 per person a day for food/goodies and it has worked out for the last 4 years with some extra left over.

[mickeymousemom]

We are a family of five(ages of kids are 19mo., 11, and 15). We normally spend 4 days in the parks and we leave home with approx. $1100-$1200. This includes the drive down, a day or two NOT spent in the parks, and 4 days at WDW. We occasionally use our debit card for gas, etc. but we find that this amount works well for us. We do whatever we can to save money like eating breakfast in the parks, taking snacks into the parks, shopping at the Disney Outlets for souvenirs,etc. I can't imagine budgeting $100 per person/day....we would NEVER get to WDW! graemlins/crazy.gif graemlins/mickey.gif

[BostonChic]

You really don't know how much your gonna spend daily,because we ate at different places like delivery to room,food courts etc...but you should not eat in a park.We spent 40$ on one lunch!We would eat something in the morning on the way to a park.then at lunch go back to hotel,swim and dine.return to parks later on.If you have to buy souveniers do it at 1 place when you arrive or leave.In the park I would suggest like enough $ for drinks,ice cream or anything else.Leave the rest in your hotel safe!I would'nt bring that much money for a day at a park.We brought alot of money 1 trip and came home with money.any ways just try to afford what you can and enjoy the time your there! smile.gif

[goofiecrazy]

When it was just my husband and I we spent about 15-20 bucks for each meal and sometimes a ice cream on Main Street.If we did a dinner show then it was more.So it came out to be anywhere from 70-100 bucks aday if that.

[ValenciaJoe]

On our last trip, I budgeted for an average of $200/day. This is for a family of four (consisting of two small girls). There are those days when you spend virtually nothing on food, but there are those days you spend a LOT. It averaged out for us to roughly $200/day.

[TheRustyScupper]

Our Daily Budget
1) Food - $35/adult, $25/child *
2) Souvenirs - $25/adult, $15/child


* Food includes one main meal per day, and snacking the remainder of the day.

[pdrlkr]

Budget, whats a budget? graemlins/crazy.gif

[Marilyn Michetti]

I think around $60 each for two of us. If we don't spend as much one day, we probably will the next. It's better to budget a little over than run short at the end. ;)

[DisneyDudet]

We tend to share meals. My dad and I share a Chicken tender meal and a coke and we're full. Mom gets a hamburger or hot dog meal and we all eat from each others.. so.. we feed 3 ppl w/ 2 meals. At least for lunch. we rent a car and go off for dinner.. at chick fil a, taco bell, and such.. this save us money ( we get the car for free w/ credit card points).

[WDW crazy]

We usually budget about $50 a day per person for food not including snacks. This is for adults. We don't eat breakfast but we do usually have two sit down meals a day but we do get tired of big meals after a while and eat at counter service or food courts a few times so it comes out pretty even. For snacks we say about $10 per person a day. We don't snack alot. As for spending money for other things, it just depends. Sometimes I buy alot of stuff other times not so much! I have taken anywhere from $200-$1500 for spending money.
Congratulations on becoming new parents very soon!

[ March 11, 2005, 05:09 AM: Message edited by: WDW crazy ]

[disneynarula]

If you are bringing breakfast items you could probably do it for about $60/couple/day.

We do it for even less sometimes. Usually we have breakfast in the room from our stash of food. We have a nice sit down lunch and spend about $10-$15/person. Sometimes we do counter service for dinner which costs $10 or less/perons. Sometimes we skip dinner altogether because we are too full from lunch. We usually throw a snack in there sometime costing about $5/person.

We don't drink alchohol. I am sure that makes a difference. We also use our Brita water bottles so we don't buy a lot of drinks.

We have been so many times we don't see the need to purchase souviniers. I usually only spend about fifty dollars (or less) for the whole week.

[CuteAsMinnie]

We spend MAYBE $100 per day for a family of four and we never spent it. This time, kids are a little older (12 and 9) and we figure we'll average $100/day for all of us - more for the days, prob. 2 or 3 for the week that we have a nice, sit down dinner. We've found in the past, we wanted to be on the go all the time and would much rather grab a salad at a counter service than spend a couple of hours at a meal -- the kids would flip!

[CuteAsMinnie]

Although, now that I think about it...

In the past we have driven and packed the car with snacks to take into the parks. Now this is our first trip flying and DH "forbids" (he thinks) food packed into suitcases and brought with us.

So, who knows how much we'll spend! graemlins/shakehead.gif

[KylesMom]

CuteAsMinnie, we are in the same boat! We usually drive down, but this year due to the miles on our van and gas prices we've decided to fly. Which means ALOT less "stuff" to take with us found on sale or at Sam's Club. I plan on sending UPS ground a package of snack-type items to our hotel and making a grocery stop, but it will definitely increase our total amount spent in Florida.

We normally budget $180/day for food, beverages, souvenirs and family photos (very important!). Some days we are way under, and other days we are unfortunately way over! Our travel party consists of DH, DS (7) and me.

Somehow I have a feeling that with the upcoming adoption of your child you will want to spend some serious $$$ if you are Disney freaks on way too cute things for the little one - keep that in mind when you are making out your budget! graemlins/mickey.gif And above all, enjoy! graemlins/party.gif

[ March 11, 2005, 10:32 PM: Message edited by: KylesMom ]

[pedro2112]

All but two or three of our meals are already paid for as we are on the dining plan. I've budgeted $200.00 a day above and beyond the dining plan, taking into account my wife's case of terminal "shopoholia." :D

[ March 12, 2005, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: pedro2112 ]

[MomofKatie]

Since we are using the Dining plan this Fall, we are figuring about $110- $120 per day for our little family of three.

$80- Dining plan
$10- $15- extra food&drink- beer, Dole whip, etc.
$20- $25- souveniers- we collect coffee mugs, ball caps, and DD likes to get light-up toys.

[Granny Jill A]

I just came back from a Feb 22-26 trip, and I was able to budget $75 per day for food, drink & souvenirs. I brought food for breakfast in the room, and had bottled water for the parks. I only ate 2 sit-down meals that required tips, so this helped keep the cost down. I also bought only two souvenirs.

If you are eating more sit-down meals, I would definitely bump the per diem up to $100+.

[disneymomw_3boys]

Budget, whats a budget? graemlins/rotfl.gif I usually put a whole lot of money in the debit card account and hope for the best!!! graemlins/rotfl.gif

If I budget $100 per day per person(5 person family) I would still would be over what we spend(this is not including park tickets). We spend less some days and more others but I would think we average more around $ 400.00 per day for the family. When we go to Disney we eat at some of the more expensive resturants(who am I kidding they all are expensive) for dinner and that eats up about half of the budget, the rest is spent on souvieneers, other park eating, and recreation, boats and such. For us a 7 day trip to Disney could easily be around 6K or so(including room, tickets, transportation, and spending money), and I'm sure if you look at your bank book, even if you don't eat out alot, you will still spend minimum 4k or so for a famly of 5 on a 7 day disney trip.

Somedays it seems we go through money like it was water and others we spend very little, it just depends on what you are doing that paticular day.

[*NikkiBell*]

I know I am going to lose a lot of Intercot buddies by saying this, but you asked so here it goes..

We do not have to budget because we are on the Premium Dining Plan.

Seriously, though, you should consider getting either the regular dining plan or premium dining plan. It will save you hundreds within the first two days.

We had the Silver Plan last year which included some meals and were amazed at how much we saved. When we go next week, I plan on tallying everything up so you guys can see the amazing difference.

[Jimenyfan]

We are a family of 4 (DS's 13 & 7) and budget $200 per day. We may have 3 PS's during the week and those days we sometimes go over the budget and the rest of the time stay under budget.

[delarosa]

Whether or not the dining plan will save you money depends entirely on your family. For me, even the basic plan is a waste. My girls don't eat much and the 12 yo will have to pay adult prices. $35/day for her to eat a couple of chicken fingers would cost me a lot more.

It is also only really beneficial if you eat a sit-down meal every day ot go to the signature restaurants. Traveling with two kids, neither of those will be happening for me.

Now if it were just me and DH, yes the plan would save me money. DH is a human garbage disposal and an app, entree, and dessert would be devoured by him as well as anything left by me. We could go to restaurants like Yachtsman and spend a small fortune.

Just depends on who is eating and where you would go if you weren't on the plan.