How much $$ for food (if we DON'T do dining plan)

[WitMom]

I'm trying to put together a plan/budget for our Disney trip. We haven't decided on whether or not to get the dining plan, yet (I've read both good and bad about it). Can anyone tell me what Disney restaurant prices run for "cash customers"? How much do you allocate for food when visiting Disney? Obviously, people's appetites and spending habits vary, but I'm just looking for ballpark ideas of what a day at Disney might cost food-wise.

[egoldber]

Eating what kind of meals? And will you have a refrigerator in the room (moderates and above)? We pack a lot of snacks into the park.

We don't do the dining plan, and so we generally have heavy snacks in the room for breakfast (instant oatmeal, cereal, bananas, juice/milk boxes, etc.) and then head to the park. We usually grab coffees for DH and me either at the hotel food court or in the park.

Then we pack in snacks and have cereal/granola bars sometime in the early morning. If we eat a table service meal, we prefer it for late lunch. But we usually eat CS. So for DH and I, say $10 max for each and $7 max for Sarah. Amy usually makes a meal from what the 3 of us order. She drinks soymilk which is hard to find so I usually pack in all her drinks.

We usually split an afternoon snack of the ice cream cookie sandwiches, 2 of them for the 4 of us.

Dinner depends on what we ate for lunch. But we often eat at the hotel food court. At least once during the trip we order Domino's (and yes, they will deliver to WDW hotels, although WDW does not readily admit this fact LOL!).

My kids have a hard time eating too many sit down meals, so CS and easy dinners work best for us.

[billysmommy]

You can find the menus (with prices) for all the restaurants on allears.net

[JTsMom]

You're going in November, right? Why not do the free dining? You can't get cheaper than free!

I've crunched the numbers for us both for our upcoming trip, and last year's. We about broke even last time. This time, I figure the dining plan will save us about $40. In addition to the numbers, with the dining plan, we'll do more and more expensive sit-downs, I'll likely order pricier dishes, and we'll have more desserts than we could want. Dining plan= $40/adult/day, and $10/day/ child, and since we about break even, that's about $90/day for us. I figure another $10/day for snacks, so about $100. We don't bring in snacks though, other than bottled water. We do breakfast in the room, unless it's a character breakfast day, and we do several of those.

We do a lot of character meals though. Disney's counter service is pretty good, but we burn out on that sort of thing, and like to have dinners more like we have at home. I don't feel like we have to do a sit down every single day, but since it works financially speaking, we do the plan. Also, we do HDDR, which uses two credits, so that gives us one day with no ADR's.

You can find menus with prices on allears.net. Try to look at what you'd eat with no plan, then figure out what you'd eat on the plan. Don't just compare apples to apples b/c on the plan, you get a dessert with every. single. lunch and diner. No way would most people order all of those. Don't forget to account for snacks. The dining plan includes 1 a day/person.

I agree with Beth's numbers for counter service- figure about $10 per adult if you order your own meals. For snacks- ice cream bars, lollipops, popcorn, etc- figure about 3.50 each.

The more important number is the cost of sit downs. Those are where things tend to add up. You also have to remember that gratuity is not included, so figure that in.



Honestly, I feel like it's about 6 in one hand, 1/2 a dozen in the other, so try not to make yourself too crazy deciding. I stressed about it so much last year, and was especially concerned since DS doesn't typically do really well in restaurants, but on the trip, most of the meals were so entertaining, and he was so worn out from our endless touring, that we all welcomed the break. It was nice to just sit down and be waited on, and the meals that we did were a big part of our experience. There was no way I would have been able to get DS to stand in line to meet characters, and that was huge for him, so character meals were perfect for us. He's still talking about Hoop Dee Doo in detail. The only 2 from last trip that I wouldn't do again in hindsight are 50's Prime Time (just no interest for him), and Tuto Italia (too formal, no fun for him).

[Corie]

It was nice to just sit down and be waited on, and the meals that we did were a big part of our experience. There was no way I would have been able to get DS to stand in line to meet characters, and that was huge for him, so character meals were perfect for us.

This is my family too!!!

The kids don't want to wait in the long lines to meet & greet the characters
and the characters are such a huge part of their trip.

So the character meals are perfect for us. The kids get the characters/entertainment,
I can sit in the AC sipping on a soft drink, and my DH is chugging a beer.

It works for everyone!

[egoldber]

It was nice to just sit down

LOL! And if Amy would sit down in a restaurant, that would be lovely. But "waiter pinball" is her favorite restaurant activity.

I never stand in long lines for characters. There are ways to avoid that.

But that's the great thing about WDW, so many different things for different families and tastes.

[JTsMom]

I never stand in long lines for characters. There are ways to avoid that.

C'mon Beth, you can't go and say something like that without sharing with the group!

[WitMom]

Yes, I'd like to know what Beth knows, too!

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I have to keep reminding myself that if I can't decide between two different options, they must both be good options, and there is no wrong answer. That's a good problem to have.

[billysmommy]

C'mon Beth, you can't go and say something like that without sharing with the group!

[egoldber]

I guess it depends on the characters.

Our fav park for characters is Epcot. The Epcot character greeting area in Futureworld is great and there are generally very few lines. You can see all the major non face characters: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and usually a few random other characaters with no line if you're there before 10. Often it is EMPTY with no one there. Plus, it's indoors and air conditioned.

For princesses, the best place again is Epcot. The greeting times are listed on the Epcot time guide, and if you spot a character handler and ask, they will tell you the best place and times to see the characters that day. But you can generally easily see....

England: Alice, Mary Poppins, Pooh and Tigger
France: Belle (and sometimes the Beast) and Aurora
Morocco: Jasmine, Aladdin and sometimes Jafar and/or the Genie
Germany: Snow White
China: Mulan and sometimes Mushu

To see Ariel, the best place is Ariel's Grotto in the MK RIGHT AFTER it opens. Do not get there late LOL!!! Get to the MK when it opens, head to Fantasyland, ride Dumbo. While riding Dumbo see if the Grotto is open. The MK time guide will say the Grotto opens at 10, but it almost always opens 15-30 minutes earlier than that. If you get there right when it opens, you can see Ariel with no wait or only a few minutes.

The only major character that is hard to spot outside of a character meal or a long line is Cinderella. I guess the new Tinkerbelle meet and greet at the ML also. If that were important to me, I would be at Toontown when it opens and be first in line. Alternatively, the meet&greet lines in Toontown are often very short at parade time and after dinner.

ETA: Animal Kingdom is also a good place to see the Pooh characters at the meet&greet trails right outside Dinoland. You can see Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore, sometimes Piglet and Rabbit.

ETA2: We LOVE characters. Characters are a HUGE part of our WDW experience. But I taught my kids early that we do NOT stand in long lines. If there's a long line I say we'll catch them later.