We (family of 4, two adults and two older teens) probably averaged about $400 per day on what we charged to the room. That was mostly food and didn’t include any mobile orders since they went directly onto the credit card. And only one of us drinks alcohol. (I did have a Painted Lemur at Sanaa.) We had a TS dinner every night, ate breakfast from what we picked up from the resort QS and had either a QS lunch or just snacked.
WDW dining is expensive!
This is what I’m doing:
)Probably started out close to the $100 pp pd range, but I’m stingy and want to do better.
During my May 2021 trip, we spent $40/person/day on a 14-day trip for a total of about $4500. This included 4 adults and 4 children, about 1 TS per day, 1 QS per day, and a light breakfast with groceries stored in our room, plus the occasional snack. With inflation I would assume the same regime would get us to $50 or $60 per day.
Now, my kids are the pickiest children in the world, and DD(4 now 5) basically ate nothing but popcorn refills for 2 weeks. So $75/day is probably a modest budget for adults. $100/day would probably be a generous budget with a couple of splurges.
This doesn’t count a drink budget, btw.
Our last trip we went grocery shopping and ate every breakfast and half our dinners in the room and brought snacks to the parks. This significantly reduced our food spending and overall we were happier with the quality of the food.
Our $100 per day counts drinks. This was for adults. When our kids were young, it was definitely less than that for them.
during my last trip this august we budgeted $100 per person per day, and $75 for the kid. We usually do one table service a day. I was very much under budget !!
That’s great. It is always better to budget high and come out under!
I’m calculating how much we spent on food as we speak… right off the top of my head I think around $675 for one adult, one child 5.5 days in the World. That wasn’t very much compared to past trips, but I was A. with the picky eating child and B. on medication that prevented me from eating very much so I ate off the kids menu whenever there was something appealing.
That’s 3 TS lunch/dinners (Hollywood & Vine, Chef Mickey’s, 50’s Prime Time), QS meals at Pecos Bills, Cosmic Ray’s, Casey’s Corner, Katsura Grill (not recommended!), Capt. Cook’s (B,L,D), and Gasparilla Island Grill (B,L,D), and 1-3 snacks per days total (between us). We only bought powerade a couple of times in the park, and never bought water because we had our own water bottles for ice water with electrolyte flavoring.
Weirdly, they kept giving Mia free stuff… not sure if it was the birthday button or what, but we went to buy a pretzel and they said “this one’s on Mickey”, when we got the button at Animal Kingdom the CM who gave it to her chased us down with free slushy drinks, and when she was first in line to get a Mickey bar in the morning at HS they just gave it to her that time too. She didn’t bring her pins this trip, but the kids we were with on Epcot day were trading, and several CMs insisted she pick a pin too (fortunately my friend is a big pin person and had lots of spare backs). They sent us up the Guardians VQ line during deluxe resort hours as well (without a BG… I missed the 6pm drop), though I think that might have been more because we weren’t being obnoxious like the 3 dozen or so people around us, who kind of all had a valid point about the resorts not communicating anything about the 6pm drop at all but who were not voicing that in a way that would make anyone sympathetic to them.
To have a 40% effective income tax rate - and this would be in California, ostensibly the highest tax state, inclusive of payroll taxes, and doing absolutely nothing to shelter any of my income - I would be grossing 250 grand a year. If I get to that happy state, not only will I be spending more on Dinsey food and beverage, I will be buying dinner and drinks for my friends as well.
I think $3K is a bit low. I used to plan $100/day, but after my trip in July, I would up it to $150 a day - but that includes alcohol and snacks. Keep in mind that a signature dinner with app, entrée, and drink - plus tax and tip - can easily approach $100 by itself - or even exceed it. I’ve rarely left a regular TS without paying $40-50 per person. I don’t do many CS meals, but it seems as though you can’t get away with less than $20-25, depending on where you go and what you drink. Using my math, for 4 adults it’s closer to $4K - but that includes alcohol and snacks
I’m kind of OCD when it comes to planning, but not about totaling “actual” costs after a trip. My last trip was the first I had in 8 years, and I likely won’t be back again for another 2 or 3 at least, so I gave myself a healthy buffer so I didn’t have to worry about what I spent for every meal or drink. In round numbers my food and drink expense was probably a little shy of $2K for 10 days. That included 5 signature dinners, (one of them very expensive), 10 regular TS and the rest CS or snacks. And I probably average 3-4 alcoholic drinks a day.
I never used to eat CS for anything but breakfast, and maybe a burger once a trip, but they’ve upped the CS game over the last decade or so. Gone are the days when CS = fried food & pizza, so now I’m comfortable with more CS meals. I even found a few CS kids’ menu items appealing on this last trip (the chicken and rice bowl at Pecos Bill’s for instance, was a solid meal and actually more food than I wanted for lunch… I just needed to ask for some salsa).
Everyone prioritizes their personal spending differently.
On a board of Disney park fanatic super-planners - I don’t think it’s at all surprising to see all levels of spending styles. There are folks here who do Disney as cheaply as possible, prioritizing simply being there, and others that want to take advantage of more expensive food offerings and budget appropriately.
Based on Disney Dining 2020 plan prices, one table service, one counter service, and 2 snacks a day for an adult was about $80/day (plus the table service tip). We know prices have gone up since 2020 due to waves hands at inflation, supply chain, Disney profits, etc so the $100/day that OP estimated and others are validating is not a super luxe nor super cheap experience.
I think the $3k for the four of you is a pretty good ballpark. But you’ve traveled with this group before – are any of them big eaters? Need add-ons at every meal? Suckers for every up-sell/“specialty beverage”? Will they share appetizers/desserts or each want their own? We spend a lot more overall if DS20 is with us because he alone eats as much as 2-3 people.
I know that this trip is to enjoy WDW and show your friends all it has to offer, so you won’t just be grabbing a breakfast bar on the way to rope drop. The $3k should still work, but you don’t have as many ways to cut costs as a lot of us traveling with family have.
Here is a run-down of our food. Previously I just gave the overview number. This is for TWO people, not individually.
Day 1, Travel Day ($35):
Breakfast - $10 (pop, Egg McMuffins)
Lunch - $10 (pop, McDoubles, etc)
Dinner - $15 (Maybe Arby’s, etc)
Day 2 - Travel Day ($65):
Breakfast - $0 (free with hotel)
Lunch - $15 (Wendy’s, etc)
Dinner - $50 (Outback Steakhouse)
Day 3 - Disney Arrival Day ($125):
Breakfast - $0 (hotel breakfast)
Lunch - $30 (fast food or pizza, etc)
Dinner - $45 (fast food & maybe beignets at Port Orleans)
Groceries - $50
Day 4 - Disney ($76):
Breakfast - $0 (in room)
Lunch - $30 (Chicken guy)
Dinner - $30 (QS)
Snack - $16
Day 5 - Disney/UOR ($76):
Breakfast - $0 (in room)
Lunch - $30 (QS)
Dinner - $30 (QS)
Snack - $16
Day 6 - Disney ($202):
Breakfast - $45 (Kona Cafe)
Lunch - $30 (QS)
Dinner - $111 (Steakhouse 71)
Snack - $16
Day 7 - Disney ($112):
Breakfast - $0 (in room)
Lunch - $30 (QS)
Dinner - $56 (Yak and Yeti)
Snack - $16
Day 8 - Disney ($94):
Breakfast - $0 (in room)
Lunch - $30 (QS)
Dinner - $0 (in room) or $30 (QS)
Snack - $34
Day 9 - Disney ($125):
Breakfast - $0 (in room)
Lunch - $30 (QS)
Dinner - $70 (Raglan Rd.)
Snack - $25
Day 10 - Disney ($40):
Breakfast - $0 (in room)
Lunch - $0 (in room)
Dinner - $40 (Skipper Canteen)
Snack - $0 (part of Christmas party)
Day 11 - Travel Day ($35)
Breakfast - $10 (McDonalds)
Lunch - $10 (fast food)
Dinner - $15 (Fast food)
Day 12 - Travel Day ($30)
Breakfast - $10 (McDonalds)
Lunch - $10 (fast food)
Dinner - $10 (fast food)
Total, including travel days: $1015
Per person/per day (including travel days): $43
Total, excluding travel days: $850
Per person/per day (not including travel days): $54
We actually did account for some potential additional spontaneous food, which is why the number I gave above was more than $1015.
Yes, but there’s always an unspoken sentiment that monetarily prioritizing dining is an unworthy or strange choice compared to upgrading one’s hotel or choosing a hard-ticket or extra-cost event.
Certainly not me. I’d rather stay in a value and eat well than stay in a mod or deluxe and eat fast food the whole time.