Meal budget

The_Duchess

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
What would be some of your guesstimates (or actual costs) for meal allowance per adult person, planning on 2 sit downs (no character meals) and 1 counter service per day? (Please no comments on amount of food, etc. Its doubtful it would actually work out this way every day, but I like to overestimate). We are definitely not doing the DDP. This is solely a budgeting question. Also, please don't direct me to online calculators or menus. I'm looking for actual people advice.
 
It depends on what you eat and where you go, that's why people refer others to online menus.

But, on average, for an adult you can plan on a TS entree costing $20-30 (cheap end) + $5 soda (or $10-15 alcoholic beverage).

For a child, if the child actually gets a kid's meal, plan on it being about $10.

Tip is 15-25%.

Counter service - plan on it being $10-20 per adult, $8-10 per child (again, kid's meal). Drinks are about $5 (non-alcoholic)
 
This is too vague of a request. If you're trying to budget, actual menu pricing will prevail over "actual people advice." You may enjoy a light breakfast of a pastry or fruit and a cup of coffee. Somebody else may want bacon, eggs and pancakes. A dinner to you may include appetizers, alcoholic beverages and dessert, while a dinner to them will skip those. Not to mention, there's a tremendous amount of diversity within Disney's pricing, depending on what you eat and where you eat it. Think $15 to park at a car at Pop Century vs. $25 at the Grand Floridian -- the latter doesn't cost Disney more, but they know people at the latter are more accepting to the higher price. A similar trend is true of various restaurants, although not quire as true as in the past (way back in the 1990s, when the All-Star Resorts first opened, their food courts served the exact same food as the Contemporary or Grand Floridian snack bars, but at a much cheaper price point).

Also, I'm not a small guy nor am I a big guy, but there's absolutely no way I could eat two sit down meals + a counter service meal each day at WDW -- portions are large (and that's not including appetizers or desserts) and I'd be stuffed after a couple days, seeking out lighter fare.
 
I would budget $100/day per person on the lower end if you tend to skip alcoholic drinks/dessert. If you think you would like an alcoholic drink here and there (or at every meal) and dessert I would plan on $150. Just one drink and dessert with tax and tip could push your cost to $30 more per person.
 


You don't give much information in your post other than what you don't want people to do. It really depends on where you are planning to eat. A sit down meal at The Plaza is going to be a fraction of the cost of a sit down meal at California Grill.

3 full meals a day is going to add up fast. I would say on the safe side, to budget at least $150/person/day.
 
If it helps, my son and I ate at BOG for lunch. The total was $40. We got 2 sandwiches with fries and one fountain drink.
 
I have looked at the menus and done the math and for 1QS, 1TS and 1 snack(per person) for 3 adults I am budgeting $175 per day. Some days it will be less other days might be more but I think it will even out in the end. No character/buffet/signatures. Drinks and desserts are included. We are not breakfast ppl and with the heat only find ourselves eating 2 meals and a snack a day.
We are (so far) planning on Yak & Yeti, Via Napoli, Skippers, Beaches & Cream, Sci-Fi, Spice Road, Sebastian's, and Homecomin' (brunch).
 


My DH and I eat at the lounges for lunch so a sit down and normally a TS for dinner. That being said we are not big eaters. Lunch is normally a shared appetizer or two and dinner is a shared appetizer plus a split entree but we do love cocktaiks. We budget 200 per day and normally have money left. We also have 1 or 2 snacks per week so not big on snacks either. We have TIW and that cuts 20% off the bill but we always tip additional on top of the 18% added to the TIW bill. A lot of the lounges at DS have happy hours so we take advantage of those too. We also eat a light breakfast in our room. Yogurt or eggs with coffee.
 
I'd say $100 per person, average.

CS meal.is average $20 (includes a drink).

TS lunch will run $30/average.

TS dinner will run $50/average.

With a $100/person per day budget, you should be good.
 
I missed the part that you didn't want calculators but I posted one a bit ago.

I would average $150 per person per day. If you plan on doing any cocktails with your meals I would bump it to $200 per person per day.
 
Heat and weather can impact a dining budget a lot. I never feel like eating as much when it is really hot out.
 
I missed the part that you didn't want calculators but I posted one a bit ago.

I would average $150 per person per day. If you plan on doing any cocktails with your meals I would bump it to $200 per person per day.

I agree to add $25-50 per person if you plan to drink. My budget was strictly for food, fir the three main meals, no snacks or alcoholic drinks. I'd agree that $150-200 is reasonable taking those additional things into account.
 
What would be some of your guesstimates (or actual costs) for meal allowance per adult person, planning on 2 sit downs (no character meals) and 1 counter service per day? (Please no comments on amount of food, etc. Its doubtful it would actually work out this way every day, but I like to overestimate). We are definitely not doing the DDP. This is solely a budgeting question. Also, please don't direct me to online calculators or menus. I'm looking for actual people advice.
My "actual people advice" is that you're rejecting the best methods for getting a solid estimate.
 
So here's my actual people advice...

If you are really wanting to go 2 TS and 1 QS - Honestly you might want to run the number and get DDXDP with 3 TS which include appetizer, main entree, and dessert, 2 snacks, drink mug - which you can use anyway you want to... as well 1 adult beverage is included when you are sitting down at TS... DH and I when we were living out of State we would go this route.... and we would have enough entitlements for brunch/ lunch and dinner on our arrival day, on our last day/departure day to have breakfast and lunch or get lunch to go heading to either the airport or if we drove.... as well as a bunch of snack credits to take home some Mickey treats, it helps soften the withdrawal of leaving...

We budget around 150.00 per person per day for food... so 300.00 for 2 adults - and that's normally only 1 TS and 2 quick serves meals - Dinner if you are going to go with appetizer, main entree', dessert, and 1 adult beverage each will be hitting around the 200.00 dollar mark with tip for 2 adults...
Adjust down if you only ordered main entree, and water...
1 QS stop for 2 adults is around 40.00 to 50.00 bucks - give or take depending on what you order...

The thing is there are so many way it eat at Disney - Snacking around the world showcase - TS service and ordering appetizer and dessert to share, TS or QS meal sharing, bringing snacks with you instead of purchasing, breakfast in room... lots of ways to enjoy what Disney has to offer..

A hard and fast rule just doesn't exist... Honestly...
 
What would be some of your guesstimates (or actual costs) for meal allowance per adult person, planning on 2 sit downs (no character meals) and 1 counter service per day? (Please no comments on amount of food, etc. Its doubtful it would actually work out this way every day, but I like to overestimate). We are definitely not doing the DDP. This is solely a budgeting question. Also, please don't direct me to online calculators or menus. I'm looking for actual people advice.
Real people advice:
One size does not fit all.

If you want an over-estimate, try $300 per person per day. That should do it.
If you want something more accurate, you need to sharpen your pencil and do some math.
 
I generally plan $100/pp per day. Some days we are under, some days we're over and I usually bring money home.
 
We usually only do 1 or 2 TS meals per trip and I budget for those separately, since they're planned ahead of time. I've been budgeting 20 per person per QS meal & used to have some left over, but the last couple of trips that hasn't been the case. I think I'll probably up that to 30 for our next trip.
 

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