3 Magical Weeks of Dining - $120 per day budget

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by lovemickey

Following! There’s 5 of us going next year, staying offsite so look forward to seeing how you got on with your budget!

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I think you'll really enjoy offsite, there are so many food options to try, with the kids being picky we did return to some more often than I'd have liked but they were still nice x

Originally Posted by Goldia

Hurrah you've started! I actually thought the plane food looked pretty good, seems like there's not much that can go wrong with mash, even on a plane.

I'm looking forward to seeing where you ended up eating and what you ended up spending!

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The plane food actually wasn't too bad at all, Chris and I quite enjoyed it.

There a few we ended up missing from the list but just means they have to go on the next list x

Originally Posted by Wismgari

Excited to read this, I always enjoy your reports 🙂

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Ahh thank you so much for reading along again <3 x

Originally Posted by DisneyF1rstT1me

I'm very interested in this as we're going in May, 5 nights onsite, 8 nights villa with no car until day 5. We've got no dining credit/voucher so all out of pocket and I've been a bit worried about just how much that's going to cost. We have a very similar plan to you re QS and snacks on site, and off-site restaurant meals. I don't really want to cook at all this holiday but who knows!

Thanks for sharing this with us. I hope you have a great holiday and I look forward to reading all about your food choices and daily costs.

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I remember thinking when we were there that it wasn't as expensive as I was expecting, but we did mainly take lunches for the kids anyway as they're so picky. I totally get it, I was the same with cooking on holiday I did end up making a few things in the villa but it wasn't too bad and wasn't like full on cooking if that makes sense? X

[caitlinsmummy]

Day 1- IHOP, Seaworld, McDonalds and Applebees

Once up and everyone sorted we headed to IHOP for breakfast. Now last time we’d been to IHOP we really didn’t rate, everyone raves about it so we thought we’d give it a second chance. We were seated immediately and our server was lovely too.

We all ordered drinks, with the boys going for chocolate milk, Chris and Caitlin orange juice and I just had an iced water. We then placed our order.

Thomas went for the 2 x 2 x 2 which was 2 eggs, 2 bacon or sausage, 2 pancakes with hash browns. He really enjoyed this although he didn’t like the hash browns.

Caitlin went for the Breakfast Sampler which was 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, 2 ham and hash browns. In hindsight none of us knew why she got this as she doesn’t like eggs or hash browns and she ended up not liking the ham either , she’d have been with a build your own or 2 x 2 x 2 like Thomas. Pancakes weren't pictured as they were brought much later (around 15 minutes!)

Chris went for a create your own pancake combo, 2 pancakes (I choose chocolate chip) 2 eggs, 2 bacon or sausage and hash brown. Chris really enjoyed his.

Noah had the kids silver dollar which was 5 smaller pancakes, eggs and bacon. He did really well and managed 3 of the pancakes and about ½ the egg.

I obviously didn’t order anything, I managed half of one of Chris’s pancake and Noahs 2 pieces of bacon.

The total bill came to $51.89, we added $10 tip making it $61.89

The food was much nicer in this IHOP, however, we all agreed we don’t think we’d go again, I just think it’s quite expensive for what it is really and it’s definitely not a place we love, everyone much preferred Denny’s.

The kids just ate lunchables, crisps and rice krispie treats for their lunch. I had my eye on the favourite thing I ate last time at Seaworld which was the pretzel bites from Mama’s Pretzel Kitchen. Caitlin likes pretzels too so we decided to get a regular pretzel and a pretzel dog to share with a cheese dip of course. The pretzel dog came with some house made chips. Noah tried them but didn’t like them, Thomas ate the majority of the chips, they were really tasty. The pretzel dog had a strange flavour I thought (wonder if it’s because it’s a beef hot dog) but it was still nice, the pretzel was also tasty. I didn’t manage as much as I thought I would but then again pretzels are carb heavy and I struggle with them, so a bad judgement choice from me. I ended up having trouble paying with card here so I paid cash.

I don't have the receipt but I'm sure this came to around $25 with tax

We popped to Walmart on the evening as we needed some disposable bowls/cutlery for the kids cereal. The kids seen the McDonalds on the way and insisted that’s what they had for their dinner I had planned Texas Roadhouse or Mannys Chophouse but the kids really couldn’t be bothered and to be honest I was feeling the jet lag too from just 4 ½ hours sleep. Thomas and Noah got chicken nugget happy meals, Noah with milk, Thomas with coke. Caitlin got 2 double bacon cheeseburgers and a dr pepper, I have a feeling we also got another drink for Chris and I to share whilst they were eating but I can’t find the receipt from McDonalds.

Everything came to $19.33

After the pool Chris took the kids up to get showered and sorted and I went to get us some food from Applebees. Chris wasn’t feeling great at all so he told me just to get whatever. I was torn between the beef dip sandwich and the chicken alfredo pasta.

In the end I went for the chicken alfredo pasta, this was $18.75.

I really enjoyed this! The sauce was tasty as was the chicken and pasta, Chris had some too but he didn’t enjoy it, we think it was more down to him not feeling great than the actual food. This was what I managed, Chris probably ate around 1/3 of what was left.

So total spend for today was $124.97, just slightly over the $120 target set. I didn’t include the lunchables/crisps/rice krispie treats as we’d pre bought these before coming out and we had definitely ordered way too much food at breakfast

Total Spend So Far: $124.97

[halloweenbaby2]

Thanks for doing this.
We are staying offsite for the first time this year so really interested in your choices and costings.
Having only ever done the DDP before I was worrying about costings so this will reaaly help as a guidance.
Xx

[Mexy02]

I’m with you , the pancakes are nice at ihop but it really is expensive . I don’t know how people eat out for breakfast everyday as it’s as dear as a lunch meal .

[lfc_sarah]

Ohhh IHOP is on our list, I'm starting to think maybe we don't go 🤔
Denny's is also on our list too though.

[mrsnicola]

Following

[4holibobs]

Great start…. We aren’t fans of ihop… I'm a big fan of Cracker Barrel and think their pancakes (I have mine with peaches) are FAR better! Have a great day!

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by halloweenbaby2

Thanks for doing this.
We are staying offsite for the first time this year so really interested in your choices and costings.
Having only ever done the DDP before I was worrying about costings so this will reaaly help as a guidance.
Xx

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Ahh you're welcome. Costings can be a minefield, but I think you will find eating offsite is much cheaper, obviously it also depends on where you eat x

Originally Posted by Mexy02

I’m with you , the pancakes are nice at ihop but it really is expensive . I don’t know how people eat out for breakfast everyday as it’s as dear as a lunch meal .

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Yeah I totally agree actually, the pancakes were nice but definitely expensive. It can be so expensive depending where you go, later in the holiday we go to Denny's and it's cheaper and better in our opinion, I'm sure with tip Denny's was around $40 and I actually ordered a side there too x

Originally Posted by lfc_sarah

Ohhh IHOP is on our list, I'm starting to think maybe we don't go 🤔
Denny's is also on our list too though.

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Definitely give it a try, it could just be us and our tastes to be fair. I always think everyone should try places once and make their own opinion x

Originally Posted by 4holibobs

Great start…. We aren’t fans of ihop… I'm a big fan of Cracker Barrel and think their pancakes (I have mine with peaches) are FAR better! Have a great day!

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I had Cracker Barrel on our list but we didn't manage to make it, I'm kicking myself now as it was also on the list last time! For sure it's a must next time! X

[Unexpectedpenny]

I always enjoy your trip reports so I’m looking forward to following along!

[Loobylou_82]

Good start so far. We like IHOP and always go there at least a couple of times for breakfast during our holiday. Of course not been there post covid so interesting to see if prices have gone up alot.