Food budget for 2 weeks ?

[Guest]

Dear all,

Please advise what food & drink budget I should allow for our 14 day trip to Orlando in August 18. We are a family of 4 with 2 x teenage boys (16 & 17).

11 of these days will be theme park based and we want to keep costs as low as possible, so will not be visiting any expensive restaurants in the parks.

Many thanks in advance

[Guest]

It really is a " how long is that piece of string "

Eating off-site would of course be cheaper, CiCi's Buffet pizza and Sweet Tomato's are both very affordable places to eat

on-site meals TS meals will cost you near $200 for the 4 of you, QS meals will cost you $60 - 70 for the 4 of you

of course, popping to Target / Walmart and stocking up on snacks and drinks will really save you big money, a pack of 10 Drinks in Walmart will cost you $6 , 1 bottle in WDW will cost you $4, Snacks and crisps will help, even buy breakfast stuff, we always buy " pastries etc " for breakfast and eat in the room

[Suzieb01]

Interested in this.
We are staying off site and will need to visit a grocery store for food supplies. Keep looking at videos on Youtube. Our kids are 21 and 18 so get hungry. I have a few adrs booked at Rainforest Cafe @AK (25 yrs together anniversary), Be Our Guest @MK (an experience in its self that needs doing), Tonys Town Square @MK for our our last night and fireworks so only special occasions. The rest of the time plan to eat in the villa and take bits and pieces with us to the parks.

[Ridersmom]

I have paid as much as $5-6 for a case of 24 bottles of water in Florida. At a grovery, Walmart or Walgreens a case is always under $6., often less. At WDW a bottle of water is $3.

As the above poster said the same applies to sodas and juice boxes.

Any snack is cheaper, And you can buy a bunch of bananas or bag of apples for much less than you would pay for one piece in the parks.

My6 rule when my kids were teens was to only buy what they would eat, Share if you are unsure. There is alawys food available in the parks. Even teens will not starve and the trash bins are already well fed.

ONe other thought is to give each "child" a set amount for snacks and meals each day (maybe $15,) When my kids did school trips they had meal vouchers and usually brough quite a few home with them.

[Guest]

The drinks and snacks are the killers in the parks, as i said above ( and Ridersmom did ) a trip to Target / Walmart for them will save a fortune

i like freezing them in Bottle holders , so they stay cold all day, at one point last trip we were taking 4 bottles each into the parks, as the day wear on, the rucksacks get lighter as we drink them

ebay/itm/New-Neopr...wAAOSwLVZVysOS

£1.39 each delivered from China, they stop the inside of the bags getting damp with condensation aswell

Even on a 30 C day, they will stay frozen / cold till the early evening in them

[Shooby doo]

TBH I don't think you would be too far off at $50/day/person, $65 if you eat breakfast out, I'm basically allowing for $20 for lunch & $30 for dinner. If you are happy to eat later then even on your park days you can eat offsite. We basically allow £100/day for 2 of us but we eat what we want, some days it's a lot cheaper but it's also very easy to spend more than that but overall it balances out.
Apart from snack type items, be warned US groceries aren't cheap, probably comparable if not dearer than you spend here.
SD

[lardypops]

Definitely consider sharing meals, if you eat at places like Pecos Bill they have a toppings bar that pads out the meal. We take lots of snacks like chips ahoy mini packs with us and our own bottles of water which keeps the cost down a lot. Also the QS places in Disney will give you iced water for free.

[lam]

We found that $75 per person per day covered all our qsdp and some table service meals inc tips.
Thats 2 adult, one being a very hungry adult.

We NEVER buy water. We take our own drinks bottles and fill them at the fountains. If buying qs meals, we always ask for a cup of iced water (free).

Some of the most reasonably priced and filling meals we've had were;

wolfgang puck express -Good for dinner.Near disney springs near the xmas shop.

Earl of sandwich (their signature hot sandwich is yum)-good lunch filler

D Luxe Burger (1st time last year for dinner-really good meaty burgers)-disney springs

Flame Tree barbecue-Animal Kingdom.ribs and chicken combo -filling

Near Yak and Yeti (Animal Kingdom)-counter service. great for chow mein (lo mein) and extra spring roll snacks and honey chicken-very filling.

Restaurantosaurus (animal kingdom), great toppings bar-load up the burger-so filling.

Mara-animal kingdom lodge-jambo house.A pretty good menu with some different options and daily specials

Plaza restaurant -magic kingdom. This is a table service near caseys but is very reasonable for the portions you get. worth a treat.

cosmic rays-order double burgers and extra bun, then use toppings or add chicken or salad. good for lunch or dinner to go. magic kingdom

sleepy hollow-magic kingdom. we go there for breakfast. we order the fruit waffles.so filling. they also do nutella with strawberry and cream. they also strted doing savoury waffles eg spicy chicken. great for lunch. next door to marketplace selling fruit, salad etc as an add-on.
costs between $8 and $10 each, so you cannot go wrong!

Custom Hse Harbour also very popular.check the menu

epcot-sunshine seasons has a great selection for all meals and is reasonably priced. lots of different foods worldwide and great desserts/treats. they even do sushi and gluten free options.

kringle bakery for breakfast items-team up with fruit.

katsura grill -if you like beef teriyaki etc.Their curry also very good.

The les halles in Paris/France-Epcot. great selection of bakery, sandwiches, baguettes.

If you just want fish and chips-go to UK counter service

Hollywood studios. Our fav is ABC commissionary (salads & burgers)

Some table service buffets are good value for lunch or breakfast. dinner is usually extortionate!

We do breakfast (crystal palace)there are others. we are set up for the day, and usually 1 snack item (baked potato or spring roll or small croissant) +icecream for lunch and counter service for dinner does fine and its much cheaper than a table service dinner.

Hope this helps.

If i can think of any more, will let you know.

boatwrights looked good (port orleans riverside) BUT we didnt get to eat there!

Oh and House of Blues is fab and huge portions. jambalaya is yummy and would feed 2 on its own without any extras.

[lam]

Also, you should buy at least 1 refillable mug if you plan on staying at the resort for any length of time.
I get 1 for my son and as I usually only drink water, i ask for a cup for water.

On the very 'odd' occasion,I get hot water and use with my own t-bags for a cup of tea!

I am usually on 1 of the dining plans for part of my holiday, so have my own (not very used often) 'free' mug!

[cherub85]

We try to make sure we eat on the way to the park. Sometimes a proper breakfast in somewhere like Denny’s, or more often we stopped in Dunkin Donuts and got something like a donut or savoury bagel and a smoothie or frozen coffee and ate this on the way to the parks as we wanted to get there early! The food in the parks is expensive compared to outside but we found we did usually have burger and chips type meal at lunchtime. I don’t think teenagers could share at all! We didn’t really buy many other snacks in the parks as crisps etc are extortionate! We also asked for iced water loads to save buying drinks. We then saved by having some cheaper evening meals such as cicis, or making sure we get good value deals such as those at Olive Garden or Applebee’s. We discovered by chance that fuel stations do really cheap food, Wawa did really cheap drinks, and size drink for $1.99 including all the frozen coffees etc. We also got a hot dog in another one which was again really cheap with a huge bucket of pop and cheese and Chili to add to hot dogs. I’d not worry about cutting back too much or it spoils your holiday!