3 Magical Weeks of Dining - $120 per day budget

[caitlinsmummy]

Welcome to my dining report. This was our third family trip to Orlando (see the previous food report’s here and here).

This trip was long awaited, as many now are, after having it cancelled and changed 3 times since May 2020! We will mainly be eating off site with the snacks and QS meals in the parks as well as some meals in the villa. We didn’t really set a budget, but I was hoping to beat our $150 a day from 2019, particularly as I had a gastric sleeve in August 2020 meaning I can’t eat much at all. I haven’t fully totalled the costs up but I’m hoping we managed to make it under $120 per day over the course of the 3 weeks

Our party consists of:

Myself (Kelly), Husband (Chris aka Mr Grump), Caitlin (15), Thomas (13), Noah (8)

Travel Day

I normally start with pre travel day but given how stressful it was I only managed a photo of our breakfast at McDonalds so gave that a skip

We had stayed at the Premier Inn Terminal 2/3 Heathrow and had pre-booked breakfast with our rooms, kid’s eat free so it was £9.99 per adult. Seems such a waste for me given how much I eat, but kids were free. I only got a photo of what I managed, there were 2 pieces of bacon, 2 poached eggs and a slice of toast … the food photos do get better I promise

We grabbed some meal deals from WHSmiths in the airport. Caitlin and Thomas had just ham sandwiches, Noah had just cheese and I honestly can’t remember what Chris had they all got crisps and a bottle of pop with their meal deals. I got a cheese, pickle and cracker box and some crisps and pop. I did get a photo of my crackers though As we were delayed we got £4 vouchers from BA so I went and got the kids another meal deal each, some fridge raiders and some other little snack bits for them as I knew they wouldn’t eat the plane food.

We were late departing and didn’t set off until 3.40pm. First round of drinks was brought about 30 minutes after we set off at 4.10pm. I was really flagging so opted for some coke, Chris had a vodka and coke, Noah had sprite but decided he didn’t like it so got a water, Caitlin and Thomas both got coke too. We didn’t get any little snacks. I’ve found from other reports BA are quite sporadic with giving out the snacks!

Next up was lunch. The kids meals always come earlier, they arrived at 4.35pm. This was mac and cheese but it had mushrooms and breadcrumbs on the top. I thought the mushrooms were strange. It came with a small chicken salad and a chocolate and salted caramel pot. Noah didn’t like any of it so he had his sandwich. Caitlin and Thomas didn’t eat their meals either so they had their meal deals. Chris and I tried the pasta and it was ok for plane food, I ate a bit of Noah’s and some chicken from the salad, then halted myself as I wouldn’t be able to eat my dinner!

The adult meal choices were chicken pie (which was topped with mash) some sort of chickpea and broccoli thing and a salted caramel pot. I enjoyed the pie but I just picked out the chicken I struggle a lot with carbs, they fill me up very quickly so where possible I try to focus on protein … or rather I did I wasn’t keen on the dessert either. Since my op I just don’t really have a sweet tooth anymore, which I suppose is a good thing.

Next up at 5.35pm they brought round tea which I really enjoyed, just wish I’d had more I like my big mugs of tea at home.

I snacked on my cheese and crackers and ate all 4 of them in 2 sittings.

‘Afternoon Tea’ was brought round at 11pm for the kids. It was a turkey and cheese sandwich and a kitkat. Noah wouldn’t eat this even after we took the turkey out, so he finished the other half of his cheese sandwich. He enjoyed his kitkat though The adults option was a chicken caesar salad. Now I love a Caesar salad but I just didn’t enjoy this sandwich at all, size wise it was perfect for me, but just half a sandwich for people with 100% stomach capacity and a kitkat didn’t seem very generous to me! These arrived 15 minutes after the kids meals.

This was all the food we ate this day apart from the snacks that Chris and the kids had on the plane that we brought with us.

[loves2plan]

Looking forward to this! We've never had to pay for food before as we've always had free dining. This year's trip will be painful for us, especially as we're going for 3 weeks. We do have the dining credit plus gift card to help, but are planning on a budget of $150 per day for 4 of us (all adults). Not sure how feasible that will be seeing as we don't have a car so will be eating onsite at both Disney and Universal so looking forward to picking up some tips to help us along

[Bootrip2]

Great to see these reports again! X making me feel hungry!

[Donz1979]

Excited to follow this as we are 3 weeks offsite.

[SuziQz]

Ooh looking forward to this too. Like loves2plan we’re on site at Disney and universal for 3 weeks so looking for a good variety of qs options

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by loves2plan

Looking forward to this! We've never had to pay for food before as we've always had free dining. This year's trip will be painful for us, especially as we're going for 3 weeks. We do have the dining credit plus gift card to help, but are planning on a budget of $150 per day for 4 of us (all adults). Not sure how feasible that will be seeing as we don't have a car so will be eating onsite at both Disney and Universal so looking forward to picking up some tips to help us along

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Our first trip was the same with the DDP. We did an offsite stay in May 2019 but only for 9 nights (link below). I think $50 per day per adult would cover, breakfast snacks and dinner if using QS in the parks and also eating offsite, but at the same time, you can eat to your budget rather than what you want, so going for cheaper options. I haven't even totalled our spends up so I have no idea if we even managed it I'd like to think we did given I don't eat full portions of food so shared alot, but we shall see.

Originally Posted by Bootrip2

Great to see these reports again! X making me feel hungry!

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I love food reports, although I do get envious of some meals when we aren't there x

Originally Posted by Donz1979

Excited to follow this as we are 3 weeks offsite.

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I hope you have a wonderful time, take in every moment as it really does fly by x

Originally Posted by SuziQz

Ooh looking forward to this too. Like loves2plan we’re on site at Disney and universal for 3 weeks so looking for a good variety of qs options

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We did QS quite a bit in Disney but not much in Universal, we did use City Walk though which is just as good and not too much of a walk x

[Loobylou_82]

Following along. We are staying off site when we go in October, so really interested to see if you manage to stick within your budget. Half a sandwich! Really ! That's taking cutbacks a sandwich too far. What next? One finger of a kitkat ! ?

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Loobylou_82

Following along. We are staying off site when we go in October, so really interested to see if you manage to stick within your budget. Half a sandwich! Really ! That's taking cutbacks a sandwich too far. What next? One finger of a kitkat ! ?

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Oh we loved our October trip, such a lovely month to travel. I'm quite interested too

I know it's madness, I honestly think if they could get away with that they would. Also the no snacks, yet others on BA flights got snacks x

[4holibobs]

What a great start! Will enjoy following along… have a fabulous time!

[mick]

Looking forward to reading along


Joan