Total amount we spent on food for 3 weeks offsite

[smithlane]

I have finally gotten around to sorting out all of our receipts from our recent holiday to Florida so thought it would come in handy for some if I shared how much we spent on food and drink, especially for those going for the first time. We went for 3 weeks staying in a villa with 3 nights in the middle on Anna Maria Island. We are a family of 4 with a 14yo and 12yo so sometimes they would order off of the kids menu but also the adults too if they were hungry. In total we spent $2848.39 which equates to a very reasonable $137 a day. This doesn't include a few of the snacks we had around the parks as I can't find those receipts. We generally brought in Goldfish Crackers to snack on but occasionally had a doughnut or cinnamon roll!
This also factors in the various supermarket shops from Publix as well (however as we were a party of 12 shared items were split between us)
We ate in the following restaurants plus had a few dinners cooked in the villa. No fancy dining but does include the $160 Crystal Palace character breakfast! (Totally worth it though )
A few times my partner ate separately at somewhere like Burger King as he would be at golf but on the whole it was always for the 4 of us. Before we went I signed up to every restaurants e-club so went with a whole load of vouchers. This certainly helped keep the cost down. We always had breakfast in the villa unless otherwise stated and would only eat out twice a day max. As much as I love my food there is no way I could sustain eating out 3 times a day
Bob Evans - breakfast
Millers Ale House - dinner
Mel's Drive In - Universal Studios - lunch
Texas Roadhouse (takeaway) - dinner
Thunder Falls - Islands of Adventure - lunch
Bubba Gumps (had $50 Landry Card credit) - dinner
Keke's Breakfast Cafe - brunch
Giordanos (takeaway) - dinner
Applebees - lunch
Starbucks - drinks/snacks
Backlot Express - Hollywood Studios - lunch
Flame Tree BBQ - Animal Kingdom - lunch
Bahama Breeze x2 - dinner
Crystal Palace - Magic Kingdom - breakfast
Subway - lunch
Raglan Road - dinner
Sweet Tomatoes - lunch
Buffalo Wild Wings x2 (takeaway) - dinner
Cracker Barrel - breakfast
Shiloh's Steak and Seafood - Titusville - dinner
Clear sky Cafe - Clearwater - lunch
The Beach House - AMI - dinner
Ginny & Jane E's - AMI - breakfast
Rod and Reel Pier - AMI - dinner
Sandbar - AMI - lunch
Wicked Cantina - AMI - dinner
Gulf Drive Cafe - AMI - lunch
Longhorn Steakhouse - dinner
Leaning Palms - Typhoon Lagoon - lunch
Mac Donald's (takeaway) - dinner
Cheesecake Factory - lunch
Hooters - lunch
Millers (takeaway) - dinner
Panera Bread - breakfast
Celebration Town Tavern - lunch
Earl of Sandwich - lunch
Manny's Chophouse - dinner
Friendly's - lunch
Any questions please ask

[Disneygirlxx]

Thank you for posting

[BoxOfFrogs]

Thankyou, I'm not a newbie But still trying to remember what stuff costs so this is useful

[Disneyphile]

This is really helpful. Thank you for posting.

[suecee]

Thanks for the info, really helpful.

We are staying near Buffalo Wild Wings so good to know they do take out which I presume was good as you had it twice

[Trueblue88]

we enjoy eating offsite so much and you did very well

[elaine amj]

This was very helpful as I spent some time debating onsite vs offsite.

I spent about £8500 or about $10.5k on 5 adults, 2 teens, and a 3yr old onsite for 2 weeks at Disney with free dining.

Obviously my dining was technically free but since I paid extra for the room, I decided to crunch some numbers based on how I personally valued each component.

2 bedroom villa at Saratoga Springs onsite: $200/night x 14 nights = $2800
It never gets this cheap but that is the max I would personally have been willing to pay (would pay a little more for offsite for free transportation, etc) so that's how I valued it. It was actually about $500/night.

14 day tickets: approx $400 x 8ppl = $3200
That's under $30/day to be entertained from morning to night...not bad in my opinion

Meals, all onsite: $4500 + $800 tips (free regular DDP) = $5300. So $378/day for 8 people or $47/pp.

Yours was $34/pp.

If I had chosen your meals and used similar discounts that you did, I would have saved $13/pp/day or saved $1456 over 2 weeks. Pretty interesting comparing numbers like that. We did waste some food (because we felt overwhelmed with credits by the middle of the trip) and brought home 20-25 snacks. Also overate in quite a few places.

Thanks again for sharing your details OP! Those will be helpful for planning future trips.

[Bootrip2]

Thanks for posting. I can never get free DDP to work for me, even taking into account paying for transport/parking. We arent large eaters though, so the thought of feeling like we have to eat wouldnt be much fun! We pick offsite hotel with an included breakfast, and just eat maybe a snack for lunch and sit down meal in the evening.

[Bobbins]

Originally Posted by Bootrip2

Thanks for posting. I can never get free DDP to work for me, even taking into account paying for transport/parking. We arent large eaters though, so the thought of feeling like we have to eat wouldnt be much fun! We pick offsite hotel with an included breakfast, and just eat maybe a snack for lunch and sit down meal in the evening.

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I think that meal regime is pretty normal. Disney table service food is quite rich and we found we couldn't face breakfast most mornings so we typically only ate brunch (early QS lunch) at maybe 11.30 and then dinner. We (just wife and I last time) were eating mid-evening, so it might be different if you were eating earlier due to kids.

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by suecee

Thanks for the info, really helpful.

We are staying near Buffalo Wild Wings so good to know they do take out which I presume was good as you had it twice

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We stayed in Formosa Gardens Estate so literally up the road. It's certainly no fine dining but fills a hole when you're hungry on the way back from the parks