Budget for tips on DDP

[Rafiki22]

Hi all, a newbie to this group but just planning my 5th trip . We have booked AKL for next October and although I am already reading all your trip reports and what snacks I can buy, just wondered what i need to budget for the 18-20% tips for the TS credits, we are 3 adults (DD will be 12). Has anyone kept a record of theirs to compare? THank you

[Guest]

depends on where you eat, but think of $50 a meal as a decent amount, so 3 X adults will be $150 a meal , so $30 a meal in tips

though have a look at the tips thread in gen chat, very interesting

[DisneyDaffodil]

As matt says $30 would be the average for 3 people, if you consider a main course at around $25-30, dessert $8-10 and drinks $4 soft drinks or around $12 for alcohol per person. There are 2 of us going in October, DD will be 18 so no alcohol (I will be using my alcohol option for most meals though 😀 ) but we are using our free $200 gift card for our tips for our 11 nights stay, I've worked out it should more or less cover tips for the 2 of us.

[Shooby doo]

You'll generally find that most Disney meals are roughly the same price so Tips aren't going to vary that much for the example above the difference between 18-20% is $27-$30 but also be aware that if you go to Signatures it wouldn't be unusual to have a +$200 bill for 3 so $36-$40 at least.
Just a word of warning Tip threads generally get closed down, you'll soon see why !
SD

[Rafiki22]

Thank you all, that's relly helpful. I will start studying the menus next!

[DisneyFoodie]

For our trip in September here is what I did:
I knew that we would want a few more TS meals than credits, and I wanted to make sure I make the most of the credits. I also knew that while a dessert is included, we hardly ever manage to eat a dessert - too full!
So I priced up a medium-expensive entree and drink for each place we were eating and put in on a spreadsheet. If it was fixed price (Cali grill brunch, fantasmic dinner package) I put that on instead.
Then, I allocated our credits to the places where the entree and drink would have cost us the most out of pocket, taking into account signatures. E.g. Cali grill brunch at a fixed price of $82 dollars was a great use of 2 credits, as I basically got $41 of value per credit. Trail's end breakfast at $22 was a bad value per credit, so we'd pay out of pocket for that.
So my food budget was: entree and drink cost everywhere we wouldn't use DDP, plus 20% tip (budgeted) plus tax; then add the tips (20% budgeted) of the entree and drink cost of the meals we are using DDP for. Then add any non DDP items we know we were going to get (bread service at Sanaa!) and associated tip.

That is how I did it- obviously the budget for tips would be bigger if we ordered desserts regularly and/or expensive alcohol.

Hope that helps!

[Lisa29]

From 2015, 2 adults, 2 children, location, cost of the meal and the tip we paid, which would have been 18 or 20%:

Portobello Country Italian Trattoria dinner, $109.70, tip $20

Crystal Palace breakfast, $95.96, tip $19

'Ohana dinner, $123.96, tip $22

Akershus dinner, $171.96, tip $26

Trattoria al Forno dinner, $92.94, tip $18

Raglan Road dinner, $94.02, tip $17

Yachtsman Steakhouse dinner, $174.98, tip $32

Be Our Guest dinner, $102.32, tip $19

Hollywood and Vine lunch, $121.96, tip $22

Hope this helps a bit.