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View Full Version : How much for food budget?!



potterphreak
08-06-2005, 11:10 PM
Leaving hometown on a Wednesday, doing Disneyland Thursday, Friday and Saturday, coming home Sunday. 2 kids (under 9) and 2 adults, already have money budgeted for 1 Character breakfast at the Plaza Inn. How much is reasonable to expect to pay during the day? Will bring snacks from home, can bring other breakfast foods I guess, any suggestions?
Assume:
Thursday:
Breakfast-Plaza Inn (different budget)
1 snack from home
Lunch-at Disneyland
1 snack from DL
Dinner-Order pizza in room (mmm! No Papa Johns in our neck of the woods)
Friday:
Breakfast-Mimis Cafe
1 snack from home
Lunch-somewhere in the park (will GLADLY accept recommendations! $-$$)
1 snack from DL
Dinner-fast food restaurant of some type
Saturday:
Breakfast-fast food (is there a Sonic anywhere near DL? LOL)
1 snack from home
Lunch-at Disneyland
1 snack at Disneyland
Dinner-some sit down place, in or out of the park, $-$$
Sunday:
Breakfast-No breakfast, swim until check out time
Lunch-grab fast food on the trip home (11am)
Snack from home
Dinner-probably fast food (ick, that's a LOT of fast food!!!)

Any ideas/thoughts for snacks/breakfast foods to bring ear GREATLY appreciated, this will be our first trip with more than one kid (EEEEEEEEEK!) as we are allowing our 6 yr. old daughter (6 at time of trip, at least) bring a friend. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK again! LOL
Thanks!

TowerofTerror
08-06-2005, 11:40 PM
hEY you gotta see the shows Aladdin at DCA and at Disneyland Snow White ,Fantasmic, Parade of Dreams and Rememeber Dreams Come true. I say you will need maybe 75 buck for food for each day your at the park.My best bet is to outside the park but Im sure you rather stay in the park. Well if you want A great spot for fireworks I can hold you a spot if you like to see the show .I dont mind waiting several hours for your family to see a great show.The day I can do it it Thursday and maybe friday.But thursday is good for me.Well this is all my input I have to say on this matter

Disney4Me
08-07-2005, 12:04 AM
Keep in mind this is old advice...last time we went we did pick up a bunch of fruit for breakfasts. The packaged hot cereal worked well as all you had to do was add hot water my son was willing to eat whatever it took to get on his way to Disneyland. We also had some Breakfast shakes and a loaf of bread and jam (toaster was only maybe ten dollars and we had toast and coffee every morning. If you are good with the personnel that service your room they may give you extra coffee. We alway budgetted for a good lunch and then had a light dinner outside the park. I notice everyone seems to say lunch prices are cheaper than dinner. For dinner we might hit McDonald's (it was close to hotel) for a salad or something to tide us over. Where our budget went out of wack was on all the yummy Churo stands! Very bad we thought but have now learned that they are made from guilt free (lol) ingredients and nothing to worry about. Have fun order what you can eat and then more if you need it. Carry Zip locks for kids who leave food and then want it ten minutes after you leave the restaurant. Allowing your daughter to bring a friend. EEEEEEEEEk is right. You will all have a good time. It is Disneyland afterall.

MsYumiBr
08-07-2005, 01:07 AM
Wow. First, I've got two girls and believe me, two is a whole heck of a lot different than one. Second, I also have a brownie troop and I am very surprised your daughter's friend is willing to tag along! One night I can see. More than that? I hope she's a frequent stay-over guest. My parents brought my neighbor girl with us once. She was pretty young at the time and it was because I was an only child and my parents brought two Japanese foreign language students with us and we needed an even number. I was 10 and she must have been 7 and I remember her having homesick issues. How we all fit in that trailer is beyond me. I think my dad slept in the truck.

Anyway, as far as money goes, you've got a pretty big list. My kids were notorious non-eaters. Nibblers, except for noodles. They were happy with (and still are) skewers from Bengal Barbeque and beef jerkey from the carts. As I recall, that was all day, except for the occasional candy (typically the plastic box kind, sour gummies). We had the traditional Mickey Mouse Pancake too. I would bring $80 per day for the 3 of us, no souveniers or admission, 8 years ago. Now increase that for inflation and add one more person plus dinner. I would guess $150 per day for 4 would be enough for park food alone. Supplement with snacks, etc. will save money significantly.
Every item of food at Disneyland can range from $5-12 and drinks are expensive too. Water is $2 a bottle. If brought food, and stuck to the plan of leaving the park to eat, we could probably cut that in half, but we don't want to leave the park even staying at the hotel and having concierge which always saves us from breakfast, lunch, drinks and some snacks.

Have fun and good luck!

3894
08-07-2005, 06:50 AM
It looks to me as if a budget of $20 per day per person would cover it.

hlbtimes2
08-07-2005, 07:24 AM
Try www.dlresort.com for menus at places in the parks and downtown Disney. Prices are included.

experiment626
08-07-2005, 08:01 AM
Plan on $20 - $25 per adult per day and $7 - 12 per child per day, including any snacks (ice cream, popcorn, churro, etc)

DEADmenTELLnoTALES
08-07-2005, 08:53 AM
completley drain your account of all finances and take it with you...youre gonna need it ;) hahaha jk

TowerofTerror
08-07-2005, 08:55 AM
take whatever you think should be enough for the day that you will be at the park

minniemom
08-07-2005, 08:57 AM
First off, where are you staying? Does your hotel offer any type of breakfast? If so I would take advantage of that. We have two girls and then my husband and myself. My husband can eat all of his meal, but I can't come close, so I usually order and then order either one kids meal or an appeitizer or if we are in the mood a dessert. That is usually more than enough, but my girls aren't huge eaters either!

AlbertaMinnie
08-08-2005, 05:29 AM
I agree with MinnieMom, we do the same thing with my husband, and two girls and myself. A lot of sharing as far as the meals go! If we don't, then we sure do end up throwing a lot of food away. We averaged $60 per day for the four of us (some days were more with character meals, and others were less like when we went to Whitewater and shared)

Also, I don't know about anyone else here, but I've never been able to stay on a meal schedule at Disneyland. I giggled when I saw your breakdown for meals because I tried that on my first trip with both my girls. It felt as though we were missing out on so much because we had to stop to eat all the time, and then the fighting ensued because they weren't very hungry. I've given up and resort to trying to achieve one well-balanced meal a day, and packing the multi-vitamins! Here are some snack ideas though that have worked for me in the past: granola bars, fruit leather, beef jerky (see, grains, fruit and protein!) Most importantly of all, just relax and enjoy yourself! I think two kids are easier than one. Have a Blast!

tinksmom
08-08-2005, 05:42 AM
I agree with the other posters regarding the number of meals:

We never eat a restaurant breakfast--unless its a character breakfast, and then we don't eat lunch. We usually grab lunch from a counterservice--8-10 bucks or so each, and then alternate between a sit down dinner (we love storytellers at about $27 bucks) and another counter service (again, 8-10bucks.) With a couple of snacks per day per person (4-6 bucks) plus the morning coffee (free with souvenier mugs) that gets us through at an average of 30-35 bucks per person per day (all adult or teenager.) When I make my budget, I budget $100 bucks per day for the three of us for food, and we always seem to have some left over, because we usually only do one or two fancy meals. Kids will be less.

GrumpyUTboi
08-08-2005, 06:00 AM
$20 dollars a day seems a little cheap. Make sure you drive down Harbor Blvd and get away from the resort restaraunts. THey charge way to much. As I have said $70 for a family of six at IHOP a couple of years ago. FOrget it!

GrumpyUTboi
08-08-2005, 06:02 AM
You are right Papa John's is pretty good! If you want some good pizza it is only about 10-15 min away but Numero Uno has really good pizza. Shhhhh.... don't let anyone know that I suggested any thing other than Papa John's. I might get fired.

minniemom
08-08-2005, 06:08 AM
Yummmmm! I love the pepper they give you at Papa Johns and the dipping sauce. They funny thing is we have some great memories of us all sitting on a motel room bed sharing a pizza. I mean how often do you allow your whole family to have dinner in bed?

milehimickey
08-08-2005, 06:17 AM
We figured 50$ a day each for a family of 4.......and it was about right. :cool: