Disney Dining Plans! One of my favorite things about planning a Disney World vacation is the Disney Dining Plan. I have never planned a trip without one. I love that I can prepay for everything, I don't have to worry about keeping up with purchases in the park. I don't have to manage a budget for each meal. I don't have to worry about a kid ordering the most expensive item on the menu, like I have one that has a tendency to do. I don't even have to think about any of that. It is the best!
But wait... 'rona. No Disney Dining Plans.ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ I keep hoping that they will bring them back before our trip. I literally wake up every single day and search for Disney Dining Plans news. As we get closer to our check-in date, I am losing faith that we will be adding Disney Dining to our vacation plan. So...on to planning our dining budget.
We arrive on Monday and will probably eat something quick on the way from Atlanta. I am budgeting $60 for this one. Here we come Chick-Fil-A! We have ordered lots of snacks, small foods and breakfast items from Amazon to save some money and really only plan one big meal per day. We have a sit down reservation each day of our trip.
Tuesday is Olivia's Cafe . This is actually a free day for us to hang out at the resort and rest up from the drive and the first part of our vacation in Atlanta. So, we took a peak at opening at different resort restaurants. We have stayed at Old Key West on a previous trip but have not actually eaten at Olivia's. I looked over the menu and built out a meal based on what I think everyone will order. I added drinks, desserts and a 20% tip. Based on that, I will budget $200 for this meal. I rounded everything up and added desserts which we will not be getting at every meal. However, I felt that I would rather OVER budget for the meals and be able to let the kids get whatever they want rather than have to be strict about sticking to lower cost and not geting special treats.
Wednesday is Magic Kingdom Day. We were able to get reservations at The Crystal Palace. Again, based on the menu, I have budgeted $300 for this meal.
Thursday is Animal Kingdom and we have Tusker House reservations. Tusker House has been closed and as of this moment, is still closed but will be reopening before our trip. It is one of our favorite character dining experiences. Character Dining so this is a big one at $400.
Friday is our Disney Springs day with reservations at Splitsville. I landed on a $250 budget for this meal.
Saturday, we are headed to lunch at Coral Reef in Epcot. I have decided to budget $250 for this meal as well.
Sunday is Holywood Studios with lunch at Mama Melrose's. I budgeted $300 for this meal.
We will be leaving on Monday and I am planning a breakfast meal for the way out but have decided against making a reservation. We will wait to see if we can snag something last minute. If not, we will just eat a quick breakfast in the room and grab lunch on the way home. We are going to budget $200 for this, just in case.
I have also set a $60 per day budget for an evening snack in the parks.
This is definitely a big food budget. It doesn't have to cost this much to eat in Disney. We will pay with our Disney Visa to get the cash back! Then we will use that to go towards paying the card.
To be honest, I am not overly happy with this budget. I feel like given more time and planning I could get this down a bit. However, we are on a timecrunch at this point so I am going with this plan. All the while, I will continue to cross my fingers for Dining Plans to return! If time and my patience allow, I will revisit Dining planning and budgeting after I nail down all of our other plans.
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