Help me determine trip cost please

[la79al]

We are not heading to DW until next January but I really need to start figuring out how much this is going to cost. My mom is probably going to pay for most of the trip but I want to be prepared just in case that doesn't happen. I am at a disadvantage because prices aren't out for air/train, etc yet but I am figuring $500 r/t for transportation one way or another (it will be me and 2 DDs (one will be 2, one will be 4.5)). Park tickets (6 day base) will be another $500. I priced out the 2 big meals we will be doing and we will be packing as much food as we can (and taking into the parks, making good use of the double stroller) but not sure how much to budget for food (both groceries and other). Luckily, my girls are not kids that generally want a lot of souvies and they will each have a little money for their shopping anyhow. We are staying off property and that will be paid for. What else am I missing and what do you think I should plan on for a total?

 

[RMAMom]

Have you thought about going over your budget and figure out what you can afford and then plan your trip around that. If you figure how much a month you can put away you will have an idea of what you'll have in a year from there you can tailor your trip to meet your budget.

Ticket prices will probably go up between now and then, and I don't know where your flying from but $500.00 for 3 plane tickets sounds a little low.

Another thing to consider is staying off property and needing a rental car or staying on property without the expense of a car. Then there is the added bonus of whatever discount (if any) is available at that time.

Happy planning!

 

[Schmoodle]

Your trips sound a lot like some of mine. I'm in MD, usually fly SW out of BWI ($500 is right on target or even a little high), have stayed offsite, and kept close track of my food expenses. Oh, and it's always me and my 2 kids, and we like to go in January. With not having to pay for your lodging, you can probably bring it in around $1500.

With access to a grocery store, a kitchen, and offsite dining options, I can feed us for less than $25/day/person. That's with a couple of splurgy Disney meals included. With your kids being so young, you can probably do much better. Restaurant.com has lots of Orlando restaurants, and you should get on the Orlando Groupon email. Also, if you sign up for Sweet Tomatoes emails, they'll send you coupons.

Have you included car rental? For my last trip, I got a car on Priceline for $11/day from Alamo. Your bid will get rejected at first; you just have to keep trying.

 

[eliza61]

We are not heading to DW until next January but I really need to start figuring out how much this is going to cost. My mom is probably going to pay for most of the trip but I want to be prepared just in case that doesn't happen. I am at a disadvantage because prices aren't out for air/train, etc yet but I am figuring $500 r/t for transportation one way or another (it will be me and 2 DDs (one will be 2, one will be 4.5)). Park tickets (6 day base) will be another $500. I priced out the 2 big meals we will be doing and we will be packing as much food as we can (and taking into the parks, making good use of the double stroller) but not sure how much to budget for food (both groceries and other). Luckily, my girls are not kids that generally want a lot of souvies and they will each have a little money for their shopping anyhow. We are staying off property and that will be paid for. What else am I missing and what do you think I should plan on for a total?

I probably would make a slot for souveniers (spelling? I can never spell this word. LOL)

My kids were and still are not big, big spenders buuuutt....LOL. Disney I found is like a feast for the visual senses. just getting down Main street can be like running a guanlet of stores and it's fun to go in and look.
I know my kids use to really want those light up spiney toys they always sell during the night time shows. Just so you don't always have to tell them no.

 

[laurafergie]

Remember about parking costs every day. 14-15 a day I think. Gas for rental car.

As far as groceries and food make a spreadsheet with each meal, menu and ingredients need to buy. Then you have something to work with. I found the grocery stores near Disney was more expensive than I was used to, so make sure you add some to your total. I fed breakfast, supper and packed lunches for 10 days for 9 people for $300. Which is high but I bought snacks and pop and vacation food. We had one character meal buffet which was another $300+. My DH, two younger dds and myself snacked around the world at Epcot one day and that cost about $75.

 

[LJSquishy]

As one previous poster said, don't forget about the additional expense of a rental car if you are planning on having access to a grocery store yourself plus the daily parking fees in the parks. You could also order your groceries from Garden Grocer online.

Other expenses would include tips for any table service restaurants you might decide to do. And just a few unexpected snack expenses. Other than that, there shouldn't really be much else that comes up on your trip.

I would definitely play around with booking a value or moderate resort on Disneyworld.com to get an idea of what it would cost to stay on-site, and then start looking at how you can cut costs by staying offsite to see the difference and come up with a more accurate budget with including your groceries, parking fees, etc. Grocery prices will be normal priced for the most part, not inflated, so you should be able to come up with a list and price estimate on your own for that.

 

[At World's End]

I kept track of every penny we spent on our last trip. Here is our breakdown for our 10 day trip:

- Condo $734
- Tickets $777.34 (10 day hoppers with YES program)
- Car rental $149.01 reserved a full size and ended up in a minvan
- Parking $140
- Groceries for the condo $130.59
- Snacks in the parks $57.36
- Meals offsite $379.02 (Giordanos, Chili's, Houlihans, House of Blues, Steak N Shake twice, Dunkin Donuts, Wendys, Sweet Tomatoes, a Middle Eastern place) - we ate dinners offsite and used restaurant.com GCs at 3 of these places
- Meals in the parks $565.53 (Biergarten, Sci-Fi, Beaches & Cream for Kitchen sink, Tusker House, Pinnochios, Morocco CS, bakery in France, LeCellier, Cosmic Rays, Sunshine Seasons) - we ate lunches onsite
- Souveneirs $315.90 (made the mistake of introducing the kids to pin trading and DH got hooked, too )
- Misc $80.96 (sunglasses, Tylenol, gas for rental)

Total $3329.71 for 10 nights. We used frequent flier miles for airfare so I didn't include that. We signed up for three chase credit cards and opened a Chase account and ended up with $621 in gift cards and reward dollars, so that paid for all of our onsite meals and snacks.

I did a comparison to what we would have paid for a free dining package and the difference was about $100 less to stay onsite in a moderate, once you factor in the cost of laundry and housekeeping tips. For my family, I would gladly pay $10 more/day to be in a 3br/3ba townhouse.