for the people that have come back how much did you spend

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

You ate at Rainforest Cafe and left a 20 tip on a $225 bill?

That sounds about right . Service there can be terrible...

 

[DisneyTabby]

For our family of 4,kids 12 & 15,airfare[Spirit-$550], 7night 4 for 3 deal at Coronado Springs,waterview with regular DDP-$3,050. Spending money for extra food,souvenirs,etc $400 to $450. So about $4,000 all together for us.

 

[NHWX]

For six full days in the parks, we spent about $800 on two adults and two teenage boys (13, 15). We do have the Tables in Wonderland card (20% some meals) and probably used it 4 times when I look at my spreadsheet. We may have used it a fifth time at a counter service in AK, now that I think about it. So it would have been higher than that without the discount.

NHWX

 

[CLR4321]

Here's a run down of what is cost us with the buy 4/3 special for me, my boyfriend and my 4 yo DS from March 3rd-10th:

Room at POR and Tickets (no park hopper or water park add-on's): $1550
airfare from Kansas City to MCO: $525
Food from wegoshop.com shopping service: $150 (we got snacks, breakfast, and some lunch stuff to have in the room)
Room charges (Food, Pirate Adventure for DS and souvenirs): $700
The only souvenirs we got were Mickey ears for DS and 2 big dinosaurs from the AK.

We did get to take $200 off the room charges with the gift certificate that gave with the 4/3 offer, so we actually only paid $500 for them. So all together minus the gift card, we spent $2725 for the 3 of us. This was everything spent on our trip!

 

[a1tinkfans]

we got 11 days/10 nites por with FREE dine (2A 1 J) 1900., airfare likely 700 (3), Xtra snacks food about 25 a day, 2 Case Water delivery 20., Tickets are non expire leftovers from last year $0, Souvies, well that just depends on what I see and want despite so many trips I always wind up shipping stuff home so I'd say 300. to be safe. Without FREE dining we usually budget (I use that term lightly, honestly we do not budget we just have an "idea" of what it'll be) but 125/150 a day, we used to be able to do 100 a day but we find that it is not feasible anymore. Cocktails, 100 usually for a week, this year it'll be more..... $$ for the J, think we're planning on 250. and he'll prob not even use it he's not really a spender, (I make up for that!

Good Luck!
Consider checking out menus to get an idea for food. I think being from an area of higher priced food, gives us an advantage, we're used to overpaying as sad as that is, Disney seems on par rather than grossly expensive to us.
Have a great trip!!!
I'd still rather go to disney than anywhere else!

Oh, that room price included the one day tix you need for the pkg, but we're not using them and will likely update them for future use (so thats like an added $210 on that room price we could have done without, but required for the free dine, so worth it for us)
The dining would have cost us well over 1000 if we paid out of pocket for it...

 

[brymolmom]

I would say - it is great to ask here for some different estimates. But, really, make a budget for WDW that YOU want to stick to and you will likely be able to follow it. So much depends - one family can spend $5000 on a week long trip and that same family could easily spend $2500 total (for room, tickets, food, extra spending).

We're not a souvenier family - I hate having too much stuff - so I bring the kids something new from home and then let them get 1 - 2 more things (in the $15 - $25 range). For snacks, we bring a lot to the parks with us. To keep food costs down - you could bring meals too - sandwiches, fruit, etc. which we do if we're not on the dining plan. You can stay on -or offsite (which, by the way - for a family of 5 it is MUCH less expensive, IMO, to stay offsite - you can get a 2 or 3 bedroom condo offsite for $400 - $500 total for the week. For a moderate resort or two value rooms - you're talking about $200 per night or $1400 for the week.

For my family - flying from upstate NY, staying at a value, 2 adults and 2 kids plus spending money puts us at about $2800 or so for 8 nights TOTAL. That's $700 for air. $750 for room. $800 for tickets. $100 for groceries. $300 for sit down meals and c/s. And the rest for some mousekeeping tips and souvies.

 

[disneydad861]

You ate at Rainforest Cafe and left a 20 tip on a $225 bill?

That sounds about right . Service there can be terrible...

We didnt have a waiter. We had someone that took our order brought our food. Any refill of our drinks was because I had to hunt someonedown to get it. When we were wanting our check I had to find someone to get it and our waiter brought it over and that was the third time we saw him. His service was get order, bring food, give check. So i figured this guy might be having a bad day and im not going to just not tip the guy. For bad service $20 was a good tip. Since the TIP is for service.

 

[Enchanted3]

We went for 10 days last year. We had 14 in our party. We ate cereal in our room before we left to the park. We bought milk, cereal, snacks and fruit at walmart and brought it back. I budgeted 100 for the day for lunch and dinner. We ate lunch which was about 10 a person with a drink. It was too hot for snacks so my kids mostly bought icecream or a snack and share it. We would go back to the resort and order a pizza or grab something in boatwrights in POR. We didn't eat as much as I thought we would. Snacks are about 3-4 dollars. Soda are about 2.50-3.00. We brought bottled water because soda was not quenching our thirst. The kids snacked more than sit and eat a meal. We probably spent about 60-80 a day and we were 5 in just my family. Breakfast really helped, we'd grab a snack around 11 and eat a early dinner most of the time since we got to the parks so early. We brought snacks into the park. I let the kids shop at down town disney the last day. They spent about a hundred dollars each. They window shopped at the parks but there wasn't anything that they were interested in that they wouldn't be able to find at dtd. The breakfast thing also saved us time.

 

[JeMarie6]

Any idea what to budget for tips on the regular dining plan?

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

We didnt have a waiter. We had someone that took our order brought our food. Any refill of our drinks was because I had to hunt someonedown to get it. When we were wanting our check I had to find someone to get it and our waiter brought it over and that was the third time we saw him. His service was get order, bring food, give check. So i figured this guy might be having a bad day and im not going to just not tip the guy. For bad service $20 was a good tip. Since the TIP is for service.

I agree, I was totally not being snarky.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

Any idea what to budget for tips on the regular dining plan?

It's easy to figure out tips on the DDP now because they will give you a receipt that shows you how much you would have spent had you simply bought the food normally, and that's how you figure your tip.

Being super freaky geeks, we saved all the receipts, brought them home and plugged them into an Xcel spreadsheet, and compared it with the cost of the DDP. We saved about 300 dollars using DDP that trip, but we also ate at MUCH more expensive restaurants than we would have normally (IE Yachtsman's Steakhouse vs Trails End Restaurant)...

 

[NaplesRI]

We just got back yesterday so haven't totalled it all up yet, but I can tell you it was expensive.

There were 6 in our party, 5 adults and a 6 yr old.
We ate breakfasts in our condo most days, but did do the Donald Safari breakfast 1 day. (well worth it)

I found all food to be pricey, but we did take advantage of the free water and added our crystal light to it- saved $2.50 for a bottle of water each time.

Will update this post when I get the receipts added up.

As far as souvenirs, it's all up to you- it is SO SO tempting. Expecially with kids. I would definitely go for a fixed amount for each child, though it will be easy for them to spend it.
For myself, I went for the pearl in Japan, and had it made into a ring which I love. (I did a ring cause it was less expensive than doing a necklace)
The kids bought us a wooden picture frame that has WDW carved into it. All up to what you want to spend, truly.

 

[becca1125]

Good info!

We are headed down the end of April. I have our hotel and tickets paid for. I also have $500 for food and $500 for spending. It will be dh and myself as well as dd 1.5, dd 7, and dd 10. We are going to eat breakfast in our room and Im thinking dd7 and dd 10 can share meals. Shouldnt $500 be enough for 5 lunches and dinners?

 

[becca1125]

forgot to add we dont have a DDP. We will eat where ever. We are staying at the LBV Best Western, Im guessing we will eat in downtown Disney? Ive never been there but from what Ive read on here there is plenty of places to eat?

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

Good info!

We are headed down the end of April. I have our hotel and tickets paid for. I also have $500 for food and $500 for spending. It will be dh and myself as well as dd 1.5, dd 7, and dd 10. We are going to eat breakfast in our room and Im thinking dd7 and dd 10 can share meals. Shouldnt $500 be enough for 5 lunches and dinners?

A table service for two adults and two kids typically costs us 100 +, and we don't drink alchohol. That's with two kids meals, they let my 10 yo order off the kid's menu.

A counter service ranges from a low of 20 bux at the tomorrowland noodle station to a high of 50 bux at Cosmic Ray's. Again, that's for four people and we get 3 meals because our 8 & 10 yo daughters typically split one adult meal with counter service.

You're also forgetting to budget 10-20/day for snacks and water. You get a lot hungrier at Disney than normal, both because of the increased activity level and the fact that you can smell good food constantly everywhere...

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

forgot to add we dont have a DDP. We will eat where ever. We are staying at the LBV Best Western, Im guessing we will eat in downtown Disney? Ive never been there but from what Ive read on here there is plenty of places to eat?

weeeeellll, sorta. Earl of Sandwich has fantastic food but you'll be standing in line for 30 minutes + because it's ALWAYS really busy.

Ghiradelli's is good for desserts, but they don't do normal food.

Wolfgang's is good but our kids don't like it because "the pizzas are weird". they're not wrong.

Fulton's crab house is mostly seafood and the girls say the chicken fingers taste like seafood (probaby share the same oil)

There's a McDonald's there

The Bongo's restaurant has authentic cuban food but it's pricey.

Ummm, not a big fan of irish food so haven't eaten at Raglan Road yet.

This is jsut the stuff off the top of my head...

There is an IHOP just outside DTD on 535 (go north at the crossroads) that does fresh squeezed orange juice, it's pretty good.

The Pizzeria Uno at the Crossroads is ok.

The TGI Fridays' at the Crossroads is kinda yucky.

The Macaroni grill north of the crossroads is gross. And we like MG normally.

There's a new Maggiano's that opened close by (google map it). We haven't eaten there yet down there, but we luuuurrrrve the one up here.

 

[becca1125]

we will be taking our own water and snacks. Im sure we will buy a few snacks though, cant pass up a Mickey Mouse ice cream!

As far as eating dinner, we will have our own car. We're driving from Northern FL. I guess we always have the option of going off Disney property.
Any suggestions?

 

[Enchanted3]

We ordered pizza in our room to save money too. I think $500 is pushing it. There are only a few places that serve you enough to split meals. You get pretty hungry through out the day. You might split snacks thats what we did.

 

[OhMari]

thanks. this was so helpful. we don't have the dining plan. we have a condo so i plan on eating in room for breakfast except for the character breakfast at 1900. Our dinners will be table service and i do like the occasional beverage.

occasional beverage can run from $8.00 to $12 or even more.

At Epcot, in each country, there is a small counter service resturant.
You can get fresh sandwich, dessert and a drink in Norway's C.S.
Germany, brats, hotdogs, pretzels
Sometimes, I think people forget about these little C.S. places.
Most go to the American Pavillion and get the basic burgers and chicken sticks.
Or walk out of the International Gateway by France and go to the Beach Club and find the Resturant Beaches and Cream. The resturant is outside the Beach Club by Storm a Long Bay. We found it on our last day. They have really good food too.