2 Adults 4 Children onsite, 10 days

[LemonDietCoke]

A friend of mine wants an idea of how much this would cost. He needs to keep the costs down. Two of the kids fall in the 3-9 age group and the others will be over 9.

My first idea was 2 rooms at an All Stars-- but is there anything else that might work out better? They'll be flying and most likely traveling during summer.

 

[Poohbearmom]

Our best friends went last year and got 2 rooms at ASMo for 3 adults & 2 children. They stayed for 14 nights. Airfare, hotel, park hoppers, car rental, meals and souveniers came to a grand total of just under $10,000. Your friend might want to check on a villa or see about renting points from a dvc member.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If they decide to rent points, they will need a two bedroom villa.

 

[TarraLee]

We went in AUgust, 2 adults and 4 "children" (23,21,19,14) and stayed in a 3 bedroom condo at Holiday Villas, like 5 min from WDW. I checked prices, then bid on it at skyauction.com got it for $80 a night. We drove to FL, so we had cars, and it took less than 10 minutes to be parked at wherever in WDW from the condo door. I know some are die-hard "on-siters" but, this was good for us, even on days we left and went back to condo in afternoon it wasn't a hassle.

Our whole trip was $3000, or 500 pp. Driving down there really helped keep costs down, but airfare would've been say 250, so we still could do it for 750 ea or right at 5k for 6 people for 6 nights, including food (2 character meals: PSB and CM, Mama Melrose Fantasmic pkg, and lunch in park everyday, dinner in parks all but 2 days when we BBQ'd at villas), passes, water park day, and $50 souvenier money pp.

We had an awesome trip, and for us, staying off site was best for that combo. Dh and I are going back in DEc for our first on-site stay, so maybe I'll be "converted" then.

Things your friends might try:
1. rent dvc points or do a suite/deluxe room (WL has deluxe rooms, don't know how many they sleep)
2. stay offsite in a condo w a kitchen (breakfast for 6 at wdw is easily 40 for contiental to 100ish for character meal)
3. don't go to big parks everyday, maybe do 2 days on, one off, or big park, water park, big park, pool/dq, etc

I'm a newbie, but a budgeter at heart, so hope they can go and have a wonderful trip!

 

[LemonDietCoke]

Thanks. I think they'll probably have to do it off-site as they want to do it for around $5K. I think they'll definitely need a place with a kitchen to cut costs. On-site the Wilderness Cabins comes out just a bit more than 2 rooms at the All Stars-- but it still is half of their budget (which I hope they'll increase) for lodging.

They have to fly because they'll be coming from California. The youngest can probably sit on a lap, but I think they'll probably want her to have her own ticketed seat.

How long was your trip TarraLee?

 

[honeymom]

I think they should try to stay in a Villa or Cabin and try not to eat all their meals out to save money. Besides, 10 days of meals out with kids can really start to wear on the children.

 

[Gillian]

A DVC rental, if they need a 2 BR, is EXPENSIVE!! They need a 2 BR because the 1 BR only sleeps 4 plus 1 under 3. The least expensive DVC resort is Old Key West and during July the rooms go for 30 points per night during the week and 73 on the weekends. That would be a minimum of 386 points, and if the rented for$10 per point, $3860.

The cheapest option will be 2 rooms at the all stars. There were good deals last summer & hopefully they will be able to get a special when they are going. I think Mousesavers.com has historical prices. Actually, you can get a lot of price info (tickets & stuff) over there.

If they can get a special rate at the cabins, that's a good option too. They are a little cozy for 6, but really nice with a full kitchen.

 

[Gillian]

Just another thought about costs If they are going for 10 days, they probably won't go to the parks every day. If they plan for shopping & pool days, the unlimited passes that you get with a package are probably not a good deal. 6 or 7 day park hopper plus passes would be better and they include a few visits to the water parks, which are fun!

ticket info mousesavers.com/tickets.html

Historical room rate info mousesavers.com/faq.html#historical

 

[LemonDietCoke]

Onsite, I do think the Ft. Wilderness Cabins will be a better deal for them than 2 All Stars-- just because of having a kitchen available. I also agree about a 7-day Hopper Plus.

Thanks for your help everyone.

 

[zulaya]

You might want to post this question on the Orlando Attractions Board as the off site hotel experts are there and also post on the Budget Board for money saving tips.

DVC rental...yes more expensive than off-site in some cases, but renting is much cheaper than the rack rates Disney charges.

 

[Demosthenes]

I think those kids would get bored with the All Stars for ten days, especially if they don't purchase UMPs. I would definately recomend the Wilderness Cabins @ FW. Kids love all of the activities at FW including free nightly movies, bike riding, 2 game rooms, fishing, swimming, boating, petting zoo, and horse back riding. For the adults, there is a full kitchen (and mousekeeping cleans your dishes!), room to spread out, both in and out of the cabin, a direct boat to MK ,the cheapest buffet (and best kept dining secret at WDW) at the Trail's End Buffet, and a relaxing loungs at Crocket's Tavern. At night there is the sing-a-long with Chip and Dale (followed by cartoons and the movie), hay rides, the Hoop Dee Doo Revue (although this one's pricey) and the EWP. When (and if) River Country re-opens, there is a reasonably priced, less crowded water park in your own back yard. They should be able to get a cabin in the summer for around $240/night comapred to 2 rooms at the All-Stars for around $200; however that $40 difference would be easily offset by the cost of having to eat out every meal vs. eating in the cabin on occasion (breakfast alone for a family of six at the All-Stars food courts is more than $40 a day, while cereal and milk for the week shouldn't run more than $20.

 

[tmli]

We are going in January, for 9nts. To save money we are splitting our stay. 4nts at a FW cabin, 5nts in a rental home. We are 5 adults and 1 child. If they decide to stay off site they can get great deals on rental homes/villas at www.vrbo.com . I believe with careful planning they could get within their $5000 budget.

 

[LemonDietCoke]

Demosthenes, that is exactly what I was thinking.

tmli, I'll pass that link onto them.

 

[Gillian]

Maybe they can get the cabins for $149 like they were in October!! They were even as cheap as $129 during value season this Fall. If they could get it for $150, it would be $1665 including tax for 10 days.

If it were me, I would book an offsite condo or suite, one that is fully cancellable. Many rental homes require deposits that are not refundable. I would keep watching for codes for the summer. Last year, the summer codes were available from mid April to mid May. Once that deal expired there wasn't really anything else for the Summer.

 

[LemonDietCoke]

That would be great if they could get a deal like that. They haven't fully decided when they'll be going yet, but it most likely will be summer because of school for the kids.

I did send them the mousesavers link and also a link to a TA I like to use that specializes in Disney (although I haven't used them for Disney yet LOL).

 

[TarraLee]

We did 6 nights there, and bought hoppers with plus passes. We actually bought 4 day PH+ from Ticketmania, but only ended up going to parks 3 days bc the boys wanted to do IOA. Here was our game plan:

1- checked in at noonish, did the Walmart run for groceries, etc.
Played at the villas, pool and volleyabll, had dinner, went to bed early.
2- MK and Chef Mickey's for dinner, then ran over to MGM for ToT and RNR.
3- PSB at Epcot, MGM in afternoon, back to Epcot for Illuminations. Dinner: combo platters from Tangerine Cafe in Morroco (these are cheap 10 dollars or so, and enough to share)
4- SLEEP IN, packed a cooler for typhoon lagoon, think we went to movie that night, cooked dinner at villa
5- "Around the world day": MK, Epcot, MGM- Mama Melrose and Fantasmic dinner pkg
6- Universal IOA for boys, shopping for girls
7- Downtown Disney, Rainforest Cafe for lunch, Ghardellies, time to go home.....

I hope your friends are able to go. They'd need a rental car to stay off site, but $80 a night vs $200 on site might be worth the price of a rental. still, staying onsite would be convenient, I guess, except for if you drove/rental car you can drive from one park to others and not mess witht he wholoe bus thing. We did this, had cooler and snacks in car so whenever we switched parks we just had a snack on the way there so we didn't end up buying as many snacks in the park.

 

[onceuponadream]

We have 6 in our family. Kids are 3, 6, 8,and 10. Here's what we spend:

Lodging hopefully around $71/room per night for All Stars Movies
(times 2 rooms). This equals $1278 for 9 nights we stay.

Food: We eat breakfast in the room (bring a cooler to keep drink boxes cold). The kids like cereal bars, breakfast bars, dry cereal, pop tarts etc.
We eat lunch in the parks (hot dogs, chicken strips etc) This is usually $26 per day.
Dinner we have 2 character meals (always Chef Mickeys plus one more) and the rest we have a baked potato or order pizza or a salad. Usually costs us $50 per day.
Snacks in the park run about $25/day.
Total food for 9 days usually around $1100.

Tickets are the killer! About $2200 for APs so we can return in again (we buy them every other trip though). For 7 day PHP would be about $1600. The off park days we go to a water park or shopping Downtown Disney.

Souvenirs about $30 per person ( a t-shirt and a plush animal or charm for dd usually).

Airfare depends on how many frequent flier miles we have. We usually buy 4 tickets. So about $1000

Grand total is $5700 with APs and $5100 with 7 day PHP.

The second trip with an AP will run about $3500 because no tickets to buy. That is where you can really save if you're planning to return. ie Go July then June.

Hope this helps!