A Rough Estimate

[Joanne UK]

We're planning on visiting WDW in the next couple of years for the first time. Could you tell me roughly how many thousands we will need to save up?

2 adults
2 children
Flights
No car hire
Staying onsite at All Star Movies for 2 weeks
Evening meals but not fancy restaurants, we're all quite plain eaters.

I'm thinking about £5k just for the above, am I close!

 

[kristieuk]

Gosh that's tough! Do you have to go in the school holidays - do you have any idea of the time of year?

I should think £5k would cover it whatever time of year you went, but you could pay considerably less depending on when you go.

 

[Claire L]

What will the childrens ages be as this has an impact on basic holiday cost and park tickets. As has been said time of year can make a huge difference in prices for flights, also any preference on airline?

Claire

 

[Goofyish]

I think £5000 should be ample, although it all depends on how old your children are, when you go, type of passes, types of meals, spending money, airline.

There are so many variables.
Start with the 'fixed' costs: flights, tickets, hotel and then decide using the WDW menus on the DIS as a guide to how much you would spend on food and snacks per day.

Menus

If you plan to stay onsite for the whole two weeks then you could go for at least one Annual Pass. You can then go for an Annual Pass discount on your room and apply for the Disney Dining Card to save 20% on WDW restaurants.

You could also look at the Disney Dining Plans that would fix your dining costs and save some money.

Dining Plan Info

There are loads of other ways to save money and I'm sure your will find out most of them from folks on here

 

[Miffy2003]

Hi Joanne,

I think you can do it with that, except perhaps in the high season? Even then you may be able to get away with it

We did ASMo last December and loved it!

Cheers

Karen

 

[Amyrlin]

What time fo year are you thinking of going as this wil make a lot of difference. For example, in at the moment, if you get an annualpass the room rates for ASM is as low as $49 a night for the room, and then the flights will be less. But, in peak season it will be more than $100.

However, I would have thought £5,000 would do it. .

 

[Joanne UK]

Thanks everyone.

The children will be 8 and 6 or 9 and 7 depending on how long it takes us to save up! Re airlines, my personal choice would be Virgin but I'm flexible. I flew with them to LA and really liked the service. Unfortunately it will have to be in school holidays - our school will only authorise absence in extremely special circumstances. As it is I'm taking eldest DD out for a week this year to go to DLP, I haven't requested the absence yet but I doubt very much if it will be agreed.

It's pleased me though that I seem to have been generous having preliminarily budgeted £5k.

Goofyish mentioned differant park passes - could someone explain the differance in passes please?

Thanks very much,
Joanne

 

[Claire L]

With regards passes some are for a fixed number of days over a certain peiod and others are for the whole period, as many visits as you like.

Claire

 

[Kevin Stringer]

Just a thought Joanne .... if you have flown with Virgin before .... did you join their frequent flyer programme?

If you did, the Miles Plus Money fares are excellent. The only thing is you do have to book 11 months out for the more popular seasons.
It's only 2000 miles required per person.

Kev

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Goofyish mentioned differant park passes - could someone explain the differance in passes please?

Thanks very much,
Joanne

The Disney Magic Your Way tickets offer many variations depending on how many days you wish to purchase, whether you want tickets that never expire (very useful if you are visiting in later years) and tickets that allow you to hop from park to park on the same day.

For Universal the 'flex ticket' is one of the more popular tickets..details of all tickets can be found on www.mapleleaftickets.com

 

[tartangirl]

Hi,

£5,000 should be about right unless prices shoot up. I've just checked Virgin for early July this year and a package holiday for 2 adults/2 children staying at the Disney All Stars with no car is £2,300.

Add £800 for park passes (assuming you want to do more than Disney), eating out in reasonable restaurants (and I'm including Ponderosa style restaurants as reasonable) will average out at about $150/day which should be enough for drinks/snacks through the day, call it £1200.

This leaves £700 for shopping

Obviously there are areas where the cost could go up (e.g. if you go premium economy or visit Discovery Cove) but if you're prepared to shop around there are plenty areas where savings can be made.

Having said all that we never stay or eat in Disney and without a car you may be doing that alot so my estimate on food may be way off.

I reckon we're not much more than £5000 for the 4 of us for 3 weeks but we stay in a villa and usually only have 1 meal out per day (although we also have the cost of the car).

 

[Joanne UK]

Thanks ever so much everyone.

Sorry, another question! Re character meals, is it right that you have to phone and book at a certain time so many days before the meal you're booking for? If so, is there a place where the character meals are all listed together?

 

[Claire L]

Here are the Character meals. As for pre booking it used to be 90 days and is now 180 days, and from accounts recently seems alot easier as not so many people plan 180 days away from day of departure!

Claire

 

[kristieuk]

You can find details of all of the character meals (and all other dining options) here:-

http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

You do have to book character dining in advance - I think the time you can do this in has increased to 180 days out (from 90 days). There is a calculator somewhere that will tell you the earliest date you can book if you input the date you want to dine. I'll try to remember where it is, unless someone here can remember first!

 

[Claire L]

Hi,

£5,000 should be about right unless prices shoot up. I've just checked Virgin for early July this year and a package holiday for 2 adults/2 children staying at the Disney All Stars with no car is £2,300.

Unfortunately for Mid July to end of August the price will go up by about £600! I did a quick costing and it came to around £2900 even with 10% discount and kids for £299 each.

Claire

 

[kristieuk]

Ooops - posted same time as Claire

 

[Claire L]

PS Calculator.

Claire

 

[Claire L]

Lol Kristie

Claire

 

[kristieuk]

PS Calculator.


Claire

Took the words out of my mouth!

 

[Soprano]

If you are so set on going with Virgin, (yeah, I went to LA with them too and they were fab!) then there are certain times of the year when they offer a FREE CHILD PLACE.

I think April/May time they can come up. I booked mine in May and got a free child place which saved £300!

Do you plan on seeing more than Disneyworld? You should if you can, Orlando has a lot more to offer.

It may even be worth buying your Disney passes now as they go up every year.