Advise on Changing Reservation?

[Diegosmom]

Just worked up all the numbers for our trip and we are about $260 more then we wanted to spend. Here is the breakdown

Jan 21-29, 2012
Free Dining Room with 7 day tix $1630
Gas $200 (prob more like $175 but rounded up just in case)
Spending Money $100 each times 3=$300
Meal at Rainforest Cafe FREE (using giftcards)
My Birthday Meal at Ohana or Garden Grove $125

Total $2260

We wanted to keep the trip under $2000 so I have been trying to figure out if we could get this lower. I know that I could cut out out spending money but DH has been saving his change for DS and we keep telling DS4 that he will use this for his spending money and I know that hubby and I will at least want to buy a few things (tshirt or sweatshirt, xmas ordament, maybe a specialty drink or extra snack) and I really dont think $100 is unreasonable. I also know us and even if I cut it now we have credit cards and would just buy what we want anyway.

Other thing we could cut is my bday dinner but we are doing all quick service all week except Rainforest cafe so I would really like to do one sitdown and we would go out to dinner for my birthday if we are home so I guess technically this would come out of a different budget...although I prob could pick a place that wasnt buffet/set price and get away with it for cheaper...

So that leaves our actual room. I have priced out off site and with parking I really cant find anything cheaper for family of 3. I just ran the numbers with the new room only discount and even with buying tix at undercover tourist it would only save us $277 and we would have to buy food out of pocket. After buying 2 mugs (DH and I want coffee every morning) that leaves $250 to eat for 8 nights, Less then $32 a night. So I think the free dining is the best deal.

BUT here is where I need advise.

We are driving down from NC leaving sat morning and it should take about 10 hours. Even if we leave at 5am (which btw we are not morning people) we wont get to the resort till 3pm. The plan was to check in hang out at the hotel, maybe hit DTD for dinner and get to bed early. So one option would be to change the first night to room only, saving about $26 and using rainforest cafe giftcard that night. I see a few problems with this. 1. What if we are really tired and just want to grab some CS at the hotel and we dont want to go to DTD 2. The next morning I will have to go to check in to get new keys as well as our mugs. So instead of hitting the ground running I will have stuff to do. 3. We will lose 6 CS meals and 3 snacks and only save $26.

Another option or in combination of the first Is to switch the last night or last 2 nights to room only. Again saving $26 on each of those nights. Our plan is to hit the park all day sat, pack that night and on sunday morning sleep in a bit check out and drive home, possibly stopping at DTD for a bit of shopping or to use any CS credits left. More then likely we will just feel like leaving no stop at DTD. We arent big breakfast people so we probably wont get CS for breakfast and would probably pretty much head out. So if we change that to room only our credits would expire at midnight on sat which would be fine. But again save $26 to lose 6CS and 3 snacks, is it worth it.

My birthday dinner would be friday night so also thought about changing last 2 nights to room only since we were already going to eat TS OP...but again it is only a $26 a night savings...

And one last options If we got rid of sat night all together it would save us about $106.

This would mean we would have to check out of the hotel before going to the park and then starting our drive after a park day. And either driving thru the night or stopping part way and paying $25-$50 for a cheap hotel.

Just not sure if any of these savings are worth the trouble.

Hubby just says whatever you think. This will be our first trip (I went once as a child 20 years ago but hubby and DS have never gone). DS will be 3 months short of 5 and is a bit strong willed. I was planning 2MK days, 2 Epcot days, 2 DHS days and 1 AK day. Wondering though if we made sat our second DHS day its morning EMH so if we arrived at 8 and stayed till like noon we could be on the road by 1 and be home by 11pm and no need for a cheap hotel.

Or just only do DHS for 1 day and cut sat as a park day all together, which would save us like $20 on cutting 1 park day. We could sleep in late and even hit DTD before we leave and still get home late Sat. And have Sunday to sleep in and get back to reality before going back to work/daycare.

I really need advise...sorry it was so long.

 

[C-CMom]

Personally, I could drop the Ohana meal and half of the spending money without a second thought. I would rather think of the "extra" day(s) as a nice luxury (and again for me personally a better birthday treat than a meal, especially with LOTS of other food everyday)- to be able to relax and enjoy in case of rain or grouchiness or illness or just wanting to take a nap one day. But each person's preferences may be very different...

Good luck deciding!

 

[bumbershoot]

This will be our first trip (I went once as a child 20 years ago but hubby and DS have never gone).

I think your total is quite reasonable. If you CAN do it, I would leave it as is.

But if you *have to* take it down, figure out what you need to take it down to, and do it. I think that just cutting things willy nilly isn't a good way of doing it, without a solid plan of the total cost you need it to be.

And you are very correct, that the birthday dinner would happen at home, so really it shouldn't come from trip funds at all.

And along those lines, remember that part of your gas money can come from your normal monthly gas funds, and take a week of your monthly food budget and put it into the trip. If you guys have an entertainment budget as well, put a week of that into the trip.

Good luck figuring it all out! And have a great first trip!

 

[Diegosmom]

Personally, I could drop the Ohana meal and half of the spending money without a second thought. I would rather think of the "extra" day(s) as a nice luxury (and again for me personally a better birthday treat than a meal, especially with LOTS of other food everyday)- to be able to relax and enjoy in case of rain or grouchiness or illness or just wanting to take a nap one day. But each person's preferences may be very different...

Good luck deciding!

I am pretty sure that the spending money wont all be spent...perhaps DS will spend his $100 (planning on doing Mr. Potatoe Head Parts and Lego bucket plus probably some other stuff). I am pretty certain I won't spend $100, although I like to have it there just in case lol...Hubby could go either way. Sometimes he see something that he has to have (like an expensive shirt or something) but over the last few years he has gotten very good at looking at the price and seeing that it isnt "worth" that but I just dont know for sure and really dont want to have to tell him he can't have it.

I would be willing to cut the meal but I am a little nervous about eating CS all week. I am totally fine with that but hubby is not a fast food person. If he had it his way he would never eat a burger or sandwich (he does sometimes now when he is working if there is nothing else around). And he really isnt into pizza so I am just not sure how he will be liking the food and was thinking a TS might be a nice break but by the end of the week we might not want a TS.

I had always thought more days was better so we could take it slow but just not wanting to break the bank.

Thanks for responding.

 

[kimkoz]

If it was me - I'd get rid of the nice dinner right away, birthday or not. The trip would be enough for me. Also too, I'm not the kind of person to have dinner reservations and like to go with the flow. Half of the time I was never really hungry for a larger dinner.

Since this is after x-mas have you thought about any additional gifts you may not have put in your budget. Do your parents or relatives give you any gifts. If so maybe this is the year you can nicely ask them for disney gift cards instead of an actual gift and use that as your extra spending.

Personally from now till Jan I could find a way to save an extra 300, maybe not eating out at all till then, watching coupons, or watch extra activites.. Maybe even clean out house a little, anything you can sell on CL. Just a thought. If this isn't a trip you do often then it will not seem like more work at all

 

[Diegosmom]

I think your total is quite reasonable. If you CAN do it, I would leave it as is.

But if you *have to* take it down, figure out what you need to take it down to, and do it. I think that just cutting things willy nilly isn't a good way of doing it, without a solid plan of the total cost you need it to be.

And you are very correct, that the birthday dinner would happen at home, so really it shouldn't come from trip funds at all.

And along those lines, remember that part of your gas money can come from your normal monthly gas funds, and take a week of your monthly food budget and put it into the trip. If you guys have an entertainment budget as well, put a week of that into the trip.

Good luck figuring it all out! And have a great first trip!

See our problem is we dont have a budget...part of the problem is that hubby is self employed and we never know how much he is going to make week to week or when he might go 3 weeks without getting a check.

We are bad about charging everything on the credit card, food going out to eat, movies, gas etc and not really having a budget. I do pay all the bills and the cc every month and then any extra goes to an outstanding credit card that is at 0%. We just put the extra toward this every month. The problem is I just realized our 0% runs out in April and the plan was to have it paid off by then and the pace we are going we will not be paid off.

We have thought about canceling Disney but timewise this Jan works best for us and we do have a good amount of Disney giftcards and my parents are giving us Money toward it for our xmas present.

So I am realizing if I could cut some money out of Disney that would help but also cutting out some other things in our life (eating out and getting take out) would also help.

Thanks for letting me rant...or think out loud...

 

[TifffanyD]

If you decide to do Garden Grove over Ohana... there is a restaurant.com certificate that will save you a small amount. If you can get an 80% off code it will save you about $20

 

[Diegosmom]

If it was me - I'd get rid of the nice dinner right away, birthday or not. The trip would be enough for me. Also too, I'm not the kind of person to have dinner reservations and like to go with the flow. Half of the time I was never really hungry for a larger dinner.

Since this is after x-mas have you thought about any additional gifts you may not have put in your budget. Do your parents or relatives give you any gifts. If so maybe this is the year you can nicely ask them for disney gift cards instead of an actual gift and use that as your extra spending.

Personally from now till Jan I could find a way to save an extra 300, maybe not eating out at all till then, watching coupons, or watch extra activites.. Maybe even clean out house a little, anything you can sell on CL. Just a thought. If this isn't a trip you do often then it will not seem like more work at all

Thanks good point. This might be our ONLY trip to Disney. Or at least as a family. Not sure Disney is hubby's thing. Thinking DS and I will love it and that there might be future Mom and son trips but this might be the only family trip.

We decided on the Quickservice plan cause we didnt want to have to worry about rushing to dining so maybe cutting Ohana is the best thing to do...

Already getting xmas money from mom and dad to use toward our trip and my sister said if we wanted money instead she is fine with that. But we dont do gifts with anyone else. Was already planning on only doing a few gifts for DS and hubby and I will probably only do 1 small gift or we might not do any. So that will help

I do have some stuff I can sell and I do really need to get on the ball and do that. Think I might have a yard sale and then go from there. I just need to get motivated. Thanks for reminding me.

You guys are right I dont think I want to cut a day. I want to be able to take it at a slow pace and rest when we need to. Ok time to buckle down and getting saving.

 

[Anna114]

Your Birthday dinner. Maybe chose another restaurant and here's my biggy. Make it a late lunch not dinner. If you watch the restaurants you basically get the same selections for less money. That won't make up your deficit completely but it will help.

Also, while there isn't much time here. I like to use my Disney Visa for everything. Even if I have the cash I pay cc and pay it right off. I don't pay interest and right now I have $400 to use for our May trip. Also, if you have a Discover card. You have money waiting there for you.

 

[Anna114]

Your Birthday dinner. Maybe chose another restaurant and here's my biggy. Make it a late lunch not dinner. If you watch the restaurants you basically get the same selections for less money. That won't make up your deficit completely but it will help.

Also, while there isn't much time here. I like to use my Disney Visa for everything. Even if I have the cash I pay cc and pay it right off. I don't pay interest and right now I have $400 to use for our May trip. Also, if you have a Discover card. You have money waiting there for you.

 

[Diegosmom]

If you decide to do Garden Grove over Ohana... there is a restaurant.com certificate that will save you a small amount. If you can get an 80% off code it will save you about $20

Yup already planning on using that. I have a $25 restaurant.com giftcard so I was planning on using that for Garden Grove if we went there. Problem is that it is Friday night and that is Seafood and it is expensive, plus I know hubby would want to do the unlimited lobster so I think after that and drinks we would prob still be at the $125 but that seems like quite a bit to eat dinner so I would also consider switching to just a sitdown place and possibly bring DS to kids club...

 

[Diegosmom]

Your Birthday dinner. Maybe chose another restaurant and here's my biggy. Make it a late lunch not dinner. If you watch the restaurants you basically get the same selections for less money. That won't make up your deficit completely but it will help.

Also, while there isn't much time here. I like to use my Disney Visa for everything. Even if I have the cash I pay cc and pay it right off. I don't pay interest and right now I have $400 to use for our May trip. Also, if you have a Discover card. You have money waiting there for you.

Thanks...actually just got the $200 offer from Disney Visa and plan on signing up (already figuring giftcard in budget lol) and I do plan on using it for everything. I currently use my southwest card to earn free flights but would switch over to the Disney and I actually was figuring $50 between Vis card and sunrise rewards (currently have $10).

Good call on the lunch...any place you suggest? Not sure what park we will be at that day and we dont have park hoppers. Easy Disney shows MK nd DH as green days so will prob hit 1 of those...although Epcot has evening EMH that night...and I would love to see fireworks on my bday...wow I am horrible at making a decision...lol

 

[Karenj2]

Why don't you check out the restaurant menus at each park, and see what you might choose, then price it out... You might find that if you're willing to either share a meal (with DH or DS), then you could get lower than $125.

OR - you have a little less than 4 months to save $260. When you break it down, it's $65 a month you'd need to try to save. For me, that'd be pretty doable - just brown bag it for lunch, plus go out to dinner less often.

Also, I'm finding that if I have a specific goal that it's a lot easier to "deny" myself the things I'd like. I had been getting lunch out 3-4x a week at $10 each time, but we're also trying to save up for a spur of the moment WDW trip in March, so I've been brown bagging it for the last two weeks. It's a lot easier when I can say, "Do I want to get takeout, or go to Disney?!?"

(And you should get a budget - especially if your hubby has a varied paycheck! I think you'd find that you'd pay off your CC much faster that way - it's so easy to spend a dollar here and a dollar there, then come up short each month!)

 

[C-CMom]

I would be willing to cut the meal but I am a little nervous about eating CS all week. I am totally fine with that but hubby is not a fast food person. If he had it his way he would never eat a burger or sandwich (he does sometimes now when he is working if there is nothing else around). And he really isnt into pizza so I am just not sure how he will be liking the food and was thinking a TS might be a nice break but by the end of the week we might not want a TS.

Thanks for responding.

You're welcome about the response - I understand where you are coming from. Things do add up fast and setting priorities for everyone in the group can be a challenge, but it really seems like you are asking the right questions!

Anyway, I agree with another poster about checking the restaurant menus if you haven't already, but my idea was more to look at the CS menus. Some of those "CS" spots really do have quite good food and it is not all burgers and pizza. You (and hubby) could be pleasantly surprised. I view them at Allears.net.

 

[C-CMom]

...although Epcot has evening EMH that night...and I would love to see fireworks on my bday...

Birthday fireworks? If your park choices could include MK for that day (and I know opinions vary on this), but my hands-down choice for that would be WISHES at MK!!! Seriously - wonderful. No, not kidding at all. I even bought the soundtrack later. Magical.

Besides, if Epcot has EMH that night, the crowd may be there and you could have a possibly smaller crowd at MK. Of course, if you want to stay up later and enjoy the EMH, that won't work, but if you think you'll be exhausted by that night (was this near the end of the trip?), you may enjoy not staying up too late, too. Just a thought.

It'll be great what ever you decide, I'll bet!

 

[Diegosmom]

Birthday fireworks? If your park choices could include MK for that day (and I know opinions vary on this), but my hands-down choice for that would be WISHES at MK!!! Seriously - wonderful. No, not kidding at all. I even bought the soundtrack later. Magical.

Besides, if Epcot has EMH that night, the crowd may be there and you could have a possibly smaller crowd at MK. Of course, if you want to stay up later and enjoy the EMH, that won't work, but if you think you'll be exhausted by that night (was this near the end of the trip?), you may enjoy not staying up too late, too. Just a thought.

It'll be great what ever you decide, I'll bet!

MK is actually the recomeened Park for the day and is probably where we will go. So Wishes it is I was trying to avoid all EMH parks for crowd but we are going in Jan and hours are so limited. While hubby and I as well as DS are all night people we will be getting up early most days to make rope drop so I am thinking by the end of the trip we wont want to do a 11pm night...and I think I would prefer to me in MK on my Bday...

 

[Diegosmom]

You're welcome about the response - I understand where you are coming from. Things do add up fast and setting priorities for everyone in the group can be a challenge, but it really seems like you are asking the right questions!

Anyway, I agree with another poster about checking the restaurant menus if you haven't already, but my idea was more to look at the CS menus. Some of those "CS" spots really do have quite good food and it is not all burgers and pizza. You (and hubby) could be pleasantly surprised. I view them at Allears.net.

I feel like I have a million thoughts/ideas/questions and would love to talk about it with hubby but he has no opnion on it. He know where Disney is and thru a few conversation I think he knows all 4 parks names and yeah that is about it and he is happy about it. Would love to send him here to do some research but he is Mexican and while he speaks English pretty well he has a bit a trouble reading and writing and really has no desire to learn anymore. He knows I will plan an amazing vacation...Told him the other day I would love to just show up for something/anything and have it all planned out...but I know that would never happen...and could I really give up on the planning...no probably not...

I have read over all Allears menu a million times...was planning on doing regular dining so have read that one too...Finally sitting down today and going over the CS options...and actually could be pretty happy with a Lobster Roll or Grilled Salmon for my bday dinner (from Columbia Harbour)...so maybe I will just go with that and save a little money. Either that or I could use our Rain Forest Cafe giftcards and get steak for my bday dinner.

Thanks everyone for letting me bounce ideas...

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Edited because I see that your 1600 figure includes the room and tickets. your numbers sound very reasonable overall so I am not sure how much crunching you could do. Usually you can shave some money by having a breakfast or lunch meal instead of dinner. Smaller bill and smaller tip. Looks like you do not have park hopper or waterpark tickets. Staying at a value resort. If you move offsite you have to consider parking costs back into any potential savings in addition to the added food costs. Dh and I also take 100.00 per person for our week stay and that has been sufficient especially with a dining plan. Only you know what kind of gas mileage you will get. Refillable mugs are good for coffee. So you are good to go there...Overall your plan just seems to be as economic as you can go.

 

[Darcy03231]

There are lots of counter service places that aren't all burgers and sandwiches. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I dont' think I ate a burger my entire trip. Some of the counter service meals I had on my recent trip were:

Fish & Chips (England in Epcot)
Baked Salmon with vegetables and rice (resort food court)
Turkey dinner with all the fixings (resort food court)
Fried Shrimp with fries (Columbia House, Magic Kingdom)
BBQ rib dinner (Flame tree bbq in Animal Kingdom
Roasted chicken dinner (Cosmic Ray, Magic Kingdom)

Definitely check out the menus at www.allears.net.

 

[scrapquitler]

I think your total is quite reasonable. If you CAN do it, I would leave it as is.

But if you *have to* take it down, figure out what you need to take it down to, and do it. I think that just cutting things willy nilly isn't a good way of doing it, without a solid plan of the total cost you need it to be.

And you are very correct, that the birthday dinner would happen at home, so really it shouldn't come from trip funds at all.

And along those lines, remember that part of your gas money can come from your normal monthly gas funds, and take a week of your monthly food budget and put it into the trip. If you guys have an entertainment budget as well, put a week of that into the trip.

Good luck figuring it all out! And have a great first trip!

I agree with this. Subtract out the $$ you would spend on food for a week at home and the gas you would use at home that week. I'd subtract out part of the birthday dinner because you said you would do that anyway (or just part of it if you would go somewhere less expensive at home).

Then I'd probably just say, it's close enough and leave the rest as is.

The only other thing you might want to do is look at the menus for the places you think you might want to eat and run the numbers to see if it's worthwhile for you to have the dining plan. You might find it less expensive to eat and pay out of pocket. Or maybe not, only you will be able to determine that. I think for us, we were probably better off without the dining plan, but I'm not positive. For comparison sake, DH just returned from a 4 day trip, and our total food/beverage spending for the 4 days was $225 including one table service meal. That might be lower than most people because a lot of meals we just split a QS meal between us then ate a snack afterwards and instead of a dinner one day we just ate a few things at the wine and food festival at Epcot because we ate a big TS meal for lunch that day. (DH doesn't like to eat a lot while we are at the parks because it doesn't sit well while he's on rides).