All I Want for Christmas is...A WDW Vacation!! UPDATE pg 35 - Leaving today!!

[DWGal210]

Very cute stuff. I'm a big fan of cardigans, but a good one is so hard to find. The right materials, the right fit, the right color---I'm thinking I should open a store that just sells cardigans, it would make my life a whole lot easier.

Yes, that is SO TRUE! I like them 3/4 sleeve and a bit on the longer side so they cover more tummy and tush.

If you do open that store, let me know!

 

[ladybugmom]

Nice choices!! I especially like the girafffe print swimsuit!!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Great job on the shopping, the giraffe swim suit and sweater are soooo cute!

 

[DWGal210]

Nice choices!! I especially like the girafffe print swimsuit!!

Thank you! I thought that was so cute. I wanted to take 2 suits anyway and how easy will it be to have 2 different tops but be able to use the same bottom of the suit?! Easy peasy!

Great job on the shopping, the giraffe swim suit and sweater are soooo cute!

Thanks! I am excited!

 

[DWGal210]

So I looked at the airline tickets again today, just to see if perhaps they had gone down in price. I know I shouldn't do that to myself, but I couldn't help it.

And get this - they had actually gone UP in price! Only about $30 total, but still! That's a cute shirt I could buy at Disney! Glad we bought them when we did!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Sometimes it's a good thing to look at those airline prices!

 

[DWGal210]

Sometimes it's a good thing to look at those airline prices!

I know, I was pretty excited. At one point, I think that with Airtran, you could call them and adjust your ticket price if that same flight went down in price, but I don't know that they do that anymore. But I feel that we got a GREAT price for flying over the Christmas/New Years holidays and so I am pretty happy.

So now I have my park tickets and my plane ticket - the only other things I am saving for are my meals and my souvenirs!

 

[DWGal210]

So I need some help...

Not that kind of help! I think I am perfectly sane, thank you very much!

I am now at the "Budgeting for Meals" area of my trip. I am not going to let my aunt and uncle pay for my meals thus trip, even though I'm sure they will offer, as they have done in previous trips. It's very nice of them, but for goodness sake, I'm 27 years old with a job and I can foot the bill for my meals!

So I wanted to know all of your input on what you think I should budget for meals. Here are some particulars to help you:

- We're staying in a 2 bedroom DVC villa and we're getting groceries, so we won't be buying breakfast except for the character meal at Tusker House.
- At this point, we're thinking 5-6 table service meals spread over our trip. Some are one price (like OHana or boma) and some have a menu, so that would vary on the amount needed for each meal.
- We're staying for 9 nights.

I was thinking about $400; I figured this would be plenty to cover table service meals + tip, plus the snacks and lunches we would buy at the parks. Does this seem too high or not high enough? Since we're not doing the dining plan, I thought perhaps I would get a reloadable Visa check card and use that as my meals card. Then I can keep those expenses separate from my other spending money, and more accurately track what I am spending.

So have at me - what are your thoughts?

 

[michellem1118]

I just found your PTR and got all caught up.. I have a whole list of comments, hope I can remember everything!

We're going to be there mostly at the same time - we fly out on 12/27 and return home on 1/1. We had very little flexibility b/c my mom, MIL, DH, and I are all teachers, and have to be back in a classroom on 1/4, and MIL doesn't get out for the Christmas break until 12/23!

We were able to get RT airfare out of DFW on American for just under $300pp for me, DH, and my parents... MIL and BIL, who are flying out of New York City, had to go with AirTran, on connecting flights, and were still at $350 or so per ticket... for them to go nonstop on American or JetBlue (their airlines of choice) would have been over $600/ticket!

DH & I will be in a studio at Kidani Village, but the rest of our gang have studios booked at SSR. We own DVC at both resorts, but due to point allocations and the 11-month home resort booking windows, that's what we ended up with. We actually have an "extra" studio booked at SSR as well, we had some family members who backed out of our trip recently, so we're trying to recruit some friends to join us... or I'll post it "for rent" on the DVC boards.

We're paying for all of our food OOP on our trip next week, so I might be able to give you a good estimate when we get back, LOL. We're guessing that our 5-night trip will run us about $300, plus our anniversary dinner at Victoria & Albert's that we're not including in the food budget, it's "special" and being paid for with anniversary gifts that we've gotten from DH's family.

I your animal-print swimsuits! If I hadn't JUST bought a new suit on sale at Macy's, I'd go check out Lands End... but DH will kill me if I spend any more money before we leave next weekend.

Congratulations on your niece Caroline! She's beautiful, and I love the name.

I think there were other things I wanted to comment on, but I can't remember, and I hear a storm rolling through, so I should probably turn off the electronics...

 

[Charleston Princess]

Have you been over to the Allears site and looked at their menus? All of their prices are listed, so I just estimated our food budget for the October trip based on that.

 

[annnewjerz]

We budgeted about $400 per person for our trip in December which is 7 days/6 nights before we decided to upgrade to the Deluxe DDP. That pretty much included 1 TS, 1 CS and 2 snacks each day per person, as well as tax and tip. It worked out to be about $55 per person/per day not including breakfast because we will be staying in a studio with a kitchenette and eating breakfast there.

$30 including tip per person for each TS meal (usually dinners, but a little less if we were doing breakfast)
$15 per person for a CS meal
$10 per person for snacks/drinks in between meals

Can't wait to hear what you have in store. Adding the Deluxe DDP to our trip (if we decide to) is definitely going to be a fun and frustrating part of planning all rolled into one, I'm sure.

 

[MyMuse]

So I need some help...
- At this point, we're thinking 5-6 table service meals spread over our trip. Some are one price (like OHana or boma) and some have a menu, so that would vary on the amount needed for each meal.
- We're staying for 9 nights.

I was thinking about $400; I figured this would be plenty to cover table service meals + tip, plus the snacks and lunches we would buy at the parks. Does this seem too high or not high enough? Since we're not doing the dining plan, I thought perhaps I would get a reloadable Visa check card and use that as my meals card. Then I can keep those expenses separate from my other spending money, and more accurately track what I am spending.

So have at me - what are your thoughts?

I spreadsheeted my trips (yeh, I know, but it's the way I roll....) and in my March solo trip, for the week (parks for full 4 days), I spent $229.77 on dining. This was only 3 TS meals (no character dining) and the rest counter service. I didn't do much on snacks.

In my March trip, there was 3 of us for 4 days and I spent $652 on dining, which included 3 character meals and another TS meal, 1 buffet (Fantasmic), rest were counter service and a bunch of snacks.

I hope it helps!

 

[DWGal210]

I just found your PTR and got all caught up.. I have a whole list of comments, hope I can remember everything!

We're going to be there mostly at the same time - we fly out on 12/27 and return home on 1/1. We had very little flexibility b/c my mom, MIL, DH, and I are all teachers, and have to be back in a classroom on 1/4, and MIL doesn't get out for the Christmas break until 12/23!

We were able to get RT airfare out of DFW on American for just under $300pp for me, DH, and my parents... MIL and BIL, who are flying out of New York City, had to go with AirTran, on connecting flights, and were still at $350 or so per ticket... for them to go nonstop on American or JetBlue (their airlines of choice) would have been over $600/ticket!

DH & I will be in a studio at Kidani Village, but the rest of our gang have studios booked at SSR. We own DVC at both resorts, but due to point allocations and the 11-month home resort booking windows, that's what we ended up with. We actually have an "extra" studio booked at SSR as well, we had some family members who backed out of our trip recently, so we're trying to recruit some friends to join us... or I'll post it "for rent" on the DVC boards.

We're paying for all of our food OOP on our trip next week, so I might be able to give you a good estimate when we get back, LOL. We're guessing that our 5-night trip will run us about $300, plus our anniversary dinner at Victoria & Albert's that we're not including in the food budget, it's "special" and being paid for with anniversary gifts that we've gotten from DH's family.

I your animal-print swimsuits! If I hadn't JUST bought a new suit on sale at Macy's, I'd go check out Lands End... but DH will kill me if I spend any more money before we leave next weekend.

Congratulations on your niece Caroline! She's beautiful, and I love the name.

I think there were other things I wanted to comment on, but I can't remember, and I hear a storm rolling through, so I should probably turn off the electronics...

Hello - thank you for reading! Welcome!

Wow, that is a late time to get out for Christmas break, isn't it, especially for teachers? I mean, I work Christmas Eve, but probably only until Noon or so and then we're free to go for the day. Basically we just have to come in and get our reports done for the 23rd, and then we're free!

I'm glad you got a good price on tickets! We really like flying Airtran - I know the reviews here on the Dis are mixed but I've never had a problem, and their prices are SO much better! If it was around $600 per person, we probably would have been driving.

I am so excited for Kidani! We also decided to do a split stay between there and Saratoga, where I've stayed before, so I am for sure excited about Kidani! Woo hoo!

I hope you didn't have a storm the other night - we had a really bad one about a week ago and there were so many trees down all over town. Some were ripped right out of the ground, even with roots under concrete sidewalks! It was pretty scary.

Thanks again for reading!!

 

[DWGal210]

Have you been over to the Allears site and looked at their menus? All of their prices are listed, so I just estimated our food budget for the October trip based on that.

Great idea, Jackie! I'll go over there today and check things out. Thanks for the tip!

 

[DWGal210]

We budgeted about $400 per person for our trip in December which is 7 days/6 nights before we decided to upgrade to the Deluxe DDP. That pretty much included 1 TS, 1 CS and 2 snacks each day per person, as well as tax and tip. It worked out to be about $55 per person/per day not including breakfast because we will be staying in a studio with a kitchenette and eating breakfast there.

$30 including tip per person for each TS meal (usually dinners, but a little less if we were doing breakfast)
$15 per person for a CS meal
$10 per person for snacks/drinks in between meals

Can't wait to hear what you have in store. Adding the Deluxe DDP to our trip (if we decide to) is definitely going to be a fun and frustrating part of planning all rolled into one, I'm sure.

Hey there!

I like you formula of $30 for TS, $15 for CS and $10 for snacks - I think that's a good way to do it, too. The nice thing about having the kitchen is we are getting groceries delivered, and we usually end up getting a few snacks too that we put in our purses (100 calorie packs, that sort of thing) but of course I need to budget for my Diet Cokes and the ice cream! Thanks for the info!

 

[DWGal210]

I spreadsheeted my trips (yeh, I know, but it's the way I roll....) and in my March solo trip, for the week (parks for full 4 days), I spent $229.77 on dining. This was only 3 TS meals (no character dining) and the rest counter service. I didn't do much on snacks.

In my March trip, there was 3 of us for 4 days and I spent $652 on dining, which included 3 character meals and another TS meal, 1 buffet (Fantasmic), rest were counter service and a bunch of snacks.

I hope it helps!

Hello! Thanks for reading!

I love a spreadsheet. Those are a good thing to do, for sure!

Thanks for the info on your meals! I think today, I am going to take bits and pieces of everyones advice and go on AllEars.net, make a spreadsheet and use a "formula" of sorts to figure out a budget for my dining.

Thanks again!!

 

[MyMuse]

Hello! Thanks for reading!

I love a spreadsheet. Those are a good thing to do, for sure!

Thanks for the info on your meals! I think today, I am going to take bits and pieces of everyones advice and go on AllEars.net, make a spreadsheet and use a "formula" of sorts to figure out a budget for my dining.

Thanks again!!

Spreadsheets are a fav of mine. I'm a numbers person, so I enjoy it. Plus, I use it as a budgeting tool for the next trip, wherever it may be.

For the menus, make sure to take a look at the date. If the dates is a bit old-ish, make sure to increase the price a bit to ensure your numbers are good.

Enjoying your report so far!

 

[DWGal210]

Spreadsheets are a fav of mine. I'm a numbers person, so I enjoy it. Plus, I use it as a budgeting tool for the next trip, wherever it may be.

For the menus, make sure to take a look at the date. If the dates is a bit old-ish, make sure to increase the price a bit to ensure your numbers are good.

Enjoying your report so far!

Oh, thanks for the reminder on the dates of the menus! Thank you for that!

I also read in the Unofficial Guide that during peak times (of course when we are going) they can add a surcharge of $4/adult and $2/kids at certain restaurants so I need to keep that in mind, too!

Thanks everyone!

 

[DWGal210]

So I came home from work last night and got the best possible mail of all (nestled between the credit card bill and some junk mail, of course).....


I GOT MY PARK TICKET!

It's very cute - has Pluto on the front and is purple. Very sweet! I am just so glad to be able to check another item off of my list. Awesome!

Thanks again everyone for the great dining $$ suggestions. I am going to make some calculations today, and then for budgeting help, I thought I would get a Visa giftcard and every week, load some money onto it from my paychecks. I wonder if you can do that automatically? Hmm...something to look into. Anyway, I figured the amount I come up with divided by about 20 weeks will give me the amount I need to put in there each week, so that when we arrive, I will be ready to go for my meals! Sweet!

Have a great day, everyone!

 

[DWGal210]

Also today, I went to the Disney World website and did my free customizable park maps! This is such a fun thing and I'm glad they offer it!

They should be coming in 2-3 weeks!