Am I bringing enough money??

[mommy22gurlz]

We are going on our first Disney World trip Dec. 3 - Dec. 10. I have no idea what all I might need money for so I need your help. We are staying at Coronado Springs with 7 day park hoppers and we are on the dining plan. I am planning on bringing $1,000.00 with us. Here is what all I am planning on using the money for....tell me if I'm missing anything. We are not big spenders but I want everyone to have a good time without being too money stressed....here's what I plan on using money for:

200.00 for each of my 2 dd's. They can use this money for whatever they want; souvies, shirts, gifts for friends, toys. 400.00 total

We are staying 7 nights but since we are using 2 dining credits on the Hoopty Doo and then the fact that our plane arrives early (10:55am) when we arrive and leaves late (8:00pm) when we leave, this leaves us having to pay for 2 meals out of pocket. I am planning on paying for Planet Hollywood and Cheft Mickeys with this money. So right there is roughly $200.00, probably a little high but better to be safe.

I figure dh and I probably won't spend more than 100.00 spending money together, maybe a shirt or two.

Then I will be buying souvie cups....so this is roughly 60.00.

Mousekeeping tipping???? Did I read somewhere the going rate is 1.00 per person per day? If so that is another 28.00.

Ummmmm.....what else am I possibly missing? We already have our MVMCP tickets bought so I don't need to worry about those.

As far as breakfast, I am packing some breakfast bars etc. from home that we can eat in the morning.

Is there anything else I am missing that is a "must have", or am I missing tipping somewhere? Do we tip for ME? I already set aside money for the airport parking so this money is just for the trip.

With all of this it leaves me with a little over $200.00 left over. Do you think there is anything else I need to account money for???

Thanks!
Tammy

 

[malibuconlee]

I personally think you'll be fine that you have MORE than enough money. Relax.

Have a great trip.

 

[Lora]

We spent 12 nights there and spent about $1,000 on non-ticket/room expenses. Our situation was different because we weren't on the dining plan, but we did eat almost 2/3 of our meals in our room. We spent $244 in Disney Dollars I had saved (mostly on counter service meals, a few souvenirs, and misc. expenses). We charged about $475 to the room for sit-down meals, towel/locker rental at water parks, and one photo. My girls each had $30 of their own money (in Disney Dollars). Dh also gave them about $20 each. One dd spent all of her money and the other ended up bringing $16 of it home. We also had 2 grocery trips (total $150) and about $100 total in car rental fees and gas.

Just a question... do you have to take that $ with you, or can you use some cash and charge the rest (and pay it off right away)? I just wouldn't be comfortable with that much cash on me.

 

[the kabuki]

In my experience when at WDW, it's NEVER enough!!!!!

 

[Rella Bella]

Your amount seems right but do you know you can charge almost all of those purchases on your room key card? Disney will give you 'credit' on your room key... I think it's $500.00 for value resorts, $1000.00 for moderates, and $1500. for deluxe resorts. You just use it like a credit card at the gift shops and restuarants and pay the balance when you pay your hotel bill at check out.
We didn't know this our first trip but have really enjoyed using this service ever since. Cash is easier to lose and bulkier to carry and you will carry a room key any way. Also you sign it so if it's lost no one else can use it.
We carry just enough cash for ice cream & water/pop... for everything else you can use the card. We just keep our "vacation $" in savings until we get back... and then send it all to Visa to pay off our bill. (You can call the desk anytime to see how much you've spent, and if you by chance hit your limit during your stay they will "run your visa/mc" and give you a fresh slate.)

Our only exception is the $100.00 bill we give our son the day we arrive.

The other thing we love is the package delivery system... any thing you buy in the park can be delivered to the gift shop of your resort... the next day. It's not there when you get back to your hotel but the day after it's almost like Christmas opening the sacks to see what we bought. Works every day but the last day of your stay.

 

[kizmac]

$1000 sounds fine to me. We just got back and spent around $800 on souvies and extra food and we were on the dining plan and there 9 days. THere is also 8 in our family.

 

[ZanneMarie]

We were in about your same situation (dining plan etc.) and we brought $1000. We only spent about $650 (still finalizing the adding of the receipts-just got back last night!) but I also gave the kids a bit less to spend.

One suggestion I would make is to pay for all you meals with the dining plan until the end and then pay cash/CC for your last meals. I had origianlly planned to pay along the way for the extra meals but changed my mind when we got there. I am very glad I changed because due to circumstances (given a free meal due to bad service, kid who was not hungry at meal times occasionally and a change of plans -boys skipped Cindy meal) we ended up not paying out of pocket for any meals. If we had payed cash along the way we would have ended up with extra credits at the end. Did that make sense??? HTH

 

[MOMOFMNM]

wow...we are cheap spenders!!

our girls got 70 disney dollars pre bought

we spent 108 on our room key for alchoholic bev and other items like camera batteries and a few souvies

and probably 100 in cash for tips, remember tips for bell services too...

remember snacks that are not on the plan, we purchased things like poweraides, pretzels, churros, and frz lemonaide (walked RIGHT by Dole Whips I was SOOOO full!!!)

also remember brkfst drinks like juices and milks, at Captain Cooks they were about 1.30 for a single serv milk or 2.00 for a Nestle Choc milk...


have fun 1000 should be plenty!!

oh yeah we also bought nachos and cokes at the volcano pool bar as they do not acccept snack credits

 

[gloryme]

We are also going to be there Dec 3-12 but we are staying in a rental house - 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, dr, lv, breakfast room, game room, family room, our own screened in private pool with spa. We are paying only $1,088 for the 10 days which includes $200 for heating the pool including pick up and delivery to and from the airport.

Except for breakfast at Cindy's we will probably eat breakfast at the house. My dd 37, ds-in-law 40, dgd (6 on Dec 30), dgs (9), ds (35), and of course myself. My husband of 43 years passed away suddenly a year ago the 19th of Oct and this is the first trip my "kids", and grandkids have ever taken a trip all together . My grandkids have never been to WDW and I have not been since '96 and I'm in dire need of a Mickey fix . I have severe back & knee problems so have reserved a scooter and van with ramp from an outside source. I have tried to rent a scooter at the parks and if you are not there first thing in the morning, forget it. I am unable to wheel a manual one and I don't want someone to have to push me around.

Now, as to funds. Since you are on the dining plan you should be fine. I forgot how old your kids are.

I plan on doing some Christmas shopping while there so will be bringing checkbook, plastic & cash. We are not doing park hoppers. I bought those years ago and was just too pooped to think about going to more than one park a day, especially since it gets dark so early. We also plan to go to the Outlets. I like the Character Warehouse at Belz Outlet II. They have great disney stuff really discounted.


We are going to have tea at the Floridian (just us lady's ) - not the very expensive one! Cindy's on 12/5, MVMCP on 12/8, the Christmas Processional on 12/10 (with Ertha Kitt), I forget when we have priority seating for Fantasmic. We already have tickets and reservations for these. Sea World and Universal are on the agenda for some of the group. Depending on how I feel, I probably will want to relax in the spa & pool.

I have a couple of questions myself.
1. Since dgd will be 6 on the 30th, would it be stretching it to try to have birthday celebrations at a couple of places?

2. Do the parks still send purchases to the front of the parks for pickup on the way out?

3. What is the weather like usually? I guess we'll have to pack for warm and cool weather, especially in the evenings.

 

[magicaldisney]

As for tipping ME. Here's what I was told. If you do not pick up your luggage and bring it with you to the bus, you do not tip. The tip for the person bringing the luggage to the resorts is taken care of already. If you do pick up your luggage and bring it to the bus, then you tip the driver because he will need to handle your bags to load on to the bus.

On the trip back to the airport, if you are bringing your luggage with you (instead of checking it at the resort) you again tip the driver.

 

[mommy22gurlz]

Thanks for all the replies....I think I'll have plenty of money. The only thing I think I will change is instead of giving each dd $200.00, I will just let them buy stuff here and there. Instead of saying here is 200 bucks, I will just buy them things that they see they like, myself mentally knowing that they have a limit of $200.00 each.

My dh says if we give them 200 each they WILL SPEND every last penny, even if they have to find something to buy they will. Does that make sense?

So I see his point. Also I've gone through all of my restaurants that we have ressies at and checked out the menu prices and decided to pay for Sci Fi's out of pocket instead of Planet Hollywood. They're prices are much cheaper than Planet Hollywood's so I will spend less that way too.

I'm soooooo excited! We're down to 51 days!! dd6 and I are on a daily countdown, sometimes I think I'm the most excited one out of the whole bunch!! Last night I told dh that I couldn't wait to take the kids, that they will have so much fun, and he says to me, well one thing is for sure, we all know YOU are going to have fun!!

 

[VAN]

I think $1000 will be more than enough.

I don't know how old your DDs are, but $200 each seems a bit much - even if you can afford it.

When my kids were smaller, I believe they got somewhere in the range of $30-50 to spend for a 9 day visit. I would pay half on any clothing items they might select (t-shirts, hats).

It sure kept them from buying a lot of junk. They would do a lot of looking without buying because they wanted to make sure they selected something special. We ended up without spending money on a lot of useless things. In fact, the kids still have the items they bought on those trips (ages 20-21 now) and use them to decorate their rooms!! Their pleasure was more in the shopping, but in the end purchased a truly meaningful souvenier.

Just my experience.