Budget for a 8 day trip

[CAJUNBLAZE]

We are staying on site and have the free ddp. Without transportation, how much should we budget for our trip?

I have searched the threads because I thought I had seen these threads before but could not find anything. If you have a link to these threads that be helpful,too.
TIA

 

[Trentmom]

I am guesing you mean spending money right??

When we went in May, it was me, my dh and my ds. for 8 days.

We were on the dining plan as well.

We brought 500 dollars and came home with $ 180.00

Now.....we didn't buy a lot of souvenoirs...we bought DS two potato heads and a lot of parts......

Of course, we had to get the refillable mugs for DH and I..14.99 each....

We spent a bit of time in the arcade with DS(3)..he couldn't get enough..

If you are planning on buying a lot of sovenoirs(sp?)...then I might bring an extra 200 or so...

I always rather have more than not enough with me...Those ATM fees are outrageous!!!

Have fun!!

 

[Unregistered]

This is a great thread

That is a great idea.
We are driving down, are there 6 nights 7 days and have the Free DDP.


Thanks~

 

[gottalluvmickey]

Last time I went for 6 days I spent a total of $210. My daughter spent $80. With the DDP and transportation provided, there just doesn't seem to be tons to spend on. I didn't drink any alcohol.

 

[CAJUNBLAZE]

let me break it down further:

Did you buy snacks or breakfast items for the room.

Did you pay out of pocket for special drinks.

Did you buy extra snacks at the parks.

I would like to know from start to fininsh total cost.

I know that is asking a lot but, it would really help, only have two more months to save a budget.

 

[Mousermom]

Me, DH, and DS went to WDW this past March. Went with about $750.00 spending money. We were there for 7 days. Came back with about $110.00.
And that was without the DDP. We did 2 TS restaurants the whole time we were there. 'Ohana and Chef Mickey's. The rest of our meals were CS or quick bites. We stayed at POFQ and it usually cost us around $25.00-35.00 for the 3 of us for dinner at POFQ food court each night. Food was OK. For breakfast, we'd eat fruit or a bage lwith juice and coffee. Skipped lunch for the most part. We purchased the refillable mugs for $12 each. Great money saver, IMHO. Money was mostly spent on souviners. I bought some bridal shower gifts for friends of mine that were honeymooning at WDW. In total, spent about $200.00 on souviners. BTW, DS had his own money to spend. He got Disney Dollars and Gift Cards from family members for Xmas. I'm sure we would have spent a lot more money if he didn't have and spending money of his own. DH and I had a couple drinks at POR one evening, and at our dinner at 'Ohana. Prices for drinks were fairly reasonable...for Disney. Had one or two unexpected expenses--bought a zip-up jacket in MK for $52.00 because it was freezing there one evening during EMH. Decided to splurge and bought myself a pair of $12.00 Mickey Head earrings. Wow!!!

I was very happy we were able to come home for WDW with money in our pockets. Because, believe me, I could have done a lot more damage!!! Especially at DTD!!!!

Have fun on your vacation.

 

[novdisneydreams]

It REALLY depends on your preferences. When we went - me, DH, and 2 DSs - we were on a pretty strict budget. We took $500 with us and ended up coming home w/ about $180 so we spent $320. We had discussed souvenirs w/ our boys beforehand - they each got Mickey Ears, autograph books and pens, a stuffed animal (a medium size one) , and one other souvenir (they picked out little playsets w/characters.) They also each had $20 in Disney dollars from Grandma that they spent on other little stuff that they liked. I bought an ornament for the family and a couple of packs of scrapbook stickers. I had brought some quarters and pennies with us for the pressed penny machines. I had also brought some breakfast stuff/snacks and water. We packed all of the food into a big hardsided cooler and taped it up for the plane, then filled it w/ice in the room (we didn't get a fridge). We spent a bit in the arcade at the hotel, as well as on games at the AK - the kids ended up w/ an "extra" souvenir from there because we were there when it was quite empty and they both won stuffed frogs (they thought that was very cool!) We also spent a bit on candy shops in MK and MGM (although now I believe you can use snack credits for that, you couldn't when we went ). We also spent some $ in the airport on food/drinks, as well as tips for the baggage handlers. All in all I thought we did great, we were there for 8 days. You just have to decide what you want to buy as far as souvenirs. I would definitely either bring water or have it delivered. Other than that the DDP covers most of what you will need/want. Also factor in if you will be doing arcades/minigolf/etc. Also there was a fee for a locker at Typhhon Lagoon - I think it was 5 or 10 dollars. I will say that we never made it to DTD, I know that a lot of people spend a lot of money there. I've seen people on the boards say that they spend $250, and others spend $1000 ... it just depends on what your family is into. Have fun planning and have a great trip!

 

[yanners]

One thing I could add is things you can bring yourself for breakfast. I'm doing DDP this time but am bringing my own breakfast foods. You can do oatmeal in the room (water heats up in the coffee maker), breakfast bars, bagels, peanut butter/jam, etc. A lot of that stuff you can buy way ahead of time when you do your groceries and you can save a lot of money that way!

 

[MightyMom]

I just added up the receipts from our last trip. (I kept all my receipts seperated by category in a coupon organizer) On misc expenses alone... meaning not including food or transportation.... our grand total was..... $746.95

We were on the DDP. This was only 7 days. Myself, husband, DS(3), DS(8) and neice (8).

We didn't say no. That was our problem. The kids were spoiled brats and we spent too much.

I told DH that we needed to set a budget next year. He just laughed at me!

 

[CAJUNBLAZE]

Thats what I was afraid of!!!!

 

[MightyMom]

Another poster mentioned Downtown Disney. I just added the receipts from DTD alone and they totaled over $250. That does not include ice cream at Ghirardelli's which was $19.40

I don't regret spending that money. It was money well spent as we don't do much all year and we had been saving for this trip.

I just hope we can cut back on the spending next year!

 

[txmomto1]

We where there in January, DH, Myself, and DS 4. We spent about $250. We where on the DDP.

Our money went to $60 dollars for a t-shirt and shorts for DS, it was hot and he was in jeans, and we did not pack shorts.

$20 for a baseball hat for DH

$4 for a charm for my bracelet

The rest was for refillable mugs, magnets for us and friends back home, and water, snacks etc.

 

[Creekermom]

What a great thread!

I am not sure how much we are taking yet.. this is our first time... but I too would like to have a little more than not enough.

Everything is included for us except transportation & possible hotel stays 1/2 way both down and back.

Plus any extra's. I am not planning on doing BBB at this point... although I hear a lot of RAVE reviews... maybe another time... next year *hopeful*

 

[Tink3Belle]

Last year we only spend about $250. for 6 nights, we had the free dining plan and bus transportation. We did take a taxi a few times to other resorts but we did rather well. Souvenirs and T-shirts were minimal.

 

[Sabrina90744]

First trip 9 nights, 10 days I took $1400 came back with zilch. Bought souvenirs for everyone in my family (like 15 cousins, brothers, nieces, etc, you get the picture)

This last trip was just kids and me took $1,200.00 Came back with $150. Bought the kids whatever they wanted, had a few drinks each night

I give myself a limit of $120 a day for souvenirs, drinks, OOP food and the little extras for the 3 of us. So $40 per person per day. But this can be cut very easily.

 

[Tinks Girls]

I am budgeting about 250 to 300 per day because my family has seven people in it (we are paying for my mother and aunt). Which works out to about 40 per day per person. This has worked for us except this last trip when we needed to buy another piece of luggage to bring everything home. We had packed pretty tight to begin with and had a hard time saying no to all those fun little items. We have so much Disney stuff already that I know that this budget will work again this year.

We also ordered breakfast food and such to be delivered by gardengrocer.com. This way with these items and our DDP, we should not have a lot of out of pocket expense for food.

Good luck with your planning!

 

[cinderella73]

Well here is a rundown of my budget. I am not sure I am going to be so dead on with everything but I wanted to overfigure rather than under. For 2 adults and 3 kids = 5 people total 11 days gone 4 on road 7 at disney

Gas and tolls not sure yet. driving down from PA 500 ??? since we may hit daytona

food breakfast 30
Lunch 40
dinner 45
snacks 25 = 140 a day and 1540 total
----------------

misc needs 150
wheel chair rental and parking 150
hotel 800 disney
hotel's while traveling 300
disney tickets 1000
spending 1300
total approx 5700 ish total
I know meals were figured high but if u eat in the park it can be that high or higher even. I will do some grocery shopping and that will help.

 

[MomofKatie]

let me break it down further:

Did you buy snacks or breakfast items for the room.

Did you pay out of pocket for special drinks.

Did you buy extra snacks at the parks.

I would like to know from start to fininsh total cost.

I know that is asking a lot but, it would really help, only have two more months to save a budget.

We did a Free Dining trip in 2005- here's what we spent, and where:

-breakfast items, bottled H2O, and snacks (bought at home and packed)- $20

-OOP food and drinks: beer and mixed drinks, $50; F&W booths, $10 (we didn't know we could use our snack credits); extra CS lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express at DTD Westside, $25 (they didn't accept the DDP, and we didn't know until we went to give them our Key to the World card)

Total extra $$ we spent for food/drink while on the DDP- $105 (although we could have saved some $$ if we knew about the F&W booths and Puck's).

 

[DisneyMomFanatic]

We will be going down from 8/23-8/30 and have the DDP. We are planning on taking around $650.

We have to get a stroller so we will be doing a length of stay rental which is about $48 for 6 park days instead of $60(for individual rental days).
We will be buying a snacky breakfast probably everyday and that should be about $15(we will probably share 2 or 3 things between the 4 of us).
Souvenirs- Kids each get a t-shirt or sweatshirt and 2 other of their choice(within reason) and Dh gets mini deck of cards for his collection and I get a t-shirt/sweatshirt. We all have our ears already.
We always bring our own water bottles into the park and just refill them from fountains during the day as needed. If we need more we wil either get with meal(ts or cs) or use snack. We don't intend to use too much oop for this.

You might want to allocate some monies for these extras(depending on if you decide it's what you want to do):
1) tipping wait staff extra for great service at TS meals (18% already included).
2) tipping for mousekeeping
3) if you are using ME, tipping for driver or baggage handler and at hotel, tipping for delivery of bags if you are present when they arrive.

These are all extras that you might consider doing if you want to. So if you want, add it to your budget.


Hope that helps you a little. Happy trip to you and yours!

 

[MomWith2Cinderellas]

let me break it down further:

Did you buy snacks or breakfast items for the room.

Did you pay out of pocket for special drinks.

Did you buy extra snacks at the parks.

I would like to know from start to fininsh total cost.

I know that is asking a lot but, it would really help, only have two more months to save a budget.

We try to ship and have breakfast items sent to our room. We also made sure to have 2 cases of water delivered, since can be pricy.

DH and I would pay out of pocket for an alcohol drink every now and than.

We utilized the DP to the best of its ability. We would have a light breakfast in the room. We would than grab lunch at a park. Than later in the day we would have a snack of we were hungry or we would just wait for our ADR. We always have credits left at the end of a trip.

As for the spending money, the first time we went we spent way too much! The next time we wised up. Each DD could get something for $20 a day if they wanted. On the last day they could get something bigger (typically never exceeded $45). I would take care of there t-shirts (I usually only do 1 for each child)and maybe one other stuffed animal. DH usually just gets some Star Wars items and a couple of t-shirts. I usually get something for the house, a t-shirt, and one other item. This year I am coming back with a Mickey watch!! lol Our spending money last time for 12 days was $450. I anticipate it to be about the same for our next trip.