Budget Help and my dream vacation!

[alwaysappy]

Okay here it goes;

It has always been my dream to go to disney world. We could swing a trip this year if we really wanted to but it would be on a tight budget and only for 7 days (we are coming from Canada). Anyways here is my thing, i would really like to see it all (Disney World, Universal Studios, the water parks, busch gardens.....) First of all how much time do you think we would need, I will only be traveling with adults? Second of all, I am looking for a round budget. I have started a savings account and would like to know a number I should be shooting for. We would like to stay on disney property for the first part, maybe at a all stars resort or even better one up from those. And then move off property to go and see the rest??? What do you think. Any things that we absolutly need to see in the area?? Any help for a disney first timer you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much,
AlwaysAppy

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I am kind of of the mindset that I like a bit of relaxation on my vacation too. At Disney alone there's a lot to see and do. Trying to do it all there and outside of Disney to me seems like a lot. You'd probably be pretty exhausted, even if you are all adults.

If I were you I might try to split it up into two trips in order to smell the roses a bit on each. If you plan to be on the go a lot then you might not want to spend a huge amount on your room. If you plan to take a break each day and spend some time around the resort then I might want to stay somewhere with more amenities than a value resort. They're all nice IMO.

 

[wasabi girl]

Can't help much, I'm going for my first trip in December. So this is just a bump

 

[canwegosoon]

I personally could not suggest doing all of that in one trip, but your trip...your rules. So realistically 1 day at each place, I would check out a multi park ticket and then do a 1-2 day WDW. Florida has so much to see and do...I would really evaluate what you want to do, and give everything a scale. I would also make a priority of doing things you can't do anywhere else. Is this going to be your only trip to Florida?
Will you be flying?
When are you planning on going?
How many people are going?
What type of eaters are you (can you do counter service, or want 1st class sit down, do you share meals)?
Spending money?
With this many different adventures I would think that you are going to stay off site and rent a car...is this what you have pictured?
This will help with your tickets http://www.discountorlandovacation....iversal_studios&catstr=HOME:universal_studios then you just need to add a Disney ticket.

Post some of this info, and everyone will help you

 

[alwaysappy]

okay heres a little more info:

1) Yes this will be our only trip to florida
2) We will be flying from Saskatchewan, Canada
3) we would like to go maybe jan-feb
4) it will be 2 adults that we will pay for
5) we do share meals, we will eat counter service meals as long as they are not all burgers and totally unhealthy. We would like a few sit down meals though, but nothing pricey. We're easy to please.
6) i should think money for souviners etc. would run us $200-300?
7) we will stay where-ever is most convieient, not too over priced and still clean and would make a good holiday location.

We have never been on an actual holiday before (not even a honeymoon) we were married last year and would really like to enjoy ourselves.

Thanks so much!!!! Also any hotel suggestions????

 

[ceecee]

I assume you will rent a car so you could stay off-site. That is too much to do in my opinion in only 7 days. Remember there are 4 parks in Disney World alone. Universal may take several days and they are doing a promotion with buy one get two days free or something like that. You could just do Disney, stay on site, use their transportation and actually have a few minutes to sit down and relax. $200.00 should be fine for sov. depending on what you really want. Counter serves have more than burgers, so you should be okay with those. Check out the restruant boards for menus and prices.

 

[wasabi girl]

Here's some info I was given from my cousin who is a CM. Buy a guidebook, he recommended Birnbaums, which is nice because it has lots of color pictures. I also like, the Unnofficial Guide to WDW, and the Passporter is a great planning help. You can find the menus for the restaurants at www.allears.net , so you have a pretty good idea of choices and prices. Many people use a travel agent who specializes in Disney travel to help book their vacation and who will keep up with codes and so on.
Allow some time to relax, some down time will make your vacation more enjoyable (staying on property makes it easier). Prioritize what you'd like to see, it is impossible to see even all of WDW in a week or so, throw in Universal and other Florida sites, not possible...if you'd like to see other things...I love the beach, and the Kennedy Space center is nice to see.
Have fun! Happy planning!

 

[Local_Girl]

I have to agree with the other posters...7 days is just not enough time to "do it all", if you are including WDW (4 major parks plus water parks), 2 Universal parks, and Busch Gardens. We have been 3 times in the past 4 years, each trip at least 8 days...and haven't gotten beyond WDW! These parks are huge. There are lots of attractions and there is a lot of walking between attractions. In my opinion, if you must stick to just 7 days, you should concentrate on 1 set of parks--either Disney, or Universal and perhaps a day at Busch. You will pay less per day at WDW if you buy a longer multi-day ticket and concentrate on those parks; there are also some great deals on tickets for the Universal parks (check into the Orlando Flex ticket if you go this route). Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[debbiedoo]

I am definitely going to recommend more than 7 days.

You could fly into Tampa, Fl spend 3 days there. Bush gardens and a day at the beach

Drive to Orlando---check into WDW. I recommend 8/9 nights. This will allow you to have a great time and not be over-exerted. Would go with the MYW planning. With dining option.

Check ut of WDW and move over to Universal. They are having a promotion of buy 2 days three are free??? I would also do Sea World during this time, or while I was At wdw. Then I would fly home out of Orlando.

It is going to take you 2 and 1/2 to 3 weeks to be spaced and have a great time. There is so much to do in FL.


Birbaums and Passporter are two books to get.

http://allearsnet.com has great view of accommodations and food pricing/reviews.

http://mousesavers.com need to sign up at this website for the latest deals that come out.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

#1. Don't go to Busch Gardens...you have your hands full just getting to your Orlando venues.

#2. Time of year would make a difference.

#3. If you are theme park aficionados this would be doable but a touch insane. If not I'd say pick either offsite or onsite and go with that.

Assuming you go a time of year where the parks are open late you could buy a 4 day hopper and see most of the big things there are to see in the 4 Disney theme parks. You will not see anything in the water parks...you probably could squeeze in Pleasure Island. Universal could be done in two days and Sea World in one.

I think the SANE approach might be to get a two or three day convention hopper for Disney from a discount broker and some type of combo ticket for Universal & Sea World.

 

[canwegosoon]

Ok here a starter budget for your 1 week trip

Airfare: I used 1/28/06 7:am-4-37pm
2/4/06 4:45pm-11:15pm
YQR-MCO and Mco-Yqr $709 pp
www.itasoftware.com

Hotel: Value @WDW $77(+tx) * 7=$609
Tickets: 2 Days WDW: 126.74 single park, no hopping (pp)
3 Days Universal: 116.95(pp)
1 Day @ Bush gardens: 55.95 (pp) (from the Maple Leaf site)
or
On arrival day I would do Chef Mickey or other resort dinner try to position yourself somewhere you can watch Wishes for free.
1 day @ wdwMKonly 63.61 on 2/3 You could do DTD on you last day(free)
3 days Universal 116.95 (1/29,30,31)
1 day Bush Gardens & 1 Day Seaworld 99.00 2/1, 2/2
Food:$400 (you could probally decrease this)
Souvies$200
Car$150 (ball park)

So: 709+709+300+300+609+400+200+150 total: $3377 There are lots of variables here...I was unsure about your airport and if there were any other options. There might (chances are slim) be a code for the Value. Or you could look for another hotel. I would skip the water parks...not enough time and Jan can be cool. I know this seems like a lot, and hopefully it will decrease... You have to put away $375 a month...you can do this I am sure others will post other places to save. But I tried to fit in everything you wanted.

 

[canwegosoon]

Now if I could talk you into just doing WDW: The do it all kind of trip...
Airfare: 1420 (could be cheaper)
Value Hotel on site: 609
Tickets: 7 day no hop, no plus (2A) 400
Food: 600
Souvies: 200
Tl:3229

Personally I think that you could be much more relaxed, and get to totally explore the parks, DTD, pools, faireworks, parades etc. Doing a Comando trip where you see all four parks WDW, US, SW and Bush Gardens, can be very stressful. But if you know you will never get there again I guess you have to do it all

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

Another vote for don't try to do it all.

My family went to WDW/US/IOA/BB last May.
Another family did WDW/SW/Discovery Cove the same week in May.
Both of us agreed it was a whirlwind without many memories. No time to savor or let stuff sink in. Their favorite day was their day at Discovery Cove.

Disregard warning if Commando is your usual touring speed.

 

[dixipixi]

In 2003, we actually went to all 4 Disney parks, Universal, IOA, Sea World, both Disney water parks, and Busch Gardens.

But we were in Orlando for 12 nights.

We do like to stay "on the go" on our vacations. However, we also have to have some rest time. An afternoon every other day or so usually does it for us.

Even though we had 13 days to see and do these things, it was easier because we had been to every park (except Busch Gardens) before. So we didn't feel the pressure to see and do everything. If we had really wanted to see everything at all of the parks we probably would have been really frustrated.

When planning our trips, we always set aside 2 days for the Magic Kingdom and then one day for everything else we want to see. I always add at least one extra day just in case of bad weather, or if there's something we really want to go back and do again.

Of course we have time and budget constraints, so we always have to work those in.

 

[Rebeccapaige!]

ok I agree you have tooooooo much for a week, we did 7 nights 8 days. ok here's a TIP, going in february or january there will be codes on rooms, last year they came out end of october, but watch very closely here or sign up at mousesavers.com to get emails about these things, but be careful those deals don't last long, we did Port orleans riverside which is a moderate hotel for $88 a night!! compared to the normal $139! also at that time the code for a value hotel took that down to $55 a night! not too bad either, but we splurged and loved our hotel, more grown up too for 2 adults! so that's something to keep in mind, plane tickets coming from that far away will definately be more so that will probably eat a lot of your budget like someone else mentioned, here's my tip on plane tickets, find the cheapest place right now for your area to orlando and a few others that are close, supposedly and I found this to be true also around july/august/september will be your cheapest rates to fly to a given location, about 6 months ahead of time, I got us tickets that were $258 at the cheapest place midwest express, for $217 although I hear of much cheaper deals than that, but we aren't coming from a bigger city so we aren't on the deal list for most airlines you hear of the deals coming from, also for me with two kids, and my comfort lol I hate landing anyhow for me nonstop was the best. so keep an eye out for airline deals too! I think the most you can do is disneyworld and maybe universal or sea world. for us we took 4 days to do the parks, make sure to see when magic hours are, as a park guest you get extra hours and can run right on most rides totally worth getting an onsite hotel!! nothing like riding every ride in two hours lol but still there are 4 huge parks to see and lot's of shows etc. besides the rides! but I would definately take advantage of extra magic hours. also I would say for two adults with some sit down meals 1,000 food/souveniers is plenty, this doesn't include ticket prices of course, but I took 2 kids and me, and we had this $1,000 for food and souveniers and we went about $150 over but that's with two kids who like souveniers you won't be spending money on this stuff of course lol. I only picked a couple things that i wanted the whole time, we also did 5 sit down meals with this budget, but being so busy we only bought breakfast a few times so we saved money there, I had yogurt and pudding along with us, a some soda for late night when we were in our room, we really only spent one night in our room, otherwise we were rarely in it, but in the mod. you get a free in room fridge if its not in there request one and they will bring it up. also I found eating so heavy the rest of the day a yogurt for breakfast felt nice lol. actually though eating all we did I lost 3lbs in disney lol have fun!!!
Becky, Paige and Hailey


"shooting for return trip feb. 2006"

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

First of all, I'd like to welcome you to the DISBoards! Bonjour et Bienvenue! You've chosen the perfect place to start planning your WDW/Orlando trip!

And now for my 2¢ worth.

As others have stated, you will have a very difficult time trying to do everything that you have listed in just 7 days. Keep in mind that your first and last days will be spent traveling, and that can make it difficult to see or do much on those days, depending on when your flights are. Since you're flying out of Canada, you will need to go thru customs, making the trveling time even longer. So, my first suggestion would be to either pare down the trip to just WDW or else extend the number of days.

Secondly, you will need to take the exchange rate between $CDN and $USD into consideration. When many of us post dollar amounts, we are usually talking about the $USD because that is where we are from. $200 for souvenirs sounds like an adequate amount for two adults when you think in $USD but when you convert it to $CDN, the equivalent is $249.28 CDN (as of noon yesterday...Bank of Canada ). This is quite a difference and will have a major impact on your budget. Canadian "at par" rates are your best bet for an affordable vacation. If Disney comes out with an offer like that, jump on it!

Disney tickets are cheaper "per day" when you get more days on the tickets. So, a 3-day MYW Hopper (expiry) at $219.39 USD will cost you $73.13/day while a 10-day MYW Hopper (non-expiry) at $365.30 USD will only cost you $36.53/day. The beauty of the 10-day non-expiry hopper is that it wil NEVER expire and you would be able to return sometime in the future to use up the remaining days. Please note that the above prices are the current "gate" prices and these tickets can be gotten for less if you go thru a ticketbroker like Ticketmania.com . The 10-day pass will be more steeply discounted than the 3-day pass.
For someone who plans to return anytime in the future, this is the better choice. If you anticipate that this will be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, I would recommend the 3-day Park Hopper at DiscountOrlandoVacation.com for $197.00 USD. Do not buy those tickets now, because they expire 12/30/05! Keep the link and order the tickets when 2006 tickets become available in the winter.

If SeaWorld, Universal's USF/IOA and Busch Gardens are "must-see" venues on your list, then get the 14-day 5-park Flex tickets from Tickemania.com for $220 USD. This will give you unlimited visits for 14 days to all 4 of those parks plus Wet'n Wild Waterpark. And you will get free transportation between the parks.

And if you're going to do all of these parks, I would highly recommend staying offsite at a resort that provides free transportation to all of the Orlando parks. Busch Gardens is not in Orlando, you would have to use the free transportation provided by your Flex tickets to get from one of the other parks to Busch Gardens.

My own feelings are that you will not have a sufficient amount of time to enjoy all of these parks in 7 days. Disney requires a minimum of 3 days just to scratch the surface. Universal can be done in 2 days (a single day would be very hard to do). Sea World is one day and so is Busch Gardens. Wet 'n Wild would take a ½-day to 3/4-day. That's over 7 days right there.

Instead, I would concentrate on just WDW. Book a package that includes room and 7-day MYW Hoppers (expiry) for 6 nights/7 days and the MYW dining addon (covers most of your meals). Stay at a value resort like POP Century, during January. Peak season begins in mid-February and room rates will be much higher. Take Disney's Magical Express transportation for free from MCO to your resort. Total cost should run about $1450 USD or a little over $1800 CDN by today's exchange rate.

That would leave you with only airfare and spending money (tips, transportation to & from your local airport, souvenirs and additional meals not covered by MYW Dining). I have no idea what kind of airfare is reasonable for flights from YQR to MCO. It's probably a good idea to begin watching them now. If you see a good rate, do not hesitate to book it. They disappear quickly. The best days of the week to travel to MCO would be Tuesdays & Wednesdays. The best return trip days would be Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays. You're more likely to see better airfare for those days than you would on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

I hope this helps with your planning. Keep coming back with your questions. Bonne Chance!

 

[DIS~n~JAN]

Hi, hope I don't repeat someone as I didn't get a chance to read all the replies.
We are planning a trip to WDW in Jan 06, this will be our second trip and probably the last for many years because of the cost.

we are flying westjet from Calgary to Orlando 4 adults staight thru $2975.00 round trip. Go to their website it's very user friendly and it will tell you exactly.www.westjet.com

I've haven't yet, but I think I'll book with Disney. www.disney.ca. Great site full of info, in US $only. I plan my vacation get the quote and take it to this site www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi. This tells you the exchange and what it'll cost in Canadian$. That helps in deciding where a person can stay. I personally think staying on WDW property would be the best, they drive you all over the resort.

I'll give this advice to you...STAY AS LONG AS YOU CAN!!!
This is why we are going back. We took that Land and Sea cruise last year and only spent 4 days at Disney, IOA, Seaworld. We rushed through and missed sooo much. We had more fun then we could ever have imagined. Now look at us having to spend another $3000.0 just to get there! Good luck with everything! Let me know if you find any good deals!

 

[FayeW]

We took a "once in a lifetime" trip in Dec 03, and because I was able to budget so well and use all the tips I found here, we are able to go back in Oct! I also wanted to see a little bit of everything, so we did 2 days at SW ( tickets were Cdn at par through CAA, I think they were about $55 each (cdn) and included the second visit free. We spent 5 days at US/IOA ( tickets ordered online were 5 days for the price of 2, that deal has been changed to 3 days for price of 2) and we spent 1 full day at MK, and then went back another day ( after IOA) for the Christmas Party. What we discovered was that we LOVED,LOVED,LOVED US & IOA and they are "can't miss" destinations for the next trip, however, this trip we are concentrating on the Disney Parks.

We stayed offsite (CPGV) through skyauction for $262 US for the 7 days, and we added another day through hotelkingdom.com. We used a ready, set, go auction, but they are more difficult to find accomodations with in Jan/Feb. I would suggest you register at www.skyauction.com and do a search (keyword is "ready"). Click on one of the auctions that opens up, and then scroll down about 1/3 of the page where it says " Click here to see where your next vacation will be". Plug in your dates and destination, and it will show you if there is any availability. If you see something you like, you can reserve it, it will come out of inventory for 24 hours so you can try to win an auction to pay for it. The cost of the auction is whatever you bid, plus $195 + $15 for service and admin fees. Auctions usually go for $50-$60 for the week. The difference in the price of accomodations from onsite will more than pay for a rental car, and you will save even more by being able to prepare breakfast and/or light meals or snacks in the condo.




I don't know how close you are to a U.S airport, but if there is one within 5-6 hour driving distance, it is probably worth your time to drive, stay at a hotel (with the park & fly feature!) and fly from there. We are in Ottawa, and we drove 3 1/2 hours to Syracuse. It saved us $900 in airfare for our family of 4. The hotel for the day before and the day after travel was $89. each night, so we still saved over $700. If that's not an option, just keep watching for seat sales and when you see a price you can live with, book it.

I'd say, get a 3 day MYW with hopper feature, and get the Orlando Multiflex ticket for the other parks. I'd try to add a day or 2 if you can, airline tickets will be less expensive if you can fly Tues-Thurs.

 

[snuffy]

I agree with faye. I am from canada as well and have been looking for good fares for november. Air canada wants $575 pp and if I drive for an hour I can get tickets for $200 pp. Also if this is not an option there is canjet, west jet and air transat for cheap charter flights. Plus no airport customs....which move at an unbelievably slow rate!

Good Luck searching
Jessica

 

[FayeW]

Snuffy, where do you fly from that is only an hour from Montreal? We are 1.5 - 2 hrs from Montreal, so it sounds like the driving distance would be comparable to flying from Syracuse for us.We fly Transmeridian out of Syracuse, but I am always happy to have more options!