budget trip for 2 adults 2 children

[cook4you]

We are planning a trip to dw and need tips on inexpensive lunches. We used a TA and are staying in the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort.We were told the kids (9 and 12) eat free at the resturant in the hotel. We are planning to eat BKFT & supper @ hotel resturant. Also need info on budgeting for souveneers. We want to see the ocean and Kennady Space Center any input on this would be great. Thank You.

 

[bobcat]

Welcome to the DIS!

Lunches in the parks can be affordable. Two great places in the Magic Kingdom to eat are Pecos Bills and Cosmic Rays because they have this amazing toppings bar! The burgers are good and you can add sauteed onions, musrooms, etc to them. The Animal Kingdom offers a meal deal where you purchase a ticket for $11 adult and $6 child you can get a meal at one of the counter service restaurants and then get a bottle of soda and an ice cream or popcorn at one of the stands later in the day.

Sit down restaurants may not be too much more expensive depending on where you eat. www.wdwig.com has an awesome list of all the menus at WDW so you can see where you would like to eat and prices ahead of time.

Don't be afraid to share a meal as many of the portions are huge. My daughter and I always share a double burger at Pecos Bills. It only costs about $1 more than the single and we walk away full.

Have a great trip and keep asking questions. Someone here will know the answer.

 

[HM]

Definitely look at sharing meals. The portions at WDW are huge and not one of us can ever finish a meal on our own. I agree with the choices above for eateries. Cosmic Rays in MI has a rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes that are heavenly and very share-able. At Epcot we like Yakitori House in Japan. At MGM we like to get food from the Market down near Rock n Roller Coaster. .chicken fingers and fresh fruit. -HM

 

[MrsPete]

I'm not sure you'll be happy with the choice to go back to the hotel for dinner every night. You'll have to leave the parks early, which will not be a happy thing with kids the ages of yours. If you're traveling in the summer (so that the parks are open late-late), you'll have the option of coming back after dinner; however, that's wasted time. Even if your hotel is "right next to" Disney World, you're going to have an hour's transit time each way (including to the parking lot, etc.).

What are you going to save by going back to the hotel? Remember you're still paying for two adult meals. You're probably going to save $10-12 per dinner. How much did your hopper passes cost? Figure out per hour how much it's costing you to leave the parks for dinner.

If you're looking at fast food in the parks, you can use the same money-saving strategies that work at lunch time:

Someone else already suggested splitting a meal -- a great idea. A double burger is about a dollar more than a single burger; yet it can feed two people. Chicken nuggets are easy to split.

If half a meal doesn't fill your kids up, tell them it's a "hold you over" snack until you get back to the hotel. Bring a big cooler full of snacks, sandwich materials, etc. Bringing from home is always cheaper than buying prepared food anywhere.

Order a double burger AND a plain bun for an additional fifty cents. You can figure out what to do from there!

Cosmic Ray's (?) offers a $15 family meal. It's chicken and the fixings. That's probably about the same amount you'd spend to feed two adults at the Holiday Inn.

Sodas for four will add about $8 to your bill. Ask for FREE ice water (also a healthful choice) and save quite a bit.

If you're relying heavily on fast food places, you may get tired of burgers. Epcot fast food has many other choices.

Order kids' meals, which are plenty big for all but the most ravenous. They're much less expensive. You could probably feed the whole family for less than twenty dollars.

Snacks can kill your budget quicker than meals. Bring plenty of snacks that can fit into fanny packs, and explain to the kids that these snacks are free but THEY must pay for all snacks bought at the park. If they're like my kids, they'd rather have a tee shirt than a bag of popcorn.

 

[disneymom3]

Excellent advice on the meals has been posted. Just wanted to add about souveneirs;

DO NOT GO INTO THE SHOPS!!! LOL!

Seriously, stay out of the shops as much as you can. There is no easier way to blow a budget trip than by seeing all of that cool Disney stuff. And your kids are old enough by far to bring their own spending money. My 6 yo was totally on her own for souvs this last trip and that is the way to go! She is a lot more conservative with her own money than mine! And it has instigated good habits. She is already saving for our trip in 2004. She figures she might be able to save enough that the $16 for that princess hat might not wipe out half of her budget!

 

[Candace]

As for souvenirs, visit the outlet mall shop instead of the ones at the parks. Sometimes they will have some of the same current merchandise, sometimes it will be a season behind, but it's still great stuff! At Premier Outlet Mall in Little Lake Bryan, there are two stores right by the food court. One is Disney, and straight across from it is Universal. Both have really good bargains.

 

[mom2girls29]

You didn't mention when you are going. If you have some months ahead, you can ask family to give your kids disney dollars for Easter, birthdays, xmas, etc. We did this for our first trip and our kids, the same ages as yours, were less likely to bug us for money. When they wanted a shirt or pen or whatever, I offered them their money. They became wise shoppers very quickly!

Good Luck!

Mary

 

[LisaRay]

As far as souviners go, you will be very close the 2 disney outets stores. We go there 1st thing before we ever enter the parks and let everyone get at least one thing. DH got a grumpy t-shirt for $5.99 and DD got a Tower of Terror shirt with mickey for $4.99, DS got a light up Buzz toy for $5.99. This way we don't feel so deprived. Then later in the week after making sure there is nothing in the parks we can't live without we go back and get one or two more things depending on price. (p.s. i got a Disney calander for 2003 half price only $4.99 after being told at Downtown disney that they'd been sold out since dec.!)

As far as food at dinner time with the kids eat free....... beware!
We stayed at HIFS in Jan. and ate there dinner buffet one eving thinking that kids eat free would be a very cheap meal but it came to $38!! We could have eaten fast food in park or a sit down at plaza restaurant for that. The buffet was $13.95 per adult and then drinks were ??? plus they added an automatic 15% tip to the bill! We almost didn't catch this and almost left another tip! (we were not happy with this since we had little to no service, plus i have to wonder how many families don't know they've already been charged and leave a double tip)

Since we were there when the parks closed early we thought we'd eat lunch in park and then dinner at hotel but even when the MK closed at 7 it takes an hour for ferry, tram, car to get to room. So we decided that when we were at MK we would eat all meals there. Just too big of a pain to leave there. But when we were at the other parks we left and came back for afternoon break and kid eat free for LUNCH. This was much better for us. We were ready for a break by then anyway and then we could eat in parks for dinner and enjoy our evening. There are alot of good places around you hotel to eat at too. Plus don't forget a cheap meal of pizza in room.
jeez, this was long!!! .............sorry