Budgeting for a first trip?

[mannasn]

Well, as noted in my sig - I graduate nursing school in a year. I've been in college for the past 8 years, so I decided I'd like to do a Disney trip as a graduation gift to myself and my boys (who will be 7 and 4 at the time).

I've been to WDW once, when I was in junior high - with my parents footing the whole bill, of course. I have no idea how much to budget, so I'm looking for any possible advice.

Graduation is on the morning of May 6, so I'm thinking we'd leave May 7. Although leaving May 6 would be alright too - would just put us getting in really late. That would probably be a better idea since we could hit the parks (or whatever) when we get up the next day, instead of wasting half the day on a flight?

The quotes I'm getting so far for May 7-13, 2006 staying at ASMo, park hopper plus tickets for 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) and dining are in the $2400-2600 range.

We're going to fly down as well. Any ideas on finding cheap tickets?

We love to eat and love to shop - is the premium plan that includes breakfast worth the extra cost or would we be better justified just buying breakfast on our own? How on earth do you keep up with your dining credits throughout the stay (notebook)? Any suggestions on an idea of "spending money" for each person (I'm sure this really varies from family to family)? Will we really have time to do the parks with 2 kids in 7 days?

Sorry, I know I have tons of questions and this turned out to be really long. Any advice whatsoever would be great though. I already can't wait - and it's still almost a year away!

 

[bartleby1]

First, sign up for the newsletter at mousesavers.com. She gives all kinds of tips on her site, plus good deal alerts. The newsletter comes out on the 15th of every month. There is usually a link through which you can buy discounted tickets through ticketmania. When comparing ticket prices, remember that ticketmanias prices include tax and shipping. Prices on disney.com do not. I just ordered out tickets through ticketmania. For 7 day tickets without park hopping that expire 14 days after first use, it came to $710 for 2 adults and 2 children.

7 days is a nice amount of time to spend there. You will NEVER see everything no matter how long you plan for, so just go and enjoy yourselves! Do what you can and when you come home, start planning your next trip, lol!

I can't comment on the flying part, since we always drive. Also, as far as dining goes, we mostly do counterservice quick meals so it never pays for us to do the dining plans. It really depends on what you plan on eating. I believe there are menu prices and choices at allearsnet.com (another great site for info).

Keep reading the boards as much as you can. There is so much info out there that can be helpful. Have fun planning!

 

[MrsMcNally]

I would check on Hotwire. I have used them before, the only downfall of this is that before you actually book with them you don't know when the flight leaves. Could be 6:00 am or 10:00 pm. So if that doesn't pose a problem then I would say check with them, and another tip book EARLY I checked tickets for Ft Lauderdale about 6mo ahead and the tickets were 120.00 round trip. When I booked them about two mo ahead the had risen to 194.00.