Can you help me do a super budget ($1000) trip?

[worm761]

Tall order, I know.

We had a trip planned but had to cancel it. I really really want to go. So does the rest of the family. Fiance and I talked and we can do it if I can keep the total under $1000. I can go any time in September and we don't need tickets. I have Florida resident seasonal passes from our last trip. The party is me (mom), Fiance (dad), DS 15yrs, and DD2yrs. We would drive as we are only 8 hours away. Gasbuddy.com says it will cost right around $200 for gas. So I am down to $800 for room, food, mousekeeping, and whatnot. Eating in the room isn't really an option and staying offsite isn't really an option. DS virtual schools and can do his work from anywhere and any time so school is not an issue. Can I make this work? Thank you for any help you give me!

 

[stsomewhere]

Disney was offering free dining in Sept.

 

[worm761]

Disney was offering free dining in Sept.

Yes, I know. I looked at it but I would have to buy tickets that I don't need. And DD doesn't count for food so I would still have to buy her food OOP. It was 857 for free dining at Pop for 5 nights. Those 2 day tickets are what kills me for the free dining deal.

 

[HayGan]

Since you are driving, why isn't eating and staying off-site an option? That is really the only way I can see you doing food & lodging for $800 or under.

 

[Que_Sarah_Sarah]

With taxes and such, if you stay before Sept. 27, you would be looking at $100 per night at one of the All Star resorts. You might be able to get a discount on room only because it is a value season, but you would have to wait awhile to see if anything came out.

That being said, with $800 left in your budget, if you stayed 4 nights you would be out $400, leaving you with $400 for food/mousekeeping/etc.

So let's say that's 5 days. If you don't eat at any sit down restaurants, you save a lot of money. Also, if you eat breakfast in your room (You said it wasn't a possibility, but what about granola bars, oatmeal, packaged muffins, etc?) My mom and I went for a week and spent approximately $50 per day on everything. We had a few sit down restaurants in there, so we probably could have swung $35 per day. This was with us sharing some CS meals, which was fine because that's a lot of food. So let's say with all four of you, you spend about $60 per day on food. That means (if 4 nights equals 5 days) $300 goes to food. Following along? You've got $100 left.

That is your buffer money. Tip for mousekeeping, additional unforseen expenses, etc.

Fellow dis-ers, does that sound reasonable?

 

[mrsklamc]

Eating in the room isn't really an option and staying offsite isn't really an option.

Why isn't staying offsite an option?

 

[ICan'tWait]

Since you are driving, why isn't eating and staying off-site an option? That is really the only way I can see you doing food & lodging for $800 or under.

What they said. Just a quick look at the mousesavers website shows a hotel with a free breakfast and a 5th night free. I bet you can find lots of great deals off site in September.

 

[worm761]

Why isn't staying offsite an option?

Offsite isn't an option because Fiance would prefer onsite. And usually after paying for parking, it isn't really worth it. I don't drive and fiance prefers not to on vacation. This is not a do or die trip. As you can see from my signature I have a trip planned in December 2013. This is just an I am spoiled and want to go to Disney trip, IYKWIM. LOL.... I just really want to go. I can not go but that isn't exactly as much fun.

Eating in the room is not an option because I just don't like those sorts of foods. And I have low blood sugar so eating is a must. I know we can do breakfast relatively cheap at the food court though. I wonder if Fiance and I can share meals. I doubt it but worth a shot.

 

[Marionnette]

Tall order, I know.

We had a trip planned but had to cancel it. I really really want to go. So does the rest of the family. Fiance and I talked and we can do it if I can keep the total under $1000. I can go any time in September and we don't need tickets. I have Florida resident seasonal passes from our last trip. The party is me (mom), Fiance (dad), DS 15yrs, and DD2yrs. We would drive as we are only 8 hours away. Gasbuddy.com says it will cost right around $200 for gas. So I am down to $800 for room, food, mousekeeping, and whatnot. Eating in the room isn't really an option and staying offsite isn't really an option. DS virtual schools and can do his work from anywhere and any time so school is not an issue. Can I make this work? Thank you for any help you give me!

Disney was offering free dining in Sept.

Yes, I know. I looked at it but I would have to buy tickets that I don't need. And DD doesn't count for food so I would still have to buy her food OOP. It was 857 for free dining at Pop for 5 nights. Those 2 day tickets are what kills me for the free dining deal.

Sorry, but I don't see it happening under the terms that you defined.

A Florida resident room-only discount for 4/15-5/24/12 using code P7L will get you a value resort room for $86/night Sun-Thurs nights, $102/night for Fri and Sat. That's actually a very good discount compared to the rack rate for regular season.

If you were to go for 5 weeknights, it would cost $432 with tax. That would leave you with $368 for 6 days of food. You might have a problem with feeding 3 adult appetites on $61/day. Your 15 year-old son will probably eat at least $30/day all by himself if he is anything like my sons were at that age.

You might be able to get a Florida resident rate during value season, late in the summer or during the fall. But there aren't any available right now. And gas prices might rise so much over the summer, which would leave you with even less to spend on the room and food.

Perhaps you should consider waiting until you can save the amount you need to take the vacation that you want.

 

[Que_Sarah_Sarah]

If you don't like convenience breakfast foods, what about those microwavable breakfast bowls from Jimmy Dean or something like that? They have a microwave in the AS food court and I believe they all have a dorm fridge in the room now. I think you could swing the trip with $1000 (contrary to popular belief!) but I think with breakfast you would go over the edge.

 

[Que_Sarah_Sarah]

You might have a problem with feeding 3 adult appetites on $61/day. Your 15 year-old son will probably eat at least $30/day all by himself if he is anything like my sons were at that age.

I tend to disagree with this statement. Two adults can definitely share a CS meal for both lunch and dinner and be perfectly full. That has been my experience, like I said when my mom and I went recently. As far as a teenage son, when my brother and I were that age, we brought our own snacks to stave off random afternoon and late night hunger attacks. Granola bars are big in our family

 

[worm761]

Sorry, but I don't see it happening under the terms that you defined.

Perhaps you should consider waiting until you can save the amount you need to take the vacation that you want.

I probably should. This is the budget he gave me to work with. All other money in the budget is allocated elsewhere. He wants to go as much as I do but we need to buy a new vehicle this year. It was planned but not for this year. My dad is buying our truck from us and wouldn't have needed it for a while but he was T-boned while we were all in Tennessee for my sister's wedding a few weeks ago. That is why the original trip was cancelled. To make room in the budget for a new vehicle. I really want to go though. A thousand seems reasonable for a short trip though. Trying to make it work. If not, there is always next year. Christmas with the bestie at Boardwalk. We were just there in October too. So a lot of this is just looking at the time span from one trip to the other. My first trip as an adult was in 2001 and I haven't gone more than a year between trips since. This would be the first.

 

[HayGan]

Quite honestly, I'm not sure what kind of advice you want if you have your tickets, insist on staying onsite and have to eat Disney food Maybe if you were willing to do some basic cooking in the room you could consider renting points off of a DVC member for a studio for a few nights. A studio at OKW for Sept. 10 -14 would be 40 points. If you can find someone willing to rent at $10 a point that would be $400 for the room leaving $400 for food. Since you have a small fridge and a microwave to use, make a run to Publix (or bring some food with you) to have breakfast food as well as sandwich stuff etc. If you are willing to travel offsite for a meal or two there are some great deals on restaurant.com for area restaurants. We like the $50 off $100 at Giordano's. We fed our entire group dinner and took plenty of stuff back to the villas for lunch the next day. They do have a $25 off $35 which might be better for your group.

The scenario Marionette gave you is probably about the best you are going to be able to do if you aren't willing to rent points. I would seriously suggest that you consider taking some snacks and breakfast type foods along to help reduce your food budget even if you stay at a value. My nephew came with us last year (he was 15 at the time) and he easily ate 3X more than anyone else with us (and there were 7 of us!)

 

[tarheel618]

Yes, I know. I looked at it but I would have to buy tickets that I don't need. And DD doesn't count for food so I would still have to buy her food OOP. It was 857 for free dining at Pop for 5 nights. Those 2 day tickets are what kills me for the free dining deal.

Couldn't you keep the tickets for a future trip and use your passes for this trip? I think the free dining onsite would be your best bet and if you save the tickets you could use them in the future and upgrade them to seasonal passes again.

 

[worm761]

LOL... Thanks Haygan! It never occurred to me to rent points. Don't know why. I will go check that out. With a fridge and a microwave in the room, breakfast might be an option in the room.

 

[Marionnette]

I tend to disagree with this statement. Two adults can definitely share a CS meal for both lunch and dinner and be perfectly full. That has been my experience, like I said when my mom and I went recently. As far as a teenage son, when my brother and I were that age, we brought our own snacks to stave off random afternoon and late night hunger attacks. Granola bars are big in our family

Sorry, but neither of my boys nor their friends would have been satisfied with a granola bar instead of a full meal. Heck, they could eat dinner and an hour later they would be throwing a frozen pizza in the toaster oven - and eat the whole thing by themselves! 3 CS meals and 2 snacks per day would easily cost $30 and is not an unreasonable budget for a teenage boy.

It is possible for 2 adults to share CS meals every once in a while but not for every meal for 6 days. And not while also sharing with a 2-year old, like the OP. At some point, someone is going to want their own choices.

 

[Mrs. Sojourner]

Yes, I know. I looked at it but I would have to buy tickets that I don't need. And DD doesn't count for food so I would still have to buy her food OOP. It was 857 for free dining at Pop for 5 nights. Those 2 day tickets are what kills me for the free dining deal.

I am not sure if you are planning on renewing your annual passes (then this advice is not really helpful) or getting new ones at a later time, but if you use none of the days, you can save them and apply them towards another annual pass in the future. I think you would just use the tickets when you were ready to get the new annual passes and then upgrade them. We haven't done that, but we have saved our tickets from free dining and used them during black-out dates for the passes. (My middle daughter's birthday often falls in back-out dates.) This wouldn't neccesarily help you save money for this trip, but it might help if you were planning on getting annual passes again in the future.

Another option might be to stay less days and get a TiW card for helping cut the food costs. Plus, you could use it during your December trip as well. You'd have to do the math on that (where you'd eat, what you'd order, etc.).

Hopefully you can work it out!

 

[Que_Sarah_Sarah]

I decided to delete this post.

 

[Sunnywho]

I would think you first have to work out what you will spend on food, then the remaining money will determine how many days can be afforded.

There are menus on allears with prices to figure out the food budget.

I am sure with $1000 and no tickets to buy, some sort of disney vacation can be had!

 

[worm761]

I think I have it worked out to $984. 4 nights at Pop, use the microwaves in the lobby to heat up breakfast bowls (will take a cooler to keep them in w/ dry ice), pack a lunch for the lunch on our travel day, CS only in the parks with one night getting a pizza at Pop and eating by the pool or in the room.
This makes the room 414 w/ no discount and hoping that a FL resident or AP comes out this summer, 200 for gas, 20 for mousekeeping ($5 per night), and 350 for food.

Thank you for all the advice. If I can't find a room discount then we probably won't go but putting the money in my Disney fund account and earmarking it for this year instead of next year will work. If we don't go then I have an extra thousand for next year.