Does this budget look ok? Need Help...

[chipper10]

My DH and I have decided to take a last minute trip to WDW July 24th-27th. Now i just need to come up with how we are going to pay for it. We have recently been to Disney World for our honeymoon in Feb 2005 and stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, however this time we must be much cheaper. We have POP Century booked for July 24th- the 27th. We have the AP Rate for that since we are going back in Feb and are going to stay for a week. We are only going to eat at counter service, no special meals since we are going back in less than a year. We will be driving from Edwardsville, IL which is about 30 minutes outside of St. Louis. We are going to drive straight through and arrive at Disney around 10pm on the 24th. On the 27th, Wednesday we are going to leave aroud 1pm and drive until about 10pm and stop at a hotel. Here's what I have worked out. Do you see any room for any changes? Am I being to conservative with the budget?

Annual Pass $841 for both of us
Pop Century $288 (AP Rate preferred room, I've had two knee surguries in less that one year, so less walking the better---pretty bad for a 22 yr old )

Food at Disney $213 (roughly $71 a day, only counter service meals)
Gas $165 round trip (2070 miles estimating about $2.25 for gas, we just got a new car and it get 34 mpg)
Food during the Drive $60 ($30 per day, just stopping at fast food)
Hotel for trip home $98
Sovineers (sp) and Extra Money $300 (we aren't really planning on buying alot since we were just there and came home with 2 suitcases of souvineers.)

TOTAL about $1965

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. we would love to try and save some more money. But I just don't see anywhere to cut. Thanks in advance!!!

-Nicole

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I think this might not be a good idea at all. If you average 70MPH you will have about 15 hours of actually driving. Add one hour for gas, quick food stops, etc., you are looking at 16 hours from the time you leave home until the time you arrive. Due to a time zone change you would have to be out of your house at 5:00am (CDT) to get to WDW at 10:00pm (EDT). This will leave you pretty exhausted.

Then you will be playing in the parks (and possibly Pleasure Island also) for 2.5 days and then trying to drive back home. This almost sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

For about the same amount of money ($325.00) you should be able to get a flight from STL for both of you without all the wear and tear on both of you and the car.

 

[chipper10]

Cheshire Figment,
i know what you mean.. We're not looking foreward to the drive. The plan is to leave at 5am and switch off through out the drive. The only airfare I could find was about $600 for the 2 of us. Driving is cheaper unfortunately. We both have the Saturday before off of work so we are planning to relax the day before. We are not party people even though we are young (22 and 23). We are usually up by 6am every morning and in bed by ten or so. We also plan on resort hopping alot during this trip since we will have the car. When we are going in Febuary we are going to fly.

Maybe I'll check air fare again though.....Thanks for looking f=at my budget for me.

-Nicole

 

[chipper10]

Bump.......any other suggestions?

 

[angeleigh]

I would get the dining plan - you are budgetting $35/ per person per day for food anyway so get the dining plan and eat well for the same price. Also chec the math for the AP's - maybe you would be better with one annual pass and one 3 day hopper (remembering you will need another hopper in feb) or even one AP and one 10 day no exp hopper ticet. For the trip home I am certain if you go to priceline or even just search travel sites you can get a budget hotel in the $50 range just to sleep one night.

Have a nice trip!