First time Disney Budgeting

[Bella Granger]

My family is planning on going to Disney World for about a week and the Universal and Island of Adventures theme parks in the near future. We want to splurge on some things and then save our pennies on other things. Realistically how much money should we put aside for food and souveneirs. I know some things at the parks are really cheap like certain dining experiences and other things are very spendy. Thanks

 

[mrsklamc]

Welcome! We'll need to know who is in your party to be much help.

 

[Bella Granger]

Oops! Just 3. My mom, my dad, and myself.

 

[disneysmiles]

It depends on where you eat and what sort of souvenirs you are planning to get. You can read what we did on our trip report blog.

My hubby and I spend 140 for 6 days on food. We ate out 4x at Disney restaurants too. But we had a plan so we wouldn't spend too much money. If you want to eat out for every meal you can easily spend 70 bucks for dinner every night. Lunch 40 and breakfast 30.

As far as souvenirs go, do you want disney art? t-shirts? pins? I recommend setting a budget for yourself since it is easy to go overboard. We spent about 40 bucks on souvenirs.

You are smart to think about these things ahead of time. You can stick to a budget and have a fantastic time at Disney!!! Good luck!

 

[Bella Granger]

Thanks for the advice. We are thinking of eating out a couple times in some of the restaurants and getting souveneir photos, t-shirts,etc. I heard the Disney Pins and art get quite expensive so I don't think we will get any of those.

 

[ceecee]

The pins can be very expensive habit as can the art. We have gotten some great posters for $25 and then had them matted and framed at Hobby Lobby during their 50% sale and they look great.
Some of the sit down restaurants are pricey but like outside of Disney they are as well. Decide what you want to splurge on before you go and it should help you stay on budget.

 

[3_disprincesses]

To help budget your meals, look at the menus on allears.net. We take breakfast foods to eat in the room or in line for the bus each morning ie: poptarts, nutrigrain bars. Most counter service meals are enough for two people. We don't do table service every day but when we do, it's usually a splurge and everybody gets whatever they want. And we take snacks with us to the parks so we aren't buying so much while we're there.

Souveniers are pretty much the same you find at most theme parks and pricing is comparable also.

 

[mrsklamc]

If you have a car, check out the prime and premium outlets for park merchandise.

 

[ohanaMAMA]

If you go in the next few months book a disney package and get the free dining. its a great deal!

 

[JCMHutch]

Thanks for the advice. We are thinking of eating out a couple times in some of the restaurants and getting souveneir photos, t-shirts,etc. I heard the Disney Pins and art get quite expensive so I don't think we will get any of those.

The pins can add up. If you see any you like while in FL, just check ebay when you get home. We have found some great pins for $1-$3 on ebay and we don't feel guilty buying them. Next trip we are going to buy a small lot online and use them to trade for ones we want when we get to WDW.

For eating out, it can be expensive. DH & I always do the DDP and we use it to the max. We even had some snack credits left over that we brought snacks home.

 

[traveljunkie2]

If you have a car, check out WalMart for souveneirs. You can find all kinds of Disney stuff: T-shirts, towels, cups, magnets, picture frames, etc. They may say "Florida" instead of "Walt Disney World" but you will save a fortune for that kind of stuff! Pick up snacks to bring into the parks, too.

The pictures that they take on the rides are expensive, about $20 each if I remember correctly.