Help! $2500 for 6!!

[hopeandtink]

My Dh just told me we could go to Disney in Nov-Dec. but my budget would be $2500 including transportation from Indiana!! Our trips usually run $4000 or more. Everyone really wants to go because we know that this will be the last chance for at least 2 years. How can I make this happen???

 

[mistysue]

what are the dates? How long do you want to be there?

If you take shifts driving, you can skip being in a hotel, pack food for in the car and it is barely anything for the drive. (I'm in MI and I drove straight through once)

If you want to be onsite- you could try two value rooms with the free dining. Then food is covered, it is quick service, but with two meals and snacks plus refillable mugs, that could be done. Get basic tickets.

 

[Gwendolyn]

Im not good at American geography. But is it doable to drive from Indiana to Florida?
There probably will be a couple of good offside hotels or villa's. And if you eat breakfast in your villa, take sandwiches to the parcs and cook dinner in your villa, you can safe lots of money.

 

[jake&samsmom]

1) rent points for a DVC villa from a reputable owner
2) consider driving instead of flying
3) do not buy park hoppers/ do one park per day
4) eat breakfast in the room and bring snacks; eat one big late lunch and use cs as much as possible
5) if you can't rent dvc points then try the values with free dining. see if ASMU suites would be available or the fw cabins

It can be done. we did it way before we bought into dvc. I had a budget of 1600 for a party of 4 and we even flew from houston. goodluck!

 

[Chelley00]

Im not good at American geography. But is it doable to drive from Indiana to Florida?

We've done it twice, and are doing it again in Oct. It's about 17 hours for me, and can be done in one day. Much cheaper than flying.


We have 6, and I don't know that we could do it for $2,500. Offsite would be cheaper, as long as you figure parking into your lodging total. It's the food that kills us. Even eating meals at the condo/villa and sharing park meals and packing snacks etc, it's going to cut it close, and that's not even taking tickets into account.

 

[budbeerlady]

What are the ages and for how long? You can do free dining staying at the family suite at ASMu and driving down.

Or it might be less to request connecting rooms and do 2 at a value resort.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

I live in Indiana (just north of Indianapolis) and the drive is doable - actually we be driving down 3 months from today! We have made the drive 3 times before - twice straight through which we won't do again. We are taking 2 days to drive down this year. [We had been flying down for our last 4 trips but it's just too expensive and none of us are fond of flying anyway.]

As for the $2,500 budget for 6 - I think that's going to be a challenge. I'd say stay offsite or rent DVC points. And don't get park hoppers.

Good luck planning your trip!

 

[dismom301930]

I think you can do it!

My biggest suggestion is to stay offsite. We stayed in a wonderful 3 BR, 2 bath Windsor Hills condo last November (14 - 21) for $299 for the week! The total (after taxes and a $75 cleaning fee) was about $420, or $60/night! (They have a free shuttle to the parks so you don't have to pay for parking.)

If you have a kitchen (like we did) you can save a LOT of money on food. I know I don't like to cook on vacation, but we ate a quick breakfast (cereal, yogurt, fruit) at our condo every day. We also brought snacks/drinks into the parks every day and lunches several days. When we ate meals in the parks, it was mainly counter serve meals. We chose one character meal for the week (my kids chose Chef Mickey's) and it was special since it was the only one we did. But my kids would gladly do without the character meal if we needed to save money somewhere.

Drive instead of fly. I know you will spend money on gas, tolls, and maybe a (hopefully cheap) hotel on the trip, but you will save a lot on airfare and also a rental car. Bring as much food as you can for the drive and for the trip (breakfsts, snacks, drinks).

Get tickets through undercovertourist.com and use the mousesavers link. You won't save a ton, but they are definitely cheaper than getting them at the gate and I have had great luck with them. I agree with the PPs, don't get park hoppers. We choose one park per day and have always been happy with that.

I know this can be hard, but stay out of the gift shops! My kids love the (free) Kidcot stations at EPCOT and making the masks. There was a thread somewhere a while ago about all of the fun free stuff to do at Disney World. Maybe you could find it to get some good tips.

Some quick numbers for one week (not sure how long you will be staying):
MYW tickets for seven days (assuming one under 3, three 3-9, and 2 adults) = $1,100 (undercover tourist)
Lodging (see above) = $420
Food for seven days at $80/day (assuming eating breakfast in, bringing lunch, snacks, & drinks to parks, and counter serve dinners) = $560
TOTAL = $2080
This leaves $420 for the drive down and back (not sure how much gas will cost) and any "extras".

Good luck!!

 

[bellman]

Without knowing ages it is hard to determine. I am taking our family of 6 (2 under 3) down in Dec for less than $2500. My trip is for 7 days and 6 nights at the POR w/FD. We drive straight through without stopping. We leave NE IN about 2am and usually get to WDW about 8pm.

 

[ccgirl]

Definitely doable as others have said. December is free dining (with some black out).

It's hard to give a ball park without knowing the ages. I used 2 Adults and 4 Children (under 10)...

Dec 2 - Dec 9 at ASMu (family suite) with Free QSDP (two counter service, 2 snacks, plus refillable mug per person per night).

It was $2930 for the week for the Family Suite or
$1361 for 1 adult in 2 children in one room (so you would have to double it).

Would you consider staying for 5 days instead of 7? That would cut down the price.

ASMu family suite would be $2461 for the 2 adults and 4 children, park tickets (non-hoppers) and dining plan.

Good luck!

 

[torinsmom]

My Dh just told me we could go to Disney in Nov-Dec. but my budget would be $2500 including transportation from Indiana!! Our trips usually run $4000 or more. Everyone really wants to go because we know that this will be the last chance for at least 2 years. How can I make this happen???

How many are kids, and how many are (Disney)adults? That makes a difference in everything. Also, how many nights would you be staying; how many days of tickets?

Cheapest onsite I can figure would be $1370 at ASM family suites and that is just for lodging. If you work around the black out dates, you could have free dining, but that does not include tickets. For 7 day base tickets, it would be $249 adults and $214 kids. Let's assume 3 adults, 3 kids tickets, so $1389. So you are already over with only 2 meals a day and no transportation money or souvenirs.

Offsite, you could get a 3 bedroom condo for around $500 for a week. Tickets would still be around $1389, so you are already at $1889. You would have to pay for parking, so that is $98 for 7 days. So, you're at $1987. Gas from Indiana, I don't know, maybe $350 round trip? That's already $2337, so literally NO money for food or anything else.

For $3000, you could do it, if you ate most meals at your condo. Or maybe you can find someone with a better deal on a condo or a few cheap Priceline rooms?

Marsha

 

[torinsmom]

I think you can do it!

My biggest suggestion is to stay offsite. We stayed in a wonderful 3 BR, 2 bath Windsor Hills condo last November (14 - 21) for $299 for the week! The total (after taxes and a $75 cleaning fee) was about $420, or $60/night! (They have a free shuttle to the parks so you don't have to pay for parking.)

If you have a kitchen (like we did) you can save a LOT of money on food. I know I don't like to cook on vacation, but we ate a quick breakfast (cereal, yogurt, fruit) at our condo every day. We also brought snacks/drinks into the parks every day and lunches several days. When we ate meals in the parks, it was mainly counter serve meals. We chose one character meal for the week (my kids chose Chef Mickey's) and it was special since it was the only one we did. But my kids would gladly do without the character meal if we needed to save money somewhere.

Drive if you can. I know you will spend money on gas, tolls, and maybe a (hopefully cheap) hotel on the trip, but you will save a lot on airfare and also a rental car. Bring as much food as you can for the drive to save on costs.

Get tickets through undercovertourist.com and use the mousesavers link. You won't save a ton, but they are definitely cheaper than getting them at the gate and I have had great luck with them. I agree with the PPs, don't get park hoppers. We choose one park per day and have always been happy with that.

I know this can be hard, but stay out of the gift shops! My kids choose one souvenier each trip (usually they pick something around $20) and that is it. They love the (free) Kidcot stations at EPCOT and making the masks. There was a thread somewhere a while ago about all of the fun free stuff to do at Disney World. Maybe you could find it to get some good tips.

Good luck!!

Do you have a link for that condo? I'd like to keep it in mind for next summer! We got a $450 deal at Emerald Island and thought that was a great deal.

Marsha

 

[Chelley00]

I live in Indiana (just north of Indianapolis) and the drive is doable - actually we be driving down 3 months from today! !

We leave the day before you, and live right around the corner from you (West Side) We do the drive there straight through, but stop on the way home to stay halfway.

 

[hopeandtink]

What are the ages and for how long? You can do free dining staying at the family suite at ASMu and driving down.

Or it might be less to request connecting rooms and do 2 at a value resort.

We have 4 children, ages 5,8,9, and 12. We would like to stay 7 days but could do 5. We are looking at the Nov. 27th-Dec. 4th. The tickets are what is killing the budget. I heard about the YES program ( 5 day tickets for $158 per person) but really don't much about it.

We would be willing to stay off site but I am scared to take that leap! Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[ICF]

Lets see....

We drove from the Northside of Indy down last month and stayed in Orlando for a week.

There were 4 of us and our costs went as follows....

1. Gas for the drive -- roughly $300-350 -- of course the recent spike in prices we saw here will drive that a little higher. We stayed in a hotel - both ways- as the long straight drive thru wasnt something we wanted to do, and we stayed for free thanks to credit card reward points.

2. 3 BR townhouse in Windsor Hills with private pool - $700 (Including taxes)

3. Trip to walmart for food - $50 mainly breakfast stuff and some lunch meat and the like. Driving down you can purchase and bring a lot of food type things with you.

4. Park meals / snacks -- $125 or so..We had 4 days (of our 6) in the theme parks -- ate CS for each meal and brought our own drinks with us. We usually brought our own snacks, but we all got ice cream a couple of times as well.

5. Parking Fees - $60 - for the 4 days.

6. Misc stuff --- $50 or so.

That comes up to roughly $1300-$1400 for our week. We already had our tickets - leftover days from a previous trip so there was no ticket expense for us.

If you are making a budget and really trying to stick to it, you can offset some of those vacation costs of the trip, by what you wont be "spending" back home...gas, meals and the like that you spend in a normal week at home that you wont be spending in vacation...or rather would be spending in Fla instead.

 

[Michelle and crew]

If you could go in January for the YES program, drive, and rent an offsit condo you could do it easily.

 

[sksjasams]

Ok, how about this...

Use undercover tourist mousesavers link for tickets:

6 day base tickets for your family $1289

Use mousesavers rate for Buena Vista Suites:

http://www.mousesavers.com/buenavistasuites.html

6 nights for your dates $89/night = about $600

Buena Vista Suites has 1 bedroom suites with 2 queens and a pull out sofa. It has free full breakfast and shuttles to the parks. Rooms have coffee/tea makers, mini-refrigerator, microwave, 2 large HDTVs with free cable. They have their own one day sales on their website every Thursday, so you may even get a better rate.
http://www.thecaribeorlando.com/buena-vista-suites/specials-packages/one-day-sale/

That leaves about $600 for travel and food. You could do breakfast at the hotel (free), CS lunch at the parks, and dinner in the room from groceries (or inexpensive restaurant offsite).

I agree that you should be able to add the money you are saving by not being at home into your budget - for example if you normally spend $150 on groceries and $30 on gas, that would be and extra $180 added to your trip budget. Unless your husband already accounted for that when he gave you the budget.

Good luck - I hope you can swing it!

 

[TheRatPack]

Just wanted to say it can be done We used to do it all the time....just takes a bit of work and playing around with different options...etc.

 

[hopeandtink]

I don't think that you can get the free dining without buying a 2 day tickets.

 

[ccgirl]

I don't think that you can get the free dining without buying a 2 day tickets.

You are correct. You need to purchase a 2 day ticket and pay full rack rate for the room in order to qualify for free dining.