Help me give an estimate to a friend??

[angellam]

I need some help. I have a friend who is trying to go to Disney during free dining time over spring break. Approx 5 days, on property, with airfare. It's her, hubby, and 3 kids. How much should she budget? I went a totally different way, and I didn't have to pay for lodging or airfare. She's not a couponer. She's only doing free dining. I need to help her with a figure of how much to save...and to tell her if it's feasible for her family to go to Disney! I saved for a year and had a totally different experience...this is totally beyond my knowledge! Leslie

 

[preschoolmom]

I need some help. I have a friend who is trying to go to Disney during free dining time over spring break. Approx 5 days, on property, with airfare. It's her, hubby, and 3 kids. How much should she budget? I went a totally different way, and I didn't have to pay for lodging or airfare. She's not a couponer. She's only doing free dining. I need to help her with a figure of how much to save...and to tell her if it's feasible for her family to go to Disney! I saved for a year and had a totally different experience...this is totally beyond my knowledge! Leslie

Hello! We're in Chicagoland, too!

We're going over spring break with free dining. Five park days, 6 nights at Pop Century (two rooms). We are driving instead of flying. I think our trip will cost $3,000. Add in another $1,000-$1,200 for flights. Any other expenses (boarding pets, parking at the airport/taking a limo) would be more.

Hope this helps!

 

[Marionnette]

I need some help. I have a friend who is trying to go to Disney during free dining time over spring break. Approx 5 days, on property, with airfare. It's her, hubby, and 3 kids. How much should she budget? I went a totally different way, and I didn't have to pay for lodging or airfare. She's not a couponer. She's only doing free dining. I need to help her with a figure of how much to save...and to tell her if it's feasible for her family to go to Disney! I saved for a year and had a totally different experience...this is totally beyond my knowledge! Leslie

Tell her to check Disney's website to go thru the booking process and include airfare. Then point her toward the various airlines that operate out of her closest airport. All of them do travel packages to Disney if they fly to Orlando. Go thru the booking process there as well but do not complete it.

Then she can compare the final numbers.

Or she can save herself the hassle and have a travel agent do the estimates for her.

ETA: There's not enough information in your post to actually give you a ballpark figure. One would need the airport she would be using, the ages of the kids and the type of tickets she would want. A family of 5 would need at least 2 value resort rooms, a family suite or a trundle bed room at POR unless one of the kids is under 3.

 

[HM]

We are doing four nights over spring break at a moderate with five day basic tickets. The price is just under $2000 for two adults and two juniors. We are not flying, but that would have added just above $1000 for the four of us from NC.

 

[angellam]

EXTREMELY helpful! Thank you so much!!

 

[ccgirl]

Have her go to the Disney website then special offers. It really depends on the ages of her children. HOw are they? Remember, anything over 9 is considered a disney "adult". If their youngest is over 3 they are limited in single rooms that they can get. Typically, I am lucky to find airfare lower than $250 so I use $250 pp as an estimate.

 

[angierae]

If she's flying close to Easter, the flights may well break her budget. We are driving because flights from Detroit to Orlando from 3/31-4/7 were running over $600 EACH and there's no possible way we could pay $2400 in airfare on top of what we paid for our package (free dining upgraded to DxDP).

 

[MEM]

We spent Spring Break 2011 at WDW and the flights from the Boston area were obscenely high. For the four of us I spent $2100 - and that was traveling on a weekday and at unpopular times of the day. We own at 3 DVC resorts and had annual passes already so no OOP there. Food averaged $100a day only because we had a one BR villa and prepared most meals in the room. We were there 9 days. After I added in airport parking, the kennel for the dog and souvenirs, the total was over $3600 and that did NOT include lodging or park tickets.

 

[kimkoz]

Yes, the airfare could totally put them over budget for Spring Break. We live 10 mins away from an airport but spring break they were asking over 400pp so we drove 2 hours away to get 250pp. Traveling midweek to midweek could help a bit if possible.

This trip this is my budget (tues-tues) 3 adults, 2 children
Flight - 1200
Hotel - 300 (grateful to get employee rates)
Tickets - 1200
Food - 700 (around 100 a day, we have free cook to order breakfast)
Fun - 700 (around 100 a day)
Transporation - 140 (taxi and I trolley)
Halloween Tickets - 250


Total around 4500-5000. I'd really recommend using these sites since she is staying on property.. there are so many resourses on there.