Here's how much my trip cost:

[ttm999]

We spent:

$313 (6 nights at Fort Wilderness campground)
$569 (4 day hopper passes - 2 adult, 1 child)
$700 Food and Spending
$75 hotel on the way down
$135 Sea World tickets
$100 Gas

Total trip was $1892.

We drove from North Carolina and camped. So that saved us a lot of money. And because we camped we ate breakfast at our camper before hitting the parks each day and we fixed dinner or lunch several times at our camper. We ate 2 character meals and dinner at San Angel in Mexico. We allotted $100 per day on spending. Some days we were over and some we were under.

We saved $150 in change (started in January).

We took in snacks and drinks that we had around 10:00 each day. We bought everything else at the park.


Just thought I would share.

 

[ZerasPride]

Thanks so much for sharing your expenses with us. I am always curious as to how others save money on their trips. I've got my change jar but haven't done anything too serious with it. I only save quarters though, last year counting all those pennies, dimes and nickels was a chore. So far we've rolled $20 in quarters and my jar (a small one, I admit) is almost full again so I hope to have close to $100 from that route before we leave.

How was camping? I've always wondered how it would feel to "rough it" at Disney. Would you do it again? Which character meals did you choose? We'll be doing the Princess Storybook and Donald's this time and DH and I will be doing 'Ohanas for our annivesary. With the price increases, we might be cutting it down to 1 special meal per trip in the future. Thanks again for sharing!

 

[travelitis]

Where did you find the best rates for Sea World tickets? I'm supposed to research this for extended family and would appreciate your input.

 

[Alice28]

Regarding the change rolling; I had a nominal amount of change (about $30 worth) and I took it to my credit union and I asked if they prefer I roll it, or could they just put it through the change counter...she said please don't roll it, and she happily took my change and a minute later she was back with a receipt and counted out my bills. So, you may want to ask your bank if they will just put it thru their change counter so you don't have to bother rolling coins! Then I took my older son to the Disney Store and we exchanged the $30 for Disney Dollars. I also went to the Wherehouse Music store and turned in some old CD's I haven't listened to in years and got almost $30 for those. Did the same- got some more Disney Dollars. Any kind of found money like that we are exchanging for Disney Dollars and it will be our purely fun money. I'm trying to use it as a money lesson for my alomst 5 year old- I'm telling him it will be his money to buy toys at WDW, but that we to really look at everything before we spend it, etc. We shall see how it goes.

 

[ellyn2000]

Alice28, that is a great idea to use "found" money for Disney Dollars. I've found my children learned so much from those type of lessons. I'm going to check with my credit union about how they prefer my change since it would be so much easier not to roll it.

 

[ttm999]

I took all my rolled change to our Credit Union - and you have to put your name and account number on each roll. I made label and stuck them on afterwards.


I got our Sea World tickets online. If you order 30 days in advance and print out your own tickets you can save 20%. And you also get to go a 2nd day free. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do a second day. And one other bit of Sea World advice - wear your bathing suits! Lots of chances to get wet and they have a kiddy splash play area. And we also saved a lot of money by buying the large souveneir cup. You get free water refills and $1 soda refills.


Camping was terrific! We have a pop up camper. I wouldn't have wanted to do it without an air conditioner. Even for October, the weather was very hot and humid. The Comfort Stations were the cleanest I have ever experienced. We had no problems with the transportation system. The pool was great and open 24 hours! It saved us a lot of money and allowed us to fix some meals and lunches on site. We would definitely recommend Fort Wilderness!

 

[ttm999]

We ate at Hollywood & Vine at MGM for lunch and saw Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip & Dale. It was nice!


And we ate at Cinderella's Royal Table for breakfast one morning. I lucked into a open stop about a week prior to our trip one day when I called. We enjoyed it very much also! We saw Cinderella, Snow White, Mary Poppins, Belle and Prince Charming. The Fairy Godmother was downstairs - but we didn't wait in line for her autograph. And Bert and Mr. Penguin were outside the castle.

 

[bobcat]

Sounds like you had a grand time! I love camping at FW and hope to get back soon.

 

[Muffy]

Loved hearing about camping at WDW! Sounds like you had a great time!