How much do you usually spend at DLP?

[LoodlesNoodles]

After transport, hotels and tickets have been paid, how much do you end up spending on your trip on food (where do you normally eat?) and souvenirs (what do you usually buy?)

I'm hoping this will give me an idea of how much money to take with me, as I benefited from free food deal last time and literally spent £50 in total. I can forsee spends going well over the £200 mark this time though.

 

[mommy2ash]

normally i spend around 500 euros. Thats for two people for six days. A meal in the auberge and the taxi takes up around 130 of that.

 

[lilacgems23]

On our 1st trip we spent £250 for 2 days, 2 adults and a child eating at Hakuna Matta, Caseys, Mcdonalds but we bought souvenirs for 16 people back home and for ourselves!

Or 2nd trip for 3 days we spend £700 and ate at all counter service meals again and once at cafe mickey which cost us about £80. Again tho had loads of people back home we bought for and splashed out on a hoody pjs for ourserlves, mugs with matching bowls and got dd a costume, large soft toy and some xmas gifts

Our last trip we spent £1100! But about £200 of this was on a camera (dont ask lol) and we ate at a sit down restaurants every day, auburge which cost us about £110 and inventions again £110ish (ate her twice) and again bought gifts for everyone and bought about 8 photos. Also the exchange rate was very poor at the time around 1.08

 

[daiseyirl]

Id usually put aside 100euro a day thats for 1ad and 2 pre-schoolers (they share meals). I always take something back for 3 of my friends kids (5 kids). That doesnt include what i buy my kids. The first time i took them i did spend alot on them but our 2nd trip i only spent about 50euro each as all they really wanted was the cuddle toys. We are going half board this time so hopeing not to spend too much.

 

[Jayney73]

Were taking the equivalent of 200 euros a day for 6 days!
Half of that will go on food each day...2 of my 3 kids are classed as adults so in buffets etc we have to pay the higher price for them. We intend to eat at Res Des Stars, Cafe Mickey, Davy Crocks, Pizza Planet and plenty of counter service.( Cafe Mickey and DC's not included in above 200 euros as paid for seperatley).
Have budgeted all the meal prices...you should see my list.... and want to have plenty of money each day for other stuff....not just cocktails honest!!
The kids also have about 50 euros each to spend on whatever they want. This does not include petrol for traveling..as we are driving..or tolls...about £250 put aside for that as well.
Phew...need a lie down now

 

[adr2.8i]

is a good question this thread. i have been wondering the same thing. im preparing myself for the expensive food and being quite tight with money i can already see myself moaning when i get there!
(in fact im already moaning about it to the wife and we dont go till sept)!

i shall be taking a clear credit card and put all the food and souvenirs on that and just worry about it when we get back home.

for the 5 days we are there im expecting to spend about £1000?
being DLRP first timers im sure we will get "sucked" in and end up buying everything we can........photos,presents for family etc etc....

as long as my son is happy then who cares huh? its only money!

 

[Ms Poppins]

We have previously overspent massively at DLP and on our first few trips all our money went on food, and beacuse it was hot, on drinks - it's amazing how much drinks for 4, 3 times a day adds up.

It did spoil the holiday a bit, worrying about how much money we were spending on food. And we spent far too long comparing it to prices at home.

Last year we took the half board plus option - and although I don't think we actually saved any money, we really enjoyed the holiday as it took the stress out of budgeting whilst we were there.

We ate in table service restaurants that we would never have considered before, dismissing as too expensive, such as Walts.

We also took snacks such as cereal bars, and didn't need much of a lunch. We took water bottles and refilled these at the fountains throughout the park, and topped up with diluting juice we brought from home. (It is almost impossible to find this in the parks, so if you have little ones, take your own)

We actually came home with spending money, as we hardly spent anything. In fact on the last day, our shopping day, we struggled to spend anything.

I think it's a mindset thing - if you go knowing it's expensive, then you know what to expect. It can be done on a budget, like anywhere, but you need to do your homework on where to eat, because this is by far the biggest expense.

 

[mommy2ash]

We have previously overspent massively at DLP and on our first few trips all our money went on food, and beacuse it was hot, on drinks - it's amazing how much drinks for 4, 3 times a day adds up.

It did spoil the holiday a bit, worrying about how much money we were spending on food. And we spent far too long comparing it to prices at home.

Last year we took the half board plus option - and although I don't think we actually saved any money, we really enjoyed the holiday as it took the stress out of budgeting whilst we were there.

We ate in table service restaurants that we would never have considered before, dismissing as too expensive, such as Walts.

We also took snacks such as cereal bars, and didn't need much of a lunch. We took water bottles and refilled these at the fountains throughout the park, and topped up with diluting juice we brought from home. (It is almost impossible to find this in the parks, so if you have little ones, take your own)

We actually came home with spending money, as we hardly spent anything. In fact on the last day, our shopping day, we struggled to spend anything.

I think it's a mindset thing - if you go knowing it's expensive, then you know what to expect. It can be done on a budget, like anywhere, but you need to do your homework on where to eat, because this is by far the biggest expense.

i agree, it can be done on a budget. really there is no need to go overboard if you are going to upset about how much you spent or worrying about how to pay if off afterwards. I have always came back with loads of money, i prefer to bring too much. It is very easy to get sucked in and buy loads of stuff you dont want or need. I tend to not buy anything until my last day. Then i just get what i really want. Food is where most of my money goes. We do the auberge, cafe mickey, rainforest and a couple of others. It doesnt bother me to spend that much on food. I know the prices before i go and i only go to places i know i like. My aunt nearly passed out when i told her the price of the auberge lol but it is worth it to me and ash.

 

[tennisfan]

When I went last year I took about €300 cash & a credit card for 4 days. We did all our shopping on the last day so didn't have to worry about budgeting too much, spent about €25 a day on food each & ate well. We drove so took loads of snacks & drinks to have in the room. In fact we even came back with loads!

 

[wigan3r]

When we went in March, ( 2 adults and 4 kids) We spent about £500-00 on 3 nights 4 days.. that included buying 2 meals per person per day and gifts for friends/family. We took a bottle of cordial and used that for the kids drinks.... they tend to drink like elephants..!!!

We are off to the Davy crocket next week for 5 days and will be budgeting around £500-00 and cooking some of the time back at the ranch on the BBQ etc...

Regards,

 

[ChristinaDK]

we where there for 5 night whit free dining, and speend around 1200 euro

 

[Rosabelle]

hiya
we went last august, 4nights 5 days.
there were 7 of us in the group altogether 2 ad, 5 children but i mostly looked after my two (finance wise i mean). my mum looked after the other three she had their spending money iykwim.

i took €500 cash with me and spent €100 on the c/c. I came back with about €140 cash i think .

i knew i had the c/c if i needed it so i wasn't really stressing over running out of money plus i knew my wages would be in the bank during the stay too.

there were a few times where i paid for everyone at meals etc, and there were many times when my mum paid for cold drinks/ice lollies etc so what i actually spent on me and the two kiddies could be different from the above figure

but roughly i spent €500 for 1 ad, 2 children for 5 full days. on everything from, cafe mickey, light up toys for fantillusions, other meals, trip to sea life(not worth it), lots of pressies and all sorts of drinks/ice cream/popcorn etc .


if the ash cloud doesn't get in our way (oh please please please blow away)
then i'll be bringing €1200 with me for 2 adults, 2 children for 5 days. i've been saving for months & months and i'm gonna blow it all recession me a**e

rosabelle x

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

Thanks guys this was most informative!
I think I'll try and budget myself to 200euros but have another 100 spare in my bank for just in cases.

 

[janeysdeals]

Hi, we have just come back from DLP and spent a grand total of 23 euro on food in park, went mon to sat to france and went to dlp for 4 full days. allowed kids 10 euro each for souvenir and spent the 23 euro in Mickeys cafe, on a pizza and a garlic bread and a bowl of chips for 2 adults and 3 children, when i got to our cottage i went to the supermarche and spent 66 euro on drinks, baguettes, cheese, ham etc and took our own every day, showed security guards on way in at baggage check and they didnt say a word, they just checking for bombs etc.
its as expensive as you make it really...........

 

[lilacgems23]

if your staying in a hotel though you cant buy food and cook it yourself as there arent cookers or even microwaves in the rooms. Also I find dining part of the whole disney experience and enjoy this as much as the rides, meeting chartacters etc

 

[Fiona35]

My friend and I take crackers with us and have bought some cheeses whilst there and one or two evenings we go back to the room and have cheese and crackers, some crisps and some fruit salad. Not exactly the healthiest option but we like it, we are on hols and its not too expensive either! This means we can put the money towards more expensive dining such as Californai Grill or Inventions - yum!

I think Disney can be as expensive as you want it to be!! My friend and I do eat child portions at the counter service restaurants but its only *** we don't actually eat big portions and there is sufficent to keep us going! Sometimes we will share an Adults meal if we don't fancy the child option. But in the table restaurants we do eat what we like! We'd rather pay for a main course and then go and grab an ice cream from the Gibson Girl Parlour, this is because we happen to like ice cream and most desserts I am unable to eat unless ice cream is offered.

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

if your staying in a hotel though you cant buy food and cook it yourself as there arent cookers or even microwaves in the rooms. Also I find dining part of the whole disney experience and enjoy this as much as the rides, meeting chartacters etc

That's exactly why I asked the question. I plan on enjoying the food this time and not living off of the disgusting chicken nuggets just to keep myself going, this means moneys is required. And plenty of it.
Restaurants being considered include:
Cafe Mickey
Rainforest Cafe
Blue Lagoon
Annettes
Silver Spur Steakhouse
Planet Hollywood
and Auberge de Cendrillion

For snacks I'll be taking some crisps from home.

 

[DLPdaft]

For 2 nights and 3 day trips, one adult and one child, I usually spend around 250 euros. That is with my DD getting to spend around 40 euros of that total over the trip on souvenirs, plus usually one table service and one counter service meal each per day.