How much do you usually take to the World with you

[IcedMudd]

How much spending money, when using the dining package, do you usually take for leisure? We are a family of five, with three small children. Just curious what the average is.
Thanks!

 

[honeydiane1953]

How much spending money, when using the dining package, do you usually take for leisure? We are a family of five, with three small children. Just curious what the average is.
Thanks!

well I take around 2,000.00 but hope I don't need it.

 

[Mishetta]

We bring $1000 on a Visa debit card that we get at AAA before we leave. (It's a substitute for travelers checks.) We also bring $500 cash & we both have credit cards, which we try to use sparingly. We are a family of 4 & have never gotten the dining plan. We also bring our own breakfast foods & PB&J to make sandwiches. We penny pinch when traveling too, because otherwise, we could never enjoy some of life's pleasure's like DisneyWorld.

Everyone is different though. You would know your own spending habits. We don't usually buy anything. We're just so grateful to be there!

Have a great time!

 

[txaggie94gigem]

we have found that the kids pretty much want everything!

what we do is put all of our change in a big piggy bank for about a year before each vacation...the kids love to find money on the floor and put it in the bank! then we take the coins to the bank and whatever the amount is we split it between all the kids equally...usually it is about $40-50...

then the kids see things they want throughout the parks.....i make note of their favorite things...we usually visit each park at least once before we buy anything...then they have a set amount to spend on whatever they want.....that being said my 7yo last year wanted to spend $20 on candy (just like we already had in our hotel room)...we said no and the resulting character pics with him frowning are hilarious...but we did not back down!

this way helps kids learn about a budget and sharing plus saving etc....of course mommma still spends about $300+ on herself!!!!

 

[Swimalie]

I'm interested in this too as we leave in less than 3 weeks. We will be a family of 3 (husband, myself and son who will be turning 5 during the trip). We have pre-paid for the dining plan but my son can get just about anything he wants. We are staying on property. Can we charge things to the room since we'll be leaving them with a credit card upon check-in?

 

[beansmom]

we otok DD in December and we spent (not including resort and food coz we had free dining) about $600.

IF we buy our food, as we will this coming October...then we spend (for 2 adults and we don't scrimp) about $1000 for a 5 day trip.

HTH.

 

[HHSTigerFan]

We bring $1000 on a Visa debit card that we get at AAA before we leave. (It's a substitute for travelers checks.) We also bring $500 cash & we both have credit cards, which we try to use sparingly. We are a family of 4 & have never gotten the dining plan. We also bring our own breakfast foods & PB&J to make sandwiches. We penny pinch when traveling too, because otherwise, we could never enjoy some of life's pleasure's like DisneyWorld.

Everyone is different though. You would know your own spending habits. We don't usually buy anything. We're just so grateful to be there!

Have a great time!

Does AAA charge for this??? I looked on their website a few months ago and never saw it.. With the dining plan, I was thinking about $1000 on giftcards and then a few hundred more in cash for our 11 nights at Disney and 2 nights at the beach..

 

[Mishetta]

Does AAA charge for this??? I looked on their website a few months ago and never saw it.. With the dining plan, I was thinking about $1000 on giftcards and then a few hundred more in cash for our 11 nights at Disney and 2 nights at the beach..

I believe our initial cost for the card was $4.50 & it doesn't matter how much you load on it. The nice part is that you can keep reloading it for free. So every trip we've taken, we've reloaded the same card. We have a 'companion' card (2 cards, same number for my husband & I) so we each keep track of what we've spent since it comes out of the same pool of money we put on the card.

We found out about this card when we once got Travelers Checks & then we went on vacation & NO ONE would accept them! We had hardly brought any cash, so we had to charge nearly our entire trip. That was horrible for us. So we went back to AAA with our useless Travelers checks & they told us about this Visa Travel Card which is just like using Travelers Checks only more convenient! Every place accepted it too! It doesn't say 'debit' card on it, so you can use it as a credit card.

 

[Mishetta]

I'm interested in this too as we leave in less than 3 weeks. We will be a family of 3 (husband, myself and son who will be turning 5 during the trip). We have pre-paid for the dining plan but my son can get just about anything he wants. We are staying on property. Can we charge things to the room since we'll be leaving them with a credit card upon check-in?

Yes, I believe they will give you a $500 limit on your room charge. Once you've reached your limit, they let you know & then you can authorize them to charge your card, & then you start off with with a new $500 limit. Luckily we've never exceeded our initial $500 charge.

 

[meriface11]

DH and i usually spend about $500-$600 for a 5 night stay. we buy presents for my ILs and my 4 nieces and nephews and some adult beverages. That includes tips for our TS meals on the DP. You can use the menus on allearsnet to estimate your tips for each of your TS meals. Sometimes we use our snack credit for the day for breakfast, sometimes we eat in the room before we leave to save money.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

Yes, I believe they will give you a $500 limit on your room charge. Once you've reached your limit, they let you know & then you can authorize them to charge your card, & then you start off with with a new $500 limit. Luckily we've never exceeded our initial $500 charge.

I believe charge privilages vary based on resort. Value is $500, moderate is $1000 and Deluxe is $1500. Atleast that is what I remember it being.

We do not purchase many souveniors since we go so often. For 8 days last year our charge total $800. That included food for 6 people, plus all the little things we bought like refillable mugs etc. We were not on the Dining plan. We split a lot of meals and never go hungry.

 

[lisaross]

well u will need $ for tipping

i would say 100 per day u won't even spend that much.. u could aways just take a charge card and sign everything to ur room if u would like.

How much spending money, when using the dining package, do you usually take for leisure? We are a family of five, with three small children. Just curious what the average is.
Thanks!

 

[lynn46356]

In the past we have gotten our son a disney gift card to use for his purchases while at Disney. We typically get the $50 card and he's able to pick out what he wants etc. We are a family of three and spend less than $200 for a 6 night vacation but we are also on the dining plan too. We tend not to spend much extra $$$ while at WDW and that is what I like about having the dining plan and paying for it in advance. Have fun planning!!!!

Lynn

 

[comicguy]

We plan an average of 25 per TS meal for tips and then 50-75 for each of us for souvies

 

[mindyd]

We are getting the gift card and also the dining plan so I am planning on taking about 500.00. I do have money in the bank in case we need anything but with the gift card that should take care of all most all of the souvenirs.

 

[neatokimmo]

We were there for 14 days. Spent about $150 in tips and kids meals (we did two tip included dinner shows) and another $150 in the outlets. I also used up my $80ish rewards card on little stuff.

I had a hard time buying clothes in the park when the Disney store stuff was under $5, and a lot of times, cuter. So if you like things like snowglobes/sweatshirts/watches, you'll need significantly more. And it is super easy to drop $150 on a fancy costume with shoes, crown, wand - whew! Luckily squirt was too little for most of them

Oh and to actually answer the question, I had 3,000 available to spend.

 

[Justsyd2]

How much spending money, when using the dining package, do you usually take for leisure? We are a family of five, with three small children. Just curious what the average is.
Thanks!

We bring a hundred dollars a day extra money.

 

[Ms.Grumpy]

For our 9 day trip we took $800 and came back with $200. We went during FD so we were able to save on food.

 

[IcedMudd]

We will be staying at CBR for 8 days with the quick service dining plan (seems to be what will work best for us). We only have one ADR at Ohana. So far, it looks like we'll be taking $1500-2000 with us. Think that should be enough? Oh and we do no credit cards, cash or debit only.

 

[wdwfan16]

No way would I carry $2K to any vacation destination. If you lose the money you are really up the creek without a paddle. I take a few hundred, just in case, and then use CCs for the rest.