How much money should I bring?

[jenng1983]

Hey everyone! I'm brand new to this forum, and you guys all seem so helpful, so I thought I'd say hello and ask a question I couldn't get a clear answer on by Goggling.

My husband and I are planning a trip in February 2016. We have 2 kids, they will be 4 and 14 when we go. This is all of our first time to DL; I've been to WDW 20-ish years ago as a kid. I know it's a long time away, but we need to plan for finances, and I'm sooo excited, I have to plan.

So, anyways, we're going for 8 nights in February, with 5 day park hoppers. I have NO clue how much to plan on for spending money. We don't want to be super cheap and have to keep saying "no" to the kids on what could be our only family vacation for a little while... but I don't want to go nuts. I'm thinking a few snacks & 1 meal/day in the park, the rest off site. I'd like to do one character meal, and be able to let my kids buy themselves some souvenirs.

So... how much do you think I should plan on saving up for spending money??

 

[tzeitel]

We plan on $50 a day per person for food (we don't usually spend that much but nice to pad it just in case). We did a lot of off site dining, signed up for emails for some restaurants nearby that sent coupons, bought some discounted gift cards and also did some reward sites to earn $ and gift cards.

For souvenirs I usually plan on $100 per person (again we pad the budget JIC), but we are WDW vets and do not buy as much as we used to. Usually DD will get a stuffed animal, and we get an ornament, photo frame, maybe a shirt, some other little things.

If you are planning on staying offsite, I love sharing this map I found very useful on our first trip http://www.accommodationsneardisney.com/Disneyland/default.asp The earlier you book the cheaper it is - I booked our room for Oct a few weeks ago, today I checked again and the price went up almost $200 (we are staying at the Desert Inn). The map also has all teh places to eat around DLR.

 

[DG24]

That is a very difficult question to answer because each family is different. What you eat? What restaurants you choose? What souvenirs you buy? What activities you plan? If you are off site with breakfast or onsite with no breakfast offered at hotel?

The way I try to figure it out is look thru some resturaunts and start to plan a budget. I went in jan, three days, with a little one who never went, a girl, so BBB and Princess lunch was a must. I budgeted $300 for three days, did two three charactor meals, and ate in the park for all meals. We are going again next week, three of us this time, same little girl and mom, we are doing concierge, so only need to budget one meal a day and not a sit down or a charactor meal. We will be there 8 days, we have the same budget this time, $300 to $350. So same budget for two people for 3 days, as compared to 3 people for 8 days. When we go in August our budget will almost double, there will be five of us, for 8 to 10 days, I will pay for myself and one child, dad will pay for self and one child, and sis will pay for self. But I will budget at least $550 because we have no conceirrge at least right now, so breakfast will need to be included, we will do at least two charactor meals, we will do a sit down each day, and we will do more snacks and drinks since it will be hotter and it will be no concierge.

So again, look over menus and see if you can rough what types of food you may be eating as a family. Also a great thing for souvenirs for kids, go to target with whatever you limit is and buy a gift card. Then give them the gift card and tell them once gone they are done. This worked great for us as kids, we learned not to just buy the first thing we saw, and to really think about it for a day or two. We also knew what our limit was. My parents also did this for snacks in the park when we were teenagers. We would say we wanted three or four a day, and then was leaving half of it. So my parents gave us a gift card for snacks, when gone we were done, again we learned to spread out our purchases, and also sis and I learned to share a cupcake in morning and an ice cream sundae in afternoon.

Anyway hope those ideas help you with the budget.

 

[agamble]

Decide which character meals you want to do and look into pricing. Your 14 year old will be considered an adult. Adult character meals range from about $30-$50, with a child's meal usually costing about half the adult price. February is considered off season and the prices are a few dollars cheaper per meal than the busy summer or Christmas season. As someone else said, look at the restaurants and menus and get an idea for where you want to eat so you know how much you'll spend.

If you're looking to save money so you can splurge more in the parks, consider a hotel with a breakfast. The Desert Inn mentioned above has a basic breakfast that can help fill your tummies until lunch. Also, there is a McDonalds across the park for "cheap" eats and also Ihop & Dennys. We typically eat breakfast at the hotel and then just eat in the parks as unless you're eating off the value menu at McDonalds, you don't save much eating outside the park and time is money when you're at Disneyland. We have a Disney Visa and use our points to purchase our food.

For the kids souvenirs I would buy them Disney gift cards prior to the trip to curb their spending impulses. I also recently saw an idea where someone said to make coupons for the kids to use on things like an ice cream cone (a must for me) or a soda. That's a clever idea if your kids are the kind to ask for snacks a lot. We tend to bring in our own snacks and then buy things like icecream a few times during the trip.

 

[DG24]

Looking to save ab ew bucks here are three ideas. Target Disney gift cards give 5% off, so for every $50 you buy you save $2.50 not a lot but it adds up. Two if you don't do gift cards, than try get away today to order vouchers, you save a few $ on character meals this way. Lastly, if you know you want shirts or sweatshirts or whatever as family souvenirs or Disney Princess dresses, go to the Disney store online often and wait for a sale, I got our sweatshirts last year for $20 off each one plus free shipping and they were the exact ones in the stores at WDW. I'm waiting for the right sale to get my DL sweatsheats for the family.

 

[jenng1983]

Great tips you guys! I had read about signing up for clubs at the surrounding restaurants, and will put that on my pre-trip to-do list. We are getting our park hoppers from Air Miles (A Canadian loyalty program), so we're saving about $1,000 there.

I like the idea of giving the kids coupons for snacks (yes, they ask for a LOT of snacks) and gift cards for their souvenirs. My three hotel choices all offer at least continental breakfast, so that's good. Even if it's not great, we can fill the hole and avoid spending money on a big breakfast.

$50 per person per day would work out to $1200 JUST for food... I'd like to pare that down if possible. Haha. I'd rather spend money on experiences and mementos to bring home with us.

Thanks everyone for the tips! Keep them coming!

 

[jenng1983]

Looking to save ab ew bucks here are three ideas. Target Disney gift cards give 5% off, so for every $100 you buy you save $2.50 not a lot but it adds up. Two if you don't do gift cards, than try get away today to order vouchers, you save a few $ on character meals this way. Lastly, if you know you want shirts or sweatshirts or whatever as family souvenirs or Disney Princess dresses, go to the Disney store online often and wait for a sale, I got our sweatshirts last year for $20 off each one plus free shipping and they were the exact ones in the stores at WDW. I'm waiting for the right sale to get my DL sweatsheats for the family.

I'm from Canada, and our Target stores JUST closed (they didn't last long!). Besides, I don't think they had that same deal here.

 

[jenng1983]

Ooh, I didn't even think of the Princess dresses! Are they super pricey there? Maybe I'll bring my daughter's dresses from home, to try to curb the NEED to get a dress there!

 

[tzeitel]

Great tips you guys! I had read about signing up for clubs at the surrounding restaurants, and will put that on my pre-trip to-do list. We are getting our park hoppers from Air Miles (A Canadian loyalty program), so we're saving about $1,000 there.

I like the idea of giving the kids coupons for snacks (yes, they ask for a LOT of snacks) and gift cards for their souvenirs. My three hotel choices all offer at least continental breakfast, so that's good. Even if it's not great, we can fill the hole and avoid spending money on a big breakfast.

$50 per person per day would work out to $1200 JUST for food... I'd like to pare that down if possible. Haha. I'd rather spend money on experiences and mementos to bring home with us.

Thanks everyone for the tips! Keep them coming!

I know the $50 per day sounds like a lot - and for the 4 year old you could easily drop it to $25 -30 - but that is for 3 meals (2 cs and 1 ts) and a snack. It rarely came to that much per day but this way I did not worry about picking the cheapest thing on the menu (which knowing me is what I would do )

Do not count on the Target deal just yet - they seem to be changing their policy regarding discounts of GC.

 

[tzeitel]

Ooh, I didn't even think of the Princess dresses! Are they super pricey there? Maybe I'll bring my daughter's dresses from home, to try to curb the NEED to get a dress there!

Maybe you could bring the dress but buy her an accessory at DLR if she wants something princessy while there.

 

[pinkprincess30]

We are a family of 5 (ages 9, 10, 13, and 2 parents) and for 4 days in the parks we budgeted:

$200.00 for snacks ($10 per day per person, plus we will bring in our own snacks)

$50 per person for souvenirs (we're not super big on them....where else are you really going to wear a sweatshirt with Disneyland plastered across it?...but I digress! )
P.S. We pre-buy Disney Gift Cards so when the $50 is gone, it's really gone. It works great and disney.com sells them in all different designs so I picked a special design for each kid.

$500 for meals ($25 per day per person...we will only eat one meal a day in the park on average. Some days we will leave the park for every meal or bring our own picnic meal in)

We budgeted our non-park days separately from these figures. Also, don't forget to budget for things like gas, parking fees, & hotel tips (if applicable).

Have fun and good luck!

 

[neonderlyn]

Our trip will consist of 2 adults and 2 toddlers for food I budgeted 60 a day for each adult and 30 a day for the kids (they usually share meals or eat off ours) and 20 bucks a day for spending per person. For a total of $230 a day spend in the parks per day. This figure does not include the character meals and blue bayou, i didnt not include those meals in my budget. It may sound like a lot, but Disneyland is expensive and I wanted to be able to only worry about enjoying my time, not how much we are spending.

 

[D1sneyfam1ly]

Decide which character meals you want to do and look into pricing. Your 14 year old will be considered an adult. Adult character meals range from about $30-$50, with a child's meal usually costing about half the adult price. February is considered off season and the prices are a few dollars cheaper per meal than the busy summer or Christmas season. As someone else said, look at the restaurants and menus and get an idea for where you want to eat so you know how much you'll spend.

If you're looking to save money so you can splurge more in the parks, consider a hotel with a breakfast. The Desert Inn mentioned above has a basic breakfast that can help fill your tummies until lunch. Also, there is a McDonalds across the park for "cheap" eats and also Ihop & Dennys. We typically eat breakfast at the hotel and then just eat in the parks as unless you're eating off the value menu at McDonalds, you don't save much eating outside the park and time is money when you're at Disneyland. We have a Disney Visa and use our points to purchase our food.

For the kids souvenirs I would buy them Disney gift cards prior to the trip to curb their spending impulses. I also recently saw an idea where someone said to make coupons for the kids to use on things like an ice cream cone (a must for me) or a soda. That's a clever idea if your kids are the kind to ask for snacks a lot. We tend to bring in our own snacks and then buy things like icecream a few times during the trip.

This is exactly how we do our spending and eating. The kids get to pick one character meal and have gift cards with a designated amount on it for their spending during the week. We also have the Disney Visa to save up for our food money. Works great! We sometimes use McDonalds or Ihop for a treat at the end of the night but usually don't go out of the park to eat. Instead DH and I will share a meal and get an extra salad or side. Then we are too stuffed to enjoy some other treats through the day. We also pack some easy snacks like crackers, nuts, fruit etc. and we have breakfast at the hotel. It works for us and I don't feel like I am missing out on the Disney experience at all. We figure that for our family of 4 we will spend around 375 on food for 4-5 days. That also doesn't include our AP discount and is at least 100 of that is going to a character meal. I know others budget more though so it really depends on what you would like to do and which restaurants (CS or TS) you want to experience.

Not surprisingly, Disney souvenirs are expensive We save some money by buying a few Disney themed toys or clothes before hand at Target or on Amazon and then the kids each get 50 to spend in the park which is usually enough for 1 large item like a (sweatshirt or large toy) and treat or several smaller things (Hat, small toy, Pen) and a treat from the candy store or Poohs Bakery.

 

[pinkprincess30]

I like the idea of giving the kids coupons for snacks (yes, they ask for a LOT of snacks) and gift cards for their souvenirs. My three hotel choices all offer at least continental breakfast, so that's good. Even if it's not great, we can fill the hole and avoid spending money on a big breakfast.

I was able to order the cutest treat coupons from the Creative DISigns board... they are FREE and personalized. You just give each child a certificate good for a special treat. You still have to pay for the treat of course, but the certificates make it fun. My kids are each getting one certificate per day. I can't stress enough, take snacks in with you! I let my kids pick several snacks from special items we bring from home (yes, I packed an entire small suitcase with just snacks...which left us room for souvenirs on the trip home), and then they carry them in their fanny packs all day and snack while in line, etc. HUGE money saver! My kids didn't ask for very many snacks, and they are usually HUGE on them.

Here's the link to the treat coupons... you ask for them with your desired names and the DISigners create them and you download them on to your computer. There are also many other cool DISigns for other tings too...So fun! http://www.disboards.com/threads/mels-coupon-corner-4.3380253/

 

[Aladora]

Hey everyone! I'm brand new to this forum, and you guys all seem so helpful, so I thought I'd say hello and ask a question I couldn't get a clear answer on by Goggling.

My husband and I are planning a trip in February 2016. We have 2 kids, they will be 4 and 14 when we go. This is all of our first time to DL; I've been to WDW 20-ish years ago as a kid. I know it's a long time away, but we need to plan for finances, and I'm sooo excited, I have to plan.

So, anyways, we're going for 8 nights in February, with 5 day park hoppers. I have NO clue how much to plan on for spending money. We don't want to be super cheap and have to keep saying "no" to the kids on what could be our only family vacation for a little while... but I don't want to go nuts. I'm thinking a few snacks & 1 meal/day in the park, the rest off site. I'd like to do one character meal, and be able to let my kids buy themselves some souvenirs.

So... how much do you think I should plan on saving up for spending money??

With 4 of you, I would recommend looking at staying at a hotel that offers breakfast. When it is just the 3 of us, we stay at the Desert Inn but last year when my sister in law came with, we stayed at the Park Vue Inn. The PVI was more expensive but their included breakfast saved us more than the extra hotel cost. No matter where you stay, when it comes to the places right across the street, the earlier you can book the better a rate you will get. If you book right now, the rates for Feb 2016 are really great.

As for spending money for souvenirs, my best recommendation is to give them a gift card with a certain amount loaded onto it. Then (and this is more for the 4 year old) when your child sees something in a store that they want, take a photo of it with your phone. The night before your last day, go through the photos with your child and let them pick what item (or items) they really want. It really cuts down on the "mom, can I buy this please???"

Since you are not going for 10 months, start a savings jar and drop all your change into it. With loonies and toonies, that is going to add up nicely!

Unfortunately, you are going to have to deal with the ugly truth of our terrible exchange rate. We used to buy our park tickets through an American site but with the exchange at almost 1.26 , Flightcentre.ca is the best price for us.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

This is not at all helpful, but when I saw your headline, my first instinct was to say bring all of it. Disney takes my money freely.

In all honestly, eating offsite may not be worth it. Sure, there's McDonalds, Denny's, and Coco's nearby, but if you stick to cheaper Disney options, you save yourself on walking an extra mile or two. We usually do a hotel with breakfast or get McDonalds for breakfast, then do lunch and dinner at DL. For a family of 5 we spend about $40 per meal, $10-$20 on snacks per day if we don't bring them from home, and we allow $50 total for souvenirs. I understand if this is a once in a lifetime trip going a little higher on the souvenir spending, so maybe $100 for the trip per person. If you go to the table service or character dining, that's a lot more of course. But otherwise, you can get by on not too much.

 

[agamble]

$50 per person per day would work out to $1200 JUST for food... I'd like to pare that down if possible. Haha. I'd rather spend money on experiences and mementos to bring home with us.

I agree that is a lot. As I suggested above, book a hotel with breakfast, even if it's just continental. Someone suggested booking hotels soon. I say go for it, most hotels allow you to book now and cancel within 48 hours of your trip if you need to. I know the Desert Inn does. Since you're traveling from out of country bringing food may be more difficult, but I know many items can pack ok in a suitcase. Or you could stop at Target or another nearby store and buy some. For our upcoming trip I plan to bring the kids applesauce cups, string cheese, goldfish, and juice boxes. These are items they actually sell as a meal for like $6 at the park. Seriously! If you can bring some of these things yourself, you can save some money on your youngest.

Other ideas for food:
Eat at Rancho Del Zocallo. It's Mexican food. You will not need to buy your 4 year-old a meal there as the portions are large and you could easily share. In fact, if your 14 year old isn't a huge eater you could potentially get buy with 2 meals and an extra side of beans or something. Both of my kids are big eaters, but we always just share our food at this restaurant.

Plaza Inn-It's home-style American fare like fried chicken. Not my favorite, but many loves this restaurant. For lunch and dinner they serve large platters of chicken with sides. Again you could potentially buy two platters and an extra side and have enough for everyone. Certainly the 4 year old won't need her own plate.

Soup Bowls-We love the ones at the Pacific Wharf in DCA, but they can be found everywhere. They're not good for sharing, but the bread bowls make them super filling. And they cost under $10.

Corn Dogs-The cart at Disneyland is the best, but they can be found at DCA too. These also won't work for sharing with your kids so far apart in age (my kids can share one), but they are good and relatively cheap. The meal includes just a corn dog and chips, so you may want to bring your own fruit too (take some from breakfast ) Also a meal for under $10.

Look online at prices. On average for counter service meals Breakfast at the hotel =$0, Lunch in the park=$10-$15 per adult, Dinner in the park =$15 per adult. That's more like $25-$30 per adult per day. That's about what we spend, but we don't do table service meals at Disneyland. Takes too much time and costs a lot more. Kids meals are typically $6-$8 and usually include a main dish, a small side, and a drink. Unless your kid is super picky, I think it's better to let them share some of your food for dinner and bring something for lunch. You may be surprised at how big some of the dinner portions are and how easy it is to share, especially with the little one. Don't forget to budget extra for your character meal. Minnie's is the cheapest, and in my opinion the best too.

 

[tarheelalum]

About two weeks before you go, have everybody in the family sign up for the Earl of Sandwich club via email. The coupons expire after a few weeks. Everybody who signs up gets a coupon for a free sandwich at Earl's in Downtown Disney and they are very good.

 

[Xenorye]

Do not count on the Target deal just yet - they seem to be changing their policy regarding discounts of GC.

Say it isn't so! I just bought my first GC for my upcoming trip and got the discount. Is there news this won't last?

 

[tarheelalum]

Also try to stay at a hotel that gives a free breakfast. That is a big savings but some Hotels will overcharge you for it in your rate so you have to watch out. If your hotel does not provide breakfast try to pick up something up cheap at the 7/11 on Harbor blvd or just get something at Starbucks in the Park. Sit down breakfasts are not cheap at DL and not at all worth what they charge. Lunch and dinner at DL are a much better value but a bit pricey. And when looking at hotels, offsite hotels in general are a much better deal than Disney properties but some offer a better value than others. Most will charge you to park if your driving and some have resort fees on top of their regular rates. But February is not a super busy time so the rates will not be bad for DL. Usually the earlier you book, the better the price so start looking around now. AAA cards often get you a good discount. Its not too early to plan ahead and ask any questions you have. Everyone here is glad to help.