How much money to take??

[pooky_uk]

Hi guys, another question...sorry!

I know this may be a tough one to answer, as each person is different but I would like some rough advise pls...

WDW in Feb - this will be our first trip abroad!!! Me, hubby and daughter (who is 6 and will turn 7 out there)

We will be in Disney's all stars for 10nights then on the Disney cruise for 4 nights.

I have budgeted for and will pay for theme park tickets sep (looking at £6-700!)

Anyway, we plan on £2000 for spending....guess a lot of that will go on food and the like.

Will this be enough??

We plan on buying WDW stuff and spending a bit for my daughter's birthday!

Also, I want to steer clear of the shopping outlets (I could spend a fortune on clothes etc.!) but a friend of ours said we'd be mad not to go to a factory outlet!

Would welcome your input.

Thanks

 

[rhysd2]

how longs a piece of string? just kidding

seriously though heres a rough guideline for you. bearing in mind this is based on me staying on I-Drive as opposed to disney so it might vary a little for you. and this is based on just 2 people not 3.

generally i budget around 45 to 70 dollars a day for the both of us for general food, typically because we head to parks early we fill up with a big brekfast at somewhere like perkins, dennys, ponderosa(which costs no more than 5 bucks for a big big brekfast). very rarely does brekfast go over 15-20 bucks.

because we're so full that then generally lasts us fine till dinner time and if we feel peckish we can snag a snack for a few bucks in the park. taking your own water and refilling from drinking fountains around the park saves on cash and is just easier than buying tons of drinks in park.

then dinner time we'll go somewhere we've spotted a few nights back or wander round I-Drive till we find a place to eat. generally the places are fairly cheap and provide big portions so normally a main course is plenty to fill you up unless your like me and eat like a horse.

Ok so budget around 30 to 50 odd dollars a day per person for general food. then take maybe 300-600 bucks extra for the times during the holiday you want to splash out or eat somewhere nicer/fancier. if you end up not using all this cash it can be used for a mini shopping spree in the last few days.

then i generally budget around 500 bucks per person for shopping.

EG im going in october with my wife. we already have around 600 dollars in gifts from her relatives from our wedding. so that pretty much covers our general every day food. i've budgeted 1000 dollars spending money to split between the two of us and about another 500-600 dollars as its her birthday while we're there and because i want to eat at nicer places for a large portion of the two weeks.

so as a basic rule we'll be taking a minimum of about 2100 dollars.

if you went by my rough estimations you'd need $1400 ish for general food. $300-$700 depending on how often you want to eat somewhere nicer.

and around $1500 ish spending money. btw you get an awful lot in the outlet places for $500.

that all totals to around $3600

at the moment £2000 will get you around $3400 dollars so you are pretty close to the mark budget wise. but like i said things may vary in disney price wise. but on I-drive you can eat well for a very very cheap price.

oh one last thing. ALWAYS take more dollars than you think you'll need as it sucks to have to say running a lil low on cash sorry we cant do that.

 

[Celestine]

When we go (me, DH & DD (4)) we budget £100/day & always have our CC handy. Don't forget that on the cruise it is a cash free environment, so you could charge everything back to your CC anyway. I use the menus on the various boards to cost out character & on site meals, but often aim for a late breakfast to act as lunch too. We buy water & snacks at Walmart to cut down the $2-50 for water in the parks, and as you are staying on site would recommend the refillable mugs, for about $12 you will have all you tea, coffee, soda etc. for the whole of your stay.

Don't know what type of tickets you are looking to buy, but I always buy mine from ticketmania.com and as a subscriber to mousesavers often get an even better deal, e.g I bought 4 day PH for us for £302 - we didn't need pluses as already had 1 day & 1 plus left on our old tickets.

Hope this helps clear those murky waters a little, and have a great trip!

 

[Miffy2003]

Everyone is different but I would think £2000 will be ample. I would definitely have credit cards too though "just in case"

We allow $100 a day for food (this is 2 adults and 2 children aged 8 & 5) which is usually about right for us. This would cover one "snack" meal eg hotdog in the parks & 2 "proper" meals - maybe one foodcourt meal and one "proper" sit down Disney meal. Or we often get away with only two (big!) meals a day. My $100 a day food budget does include some offsite eating but not all. Generally I have some food budget left to spend on plushes / clothes etc too

 

[earldale97]

Please don't tell me you take cash?

Check with your bank to see if you can get a CHECK CARD. This is a VISA that pulls from your Checking account. Normally no charge for this service.

I usually put all I have saved over into my Checking before we leave. Then each night I tally up my receipts and add to a list to keep track of daily spending.

My Bank has an 800# I can call anytime to transfer money from one account to another. So if I need more money I can always transfer from my savings to Checking.

You then need to decide on an amount to bring in "cash" for those times you can only use cash. Alot of smaller restaurants, McDonalds, Wendy's etc...now take VISA/Mastercard so you can just use your card there too.

If you run out of CASH hit an ATM (outside of Disney) and you are only charged about $4 for the withdrawl. Usually $2 fee from your bank and $2 from the bank you withdrew from.

This is alot more secure then having cash on hand. I have a card, and also my DH has one. So if one gets lost we have one to fall back on. If both get lost, I guess we would have to rely on the regular Credit Card.

Traveler Checks are great also, as you sign them at the bank or AAA when you buy them, then when you spend them you must sign again. If you loose them there is an 800# you keep seperatly from your checks to call. They will allow you to get your replacements asap. Most hotels will cash these for you w/out charge. Restaurants and most places except them as cash. But you may call ahead to verify if any fees are involved.

I assume all restaurants in WDW accept Credit Cards as payment, I am not sure about the Counter Service style places. I would plan on using cash at those.

Sorry, can't tell I'm in the banking industry...

 

[richtom]

we have just come back from all star movies.the refillable mugs are a must {$11*99}got 2 for the kids and they were having at least 5 drinks a day at the hotel,the meals in the hotel are about $6 adults $3 children and have a large selection- in the parks we brought a drink between us as it would get flat quickly and wouldnt stay cold for long and the meals were not expensive $20 ish for 4 ,went to epcot to the world showcase -meals abit expensive but nice and a plus there is alot of places to eat - about 8 countries-downtown disney is also good for meals apart from rainforest cafe -expensive ,basic menu, average meal and the kids meal very basic and were put in a corner to far from the gorillas-but planet hollywood excellent -expensive -lots on menu,great meal for all of us. earl sandwich is also excellent for a little snack -ponderosa breakfast fills you up for the day -best buffet and very cheap and a must before the shopping malls -you have to this -clothers very cheap

we spent about 1100pounds and about 400 on credit cards ,but we eat very well and brought back loads of clothers and footwear and still come back with 350 pounds

 

[GO2209]

I usually work to £100/day per person. That covers pretty much everything including non-Disney park tickets.

Most of my expenditure is done on a credit card. The comission/conversion rates can be better with a card than using travellers cheques or exchanging cash.

If you haven't got a credit card - get one. Nationwide is often recommended, but shop around. The card may never be used, but if you need medical treatment (a simple visit to the doctor and a prescription can cost hundreds of pounds) then you have the means to pay and claim back off your insurance on your return.

 

[Korbs]

We just got back from 2 weeks at Animal Kingdom Lodge. For two of us we took $1500 in a mixture of cash and travellers cheques (came to £850) and made sure we had a couple of thousand available on credit cards as we planned to do some serious shopping!

We came back with $300 in travellers cheques and credit card wise, my b/f spent £550 and i spent £400 on mine making a total of about £1600. We went shopping and bought snacks for during the days and filled waterbottles from the fountains in the parks. We ate a few breakfasts at rainforest cafe, a couple in ponderosa when we went to USF and shopping for the day and a few we ate in the room from our shopping at walgreens. The majority of dinners were in disney a lot of which at the buffets about $21.99 - 23.99 per person. And went we went to USF and on shopping days we had dinner on i-drive to try and save a few pennies. However, were we saved in some ways we went mad in others. We didn't have a car as the insurance is expensive for us as we are both under 25, and none of my mum's party wanted to drive, so we planned on getting buses as we had done last time when we went just the two of us. However, my mum and her lot were impatient and the buses were more of a pain in the backside than we remembered so we ended up getting taxis most of the time, at $30 a pop to get to i-drive from AKL. We probably spent $250 on taxis alone. Shopping wise, my boyfriend bought 5 pairs of trainers, 5 pairs of jeans, a pair of timberland boots, 6 shirts and about 10 t shirts and i bought boots, two pairs nine west shoes and bags, a pair of dkny jeans, a guess poncho, two pairs of trainers, two tracksuits and 5 t-shirts plus others bits i can't remember at the moment and things like disney souvenirs. So, we didn't exactly hold back!

We had paid for our park tickets before we arrived so this was purely spending money.

 

[pooky_uk]

Thanks everyone for your tips!

I am worried about spending so much in the first few days (I can be a nightmare....worse than my daughter!!!!) - this will be our first trip abroad, let alone WDW!!!

We will take £2000 in travellers cheques (maybe $100 in "cash" - plus we will have credit cards for the "just in case"!!

I will TRY and do a daily budget and STICK to it.....

Yeah, we'll see - I bet I max the cards out!!

 

[Celestine]

pooky_uk

Don't forget to have some small change handy when you arrive for tolls (if you have a car) & tipping the Dollar guy (again if you have a car)

 

[uktigger]

i am taking $4000,i have all my park tickets (disney and seaworld)we are 2 adults and 2 kids is this going to be enough?
i will also take about £200 in english just to keep in case we need it our shopping spree will be coming out of the $$ but only for the kids and dh,because i am on the larger side (16-18)and i can be very particular with clothes i doubt i will buy any do i need to plan on taking anymore?

thanks eve

 

[pooky_uk]

It's a tough one isn't it UKtigger???!!

I just don't want to be in the position where we're skint!....but on the flip side I don't want to go mad on the spending!

Guess it also depends on the exchange rate....!

 

[uktigger]

pooky_uk

it really is a toughie i always try and take some english money as back up i'm sure we'll have enough,i can't for the life of me remember what we took when we went in 2001

eve

 

[Miffy2003]

Eve I would have thought that would be tons!

I'm taking less than that when I go in December and we're out there for 3 1/2 weeks but I am certain that will be enough and then some

 

[uktigger]

thanks miffy
my long suffering dh tells me this is enough,we always have a debate about everything, lol

eve

 

[KayleeUK]

pooky_uk

Just wanted to say Welcome to the Dis from someone else from Plymouth

 

[pooky_uk]

Hi Kaylee - blimey, small world isn't it!!

Thanks for the welcome

 

[IanBond]

Last December we took £3000 which at the time was about $4200 and CCs we brought back home £700 and used CC once £26 on Hire car bill
We did everything we wanted to do spent a load on pins (Dont let me go there!!) all Christmas pressies admission for MVMCP
Ate out a lot brekkis in Ponderosa and sizzler (I cannot advise enough to do this fill up then you dont really eat to teatime)
On our return with the £700 bought a 28 inch flat screen and a new DVD Theatre system and had a plentiful Christmas!
Good Times...