How much spending money for 8 day Disney stay?

[chipper10]

We will be going to Disney in September. We are staying at Pop and we are on the free dining plan.

How much money will we need to take for our trip? I know this answer will vary greatly for many people. I just looking for a ball park figure. Our group will be me, DH and DS, who will be 21 months when we go. I don't think we will be buying alot of souvineers, maybe a shirt here or there. I know we will need to pay for one counter service meal a day. Would $25 a day for food sound right?

Thanks for any help!

 

[miTunes75]

I honestly don't know. I am thinking the $25/day is most likely going to be $25/meal for the two adults...and a couple of bucks for Landon.

I have been told that meals there are pricey.

I'm banking on spending at least $100/day on food for me, my wife and 3 kids ages 6, 4 & 3.

This will not be including breakfast (as it comes with the hotel rate/day...thank God I work for Hilton).

 

[EthansMom]

We're going in Sept. with Free Dining. I'm planning on $50 a day, maximum, for extra food/snacks/drinks (including an occasional alcoholic drink) for our family of 4 (including DS6 and DD4).

Also, I'm budgeting $75 per child for their spending money and $100 each for DH and I. We don't usually spend much time in the stores in the parks. We usually take one or two trips to Downtown Disney for our shopping, which seems to help us keep our shopping to a minimum.

In my experience, breakfast is by far the least expensive meal at WDW. You'll get the best deal by paying out-of-pocket for breakfast at the food court, mostly use your counter service credits for lunch, and mostly use your table service credits for dinner. When we went to WDW a couple years ago, we could feed our whole family breakfast at the Food Court for $20 or less (kids sharing meals).

Also, FYI, the snack credits can be used for things like muffins and rolls at the bakeries and such... so you may actually be able to pay for a good portion of breakfast using your snack credits on some days. Here's a link to the list of items that folks have been able to "buy" using snack credits: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1683477.

ETA: I'd forgotten that my $50 per day also includes the gratuity for our TS meals.

 

[karebear1]

I think 25.00- $30.00/ day for a CS meal for you 3 should be ok- but to be honest, I'd be really surprised if you even want a CS with all the other food you'll be getting! Don't forget though that your free dining does not include tips on your meals- so you'll need money for that as well.

 

[mom2zandjsquared]

I went in April and spent on myself and my 3 kiddos about $100 to $150 a day but that was for all of our food and souvenirs. I took some snacks along for the room and quick breakfast type foods. If I had to choose the meal to pay for it would be breakfast as it seems to be the less expensive choice. I budgeted $100 per day but had an extra $50 a day for just in case.

HTHT!
Heather

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

$1,000,000,000,000,000,000.95

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

We aren't big souvie people but we never spend more that $200 in a week (we use the DDP). The total will go up this year since tips are no longer included but I'm thinking $400 tops. Most of our money goes to tipping mousekeeping, extra tips at the restaurants (again before tips were taken out of the price), a few adult beverages, and something small...like a couple of pins for DD.

Unless you have GIGANTIC appetites, you will not need to buy an additional counter service during the day. What we do is if we are using CS for lunch and TS for dinner, we eat breakfast in our room (we bring breakfast bars and cereal with us) using snack credits to get milk, juice, and fresh fruit. If we eat our TS at breakfast, we always skip lunch, have a snack, and then eat a CS dinner.

Hope that helps.

 

[MandM-Mom]

We budget 100.00 a day for the trip and we rarely use 50.00 of it a day, now with tips and tax not included in TS I am sure we will spend more. Drinks is what adds up for us. We usually will buy 2 large light lemonades and get a large cup of Ice and divide the Ice and Lemonade between our 4 reusable water bottles and this way we get 4 drinks for the price of 2 and it cuts the super sweetness of the lemonade. But even sharing 2 drinks for four people it gets expensive because we drink a lot in August! We always do the dining plan and use CS for lunch TS for dinner and pay OP for Breakfast. Snack credits we get snacks and buy our drinks, it seems like a better deal for us to do it that way

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

We budget 100.00 a day for the trip and we rarely use 50.00 of it a day, now with tips and tax not included in TS I am sure we will spend more. Drinks is what adds up for us. We usually will buy 2 large light lemonades and get a large cup of Ice and divide the Ice and Lemonade between our 4 reusable water bottles and this way we get 4 drinks for the price of 2 and it cuts the super sweetness of the lemonade. But even sharing 2 drinks for four people it gets expensive because we drink a lot in August! We always do the dining plan and use CS for lunch TS for dinner and pay OP for Breakfast. Snack credits we get snacks and buy our drinks, it seems like a better deal for us to do it that way

Just a suggestion. Have water shipped to your hotel. Costco.com will deliver a case of water to your resort for $7 (which is the price for 2 bottles of water in the parks!) and you don't have to be a member. Bring crystal light packets if you don't want to drink a lot of water. Saves us a ton of cash!

 

[Frankiesmom]

Since your Ds is so young; and with the free dining you should be fine with $2000 total- and come hme with some $$$ left over. My 2 DS's are 6,3 and we always have to but everything! Have a wonderful trip!

 

[kldmom2000]

Last year we were there with the DDP for 7 nights/7 days. We didn't pay OOP for any meals as it was so hot we didn't need more than what we got with the DDP Tips WERE included last year, but not this year. We also used a town car to get us to and from the Yacht Club/Airport... made the grocery stop to get a few things on the way there.... had to tip everybody under the sun (bellhop, town car driver, skycap, mousekeeping, etc...) Our girls had their own $100 in spending money. That being said, we brought $1000 last year and came home w/ about $40?

This year, since the gratuities are not included on the DDP, I'm estimating about $20-$25 in tips per TS (doing the basic DDP) on top of whatever will be spent in other tips/souveneirs/etc.... so think we're going to bring $1200 to be safe

 

[MandM-Mom]

Just a suggestion. Have water shipped to your hotel. Costco.com will deliver a case of water to your resort for $7 (which is the price for 2 bottles of water in the parks!) and you don't have to be a member. Bring crystal light packets if you don't want to drink a lot of water. Saves us a ton of cash!

It is a great idea but for us we don't have the room to lug around anymore items on the bus or in the park. We already have our stroller, our back pack with diaper changing supplies and seizure meds and nebulizer for our youngest dd, I carry the youngest as she does not yet sit up and Dh gets bag stroller and keeps track of our 2 older dd's. We already look like the Griswalds when we get on and off the buses Our stroller basket is usually packed already when we are in the parks. Someday when we are lugging less and our youngest dd gets stronger and can sit up and walk we will definitly do the shipping water to our resort but right now we can't carry anything else in, they might think we are moving into the castle suite

 

[tooh8ful]

$1,000,000,000,000,000,000.95

Yes, but this is for the whole trip, not per day. . . right?

 

[stephanie23]

Dont have a suggestion as this is our first time going but I see your DS is named Landon. Thats my DS names and this is the first time I have seen another little boy with that name

 

[mommyof2princesses]

We have gone the past 2 years during free dining. If you aren't planning to buy many souvies, then you really don't need much out of pocket money. The ddp has a lot of food. We actually did cereal and muffins in the room since we had a fridge and then ued ddp for the rest of the meals. You can get away with using snack credits for some breakfast. I think $20 a day would be plenty. we spent about $40 for the whole week!

 

[dopey67]

What about people not using the dining plan?

 

[lkangell8201]

We are also going in Septemeber and have free dining. I have budgeted $1000. I took in account EVERYTHING, I don't want to come up short and I don't want to go in debt over it. I figured
$100~ DTD for souvies (DS also has $20 of his own and we have $40 on visa rewards card)
$50~ Meal for DTD
$80~ stroller rental
$15 x 7=$150 for tips
$3 x 8=$24 for mousekeeping
$88~ Kids club
$200~ For night out at Bistro de Paris
$20 x 7= $140~ for breakfast (probably WAY over estimating here)
$50~ extra snacks
$40~ for taxis
This brings our grand total to $922, and the rest I'm sure will be spent on souvies. My BF and I are not ones to get souivneers AT ALL, but I want to spoil the crap out of my kid on his first vacation!
I've probably over estimated a lot of stuff, but I think its better to be prepared! And we are doing things a lot of people wouldn't have to budget for like our night out at dinner at an expensive restaurant!

 

[DVC Sadie]

We do not use the dining plan and we average about 100.00 per person per day for adults and 40.00 per day for any child we happen to have with us at the time. Of course we don't always use that amount because we enjoy dining off site as well.

We do not buy many souvineers unless it is for one of the kids so I would say 100.00 total.

 

[brymolmom]

We have gone the past 2 years during free dining. If you aren't planning to buy many souvies, then you really don't need much out of pocket money. The ddp has a lot of food. We actually did cereal and muffins in the room since we had a fridge and then ued ddp for the rest of the meals. You can get away with using snack credits for some breakfast. I think $20 a day would be plenty. we spent about $40 for the whole week!

I agree with you and we were in the same boat- but don't forget that gratuity is NOT included anymore. So depending what the TS restaurant is that day - it could be $15 or so JUST for the tip that day! Anyway, aside from tips, which you should be able to figure based on prices at the restuarants you have chosen, I personally think $25 per day would be fine. We never buy a counter service per day when we're on the DP though. We bring cereal & bagels from home and get a muffin or other from snack credits (or a big box of donuts at the begining of the trip and use them all week) - and that's breakfast most mornings. So we rarely end up buying any CS meals....

 

[brymolmom]

What about people not using the dining plan?

If you're not using the DP...a lot would depend on how you plan to eat. When we're not on the DP - we bring a lot of drinks, snacks, food. We bring sandwiches to the parks, etc. and usually only buy one meal a day. Even with that - I need to figure how many are going to be CS and how many TS to determine how much we need (we usually do 2 character meals and the rest CS).

Go to one of the pages with menus and figure out where you want to eat and figure out about how much the number of meals you need are going to be.

We usually spend $50 - $100 per day when not on the DP. Plus about $150 total for souvies.