How much $$ to take?

[bamamom]

We are going to WDW Oct 7 for 6 days. (after the free dining is over ) We are eating at Chef MIckeys Breakrfast and Crystal Palace Dinner for sure, will eat mostly CS and want to go out for Seafood one night. How much do you usually spend on food and souveniers on your trips? We have 2 adults and 9 yr DS and 7 yr DD. I'm just trying to get an idea of how much money to expect to spend.

Pop Century Oct 2005
HI Maingate Apr 1992

 

[DVCconvert]

I take twice as much as I think I will need.

 

[java]

Counter service will run about $40 a pop for your family- assuming kids go kids meals and you go regular meals. We usually bring $1500 and end up using credit cards a little and coming home with cash.

 

[got2lovedisney]

I don't like to travel with cash so I might bring $100 just for food up and back on the drive. I charge everything and just pay it when I get home. But to each his own.

If you want a truer guesstimate of how much$ you might spend, check out the menus here ...I'm sure you know more or less what your family likes to eat...and add those amounts (adding tax and any tips). Then I'd bring 25% more!

 

[tysonfamilyof4]

We just went on the Dining Plan with an 8 and 5 yr olds. We took 900.00 cash with us. We ended up charging 200.00 but still came home with 100.00 cash. But we also we to the outlet malls and I spent some money there!!! So I guess that means we spent 1000.00 !!!!

 

[Freddi6440]

I usually will allow 100 bucks per day per adult. That is plenty. Its enough for 3 meals plus extra's. Sometimes we dont spend it but we make sure that each day we have a min of 100 bucks.

 

[WillCAD]

I usually budget $40 per day for myself, but I eat mostly counter-service.

On days when I eat a sit-down dinner, I usually wind up going over that $40, and on days when I eat nothing but counter-service all day, I usually come in under, so it averages out in the end.

If you want to get a fairly accurate idea of what you will spend, you can go to this page:
http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm

This page has menus for all WDW restaurants and counter-service places, along with prices for each item, so you can get a pretty acurate idae of what you will spend as long as you know which places you will eat in.

After all, everybody has different eating habits and tastes, so what I budget, or what Freddi6440 or tysonfamilyof4 budget, may not work for you and your family.

 

[Stitchy_Baby_626]

Well, if ur anything like me, you'll need a lot for soveniers tee hee

Donna

 

[rosemary4126]

A comment was made about travelling with large amounts of cash. Sister's family went on an all cash basis. Took some cash and put the rest on a prepaid Visa card - available at her bank. I agree with the concept of figuring what you will need and then add 25%.

 

[ChrisLei]

I would go and check out the menus on www.allearnet.com. When we booked our trip with our AAA agent she told us about the dining plan and we thought it was so worth it. Just the sit down dinners would cost about $35 for each of us including tip. And with the dining plan we get counter service and snack. So we thought it would work out great for us. Not to mention it is one less thing we have to worry about taking money for.

We are estimating souveniers and incidentals would probably run us about $75- $100 a day so we will be taking about $400 for that.

But like another poster said, it will all depends on what your family customarily spends.

 

[Hull-onian]

We usually put money on our room key. We start with one-thousand. Then we end up spending about another $800 or so. It is easy to do. Also, it depends on how many are in your party. Then there are credit cards, we use them too. Have fun on your trip.

 

[golfgal]

We actually used about $20 in cash at Disney, we charged everything to the room. That was much easier and safer.

 

[melagan]

I was wondering the same thing. We are on the Dining Plan and I was thinking about 1000.00 just to buy extras. It will be DH, DD-9, DD-7, and myself. The kids will be getting a fixed amount of 150.00 each. do you think that will be enough?