How much????

[nicnnate]

My son and myself will be visiting Florida for a 7 day/7 night trip.

Flight, disney resort hotel and 7 day disney park passes are already paid for.

My question is, how much would you bring for food costs, spending and travel expenses (taxis as I do not drive) without cheaping out on things???

 

[tchrrx]

If you are arriving at MCO airport, you can use the Magical Express bus. Then, once you are at the resort, you can use Disney transportation. You shouldn't need any other transportation unless you are planning on leaving Disney property.

As far as food goes, it really varies. If you look at allears.net, you can see menus for all of the restaurants. That would give you a guideline as to how much you might spend each day. Also, you could add on the Disney Dining Plan and have your meals purchased in advance. Then you would only need to take money for tips at table service restaurants. Or, you could choose the counter service plan and not need to tip either. Sorry this isn't too helpful, but there are many levels of dining at Disney.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

If you do counter service only, I'd budget about $75 a day for food for each of you. Add in an extra $30-$50 per table service per person for each table service, depending on the table service.

You won't need transportation as tchrrx pointed out - Disney will provide that.

Souvenirs, however, that's something only you know. T-shirts will run anywhere from $20 to $50ish (not many $50ish though, most will be in the upper 20s). Random things will be pricey. What kinds of things are appealing to you?

If you haven't made any dining reservations for table service and you're with 180 days of the trip, you need to go on Disney's website and decide if this is something you want to do. If so, you need to make reservations. Check the prices before you do so you won't get sticker shock later!

 

[pampam]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3068505

Not sure if this will help, but it is what we spent in January of this year.

 

[eliza61]

Go to Allears. net and check out the menus. It will give you great ideas about where you want to eat and how a ballpark of how much it will cost.

 

[crisi]

It completely depends on what "cheaping out" means to you.

We can spend $200 a person on dinner when we don't "cheap out" - or bring home an animation cell. If the buses aren't convenient, each taxi trip is about $20. On the other hand, if we aren't in the mood to spend two hours on dinner, and decide to graze through Disney, we can eat cheaper than the aforementioned $75 a person a day (shared snack, shared snack, late lunch, shared snack, shared snack sort of day)

 

[eliza61]

Also think about "how" you guys like to eat. My family enjoyed breakfast, now we always had a car so it was easy for us to get to Shoney's, Dennys or ihop right outside of DTD and get a decent breakfast for 8 bucks per person.

Since we do eat Breakfast we are not big snackers or even big lunch eaters.

 

[aprilchem]

I bring $100/day for our family of 5 when we go to Disney, but we don't really eat in the parks at all (we do breakfast in our room/house and dinner outside the parks). We may get 1 snack during the day but we're not big fans of the food in the parks in general. We also don't do souvenirs (except for 1 Christmas ornament each time we go) and bring water bottles/ snacks in a backpack. That may be your definition of "cheaping out," though.

 

[nicnnate]

Thank you all!!! Your posts are very helpful. My main concern is I have to convert all my money and don't wanna be looking for somewhere to convert it once I'm there, should I run out.

I have a pretty good idea now... Thanks again!!

 

[dpswift]

You did not give the age of your son. When DS was nine we had no problem sharing one adult and one kids QS meal twice a day. However when I went with my oldest son when he was 20 he was eating one sit down and 2 QS, plus at least one snack a day.

Like PP said $75 a day should be sufficient for QS.

I personally do not eat much in Disney.

 

[carriemd]

Do you have to use cash? When we travel internationally I generally use credit cards for convenience (and safety). For large purchases (counter service meals, special experiences, a one stop souvenir shopping trip) this would make sense and take some of the guesswork out.

 

[crisi]

Do you have to use cash? When we travel internationally I generally use credit cards for convenience (and safety). For large purchases (counter service meals, special experiences, a one stop souvenir shopping trip) this would make sense and take some of the guesswork out.

I was thinking the same thing. The credit card company's exchange rate has a slight premium attached, but I thought it was fairly competitive given the hassle of traveling with cash.

Also keep in mind that there are customs restrictions on cash taking it or leaving from some countries. In the U.S. you are required to declare over $10k. It isn't a huge deal, but you should be able to provide documentation on why you have a lot of cash and where it came from - and expect extra scrutiny (they may believe you to be transporting drugs with a lot of cash).

 

[carriemd]

sorry, I said counter service when I meant table service, but you get the idea. I'd check with your credit card company to see if there is a foreign tx fee and then compare the convenience of a card. Enjoy your trip.