I know that this is purely subjective but:

[schlepsnort]

I am trying to figure out about how much spending $$ we will need for our trip in Sept. We will be there from the afternoon of the 29th to the afternoon of the 2nd of Oct.
We are on the ddp and have figured out that we will pay for 2 entire meals oop along with some meals for our 2 yr old oop.
We are renting a car but that's already taken care of so I just have to figure in gas or would it be easier to just do it where they refill it when you return it?

Our souvie plan is to buy shirts at MNSSHP (One adult, two child size). Then probably only one stuffed animal per child for the ENTIRE trip. We plan on only considering purchases of items that we wouldn't find in the Disney store.

Right now, not including the baby, I'm figuring on spending at the least $50/day for each person (so that's $50 for each adult (2)and each child (2))

Is this feasible? We've never been to WDW and we aren't really sure of what the prices are like except that they are well..pricey! We are only going to MK and MGM but also are spending our last few hours at DTD.

Again, I know this is a subjective question and everyones spending habits are vastly different but any advice from the novices or 'recently been there's' would help me as I crunch our numbers.

This probably won't be our last time going but I know we are going to get swept up in the excitement and want to buy our kids everything, which is something we rarely do except at Christmas and even now that's been limited with having 3 kids!!

Sorry so long and rambling!

 

[Catrin]

Carol,

SInce your meals, car, tickets and hotel are paid for... you wont need MUCH else.. unless you CHOOSE to spend it!

You may want to split a CS or two for meals.. and stretch your meals, that way you may not have to pay OOP.

Yes, you will NEED Gas, you will want to have some cash for Porter Tips etc. Sounds like you have a great plan for souveniers too!

Just know once you get there.. you may find you MUST HAVE Mickey Towels, Goofy Suspenders, Minnie Hair Barrettes and Pluto Socks! I spent 200.00 on our last four day trip for Misc STUFF.

Catrin

 

[Micca]

My experience has been that there is always something you want to buy, that you didn't know you wanted. But I like "stuff" a lot, YMMV.

 

[HayGan]

$200 a day is more than enough - IMHO!!! We don't spend nearly that much. We wait until the end of the trip to buy any souvenirs. Also, we don't buy the kids clothes (they grow out of them way toooooo fast!) You have the free dining plan so you likely will spend little to nothing on snacks.

If you are trying to keep the spending in check, do something like a pressed penny book for each of your kids ($7 each) and then spend a few dollars a day on making the pennies. My kids love it and it is so much cheaper than buying souvenirs all the time. They are more concerned with finding new penny machines than looking at all the stuff in the gift shops For the adults (well me not DH), I usually get one sweatshirt/t-shirt and a special frame for a family photo. I also get a couple special pins to frame with our vacation collage. I even bought a WDW velour sweatsuit at the Poly our last trip ($120) and we didn't spend more than $300 on souvies! Some of the best souvies that we did get but hid from the kids (Santa brought them at Christmas) was a replica gun from the Buzz Lightyear ride and a die cast monorail (each were less than $20) and get far more use than anything else!

 

[disneyaggie]

One thing to remember is that if you really like something -- GET IT! They may not carry it later on. However, sometimes if I find something and don't bring it home, I have called Disney Merchandising (1-407-363-6200) and have been able to order it (if they have it).

 

[LegoMom3]

Make sure YOU fill the gas tank on the rental car before returning it. They usually charge well over the going rate for a gallon of gas if you make them do it.

We are also on the Free Dining plan for our upcoming trip, going with 3 kids. I'm budgeting about $100/day. Don't need gas in our case, but this will be for OOP snacks, drinks, and "Ooh!...gotta have that!"s. I'm not big on getting the kids all sorts of "stuff" but will let them have a Mickey stuffie, or the inevitable Lego sets, etc.. I think we'll do just fine on that budget.

 

[Brooknwdw]

This was our plan last trip & it worked good:

We had the DP, as well.

I allotted $25 per day cash to be spent on incidentals such as extra water, snacks not included on plan, etc. I used a tip found here & put the $25 in an envelope, one for each day.

Any money that wasn't used for that day, was moved to the next days envelope.

Also, gave each of us $50 for souviners, for a total of $200.

The daily cash ended up being more than enough...didn't use the whole $25 any day.


We did figure out that was a bit stingy on the souvie money..this time we will each have $100 to spend.

But unless you are a big spender, you don't need alot when food is paid for.

HTH!

 

[schlepsnort]

Thanks everbody these tips are really helping! I was getting anxious that we wouldn't have enough and I'm avoiding using any credit cards.

Now if we could just get that countdown to go a little faster!!

Thanks again!

 

[krissyh]

If this is your first trip you might not appreciate how much food the DDP really is. Obviously, the little ones will need to eat in the morning. The food court at the resort will have cereal/milk/fruit/pastries. We grabbed that on the way. If you are staying at a moderate or deluxe you might want to stop at the store on your way in and grab a box of cereal and some milk. We do an early lunch (about 11am) before the CS restaurants got busy and make our dinner ADRs between 6 and 6:30. Do you have your ADRs made? If not, get on that or you'll find waits longer than most kids are willing to do.
We paid OOP for what we ate for breakfast, used the snack credits during the day or for a late night snack and got (at least) one drink for two people during the day. We get one drink at a time to make carrying easier and cut down on the bathroom visits.
I'd say $200 / day is way more than enough for food and "stuff". And let the kids know they have X per day - they'll be a lot pickier.
Also - do the pressed pennies. Bring a roll of quarters and a lot of shiny pennies. You can also get the passports in Epcot. While you are in the MANY Epcot shops, your very cute boys will be doing that, not looking at the goodies.
Don't fall for having the car rental place refill gas, there are places by the airport. Of course, you could cancel the rental and take the Magical Express and use that money for your souvies!

 

[schlepsnort]

We did have our ADRs done like good Disers at around 174 days, that was about when I first found the DIS!

We were going to do ME but I have severe arthritis and climbing stairs on busses is extremely hard for me. Then figure in juggling two strollers, an infant, an extremely HEAVY 2 yr old and probably a ticked off 4 yr old (he won't be happy when we have to leave MK I just know it) DH and I agreed that we should just rent and save my knee pain for walking the parks! DH actually got us a smokin' deal from Dollar! And I'm going to talk to my DR. about getting a temporary Disabled parking permit since I'm having issues with my knee.

Thank you for the great suggestions though! I think we will definitely do the pressed pennies for the kids, I know my 2 yr old loves that kind of stuff but the 4 yr old loves shopping with Mommy. So DH can do the pennies while lil shopper in training browses with Mommy!

Thanks guys!