Is this doable??

[grover]

I am trying to work out a budget for our next trip and am wondering if you all think that it is doable on 4000.00-5000.00... Canadian!
We plan to go for 12 days at the end of march/beginning of april of 2003, two of which will be travel days.
3 plane tickets Winnipeg-Orlando, or if we can get a very good deal out of Minneapolis we'll drive and then fly from there.

Plan on staying at Disney the entire time, majority of time at a value resort and hopefully 2-3 days at the swan/dolphin if we can get the government rate.

Need 3 of the 7 day PHP passes- counting on some sort of deal for us Canadians.

Need 3 of the 1 or 2 day Universal passes. At Par??

Transportation from airport to Disney and back again! Car rental or transportation only on our universal days-disney buses the rest of the time.

Food for 2 adults and one 9 yr old boy, one character breakfast.

Souviners-nothing extravagent, 3-5 t-shirts, magnets &pins

So am way out in left field on this or can I manage all of this on what I would like to budget?

Thank You
Grover in Winnipeg

 

[hockey mom]

Lets see

Passes- 7day CDN special=311+155.50+252=718 amer or 1156 CDN
3 day special Universal is 109, 109, 94=312 CDN
3 nights at swan govern rate is 129 + tx=430 amer=691 CDN
8 nights at value peak season=109x8=872=tx=967 amer=1558 CDN
transportation- estimate at $150(guessing)=241 CDN
1 character breakfast is $50 US with tx and tip=80CDN
Souvineers you mentioned= 150 US=241 CDN
food for 12 days @ $50/ day =600 US=966 CDn
Total so far=$5245 without airfare. Our dollar is really bad.

 

[SandraC]

I'd have to agree with hockeymom on this one. We spent $7G's last year for 2 days in Daytona and 7 days in Disney CBR, CDN deal 7 DHP etc.,. This year we are doing all Disney 11 days, 10 nights at CSR and it's the same price as last year. Thanks to air fare deals, WDW ticket deals and mousesavers. $94 CSR rate, we can do a better trip this year, stay longer, dollar sucks, but we are paying the same as last year (just due to deals). And we fly from Toronto, which I would think has better airfare deals.

We are eating well, but still saved $$$$ on food because I took out several char meals. It's a hard one to call. You might need to revisit a couple issues like accomodations and tickets. Hockeymom gave you $150 transportation. I can't find a car rental for 11 days under $400 CDN. Here is a different budget to consider as well.

4 nights ALL STARS $779 CDN (hickeymoms calculation)
4 nights HoJo's or Marriot if $29 USF comes out $206 CDN
3 nights at swan govern rate is 129 + tx=430 amer=691 CDN
Car $400 CDN
Airfare ($400 each) $1200 CDN (that's a deal)
7 DHP Canadian Deal $1100 CDN (that's what we are paying too, comes with a char meal) these passes have 4 options, so your days will be Disney filled!
Food $800 (that's our budget for the same time, lots of inroom eating)
Spending $500 (at least)
TOTAL $5676.00 That's without Universal Studios and a great air deal.

 

[bev r.]

Here's what we did in November 2000, 5 people (2 adults, 3 kids) for 13 days:

airline tickets - redeemed on aeroplan
accommodations - getaway deal from friends timeshare 2 weeks at $199 us
park tickets: 7 day hoppers + , seaworld, Kennedy space centre(including shuttle launch viewing) $2444
food - $517 (we did our own meals, only ate out about 3 times other than ice cream treats in the park).
car rental - $400
souvenirs, gas, lockers - $680

total = $4885, the exchange rate was $1.57 at that time. today it would cost us about $4935.

this time will be a little more as one kid now will pay adult rates.

 

[grover]

Thanks for the insight, looks like I will readjust my plans and or budget a little!! I really wish we could avoid peak season but with my vacation time it seems that these date will work best for me! I didn't realize that the swan gov rate was only 20.00 more than the all-stars! Has there "historically" been codes offered at this time? I will also not rent a car the whole time, I figure about 80.00 for airport transportation and perhaps 100.00-150.00 for transportation to universal for 2 days. I will have to try and tweak the budget again! Any other ideas I haven't thought of??
Thanks

Grover in Winnipeg

 

[hockey mom]

I don't have alot of suggestions. The tickets are already rock bottom. The spending and food money I had you down for are also pretty low. Transportation-can't go much lower than that. My only suggestion, which you already pointed out you can't do, would be to change your dates. We always go after Easter when the rates drop. Now there have been 2 codes that came out this year during your time frame that might come out again. The Cdn special was from Feb to April, with Easter as a possible black out date. I believe the rate for AS was $77 per night. That would help. There also seems to be a new Amex special going on for that time frame. My next suggestion would be the same as Sandrac's, book one of the lower price hotels at DD for half your stay, and the hotel you want for the other half. Shorten your vacation. Another option is cheaper is to rent a studio at BWV or OKW from a DVC member. Or bite the bullet, book it, and start paying it off one step at a time right now.