Kids bringing friends???

[AreWeThereYet]

OK - we have two teenage daughters who are interested in bringing friends with them this summer to BCV.

Have any of you allowed your children to bring friends ever, and if so, how did you handle things like money (for the friends) and other stuff?

We want to allow the girls to bring friends but are concerned about how much extra money it might cost to have some guests with us - food in our room shouldn't be too much more, but if we want to do an activity or go to a restaurant it could add another 50% to our bills.

All thoughts are welcome.

Thanks,

ATWY

 

[staci]

my parents took my best friend when we were a senior. This is how we broke it down:

Plane Tickets: Her mom paid
Park Tickets: My parents paid
Hotel: My parents paid
Food: my friend paid for out of her money from her job(but when we did a table service my parents always told them it was only one bill so she didnt have to pay that expense. She basically bought counter service and snacks).

You can do it however, just work it out with their parents. My friend had a young single mom who could never afford disney for her family, so I think my parents wanted her to feel like she was paying something, without putting her in financial distress.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

We had a trip planned for this February and we were taking along my DD's friend. They are 14. Unfortunately due to the hurricane we had to cancel the trip. But anyway, the way we were going to handle it was...
Park Tickets -Friend buying before we left
Meals - Us
We were driving so that doesn't count.
The only thing she needed money for in the parks was for souvenirs.

 

[blessedby3]

We just did this in November 2005. Our DD15 took her best friend who is 16 with us. We are a family of 5 and couldnt afford to add too much more to our bill, so we asked her friends parents to pay for park tickets ($230) and $125 in food (we were doing 2 character dinners and 1 breakfast at CRT). We were gone for 9 days so this definately did NOT cover her meals ($82 of which was character meals). They did not have a problem with this and we covered the rest. She also brought along her own souviner money as our three children save for their own souviners and we dont give them money for that stuff. We also picked up her airline ticket as well as lodging at Disney and the airport the night before we flew out. DD's friend had a BLAST and her parents were so appreciative that we took her because they cannot afford to take the whole family and it is a divorce situation too.

 

[Marseeya]

Depends on the family's financial situation.

We're talking about taking a friend for DD. The child is 9, so at least we'd be paying the cheaper child rates for her on the dining plan and tickets, but we're also looking at plane fare. I know her family can't afford to give her anything but a little bit of spending money, so it would all be on us if we want her to go. It's pretty much that way with any of my DD's friends.

If any of the families had money, I would probably ask them to cover something, either the plane fare, meals, or park tickets.

 

[KimR]

A few years ago we took DDs friend with us and her parents gave us money to cover her park tickets, food, and souveneirs. They were thrilled to have her go with us because she had been begging to go and they are not WDW fans!

 

[dpayne1969]

my son is taking his 13 yo friend in May.I paid for his plane ticket-my son paid for his friends disney pass-i paid for his universal pass-the friend and my son are doing odd jobs for family members to earn spending money.This is a friend of the family who has 4 other siblings.His dad passed away last year and i love him like he was my own.I think it depends on the financial situation of both parties involved.I have been subbing all winter and all money from that goes towards this trip.I truely believe this will be a once in a lifetime thing for this child and i feel very special to be a part of it.His mom is also giving him $300 (if she can save that much) for food before we go.We will be gone for 2 weeks so we are handling about 80% of the expenses for him.But to me it is a priceless vacation for us all!!

 

[SillyMe]

We took our dd14's friend along in Nov-04. We paid the airline ticket and the room. Her parents paid for her park ticket. They also gave me about $150, I think, toward her food, but we paid for the rest of her meals. I saved money for the girls and gave them each an envelope with $50 in Disney Dollars to spend on souvenirs.

 

[Amirah95]

We did this once and it looks like we're going to be doing it again. We only allow one friend to go since my child is 10...when she gets older she can bring two or three.

We require the parents to pay for their DDs park tickets and spending money which includes food money. I did have a meeting with the friend's mom about what we are planning to do and what costs what so she can have an idea of how money to send with her DD. We pay for transportation.

It's worked out for us very well.

 

[2giddy4wdw]

We've done this twice with our DD. We have the best friend pay for park tickets and spending money. We pay for airline, food and resort! It has worked out great for us and we will be doing it from now on. Especially since our DS is off to college and can't join us.

Set ground rules ahead of time as to who pays for what and things go great!!!

 

[skiwee1]

When we invite anyone, we pay all expenses. Even at WDW! So you really need to think before inviting to make sure you can afford the additional tickets, airfare, food, and hotel. I never would charge a guest anything.

 

[rie'smom]

We pay all costs for DD's friends. Each year she gets to bring a friend. My DSs are much older so we only have to do this for her. If we had to do it for more than one child, I would do what others have suggested and discuss costs ahead of time with the girls' families.

 

[2giddy4wdw]

The nice part about when we have had DD best friend come with us and asking her to pay for park tickets and spending money, it gives her the responsibility of raising money. We give her about 6 months to get the money together. Her parents do in the end help her out, but she learns that not everything is free. Once we get own to Disney we have given her money back for spending. So in the end it's a little treat for her, for her hard work of raising the money. Trust me, my kids have also had to raise their spending money. They are both old enough to do chores. And they are better with spending their hard earned money, then the money that we have just given them. DD one time came home with money because she said things were too expensive to spend "her" money on it.

In the end it comes to what you and the other family can afford.