Money for a week?

[hdh23]

Just wondering. We finally paid off our trip . We will be staying Nov 1st-7th. We have two kids 6&9, and the disney dining ( two meals and a snack/ day). What would you say is a realistic amount of money we will need to spend down at disney for a week? I realize this varies a lot . I honestly just have no clue if its realistic to bring $1000 and expect to be fine. TIA

 

[Deffenm]

We will be there Oct 31st - Nov 8th! My dd has earned $50 so that is her spending money for the week and I am bringing along $500 for spending money. We have gone to WDW mulitple times so we don't have to buy autograph books, pressed penny books, mickey ears. I also bought glow sticks, and light up pins with Disney Characters on them for my DD to wear/play with during night time shows and parades. We have the Dining Plan so don't really need money for food (tip money is part of the $500).

I usually buy an ornament and pair of earings for myself and then will be buying Christmas presents while we are there for the nieces and nephews and of course my boys have already told me a few things they want from the lego store in DTD.

I hope that gives you some idea of how much you will need. Have a wonderful tripo.

 

[Marionnette]

Just wondering. We finally paid off our trip . We will be staying Nov 1st-7th. We have two kids 6&9, and the disney dining ( two meals and a snack/ day). What would you say is a realistic amount of money we will need to spend down at disney for a week? I realize this varies a lot . I honestly just have no clue if its realistic to bring $1000 and expect to be fine. TIA

Is this the QS dining plan or the regular dining plan (1 QS, 1TS)? If it is the regular dining plan, you will need money for gratuities at the TS restaurants. 18%-20% is considered customary for good service.

You will also need money for a couple additional meals because the plan allows credits "per night" and not "per day". So unless you arrive after dinner on Day #1, or depart without breakfast on your final day, you're going to need to pay for more food.

Then there are gratuities for your DME driver, any bellhops that handle your luggage, skycaps at the airport or the RAC representatives who check your luggage through to your home airport from the resort check-in when your stay is over.

Souvenir money varies widely between families. Some people can go without spending a dime on stuff. Others will buy everything in sight.

And you will want a little extra for those "oops" moments when you realize that you didn't pack any band aids or sunscreen.

$1000 would be too little for me to feel comfortable. But I always err on the side of caution. I would much rather come home with extra, than be on vacation and feel as if I didn't bring enough.

 

[LynnTH]

I think $1000 is more than enough. We did 10 days last year and spent just over that amount. That included our food for 4 (14 and 12 year old) We did stay at OKW so did order some groceries. So, unless you plan on drinking a lot or buying a lot of souvenir's - I think you will be just fine.

I would just put your tipping money in a separate envelope (if you are on the regular DDP) so that is set aside and then go from there.

My kids always got gift cards to spend and when it was gone it was gone. When they were smaller it was easy to spend. Now that they are older they barely buy anything for souvenirs.

 

[tvguy]

I don't think I've ever been away from home for a week, going anywhere with our family of 4 without at least $1,000 with me. And that's not including the $500 in travelers checks DW and I each have as "in case of emergency" money.
One ear infection away from home could cost a lot of $$ to deal with.

 

[Kellydelly]

Doesn't anyone use cc or debit cards for purchases ? I would think if you bring cash it will just fly out of your wallet. I would bring enough for gratuities and then a couple hundred more and that would be enough. We always drive so could hit a bank ATM if we needed more cash. If your food is mostly covered I would bring only around $500 cash. But I am a debit card user .

 

[MommyMK]

Doesn't anyone use cc or debit cards for purchases ? I would think if you bring cash it will just fly out of your wallet. I would bring enough for gratuities and then a couple hundred more and that would be enough. We always drive so could hit a bank ATM if we needed more cash. If your food is mostly covered I would bring only around $500 cash. But I am a debit card user .

Agreed. I can't imagine carrying that much cash! DH and I usually bring $100 each for situations where we can't use a credit card, like tipping bellhops and such. Otherwise we charge everything to our cc or our room.

 

[Marionnette]

Doesn't anyone use cc or debit cards for purchases ? I would think if you bring cash it will just fly out of your wallet. I would bring enough for gratuities and then a couple hundred more and that would be enough. We always drive so could hit a bank ATM if we needed more cash. If your food is mostly covered I would bring only around $500 cash. But I am a debit card user .

I was under the impression that the OP wanted to have an idea of how much the "extras" would cost her. My own opinion is that $1K is probably not sufficient.

Personally, I rarely deal in cash when on vacation, with the exception of tips for skycaps & porters, cabs, valets, DME drivers at Disney. I never use an ATM or debit card, even at home. And I believe that most people are more likely to overspend when using a CC than they are when they hand over cash for each transaction.

 

[TravelMommy]

You could definitely make that work and could possibly have $$$ left over. I would consider if you are going to eat CS breakfasts? Bring your own breakfast foods?? and price that out. I would also price out $$$ you will need for tips and then see if you need to adjust your $$$. If you are going to anticipate buying t-shirts, souvenirs, alcoholic drinks, snacks not covered by DDP, light up toys, etc make sure to add that all in and you should be fine. I can honestly tell you that without the dining plan we have spent less than that in an entire week at WDW (we had a villa and ordered groceries for a few meals). Have a great trip!

OP- I am not sure if you wanted opinions on traveling to WDW with cash or not?? For years we brought travelers checks and a small amount of cash like $200/tips, etc. We definitely are cc people. Easy to track spending and dispute any errors. I know everyone feels differently about it. We don't even travel locally with large amounts of $$$.

I hope you are able to post a follow up after your trip, I am always interested in how people find the prices at WDW, for us in the Northeast it is close to local theme park/restaurant pricing.

 

[Judique]

I don't think I've ever been away from home for a week, going anywhere with our family of 4 without at least $1,000 with me. And that's not including the $500 in travelers checks DW and I each have as "in case of emergency" money.
One ear infection away from home could cost a lot of $$ to deal with.

I guess that would depend on what sort of health insurance you have.

I've only had to pay my copay when we had an ear infection while at Disney.

Also, I've called my doctor's office and they have faxed a prescription to a Walgreen's (in Lake Buena Vista area) for me.

 

[hdh23]

Wow thank you all so much for taking the time to answer my question! I truly appreciate all the great advice! I think I have a better idea now for sure, and I will post a follow up when we are home to see how much we actually end up spending. I don't want to be on a crazy crazy budget when we go but I also don't want to get caught up in Disney magic and keep swiping the card to come home and realize what I've done either .

I'm also PRAYING for no ear infections (it gives me anxiety just thinking about it) but luckily we have fairly good insurance. Our daughter got hand foot mouth on our last vacation so I'm seriously hoping for a break this time

 

[tvguy]

I guess that would depend on what sort of health insurance you have.

I've only had to pay my copay when we had an ear infection while at Disney.

Also, I've called my doctor's office and they have faxed a prescription to a Walgreen's (in Lake Buena Vista area) for me.

We were at Disneyland, flew in and used Disney transportation, so no car. The cab fare to and from the pharmacy was the biggest expense.

 

[tvguy]

Doesn't anyone use cc or debit cards for purchases ? I would think if you bring cash it will just fly out of your wallet. I would bring enough for gratuities and then a couple hundred more and that would be enough. We always drive so could hit a bank ATM if we needed more cash. If your food is mostly covered I would bring only around $500 cash. But I am a debit card user .

That was my cousin's mindset, credit card and debit card for everything in Disneyland. But their cards had the wrong symbol on it (they are from Canada and it was issued by a small credit union I think). and they were limited to $100 a day. Ever try to feed a family of 6 in Disneyland on $100 a day?
I ended up having to go to my banks ATM and get $1,000 cash to lend them.

 

[scrapquitler]

Agreed. I can't imagine carrying that much cash! DH and I usually bring $100 each for situations where we can't use a credit card, like tipping bellhops and such. Otherwise we charge everything to our cc or our room.

Same here. I would go having an idea of how much budget I would want to spend during the week ($1000 would probably be a reasonable number for my family for the trip described by the OP), and DH and I would probably each have about $100 in cash in our wallet. All of our spending would go on the Credit Card or room charge during the trip, except things that required cash (like housekeeping tips, some snack carts that dont' take cc). As soon as we got home and got the CC bill, I'd pay it off like I do every month, no fees or finance charges that way, and I have the peace of mind of knowing that I don't need to worry about losing cash. If I ended up needing more cash for some reason, I'd hit an ATM.

I would be a nervous wreck carrying $1000 in cash on vacation.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I think having a budget of $1000 for a week's vacation (no matter whether it's cash, credit, money order, gift card, etc) is plenty. We usually take a couple hundred in cash and charge most things to the room, which goes to my Disney Visa. Our charges at the end of the week are usually just another $300-400 (if we're on the DDP).

For our most recent trip, we ate OOP, used a couple hundred in cash, and still only had a resort bill of about $500. We don't buy many souvenirs anymore, don't drink alcohol, ate breakfast in our villa, so our main expenses were lunch and dinner. That was for 5 nights, 4 1/2 park days.