My Disney Budget

[m&amom]

I was wondering if some of you experts could look over my budget and see how everything looks. We are a family of five, four disney adults and 1 child. I want to make sure I have enough budgeted.

We are driving down from Oklahoma over two days, staying at Port Orleans for 10 days and then driving back home for two days. We have two reservations one at Chef Mickeys and one At Crystal Palace(mom is paying for this one)for a very late brunch so we will count it as lunch. The rest of the time we are going to eat breakfast in our rooms and will have counter service or dine off site. The child will be eating off of our plates and two of the adults are light eaters and will share most meals or just appetiziers. We are also planning to stop and grab fresh fruit and cheese sticks.

here are our numbers
gas 500
tolls 20
Port Orleans 1795
hotels on way there and back 200
Dining 1000
Theme park tickets from undercover tourist 1510
souvies 200
Extra money 500
mousekeeping 55
laundry 20

 

[juliebean]

I think it's reasonable - the only thing I am not sure about is the $1000 for food for what amounts to 12 days of vacation for five people. Everything is just SO expensive food wise. Even snacks for our five are easy $20-30 by the time everyone else grabs icecream and/or a drink. Getting 3-4 CS adult meals would probably be at a minimum $40-$50.

I would also bring along a case of water to help keep the costs down. Don't forget tips for the buffet dinners you mentioned, that's going to probably be about $50. But, you have $500 extra, so that should give you a good cushion in case $1,000 not enough. Have fun!

 

[Zoemakes5]

I was going to say that I think the $1000 for food is a bit low, too. It's not unusual for my DD and I to spend that in one day for just the two of us, and that's not eating expensive sit down meals. For the Chef Mickey's alone you'll spend at least $150 for that meal alone. If you subtract the $150 for Chef Mickey's that would leave you with $850 for meals over 12 days. That would leave you with still needing to cover the cost of 22 meals (2x per day=24, minus the two meals you've already talked about=22) $850 / 22 is a little over $38 per meal for 5 people consistently. Only you know how reasonable that would be for you and your family, but it sounds a bit low. I'd give a bit more of your "extra" funds towards food, because it could come back to bite you if everyone dipped into the "extra" and then you didn't have enough for food. If you plan it as food and then truly do have extra, then you can have it to play with.
And, I don't know how much gas costs where you'll be traveling to, but it costs around $4 here, so $500 would get about 125 gallons of gas. With our gas mileage of about 20 miles per gallon when the mini van is all filled up with people and stuff, we would get about 2500 miles out of $500 in gas. So, if it were me, I'd maybe add in a bit more towards gas. If you lived in OK City, as an example, it looks like it's 1250-1262 miles each way depending on your route, so the drive to and from would take up all (or a bit more) of the trip to get there and back, and not leave much, if any, moving around within orlando area.
And, I honestly don't know the answer to this, but does Disney charge parking fee on property? We've not stayed with a car.

 

[carebee21]

I would up your food budget if you can. Chef Mickeys is going to end up costing you around $130ish after tip leaving you $870 for 11 days, or a little less than $80/day. Buying 3-4 CS meals will still end up costing you about $40-$50/meal, especially if you are buying drinks (most CS locations charge about $10-$12 for meal plus $3.00 for bottle water, juice, soda, etc) So even if you eat breakfast in your room, and then buy lunch and dinner or snacks and dinner, you'll probably use all of that money, if not more.

 

[Kay1]

If they stay at Port Orleans they can park for free at any resort or park. I think the food budget is too low and wonder if you may not need more for hotels along the way. Better safe than sorry, right?

Have a wonderful time.

 

[Disney_1derland]

gas 500 (if you'd like a very good estimate put your information here: http://fuelcostcalculator.aaa.com/ )


Dining 1000

Extra money 500

so, above there you technically have $500 dollars that you can add onto your dining budget if need be.

If you want a truly accurate view of how much your dining will be, plan out a 'worst case scenario' of your dining habits. Don't forget to add tax to everything.

For a quick example, we are a family of 5 counter service for us is two adult meals, 3 kids meals and we average about $40 per meal. Yours are likely to be more because you have more 'adults' in your group. So, let's say two meals each day at $50 each plus a round of snacks with free ice water $25/day. with that alone you are looking at more like $1250. I would plan for $1500 to be safe.

 

[diamondpixienc]

I just want to ditto what the prev post said. I would bump the food budget up just to be safe. Also, you mentioned that you would likely eat out at various restaurants? I would find out which ones that I might want to eat at i.e. say Outback Steak House, TGIFriday's, Chili's, etc. and maybe get some gift cards for those? Other than that if you are doing all disney dining I would defineately bump the food budget up. Have a magical trip.

 

[m&amom]

I think it's reasonable - the only thing I am not sure about is the $1000 for food for what amounts to 12 days of vacation for five people. Everything is just SO expensive food wise. Even snacks for our five are easy $20-30 by the time everyone else grabs icecream and/or a drink. Getting 3-4 CS adult meals would probably be at a minimum $40-$50.

I would also bring along a case of water to help keep the costs down. Don't forget tips for the buffet dinners you mentioned, that's going to probably be about $50. But, you have $500 extra, so that should give you a good cushion in case $1,000 not enough. Have fun!

Thanks for the help. We are planning on grabbing a couple of cases of water and also a 12 pack fanta with my coke rewards coupon. I was worried about the 1000 I may bump it up a couple of 100

 

[m&amom]

If they stay at Port Orleans they can park for free at any resort or park. I think the food budget is too low and wonder if you may not need more for hotels along the way. Better safe than sorry, right?

Have a wonderful time.

Thanks for your help. We already have reservations for the way there and pack at the half point at a Sleep Inn and we used a 10% discount code out of the entertainment book.

 

[m&amom]

I was going to say that I think the $1000 for food is a bit low, too. It's not unusual for my DD and I to spend that in one day for just the two of us, and that's not eating expensive sit down meals. For the Chef Mickey's alone you'll spend at least $150 for that meal alone. If you subtract the $150 for Chef Mickey's that would leave you with $850 for meals over 12 days. That would leave you with still needing to cover the cost of 22 meals (2x per day=24, minus the two meals you've already talked about=22) $850 / 22 is a little over $38 per meal for 5 people consistently. Only you know how reasonable that would be for you and your family, but it sounds a bit low. I'd give a bit more of your "extra" funds towards food, because it could come back to bite you if everyone dipped into the "extra" and then you didn't have enough for food. If you plan it as food and then truly do have extra, then you can have it to play with.
And, I don't know how much gas costs where you'll be traveling to, but it costs around $4 here, so $500 would get about 125 gallons of gas. With our gas mileage of about 20 miles per gallon when the mini van is all filled up with people and stuff, we would get about 2500 miles out of $500 in gas. So, if it were me, I'd maybe add in a bit more towards gas. If you lived in OK City, as an example, it looks like it's 1250-1262 miles each way depending on your route, so the drive to and from would take up all (or a bit more) of the trip to get there and back, and not leave much, if any, moving around within orlando area.
And, I honestly don't know the answer to this, but does Disney charge parking fee on property? We've not stayed with a car.

I think the 500 may work but we will fill up one time here before we leave out of our normal budget and gas is 3.55 here so we will fill up again before we leave Oklahoma so we will get a little more.

 

[m&amom]

I just want to ditto what the prev post said. I would bump the food budget up just to be safe. Also, you mentioned that you would likely eat out at various restaurants? I would find out which ones that I might want to eat at i.e. say Outback Steak House, TGIFriday's, Chili's, etc. and maybe get some gift cards for those? Other than that if you are doing all disney dining I would defineately bump the food budget up. Have a magical trip.

We already have gift cards for every restuarant that we plan to eat at that is not Disney but it is included in the 1000 we are planning to spend.

 

[lovedisney50]

Laundry is 2$ each for washer & dryer if you do it at resort.

 

[m&amom]

Thanks for the help everyone I think I will try to save a little more to be used for snacks. We were just going to take out of the extra budget but I think I will add in another line for it. The extra money is there so I don't have to watch everything like a hawk so I could tell the kids yes if they wanted a snack. I took the money for the extras out of my dads life insurance money(he passed away in September) and he knew we were going and was so glad the kids were going to have fun so we were planning to let them have extras from Papa.

 

[jms920]

I agree, the food budget is on the low side. I always like to plan high. You are driving so you also want a little cushion in case you encounter any problems along the way. Be sure to have a credit card available just in case. We drive from NY so I always like to be prepared. BTW don't forget meals along the way.

If you plan to dine outside the resorts you might chec out restaurants.com to save a little. Sign up at the site and wait till they send you email offers, which they do several times a week. I got a $25. certificate for $2.00. at The House of Blues. You have to spend a minimum of $35. to use it plus a tip on the entire bill. We ate there for $10. plus tip. can't beat that! Read each offer carefully as some are only for dinner or don't include alcohol. There are several threads on DIS boards you can search for info on also.

Have a magical trip!

JoAnn

 

[m&amom]

I agree, the food budget is on the low side. I always like to plan high. You are driving so you also want a little cushion in case you encounter any problems along the way. Be sure to have a credit card available just in case. We drive from NY so I always like to be prepared. BTW don't forget meals along the way.

If you plan to dine outside the resorts you might chec out restaurants.com to save a little. Sign up at the site and wait till they send you email offers, which they do several times a week. I got a $25. certificate for $2.00. at The House of Blues. You have to spend a minimum of $35. to use it plus a tip on the entire bill. We ate there for $10. plus tip. can't beat that! Read each offer carefully as some are only for dinner or don't include alcohol. There are several threads on DIS boards you can search for info on also.

Have a magical trip!

JoAnn

Thank you for the good wishes we are so exicted. We will have our credit card with us for emergency. We have used restaurants.com for other trips but I think we will stick with the entertainment book this time because we are going to be eating at a lot of chains using a lot gift cards we have from surveys and credit card rewards so most of the food for the off site restuarants is already paid for.

 

[jgates]

Food: Every day at least ONE meal, everyone must drink water (you can get free cups of water/ice at any CS venue). When my DH & I travel together (not to Disney), we each get a large water & then share one soda. You could get a soda for one parent to share with the kids as a treat or something each day. I demanded the kids (all adult age LOL) do this the last trip - I said $2.50 - $3 x 3 meals a day x 4 people for soda??? YIKES. No way. So we each did one meal a day with water to save $10 to $15 a day & also be healthier.

Check on Resort board, but I think PO has fridges? If so, you have a lot more options for snack items to take with you. I hate dragging snacks into the parks, but I have done it to save money.

If you like burgers, there is the 'order a double cheeseburger & an extra bun for a pittance & then make 2 separate burgers out of it'. Very popular idea by a lot of people.

Earl of Sandwich at DTD has reasonable sandwiches and NUMMY!

Steak N Shake has great shakes & burgers & are not super expensive. They aren't too far away.

Did you get your room with a PIN code? If not, just call Disney & see if there are any PINs associated with your name (if you are on any of their mailing lists) that could be applied to your room reservation to bring the cost down. And if you haven't purchased tickets yet, you might want to wait in case you would get a free dining PIN (normally require room + ticket purchase).

For a 10 day stay, it might be worth buying refillable mugs. That would give you a beverage at breakfast each morning or something when you get back at night, or on the days you are sitting by the pool. We like them as souvies anyway, but they could pay for themselves easily on a 10 day stay.

 

[m&amom]

Food: Every day at least ONE meal, everyone must drink water (you can get free cups of water/ice at any CS venue). When my DH & I travel together (not to Disney), we each get a large water & then share one soda. You could get a soda for one parent to share with the kids as a treat or something each day. I demanded the kids (all adult age LOL) do this the last trip - I said $2.50 - $3 x 3 meals a day x 4 people for soda??? YIKES. No way. So we each did one meal a day with water to save $10 to $15 a day & also be healthier.

Check on Resort board, but I think PO has fridges? If so, you have a lot more options for snack items to take with you. I hate dragging snacks into the parks, but I have done it to save money.

If you like burgers, there is the 'order a double cheeseburger & an extra bun for a pittance & then make 2 separate burgers out of it'. Very popular idea by a lot of people.

Earl of Sandwich at DTD has reasonable sandwiches and NUMMY!

Steak N Shake has great shakes & burgers & are not super expensive. They aren't too far away.

Did you get your room with a PIN code? If not, just call Disney & see if there are any PINs associated with your name (if you are on any of their mailing lists) that could be applied to your room reservation to bring the cost down. And if you haven't purchased tickets yet, you might want to wait in case you would get a free dining PIN (normally require room + ticket purchase).

For a 10 day stay, it might be worth buying refillable mugs. That would give you a beverage at breakfast each morning or something when you get back at night, or on the days you are sitting by the pool. We like them as souvies anyway, but they could pay for themselves easily on a 10 day stay.

Thanks for all your advice I appreciate it. We all drink water at every meal and will add the flavor packets if we get tired of water. Our room was done with the discount code it was 20% off. The PO resorts do have a fridge and we are bringing quite a lot of snacks becuase my family eats smaller meals and then have some snacks later on especially when it is hot. I have buying things with coupons and putting them away for the trip.

Earl of Sandwhich is on our list of places to eat.