No idea about money... newbie

[truegirl]

Hi everybody! We're planning on taking our 8 year old daughter to DisneyWorld next summer (09). Probably for about 5-6 days. We've never been before, and while this board is absolutely fantastic, I haven't found anything on the average cost per visit.

I've found the '08 rates for the accomodations and admission tickets, but how much 'extra' (dining, souveniers, general 'stuff') should a family of 3 take? We're going to have a tight budget for lodging and most meals, but I don't want my daughter to miss out on a few extra magical things because we didn't plan for enough money.

Nothing is written in stone here. I'll listen to all of your suggestions.

Thanks! truegirl

 

[lovetoscrap]

truegirl! I strongly urge you to register here so that you can fully take advantage of all of our boards. We have a great Budget and Tips board that can really help you out, and a Resorts Codes and Rates board that can help you find out when/if a discount code is available during your planned time.

I did find that when planning for meals www.allearsnet.com has the menus with prices for all of the restaurants so that helped me with budget planning. Also take a look at our own site here, www.wdwinfo.com. I am pretty frugal and we do a lot of cost saving things like sharing drinks and bringing in our own water bottles and breakfast foods, and sharing meals. The portions are really pretty big so sharing with a younger child shouldn't be a problem. Also it is much cheaper to stick to the counter service meals instead of the sit down ones.

And if you drive or rent a car you can go off property for some meals to keep costs down.

Do some looking around on the boards I mentioned above and please let me know if you need help registering. You have plenty of time to plan and there is a lot here to learn!

 

[karibritt01]

With the age of your daughter, you may want to consider the dining plan. $38/day for adults and $10/day for kids 3-9. We found this to be a more enjoyable way of eating around WDW for several reasons.

1) All meals were paid for in advance except for alcohol and tip. We really enjoyed ordering anything we wanted without worrying over how much we were spending.

2) It forced us to sit down, relax, and eat better food than going to counter service meals all the time.

The dining plan includes 1 counter service meal and drink, one table service meal (entree, dessert, and drink), and one snack for each night you stay. Character meals are included as table service meals. We found that our dinner bill alone usually paid for the meal plan, so the other food was basically "free." Definitely look at the menus and pricing to see if this is cost effective for your family.

By the way, for my family of 4 (kids were 9 and 4 last trip) was around $2600 for 7 days/6 nights at a moderate resort, park hopper tickets for 7 days, and dining plan. We budgeted another $1500 for travel expenses and spending money. We came home with about $200 left over. Hope that helps!

 

[stephanie23]

I am in the same boat as the OP. First time ever to WDW. We are going 8/11-8/18. Staying at AKL savannah view with the dining plan and tickets. I have no clue what to bring for spending money . I was hoping 1500 would be enough for everything we would need?

 

[kenny]

I think it all depends on what you want to spend/do. We are a family of 3 (1 child 3 yo). If we do counter service it costs around $25 (give or take. depends on where you eat but this is average). So if you want to strictly do counter services you can eat for around $75 per day.

Sit down meals differ depending on where you go. I would check out the allears site for menus and prices. This site has them also. If you could swing it a character meal would be great. They are a lot of fun for the whole family.

As for souveniers, it all depends on what you want to buy. I would definitely get an autograph book. Not expensive and makes a great souvenier. They even have ones that have the autograph page on one side and place for photo with character on the other.

I would say figure out what you can afford to spend after accomodations and tickets. Once you know what you have to work with it will make it easier for yourself to plan (i.e we can spend $100 of souveniers, etc). You'll be able to find things to fit any budget so I wouldn't worry.

Another suggestion would be to tell family, friends etc to get you DD Disney gift cards for her Birthday, Holidays, etc. This way you'll know you have a little extra for her to spend.

You'll have a great time. Nothing is better than your 1st Disney experience!

 

[AKBAFB]

I think it's hard to pin down an actual "average cost" for a trip. Everyone is different on what they expect and how they spend money on a vacation. I would definitely recommend doing a lot of research - get a guidebook and refer to the DIS, allears, mousesavers, etc.

Try to find out about all the activities and if there is something that you definitely want to do, plan ahead for it, whether it's Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, a cruise, bike rental, whatever.

Also take a look at the menus and restaurant reviews and try to figure out what your daily food costs are going to be if you're not on the dining plan.

For us, we're a working family that has to live by our budget every month and our upcoming Disney trip is something that we want to go all out on. We've made small cut backs in our daily lives now to save money for our trip so we can do some of the special things that are available and not have to put it on a credit card.

The DIS has some great tips about stuff you can get now at your local stores or online for cheaper than you can get at Disney (autograph books, ponchos, etc.) Just plan ahead so you can incorporate everything you want in your vacation.

 

[dunbarfamily]

Boy, it is so hard to suggest an actual amount to bring. It really depends on your goals/wishes/wants and what you CAN spend. It's a bit llike comparing it to telling a Target newbie how much to take on their first shopping trip-I don't want to tell them too little and they miss out on a great sale of toilet paper, nor do I want to say too much and they end up with tons of leftover money.

That being said, keep in mind things cost more at WDW, as they do at SeaWorld or Busch Gardens or even local amusement parks, and even carnivals. You'll pay about $2 for a bottle of water or sodapop. Most snacky-type foods are $2-4.

For our first trip, we figured about $8 pp for breakfast, $10 for lunch, and $15for dinner. So that works out to be $33 pp/per day. You could do it a LOT cheaper, but for us, thats what we figured. We ate mostly counter service, with one sit down breakfast.

For spending money, we totally guessed. We brought what we thought would be a little more than we needed. I can't remember an exact amount, but for just spending money (which did not include food or tips) I think we took about $500. We are not big souviner buyers. We each have a WDW sweatshirt, bought over the course of three trips and we will not buy new ones until these wear out. We don't buy something from every little store. Our children hardly ever ask for anything, and if they do, its usually "fancy candy" that's about $2. They will ask maybe twice the whole trip.

Like I said at the beginning, you can "do" WDW however you want. To some people, this is a once in a lifetime trip and the sky is the limit, to others, even if it a once in a lifetime trip, they want to do it more frugally. I seriously know of one family who, in the late 90s, refinanced their house, and took, get this, $20,000 to WDW for a one week trip. That paid for their hotel, meals and trinkets. According to a relative who was there at the same time (but enjoyed a value resort and had a blast with about $1000)they had so much stuff they ended up leaving several bags behind. Pretty sad, but the point is you have so many options.

I hope this helps a little bit. Check out the sites that lovetoscrap (LTS)recommended. LTS is full of great information, and I bump into her frequently!

 

[VAN]

Agree that you can spend A LOT of money at WDW beyond that spent for transportation, tickets and room. Shopping around a bit will help you keep these costs to a minimum; however, they will be your biggest expense.

I am of the mind that if I go on the trip thinking to keep costs down, I can then go more often, or stay more days. Others will say, they will sacrifice for several years to have one HUGE, blow-out, do-everything trip of a lifetime (only go once every few years).

We have been going yearly for several years because we spend at Disney like we spend at home. We look for the value and are careful how we spend for meals and sourvenirs. We don't suddenly try to keep up with the Hiltons by living a first class existence for one week out of 156 weeks.

We will take cereal/breakfast items along with a coffeepot for the room and will have our breakfast there. There are many tips on this board expanding on this idea. Many, many people do this. Besides saving money, you are also saving time and aggrevation. Those food courts can get very crowded, especially at peak times such as the mornings.

Unless you are used to going out to sit-down restaurants a lot at home, I would plan to just skip those. You might want to select one (or two) character meals or other sit-down meal as a treat during the trip. In years past, especially when money was tight, we would just go to O'Hana's for dinner. The entire family enjoyed it and the price is all you can eat, so you know in advance what the bill will be.

Alcoholic beverages are VERY, VERY EXPENSIVE at WDW. If you enjoy a drink or two, plan to purchase them at a grocery store. I believe a Bud Light draft was like $5.25 or something the last time we were there ... Specialty drinks are in the $9-11 range. Add tax and tip and WOWIE - you've blown the budget!!

You can get some decent meals at counter-service. Keep in mind that ice water is FREE. Bottled water is expensive, so bring in your own bottle and refill at the drinking fountains or with ice water from counter-serve restaurants. Most counter service places have children's meals ... you don't have to be a child to order these. If you are not a big eater, you may want to save a few bucks with this.

Save on souveniers by providing your child with a set amount ($30-50 should be fine in my book) ... if they know they have just so much money, they will be very careful about what they select. I used to do this plus told my kids if they bought a clothing item (shirt, hat), I would match 50% (since it was a practical thing and I buy clothes at home for them). They are happy selecting their items, you are happy because you have a cap on the expenditures plus you don't have to hear "Buy me this, buy me that."

I don't know what your situation is, but if you are strapped for money, don't feel you have to do the whole princess thing, etc. Yes, you really can enjoy WDW without all the "extras" ... many people do and have just as good of a time.

If you do want to keep the cost down, don't feel bad and don't feel like you are getting the full Disney experience ... you are. You're just ensuring that you won't have the money problems by overspending the budget and you will be all the more able to make multiple trips.

Use these boards for ideas and take a look at the website with the meal prices.

 

[VAN]

Here is the summary from my trip in March with my 22 yr old DD. We had multi-day no-expiry tickets so just factored in the price for those we used ($50/day ... used 3 days at parks and 1 day at water park)

--------------------------------

Transportation related: $540 (airfare from Detroit, airport parking, hotel night before flight, gas to airport)

WDW hotel: $733 (POP Century)

Entertainment (using $50/day prorated park tickets) + souveniers: $338

Food: $320 (ate breakfast in room, counter service meals for rest except one dinner at RFC)

TOTAL cost of trip for 2 adults, 6 WDW nights = $1,931 (or $965 each)

 

[karibritt01]

One thing we did was plan character breakfasts for character meals at the latest possible time, usually around 10:30-11. We made brunch out of it, and were good to go until dinnertime.

To give DD the "Princess" experience, I bought her a dress-up dress at Wal-Mart and took it with me. She was thrilled to have a new dress to wear to her Princess breakfast, and I saved a ton of money by not buying one at the park.

We also took a case of water, glow in the dark necklaces, and snacks from home. By taking a cooler bag to the park, we always had cold bottled water for about $1.50/day, and snacks such as cheese and yogurt for the kids to eat.

 

[truegirl]

(I hope I registered right... )

Thanks everybody! Wow! I love the enthusiasm!

I'm just in the beginning stages of learning how everything works at WDW regarding deals and the other ins and outs of it all. You all are already helping tremendously!

We're thinking on doing breakfast cheap most days (Continental or fast food) and then taking a break around lunch back at wherever we decide to stay. I'll probably pack a cooler with lunch stuff and snacks. We'll probably spend a little more on dinners, then.

What does a character breakfast entail? That's something we may consider.

Budgeting my daughter has already been discussed ~ and she's mighty frugal! (Better than me, actually!) I think I'm going to take your advice and ask Grandma (my mom) for Disney gift cards for our birthdays and Christmas. (Where do you get those at?)

Keep posting with more information, and thanks for welcoming me in so warmly! true

 

[Aurora317]

I've done several very frugal Disney trips in the past, and now I'm in the middle of planning our all-out deluxe trip of a life time trip for my extended family. Some of my favorite tips:

For food:
-if you take a towncar from the airport to your hotel, most include a stop at the grocery store. We use this to stock up on fresh Florida oranges, cheese and crackers, bagels and cream cheese, and milk.

-if you don't have a grocery stop, lots of people arrange for a grocery delivery from garden grocer or another online grocery shopping website. I've not used them myself, but lots of people do this.

-another option is to pack a suitcase or send a package (flat rate USPS boxes are about $9) to your hotel with dry goods. Pack cereal, bagels, chips, crackers etc, and then buy milk at the hotel (most have a small marketplace type shop with half gallons of milk, juice, fruit, etc).

-if you have perishables and there is no fridge in your room (aka at value resorts) you can do a couple of things. We would just put the items into the sink and fill it up with ice each morning. A small cooler packed into your luggage can be used the same way. If you want a fridge at Pop or All Stars look at the resort boards for a fridge swap. Groups of Dis people sometimes go in on purchasing a small fridge, costing about $10 a person, and the fridge is passed from one person to another. After all of the people that paid for the fridge have had a chance to use it, the fridges usually stay in circulation free of charge to other Dis people. All you have to do is sign up, claim it when you check in, and then leave the information of the next arriving guest on the box when you check out. More detailed info is on the boards, but it's something that's available.

-Bring a piece of fruit and a granola bar with you to the park, you never know when someone will get hungry, and do you really want to pay $3.95 for an apple?

-Purchase crystal light and lipton single serve drink mixes. Ask for a cup of ice water at a Counter Service, and you've got an instant drink. I personally prefer water, so I keep a big 32oz Nalgene bottle with me at all times. I purchased one of the Disney drink lanyards in Epcot once and have used it for years to carry my water bottle.

-I've switched from carrying my water bottle to a hydration pack, which is like a small backpack that has a reservoir for water and a tube that comes out around the shoulder. I've found that having the bite valve right near my face constantly reminds me to keep drinking water, which is so important. I like to fill it with ice from the hotel in the morning, and then add water from the tap until it's full. The reservoir is right up along the back part of the pack, and so putting it on when the temps are high automatically cools you down. Fill it with ice water from the counter service, or fill at the fountains. Add drink mix at your own peril - the artificial colors will dye the plastic and if there's sugar in the mix it can grow yeast and bacteria inside. Best to stick with water.

-If you're going to eat breakfast at the hotel, and then budget for one counter service and one table service, do the table service for lunch and the counter for dinner. Most of the Table services have a nearly identical menu for lunch and dinner, but lunch is significantly less expensive. This would also be a great mid-day break (see below in my tourining tips) without leaving the park. You'll be inside, leisurely enjoying your meal in the air conditioning while the sun is high overhead and most people start to run out of steam. Have a nice lunch and then maybe get a counter service meal to eat while you pick out seats for the spectromagic. If you're not terribly hungry, get two meals for the three of you to split.

-The buffet meals are a good value, and help a lot for budgeting purposes. Again, a breakfast or lunch buffet will be $10-20 cheaper than the dinner buffet at the same location, so for three people that will save $30-60 at one meal. My favorites are breakfast at 'Ohana, and lunch at Crystal Palace.

For touring:
-I mentioned it above, but I LOVE my hydration pack. It's just big enough to fit my wallet, sunscreen, bandanna, camera and a few other necessities, but not so big that you become the family's pack mule for the day. I have seen them at Costco and Sam's for about $20, and REI has child-sized ones. If you can afford to have one for everyone, I'd recommend it, as everyone is then responsible for carrying their own items and no one person gets stuck schlepping everything around. They're small enough that you can stow them on the rides without any hassle. I take mine off, tuck the bite valve into a zippered section (don't want it touching the floor of the ride vehicle!) and put it on the floor. For faster rides I loop it around my ankle, and for the really active rides there is usually a pouch for you to tuck your belongings into, these fit perfectly.

-If you want to approach your trip like a Disney pro, you'll want to arrive when the park opens, stay until 11 or so, and then go back to your resort to rest. It'll get you out of the sun during the peak, everyone can take a nap, eat some lunch, watch TV or a DVD, swim in the resort pool, whatever. Then you can go back to the parks refreshed and ready for the rest of the night. This will especially help if you plan to stay for fireworks etc, which often are past most kids (and my!) bedtime. If you try and go commando all day everyone will burn out. Do this every day and you're setting yourself up for a miserable trip.

For souvenirs:
-Try to go with a theme. One year I bought only scrapbook items. When I got home I had great papers and stickers that you won't find at Hobby Lobby or even Archivers, and I had both a fantastic souvenir and supplies for one of my hobbies. Think outside of the box, I collected things like business cards for the restaurants we visited, and pressed pennies from around the park to decorate my pages, you don't have to get it all at the scrapbooking store at Downtown Disney. If you're into golf, then buy a few nice polo shirts and maybe some golf balls. If you like to listen to music buy a few CDs of park music to toss onto your iPod and remind you of your trip. Whatever you're into, buy items that you'll actually use in your life. As nice as those snowglobes and stuffed animals are, will you actually use them once you get home, or will they just sit on a shelf? (Also, snowglobes cannot be carried on to airplanes due to the new 3oz liquid restrictions. Be sure to ship it home from the store if you buy one, or have it carefully packed so you can put it into your checked luggage.)

-If you're buying gifts for friends and family at home, be creative. I once bought Disney pins for all of my family members as a gift, but at nearly $8 each, it got pricey. If you do the dining plan use some of your snack credits to buy fudge or candy to bring home. Pretty much anything with a Disney logo on it is a good souvenir, I especially like getting postcards for people. They are different at all of the parks, you can find a Star Wars one for the brother in law, a princess one for a niece, there's something for everyone and they are relatively cheap. Bring postcard stamps from home and mail them in the Magic Kingdom, they'll have a beautiful Disney post mark.

-I agree that you should decide what to spend and then find what to get, as opposed to figuring out how much you'll need. Tell your daughter you will buy her one "big" thing and she has to use her own money for anything else, or set a limit of $50 and let her choose one larger item or lots of small things. As long as the ground rules are laid out, it shouldn't be a problem. If on day one she decides she wants the giant stuffed mickey from Main Street, remind her that it will still be there on your last day, so maybe she will want to keep her eyes open for different things she wants to consider, and then make purchases on the last day. Use a small notebook to jot down the location and price of each item, and on the last night look at the list and make some decisions. If you have a digital camera, take pictures of each item so that she'll have a visual to help make her decision.


Remember that extras are just that. As long as you have park admission and some money for food, you're going to have a good trip. I mean, you're in Disney World, how can you not?! Decide what's important to you, and make those things priorities. Decide how much money you want to spend on your vacation, and then plan to fit that budget.

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

OK, according to my wife I am extemely cheap, I think it's "frugal"

1st trip 3 yrs ago, 7 days 2 adults and 1 child, value resort hopper's and water park and dinning plan $2300

Drive own car 1200 miles roundtrip was $300 gas. Wife and I spent about $100 extra that week, daughter has a budget Of $20 a day and is allowed to spend it any way she wants, but no whinning when its gone. 1st yr = $2900+-

2nd trip last yr, 7 days 2 adults 1 child, value resort hopper's and water park and free dinning $1500 Gas $300, $200 extra we purchased lunch at cinderellas castle and $20 a day for daughter = $2200+-

This year 10 days 3 adults (10 yrs old is an adult) value resort hopper's and water park and free dinning $1900 $400 gas. $200 spending money (adults) $20 a day daughter = $2700

I hope this helps I am cheap but it is so easy to do disney dinning, i would do it even if i have to pay.
Hope it helps

 

[SunnieRN]

I haven't been to WDW yet, I am in the process of planning my first trip. We were going to go when there was no free dining and were debating whether or not to buy the dining plan.
We went to allears.net and looked at all the menus park to park. We decided where we would want to eat and approx. what we wanted to have. We then added tax/tip to that.
After doing that we found that the dining plan would be a good thing for us as we want to have a sit down meal each day (we are traveling with a three year old and a 6 month old and will need the air conditioned break). It turns out that we are going during free dining, so the information is still nice to have, its just not as crucial now.
You can get a very good idea of whether or not it will be a good deal for you to purchase the dining plan, or if you can, try to plan your trip for Sept. next year as by June of 2009 you will know if they are offering free dining for Sept of 09.
Also on the budget board there is a thread entitled Disney on $.05. It was started after the disney on a dime television special last week. It has an enormous amount of money saving tips on it!!
Most of all...plan on having fun!! I was a single parent and lived in CA when my daughter was growing up. We went to disneyland 1 or two times a year, even though it was 400 miles away. We were budget conscious but always had a wonderful time!! You will make memories to last a lifetime!
Speaking of which, if you like taking pictures, consider pre-purchasing photo pass. It is cheaper to pre purchase the package and that means that in all the parks you can have the disney professional photographers take as many pictures as you would like to have done and they will compile them on a cd for you. You don't have to get them printed at disneyworld, you can bring your disc to walmart or sams or someplace like that and have them printed for much less. But it is nice for the castle shots etc. We have had several of those pics taken and purchased them at disneyland, not knowing about photopass...

 

[Beautybelle43]

One thing I would highly recommend you do is check out the menus on allearsnet & wdwinfo. The menus will list the prices of things & will give you a good idea of how much to factor in for food (if you decide against the DDP). Don't forget to factor in the tips.

We did this for our first trip to WDW together and we ended up spending almost exactly what we had anticipated.

Looking at the menus is also helpful in deciding if you want to do DDP. For us, DDP ended up to be not worth it so we paid for our meals out of pocket. This is because we tend to eat at more counter service places and we would have ended up wasting some TS points. Every family eats differently.

 

[chumsmum0916]

Hi, we are going to POP on Sept 14th thru Sept 20th, we have the free dining and our friends have told me that $500 for extras and spending money would be more than enough. There is a discounted "disney stuff" store at Downtown Disney where everything is under $10, as well there is a outlet "disney store" at the Prime outlets and from I hear things are very cheap...the same shirts that you can buy at MK are there for less than half the price! That is prob where we will be buying some of our souveniors!
This too is our first trip together (taking my daughter who will turn 8 while being there) and hubby has to stay home to work...should be a exciting time for us to experience this together and hoping it's a birthday she won't soon forget, however I too am saving my change (half everytime I get it back from a store including loonies and toonies as I am canadian) in a change tin from a dollar store that has Princess's on it. My daughter gets change from her Poppa and Gramma and is as well putting her change into our "extra Disney spending money". A great way to save surprising how much you can save...in two weeks I bet I have put at least $20 in it, and we have until Sept 12th as this is likely when I will roll the change and take to bank to exchange into US money.
Good luck with your planning,....check as well for the free dining times, we were originally going to go in Nov but come across the free dining and for a friend of mine her daughter, myself and my daughter it is costing us $1600 for the 4 of us. Our flights we got for $748 out of Buffalo we do have a 6 day hopper park pass as well but no waterpark as I felt we didn't really need it this time.

 

[JPN4265]

After you have paid for all of your hotel room, transportation, etc. You should budget at least $100.00 per day per person for the rest of your trip.

 

[karibritt01]

We purchase the DDP, then budget $100 for the family/day. We buy more than we should with that, and come home with money in our pockets.

As for the $10 store in DTD, we thought it was pretty much junk. There were some clearance items, but mostly the little stuff (at full price) that you could buy for $10 anyway... beanies, coffee mugs, small toys, etc. I went to the Prime Outlets years ago, and that was some cute stuff.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Here's the deal on us and we're not frugal: We spend 9 nights at the WL, $2145.00, we have pre bought AP's, figure your own tickets in here, we use Amtrak down and back round trip wife and I, $450.00, grocery stop 75.00, car service round trip 82.00 food for 9 days, approx 55.00 day for both of us and incidentals 100.00 total of 3350. for 9 nights 10 days. We do not care for alot of TS meals, too over priced and do fine with no dining plan, wife and I split most meals. I take care of the room, food and she takes care of the train and town car. We eat where we want, buy what we want, been there 40 times so we know our way around. Hope this is some idea whats what, mind you this is a deluxe resort.

 

[ilovediznee2]

If you want my opinion, save money by staying off-site. (please don't get mad at me, guys..there's a reason I say this...) If you are on a tight budget, staying off-site can be a lot cheaper. Then, you can use that money for extras like Character dining, BBB, etc. You will also be able to save money if you have a condo/efficiency that has it's own kitchen so that you can eat some of your meals there, rather than eating out for every meal. If you go to vrbo.com, you can find a house or condo in your price range, or you can look for a hotel. There are lots of those around!!