Our complete ACTUAL SPENT breakdown for a week at disney, universal, and seaworld

[blackacex2]

Hey everyone, I thought this might be of help to some folks pricing their vacations. We can "project" what we will spend, but the reality sometimes can be quite different.

My wife and I spent 7 nights at bonnet creek and did universal studios, seaworld, and disney. Here is our cost breakdown for every penny spent during the week. We didn't go crazy spending, but we did eat at a few signature restaurants and didn't deny ourselves something if we were in the mood. All food prices are for two people eating.

Airport breakfast 8.99
Rental Car tax- $55 (Rental car was purchased with credit card points)
Walmart Food + stuff- $68 (breakfast food, snacks, a few essentials)
O'hana-$92.88
Universal Studios parking-$15.00
Universal counter service lunch-15.64
Photobooth souvenir-$5
Dog Tag souvenir-$10
Butter beer-$6
Lemonade-$3
Icecream -4
Large Pizza dinner delivered to resort- $16
2 Disney 3 day base tickets- $494
Plaza lunch at MK- $32.14
Snack MK- $10
Candy MK - $14
Epcot Parking-$14
Lunch china epoct-$18
Allergy meds Epcot-$10
Pick a pearl (japan)-$15
Pick a pearl setting (japan)-45
French pastry -4
France drink- $6
Anniversary Dinner at Bistro de paris (prixe fixe menu + 1 glass of wine) $170
Garden View Tea room- 33.26
Coffee at resort- $3
Citricos dinner-$96 (2 entrees, split a dessert)
Hollywood studios parking-$14
Sci fi dine in - 43.50 (burgers and split a shake)
Red bull at resort- $4
Drink at Fantasmic- $6
Seaworld parking-$14
Sea world snack- $9.26
Sea world dolphin feeding- $7
Seaworld counter service lunch- $23
Kona cafe dinner-$55.38
Beaches and Cream dessert-$8.38
Wolfgang puck breakfast DTD- $22.10
DTD Souvenirs- $50
Gas (all gas used for the week. Drove approx 215 miles)- $31.59
Starbucks+candy- $4

So we spent a grand total of: $1,556 on our vacation.

Our 7 night resort stay was a gift from a family member (Bonnet Creek 1 BD deluxe, $800 value) My wife and I both signed up for the southwest rapid reward credit card earlier in the year to help pay for the vacation. For a $69 annual fee we were given 50,000 points to use. Those points paid for both our round trip flights ($600 value), our seaworld 1 day tickets ($145 value), our universal studios park to park 1 day tickets ($240 value), and our hertz rental car for the whole week ($200 value)

So if we paid for it all out of pocket, without credit card rewards or the free resort stay our cost would have been about: $3,541

To be perfectly honest, we cannot afford a a vacation that cost that much but thanks to an awesome credit card promotion and grandma with a timeshare we lived it up and had an awesome time!

We did, Universal Studios + Islands of Adventure, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Seaworld. We ate at O'hana, Bistro de Paris, Citricos, Kona Cafe, Sci-Fi Dine in theater, Garden view tea room, and the Plaza.

Best Meal: O'hana. Just insanely good, out of this world.
Best Value: The plaza. Delicious food in a relaxed setting.
Worst Value: Bistro de Paris. Food was mostly tasty. Ambiance and service was just ok.

We loved Universal but probably won't do it again next time. Also loved sea world but there's only so much to see there. Next trip it's all Disney all the time. Doing 7 nights with 5 parks and 2 being outside of Disney is just too much, and all the magic is in Disney world anyhow.

We can't wait to go back. We feel the memories made on these vacations are WORTH the money.

To give you an idea of our financial situation, we live in a small-medium sized home on very expensive long island. I take in about $65k a year in salary. My wife works part time and takes in about $14,000. I have a lovely student loan bill of $300 a month, combined car payments of about $450, we both tithe
10 percent of our income to our church. House payment is $1,500 month.

Our rule of spending is this: No credit card debt. Ever.

Disney is barley affordable, but with some frugality and luck we have been able to go 3 years in a row. Our next trip will probably be December this year... Looking to rent DVC points for 6 nights to stay at board walk villas (will only cost $689! Cheaper than paying rack rate for All Star Music!) We are considering the meal plan but I just don't know if it will be a decent deal.

 

[marmalade]

Great Job! It's a great feeling when you can go on such a great vacation for the minimum out of pocket costs.

 

[honeydiane1953]

You did a wonderful job and service to all of us for this vacation breakdown. As for me a grandmother took four including me to WDW ONLY and stayed at a deluxe resort on site. We stayed seven nights and six days (i think). This trip we all flew. total 5000.00. Second trip I took another set of grandchildren (lol) three and same scenario except we drove. trip 5000.00. You did the smart thing re time share. It IS an expensive vacation no matter which way you look at it. thank again

 

[Planogirl]

Thanks for the list. I can see that you bought a lot of extras such as snacks and drinks. It's interesting to see how quickly that adds up.

 

[tb1972]

Thanks for sharing the breakdown.

I agree - the memories for each Disney trip are so unique.

My DD10 and I love shopping at Epcot Japan too. The pearl idea is so neat!

 

[sara mom]

Thanks for the info!

 

[emmababy]

How are you able to purchase park tickets from sputhwest rewards? We have that card and I thought it was only for flights.

 

[kirstenb1]

You did great!! You guys are really good with finding deals, and keeping it on a budget!!

 

[disneybirds]

Thanks for the info and all the detailed prices on even snacks. We are thinking of doing the pick a pearl this year for the first time so glad to see they prices. Great job on utilizing the Southwest points!

 

[JayhawkFans]

I too am curious about the Southwest airlines points. While we can't fly Southwest I'm wondering if it would be worth it to sign up for the card .. pay the $69 annual fee .. make a purchase and then have the 50,000 points to use. I spent time on their website tonite but couldn't find where you could redeem points for Univeral Tickets without booking a complete package to include airfare.

 

[DawnM]

Someday I will go with just two of us! In the meantime, we don't do the extras to keep our budget around $1,500 for 7 days.

 

[a1tinkfans]

OP: what an awesome job.
So glad your vacation worked for you. I know where you speak of, re LI.....crazy costly

sounds like your strategy has worked for you...heres some Pixie Dust for continued success.....

As an aside...I laughed (not meanly) when you mentioned college loans weighing you down..., my child/adult just turned down a top tier school (which was a really difficult decision) where he 'd walk out 40-50K in debt for undergrad .....to Accept a Full tuition and fees Debt Free University education/bachelors at a top 100 instead, and it includes study abroad Again, it was hard deciding, but the debt for undergrad knowing grad school loomed was a major factor....so you bringing it up was interesting to me...But I digress, again
Glad to see you had a great time....and heres to many more....

 

[a1tinkfans]

I too am curious about the Southwest airlines points. While we can't fly Southwest I'm wondering if it would be worth it to sign up for the card .. pay the $69 annual fee .. make a purchase and then have the 50,000 points to use. I spent time on their website tonite but couldn't find where you could redeem points for Univeral Tickets without booking a complete package to include airfare.

the sw card site has a link for other purchases....using your points..
a great deal if you fly with them....youd need to figure it out for just purchases...

 

[Marionnette]

How are you able to purchase park tickets from sputhwest rewards? We have that card and I thought it was only for flights.

I too am curious about the Southwest airlines points. While we can't fly Southwest I'm wondering if it would be worth it to sign up for the card .. pay the $69 annual fee .. make a purchase and then have the 50,000 points to use. I spent time on their website tonite but couldn't find where you could redeem points for Univeral Tickets without booking a complete package to include airfare.

• Go here
• http://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/how-to-redeem?int=GSUBNAV-RR-REDEEM
• Click on "Redeem for More Rewards".
• Click "Explore More Rewards" (opens a new window or tab)
• Click "Gift Cards & Certificates.
• Click "Travel"
• Go to page 3. 8519 points for one adult Sea World ticket. 12000 points for an adult Universal 1-day Park-to-Park ticket.

It is not the best use of your points but if you are only going to get the credit card for this purpose and you have no plans to fly SWA, then I guess that it's a good enough plan.

 

[Marionnette]

Hey everyone, I thought this might be of help to some folks pricing their vacations. We can "project" what we will spend, but the reality sometimes can be quite different.

My wife and I spent 7 nights at bonnet creek and did universal studios, seaworld, and disney. Here is our cost breakdown for every penny spent during the week. We didn't go crazy spending, but we did eat at a few signature restaurants and didn't deny ourselves something if we were in the mood. All food prices are for two people eating.

Airport breakfast 8.99
Rental Car tax- $55 (Rental car was purchased with credit card points)
Walmart Food + stuff- $68 (breakfast food, snacks, a few essentials)
O'hana-$92.88
Universal Studios parking-$15.00
Universal counter service lunch-15.64
Photobooth souvenir-$5
Dog Tag souvenir-$10
Butter beer-$6
Lemonade-$3
Icecream -4
Large Pizza dinner delivered to resort- $16
2 Disney 3 day base tickets- $494
Plaza lunch at MK- $32.14
Snack MK- $10
Candy MK - $14
Epcot Parking-$14
Lunch china epoct-$18
Allergy meds Epcot-$10
Pick a pearl (japan)-$15
Pick a pearl setting (japan)-45
French pastry -4
France drink- $6
Anniversary Dinner at Bistro de paris (prixe fixe menu + 1 glass of wine) $170
Garden View Tea room- 33.26
Coffee at resort- $3
Citricos dinner-$96 (2 entrees, split a dessert)
Hollywood studios parking-$14
Sci fi dine in - 43.50 (burgers and split a shake)
Red bull at resort- $4
Drink at Fantasmic- $6
Seaworld parking-$14
Sea world snack- $9.26
Sea world dolphin feeding- $7
Seaworld counter service lunch- $23
Kona cafe dinner-$55.38
Beaches and Cream dessert-$8.38
Wolfgang puck breakfast DTD- $22.10
DTD Souvenirs- $50
Gas (all gas used for the week. Drove approx 215 miles)- $31.59
Starbucks+candy- $4

So we spent a grand total of: $1,556 on our vacation.

Our 7 night resort stay was a gift from a family member (Bonnet Creek 1 BD deluxe, $800 value) My wife and I both signed up for the southwest rapid reward credit card earlier in the year to help pay for the vacation. For a $69 annual fee we were given 50,000 points to use. Those points paid for both our round trip flights ($600 value), our seaworld 1 day tickets ($145 value), our universal studios park to park 1 day tickets ($240 value), and our hertz rental car for the whole week ($200 value)

So if we paid for it all out of pocket, without credit card rewards or the free resort stay our cost would have been about: $3,541

To be perfectly honest, we cannot afford a a vacation that cost that much but thanks to an awesome credit card promotion and grandma with a timeshare we lived it up and had an awesome time!

We did, Universal Studios + Islands of Adventure, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Seaworld. We ate at O'hana, Bistro de Paris, Citricos, Kona Cafe, Sci-Fi Dine in theater, Garden view tea room, and the Plaza.

Best Meal: O'hana. Just insanely good, out of this world.
Best Value: The plaza. Delicious food in a relaxed setting.
Worst Value: Bistro de Paris. Food was mostly tasty. Ambiance and service was just ok.

We loved Universal but probably won't do it again next time. Also loved sea world but there's only so much to see there. Next trip it's all Disney all the time. Doing 7 nights with 5 parks and 2 being outside of Disney is just too much, and all the magic is in Disney world anyhow.

We can't wait to go back. We feel the memories made on these vacations are WORTH the money.

To give you an idea of our financial situation, we live in a small-medium sized home on very expensive long island. I take in about $65k a year in salary. My wife works part time and takes in about $14,000. I have a lovely student loan bill of $300 a month, combined car payments of about $450, we both tithe
10 percent of our income to our church. House payment is $1,500 month.

Our rule of spending is this: No credit card debt. Ever.

Disney is barley affordable, but with some frugality and luck we have been able to go 3 years in a row. Our next trip will probably be December this year... Looking to rent DVC points for 6 nights to stay at board walk villas (will only cost $689! Cheaper than paying rack rate for All Star Music!) We are considering the meal plan but I just don't know if it will be a decent deal.

OP, looks like you did a good job of using all the discounts you had available to you.

One word of caution about renting DVC - it's not that easy lately. You might think that it will only cost $689 to rent a studio at BWV for 6 nights but you will be hard-pressed to find availability. December is a popular month for DVC owners. BWV is popular. And right now, only DVC members who own at BWV can make reservations for December. Guess what they book up first? And even if you can find someone who will be able to get that hard-to-book studio, you have no guarantee that they will settle for $11/pt. Good Luck!

 

[DawnM]

OP, is the $689 for the week for a studio?

I have thought of seeing about getting a one bedroom there for us at some point.

Dawn

OP, looks like you did a good job of using all the discounts you had available to you.

One word of caution about renting DVC - it's not that easy lately. You might think that it will only cost $689 to rent a studio at BWV for 6 nights but you will be hard-pressed to find availability. December is a popular month for DVC owners. BWV is popular. And right now, only DVC members who own at BWV can make reservations for December. Guess what they book up first? And even if you can find someone who will be able to get that hard-to-book studio, you have no guarantee that they will settle for $11/pt. Good Luck!

 

[mermaidwannabe]

Really nice of you to share and glad you had a good time! Thanks!

 

[blackacex2]

Glad the cost breakdown could be helpful for some of you. The southwest rapid rewards credit card really did save us a ton of money.

We just signed up for their business card (you can sign up for a business card even if you don't own a business) and my wife and I will both be receiving another 50,000 points each.

Here's a tip: Apparently you can sign up for the business card and consumer card all at once and receive 100,000 southwest points. If you can get yourself another 10,000 points through purchases or reward point transfers from another card (mariott rewards etc) you qualify for a free companion pass for all of 2012 and 2013. Companion pass lets you bring a person of your choice along with you to fly for free.

Here's a crazy but possible scenario. You and your spouse both sign up for and receive the southwest rapid rewards consumer card and business card. Now between the two of you there are 200,000 points. That's enough to get you 4 nights at the beach club, 8 nights at caribbean beach, or 15 nights at one of the all stars! All for the cost of four $69 credit card annual fees ($276)

Or you could turn in those 200,000 points for $2,000 worth of amazon gift cards!

 

[JayhawkFans]

• Go here
• http://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/how-to-redeem?int=GSUBNAV-RR-REDEEM
• Click on "Redeem for More Rewards".
• Click "Explore More Rewards" (opens a new window or tab)
• Click "Gift Cards & Certificates.
• Click "Travel"
• Go to page 3. 8519 points for one adult Sea World ticket. 12000 points for an adult Universal 1-day Park-to-Park ticket.

It is not the best use of your points but if you are only going to get the credit card for this purpose and you have no plans to fly SWA, then I guess that it's a good enough plan.

I would LOVE to fly SWA as that is my fav but
can't justify the 3.5 hr drive when we can go
Airtran just 10 min from home for significantly less $

 

[hsmamato2]

thanks for the total breakdown....there ate WAY too many posts here about 'cheap' trips which don't list ALL the expenses!
I know from experience it's usually 'everything else' that gets the money spent fast!
You had lots of great ideas for saving,and spending!