Our disney budget, will it work?

[janie91]

Our family consists of DH, DD(11), DD(9), DS(7), and me. I'm trying to make sure we have enough money saved for our Nov. trip. We have paid for our package and all bookend hotel rooms. The kids have their own spending money for souvenirs etc. We split meals often as it is when we eat out and aren't doing any character meals. I would like to try Whispering Canyon for lunch and possibly 50's prime time but we plan to eat mainly counter service and offsite. We only eat 2 meals per day typically either breakfast buffet and early supper or lunch and late supper after parks close. We've never been to WDW but this is how we have ate on other theme park vacations.

$150 per day food x 9 park days=$1350
$50 per day food during our drive x 3= $150
Fuel for approx. 930 miles each way=$200

The fuel calculator only shows a little under $150 but I thought there would be tolls and some shopping while we are there.

Tell me if you think this will work.

 

[cokegal19]

Well, my family is me, DH, and DS (2). We drove from Chicago in May and it was about $90 each way for gas, and then a fill while were there. So total I bugeted $230 for gas there and back, and it was fine. I'm a little conserned about your $150/day for food. You will be very suprised at how expensive things are in the parks and at the Disney resorts. We bugeted $75/day for food and we constantly went over, even with a 2 year old who only ate from our plates most of the time! There is drinks inside the parks, snacks, icecream, or whatever else you might want while inside. I definatley think you can make it work with $150, but you might want to have some extra for snacks and other things.

Also, have you included spending money? That can add up real quick, too.

Have fun on your trip. Disney is such a BLAST!!!!!!

 

[mudnuri]

150 per day food x 9 park days=$1350

If you go with 4 people- thats 37.50 per day....in my opinion, not enough.

We budgeted $50.00 per day per person...this allowed for a few character meals, but also allowed for treats- mickey head ice creams, turkey legs for DH etc.. not just sit down/counter service meals.

$50 per day food during our drive x 3= $150

Again- I think your under. We drove from Vermont and we can wipe out $50.00 at one meal with DH, me, DD8 and DD7...if it's a sit down- like Applebee's, Chillies etc.. your not going to want counter meal all week at WDW and McD's all your travel days

Fuel for approx. 930 miles each way=$200

I dont know- that seems low too sorry to be a bearer of bad news- but I'm thinking-

930 miles- at 18 mpg thats 52 gallons.. at 2.00 a gallon- which is probably an average price between you and WDW...thats over 200 bucks...and I would think your not going to just park the car when you get to WDW..your gonna find some reason to drive it.

My truck averaged 20.5 mpg on our trip- and I budgeted $300.00 and ended up coming home wthi $28.00 out of that, and 3/4 tank of fuel...

good luck- and I always say- OVERBUDGET then if you dont spend it, well, thats more stuff you can buy yourself!

Brandy

 

[momof3disneygirls]

With the budget that you have you might not be able to eat at Whispering Canyon and Prime Time 50. Are you staying someplace that has a fridge and micro. You can always take Parmalot milk that doens't require refrigeration and have ceral every morning for breakfast and take cheese crackers to nibble on at the park to hold down expenses. Check out the Columbia house in WDW and Casey's on main street. Hope that you have a great time.

 

[bobcat]

I think your budget looks ok. I have had many trip to WDW and spent lots less per person and we were still able to do character meals. I budget $70/ day for one adult and two kids (9 and 12) and that includes snacks as well. If we eat a large sit down meal then we usually snack for the other meal. Breakfast is in our rooms many times as we are eager to get to the parks. We don't eat all counter service but I don't like eating at too many sit down restaurants because it takes up valuable park time.

As for your gas budget it sounds good as well. I have a 2000 mile round trip and get around 23 mpg in my minivan. I budgeted between $175-200 for our last trip and I stayed within that. GA has the cheapest gas prices so fill up before you get to the FL border. Even when gas was $2/gal here in Ohio I was able to get it for $1.65-$1.80 on our trip.

 

[janie91]

Thanks for all the help. I will give a little more information that may help, it seems the majority think we are to low. On fuel we have a new minivan that should average at least 20 mpg. We live about 5 hours south of Chicago in southern IL. We will be bringing our own snacks and water bottles for the room and our hotel. We actually are huge fans of McDonalds and I know it will get old but maybe not to bad since it's one of our favorite rest. anyway and we eat for about $15-$16 total. As I said we share a lot of meals and drink water with most of our meals as well. We are packing some bottled soda for the drive and our room and snacks as well. As I said we've never vacationed at Disney but have spent from open to close at theme parks and get by on 1 meal during that time and our snacks we pack. The parks will be closing early during our stay so we plan to eat after that so as not to waste park time eating. My husband and I hate spending a lot of money on eating out though I know some people enjoy that we like pretty basic foods and nice restaurants are wasted on us. Thanks for all your advise and keep up with the opinions you've given me some things to consider.

 

[Raggedy]

where are you staying? I ask because my budget totally changed since i found out there is going to be a fridge in our room now. We are going to eat most of our breakfast's in our room and i am going to buy lunch meat for sandwiches for our lunches. So right there i have saved a ton of money. For our dinners, they are already paid. I bought enough vouchers for all our dinners. I also bought a couple of breakfast vouchers and lunch vouchers. So i have saved a ton of money.

 

[Lucky4me]

Your food budget is doable if you can discipline yourself to stay cheap.

On our last trip I packed instant oatmeal, a favorite store brand cereal, hot cocoa, easy mac, easy ragu, crystal lite and fruit snacks.
We had a fridge so we bought milk, bottled water, bread, lunch meat, chips and baked goods at Super Walmart. It was just dd and I. Beyond that we spent under $200 on food the whole week. We had one character meal and the rest counter service and lots of Mickey bars! We ate a quick breakfast in the room, had a meal in the parks and then a late night snack or sandwich back at the room. We did not go hungry.

Our trip in December will be about the same except my husband will be coming so our food bill may be $600 for the week. $1350 for your family of 5 would be just about right as long as you watched yourself carefully. Your kids sure won't mind Mickey Ds and Pizza Hut for a week.

Since you're driving a minivan you can bring a lot from home. Go light on the clothes, heavy on the food. If we didn't fly I'd bring more food. Pack a cooler with sandwiches or fried chicken, salads and homemade baked goods. That will take care of one day right there.

WDW portions are huge. DD and I always share, sometimes even a kids meal with an extra side order. At most sit down restaurants, DH and I split a meal and dd gets a kids meal. Disney seems to be one of the few places where the wait staff does not mind if you share.

To some people, it wouldn't be a good vacation if they didn't go all out on food and dining. To us, food is secondary to the rides, characters and overall Disney theming. This will be my daughters 6th trip in 8 years, we only were able to do it by eating cheap.

Good luck!

 

[Lucky4me]

Janie here is another budget tip that helps to keep you in line. It's often mentioned here and it's a good one.

Use envelopes for your cash. Have separate envelopes for each day of your trip. Seal them. Only open one per day. When the money is gone, you're done spending for the day. Put any left over money in a separate envelope or in the next days envelope when you open it. Only use it in an emergency or on your last day for souvenirs.
This way really kept us on track. Just be really careful where you keep the envelopes. I keep them in the room safe and carry the one per day in a waist pack or an over the shoulder purse. I also make sure to keep my credit cards in the safe so I won't be tempted to use them while in the parks. Some people prefer travelers checks because they are replacable if they get stolen or lost. I think they're a pain and I'd rather take the risk of losing the cash than go through the process of signing, having to produce ID, etc.
One year we just used our Visa debit card and tried to keep track of spending with receipts. When I added it up when I got home we were several hundred dollars over budget. So now it's cash all the way.

 

[VAN]

I would pad your gasoline/tolls a little ... maybe to $250. There are some tolls you will need to pay and you will drive some down there as well.

We come from SW Michigan and tow a camper ... driven down many years.

We always have a large cooler that we pack things like chicken salad, deli ham, etc so that we can make sandwiches at a rest area on the way down. Also potato salad, chips, cookies. This keeps you on the highway and gives everyone a chance to stretch without losing too much time off the road. We're always anxious to get to WDW so don't like to linger when we stop. We don't mind stopping frequently and usually will pull off at a rest area at least every couple hours.

We usually do one night at a hotel each way and will just order pizza to be delivered to our room. We take drinks from our cooler into the room. Also, we stay at places that have a free breakfast.

Once in Florida, because we camp, we usually only eat in restaurants once per day and tend to keep those to counter service. We have discovered O'Hana's in recent years ($24 per adult) and always budget for dinner there (restaurant at the Poly) for the family.

There are plenty of places to shop to replenish your cooler (we like Winn-Dixie) ... in fact, we will usually start out at one of the parks and then take a short 1-2 hr break at the campsite for lunch.

We've never been to a character meal in all the years we've been going (since the kids were 3 & 4) and don't have any great need to schedule now that we have a little more in our budget. You'll see plenty of characters in the parks!

I think your food budget is fine and I also like the idea that the kids have their own money for spending. We always did that and it worked out fine (I'd pay an additional 1/2 if they purchased clothing ... helped so we didn't end up with so much junk on the floor at home).

Have a great time and be safe on the drive!!!

 

[John Dobbertin]

Definitely "do" breakfast in-the-room. First off, you want to be on-your-way to the Parks e-a-r-l-y. This gives you control over that. Milk is available at all WDW mercantiles -- if you have a cooler or fridge in the room, you can buy quarts. Take packaged snacks from home & eat those in the Parks instead of WDW goodies (those really add up in a hurry). Great idea is to take your major break at mid-day and eat your Big Meal then -- lunches are always cheaper than dinners. Then do cold-cuts, cheese, whatever for dinner. You are usually in a hurry for dinner anyway if you want to take-in WDW evening major events. We spend a lot of time with family at WDW and have used all of the above. We eat better, feel better and have more fun!

 

[ellyn2000]

I think your budget is a pretty good one. I, too, travel on a budget and am often surprised at how well we can dine on fewer dollars. Your own snacks and drinks are a must for a tight budget. You are the best judge of how much you family eats, but you have to remember that food is somewhat expensive @WDW. Even the McDonald's @Downtown is more expensive than one on the hwy.. Lucky4me is right about the envelopes. I put my money for each days food in an envelope and then at the end of the day if there's any left over I move it to the next days envelope. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised. Have a wonderful trip!

 

[kilee]

I think everyone's spending and eating habits are different. Personally all fried counter service all week would make me sick to my stomach (in a true literal fashion), so we never could. Anyhow, we usually do all breakfast in the room. As that alone saves a lot of money. I can buy breakfast foods for a week for less than 1 adult at a buffett. We usually take or own water bottles. (2 per day). Once they are gone we refill them from the fountains. When you're going through 2 an hr (in the heat) it gets expensive to keep buying. Not to mention trying to lug 15 fresh bottles around for the day. We try to do at least 1/2 of our meals off property as it is cheaper. We may order a pizza one night and that's only $10 for all of dinner for my family of 3 (DH, Me, and DS-11). We also usually plan for 3 sit down meals a trip. These are our largest expense.

All in all, I'd always try to budget alittle high and the have a bit left over in the end. We usually do about $500 in food per trip. That includes "groceries" and all of our dining. Our trips are usually 8-10 days. That is based on the above eating habits.

 

[MidwestMickeyFan]

I think your budget looks great! My DD 9 and I just returned from 8 days at WDW. I budgeted about $100 for each day for food AND keepsakes combined. We ate what we wanted and bought what we wanted, and still came home with money in our pockets, not much, but there was some. We ate to our heart's content, and bought a ton of photos by cast members, towel, earrings, t-shirt, snacks, mister, etc. We also did a character breakfast, Chef Mickey's, Planet Hollywood, and mainly counter service otherwise. We saved money on drinks by buying a refillable mug at our resort - which paid for itself on day 1, and taking snacks with us like granola bars, cheese crackers, etc. With young children, you will likely have a stroller with you too, so you can easily stash water bottles, juice boxes, etc. for thirsty moments.

Have fun and say hi to Mickey for us!

 

[Luv2Roam]

I think your budget is realistic. Good for you.
I would just be prepared for the unexpected and have some extra padding.
Heaven forbid you run into bad weather, car trouble, accident, whatever.

We've never been to a character meal in all the years we've been going (since the kids were 3 & 4) and don't have any great need to schedule now that we have a little more in our budget. You'll see plenty of characters in the parks!

Agree. We have done some character meals. But really are there for the food!