Our disney trip budget!!!

[Goobergal99]

Well I am back, havent posted in awhile because I have been very busy planning my wedding

I am getting married in just six short weeks and in ten weeks we will be back to the mouse house to celebrate!!!!

I always have fun reading the great deals people get when going to disney so I just had to post my budget (as much as a budget as it is) I am really looking forward to this trip!

Ok, so here we go.... its much more of a "Yay we finally tied the Knot after almost a decade trip" then an actual honeymoon so our cast of characters is a bit non traditional. It will be myself (23) 9th trip, my soon to be DH (24) 4th trip, our daughter shannon (6) 2nd trip and my soon to be sister in law (16) who is going to disney for the first time! (always the best time)

We are going for seven nights, flying southwest airlines and staying at the Wilderness lodge (my first time staying deluxe since the poly in 93 and DFH and DD's first time ever staying anything but value, DFSIL first anything so it will be even more fantastic for her)

Our budget is

2 adults and 2 children on the magic your way package with park hopper and plus options for seven nghts with dining plan at the wilderness lodge for.....

$3462

Our airfare on southwest was roundtrip from phl to orl for $707

for a total of... $4169

I know it seems like alot of money, however we will definetly use the food plan to its maximum bang for the buck as I am a disney veteran! so I think it is a real awesome deal as we only spent about 1,000 less to stay at the pop last year with three adults and one child. aside from that it is ouw post wedding day trip so we would have paid any price to make it awesome!

We plan on taking with us $1500 for any additional meals or souvenirs. DD has been given $400 in disney dollars from birthday and christmas from family members, so this is her spending money for the whole trip (last year we went a little overboard as it was her first trip and we bought her two princess costumes for starters, a ton of hats, stuffed animals and t shirts (each of the princess costumes were at least $150 with everything) then my mom took her out alone the last night of the trip and let her pick out a whole bag full of souvenirs, aparently this was to make up for the days we couldnt go in the park as a result of hurricane frances we both made a pact that this time we were limiting princess Shannons spending (altough I have a feeling daddy is going to bend as soon as we touch down on WDW soil)

so what do you guys think, good deal for our idea of a five star vacation??

p.s. please answer cautiously as I am a bit soft

 

[ANTSS2001]

Congartulation in your upcmoing tying the knot! As for the price... moments like this are priceless...

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Congratulations on your upcoming vows! You must be very excited.

Your deluxe budget looks pretty good. The only way to improve upon it would have been to get a AAA discounted package. It would have saved you 15% off the room portion of your package. For WL during value season, you could cut $230+ off the cost of the package for a 7-night stay. But to join Mid-Atlantic AAA, you would have to spend about $85. I'm not sure that you could change things at this point or wether it would be worth it.

If you bought the 7-day MYW Premium tickets and you're only going to be there for 7 nights, you might want to consider adding the no-expiration option to the tickets. With 5 plus options, you probably won't get a chance to spend them all before you leave. And without the no-expiration, any remaining pluses or park days will disappear like *Magic* 14 days after you first used the passes. The cost would be $58.58 per pass and you can decide to add the option to them after you've already started to use them.

You airfare looks like you got the $79 one-way fares for PHL to MCO. That's a pretty good rate. If you haven't installed DING! on your computer yet, I would highly recommend it. If a lower fare comes out for your dates thru the DING! alerts, you can switch over to it pretty easily. I've seen the $49 fares return thru DING! as well as some $68 fares, so it is worth it to keep checking SWA, even after you've already booked your flights. SWA doesn't charge you for ticket changes and any excess of funds can be kept as a credit to be used for another flight.

Good luck with both your vacation and wedding plans! I hope you have a magical time celebrating your new beginning!