Planning a Trip in 2019? Let's Share Our Budgets!

Well our January 5th trip just got $300 cheaper. They have a special offer for pass holders.

Room only - Port Orleans Riverside (first time there) in a King guaranteed bed = $1600
Tax for room = $200
Tips for Mousekeeping = $35 ($5 a night plus $10 on the last day)
Parking = $0 - we have handicap plates
Tickets = $0 - we are Silver Pass holders (blackouts for summer and major holidays - not a problem)
Airfare = $0 - we are only 90 minutes from WDW

Meals = this will be our highest expenses

Breakfast for 8 days - $320

Lunch for 8 days - $320

Dinner for 8 nights - $800

Snacks and Beverages - $320

So,about $1500

Souveniers - $200

Miscellaneous Expenses - going to the movies, mini golf and whatever else comes up - $1000

$4795 - life is too short and it is a vacation afterall


Recently called to request a room closer to the food court and received a $400 discount.

New budget: Room only PORF $1200

Mousekeeping: $40

Parking: Free

Airfare: Free

Tickets: Free

Breakfast: $200 (we lowered the cost - we will probably eat light)

Lunch: $240

Dinner: $600

Snacks: $200

Souveniers: $200

Misc Expenses: $500

New Budget: $2980.00
 
Two week trip in May for my DF, me and my DLS. We like comfort and are spoiled. I budget down very well so we can spoil ourselves and we always almost come back under budget.

Hotel CBR 8 nights/ Tickets 6 days/Memory Maker 3700 (before any discount)
Road Hotels 700
Parking 200
DLS spending $ 300
Gas 250
Food 3950 (two weeks worth)
Spending money $1000

Total 10000

Food. 6 days of travel, the day before and the day after we come back, one rest day and dinners are all off site. So I have gift cards to many different restaurants totaling about 2800.00. leaving 350 cash and 800 for Disney food.
DLS $300 will be purely from apps, 150 in pp 150 to go ( I am projected to get this)
gas- already all taken care of in gcs.
Spending money has already been saved. Along with 200 for hotel/etc
I also have 945 saved up on a Disney gift card. That covers the 800 for food and 145 of the parking.
I am projected to get 450 more on gift cards. The last 55 of the parking. And 395 memory maker/hotel.

So I need 3105 for wdw left, 700 road hotels. So 3805 left for vacation which is well within my yearly vacation budget. So my spending money will not be cut short.

So I called back Disney and used a pin code and took our room down to 3300.

So I used 500 in bought wdw gift cards (discounted plus 8% back at dosh though Sams)

So between the 200 deposit and 500 out of vacation fund it took Disney hotel/ticket to 2600.

Than my free (swag, mypoints, bing, etc) was 1300 so it took it down to 1300.

I plan on getting at least 300 more in free money for Disney. 1000 left
Food is 3950- 2800( in free money gift Cards)= 1150 left
Parking 200
Road Hotels 700
Gas 250- 200 (free money gift cards)= 50
DLS 300( all free money dosh, ibotta, receipt pal)with hopefully 200 over budget in free money.
spending money 1000

new total left for vacation fund 4100. So 500 is already raised. And the rest is way under yearly vacation fund.
 


Added $375 (checks from an accidental buildup of several years worth of wellness benefits from a supplemental policy my husband carries) to my vacation savings account. I now have $4005 in the account & have paid the $200 room deposit. I need $1655 to reach my current goal of $5860. Still crossing my fingers I get some Disney money for Christmas. I need to average saving $275 a month to make my goal.

Christmas shopping & family holiday activities definitely slowed my savings this month. I added $175 (52 Week Savings Challenge, Savings Catcher, etc.) to my vacation savings account. I now have $4182 in the account & have paid the $200 room deposit. I need $1478 to reach my current goal of $5860. I need to average saving just under $300 a month to make my goal. Not impossible, but I fear the hangover from holiday spending will lead to January being a slow savings month also.
 
I need to type this all out for my own clarity lol. I just booked a spur of the moment solo trip to wdw

When: March 10 - 14
Where: Pop Century
Tickets: 4 day plus park hopper
Food: Lowest tier dining plan, i believe it's 2 QS and 2 snacks

ROOM & TICKETS: $1,136

Transportation: I'm flying down and hoping to keep it at around $300 round trip
Souvenirs: This is gonna be the hardest part... I love to shop but this trip I'm definitely doing disney on a dime... I'm gonna allow myself $50 a day for a total of $200 (this also includes stuff I'd be buying from F&G booths)

SO FAR: $1,636

I also need to budget for a few miscellaneous things I need before I go, like a nice new pair of sneakers, portable battery charger, and a refillable water bottle, so let's say $150?

TOTAL: $1,786

So basically I have about $550 saved so far, and I owe ~$600 in 5 weeks. If i save $100 a week (I plan on saving more, but just at the minimum) I can have it paid! And then I have a month to worry about saving money and flights.

It's not going to be easy, but it's doable.
 
We are going to WDW March 16-23 as a family of 5 adults (kids ages 10,10,11). My brother and his family of 2 adults and 2 kids (8, 9) will be joining us. We are paying our own way but splitting housing and transportation costs.

Budget:
Windsor Hills home: $813 for our share but $1,626 total (included all taxes and fees)
WDW Tickets: $2,020 for 5 - 6 day tickets from UT
Airfare: $57.50 (used SW points)
Food (out to eat including tips): $700
Snacks: $200 - works out to $6.66 per person per day
Food (groceries): $200
HEA Dessert Party: $345
Alcohol: $200 (mostly for Epcot and a dinner or two)
Gift money for kids: $300 ($100/each)
15 person van plus gas: $450 for our share but $900 total
Misc: $200 (parking, extras)
Total: $5,555

Tally To Date for Trip (out of pocket so far):

WDW Tickets for 5 adults: $2,020
Lodging: $788 (doesn't include $50 early check in)
Air fare: $57.50 (used points / taxes and fees)
Dessert Party: $328 (used WDW GC from Target - 5% discount)
Total: $3,139.50

It's crazy how fast it adds up. We have about $2400 left with $1750 of that saved up. We are saving $800/mth towards the trip so we should be there after January 2019. We are putting $1,500 on a GC's with the Target discount for our food, alcohol and kid gifts.

I am pretty frugal (to a point) and know that we will stay on budget. I looked up pricing for all our restaurants so that I have realistic costs.
 


We decided to take advantage of the room discounts that opened up today and switched to AKL, so my budget changed, again...

Where: June 2019 - 6 nights, standard room at AKL + parking $2004.

Tickets: 5 day Park Hoppers for 4 Disney adults through Undercover Tourist $2000

Food/Souvenirs/Memory Maker: $1800
(We decided to book HDDR as one of our table service meals, so I increased the budget a little.)

Transportation: $200 (driving)

New goal of $6004 :scared: I have $4182 in the account & have paid the $200 room deposit. I need $1622 to reach my new goal of $6004.
 
So I posted this way back on the first page of this thread and I just booked the trip for next year! Here's what I have booked:

Who: 6 Disney adults

Where: Pop Century. I booked three rooms for us. I would still like to upgrade to a moderate, but I wanted to have Pop booked so that we had good value option in case we don't have the budget to upgrade. We've stayed at Pop before and really enjoyed it, so I definitely won't complain if we stay there again!

When: September 21-28, 2019

Tickets: 5 day parkhoppers +1 water park day for everyone

Food: Booked the Disney dining plan for now. I will likely keep it as DH and I often share meals and we would like to save some of the table service credits to do California Grill one night. We normally eat breakfast in our room and pack some light snacks, so we try to use our snack credits for bigger snack items that can substitute as small meals too.

Transportation: Still up in the air. If I can get the miles to fly everyone for free, I'll do it. Or if everyone says they'd rather fly and are okay paying their own way, that's fine too. Otherwise, I'll have the points to rent a van and drive us down. DH and I are driving down for our trip in 3 weeks and it's a straight shot from our location, so it's not bad.

Souvenirs: Everyone on their own.

The total cost of our trip is $8,638.58. I went ahead and just paid the deposits on a credit card I'm working on a spending requirement for. I'm hoping that will be the only portion of the trip I pay for with "non-discounted" money! I currently have half of the remaining balance saved in credit card cashback and discounted Disney GCs. So I think the remaining $4000 should be very doable over the next 10 months with accruing more cashback and discounted GCs!

Update to the update!

I was scrolling through Facebook when my alarm went off this morning and couldn’t believe when I saw free dining had been released. I booked our trip through a TA so I sent her an email immediately to ask about getting the discount applied. I got an auto reply email that she was on vacation. I thought about it and decided I was just going to go ahead and rebook everything myself on the Disney website and then I could cancel the trip I booked with her (don’t worry, there’s still a happy ending for this TA).

Miraculously, I got the Disney website to work long enough at 7 AM EST to book three separate free dining packages.

Who: 6 Disney adults
When: September 21-18
Where: Pop Century, 3 standard rooms
Tickets: 5 day parkhoppers, will probably add a 6th day since it’s so cheap
Dining: Upgraded from free quick service to Disney Dining Plan
Transportation: Rent a van and drive. We told our family about the trip at Christmas and they were all fine with driving. We drove in November and found it to be very easy drive. Working on getting enough Hertz points to cover this.

My original price was $8,638.

My new price with free dining is $7751, for a savings of $887!!

I currently have $4,400 in credit card points saved up towards this. I have another $500 pending. I also have $450 in discounted Disney gift cards accumulated.

Our whole family is so excited for this trip!
 
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Ok, so here we go. We just booked our first cruise for September 2019. I've been on one cruise and hated it (went on another line for a senior trip in the mid 1990s). DW has never been on a cruise. So we booked a 3 night cruise on the Dream for Sept. 13-16 just to give it a try and see how we like it. Additionally, we took advantage of the free dining and booked a 5-night stay at AS Music for Sept. 16-21. So here's where I'm at...

Base Costs
(Will pay using our paychecks/vacation fund)
Cruise: $1,942.68
Parks: $1,770.70
Total: $3,713.38
Paid: $527.60 (1/3/19)
Remaining: $3,185.78 (as of 1/3/19)

Other Expenses
(Will pay using gift cards, birthday/Christmas gift money, money raised from selling stuff around the house)
Airfare: $400
Food (at WDW), $300
Souvenirs (total), $500
Miscellaneous (total), $500;
Total: $1,700
Paid: $75 (added another gift card with this week's paycheck)

Possible costs to add in later:
Rental car (with all parking): $433
Disney Transportation (for Cruise portion of trip): $156
Hotel stay in Dallas (night before flight), $200ish
(cost includes park & fly)
Pre-trip purchases (stuff needed for trip), ???
 
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We are planning for March 25-30, hotel is already booked, staying off property. There will be 7 of us, DH & I and 5 kids DD 18, DS 16, DD 14, DD 11, DD 9. This will be a first trip for everyone, we've tried to make one happen for years now and something always came up. This year it is happening I don't care how I get it done. lol

Hotel- $200- Somehow or other I ended up getting a deal through IHG rewards.
Tickets- 4 days $3000
Food/Souvenirs- $750
Transportation (driving)- $250
Dog Boarding- $275

Total is $4475. My plan is to cash out my ibotta, swagbucks, etc to put toward the food and souvenirs cost.
 
We are tentatively planning a trip to DL in November 2019. We were there in November 2017 and my budget was $6000 CAD (actually came in a tiny bit under budget) for 8 days with 2 adults & 2 kids. One kid was under 3 at the time, so free for the park/character meals. I was hoping to keep the budget around the same this time, but my numbers are coming nowhere close :(. I didn’t realize how great a deal I got through westjet vacations until I started pricing out hotels for this trip . We were hoping to do 1 less day at DL this time (so 4 days), and 2 days at Legoland (staying at the legoland hotel). So a westjet vacation package wouldn’t work, and even their vacation package prices are way higher ($1400+) than last year. So, I’m just crunching numbers right now trying to figure out if we can make it work.

I posted the above way back in October! Finally starting to really plan. Budget has been set at $7,500 Canadian. 10 nights. Nov. 2-12, 2019. We decided to do the full 5 days at Disneyland again, plus 2 days at legoland. 2 free days in the middle somewhere.

Flights & hotel are looking to be in the $4200 CAD range (about $2100 for each). Ouch. Flights are much more expensive this time around. I’m watching flight prices like a hawk, waiting for a sale. Booked Desert Inn for Disney days.

Food budget is $1200 CAD. This is based on $100 USD/day plus a bit extra for treats.

Souvenirs $200 CAD

Transportation $300 CAD

Character meal $200 CAD

Legoland tickets $0 (purchase with airmiles)

Disneyland tickets - this is where I’m either gonna make or break the budget lol. If I have to pay for all 4 tickets, it will be something crazy like $1800 CAD. We can’t afford that. So I’m hoping to collect enough airmiles to buy them with those. I’m sure I can purchase 1 (I only had enough airmiles last time to purchase 1), but I would really like to purchase all 4!

So right now I’m just watching flight prices and westjet vacation packages. If flight prices don’t go down, it may actually be a better deal for us to book a westjet vacation package and be double booked (for hotel room) the 1 night we stay near legoland. I was originally hoping to stay at the legoland hotel, but that is not looking to be in the budget. Maybe when the dollar is better!
 
Its been a while since I posted an update. We are planning to go for Spring break March 25 - 30th. I have airfare purchased and we owe 1799 on our package (Due in Feb). I recently found out that I am losing my job on March 15th so I am trying to determine if I should cancel the trip and take the credit on the airfare. I will receive a decent severance package (19 weeks, plus a bonus, plus vacation time not used) but health care will be the killer. At this point I am thinking we will still go but I will make decision before Final Payment date.
 
Booked and locked in for August 26-Sept 3! This will be the longest vacation we have taken! 2 adults and 2 juniors (DS12 and DS10)

Priceline Express Deal on All Star Music (Aug 30-Sept 3) - $227 after PL discount code of 12% and Ebates rebate of 11%

Booked package under the free dining promotion:
All Star Music 8/26-8/30 (will link the reservations so that we *might* be able to just stay in our same room the entire time)
7 day parkhoppers (these will cover both legs of our reservations)
Upgrade to DDP to get the TS credit each day of the package reservation)
Total $2973.19 Will be using GC purchased with Target Red card to pay this off, so final cost will be $2824.50

Planned food spending OOP $900 (700 will be on Disney GC bought with Target redcard), final cost $865
includes groceries for 2nd half of trip, travel food and in-park/resort dining on 2nd half of trip. We will probably be well under that and I'll adjust that budget once I nail down ADRs and actual grocery supplies we will need)

Parking at the resort $104

Gas and tolls for drive there and back $300

Hotel for one night on the way home $0 (Hilton Honors points)

Total for now $4320
 
Bored at work so I thought I'd pop in with an update. We are planning for the extended trip :) so here is our part of it

June 2019
2 days at Disney, 2 days at Kennedy Space Center, 2 days at Universal, 5 night cruise

  • Flights: $664 - Current pricing for June, I expect it will drop a bit in a few months; I have SW points to cover this Cash OOP $22
  • Cruise: $4520 - This includes the fare, gratuities, and Palo (updated price). We had a placeholder discount discount (10%) + $100 credit, and I budgeted for an excursion we thought about doing on our honeymoon but it booked up before I added it ($172); besides our $812 deposit the rest is being paid with discounted/earned gift cards
  • Hotels: $998 - 3 nights at Pop, 2 nights near KSC, and 3 nights by Universal Cash OOP $0 (using points/free hotel nights from credit cards)
  • Disney Tickets: $204 - We got APs again because it made sense with this trip, so this is the 'share' of using them for 2 days
  • Universal Tickets: $0 - We upgraded to APs on our last trip and got a $7 refund :laughing: we figured why not, and I'm glad we did because at the time we weren't planing Uni on this trip.
  • Universal EPs: $267 - Universal wants $330pp for 2 days of unlimited express pass on our dates, so I plan to book a room at one of the EP hotels for 4 people (us and in laws) and split it, this is our half
  • KSC Tickets: $164 - this is for two day tickets, will probably add a tour also which will add $25pp
  • Disney Food: $??? - I need to figure this out again and plan where we'll be eating
  • Other Food: $??? - Same...
  • Transportation: $150 - Also need to rework this based on the extended trip, might just cover with credit card points
  • Miscellaneous: $??? - this will be gas, parking, souvenirs maybe... need to estimate it
Goal: $603+food+misc in cash+$4968 in Disney GCs+Disney food costs in Disney GCs = $5571+$???? total
Currently:
$427 cash + $3752 Disney GCs (cost of $2599) + $1016 paid (deposit and APs) = $5195 total

I will continue trying to lower some of the cash expenses with credit card points. I've been putting aside $350 a month in cash for the last year for this trip, but then was using it to buy Disney GCs at a discount so that's why the actual balance is so low overall. Plus I've paid the deposit and 'share' of the APs out of the cash fund. Also the $350 number came from the worst case scenario cash outlay, so that way I could 1) hopefully be way under that with credit card points and the GCs, and 2) the savings balance would be front loaded for deposits and now that we are 6 months out I can see where we're at and scale back my monthly savings goal.

We are planning a family trip for summer 2019. It will be a surprise for our in-laws and we are splitting most of their share with my BILs and their spouses. The trip is built around a 5 night Bahamas cruise on the Dream. Then we would also like to do a day at Epcot and a day at Kennedy Space Center, because those were the things that the ILs didn't get to do as much on our wedding trip like they'd planned (thanks Irma). The long version of the trip would be a second park day and possibly a second day at KSC.

I'm tracking our budget plus the ILs. Most things are the same between us, so I'm just budgeting costs high (longer trip) and low (base trip) for one group. I'll add where we're at on our trip too.

Flights: $688/$952 - Hopefully this is really high as I based them on this year's prices, but only looked about 8 weeks out. I will have Southwest points to cover our flights and hope to book when they release flights and to rebook if they do drop. Cash OOP $11
Cruise: $4490 us/$4869 - This is the only difference between us and ILs; it includes the fare, gratuities, and Palo. We had a placeholder discount discount (10%) + $100 credit, and I budgeted for an excursion we thought about doing on our honeymoon but it booked up before I added it ($172)
Hotels: $477/$928 - 2 nights at Pop and 1 night at Port vs 3 nights at each place Cash OOP $0 (can use points)
Tickets: $330/$552 - 1 day Epcot and 1 day KSC tickets vs 2 day nonPHs and 2 day KSC tickets. Cash OOP $406 (can use points for KSC)
Disney Food: $205/$358 - 1 day vs 2 days. Cash OOP $358
Other Food: $310/$425 - 3 day vs 4 days. Cash OOP $425
Transportation: $96/$145 - rental cars on either end of cruise. Cash OOP $0 (can use points)

Total: $6596/$7850 us and $6974/$8229 ILs
Cash OOP goal $5160, current savings $972 (putting $350 per month towards it, but will adjust down if I'm projecting to go over goal)
Cruise gift card goal $4490 for $3960 OOP, currently at $1900 for $1596 OOP

Adds up fast! Hopefully some things come down or I can get better deals. DH and I were able to pick up about $2800 in credit card points for about $1100 in cost (long story), so we are planning to put that towards the ILs trip and count the $1100 as part of our portion. And we have lots of CC points to use for ourselves, for flights, hotels, etc. I’m also working on gathering discounted/free Disney GCs for our cruise. I’m hoping the actual cash cost could come in around $4000 or so. We’ll contribute an amount towards it each month, and I plan on earning some extra cash to help put towards it.
 
I just priced mine today as the FL resident rates came out. As of now, just my 11 year old son and I:

All Star Sports June 2-June 6 room only $555.04
Memory Maker $169.00 (Advanced purchase)
4 Day FL Discovery Ticket (no hoppers) 415.36

Total: $1139.40

I have a sunpass and will just put about $20 on it for the trip through the tolls. Not that it will cost that much, but having it on won't hurt.

Plan on bringing an extra $700 for resort parking, meals and souvenirs. We eat kosher so a lot of our dining will be offsite as son and I would like a "fresh cooked" meat every now and again and not always microwaved. I plan on taking about $50 of that $700 and giving it to my son in the form of a Disney Gift Card and let him use it for whatever he may like. It IS a congratulations present on making to middle school trip! :cheer2::jumping1: :cheer2: I seriously doubt we will use all of that $700, but I'd rather have it and not have to go into my checking account. I'm going to see about getting a card from the bank for JUST the trip. I believe I did it on our 2015 trip, but I forgot how we worked it out.
 
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I believe I posted in here but I am not sure. Posting with updates, if so.

April 5-10th Star Wars Run Trip!
  • 6 Adults - My friend, her brother and sister, another friend, and myself
  • We are staying in a DVC 2 Bedroom BoardWalk Villa

Flight - $286.18 - Paid
BoardWalk Villa - $0 - We are using my friend's parents DVC points since 3 of their 'kids' are going (lol we will ALL be over 30. I use 'kids' loosely)
10k Race - $133.25 - Paid
Tickets - ?? - I have an AP. This will be my second trip with it out of 3. It's already paid for. It cost me $440.91 to upgrade back in December so let's say that (though I'll be taking more trips, so the true cost for this trip is less)
Food - $400 - I have $400 budgeted, but I will probably spend less. I took a longer trip in December and spent less.
"Extras" - $300 - I have $300 budgeted for anything extra like souvenirs, but I doubt I'll spend near that much. I was just there in December and bought most of what I wanted.

Total: $1119.43 without the cost of the AP or $1560.34 if you include the AP cost

I only have $700 left to be paid, but that's all for things I have to pay for in person. I will also likely not even spend that much.
 
I cashed out $175 in Disney Gift Cards this month!

$75 from Swagbucks, $35 from Perk, $5 from Fetch, $10 from ShopKick, and $50 from Ibotta.

Current gift card balance is $900 out of $1630, 6 months to go!

My earnings were a little lower since October 1st when I last posted. Since then I cashed out:
$150 from Swagbucks, $40 Receipt Hog, and $40 from Ibotta for a total of $230 for October, November & December.

Current gift card balance was $1100 on January 5th. And just my luck, that Saturday night - I combined all my gift cards and bought our 3-day Disneyland Park Hoppers + MaxPass for a total of $1080! It would have cost $1200 if I waited until the next day because they raised the prices at midnight! I felt so lucky!

And pretty much the entire thing was paid in gift cards earned from Swagbucks, apps, etc., in about 10 months time.

So now - tickets are paid for. I was planning on $450 for food for 3 days but now I decided I really want to add the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour if I can swing it. So I'm trying to come up with $780 in the next 3-4 months.

Current gift card balance is $45 out of $780, 13 weeks to go!
 
Working through our March DL trip!

4 day/non hopper tickets w/ maxpass - $538 (special pricing!)
hotel - $470 rounded up
WiWF Tour - $218
FOOD! - $100/day x 4 = $400
drive from norcal - ~$60 gas (high guess, we usually fill up twice, ty prius)
trip snacks - $30 (goldfish, waters for the room, our routine mcdonalds stop, etc)
souvenirs are up in the air - I won't get anything but my boyfriend will probably get some new artwork, ~$100

(I also gave myself $50-75 for new clothing pieces and Ursula pins I don't have to go onto my sea witch vest but it's separate from our trip amount.)

TOTALS --

on disney gc - $1156 w/ possible $1256
bank/cash - $560

all in all, $1716 for the trip!

hotel/gas/snacks money is put away and we've both been grabbing giftcards every couple weeks. so far we're sitting at $700/1156 with 9ish weeks to go!
 

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