Spending money for 20 days

[Soprano]

hi there, i edited my post and changed that we wont do disney, but do 5 park flexi tickets instead.

We are not able to up our limit to 1800 dollars. what do you think???

The more money you have, the more you can spend. $1000 is not enough for 20 days, $1500 is tight, but MUCH better. Anything close to $1800 would be good.

Have you already bought the flexi pass? Perhaps you could get the 4 day one instead, then have an extra Disney day?

 

[SEVANS2208]

hi there, i edited my post and changed that we wont do disney, but do 5 park flexi tickets instead.

We are not able to up our limit to 1800 dollars. what do you think???

I think you shouldn't feel pressurized into taking more than you can afford.

After buying all the theme park tickets, we allow £100 per day for the 4 of us & there's only 2 of you! We do stay at a villa though so we don't eat out every day and that saves a lot. I think if you go knowing how much you can afford to spend each day then you'll be fine. Take what you can afford but perhaps take a credit card in case you see a "must have" purchase - you really don't want to get home & regret not having bought it.

 

[melybabymely]

thanks sarah

we dont have a credit card im afraid.

Right, sorry if this is getting very annoying, but i am pulling my hair out trying to create some kind of budget...

after flexi tickets and disney tickets bought,
photo trek tour bought

i will have approx 1900 dollars to spend on food, shopping etc thats upping it again.
i will have to spend transfers on the lynx bus to the disney parks.
other parks will have complimentary from hotel.
i ride i will purchase the weekly ticket.

 

[allie5]

One tip I would give you, is split your money into days allowances, that way it will be easier to budget. You are likely to need more in NY than Orlando, so any money left from each day I would be inclined to add to the NY days - its much more expensive here than Orlando.

Good luck - it might be a challenge, but at least you are going and Im sure you will have a great time!

 

[Muppet]

Its still only $95 per day though. There are days when we spent next to nothing.

A really cheap place to eat is checkers on I drive.

Get the coupon books and use them.

Is it not possible to get a CC just in case.

My chap was knocked unconsious in NY and even though we were insured we still had to pay for the treatment, or they would of left him in the corridor. The taxi back to the airport was $95.

An good figure would be $100 - $125 per day and a cc - just in case.

 

[wicket2005]

Do not doubt for one moment you will have a fanatastic time in Orlando, it is just one of those places. The Disney, Universal and Sea World parks are unmissable.

Just work out your budget for the day and stick to it. I think Ponderosa is cheap for breakfast, we loved the fruit and oats it has to offer. $24 for 4 so that should be $12 for you two.

We are not really into dining so just ate wherever we were but as I said before the Subway shops are good and are on IDrive. Again supermarkets do sandwiches too. Most of the counter service food was about $6.00 in the parks. The best salad I had was in Thunder Falls a chicken one, delicious. The Caeser salads available in the parks are really just a lettuce with some chicken in.

For drinks just buy a couple of waters from a supermarket for about $1.50, then just refill them throughout the day at the water fountains.

I would honestly try and see all the parks if you possibly can. I wouldn't bother with Wet 'n' Wild. Our favourite is Universal this time round.

 

[jen_uk]

thanks sarah


Right, sorry if this is getting very annoying, but i am pulling my hair out trying to create some kind of budget...

after flexi tickets and disney tickets bought,
photo trek tour bought

i will have approx 1900 dollars to spend on food, shopping etc thats upping it again.
i will have to spend transfers on the lynx bus to the disney parks.
other parks will have complimentary from hotel.
i ride i will purchase the weekly ticket.

Dont feel pushed into taking more than you can afford. If you can can up it from $1000 to $1500 then thats great and will make things a bit easier but dont feel like you have to take anymore. You wont enjoy it if you are spending money you know you cant really afford!

 

[Booknut]

I have a few coupon books which I got on ebay with discounts etc for meals in Orlando, if you send me a PM I will post one to you (I got 3 of them from ebay!). They are good until December 2005.

Ponderosa advertises an all you can eat breakfast for $3.99. If you two can stomach a big breakfast, I would probably have something like that, maybe save a piece of fruit if you can for later and then skip lunch and just buy a hot dog or something in the park. Then for dinner try a family restaurant outside disney. The coupon books I have seem quite good, some give you up to 25% off the whole meal.

If your hotel has a fridge you can buy things like milk and juice at a Winn Dixie or Albertsons. You can also get mini cereal packs - I don't know if they still have them but when I was growing up in Canada you could buy these little cereal boxes with perforations in them, you just open them up and pour in the milk! Bags of salad and dressing, luncheon meats etc. Also, nutrigrain bars are great for snacks and are light and easy to keep. American grocery stores have lots of different kinds of 'bars' to eat. You can also get things for your room that don't need refrigeration like Jello pudding packs etc (just buy some plastic cutlery).

The other day I got this free 'cooler' bag at M&S which i'm bringing with me for beach days, I can put our lunches in there and hopefully they will stay cool. It takes up no room and folds up, something like that might be an option for your St. Pete break.

Also, if you're not too worried about your cholesterol ( ) you could try some fast food places like Wendy's which do value items for about 99 cents I think and these include things like jacket potatoes, hamburgers, caesar salads, milkshakes etc. It's not ideal but you're on holiday so a couple of burgers won't kill you!

My husband and I are going in 4 weeks and although we're excited we don't want to spend too much either. We're hoping to keep our spending under $150 a day for 2 weeks (that's with clothes shopping etc). As we're staying in a villa we want to keep eating out to a bare minimum (once a day!).

Hope you guys have a great time

Eloise

 

[Amyrlin]

The books with coupons in are very easy to get when you arrive at either the tourist office also in the front of some restaurants and supermarkets. There are a lot of 10% off at Ponderosa or Sizzler, moslty for lunch or dinner but some are for breakfast.


If you do want to get osme before you go then ticket mania send out a load of leaflets and booklets with lots of vouchers, they don't charge for the leaflets, but do charge for postage it is currently $9.95 to the UK.

http://www.ticketmania.com/mediapackage.shtml

 

[bungy21]

thanks sarah

Hi All We are off to Disney yet again in 15 days time and we have budgeted for $25 a day per person for food and we have no trouble at all. Admittedly all the parks are paid for and I will be taking my CC just in case but we dont use it that much. We eat "all u can eat" for breakfast and that is normally enough to last the day then a meal in the evening. We do use the coupon to get a discount and you can get them from the foyer of your hotel in most of the brouchers. We do buy a bottle of water in the parks as everyone has suggested, my daughter even used the same bottle over a few days last time so u can save money doing that. In Orlando u should be able to stick to a low budget and that should mean more for your other trips.

So even on a limited budget u can have a great time. I know we do this is our 4th time going!!!

 

[patdavies]

Without wanting to add a downer.......

Don't forget, that the headline prices in US for buffets etc. are the base price. Drinks are extra as are taxes and tips. Not tipping is a no-no in the US.

 

[Ralphly]

On one visit we had a budget of $20 per day, $10 each for food and drink, buffet breakfast, we made rolls for the parks and had fast food for dinner.

to be honest it wasn't ideal, but hey we had a good trip, I would recommend $100 day, $50 each, you'll eat well and have some spending monies.

The important thing is to enjoy your visit.

 

[susieh]

In the past when we went to NY on a tight budget we took mugs, tea bags and sweeteners and cereal bars with us. We generally had breakfast in the hotel room (buy a carton of milk and keep it in the room in cold water) - you can also buy muffins etc at the supermarket, then go to subways or similar for lunch. We found some cheaper places for dinner and had a takeaway in our hotel room too a couple of times. Our sons went to Orlando on a tight budget in 2002 and did much the same thing.

You can take lunches into the park with you - we do that from choice anyway as there are only so many burgers and fries you can eat in 2 weeks!

We stock up on fruit, cereal bars, water, muffins, crisps, etc in the supermarket and as we have a fridge we also buy bread, ham, turkey, dips, crisps etc and make our own sandwiches.

As others have said you can do it on a budget but beware NY is a lot more expensive and if you want to go up the Empire State building for example you need to allow money for that. Also the taxi to Manhatten from the airport isnt cheap

 

[orlando novice]

We are off to Disney in October, have bought all our tickets for parks and am taking £2500 for the five of us and that includes any shopping we do. Have no idea if it is enough but it will just have to be. If you budget a daily amount then I'm sure you will stick to it, hope you have a great time.

 

[Shooby doo]

The first time DW & I ever went we had about £500 to last 2 weeks,we were in WDW for 8 nights & the remainder near Fort Lauderdale AND we swore we would never go back unless we had enough spending money to not worry! Just eating,with a drink plus tips is going to swallow up nearly all your money & that's before you buy anything! I would think our average over 21 nights would be $70- $80 (3 of us) a day on food alone. BUT if that's all you've got then that's all you've got!!
SD aw:

 

[Shooby doo]

Me again,just noticed that some posters have suggested taking your own food into the parks...officially the only parks that you atre allowed to do this in is the Water Parks.It is a WDW rule (couldn't get more of your money if we all brought our own food!) but it would be up to the security that search all the bags whether you'd be allowed it in.
SD aw:

 

[mushumadness]

hiya

I do think it will be tight on $1500, my dbf and i both take $2000 dollars plus each, and thats for 14 nights.

ponderosa is ok for a few days but every day gets you down

hope you have a great time and congratulations on the engagement

 

[DznyLvr2005]

From my experience 20 days, you'll need about $100/day for food for 2 people. Sometimes more if you want to splurge. Plus gifts, souveniers, I'd say you'd need about $3000 to $3500. 20 days is alot!!
Basic food costs for lunch at a disney park is about $8 for one person and that doesn't include a drink, so figure about $10. Then Breakfast is probably close to $10, and dinner figure $20-$30.