It's a lot easier to budget if you break it down into the major spending areas:
- airfare
- hotel
- park passes
- food
- souvenirs
- ground transportation
Budget $240 per person for the airfare (once you pay all the taxes and fees, that's about where you'll be). Apply any savings to your souvenir budget.
Book your hotel now and wait for the codes to come out. You can always change your ressie with a code later but at least you'll have a hotel to go to. Use the total that you are quoted as the maximum amount that you'll be budgeting for a room.
The cost for park passes will depend upon how long you are staying and how many of those days you plan to spend visiting the parks. It will also depend upon how many of your family members qualify as "adults". Anyone 10 or over needs an adult pass. Anyone under the age of 3 is admitted for free. Either buy the passes now (if you have the money) or budget for a 3% increase in price by December of this year.
Food can be very expensive or you can dine very cheaply. Eating breakfast in your room and bringing bottled water and snacks into the parks can help to defray some of those costs. As a family of 4 with 2 children ages 10 and 12, we have budgeted $100 per day for food and found it to be sufficient. We are not big eaters, however, and we usually eat only one large meal each day.
Souvenirs can get to be expensive. It's best to set a budget for each person before the trip starts. We give our kids $10 per day each. This sounds like a lot of $$$$ until they realize that t-shirts and stuffed animals can cost much more. They are much more frugal with their purchases when they realize that there is only so much to spend.
For ground transportation to and from the airport, you can go by Mears motorcoach, towncar or rent a car. If you are renting a car, try to reserve one now with any rate codes that you can find that apply to your dates. Get the best rate that you can and then check back often to see if you can get a better rate. There is no penalty for cancelling and rebooking. This will give you an idea of what to budget for the car. If you are going by motorcoach or towncar, you can check their websites for what each company charges.
Other considerations include:
- tips (housekeeping, bellhops, baggage handlers, drivers)
- emergency (medicines, bandages, unexpected expenses)
- additional entertainment (arcades, water sprites, bikes)
- photography needs (extra film, batteries, developing costs, a Disney album to put them in)
- laundry (change for the machines, detergent and fabric softener)
I hope this gives you some framework to use in your planning. Once you get closer to your traveling date, you'll be able to refine and tweak it a bit more.
