WDW Dirt Cheap for a family of 6?

[cyndik1111]

Tell me if I'm doing something wrong. Trying to plan a trip for a family of 6 (2 adults/4kids). We don't have a lot of money, but sooo want the kids to experience Disney at least once in their lifetime! Planning for Oct 2012
I've researched and this is what I've come up with

1) Apply for Southwest credit card (1 for me and 1 for DH) get 50K
points each...total for 100k points for 6 roundtrip flights................FREE
2) Stay at Windsor Hills Condos 3 bed/2bath condo........................$560
3) Yes program "basic" for 6 days ..............................................$1052.46
4) rental car/minivan for 1 week.................................................$450
5) parking at WDW $14/dayx 6 days............................................$84
6) Purchase food for condo/snacks for in the park/ kids-eat-free
restaurants around orlando, etc.................................................$300

For a grand total of around $2500 for a week at WDW for a family of 6

Am I figuring something wrong? too good to be true!
We could swing this!

 

[cyndik1111]

Oops, forgot to include the $99 credit card fee (x2) so total would be $2700

 

[happygirl]

Oops, forgot to include the $99 credit card fee (x2) so total would be $2700

Free flights are nice but not worth it to me to take out a credit card. I hope you have a great time.

I think your food budget is to low. You haven't included gas for your rental while you are there. Also what about souvenirs

How old are your kids?

 

[juliebug]

gas for rental 150 or more
southwest annual fee for card 69 or 99 x2 = 200
souvenirs 100 for the week

 

[cyndik1111]

Thanks for the replys

We would normally spend $250 a week for food at home, so the $300 would be in addition to that. I am not buying food at home so I am "saving" $250. So the food buget is really $550. Kids are light eaters. And superwalmart is rigth around the corner from the condo.

We spend about $100 week at home for gas in cars, so it becomes a wash. (saving $100 in gas by not being home, spending $100 in orlando)

I am really good with credit cards, we never carry a balance, we have FICO scores around 800 and I'll be very careful to cancel cards after 11 months. I'm not worried about our FICO scores taking a hit. So the cards aren't a big deal.

Kids have birthday money for spending cash.

Kids will be 8, 9, 11, 13

Thanks

Any more thoughts? Keep them coming. I don't want to forget anything!

 

[pat fan]

Do you have that rental van price locked in? I WISH I could have gotten that rate the last 2 times we went. It was considerably more for us, but it was July, too, so maybe that was the difference.

 

[Marionnette]

Tell me if I'm doing something wrong. Trying to plan a trip for a family of 6 (2 adults/4kids). We don't have a lot of money, but sooo want the kids to experience Disney at least once in their lifetime! Planning for Oct 2012
I've researched and this is what I've come up with

1) Apply for Southwest credit card (1 for me and 1 for DH) get 50K
points each...total for 100k points for 6 roundtrip flights................FREE
2) Stay at Windsor Hills Condos 3 bed/2bath condo........................$560
3) Yes program "basic" for 6 days ..............................................$1052.46
4) rental car/minivan for 1 week.................................................$450
5) parking at WDW $14/dayx 6 days............................................$84
6) Purchase food for condo/snacks for in the park/ kids-eat-free
restaurants around orlando, etc.................................................$300

For a grand total of around $2500 for a week at WDW for a family of 6

Am I figuring something wrong? too good to be true!
We could swing this!

Oops, forgot to include the $99 credit card fee (x2) so total would be $2700

Free flights are nice but not worth it to me to take out a credit card. I hope you have a great time.

I think your food budget is to low. You haven't included gas for your rental while you are there. Also what about souvenirs

How old are your kids?

I agree about the food budget. $300 for 6 people for 7 days is way too low. That's less than $8 per person per day. Frankly, I just don't think it's possible to do this and yet still keep the family happy all week. In fact, I can't feed my family for that amount at home when I'm doing all of the cooking!

Gas for the rental car should be under $50 unless you plan to do more driving around Orlando than just to/from the parks and airport. Don't forget the tolls from the airport to the Disney area.

As far as applying for the credit cards, well that's a personal decision that isn't wrong for everyone.

 

[cyndik1111]

Yes, the rental car is a lock!
We will check frequently for better rates as we get closer to the dates. I have found that they can go down. We just cancel and rebook.
I use BJs Wholesale club's travel website for the best rental car rates. We are members.

As for food, $550 will be plenty. What are you guys all eating? My kids eat cereal/milk for breakfast, sandwiches/ piece of fruit and pretzels for lunch, waterbottles that we fill ourselves, and simple chicken/pasta frozen veggies for dinner (or hotdogs and mac/cheese) type stuff. i use tons of coupons and just plan really well. We have a few gift cards for Olive garden/applebees that we will use. And then maybe another night at a cheap reataurant.

Any more thoughts? I'm so thankful for your suggestions.

 

[delmar411]

Yes, the rental car is a lock!
We will check frequently for better rates as we get closer to the dates. I have found that they can go down. We just cancel and rebook.
I use BJs Wholesale club's travel website for the best rental car rates. We are members.

As for food, $550 will be plenty. What are you guys all eating? My kids eat cereal/milk for breakfast, sandwiches/ piece of fruit and pretzels for lunch, waterbottles that we fill ourselves, and simple chicken/pasta frozen veggies for dinner (or hotdogs and mac/cheese) type stuff. i use tons of coupons and just plan really well. We have a few gift cards for Olive garden/applebees that we will use. And then maybe another night at a cheap reataurant.

Any more thoughts? I'm so thankful for your suggestions.

Plan to bring Brita (or similar) filter individual water bottles. The WDW water is simply nasty and even those flavor packets don't really help (IMO).

I'd also suggest to really plan on a set amount for shopping & souvenirs. If this is your once in a lifetime trip, you want to plan on being able to buy your must haves. I'd plan on $500 and if you don't spend it great but if you do, at least it's planned for.

For cheap eats there is a Cici's pizza right down the road from DTD (directly across from Sheraton Vistana) and you can easily get bogo coupons for that place.


ETA~ as for food, I have 4 kids (6,7,8 & 14) and this past trip in Jan we spent exactly $651.41 on counter service/snack foods and $224.87 (after 20% discount) on 2 table service meals on site. This was all on site, we never left. We also bought a TiW card for $75. We had brought a bunch of snacks and random food with us (non-perishables) for the kids so that helped cut down on the park food costs. But we let the kids eat what they wanted and we ate what we wanted so I think your food costs at $550 will be just fine.

 

[KCmike]

What else are you planning on doing? Going to the ocean?

 

[gillenkl]

souvenirs 100 for the week

so $25 per child - maybe OP you can start assigning chores to your children now so they can add to their souvenir fund considering they have until October to save. If they could earn $5 a month each they could potentially add another $35 to their monies. Sometimes if kids help earn their money, they can also be wiser spenders. I would give each of them the $25 plus the money they've earned on a giftcard for easy tracking.

 

[blessedby3]

Yes, the rental car is a lock!
We will check frequently for better rates as we get closer to the dates. I have found that they can go down. We just cancel and rebook.
I use BJs Wholesale club's travel website for the best rental car rates. We are members.

As for food, $550 will be plenty. What are you guys all eating? My kids eat cereal/milk for breakfast, sandwiches/ piece of fruit and pretzels for lunch, waterbottles that we fill ourselves, and simple chicken/pasta frozen veggies for dinner (or hotdogs and mac/cheese) type stuff. i use tons of coupons and just plan really well. We have a few gift cards for Olive garden/applebees that we will use. And then maybe another night at a cheap reataurant.

Any more thoughts? I'm so thankful for your suggestions.

I think you have a good plan here. I bolded above, and I think lots of people spend way more on food than you or I would, everyone just has different wants and for some, they like to spend more on food than other things. We also dont spend lots on food and are a family of 6. We are always looking for a deal, couponing, and sharing CS meals in the parks. Other people go all out when on vacation with food, but we try and stay on the same inexpensive budget we have at home I also figure things the same was as you do. I take the budget for groceries we would be spending at home and transfer that to our vacation, so its all a wash.

 

[quentina]

Yes, the rental car is a lock!
We will check frequently for better rates as we get closer to the dates. I have found that they can go down. We just cancel and rebook.
I use BJs Wholesale club's travel website for the best rental car rates. We are members.

As for food, $550 will be plenty. What are you guys all eating? My kids eat cereal/milk for breakfast, sandwiches/ piece of fruit and pretzels for lunch, waterbottles that we fill ourselves, and simple chicken/pasta frozen veggies for dinner (or hotdogs and mac/cheese) type stuff. i use tons of coupons and just plan really well. We have a few gift cards for Olive garden/applebees that we will use. And then maybe another night at a cheap reataurant.

Any more thoughts? I'm so thankful for your suggestions.

My suggestion is priceline a minivan 2 days before you leave. Bid 21$, you should get it. I always get it for this price.

 

[cyndik1111]

Wow some really great ideas.

I'm gonna check into the CiCi pizza place. The kids will eat pizza.

The kids each have about $100 in spending money from birthdays, tooth fairy etc. I can certainly add a few extra hundred to the list, just in case- so now I'm up to $2900. I still think that is dirt cheap, considering how much we spent for our last trip (toronto for the weekend $2500)

We are the kind of family that isn't "into" eating. As long as our tummies are full, we're happy. None of us are into fancy foods, and the kids aren't really into restuarant food (they order chicken nuggets and fries every time). I'd rather feed them in the condo something a little healthier. And they prefer to just "snack" their way to dinner. I know they aren't gonna want to stop for a table service meal. Plus I'm way too cheap to spend that kind of money.

We are not doing any charachter meals, or anything else extra like BBB. Sorry kids, just be thankful we are getting to go at all. Maybe some relatives will have pitty on them and offer to pay for something, but I wont hold my breath. They each have a birthday before we leave, so more birthday money for trip.


Oh, one thing i forgot. What about trip insurance? the yes program is nonrefundable. Your thoughts? Doea anybody buy that?

 

[FourBees]

They have typically offered free dining in October in the past. Have you priced out what it would cost you to get two rooms at a value with free dining. That would cancel out the need for the food, the car rental (magical express) and the parking fees. You would probably have to buy a one day ticket for all of you and then could get a 5 day YES ticket. Not sure of the price but might be worth looking into. Good luck!

 

[cyndik1111]

Tolls! good suggestion- forgot about that. What do you think? $20 enough?

What is a TiW card?

I will definitely try the priceline idea right before the trip for the rental car. Another good suggestion!

The Brita was another good idea- I'll put that on the packing list. What about the water at the drinking fountains in WDW? Is that bad too?

About chores? Those kids are gonna work like Cinderella just to earn this trip...LOL. Just kidding, I can definitely come up with some "extra" chores for them to earn a little extra $$- yet another good idea.


I did try to price the trip staying at pop music with two rooms and it was $3243 for a week (including tickets but no meals). I don't think free dinning would help. Like I said, the kids would not be able to eat out each meal. Plus I really want the 3 bedroom condo. I want to be able to do laundry. I hate coming home with dirty clothes. Oh, and we like having our own car on trips.

The DIS board people are the best- thanks for all your thoughts.

 

[brymolmom]

Sounds like a GREAT deal and IMO definitely doable!

When we stay offsite we love bringing lots of drinks/snacks and sandwiches into the parks with us. Rent a locker and save a bundle on food in the parks - bonus is that you skip the lines at the CS places. If you do want to eat some CS - split meals. MANY of them are big enough to split. So you could buy 3 - 4 meals and everyone could be satisfied.

One other tip - grab the menus/phone numbers of a few 'to go' places near your offsite condo (pizza place, chinese, Giordano's for pasta, etc.) and program the phone numbers in your cell. It is SO NICE to make a quick call on your way to the car when everyone is tired and hungry and just make a quick 5 minute stop to pick up a hot, cheap dinner and eat it in the relaxation of your condo. Plus you can eat dinner for $40 for the whole family!

 

[delmar411]

TiW is the Tables in Wonderland discount card. It's for florida residents, dvc members and annual passholders. It gives you 20% off all the sit down meals plus some other dining places.

 

[cyndik1111]

Oh well, we don't qualify for the TiW card (I'd like to be a Florida resident- does that count?)

The tip about takeout numbers in the phone- really good one. then we don't have to make a second trip out after we get back to the condo.

You guys are really making me excited. I think we can totally do this.

I'm gonna buy the yes tickets this weekend!

 

[KCmike]

Yeah I was wondering if you priced the stay onsite then you could forgo the rental car. Are you doing anything outside of Disney like the ocean?