WDW newbie - what is a realistic minimum budget for first timers?

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Hi! I am new to the WDW side of the DIS, as I've been living west coast for several years and was focused on DLR. We've done 3 major family vacations to DLR and are about to do our 4th, but we now live in the Dallas, TX area and are actually closer to WDW, making it feasible to do a trip there. I'm thinking about a possible trip next year October 2020 for a Girl Scouts event, but I really have no idea what a realistic budget would look like.

We are a family of 7: me & DH, DD11, DD9, DS7, DD5, and DD2(almost). We are completely fine road-tripping and skipping the expense of airfare, and this year that puts our DLR trip budget right around $10k. We are bringing 2 other adults and 1 other child with us to DLR, but for our WDW trip it would be just us. Is it realistic to start with 10k as a rough budget? Is it possible to go even lower, say 7500 range?

We are fine with budget accommodations.

Thanks so much!

 

[davper]

I budget $100 per day per person for food and souvenirs. QS meals are around $15 each, with cups of water. Sit downs are $30+ depending on restaurant.
everything else is your room, car, airfare, and tickets.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

Have you checked to see if your council or service unit is planning a trip? They may be able to get some group discounts.

Are you hoping to stay on property at Disney? Or somewhere closer to the convention? You could look at condos for a group that large for much cheaper than staying on property.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Start with the ticket prices as of today. There are some discounts and package prices (3 days or more) but adult tickets (10 yrs old and up) are around $100 - $111 each per day.
Stay on WDW or off site is you next budget question. That is where you need to do your research.
Food, as mentioned by PP varies with your preference. Two QS and a TS easily $60+ per person per day then add snacks during the day.
My nephew and his family (DH, DW, DS5, DS4, DD2) budget $1000 per day staying on WDW and using WDW transportation system.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Hi! I am new to the WDW side of the DIS, as I've been living west coast for several years and was focused on DLR. We've done 3 major family vacations to DLR and are about to do our 4th, but we now live in the Dallas, TX area and are actually closer to WDW, making it feasible to do a trip there. I'm thinking about a possible trip next year October 2020 for a Girl Scouts event, but I really have no idea what a realistic budget would look like.

We are a family of 7: me & DH, DD11, DD9, DS7, DD5, and DD2(almost). We are completely fine road-tripping and skipping the expense of airfare, and this year that puts our DLR trip budget right around $10k. We are bringing 2 other adults and 1 other child with us to DLR, but for our WDW trip it would be just us. Is it realistic to start with 10k as a rough budget? Is it possible to go even lower, say 7500 range?

We are fine with budget accommodations.

Thanks so much!

If you get 7 day "normal tickets" for 6 (since #7 is free), that will run you $2600-$2800. These tickets will not hop or include water park admission.

If you stay onsite and eat meals on site, I don't think $7500 would cover you.

If you stay offsite, cook some meals offsite (or bring food to parks), and keep souvenirs to a minimum, then I think $7500 is doable. You can probably get a nice condo for $1-1.5K (depending on the week), pay $200 in Disney parking fees, pay $100/day for 1 CS meal onsite ($700) and $50/day in snacks or random shared extra CS food ($350), pay $900 for travel costs to/from the world...

Tickets $2800
Condo $1500
Travel $900 (Gas, Meals on Road, Car Oil Change, One night for hotel back and forth - Residence Inn example, Tolls, etc)
Parking $200
Onsite Meals $1050
Offsite Groceries $300
Offsite Fast Food/Pizza $200
OTHER $550 - souvenirs, a special experience, a TS or 2, etc...with 7 people, just 1 or 2 "special things" will blow through this number in an instant, so it's a very small buffer...

Total $7500

Pretty much, you can't reduce ticket prices...so you have hotel, food, and travel to save in...it sounds like you will save on the travel, so the other 2 categories would also need to be ruthlessly "saved in" for you to make $7500 work...

EDIT: As an example, if you were to do a TS at Crystal Palace for lunch of dinner, you would pay $50.06/adult and $29.82/child + the mandatory 18% tip for your party size...so you'd be looking (if the 9 year old ages to 10) at $306.65 just for 1 meal...so it racks up AND FAST for large parties who want to "eat around the world" and have those experiences...if you do, $10K may not be enough...

 

[twoolle]

We are a family of 6 going on 7 and have been to WDW several times. Honestly for your first trip I would recommend staying onsite. Just easier and you really get the full experience plus access to EMH and 60 day FP. I think you can do it under 7500.

We had 2 rooms at Pop booked for Nov2019 with a convention rate from a TA and that came with really good discounted tickets. 121.50 per night (tax incl) for 7 nights. So 243 x 7 = 1701. Tickets you can just do base tickets for a week trip. Also you can put 1 adult and some of the under 10's in one room and get the quick service dining plan and share those credits across the 2 rooms. I know my kids are all 9 and under and barely eat a whole meal so we share. Plus you are driving and can bring snacks and breakfast food. You can plan just a few TS meals but every day for us is overkill. Often times we enjoy the rides so much we skip dinner and grab a snack back in the room late at night!
We spent a week at Wilderness Lodge last year, renting DVC and still only spent 6k for the 6 of us and that included treating my parents to MBYBBQ. We had parkhoppers but 1 kid was under 3 so we only paid for 5 tickets.

Just my thoughts!

 

[siren0119]

Assuming the ages of your kids are their current ages, you would be looking at needing 4 "adult" tickets and 3 "child" tickets (ages 3-9 for child, 10 and up for adult). As PP mentioned, the tickets are your biggest cost that is mostly static. You can find discounted tickets on 3rd party sellers like Undercover tourist, but they will require you to pay the full amount of your purchase up front (buying from Disney or a TA means you can put a deposit down and pay off over time).

I just hopped on Disney's website - 7 non-hopper tickets for 5 park days is going to run you just over $2900 at THIS year's prices. By October next year those prices could be a bit higher. (If the ages you listed are what they WILL be in Oct next year, your cost would be closer to $2500 for the same length tickets)

For a family that large you would have to look into two hotel rooms, or a family suite if your youngest would be 2 at the time of the trip. That can really add to the cost, and you would get a LOT more bang for your buck renting a home offsite. Yes that means you will have a less desirable fastpass window, and have to factor in parking at the parks each day ($25 per day) but the occupancy rules for the rooms are pretty set in stone and those hotel costs are an easy one to cut down. Definitely check with Girl Scouts to see if they have access to any group rates on the hotels as that may open up some options that the general public doesn't have.

The PP line item costs for food and such were pretty spot on, I'd say there are definitely ways to get closer to the $7500 target - you just might have to make some concessions along the way.

Good luck!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Great info thank you!

The ages for the kids are their current ages, so we'll have 4 adult tickets, 3 kid tickets by Oct 2020.

Girl Scouts teased the date quite a while back, with a promise of details early 2019, but no details have come through yet - just the dates. It does sound like it is possible, so I'll start the savings side of things now like it is going to happen I think PP is right and we can skip hoppers this trip, as we've been used to DLR walk across the esplanade hopping vs the bus/boat/rail hopping at WDW. I'll have to play around with prices for on prem budget vs rentals. Daily parking and what not seems to really add up in terms of time 'wasted', but the savings of being offsite and cooking might be worth it.

We'd probably do a single TS the whole trip, or none if it doesn't fit in budget. Is there any time of year that seems more discounted than another? Or is it pretty much luck of the draw?

 

[TwoMisfits]

Great info thank you!

The ages for the kids are their current ages, so we'll have 4 adult tickets, 3 kid tickets by Oct 2020.

Girl Scouts teased the date quite a while back, with a promise of details early 2019, but no details have come through yet - just the dates. It does sound like it is possible, so I'll start the savings side of things now like it is going to happen I think PP is right and we can skip hoppers this trip, as we've been used to DLR walk across the esplanade hopping vs the bus/boat/rail hopping at WDW. I'll have to play around with prices for on prem budget vs rentals. Daily parking and what not seems to really add up in terms of time 'wasted', but the savings of being offsite and cooking might be worth it.

We'd probably do a single TS the whole trip, or none if it doesn't fit in budget. Is there any time of year that seems more discounted than another? Or is it pretty much luck of the draw?

Okay, then your tickets will be $3K in my budget...and a single TS would actually be $335 at Crystal Palace...so $7500 looks pretty unlikely, even offsite, unless you will make significant adjustments for meals (and eliminate souvenirs and other "nice to have, but not need to have" things)...

I mean, it's $3900 to get there by driving and have base tickets...so you'd need to fit housing, food, parking, and incidentals for 7 for $3600...I'd stick to $10K, even if I was going to do groceries and offsite...it's just gonna give buffer for the unending price increases, if nothing else...

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

Great info thank you!

The ages for the kids are their current ages, so we'll have 4 adult tickets, 3 kid tickets by Oct 2020.

Girl Scouts teased the date quite a while back, with a promise of details early 2019, but no details have come through yet - just the dates. It does sound like it is possible, so I'll start the savings side of things now like it is going to happen I think PP is right and we can skip hoppers this trip, as we've been used to DLR walk across the esplanade hopping vs the bus/boat/rail hopping at WDW. I'll have to play around with prices for on prem budget vs rentals. Daily parking and what not seems to really add up in terms of time 'wasted', but the savings of being offsite and cooking might be worth it.

We'd probably do a single TS the whole trip, or none if it doesn't fit in budget. Is there any time of year that seems more discounted than another? Or is it pretty much luck of the draw?

I read somewhere (but I can't find it now) that the convention will be at the Orange County Convention Center, so if you will be attending most of the sessions, you might think about hotels in that area. My council has started planning/advertising a group trip as a way of encouraging cookie sales. I suspect this convention will have higher attendance than normal - Orlando is a much bigger draw for troops than the last couple of locations - so it isn't a bad idea to lock in a room rate early.

 

[RangerPooh]

I read somewhere (but I can't find it now) that the convention will be at the Orange County Convention Center, so if you will be attending most of the sessions, you might think about hotels in that area. My council has started planning/advertising a group trip as a way of encouraging cookie sales. I suspect this convention will have higher attendance than normal - Orlando is a much bigger draw for troops than the last couple of locations - so it isn't a bad idea to lock in a room rate early.

Information on the event has been slim, and my Council has not posted anything about it. If I hadn't seen posts online about it following Ohio in 2017 then I probably wouldn't even know about it. These are the dates: October 23 – 25th, 2020. I'm anticipating the crowds to be huge as it is Orlando and can see many troops/families making it a destination trip. I know that my family is planning to do this.

You'll need to keep in mind how you plan to spend your time. Are you planning to attend full days at the convention or portions of sessions? Will the rest of your party be at the parks while you're at the convention? Knowing this might prove helpful when determining where to stay. Our family will probably stay at Disney as DH and our boys won;t be attending the convention. I can easily Uber or drive to the site myself.

 

[Klayfish]

Great info thank you!

The ages for the kids are their current ages, so we'll have 4 adult tickets, 3 kid tickets by Oct 2020.

Girl Scouts teased the date quite a while back, with a promise of details early 2019, but no details have come through yet - just the dates. It does sound like it is possible, so I'll start the savings side of things now like it is going to happen I think PP is right and we can skip hoppers this trip, as we've been used to DLR walk across the esplanade hopping vs the bus/boat/rail hopping at WDW. I'll have to play around with prices for on prem budget vs rentals. Daily parking and what not seems to really add up in terms of time 'wasted', but the savings of being offsite and cooking might be worth it.

We'd probably do a single TS the whole trip, or none if it doesn't fit in budget. Is there any time of year that seems more discounted than another? Or is it pretty much luck of the draw?

Ticket prices are what they are, so that's a fixed cost. So would travel costs, they'd be the same no matter where you stay. The biggest variables are lodging and food. How much you spend will depend on your desires and budget. You sound like you're looking at doing things similar to what we do, so I'll give your our budget for food and lodging.

We rent 4 bedroom (sometimes 3), 2.5 bath condos or townhouses. We pay about $700-$750/week all in, including fees/taxes, etc...

We eat almost all of our breakfasts at the condo, as we're not rope drop people. We also pack almost every lunch and/or dinner, though usually don't pack both at the same time. If we go to the parks in the morning (say 10am), we're usually back at the condo by 5pm. So we'll pack lunch and eat dinner at the condo. If we do evenings in the park, we eat lunch in the condo and pack dinner. In the course of a week, we may do one QS meal...maybe. Typically, the only food we buy in the parks are snacks/desserts....ice cream bars, popcorn, soft pretzels. We also may pick up a to go meal on our way home. For example, we leave the parks at 5pm and don't feel like doing any food prep at home. In that case, we'll stop and pick up a pizza on our way home, or something like that. But even that is more the exception than the rule. The majority of our meals are food we buy at the local grocery store. I've never tracked it exactly, but my best guess on cost.... If I add up food from the grocery store, desserts bought in parks and food bought outside the park I'd guess we spend between $375-$475/week for all 5 of us. Again, most people don't pack or "cook" (we don't do heavy cooking) as we do, but it's what works for us.

I would highly recommend staying offsite. You'll have all the room and conveniences you need, save money and you can make the experience every bit as magical as onsite.

Hope this helps!

 

[DisMommyTX]

I would recommend staying onsite in two Value rooms. We have done this at Pop Century several times and really enjoyed it. We usually book the deluxe dining plan for one of the rooms (1 adult, 2 kids in your case). You can share the meal credits among all family members and experience all of the fun character and signature dining on a much more reasonable budget. Perhaps split your stay to spend a couple days onsite focusing on the parks, and a few days at a hotel or vrbo closer the conference for the 23-25th. Save a little money and maximize the experience!

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Hit up walmart Take food in the parks,
stay off site, our rooms normally are 40-60 a night. But last year I got a great rate at the holliday inn (formally nick hotel) for 120 a night it was huge 2 bedrooms and bunk beds. Breakfast with spongebob it was pretty great. And no matter where you stay I really suggest a hotel day where you chill at the pool or a beach day. Besides being good on the budget it's nice to do nothing and let the kids play.
We also have a large family. Everything gets expensive when its 100 a head a day minimum

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

When it's time for purchasing tickets consider looking into discount authorized 3rd party ones like Undercover Tourist. You're too early to buy the tickets at this point because of changes to expiration dates and date-based tickets but it's something to consider. That may be able to help the costs a bit there. You def. don't have to just a suggestion. We purchased our WDW and Universal tickets for our trip in 2017 and just last weekend purchased our tickets through them for DLR for this weekend.