What do you splurge on at Disney?

[irishsharon]

I was just wondering what my budget friends here at the Dis splurge on at Disney? DO you spent more for the restaurants or a better hotel?Do you do the extras like the boat rides or the dessert party?I am planning first time trip for myself,DH,DS8,DS5(Trip not until feb. 2012) but just wanted to know where the money smart people spent their money. P.S this is a once in a life time trip for us so want to splurge smartly if that makes sence THANKS

 

[Marionnette]

My splurges would be different from someone who only plans to visit disney once in their lifetime. Ive been there many times and now I splurge on the resort and restaurants. But if this were my first time at disney I would splurge on a couple character meals, hopper passes and photopass pix. I would not waste my money on dessert parties or specialty cruises. I would stay on site b/c it reduces travel time to the parks. And I would try to plan my trip around the time of year when the parks are open later and have the fewest rehabs scheduled.

 

[An_Island_Girl]

We always splurge on a monorail resort. It makes it so easy, especially if you have a stroller!

 

[vanillarum]

Yep, we try and go every couple of years, and I gotta say, resorts and restaurants are the 2 items we splurge on the most.

 

[mrsklamc]

The fact that we go at all is the splurge. But if we were only going once ever, I would splurge on the Poly or AKL.

 

[JaymeC]

The tickets! Followed closely by my camera. And the next time we go, I'm splurging for a character meal. We haven't had one yet, and I'm sure my kids would love it. We're not planning to go for a couple more years so they'd be about 7 and 9 the next go-round

Food is probably the thing I avoid splurging on the most in general.

 

[mommycrawford]

I splurge on a cab now and again to get from a resort dinner back to the hotel I am staying at. Some nights I just cannot face waiting for a bus to a park and then another to the resort.

 

[Lumiere Lover]

We always splurge on souvenirs. I don't know what the average family spends, but for 6 or 7 days we tend to spend $1600 to $2000 on souvenirs each trip. An expensive purse or piece of jewelry adds up quickly. I never allow my kids to get items such as balloons, etc. Let them buy coats, t-shirts, jewelry, or clocks/statues that they can keep for years to come.

About 5 years ago, Disney offered a blanket for $10 with a purchase. This blanket is maroon with Mickey and the four park icons on it. We thought it was a great purchase to hang in our living room. We get a lot of light with our high ceilings, so we purchased special glass to cover the blanket so the rays of the sun would not fade the blanket. After over $600 in framing costs, I now have a beautifully framed 4' x 5' Disney blanket over my fireplace in the living room.

I believe souvenir purchases keep the magic at home.

 

[Becc1]

We splurge on characters meals, I have 3 young ones (not to mention mom )who are really into the character hunting and it is so nice to not have to wait in long lines to see them. Although it would be nice to splurge on a deluxe resort, we haven't done that in years, we are not in the room enough for me to justify it. But we go often so this isn't a once in a lifetime trip for us, if you are not planning on coming back for a while then I would say go for it. Also we don't do park hoppers, with a family of 6 that's over $300 and I would rather spend that on something else like souvenirs. I am getting one for my DS15 in May because my neice19 is coming along and we thought it would be nice for them to be able to do late EMH's after we have packed it in for the day. But for the rest of us we are content to return to the same park everyday after our midday break.

 

[NancyIL]

My splurge is to go several times a year.

 

[NancyIL]

We always splurge on souvenirs. I don't know what the average family spends, but for 6 or 7 days we tend to spend $1600 to $2000 on souvenirs each trip.

I bought a MUG on one trip and a t-shirt on another!

 

[LAH LAH]

The fact that we go at all is the splurge. But if we were only going once ever...

This is what I was going to say.

My kids get one souvenir around the $20 range...so other than going that is our splurge. Real exciting, I know.

 

[twinsplusone]

We went for the first time two years ago. I didn't know if I'd ever get dh to go again, so I wanted to do everything. We stayed offsite but we did 3 character meals and the girls (6 & 8) did BBB. All three of them did pin trading so we bought the big books for each of them. I bought each of them a beautiful ornament. The other souvenirs they bought themselves. They saved for 2 years so they had their own money. It was great. I never had to say no and they spent wisely. We didn't do park hoppers.

We're planning another "big" trip when the twins are 10 (2013) and we want to do the Train tour. DS is a huge train fanatic and that's one thing especially for him. I will leave it up to the girls if they want to join the tour. If not, we'll do a special breakfast while dh and ds take the tour.

Have a wonderful time.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

When we went our first time to Walt Disney about 10 years ago we thought it was a one time trip. We took our family when our oldest DD grad. from high school.

I had dreamed of this trip for years! We couldn't afford to fly so we drove from Tx. We did some fun stops on the way & it was a beautiful drive. We stayed offsite as I saw no way to afford to stay onsite... was a family of 6 so couldn't fit into a value resort. We had 5 or 6 day hoppers..& we only hopped one day so not to feel guilty about not hopping. We only ate at one TS restaurant...which was San Angel. We ate at restaurants offsite when we left the parks & ate CS at lunch.

Now that I know about discounts & have stayed onsite I wouldn't want to stay offsite. However, for a first trip with kiddos the age of yours I'd stay at POP. It is a great resort & the bus system there is awesome. You will mostly be in the parks most of the time most likely.

So my splurges would be:

1. Staying at POP
2. Dining plan w/ one CS & TS & a snack each day. I'd use a few TS credits to eat at Ohana for supper, Crystal Palace & Tusker House safari breakfast. Fun places that kiddos & you would love. To me part of the fun of Disney is the restaurants.
3. I'd have some $ budgeted for spending. My kids got goofy looking hats & stuff like that their first trip & that was fun.

Have fun!

 

[disney*mom*82]

I could never take a "once in a lifetime" trip to Walt Disney World, but I can say the things we splurge on are:

1. dining, we love the DDP and cant see us being at WDW without it. We love the character meals for the kids and also being able not to have to worry about menu prices and to be able to get snacks when we want.
2. Only resort we will stay at is Port Orleans Riverside, its not a deluxe, but we wouldnt stay anywhere else.
3. Tickets, we dont worry about the hoppers, but do make sure to get the no expire and waterpark and more option every couple of years, until we need more.
4. I wouldnt say this is a splurge, but we do allow the kids (13,2,11) to spend about $50 each and we usually spend around that on ourselves.

Just going to WDW is a splurge, but we love it and go 1, 2, sometimes 3 times a year!

 

[mom2val]

We splurge on dining - we upgrade free dining to deluxe. We also splurge on $600 - $1200 in merchandise while there : ties for dh, sweatshirts, t-shirts, photo frames, toys and clothes for dd, holiday decorations ect.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Dining. We eat really well at WDW or at least more expensive things than we would eat at home. On our Labor Day trip we went to Narcoossee's and boy was that a splurge! Just that 1 meal was more than our 2 week grocery budget at home but we had saved and budgeted for our vacation fund and the kids loved going. We can't do a signature every trip but we usually try to do one every other trip.

We rarely buy many souvenirs but the kids have a very generous Godmother who usually buys them something. DD16 recently got her ears pierced so she did get some earrings. DD12 got some silver rings. DD3 got a Cars light spinner.

DH did buy me a Dooney Disney bag this trip as a belated birthday present. I have never owned a purse that expensive and thought I wouldn't like it but I LOVE it.

 

[dreamin_disney]

I've only been to WDW once so i splurged on a vacation package. It was also our first family vacation and dh and I had been together 11 years.
Family:Me, dh and dd10
I bought a 9 night package
stayed at pop
7 day tickets
free dining package
we bought souviners
I bought 2-3 packs of pins so that was my spluge-lol!
$1400 cost of package not including souviners, pins and airfare.

It was well worth it! Someday I would like to go back go to the water parks 1-2 days at park.

We live near Disneyland so buying tickets is the biggest splurge, we eat once at the park counter service and a snack here and there.

My next visit big splurge will be Ap's for the 3 of us Thanks to GAD and disney rewards. I'll be doing the monthly plan. Once we have the AP's the only splurge will be food counter service and snacks. I told dh he and I can split a lunch then split dinner if we get hungry. I bought pins on Ebay so i will save on pins-lol! DD will haveto use her own money if she wants souviners.

 

[jemgumby]

Definitely our resort! That is a HUGE part of the "magic" for us and it is important we are happy with we stay! Also food but since we usually get the free dining it is quite easy to "splurge" on that. We really don't care about souvieners so we usually only get one item each. Me a snowglobe, DH a golfball with characters on it and DD whatever she likes at the time.

 

[gillenkl]

P.S this is a once in a life time trip for us so want to splurge smartly if that makes sence THANKS

This makes your splurge different from mine. Considering it's a once in a lifetime trip I'd say a monorail resort, character meals and photopass pictures.