What was your surprise expense @ wdw?

[sanilacjack]

Hi everyone,

Well, I have less than two weeks til' Mickey Mouse.
On our last trip the big shocker was the twirley light up things that they sell at night.

This trip is going to have a tighter budget than our pervious trips and I want to account for anything unexpected.


What was some of your unexpected expenses????

-Kim

 

[kfeuer]

Our biggest budget-buster on our last trip was on food. This was our first trip with children and I didn't realize how insanely over priced the kid's meals were going to be. It killed me to pay $7 or $8 for something my toddler might take four or five bites of. Next time, I want to try and get a room with a kitchenette so we can cut down on food expenses.

 

[pogo123]

Well, mine is more out of the ordinary. The first night there my dd, then 6, decided to jump down the last 3 steps, and yep, you guessed it, we spent the first night at the care unit w/ a fractured ankle. The budget buster? She is covered under my ex's insurance, and unbeknownst to me, was in the middle of a 3 day lapse due some job change. So, that was a $550 or so I was not expecting. They took some kind of pity on me though, and I was able to be billed a portion. So my advice??? Make sure all your insurance is up to date

 

[jgates]

Any of that stuff in your medicine cabinet will cost you when you discover you need it and don't have it!!! If you don't have really small kids and can safely take extra meds along, I would pack one of those '7-day' pill carriers with immodium in one, tylenol in the next, claratin, you get the picture.

 

[ohanaMAMA]

OMG...kids meals killed us. Mr dd8 is a big eater.. can usually eat an adult portion. so sharing is totally out of the question. Disney sized kids meals were perfect for her.However. My dd3 is a VERY light eater. She eats tiny portions and most times not at all. (she is better at snacking) So buying a whole kids meal KILLED me.

NEXT time. I will bring pb&j for her or get her snakies to eat on all day. and just let her eat off my plate at dinner

 

[beatnik]

Our budget was right on target EXCEPT for the water park/disney quest annual passes that we bought! My castmember cousin's discount was temporarily discontinued, it was very hot, and the pool at our hotel was only fair. So our budgeted got a bit busted but the good news was that we got to spend a number of evenings at DQ and felt that numerous short visits were preferable to one longer visit.

Going back in early December-- hope the weather is fine, so we can use our waterpark AP!

Beatnik

 

[beattyfamily]

Surprise expense?

When my DH packed at the LAST MINUTE and forgot to pack any underwear! We had to go find the Walmart and buy a whole week's worth of underwear for him

The wonderful photo package at Chef mickey's

Boat rental at the monorail resorts

Medicine

 

[wuv tigger]

I second and third the medical expenses. I hope you have a healthy time. We had to spend $9 to get some benadryl for DD2 because we left it at the room and then $100 for the urgent care facility to look at her because she had an allergic reaction to her antibiotic.

 

[colleen costello]

Food is the biggest one. It's hard to plan for just how overpriced the WDW food is! We eat a lot of meals off-property to counteract the Disney meals. Gotta love Perkins.

First aid is expensive too. Last trip I needed moleskin and antibiotic ointment and bandaids due to blisters. Should have packed these... Together they set me back about $25 for stuff that would have cost about $5 at Walmart!

 

[HappyMommy2]

Those photos they take of you in the parks--on rides, meeting Mickey, or whatever.

I'm not one to buy pictures like that but DH fell in love with the photos taken of us on Splash Mountain and Dinosaur, and also of our whole family with Mickey, so we bought all of those. Granted, they were very good pictures, and we just bought one copy of each one--but that's still a lot of unexpected $$$!

 

[Local_Girl]

Well, first of all, in our family, DH is the spender and I am the frugal one. Even so, I was really surprised at some of the things he wanted on our last trip...we got twirly light up toys for both kids and HE GOT ONE TOO! And then we got the light up sorcerer's hat for DS and a princess hat for DD...and DH got himself a Grumpy hat (boy, does that ever fit, haha!! ) which is strange only because DH doesn't like to wear hats...anyway, I'm not a big spender on souvenirs, so I wasn't really prepared for DH's "must haves".

We also bought a ride picture...it was on RnR and my DD6 kept saying "Never again, Daddy, never again..." during the ride. Her picture said it all...eyeballs as big as saucers! It's priceless. And the silly girl is looking forward to another ride and now insists that RnR was her favorite. Sure... We'll see next month!!

 

[r2boys&buzz]

Goodness, I am an overplanner so I had snacks, vouchers, tickets and toy surprises all packed and ready to pull out. Our 'bid ticket' was the $12 bottle of visine (sp) that my dh bought at the gas station. After our first night in the hotel my eyes were photophobic and bloodshot due to the horrible air in the room. Even sunglasses were not helping. I had to walk around half the day gripping onto my hubby with my eyes closed!

Jen H.

 

[crusoe2]

Ours was not a huge expense item, just one I didn't plan that much for - feeding the critters. I spent an afternoon at DTD and came back to find out that my DH and DS had gone done to the boat dock at WL and spent about $20 feeding the ducks and fish the pellets from the coin-op dispenser! And that wasn't the only time they had done it. (They got a kick out of watching the ducks and fish fight for the food pellets. )

 

[colleen costello]

Crusoe2, we go broke feeding the "locals" too! We stay a lot at Old Key West, and there are ducks who are not only tame, but serious moochers. If you step outside on the patio for even a second, they come running. My kids were thrilled. The ducks come so close you have to be careful not to step on them -- what kid could resist? We went through all our bread and the kids wanted more. I told dear hubby that we could NOT buy "Disney bread" at $4 a loaf, so we made an extra Winn-Dixie run. They had loaves for $1 and we went thru about 10 of them. That $10 kept the kids busy for a long time -- probably the best bargain in WDW.

PS: My husband still teases that the ducks are animatronic...

 

[whois figment]

I would have to go with medical expenses. On our last trip my DW came down with a sinus infection. The hosipital took our insurance with a $50 CoPay but no one took our insurance for the prescription which was $155. I finally got reimbursed for the prescription about 3 months later.

 

[geffric]

Medicines, Band Aids for the Blisters, we go in August and
One day my youngest wore sandels and he got blisters on top of the bandaids, we bought him socks at the park becuase he was crying . $6 for a very cute pair of goofy socks but very expensive.

and rain ponchos when it down pours..

 

[mainewmn]

I was just wondering how much are the photos they take of you in the parks?

 

[shelleyz]

I think the photos on the rides are $16.95. That's why we didnt buy any.

 

[Mermaid02]

Bottled water! I found out that not only did I hate the tap water (tasted like they pumped it out of someone's basement) I couldn't drink fountain sodas either (tasted like the water) I drank bottled water almost exclusively... as did the rest of the family. My dh went to refill a bottle at a fountain(macho man that he is) during the Share a dream come true parade and promptly threw it out and bought a new one. I have never had such a disgusting drink of water in my life.

 

[twinmomplus2]

3 trips to the ER at $50 per vist.
2 deliverys from the drugstore 90 somthing.
3 cabs roundtrip to Celebration ER. 60 somthing all cash.

1 trip to celebration ER. $50
1 eye surgeon $150
Walgreens medications $38