Will this be enough?

[mom2twinz3]

Hi All,

I love all the helpful folks on here!

Anyway, can you tell me if the money I have planned to bring for our trip, will be sufficient? I will have approximately $1500 in spending money.

We are a party of 7; 2 adults and 5 children ages 13, 10, 9, and two 5. We are leaving on 12/5 via Autotrain for a week's stay from 12/6-13 at HIFS. The room will be paid for by the time we go, the train tickets have been paid for long ago.

We have 3 day tickets to US/IOA and tickets to MVMCP for 12/9 already prepurchased. However, I also have LTT ressies for that night which are not paid for. I have no clue how much that will run us with all these people.

We will be getting free breakfast each morning at HIFS and we have part of the dinners taken care of. I have $175 in Rainforest Cafe vouchers, a $25 Club Car (hotel restaurant) GC, where kids eat free with paying adult, and you can use the GC for this. I also have a a coupon for a free medium pizza, 2-liter, and I think breadsticks at the hotel Pizza Hut, and will be taking another $20 Pizza Hut GC with us.

Do you think we could stretch the RFC GCs out for at least two dinners or late lunches? I have never eaten at one before so I have no idea what it will cost, but I am sure it's high.

If we could then I would have the better part of 4 dinners taken care of. I was thinking we could do sandwiches one or two nights, or even something like Dinty Moore beef stew, since we will have fridge and microwave at HIFS.

We are using our MVMCP tickets to do MK, hoping they will let us in at 4:00 PM or somewhere around that time, but we wanted to do Epcot and AK also with buying 2-day/2-park tickets. However, these will have to come out of the $1500 spending money. Am I cutting it too short if we do that? If so, we will have to choose one of the parks to do, rather than two. I would like to be able to buy a few souvies if possible..nothing fancy..but even cheap things add up when you have 5 kids.

We will be taking snacks and some drinks into the parks, along with water bottles.

Basically, I need to know if we can afford all of us to eat at LTT on the 9th, and 2 day/2park tickets for all of us out of that $1500, and still have enough to be okay for the rest of the week?

I was thinking of doing AK on Sunday, IOA Monday, MK/MVMCP Tues, break Wednesday-maybe see Electrical Water Pageant, US Thursday and Epcot Friday. But if I will be too short, we will do AK only, and maybe do Disney Quest Friday instead.

I know from previous trips how easy it is to hemmorhage money down there, and I am terrified of running short.

If any of you can give me advice, I would appreciate it so very much, you're all wonderful!

Mary

 

[maggiew]

For LTT, the regular dinner price for adults is $21.99 and kids $9.99. I don't know if there is anything different about doing it with MVMCP.

The portions at RFC are HUGE. You could easily share. Are the RFC vouchers the ones from Connections (Vacation Kingdom Lunch Voucher)? If so, you can get alot of food with the vouchers. Three of those would probably be enough.

IF you want to buy cheap souvenirs, go to the Outlet Mall by Downtown Disney. The selection isn't like at the Parks, but you can get good Disney merchandise for Dirt Cheap.

Maggie

 

[BelleBeautyandtheBeast]

Although I have never been to the Rainforest Cafe at Disney, I have been to the one in the Mall of America. The portions were rather large and I know that none of us could finish our meals.

Here are some links to get an idea about what they serve and how much it costs.
Rainforest Cafe Adult Menu
Rainforest Cafe Kids Menu

I think $1500 sounds like plenty to feed all 5 while you are on vacation, with the free breakfast and all those GC's and vouchers you should be fine. The tricky part comes in with the 2 day/2 park tickets, those would be about $585 (I think). That would leave you with about $915 for food, $114/day. I think it is doable but you will just have to be careful not to go overboard on anything.

I think you can do it!!! Maybe use the envelope method? Put $115 each in 8 envelopes and label them with dates. Each day take out an envelope and spend that money. If you have any extra add it to the next days envelope. Then you can make sure you are not over spending. With any extra money you could buy souvies on the last day.

 

[HM]

I didn't see that you had tickets purchased for WDW....those aren't coming out of the $1500 are they?

Otherwise I think you probably have plenty. -HM

 

[Lisa P.]

We are a party of 7; 2 adults and 5 children ages 13, 10, 9, and two 5

So for the purposes of theme park admissions, you will have 4 adults (ages 10+) and 3 children (ages 3-9).

$175 in Rainforest Cafe vouchers... Do you think we could stretch the RFC GCs out for at least two dinners or late lunches?

Here is the RFC menu so you can decide what you think you would likely spend there. The portions are usually generous.

I was thinking we could do sandwiches one or two nights, or even something like Dinty Moore beef stew, since we will have fridge and microwave at HIFS.

Here's a good recent thread for tips on some meals you could prepare on vacation.

We are using our MVMCP tickets to do MK, hoping they will let us in at 4:00 PM or somewhere around that time...

Sorry, they won't admit anyone at that hour without using a day of a regular admission pass. According to the WDWIG, which tends to be very reliable, "Gates usually (but not always) open before 7 p.m. The Magic Kingdom Park closes at 5 p.m. on MVMCP nights. You will have to leave the park and re-enter for the MVMCP."

...we wanted to do Epcot and AK also with buying 2-day/2-park tickets.

I don't know where you would find this kind of pass at Disney. I've only seen them at Universal.

Basically, I need to know if we can afford all of us to eat at LTT on the 9th, and 2 day/2park tickets for all of us out of that $1500, and still have enough to be okay for the rest of the week?

Let's see... you're looking at 3 dinners (groceries or take-out?), 7 lunches, 1-2 days at Disney parks, LTT and souvenirs. You've got $1,500. Price them out and see:

3 dinners = $45? $90? $120? $150? What do you expect to spend?

7 Lunches = ???

1 day - 1 park Disney tickets for your family = $355.71
(55.38 x 4 adult) + (44.73 x 3 children)
Double this if you want to spend two days at Disney parks.

LTT = $117.93 + tax + tip or about $140-$145.

Here's a sample budget:
$120 for dinner/snack groceries or take-out for 3 nights
$210 for 7 basic fast food lunches
$713 for 2 days at Disney parks
$145 for LTT (add $11 if different character dinner)
--------------------
$1,188

This would leave $312 for snacks, souvenirs, meal upgrades, other recreation, film & unexpected expenses. Sounds fine to me, if your souvenir shopping is modest.

You may reconsider eating at LTT. Theme park restaurants require theme park admission. If you choose to eat there, you will use valuable park time to do so. Since you are only planning to visit the Disney parks for 1-2 days + MVMCP, you might want to make another choice. Click here for alternative locations for a character meal at a Disney resort restaurant.

You do not need to be staying onsite to do this. If you are driving to a "priority seating" for a meal at a Disney resort near MK, you drive toward MK but stay in the far right lane. The MK parking gate guard will not charge you for parking and will direct you to drive down the right lane road toward the resorts, rather than into the MK parking lot. Then just park at the resort (3-hour pass) during dinner.

An early (5 or 5:30) character dinner at GF or CR is a great way to end a day of shopping or swimming. If you do it on the day of MVMCP, park at TTC and take the resort monorail to dinner and back to MK later. HTH!

 

[mom2twinz3]

I just knew I would get wonderful responses on here!

maggiew-Thanks so much for the LTT prices, that is really helpful. I don't have the Connections vouchers, these are straight GCs I earned from MyPoints...but if the portions are that large, I think we will be able to stretch them out to our advantage. I will have to check out the outlet, I can''t stand paying full price for anything if I don't have to!

BBB-Thank you so much for the menu links! I see some things on there that we will definitely be able to share and enjoy. The envelope method is such a cool idea! That sounds perfect for us, and I think I will use that one.

HM-As far as Disney goes, I have MK/MVMCP tix, that's all. I was either going to do 1 day/1park or 2 day/2park, depending on how the money situation looks. Those unfortuantely will have to come out of the $1500. I also have an extra complimentary day at US/IOA, that came with my 2 days passes. I can use that in a pinch if we can't afford 2 additional days at the Disney parks. I would much rather spend the extra day at Disney but we will have fun regardless. I guess an extra day at US or IOA is nothing to complain about! .

LisaP-Wow! Many thanks to your very informative and helpful reply!!! There were some great ideas in that thread, and I will definitely be packing the crock pot. Taking our van on the Auto Train will make this quite easy to do.

As far as the 4PM admission for MVMCP, they did do this last year as posted on the Theme Park Attractions and Strategies board. I think you may have to have ressies for LTT to do this, which we do. They start serving at 5 for the MVMCP guests, our ressies are for 6PM, so if we don't dawdle too much, we should be fine by 7 and already be well within the park for the start of the evening. Of course, there's no telling if they'll again let folks in as early as 4 this year..but I can watch the board to find this out ahead of time. I agree with you about the park time, but I think with our ressies being at 6, we will be okay.

Oh, and the 2 day/2 park tickets aren't advertised but they do exist. You have to buy a 1 day/1 park ticket and then upgrade it that same day for the second day. You save $5.00 I think, on each ticket for the next day. I remember seeing it posted as being $105 and change for an adult. If you go up to 3 days, you save $10 on each one for the third day. You do have to buy them all on the same day. You can't hop and no plusses, but it's a way of doing it a little cheaper if it suits your needs. That will work fine for us, provided we can afford it.

Your budget was very helpful! It does help so much to see it laid out like that. I am going to try and get away with skipping a full lunch though, with our snacks, and fruit cups we can purchase in the parks. I am hoping we can just really load up on breakfasts and have nice dinners. I will have sandwich supplies at the ready in the room, if someone is still hungry after dinner, just in case.

I think I can squeak another $200 out of our budget for November to add to the Disney budget. That may make all the difference.

Thanks again to all of you. You have helped me so much with this and I truly appreciate it!

Mary