[kphil89]

I am trying to budget for 2 adults and 1 child on our upcoming trip. We booked the FTP so the room & tickets will already pd for, that just leaves souveniers and food. We will have a fridge so will probably have breakfast in the room most mornings, I have schedule 2 character breakfasts and am planning on fantasmic dinner show too! So my question is do you think $1000 for the week is enough?:dazed This is probably going to be our only trip on site since we bought a off site timeshare when we were there in April so I'd like to make the most of this trip a be able to buy DD the things she wants (Christmas in Oct :D ) What do you think?

I would also like to get DH something magical since he hasn't been bitten by the disney bug yet..anyone have any suggestions that will help sway him over to our side!!!:love:

[mattomouseman]

Originally posted by kphil89
I am trying to budget for 2 adults and 1 child on our upcoming trip. We booked the FTP so the room & tickets will already pd for, that just leaves souveniers and food. We will have a fridge so will probably have breakfast in the room most mornings, I have schedule 2 character breakfasts and am planning on fantasmic dinner show too! So my question is do you think $1000 for the week is enough?:dazed This is probably going to be our only trip on site since we bought a off site timeshare when we were there in April so I'd like to make the most of this trip a be able to buy DD the things she wants (Christmas in Oct :D ) What do you think?

I would also like to get DH something magical since he hasn't been bitten by the disney bug yet..anyone have any suggestions that will help sway him over to our side!!!:love:

I won't hazard a guess about money. No matter how much we say we're gonna budget ourselves we always end up going WAY over! What are your husbands hobbies? There has to be something you can get him to bring over to our side!!!!!!!!!:)

[iluvwdw2]

We are staying for one week at CBR. I paid the hotel, bought 12 meal vouchers, 3 Character Breakfast vouchers and we will buy our tickets at the ticket booth, the night we arrive, just before the window closes (to avoid long lines, the next day). We live across the street from the mall, that has the Disney Store, so I am going to buy $1000 in Disney Dollars, when that is gone, our shopping spree is OVER!! If you don't want to overspend, buy the Disney Dollars, leave you credit cards, debit cards and checkbook in the safe, in your hotel room. Also, do not charge anything to your room. My mother did this (Dec. 2002, we went on a combined vacation with our family, my parents and my siblings and their families) and after the first charge, she was addicted. Her total bill came to a little over $750, in 2 days:nervous!! So, just be careful, and stick to your budget, if you can. By the way, that $1000, includes spending money to Sea World, we are a military family and get free:D entrance into the park. This is more than enough money for a 4 year old boy to spend for the week. Hope this has been helpful and have a great vacation!!:)



IF YOU CAN SEE THE EDGE, YOU HAVEN'T GONE FAR ENOUGH!!!

[dizneeluvr]

You didn't mention how long your stay was but, one thing that will add up quicker than anything is your food expense.

I don't know how old DD is but we too are a 3 person family & most of the time DD and myself share a meal (especially at 50's Prime time) but not always.

We have pretty much determined that you can spend around $100 per day for food. This would include character meals, snacks and PS resturaunts. We don't normally eat the "fast food" stations, but we MUST have Mickey on a Stick!!. :p

If you can go outside the park to the DTD area, there are plenty of great eating places (Chevy's, Macaroni Grill, Denny's, Uno's) that are a much better deal.


If you don't go overboard on souviners then I would think you would be fine. We don't usually buy a lot of souviners but when we do, we don't buy the first thing we see and we wait a day or so to decide if we REALLY want this item or not.

I guess I'm getting a little "thrifty" in my old age! LOL but I think that you would do fine with $1000. Maybe you'll even have some leftovers to put toward your next Disney trip!!
;)

[BuzzLightyear]

Yes, be careful with your food budget and you should be okay. We ended up eating at the fancier places every night of our last vacation and blew our budget out of the water.

[kphil89]

Originally posted by mattomouseman
I won't hazard a guess aboutr money. No matter how much we say we're gonna budget ourselves we always end up going WAY over! What are your husbands hobbies? There has to be something you can get him to bring over to our side!!!!!!!!!:)

mattomouseman: DH hobby is work...LOL he works 6 days a week and when he is off he tries to rest. I think he just thinks Disney is only for kids so as long as I say we are doing this so he can spend some time with DD he is ok with it! He use to golf quite alot before we moved to Georgia in 1999 so I'd say he is a bit rusty in that area. Hey maybe we can do mini-golf :hmmm besides that he really doesn't have any hobbies.

[kphil89]

Originally posted by dizneeluvr
You didn't mention how long your stay was but, one thing that will add up quicker than anything is your food expense.

I don't know how old DD is but we too are a 3 person family & most of the time DD and myself share a meal (especially at 50's Prime time) but not always.

We have pretty much determined that you can spend around $100 per day for food. This would include character meals, snacks and PS resturaunts. We don't normally eat the "fast food" stations, but we MUST have Mickey on a Stick!!. :p

If you can go outside the park to the DTD area, there are plenty of great eating places (Chevy's, Macaroni Grill, Denny's, Uno's) that are a much better deal.

If you don't go overboard on souviners then I would think you would be fine. We don't usually buy a lot of souviners but when we do, we don't buy the first thing we see and we wait a day or so to decide if we REALLY want this item or not.

I guess I'm getting a little "thrifty" in my old age! LOL but I think that you would do fine with $1000. Maybe you'll even have some leftovers to put toward your next Disney trip!!

;)

We are staying 7 nights, and I figure the first night and the last day we won't need as much as the days in between. I didn't even think about eating off site...but that is definately an option since we are driving. Thanks for the info.

[mattomouseman]

Originally posted by kphil89
mattomouseman: DH hobby is work...LOL he works 6 days a week and when he is off he tries to rest. I think he just thinks Disney is only for kids so as long as I say we are doing this so he can spend some time with DD he is ok with it! He use to golf quite alot before we moved to Georgia in 1999 so I'd say he is a bit rusty in that area. Hey maybe we can do mini-golf :hmmm besides that he really doesn't have any hobbies.

To bad! There are some wonderful golf courses in WDW! Mini golf may help they are pretty neat to although I've never been to one. My big thing is scuba diving and I haven't really been able to go since my DS's were born. THANK GOODNESS for WDW! Each trip I scuba dive in the Living Seas. It is a neat experince!

[kphil89]

[quote]Originally posted by iluvwdw2
[b]We are staying for one week at CBR. I paid the hotel, bought 12 meal vouchers, 3 Character Breakfast vouchers and we will buy our tickets at the ticket booth, the night we arrive, just before the window closes (to avoid long lines, the next day). We live across the street from the mall, that has the Disney Store, so I am going to buy $1000 in Disney Dollars, when that is gone, our shopping spree is OVER!! [b] [quote]

Are you a member of connections? I was thinking of joining for the month trial to get some vouchers but I am afraid b/c of all the neg reviews I've read.. :nervous I am also going to purchase some Disney $ and give a ceratin amt ?? to DD so she can purchase her own souvenirs, I agree once it's gone that's it. Have a great trip and please post your reviews about CBR...that's where we are staying in Oct.:D

[MickeyMac]

He use to golf quite alot before we moved to Georgia in 1999 so I'd say he is a bit rusty in that area.

Golf never leaves the bloodstream, it seems. Can you get him down to Downtown Disney? There's an athletic store down there that is fantastic. it's what hooked my workaholic DH. They also have a HUGE golf section, right in the center (at least it was there when we went last)

Anyways, they have a waterglobe that you *do*. You have to twirl it around and upside down - there's a Mickey golf ball moving around inside, that you have to try to get onto the stationary tee on the bottom of the globe. It runs for about $25. It is *completely* addicting. Brookstone sells a similar model, but it doesn't have Mickey on the ball. :D

If you do see it, pick it up. I've tried to ditch DH twice now, and when I've gone back, it was gone. I'm dying to get him one. He talks about it all the time.

[alextina]

Hey don't worry about your DH coming over to the disney side once you get there he will automatically be reformed. My DH and I had our first trip to WDW together in 1993, before we got there he couldn't understand what the big deal was and like your DH he thought it was just for kids. Now after several trips he is always just as eager as I am to go to WDW and is constantly asking me if I have come across any good deals for a quick trip:laugh

As for your budget we are also a family of 3 and if everything else is paid for (park tickets, hotel, airfare, or gasoline if you are driving) then I think that $1000 is reasonable for your trip. Just stay away from the high priced restaurants. We wound up spending over $100 just for dinner a couple of nights when we were there in May.:nervous

[kphil89]

Thanks MickeyMac, I think we were in that store in April but I don't remeber seeing it. I will try to sneak and buy it and then have it sent to room for surprise....:hmmm I wonder if gifts of a lifetime can help with this before trip?:hmmm

[kphil89]

Originally posted by alextina
Hey don't worry about your DH coming over to the disney side once you get there he will automatically be reformed. My DH and I had our first trip to WDW together in 1993, before we got there he couldn't understand what the big deal was and like your DH he thought it was just for kids. Now after several trips he is always just as eager as I am to go to WDW and is constantly asking me if I have come across any good deals for a quick trip:laugh

I am hoping my DH will come around soon cause I am already thinking about booking a disney cruise for April 04 and back to WDW Oct 04 with our vacation timeshare. Just the very mention of it he starts saying lets go somewhere else and I just smile to myself and say we are going to DISNEY!!!!:whistle:

[MickeyMac]

Kphil - GOAL can help you get it ahead of time. WDW Merchandise can as well - 407-363-6200...

now why didn't I think of calling them before?? :p

[inluvwithdisney]

I went to WDWIG and figured out an approximate amount for each meal including our PS's and totaled it up to get an "idea" of how much we might need!!! We plan on having a good breakfast every morning and trying to do the snacky stuff for lunch that we will bring in ourselves and then we are going to eat dinner relatively early. We are doing quite a few BIG meals like whispering canyon, LeCellier, and 4 character meals and I figured without lunch we could spend about $600 on meals for 8 days!! That is without our snacks or lunch. If you are going to buy lunch every day too add about $250 more. This is for a family of 5. Hope this helps!!!