we are planning a week long vacation in Walt Disney World. I'm trying to figure out how much to budget. Transportation and lodging are taken care of. How much should we budget for the parks, food, entertainment, necessities and other?
we are planning a week long vacation in Walt Disney World. I'm trying to figure out how much to budget. Transportation and lodging are taken care of. How much should we budget for the parks, food, entertainment, necessities and other?
apricot / 315 posts
This varies from person to person, depending on the types of meals you will be eating and how many souvenirs you plan to come home with! We are headed to WDW in Sept (2 adults and DD2) and I've budgeted about $900 for the week for food - but we have 1 character meal and 4 other sit down meals planned (2 of which are higher end meals). I also plan on $150 per person for souvenirs/extras, but I suspect that will be on the high end for my DH and my LO.
If you have an idea of where you might eat, you could review menus at allears.net - they have lots of current prices to give you an idea of costs!
We are also packing snacks/breakfast foods to eat in our room to save on eating breakfast in the parks. You can bring food into the parks so if you wanted you could pack sandwiches and lunch items to save additional money.
Good luck planning!
persimmon / 1396 posts
We spent a total of eight at $2,000 for 5 days at Disney. That was park tickets, regular resort room at Art Of Animation, food and extras.
kiwi / 567 posts
The current issue of Parents magazine (it's in the nursing mother's room at work, it says "Today's Amazing Moms" on the cover) has a whole long article on budgeting and planning a trip to Disney World if you can get your hands on a copy.
pomelo / 5866 posts
About $30 per person a day, assuming you covered tickets already....add $20 more per person if you plan to do one character or big meal each day. By the way, I'm not a big spender.
nectarine / 2591 posts
For any travel we work on about $100 for food and $50 for anything else per day.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
For park tickets, I get the basic ones, where you go to one park per day, we stay off property and can now do the entire morning plus lunch at a park. We are not yet able to park hop.
Meals are tough, if you are staying on property, they sometimes offer meal packages for free, that's the only way I'd add that on.
Also, transport to parks, parking?
pomegranate / 3729 posts
I have no advice but just want to say have so much fun! We can't wait to go (I have never been so it will be my first time, too).
nectarine / 2272 posts
@Little Misters Mom: I was just going to say the same thing. That article was really detailed!
pomegranate / 3791 posts
That's going to depend on three main things:
- Do you plan on visiting more than one park per day (like if you do Magic Kingdom in the morning and Hollywood Studios at night, for example), or going to the water parks?
- Are you sticking with counter service food court style meals, or are you making reservations for sit-down restaurants or character dining? (if you want to do that, you MUST make reservations, in case you didn't know that!)
- How much are you budgeting for souvenirs?
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
One other thing that came to mind, the princess boutique or pirate experience, not sure if your kid is into that, but it could be a fun thing to do/include in your budget.
At night, we went to Downtown Disney, it's free to get in and they have some fun stores, we let our son go wild at the Mr. Potato Head display at the toy store there, they have exclusive to WDW pieces.
As for souveniers, at our last trip, I bought everything before we even went on vacation and did a huge surprise bag in the room...mickey pajamas, etc.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
- We did one park per day for 3 days (but we are in FL)
- We ate breakfast at the hotel, packed sandwiches and snacks to bring into the park, and planned to purchase a drink, a snack and a meal. The meal was a sit down meal (Be Our Guest and the Buffet at Animal Kingdom).
- Just a few small souvenirs.
pea / 6 posts
Agree with aprilfool completely!!! You could always keep snacks and stuff at the hotel
nectarine / 2262 posts
Use the Disney website to look up how much your park tickets will be (decide on how many days you will be in parks, whether you will park hop, etc). That's really a fixed expense, there are no real discounts on tickets unless you're FL resident/military.
Food is SO variable - you can also look up menus for ALL restaurants in WDW on the Disney website (both quick service and sit down). I would look around and get an idea of prices for the types of things you order. And you have to figure out how you're going to do it - eat breakfast at hotel, lunch at quick service in parks, and a sit down dinner? Or another quick service dinner? Or pack sandwiches from the hotel? Character meals? Split meals among light eaters? All different price points.
As someone else said, if you're doing any sit-down dining, you MUST make reservations (up to 180 days in advance). Some of the sit-down restaurants are pretty reasonable (particularly for lunch) and some are crazy expensive.
I know how we eat when we're in the parks. I usually buy Disney gift cards at Target with my Redcard (get an extra 5% off off!) for the amount that we will spend. Then, it's "paid for" and budgeted already, so you don't have to worry about it when you're there.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
Just one thing to add - you don't HAVE to make reservations.
Be Our Guest at WDW only does walk ups for lunch and reservations for dinner.
Most places that does reservations does have a wait list if you want to wait. Most of the big ones are right by the rides so in AK we put our name on the character buffet wait list and rode a ride and then it was our turn!
eggplant / 11824 posts
We are going next month to DisneyWorld, and are budgeting about the same as has been our experience at DisneyLand. I don’t scour the interwebs for deals, and I’m pretty generous with my money on vacation, and we don’t do a dining plan. So, these are the prices if booking through Disney. (Which is to say, I'm sure you can do better)
You’ll definitely want to set up a Disney My Experience account because it will link everything for you, you can order magic bands there and set up Fast Passes there, which you’ll likely need for the more popular attractions, and if you are trying to time rides/shows around nap or meal times.
Tickets: $105 for 1 park, 1 day, 1 person. Park hopper is like $60 add-on. Cost goes down slightly when you purchase additional days.
Breakfast: we have 1 Character breakfast at Yacht Club (where we are staying) booked: $30-60/per person, other breakfasts I’m expecting $20/pp for me and DH, less for LO.
Lunch: we have 1 Character lunch at Crystal Palace book $46-60/per person, other lunches I’m expecting $20/pp x 3 people
Dinner: couldn’t get character dinner reservations (all booked), but looking at about $30/pp for reservation made at Rainforest Café in Animal Kingdom. Expect dinner to be about the same for other nights, unless we eat at hotel steakhouse, which is much pricier.
Snacks/water: $40 day. I won’t lie, I eat a LOT of churros at Disney!
Souvenirs: $100/day (will buy at least 1 dress for LO, and some toys, etc. but I expect to come in under budget in total for this category)
Other miscellaneous:
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique: packages are $60 - $200. The package we are going with is $95+tax.
Park Photos: $169 to purchase full photo package in advance, can’t remember how much they are if you purchase single photos in the park, but guessing like $20+ per photo if it’s like other Disney attractions.
eggplant / 11824 posts
@T.H.O.U.: Oh! That's good to know about Be Our Guest and lunch! I really wanted to grab a meal there but it was showing every meal time as booked for the days we are there. Great to know they accept walk-ups for lunch.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
@yoursilverlining: Did you get a meal plan, or was free dining offered when you booked?
eggplant / 11824 posts
@looch: We didn’t do a dining plan – though I might look into one. We are staying at a Disney resort property, but I’m there for 3 days for a work conference at WDW and then DH and LO are coming down for 2 days, so I’m not sure what stuff I’m getting through the work conference, and what the usual protocol is if you just book through Disney.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@yoursilverlining: There is still a long line. Usually across the full bridge. I think it took about 40 minutes but it wasn't terrible.
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