How much spending money for Universal Orlando holiday?

[ItIsWhatItIsAndWhatItIsIsShit]

Hi

I'm looking to budget for a planned trip in Oct 2023.

Universal Orlando - 7 days tickets for the 3 parks. Hotel, transfers etc all sorted.

How much spending money (including for food) would you estimate for a family of 4 - per day?

2 adults (both like to eat at mealtimes - so not "have a big breakfast and that'll do" people but not bothered about snacking ). And 2 children (8 and 11).

I'd like to be able to buy a few treats including souvenirs (we'll likely never do this trip again).

I feel I have no real idea!

im going myself and was wondering this, you will probably get more help if you join the orlando facebook page, its called Its Orlando time. Judging by what people there are saying you will need about 4-5 grand...but some great money saving tips and ideas on that page.

Hi. I was there in June. Two weeks doing Disney. We spent approx $3,000 for two adults and two kids and we’re not huge eaters. Orlando has gone extremely expensive all over, not just Disney. You have been warned!

I'm planning a trip in January and I'm budgeting €200 per day for eating and souvenirs. There will be a lot of sharing meals, mainly quick service rather than table and we'll be buying breakfast stuff in Walmart to have in the hotel room nearly every morning. I'd say the souvenir thing will kill the plan though!

Definitely join its Orlando time on Facebook. We have been a few times and have taken various amounts of spending money. First time we budgeted $150 a day for meals and Snacks. We had a separate budget for buying clothes and treats to bring home. We went this year and budgeted $200 a day for food and snacks as we are now 4 adults. Some days we spent it all some days we had money to carry over. Also depends on what kind of restaurants your looking to eat at. Keep an eye out for coupon books in your hotel for money off vouchers and research the hotels you want to eat at and if they do any special offers on set days. It really is a great place to go on holiday 😊

Sorry, that's for 2 adults and 1 kids (11 and 12).

Check Walmart for souvenirs before you buy anything. They usually have nice stuff for half the price.

This. It's gone eye wateringly expensive, for everything, and not just in the parks. We couldn't believe the supermarket prices compared to three years before

I’d say $200 per day for the 4 of you for food, and have a separate amount for Merch, that’s what we did last year.

I would also recommend eating off site if poss, food at Universal (and Disney!) isn’t great but costs a fortune.

if you’re staying at a Universal hotel, you’re not far from a international drive which has loads of great restaurants for far better value, even once you’ve factored in the cost of an Uber. Millers Ale House & Friendlys were our favourites!

Look for coupons for restaurants outside the park eg Applebys, olive garden etc. my kids used to love them, also resort to McDonald's if money is running low. If there's full sized supermarkets they usually have a hot counter, eg ours had a Chinese food counter which saves money, or rotisserie chicken and salad as a picnic

I would say about $300 a day, more if you are likely to want alcohol with meals. It really is insanely expensive now.

We went last August and it was very, very expensive.
2 adults and 2 teens who eat like adults cost £3500 for the two weeks.
We do like nice restaurants and stayed onsite at Disney which is where we spent the most on food.
Disney prices have just got silly.

I should say we were only onsite for 5 nights and the rest of the time we were at Universal or a villa so are at restaurants on the 192 but still very expensive.

Join the Disney Information Bulletin Board or Dibb for short. Its full of people who have been and are more than happy to help out with the answers to any questions. Its free to join and there is nothing that they don't know about.

We did two weeks in October and spent just under £3.5k as a family of three (2 adults and DS11). We generally ate breakfast off site somewhere like Ihop - the portion sizes meant we didn't need much in the parks. Evening meals were a combination of on site, International drive restaurants and fast food. A couple of standout prices to give you an idea:
$16.95 - plain hotdog and bag of crisps at Volcano bay 😁
$16 a pint of Duff Beer in Moes Tavern
£4.95 - 3 Satsumas in Starbucks at Epcot
The prices are nuts tbh but we had a great time!

We spent about $300/day too in September. Three adults and one child.

it will be our last trip for a while!

We go fairly frequently and take £3500 for 2 adults. We don’t buy merchandise or go crazy shopping. That’s just 3 meals a day and snacks

Get a couple of refillable cups for sure - https://insideoursuitcase.com/universal-studios-refillable-cups/

You can only refill them every 30 mins. Water is free but take a separate bottle for that. There are loads of videos on YouTube that tell you about the most reasonable places to eat in the parks.

We found we preferred smaller portions/snacks due to the heat. The best thing you can do is look at things you want to try at each park in advance. You might want to eat whilst queuing as well.

I'd budget around 200 per day.

Sorry the price I quoted doesn't include merch.

We're in Florida at the moment (having a bit of a chill today) and I'd second that the food in Universal is very expensive for what you get. We've started taking sandwiches as I couldn't face anymore queueing for ages for overpriced not very nice hot dogs. We are in a house with a hire car so have easy access to the supermarket for breakfast stuff and snacks.

We took £3k for two adults and 1 child. Some one spent on souvenirs, but not much really. A glass of wine in restaurants was getting on for £10. A very average meal with no starters was usually about £70…and that’s with a kid’s meal too.