To ask how much you spent at Disney World

[turkeymaster]

posting for traffic

Off to Disney world in March and I'm wondering how much spending money is enough for a family of 5 (2 adults, DC 6, 11 & 12)

We have a meal plan with 2 meals a day and 2 snacks

How much did you take and spend when you went?

We had quick dining and had loads of credit left at the end. We paid for 2 character meals (and tips) and a couple of toys for the children. We stayed in one of the Disney hotels so caught the bus to the resorts.

Definately no need to buy any extra food. Most of the time we didn't feel like breakfast so ended up with lots of quick service credits left over at the end which we converted to snacks and brought lots of goodies home with us.
The snacks can be really useful. As simple as a bottle of water or an apple to something that is almost a meal in itself. Research before you go where to find the best snacks. We are returning for our second visit in April, can't wait. We stay at animal kingdom lodge

We’ve been about 10 times. We don’t do the dining plan as it takes too much time from the parks with sit-down meals. Don’t worry about it not being enough food though, it will most likely be too much with snacks. We bring a cooler backpack and bring our own water bottles, cold grapes and some snacks. The free water is discusting. When we arrive we drive to Walmart and buy lots of water and freeze. That way we have ice cold water most of the day. I think a small bottle of water in the parks is $3 now, not sure. If you like popcorn you can buy the refillable popcorn bucket and then bring it back each day for cheap refills. If you are on fb there is a really good British group called It’s Orlando times, they will know the answer to all your questions.. You HAVE to do a lot of research to go there, like a lot! We bring money mainly for shopping in the outlets, there are bargains to be made! Walmart has a lot of Disney stuff, for a fraction of the price in the parks.

We went full board and I'm so glad we did because it was $$$ or €€€ for lunch or dinner.

€125 for a buffet dinner for 2 adults, 1 child and under 2 not included.

Can't remember off the top of my head for Florida but it was pricey. I'm sure we were roughly $30 per person who ate.

Never been back to either of them. The eldest had more fun on a caravan holiday or holiday village.

Full board for eurodisney I mean.

We’ve not long come back. We were on the DP and we didn’t need an extra meal. Snacks definitely cover it. We spent money on tips (18-20% a time), plus merchandise. I reckon we spent around £1000.

Amazing holiday, assuming you’ve planned it sufficiently in advance. We are organising going back again in 2021 but for three weeks this time. :)

If you have sit down meals you need to pay at least 18% in tips, more if you are 5 people or more I think it is.. Fast food places no tips, so you can save a lot of money that way.

Don't listen to any answers that are based on Disneyland Paris, they are completely different. They might as well be telling you about the time they went to Alton Towers.

My DH is absolutely refusing to accept its 20% tip... 😂 I've Googled and confirmed... let's just say he's not happy. Considering we have reserved Cinderella's castle and if we didn't have the dining plan it would have cost 604$ it does seem expensive but it is what it is.

Loving all these tips Btw... so helpful

We bring cereal from home, and just have a quick breakfast. The trip in itself is so expensive, you need to know how to save with the little things or else you will end up paying an absolute fortune on unnecessary things.

@DoneAdulting exactely

We had the meal plan and didn't need to eat much outside of that as we found the portions were big and with snack credits too... just allow for tips. The meals can be expensive. For instance we went to Cinderella's Royal Table (2 adults, 2 children) and that was about $170 on meal plan with drinks etc so then had a 20% tip on top (which is the going rate). The tips soon add up.

If you are a dining plan then it should be enough food.
Note: the quick service credits don't differentiate between adults and child's so you can use them to get 5 adult meals or less and split them which will fill you up.
Have you booked lots of character dining etc? The first time we went we didn't realise you had to book 6 months in advance to standard chance of getting a table in some places.
I would book places even if you're not sure what you are doing each day as you can cancel them up to 24 hrs in advance.
Spending money wise though, if you have dining plan then it's completely up to you how much to take, depends how much you want to spend. Disney is expensive though! Same as any theme park, it's about £20 for a hat, £20 for a balloon!!, £15-20 for flashy light up things etc

Not sure why anyone is referencing what they did or didn’t spend at Disneyland Paris.

Comparing Paris to Disney World is like comparing a Ford Fiesta to a Lamborghini in terms of quality of the food, service and guest experience- it’s a different world. There’s a huge choice of eats places, from burgers for less that $10 to $45 for a steak- it just depends on your budget.

OP you can spend very little as long as you don’t want to bring back a suitcase full of Disney paraphernalia. You’ll need to carefully plan what restaurants you want to use and when so that you get the most of the dining plan.

DH and I brought about 2k with us (childless) which we spent all of, but we didn’t have the dining plan and went to a couple of the $$$ restaurants. We could have planned much better and spent a lot less!

@turkeymaster it's worth googling US tips as they have a much larger tipping culture than us, there will be tip boxes everywhere! You won't need to for your QS credit.

I'm pretty sure that gratuity is included at Cinderella's table. It's one of the few it is. They say 20% but we don't always leave that. We tip a bit more than we do at home but we don't go crazy.

If you go to the Plaza in MK they have unlimited milkshake, which our teenagers love..and you have the view of the castle..meals are so big you can sometimes share. You can also book Beauty and the Beast restaurant and have just dessert to be able to go into the castle..you won’t get in and have a look without a reservation. Food is pretty crap but the inside is stunning!!

We’ve been twice with the table/counter service meal plan, and pretty much only paid for tips (covered by £200 gift card included in the package) the occasional Uber and a few souvenirs.
Alcoholic drinks are now included so we didn’t even pay for them the second time.

As others have said, join The Dibb and check out DisneyFoodBlog and get clued up on all the best ways to max out the dining plan.

Free chilled water is available on request from the carts and counters so no need to use the water fountains (which are rank!).

You will barely need to get any extra food on the ddp. Sooooo muuuuuch foooooood! Portion sizes are huge. You can get some really decent meals using qs credits as well, like breakfast/lunch at Be our Guest or Blaze Pizza at Disney springs (loads of others, they’re just 2 of my favourites) Also if you use some of your ts credits for character buffets, again, soooo much food. My favourites are Crystal Palace and 1900 Park Fayre.
Tipping and parking really add up. A lot of people tend to write them off as inconsequential - they’re not!!
I also second the recommendation to look at the Dibb. It’s a great source of info and experience.
Spending wise, it really depends on if you intend to SHOP! We love the outlets and I also buy a lot of park merchandise because Disney, and that really adds up. If you’re just planning to eat and buy a couple of souvenirs you should probably be able to work out fairly accurately how much you might need to take.

The suggested tip is 18%, only compulsory for parties of 6 or more. It’s based on what you would have spent if paying out of pocket, so check the menus online to see likely prices for your chosen restaurants, as some ‘free’ meals are way more expensive than others. For example California Grill brunch is £££, the Plaza is ££, so the tip will vary accordingly.

We had the same dining plan as you - and we had so many snack credits to take home!

We often had breakfast - didn’t need lunch, as breakfast was so big and then had dinner later that day.
We used our snack credits to take gifts home for people :)

It was just two of us and we probably spent $500 on fuel, snacks if we were away from Disney, tips, souvenirs and we also did a Disney tour as well which was extra.

Dining plan was well worth it for us!

You can use your snack credit for water but we ended up with buying water or bringing a water bottle with us and topping it up - so we saved snack credits that way 😊

@Blacksackunderthetreesfreeze you can but you really need to plan down to every small detail..we didn’t the first time, but now we know better. Also we don’t stay onsite as we want a kitchen, washing machine and that the kids get one room and bathroom each. Much nicer, and so much cheaper. I could never stay in one cramped room and after a day in the parks it is nice to get away from Disney anyway. There are ways to do it.

With the dining plan you will get a refillable mug which can only be used in the resorts, not the parks. So, for example, breakfast could be a pastry or a yoghurt parfait (snack credit) and a coffee in your mug (no charge).

Which resort are you staying in?

We've not been for five years so our information may be out of date, but I'd recommend websites like The Dibb for help from fellow Brits.

Our Disney hotel room had a kitchenette so we brought weetabix with us and bought bread and milk from the hotel gift shop which did us for breakfasts. We had a couple of days off park (Discovery Cove and Universal Studios) so used the meal credits for those days on other days. You can take food you don't eat in the restaurants as a "doggie bag" which I did for a lot of the desserts so we had dessert as an option for breakfast too. If you have a breakfast buffet (great for the first few mornings when you are on UK time) it will fill you up for the rest of the day, but we would often sneak a bread roll and a piece of fruit out for DS to have for lunch, and also have some fries or similar for a snack credit at lunch.

We didn't spend much, mostly taxis off site, tips and a few t shirts from the gift shops.

Enjoy!

@AnnoyingSatsumaInMyStocking we're staying at Riverside port orleans