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?

That’s where we stayed, I loved it!

It has one of the best food courts on site, so you will not go hungry.

Ask me anything.

www.portorleans.org

This website is good. Have a look at the map, rooms for 5 are in Alligator Bayou.Handy for the buses and the main buildings.

We stayed at port Orleans French quarter the beignets for breakfast are so nice and you get 3 for 1 snack credit, we often used 2 snack credits to get 6 and had that for the 4 of us for breakfast.

Firstly, if you haven’t already then book your sit down meals now
Booking opens 180 days in advance and the decent ones - Be our Guest in particular in magic kingdom - are full 5 months in advance.
Go light on breakfast - we had cereals in our room and use the other meal for lunch.
Snacks - don’t waste them on things like bottles of water. Huge turkey legs, enormous ice cream sundaes, giant pretzels etc can all count as snacks and are often enough on their own for lunch.
We have been every year for the last 10 years and never spent more than an extra £50 on food for 4 of us in a 2 week period. However, that doesn’t include tips which are 18%
For a family of 4 on the dining plan a sit down meal is easily over 100 dollars - often more - so allow 20-35 dollars a day for tips.
Best restaurants
Be Our Guest (beasts castle) in magic kingdom
Akerhaus banquet in Epcot if you have girls as you dine with all the princesses
Chef Mickeys at the contemporary hotel (5 min walk from magic kingdom or monorail ride) where you dine with all main characters - mickey, minnie, Pluto, Donald, goofy etc

@AnnoyingSatsumaInMyStocking that's great to hear! I'm going for the food! Hehe

I'm planning on travelling pretty light, there's 5 of us and I'm thinking to do some washing mid way through, is there a laundrette at the resort? Any tips you have would be amazing!

@GoodDogBellaBoo that’s interesting to hear. I’m not sure if we’d ever go as the kids have never expressed a big interest in it, but nice to know it could be an option.

I’m a big planner when it comes to holidays but this does look like it would be a bit overwhelming!

Also - a lot of people don’t know this but anywhere that serves soda will give you a big cup of iced water each for free, you just have to ask

Another tip - look for Mouse hats and ears on eBay before you go. Much cheaper than in the parks.

Also I love Port Orleans - make sure you take the boat to Disney Springs one evening. So pretty.

@turkeymaster - if you can book be our guest and try the grey stuff 😍😍

Also stayed at PO R and it was lovely! Really enjoyed it, we went to PO FQ to get the beignets (3 were a snack credit if I remember rightly) and yes there is a room to do washing and tumble drying (there tumble driers were v hot though and shrunk some of my DH clothes 🙈 so just be warned!

When are you going? I’m very jealous! If it’s anyone’s birthday make sure get a birthday badge too 😊

Hi, we went 2 years ago and are going again this year. We had the quick serve meal plan both times. We used 1 credit for breakfast and 1 for our evening meal. Snack credits were more than enough for lunch. Lots of places do things like waffles which are huge and topped fries which are all included as a snack credit.

Also quick service meals are not split into adult/child so children can have an adult meal.

Honestly I thought we wouldn’t have enough food and would have to top up but on our last few days we used them for things like drinks, sweets to take home etc because we had so many left. If you have any meal credits left you can use them as 3 snack credits (that’s quick service meals).

Spending money wise we took around £1800 plus the kids had around £300 each too. We bought lots of toys etc and went to the outlets and spent a fair bit there but we still had a couple of hundred dollars left.

We’ve stayed at riverside, it’s a fabulous resort. We loved it!

We had loads of credits left over. Snack credits covered breakfast or lunch usually and sometimes we split 2 quick service meals between 3. The portions are huge. For spending on top it really depends on how much you want to spend in the gift shops, whether you'll have a few extra drinks in hotel bar on an evening, tips for your table service meals and whether you're going to go offsite to the malls or anything.

Tip is definitely included at CRT.

Did you get a gift card when you booked? If so, that should cover all tips.

Don’t know if you already know this but when staying at Port Orleans Riverside you can also use the facilities at French Quarter which is a 10 min stroll along the river. They have an excellent splash pool for kids and their food court have different options so nice to break it up a bit.
Check out the recreation calendar usually posted by the pool, they usually have activities by the pool each afternoon and also they show movies under the stars each night too, they have a camp fire to make s’mores for movie snacks!

Great tip about the beignets and sharing snacks and QS credits!

Apparently you need to tip housekeeping too? I'm just reading this...

wdwprepschool.com/tipping-and-cash-needed-on-disney-world-trips-prep096/

Laundry rooms are by the small pools dotted around the resort. Payment is by credit card (Halifax Clarity is a good if you need to get one), and there is an app which shows you when the machine finishes, so you can sit by the pool with a drink while you wait. here

Get the Disney app, for all your fast pass and meal reservations, and also live bus times. Have you made your dinner reservations yet? Fast passes can be booked, I think, 60 days out, so be prepared.

The POR bus loops around the resort, first pick up and drop off is the West Depot, which is closest to the Alligator Bayou rooms numbered 20-something, which is handy as you will normally get a seat going to the parks.

@MrsWhites nice tip! I wasn't aware of the movies under the stars and campfires... that sounds amazing!

There's so much to Disney I feel like I'm learning something new everyday but now it's coming closer I'm getting into planning mode. We've got 3k aside for spending money which will be for kids, tips, maybe car hire for a day or so to go to the Kennedy space centre, and my MIL will need a mobility scooter which we will pay for too

@AnnoyingSatsumaInMyStocking I've bookmarked that page! Brilliant thanks for that :)

And yes made some dinner reservations like Cinderella's table, be our guest, one of the dinner shows and some character meals... we can book fast passes now but haven't booked any yet... any tips?

Check online, but when we were there you could opt out of housekeeping and get $10/ day credit. You can ring housekeeping for extra supplies, fresh towels and bedding anytime, and spend the extra credit on tips or souvenirs. We did because it was no bother to quickly make the beds, and with 5 in the room it saved having to tidy up before we went out! Also no tipping needed!

@AnnoyingSatsumaInMyStocking oh that's cool... so when you ring housekeeping for supplies how far In advance would you do that?

@turkeymaster That will definitely be enough spending money. My biggest tip is not to try to do everything. 4 parks, 2 water parks and anything else you want to do in Orlando is just impossible in 2 weeks so don’t stress yourself out trying.

How old are your children?

Fast passes, make a rough plan, based around the big rides in each park. It’s quite complicated with different tiers etc. Touring Plans is a good site for explaining it. Book the headline rides as soon as you can .

Housekeeping will come almost immediately if not busy. Alternatively if they are around, in the mornings, you can just ask the staff. And leave bagged up rubbish and used linen outside the room to be collected.

Check out Disney Food Blog (website and YouTube channel) for tips on how to maximise dining plan and restaurant and snack reviews/recommendations. I wouldn’t think you’d need to buy any other food unless you want to. Souvenirs and shopping are whatever you want to.

Tipping - your DH is going to have to get over himself - waiting staff in the US are TAXED on the assumption of tips, so if he doesn’t leave at least15% then it’s costing them to serve you. It’s part of the cost of the holiday.

We never haven't spent a lot. Been twice and both time. Stayed onsite so no food/drink costs. We struggled to spend our money this last time.