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?

£3k will be plenty.

It may be cheaper to get an uber to Kennedy than rent a car, pay for parking and fuel?

@MrsWhites yeah I will try not to stress too much... kids are 6, 11 and 12 but my 6 year old has endless energy... my DH takes him our most weekends playing Pokemon go so he's walking for hours and doesn't show any signs of getting worn out lol

With regular dining we use snacks and refillable mugs for breakfast, quick service for lunch and sit down meal at night generally. We sometimes change it up with character breakfasts, or when we are out at Universal/SeaWorld/outlets, and use 2 credits when we're skipping other days.

I'd probably take anywhere between $1000 and $3000 depending on the tastes of your family. I don't buy clothes, pants, shoes etc anywhere else so go every 2-3 years and buy my wardrobe essentially! That used to be a lot better when £1 was $2 about 15 years ago though.

We've put trips in hold at the moment as our children are too young but I've been 7 times to 6 different Disney hotels, got engaged and honeymooned there so can probably help if you have other questions.

We stayed off site so didn't have the dining plan. If the kids are funny with water or dont like the different taste, I found the little squeezy concentrate squash an absolute godsend. I took 8 for 2 weeks and came back with half of one left. They don't have squash like we do here and my eldest especially is a nightmare for not drinking and making himself sick. I took refillable bottles and asked for iced water which I poured in and added the squash. Saved a fortune compared to bottles of water that would be undrunk or cups of Hi-C, he doesn't like fizzy either.

@HermioneWeasley I've told him to suck it up and he's not going to be a tight bastard lol... I'll tell him what you've said about the staff getting taxed on the assumption of tips and I think he'll then be more willing (not that he has a choice anyway ;) )

And great idea! I'll look into the Uber option!

I’d definitely get your fast passes sorted then if you children are older. Rides for younger children tend to be easier to get but the thrill rides fill up quickly.

Start with the Star Wars rides in hollywood studios and Flight of Passage in Animal Kingdom (that’s the avatar ride and probably the best ride I’ve been on in my life), fast passes for these rides are really hard to get if you leave it too late. The toy story rides in Toy Story land are always very busy too. Don’t waste fast passes on shows, they are never needed.

Also, if your youngest doesn’t want to go on the bigger rides you can use the baby swap system. Go to the entrance of the ride and tell the cast member that you want to use baby swap. One adult then goes on the ride with the other children, queuing as usual whilst the other adult waits with the non-riding child. When they come off the ride, the other adult can go on without having to queue (they use the fast pass queue), they can also take 2 people on with them so your children will get to go on twice. This also works in conjunction with fast pass. That probably doesn’t make sense but it’s worth keeping in mind!

Use the DIBB busy day guide to work out which parks are quietest in which days & plan your fast passes round that.

If your 60 days window is already open you may have missed the headline rides already so I'd get planning sharpish!

You can book 3 per day & once you've used them you can book one more at a time.

@Nquartz I'm getting on it tonight! I guess I need to look at what dining reservations I've made so I can book rides that are in the same parks... I'm a useless organiser. I'm one of those people who wing things! Eeek

You probably already know but you’ve mentioned you’ve booked Cinderella’s table - that is 2 meal credits not 1 so make sure you account for that and don’t get left short thinking you have 1 meal left if you don’t. BOG I think changed recently to be 2 as well, although breakfast is still only 1. We did the same plan and would generally use a ‘snack’ credit for breakfast, our quick service for lunch, and the table service for dinner. If you have any QS credits left they also break down into 3 snacks, so in Epcot for example we ate a A LOT of snacks, and used 2 quick service credits to get 6 snacks instead. Have fun!!!

@PickettBowtruckles I wasn't aware we could swap our qs credits for snacks before this thread! So excited about that as I've got my eye on a lot of snacks :)

The snacks are the best part 😂 Mickey Pretzels were a regular breakfast for us! Also the cinnamon roll from Gastons - it’s absolutely huge and only a snack credit!

Go on to "It's Orlando time" on FB. It's a great forum for all this information regarding spending money/dining credits etc

Haven't RTFT but we went in October and had the same dining plan as you.

To be honest we struggled to spend our money! Spent about $700 in 10 days which included all our tips, buying the occasional drink and getting some Christmas decorations/souvenirs to bring home with us.

We're a family of 4 (youngest DD not on the DP so she shared food with us). Our tips were usually $30-40 for the table service meals.

Another one who recommends the Dibb. We’ve not long come back and had DDP - we spent next to nothing when there - we did an amazon prime now delivery for breakfast in the hotel but to be honest we didn’t need to - we had so many snack credits left at the end to use up (something like 40 once we converted remaining quick service). We tipped about 20% each meal but had the gift card so that just about covered it all. Storybook dining was one of our favourites.

The only thing we really spent money on ( and it was a small fortune of the kids own money) was building droids and lightsabers in galaxys edge.

Check out Disney food blog guide online and you tube. Mountains of information on how to use your dining plan effectively and hints and tips.

My meal recommendations are

Magic Kingdom
Liberty tree tavern - amazing all you can eat traditional American thanksgiving meal. Best mashed potatoes ever
Lunch at Be our guest- they always have a really good roast beef sandwich (last time called a “french dip” sandwich)

Epcot
Mexican quick service
Moroccan quick service
Fantastic snacks throughout world showcase

Animal Kingdom
Yak and Yeti table service

I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it but lots of breakfast things are a snack - cereal etc.
We often bought cereal and ate it in our rooms.
Last time we spent about $300 in the park/tips. We also went to cirque du solei and spent about $200. We also went to an outlet village, honestly it wasn’t very good and we spent very little.
Dining plan is generally plenty of food and you always have snacks allowance at the end.

We didn’t have meal plan. Took $1400 for 2 weeks and usually come home with around $40 left lol. That also includes the 20 dollar a day parking (now 22).

Just seen MIL needs a mobility scooter - is she registered disabled?
If so then they have a disability policy you can use as well as fast pass. Go to customer service as soon as you enter park and show proof
You get given a card and you take it to any attraction. They write the time on it you would have got to the front of the queue - eg 45 minutes later if it’s a long queue. You then go back at that time and go straight in.
Was a necessity for us as we had 2 autistic kids with us (big family trip) and they wouldn’t have coped with a long queue.
Used that as well as fast passes

I also reccommend the Disney Food Blog on youtube. For some reason I watch it despite the fact that I'm never going to visit. I just find Disney interesting. Lots of great tips on there.

Order your food on the app at counters and miss the queues. Many snacks are big enough for meals so skip lunch and have a snack. YOU CAN BRING YOUR OWN FOOD! Bottles of water cost $4 but free iced water is available. etc. So many tips on that channel!

The meals are generally very large so my husband and I tend to split breakfast and lunch and then have a proper dinner out most evenings. The tips can be high at the more high end restaurants so I would factor that in. I'd get the refillable drinks for in the parks each day but just a couple between you all as they are a pain to carry. Water and ice is free so don't bother buying bottled water as it can really add up needlessly. Your drinks will be included at your resort. Hot chocolate is amazing. Try to use your snack credits for the more expensive snacks to make them go further and use cash for the cheaper ones. If you still have credits left over to to Disney Springs to the chocolate shop, you can use them up in there and it really is delicious 🍫😋

littlemouse the DAS pass is only for those who cannot physically wait in the queue. If you are in a wheelchair or ecv for mobility issues then generally you don’t qualify for the DAS pass. The main stand by queues are generally all built to be accessible for wheelchairs so that isn’t a reason to get a pass.

We are just back and my son who is also ASD, SPD, mute, etc we used the DAS pass and it was great. They don’t write your time down now, you just scan your magic band or ticket and the time is loaded onto it like a fast pass. At sea world parks they still wrote the time on your paper. Disney world also cannot ask for proof for your needs.

OP, be aware that when your fast passes on any given day run out, you can book more if they are available - but the ones you’ve booked must have ALL been used first. So try to book them during the first 2/3 of the day, don’t book any for last thing! Also don’t waste them on the parades/fireworks - you will be able to see those anyway.

Probably about £5k, BUT I stupidly booked the World Swan and Dolphin, which while a 'Disney' hotel within the complex, is owned by a hotel group (Marriott?) so you don't get the dining plan. Gorgeous hotel, but next year we'll be staying in one of the Disney owned hotels.

We also did Universal, which ran us a few quid(!), Kennedy and did the whole Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique/Character dining shebang. Quite sure it can be done A LOT cheaper 😄

Oh and goes without saying that if you have a car, nip out to Walmart and stock up on water/snacks, you will save a fortune by doing that!