Those who have been, how much spending money for 2 weeks in Orlando?

[ElizabethWakefield]

I am going in 7 weeks time (BA strikes and ash cloud permitting ). It will just be for DD (9) and I, we are going with a large group of friends and are staying in a villa, and have a mini bus/people carrier thingy hired.

So we will all be putting money together for petrol, general villa food etc, we have all our park passes already bought.

We will mostly be eating out/at parks, except for breakfast.

Having a mild panic about spending money, so was hoping those who have been could give me a rough idea of how much would be needed. (minus all the rubbish that no doubt DD will try and convince me to buy if our previous trips to Disnelyland Paris are anything to go by )

anyone?

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Hi we went 2 years ago, stayed in villa and had car. Eating out is very reasonable, similar price to here but if something was £8.99 here it would be 8.99 in dollars, so bit cheaper.

Petrol was much cheaper than here but the villas can be a good 40 mins from the parks and the bigger the car the more gas it will use.

It really depends how flush you are and how much shopping you want to do, if not much the then just enough for meals and the usual bits n bobs.

Am sooooooo jealous! You will love it, it's amazing.

Ps- can recommend the restaurant 'chillies' on championsgate. The steaks are amazing and only about 10 bucks.

Have fun

Family of four here - we stay in an apartment - do a big shop first day we are there for breakfast stuff, drinks and snacky stuff and maybe things for sarnies when we have a pool day. We probably top up every 3 or 4 days. We probably spend around £250 on this.

On top of that we will probably spend around £1200 which does not include passes or anything or pressies or clothes shopping.

Thanks both for replying

I think our villa is about 20/30 mins away from the parks (it's in Davenport if that means anything to anyone) and we have a huge big people carrier (for 6 adults and 5 kids) so I think petrol will cost a fair bit, although obviously cheaper than at home.

I currently have about £1500 saved up and DD has about £150 of her own money, but I am not sure if I will need more. I am thinking about maybe just going with this and having a credit card for any emergencies (or shopping )

I will remember Chillies, thanks for that. Any other tips appreciated!

Get to the parks early and work backwards way round... ie. head straight for the far side of the park as most people will start to queue for the first thing they see.

If you go to Aquatica - need to be queuing to get in at 7.30am.... it gets that busy they close the gates and many are turned away at 9.00/10.00am and they don't reopen the gates until about 4.00pm.

The water parks do towel hire for a few dollars which is well worth it.

Do a day park, day rest.

Never pay for "large" drinks as their small is big and you always get free refills where ever you go.

It will be hot, so the night before doing a park, get a couple of sports bottle sized water bottles filled with water, stick them in the freezer. Use them the next day at the bottom of your bag with sandwiches on top - keeps them cool and you have an iced drink.

The Kobe Steak house on I-Drive is fabulous. You share a table with others and you get a personal chef - excellent entertainment.

ooh, I love the Kobe but we go to the one on the 192 near mile marker 6. It is DS1s favourite restaurant and often go there for his birthday.

I'd recommend Sizzler and Ponderosa restaurants too (all over Orlando) You can get eat all you can buffet breakfasts for around $4 and dinner including steak or chicken and loads of other buffet food from around $10. We often go for breakfast on a 'park day' and don't need lunch.

Towel hire at the water parks is a good tip, as are the others, thanks.

I'm not sure if we will do a days rest in between park days, as we want to fit so many in but we might be so exhausted by the second week that we'll need to.

Thanks also for the restaurant advice, I'll make a note of them all.

One of the kids has a birthday while we are away, so we were going to book a character meal one day, preferably with princesses! I think we will need to book that in advance too.

my top tip is Sweet Tomatoes buffet restaurant at the top of I drive near wet and wild.

Approx $12 for a fab salad buffet,jacket spuds,soup and pasta - makes a nice change to the usual carb loaded fare !

Also take your own drinks to the parks and don't be frightened of ordering one main meal and sharing it with your DD - my DD is a similar age and we often order a main meal plus a side of salad or bread and share it or order 3 appetisers and share those !

Suncream & shampoo etc are much cheaper in Walmart than over here and the Princess breakfast is nice but a bit of a rip off - very busy, rubbish food and a bit manic !

Enjoy !!!

BA flights out of Gatwick are operating as normal during the strike period.

Chilis is always worth a visit as is Dennys or Friendlys if there is one of these chain restaurants near you.

If you decide to use your credit card, do inform the credit card company in question beforehand that you will be in Orlando for the weeks in question. This is because they could place a "stop" marker on your card otherwise. It is also an idea to carry your photocard driving licence around with you if you have this as it can be useful when asked for photo id (you may well get asked for this when making large purchases in store).

Beware also using your mobile phone to call the UK: it could cost you a small fortune in roaming charges. You're far better off buying a prepaid phonecard for calling the UK in a pharmacy like Walgreens or CVS (you can buy one of these for about $10 and you'll get around 3 hours of talk time).

If you visit Macys in the Florida Mall do go to the customer services desk in that store and pick up one of their visitors 10% discount cards (you will need to show them photo id). You use this at the till when you make your purchase and the reduction is made there and then. It can save you quite a lot of money. Another mall that is worth a visit is the Mall at Millenia (eat at the Cheesecake Factory or Calfornia Pizza Kitchen).

You may actually be too late to book a character meal (these are very popular and thus get booked months in advance) but hopefully you will get something.

Have a great time!. Orlando is a great place and I have many happy memories of my visits there.

Brilliant, thanks for all these tips!

Sweet tomatoes sounds good, I have been to Disneyland Paris a few times and really craved somewhere like that to eat! I'll take note of the other places mentioned too.

Thanks for reminding me about my credit card, I must inform the bank, and I am not even going to take my mobile with me (after a 5 day break in new york left me with a £200 phone bill ), but great tip about the phonecard as I will still want to phone home.

I'll remember the Macys tip and I like the sound of the cheesecake factory

OMG I forgot about the Cheesecake factory .............

The food is fantastic in there but the portions are huge even by US standards and the cakes are to die for - I can feel my jeans getting tighter as I think about it !

Another good tip is to sign up for the mousesavers newsletter - you can get the link from the Orlando forum on Trip advisor. This often has discount tips and links etc including cheap disney tickets

Mmmmmmm, I am definitely going to the cheesecake factory!!

Thanks for the mousesaver tip, will sign up today.

1 month exactly until we go..so excited!

Oh the cheesecake factory is amazing!!! def go there, pure LUSH! Have fun xxx