Thread: Disney World budget

I took my 2 children (DS-15 & DD -9) last May for 12 nights and 13 days but I saved up for it for 5 years or so. But some of the savings I did was packed a suitcase with cereals, granola bars, oatmeal, tea bags, snack crackers, chips, cookies etc. and bagels we ate breakfast in our room each morning. I bought 3 rubbermaid insulated drink holders with straps at the Dollar Store that we filled each morning before leaving our room with iced tea and ice. We took a backpack with the camera, crackers, peanut butter and put the drinks on the scooter I had to rent. Buy all your film and BATTERIES before you leave home I stored them in a ziplock baggies in the backpack. Once the food is gone then you have an empty suitcase to bring your souvenirs home in. We stayed on site and it was nice to have our purchases sent back to the room so we didn't have to lug them around all day.

I printed off journal pages with Disney themes for each of us to write about our day and printed off an autograph book for DD to take with a big fat sharpie marker for the characters to sign. I also bought and saved Disney shirts here at home and laid out one daily for the children to wear at Disney.

At Downtown Disney on the next to last day I went to the Christmas shop and let the children pick out a special ornament. Then we picked out ones for loved ones and had their family names and the year put on them. I shipped them all back home but Christmas was done in June! We bought boxes of 4 ornaments and divided them up to 4 different families so it was quite frugal.

The first night we got in we went to a luau dinner show and that was our most expensive meal but we knew we would be tired from getting up so early to drive to our airport and didn't want to waste a park ticket for just a few hours.

All in all I spent less than $4,000 and that included airfare, room, meals and purchases. It was a lifetime experience that probably won't be repeated so I feel it was money well spent. Oh, for 3 years prior to leaving relatives would get the children Disney Dollars for birthdays and Christmas so they each had their own "money" to spend on whatever they wanted. If I were rich I would go every year!



HTH,

Pam