spending money for 3 weeks

[roxyfizz]

What do you think would be a realistic amount of spending money to take for 3 weeks for 2 adults 3 kids 12,10,8?? in £?
I want to have some kind of budget worked out.
Normally we just use the visa card, but this time we want to use cash so we dont have a huge bill to come home to just before xmas next year!

[Rocco]

Depends how many times you want to go the parks and go out and eat. I took my kids to MGM at the weekend, (i rarely go to the parks since moving here) but to get in (even with the discount for residents) was $230 for four. I got about a ten per cent discount. Then we ate there, drinks etc, I'd say around another $150. So kiss goodbye to around $400 a day for parks.

Breakfast, you may as well say $5 per person if eating out (incl. tax), probably about another $10 per person at a buffet.

Why don't you just open an account in Florida with $100, transfer over your money and then use your cashpoint card here. Any excess can be transferred back.

I'd say minimum $5,000 to have a comfortable holiday where you can visit a few parks.

It's all dependant on what you want to do. I've done holidays in the past with the kids where I've taken about $12,000 for three weeks and had to fall back on the cards within days, and some where we just flew on a cheap last minute flight and $2000 has sufficed.

[florida]

We have just been for 3wks and managed to spend 5K that was a family of 4. Some of that money was spent on more expensive items and we do like to eat out in some of the nicer retuarants. I think you need to take between £2,000 and £3,000, we have been going for 9 years and even on our first visit we spent £2,500. A budget of a £100 per day comes out at £2100.00 and although most things are cheaper, it doesn't take long to spend a £100.00 a day, especially when you have 3 young children.

[becbecs]

We are off to Orlando in 10 days for 17 days and are taking £1500 with us. As we are staying in a Villa and have bought all our tickets pre trip we reckon that we may have to start using the plastic at the back end later in the Holiday.

Having stayed in a Villa before we found that a lot of our money was spent on food shopping, Clothes shopping and meals out. Although we did cook quite a few times at the Villa so this kept our costs down

[orlando novice]

i'm off to disney for three weeks and have bought all my park tickets and am staying in a villa, we are taking about 2,500 and really hope this is enough have also got a nationwide visa card as they don't charge interest on the exchange of dollars to pounds.

[LiesaAnna]

our first holiday to florida (only did 3 theme parks through choice, spent over £4,000 spending money alone!!! and that isnt including my sons spending money!! mustve been over a thousand again!
its a personal thing i think, we havent got as much this time cos we only went 8 months ago!! and am NOT christmas shopping!!!

[JayCee]

If you plan on doing everything you say in your other thread...

http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/topic_22946.asp

You are easily looking at £5000. The fact you intent to be out so much means your tickets and food bills will be huge.

The Theme parks are experts at getting you to spend money, so whatever you think your budget will be, it will end up being considerably more.

[heathercobbett]

Are you staying in a house? If so your expenses will be much lower

Why not get your park tickets now?Since that is your major expense,you will be able to then judge your other expenses better (park tickets from link above)

[Jo]

This money scares me![msnoo] We spend nowhere near that amount. We stay in our villa , and always buy park tickets before we go. We take packed lunches and drinks with us into the parks and eat out probably every other day. I couldn't say how much we spend , but it's not a fortune.

I make sure the children have their own spending money , as that stops a lot of the pestering and makes them prioritse what they want.

We spend very little on food and drinks in the parks themselves - we prefer to cater for ourselves as we have special dietary requirements and I object to paying a fortune just for a drink.

I am a bit of a tight wad, but I would rather spend my money on having a nice place to stay, and going to the parks.

In a villa you can have days where you entertain yourself at home for very little cost. Our family likes our 'rest days' as much as the fun packed days in the parks.

I suppose what I am saying is it is hard to recommend a particular amouunt of money without knowing what your priorities are. I would recommend the link at the top of the page for park tickets and buy them before you go. Then you need to work out how many meals out you will have, add money on for incidentals and then souveniers/shopping.

Its easy to spend quite a lot , but its also easy to have a very good value holiday without breaking the bank if you plan ahead.

[JayCee]

I've been 10 years running now and I always have a great time, but seem to spend less each year.

You only really learn to budget in Orlando on your 2nd or 3rd trip in my experience.

If its your first trip its almost impossible because you want to sample everything Theme parks, Malls, Restaurants, Souvenirs the full works. You get so caught up in the excitement and before you know it you are spending fortunes on things that with experience you could avoid.