Spending money for Florida?

Question

Myself, husband and 2 children are going to Florida next April (we are from the UK) we have paid flights, hotel, park tickets for all the parks and we just have spending money to save for now, how much should we take? Obviously we need to buy meals (except breakfast) and we dont want to worry that we havent got enough cash, ideally we want more than enough, so help would be appreciated...thank you!!

Forgot to say we are staying 2 weeks

we wont be carrying cash round with us! not that stupid, but just want a guide how much to save please.

Answer 1

For our family of 4 I budgeted about $1000 for a 8 day trip. But both my kids will usually eat off the kids menu or at the most share an adult meal. Also we budget to eat breakfast in our condo most days (above amount includes $120 in groceries) and to have one sit down meal and one counter service meal per day. The way I budget is to choose the restaurants we will probably eat in, pick the most expensive thing on the menu that I think each person will eat, add drinks, and the occasional dessert and then round up to cover tax and tip. Here is a web site with all the menus for Disney with prices http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm It is just hard to say what someone else would spend because both of your kids might get adult meals or you might just order a salad and be fine. So look around and see what you come up with. Even if you only do a few days it would at least give you an average.

For spending money I usually budget $100 per day. We usually don't spend that, but my son and I collect snowglobes and pins and I buy a lot of pictures, so I factor for that. Also I might buy something at the store to give as a Christmas or birthday gift and ship it home, so I like to have a little extra. To me, I am like you I would rather have more than enough. This saved us the year we ran over something on the highway and needed 2 new tires, a new rim, and a flat bed tow truck. Or the time my son needed to order medicine and it was not covered by our insurance because we had filled it prior to our trip and forgotten to refridgerate it. You just never know.

You can however get by on much less than that if you are budgetting and say each person an choose a t-shirt and have X dollars to spend. (Still add some for snacks and pictures) Or you can spend way more if you like to shop. It depends on your style of vacationing.

If you need any more help feel free to email. Good luck and have fun!!!

Answer 2

OK, we took (2 adults, all pre-paid parks like you) £1700. Out of that we got all our meals, pressies for us and our respective families Xmas pressies that year - and still had about £200 left over. Also did some extra activites other than parks as well. I't say £2000 should easily cover you - or even less if you don't have many relatives to buy pressies for.

Also, we did it in £1200 travellers cheques, the rest cash, and only took out a 2 or 3 hundred each day (split between the two of us) - the rest stayed in the Hotel safe. Easy, no problems the whole time.

Answer 3

Its all according to where you plan on eating. Eating in the theme parks can be a bit pricey. You would be alot better off eating outside the parks. What we did when we went last year (we are a family of 6) eat lunch inside the parks and go to dinner outside(sometimes very late like 7-8pm). If we wanted to re-enter after dinner we did but usually just went back to the hotel and went in the pool, sang karoke..etc.
I would say that for a week you probably will need approximately $1500-$2000. USD Remember its not just the meals you will need spending money for..you will want souvenirs, maybe play a few games in the game rooms..etc. You're right to want to bring more..better to have more than enough than not enough. Also bring a credit card just in case.
Disney is great..your family will have lots of fun! Make sure you check out at least one of the laser shows at night (we liked Fantasmic at MGM studios the best).
Have a great time!

Answer 4

Hello, I used to live in Florida ( back in the UK now) You will have a great time at all the parks. My advice would be make sure you have a good old American breakfast everyday very cheap and filling and this will save you from having to buy to much in the parks themselves, (ripoff) If you can make sure you take a few bottles of water with you as well as this also costs an arm and a leg in the parks. other than that don't worry to much, take as much as you can afford, everything is so much cheaper over there and the exchange rate is great right now. If I was going with my wife and to kids I think £1000 would do us fine. Have a great time. Oh if its 2 weeks make it £2000, I would also have my Credit card just in case.

Answer 5

Hi There,
I have been to Florida a few times now, and by personal experience, I have taken as much as I can afford, I mean at the time I was single, but now I have a fiancee, and a 1 year old son, I would suggest taking at least £2,000 GBP, as there is so much to do, and buy out in Florida, and if you take less then you will be hugely dissapointed on the things you could have done, I mean it is so cheap to buy things in America, you can 2 things for the price of 1 compared to the expensive U.K, when you do go to Florida make sure you go on the Clearwater Screamer, as that is such a fantastic ride in which you get to see the Dolphins whilst you are in the speed boat!
I hope this helps you out? Enjoy!

Answer 6

If you have all your park tickets then food and drink are you only real expense.....but are you staying in a hotel or a villa? In a hotel you can spend a LOT of cash on meals and drinks whereas self prepared meals when in a villa are about the same as in the UK. In a hotel you need $1,500 a week for food and drink - in a villa half this amount. We are going on 23rd April so perhaps we shall see you there. (we are in a villa)

Answer 7

You probably want to be aiming in the region of $250 per day. Lunch generally works out at around $40 for 4 at a self service restuarant in theme park and dinner in excess of $70.
By the time you add parking, drinks at $2.50 per bottle etc it soon mounts up. If you want to take advantage of the shopping malls etc I'd take extra for that. I've been many times with my family and April is by far our favourite time to visit.

Answer 8

If you plan on eating each meal at a restaurant than expect to pay about $40-60 each night for dinner. Breakfast and Lunch are typically a bit cheaper but probably about $150 per day on meals (I'm giving a bit of leeway as I am not sure if you are light or heavy eaters).

Answer 9

I've never been to Florida, but whenever I visit a new country I always pick up (buy, borrow or browse) a Lonely Planet or Rough Guide to that place. They give you a good idea of the costs of transport, food, drinking and lodging etc. When you've estimated your daily costs just add on a bit extra for each person, then you shouldn't go short.

Answer 10

we went to Orlando in 2003. The thing that got me was that you had to pay for parking at the themeparks, silly me thought that was included in the park ticket,i think was $8 aday.
Also the prices on say a tshirt doesn't include tax,as it does in the uk, its added on at the till.
Saying all that petrol is cheap and so is food compared to home,if you want to save more the supermarkets are amazing. We brought most of our gifts [including Disney] from Walmart.