Budget

The First Steps of  Planning a Disney Vacation

Budget

Planning a Disney Vacation can be very overwhelming. Some people go thru travel agents, travel websites and some people go directly thru Disney’s travel agents. First and foremost before booking your vacation a budget needs to be set. A Disney vacation can be very expensive if you don’t set a budget. You can add food, airline tickets, rental car, lodging, tickets and souvenirs to your budget. Setting a budget will set the tone for the type of lodging, ticket perks and how many days / nights for your vacation. 

Some families give the greatest amount of their budget for lodging, other families activities and so on. However you plan your budget remember it is your vacation and it is your magical memories being made.
You will find below a chart that I use to start building my vacation. Please note we this is for driving.


Item                                                                                                  Money Allotted
_______________________________________________________________________________
Gas                                                                                      _________________________
Car Rental                                                                            _________________________ 
Hotel on the way down to Florida                                         _________________________
Hotel first night when we arrive in Orlando                            _________________________   
Supper the first night in Orlando                                            _________________________  
Breakfast  2nd day in Orlando                                              _________________________  
Hotel on Disney Property                                                     _________________________  
Tips (Dining and Mouse Keeping)                                         _________________________  
Park Tickets                                                                         _________________________
Dining for the week (Dining Plan)                                         _________________________  Souvenirs                                                                             _________________________
Last official night in Orlando (off property hotel)                    _________________________ 
Breakfast for the morning going home                                    _________________________ 
Hotel (just incase we decided to break the 
driving up within 2 days)                                                      __________________________

                                                                 Grand Total:      __________________________



As you can see we drive and we usually break our driving up between two days. This is easier for our family. The reason why we do not stay on Disney property for the first night we get into Orlando, is that we usually get into Orlando so late that is not worth the money and the benefits of staying on property that night. I usually try to get a hotel near Downtown Disney so we can have supper there and able to stretch our legs a little bit. We usually stay in a Disney Deluxe hotel from Sunday - Friday, then due to the rates going up for the weekend and I am never ready to go home on Friday, we stay in another hotel close to Disney. On our last day we check out f our Disney hotel, load the car, go for a character meal then go to one of the parks all day and then around 5pm we go to our new hotel. This works for our family and it has saved me several hundreds of dollars not staying on Disney property for the weekend rates.
I would love to hear about your budget list.