Planning a Trip in 2020? Let's Share Our Budgets!

tzeitel

Toadi Acceleratio Semper Absurda
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
I am borrowing @Marionnette's title from her 2019 thread for those of us already planning our 2020 trips :)

Let's see those budget, ADRs, saving tricks and hacks - you know the fun stuff! And after our trips lets come back and compare the budget to the reality :tilt:

We are going in May for 9 nights, there are 3 of us but we are traveling with my mom and stepdad AND my in-laws. The in-laws are staying at the BW and the rest of us at Dolphin. So far the plan is -
  • $1800 Dolphin (taxes and fees included)
  • $1564 Tickets - 8 day PHs. We don't usually do PHs at WDW but we will be so close to 2 parks I could not resist!
  • $130 Hotel @ airport for 2 nights since we live 2hrs away & I book flights for early arrival/late departure. Employee rate, includes parking.
  • $1200 Disney Gift cards for food. I also have $100 in Starbucks and $100 in Landry's (for Y&Y).
  • $86 Car rental - no DME to Dolphin so we'll rent an SUV for all 5 of us, stop at Publix get water etc. Return at Dolphin = no parking fee
  • $900 Flight - guesstimate since SW has not released rates yet.
  • $ ? Dog & cat boarding. Sometimes they charge us for the cat sometimes they don't - they like her and her snooty attitude :snooty:
  • $ ? Publix - a case of water, some pastries for the AM, beer for DH, Diet Coke for me
  • $ 200 Souvenirs - have some stuff for DD and got myself a Donald shirt from the DS. Travel (refillable) mugs are my favorite souvenir.
I booked the Dolphin through Priceline (Express Deal) which I was able to pay for with Paypal. This quarter Discover is having 5% cashback on PP. I already had a Discover card but what I did was apply for one of their other cards which then gave me the 5% plus the match at the end of the first year. I added my Discover to PP and made it my primary source of funds. I am getting $153 cashback (5% + match for first $1500 and then 1% for the rest).

The Disney gift cards I have been buying with my reward sites earnings and with deals from Amex and RetailMeNot. They have been either free or at least 20% off. I am all done for what we need and I am now working on getting my mom at least $750.

The Starbucks and Landry's cards are from reward sites - and I will also have a $25 birthday reward from Landry's (and Starbucks, EoS, Sprinkles and any other I can sign up for). I am also working towards a $100 Uber card just in case we want to not wait for a bus at the end of the night.

The SW flights will be paid for with miles and reward sites. We have enough for one flight and atm have $150 in GCs. Hope to have the rest by the time SW releases the May dates.
The car we will split with my mom - if I don't take the money she will kill me - so it will be around $45 for the day.

Not much I can do about the tickets :headache: but I am planning on getting them sooner rather than later from UT just in case the prices go up unexpectedly.

Edit to add ticket total.
 
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I am planning a trip in 2020 to attend Food and Wine Fest and run the 10k/half marathon challenge. Until the dates for the race come out I can't plan too much yet. I am looking forward to my first real food and wine fest (no kids) and race disney event.
 
I'm planning a trip February 15 to 22; staying at Animal Kingdom Villas Jambo House (using my DVC points). I made dining reservations for one table service restaurant each day, and am considering whether to buy a dining plan or Tables in Wonderland, or just pay OOP (which I will likely do). I'll go back and find my reservations and report back on where and when for tips/tricks/suggestions.

I will buy 5 day tickets, and debating whether to add on Hopper or not. For me, I'd say no to the hopper, but my 9 yo DD loves Rock N Roller Coaster and may ask to hit that ride each day, lol.

Airfare from California is pretty high right now - it's been perching around $500pp RT.

I haven't put any numbers down on paper yet, budgeting is not my strength. I'll crunch some numbers and report on that too, when I return.

Cheers!
 


I'm going for a week in Feb with my family of 5. I am really trying to keep it under $4,000 but have budgeted $5,000. So far we have priced out:

*6 nights at POR - Currently booked at $1889. Actual $1684.

*5 flights from BOS to MCO - Budgeted $1250 ---- Actual $806
* Parking - $180 --- Actual $200, booked a hotel with 7 days of parking and free shuttle to and from airport.

* Tickets - $1405 4 day non-hoppers

* Meals and Souvenirs $500 ( The rest will come from our Disney reward dollars)
 
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Our plans are not 100%, but I’d like to do a cheap Florida trip next May.

$345 - five nights Hampton Lake Beunu Vista
$694 - tickets two days for three people (ouch). I might add a third day. I have $300+ Disney points.
$274 - four nights Hampton Palm Coast (three miles from beautiful Flagler beach)
$250 - estimated gas
$40 - Disney parking, the hotel has a shuttle but the times stink.
$400 - 9 days of food, a combination of big free breakfast (Hampton is the best), a lot of groceries, and some Disney quick service meals. I room cook like a pro.
—- so $2,000 ish plus a little bit of shopping here and there.

We also have plans to go to the Gymnastics Olympic Trials in June. The tickets are the big expense there, we are waiting to see if we can get a group rate. I’m budgeting $250 gas, $250 room, $1000 tickets, $300 merchandise, and $200 food. 2k is a lot for such a short trip but it will be worth it.
 
We are planning a trip in November of 2020. Hoping to get a 2 bedroom villa at the Bay Lake Tower for our family. A friend of ours has points and we can rent those points directly from him, to avoid the middleman. That should help with costs. But for 9 people, the villa will be more affordable than 2 separate rooms that sleep 5 people each. And since some of the kids will still need to nap in the afternoon (and maybe a couple of adults!), it will be nice to go back to the villa for lunch and an afternoon break on some of the days.

The plan is to spend 4 nights at WDW followed by a 7 day cruise to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. I don't know where to start, except we booked our cruise shortly after the 2020 dates were available. The cost for that has already gone up $300! I am glad I booked it when I did!

We will have me and my husband, my son, his wife, and their 4 kids, and my daughter.
:tigger:
 


Planning my FIRST trip to WDW in 2020. Staying off-site in a villa, with family of five. Flying from Scotland and staying for two weeks.

Cost for five adults:
Flights, car hire and villa - £5000/ $6000 total (package holiday)
14 day unlimited Universal and Disney park tickets - £3750/ $4500
Spending - $100/day/adult - £5840/ $7000
Busch Gardens ticket and meal plan (one day) - $400

Total - £14950/ $17,940

Additional costs like gas/ food/ parking will be absorbed into the daily spending money.
 
I'm planning a trip February 15 to 22; staying at Animal Kingdom Villas Jambo House (using my DVC points). I made dining reservations for one table service restaurant each day, and am considering whether to buy a dining plan or Tables in Wonderland, or just pay OOP (which I will likely do). I'll go back and find my reservations and report back on where and when for tips/tricks/suggestions.

I will buy 5 day tickets, and debating whether to add on Hopper or not. For me, I'd say no to the hopper, but my 9 yo DD loves Rock N Roller Coaster and may ask to hit that ride each day, lol.

Airfare from California is pretty high right now - it's been perching around $500pp RT.

I haven't put any numbers down on paper yet, budgeting is not my strength. I'll crunch some numbers and report on that too, when I return.

Cheers!
We are not park hopper people at WDW either - so many buses :crazy2: and we've gotten stuck on the monorail so many times! Maybe go without and then add it if your DD really wants to do RnR on a non DHS day.
 
We are planning a trip in November of 2020. Hoping to get a 2 bedroom villa at the Bay Lake Tower for our family. A friend of ours has points and we can rent those points directly from him, to avoid the middleman. That should help with costs. But for 9 people, the villa will be more affordable than 2 separate rooms that sleep 5 people each. And since some of the kids will still need to nap in the afternoon (and maybe a couple of adults!), it will be nice to go back to the villa for lunch and an afternoon break on some of the days.

The plan is to spend 4 nights at WDW followed by a 7 day cruise to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. I don't know where to start, except we booked our cruise shortly after the 2020 dates were available. The cost for that has already gone up $300! I am glad I booked it when I did!

We will have me and my husband, my son, his wife, and their 4 kids, and my daughter.
:tigger:
I wish I knew someone with DVC! DH and I were both CMs eons ago and could have bought DVC dirt cheap - really they were giving it away to CMs at the time - but what did we know?

I booked a cruise for May 2021 a couple of weeks ago - the price was the lowest I had seen for Hawaii and got perks not usually available to our cabin type - yesterday I looked it up again (cause I do that ;)) and it was already $800 more and the perk was gone.
 
It looks like some major health concerns with my in-laws may prevent this trip from happening, but we have planned a trip to Universal over President's Day week (February).
7 nights
5 people: 2 adults, 1 teenager, 2 children

Portofino Bay-Garden View 2 Queen room-$3260.71 (Hoping to get a discount later)
Transportation (Driving-gas and parking fees and meals on the road)-$450
Cot rental at hotel (we didn't have to do this last year, but have been told we do this year?)-$200
Mardi Gras Dessert Party-$200
Souvenirs-$500
Groceries (not factored in because we would buy groceries anyhow)
The Palm-$550
Other Dining-$1,339.29
Sea World/Movies/Mini-golf-$350 (If Sea World sticks with their veterans' deal, we should get 4 tickets free)
Total $6,850

I haven't factored in that it costs $149.05 to upgrade 4 of the annual passes on our last trip. I am not including my upgrade fee as that was paid for by the hotel discount last time. Also didn't factor in our photo package which will still be active as I got a deal for a year's worth of photos that was similar in price to the package for one trip. But I suppose that would put the total at around $7,000

So ways we may knock some money off the total. Hoping that what we actually spend in Orlando will be closer to $6,000
1) APH rate discount on the room
2) Get them to take off cot rental at hotel (we just used an air mattress this year)
3) Souvenirs are $500 I purchased in gift cards. I did get fuel points for this purchase, so I probably saved $10 on gas because of the purchase. Since we went this year already, the gift cards will be assigned to each person and once it is gone, it is gone. I think we overspent on souvenirs our last trip.
 
I can send over the spreadsheets if you want to see them in more detail, but here is where we are at currently:

Who:
Dad (42) Myself
Mom (37)
Daughter (4) will be 5 at time of trip

Dates: 5/16/2020 thru 5/23/2020

Accommodations:
Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House - Standard Studio Suite
Purchased via DVC Points Rental through a major DVC rental website
Total Cost: $1,805.00

Park Tickets:
5 Day, single park base tickets
Total Cost: $1,374.27

Airfare:
3 round trip tickets from TN to Orlando MCO
Total Cost: $33.60 (used points, total cost is non-covered fees)

Parking:
Only at home airport during trip
Taking Magical Express to/fm MCO
Total Cost: $64.00

Food & Misc Items:
See budget breakout below
Total Cost: $1,200.00 (estimate)

Total Cost: $4,476.87
LESS: Capital-1 Bonus Points: ($586.23)
Total Trip Cost (net): $3,890.64

The Capital one offset is due to a bonus they have. If you open a capital one venture card, the first year fee is waived and you get 50,000 points if you spend $3K in the first 90 days. I opened the card, bought the hotel and park tickets on it, then used the 50,000 points plus the points I got for the purchases as a 'balance eraser' option, which reduced the total credit card bill by $586. I then paid it off a week later and closed the card. Saved over $500 and didn't cost me anything than a few minutes online to open and subsequently close the card. Free money.

Below is the food budget. We are very light eaters, so even if it looks cheap to some of you, it is probably high in reality for how little we eat. We also don't buy gifts, nearly ever. So the gift budget is probably on the high side for us too.

=============================================

DayDay #EventsFood & Meals $$$ Other Expense $$$ Total $
Saturday1Flight & ArrivalATL airport snacks $ 15.00Amazon Now: Bread, sandwich items, Snacks, water, drinks for room
Dinner at Mara $ 55.00 $ 60.00 $ 130.00
Sunday2Magic KingdomBreakfast bars in room $ -
Lunch at theme park (Gastons Tavern?) $ 50.00
snacks at theme park $ 30.00
Light dinner back in room $ -
Wine and dessert at AKL $ 50.00 $ 130.00
Monday3EpcotBreakfast bars in room $ - Gifts at world showcase $ 40.00
QS Lunch at theme park (England or Paris?) $ 50.00
snacks at theme park $ 30.00
Dinner at Sanaa $ 120.00 $ 240.00
Tuesday4Hollywood StudiosBreakfast bars in room $ -
Lunch at theme park (Docking Bay 7) $ 60.00
snacks at theme park $ 30.00
Dinner in room - sandwiches and chips $ - $ 90.00
Wednesday5Hotel DayBreakfast bars in room $ - Disney Springs gifts $ 50.00
Morning at pool $ -
Lunch in room - sandwiches and chips $ -
Disney Springs for Dinner $ 100.00 $ 150.00
Thursday6Animal KingdomBreakfast bars in room $ - AK gifts $ 40.00
Lunch at theme park (Satu'li Canteen) $ 50.00
snacks at theme park $ 30.00
Dinner at Mara $ 55.00 $ 175.00
Friday7Magic KingdomBreakfast bars in room $ -
Lunch at theme park (Be Our Guest?) $ 60.00
snacks at theme park $ 30.00
Light dinner back in room $ -
Wine and dessert at AKL $ 50.00 $ 140.00
Saturday8Flight & ReturnBreakfast pastries at hotel $ 30.00
Dinner at One Flew South - ATL Airport $ 60.00
Airport Parking $ 64.00 $ 154.00
Grand Total: $ 1,209.00
 
Our budget is for 9 nights for 2 people
DVC Rental $2500
FL Annual Passes $1500
Gift Cards for food $1200 (probably won't come even near that)
Dog boarding $1000 :sad:

So grand total of $6200

Thankfully we don't have to pay for airfare and if the DVC rental doesn't come through then we'll probably still stay there just on the hotel side.
 
So interesting to see everyone’s budget and determine if things are stacking up right for us! It’s our first trip so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I think I have a pretty good handle on what everything is going to cost now though. This is likely our big “once in a lifetime” trip so I don’t mind spending extra to be comfortable, but I’m currently financing everything I can with discounted gift cards and using every rewards and points sites savings to go toward the trip! Also this will be my kids’ main present for Christmas this year so I can use at least half of our normal Christmas budget toward trip expenses.

Dates Jan 19-28, 2020 so 9 nights. Family of four but kids will be 11 & 12 so all adult pricing. Staying at AoA family suite because we like having the space for such a long stay. (And a door that closes from the kids! 😀)

Hotel - hoping to be around $2600-$3000 once discounts are announced
Tickets - 5 day base tickets $1800 and Universal one day (2 parks) $800?
Food - $1000 in gift cards
Airfare - already booked Southwest for $1000! (Saved $35 using discounted gift cards)
Activities - Memory Maker, Pirate Cruise, etc $500
Extras - Uber, tips, unexpected things $300
Pet sitter - $500
Souvenirs - should be covered with gift cards that our families will get the kids for Christmas

Total: $8,500-$8,900
 
Hotel - hoping to be around $2600-$3000 once discounts are announced
Tickets - 5 day base tickets $1800 and Universal one day (2 parks) $800?

You should be able to save a little bit:

Tickets: WDW 4 adult, 5 day base tickets, are available on UT for $1,700.96 and 4 adult US 2 park, 1 day tickets are available on UT for $712.24.
(savings of $187 compared to your estimate)

For the hotel, it might be worth looking at renting DVC points. You can probably stay somewhere much nicer than AoA for about the same price. Here is the current pricing on full 1 bedroom apartments at the following resorts (note there is no sales tax for DVC rentals, so that is an additional savings of several hundred dollars). Prices are for the dates you listed:

Animal Kingdom Lodge 1BR: $3,502
BoardWalk Villas 1BR: $3,298
Old Key West 1BR: $3,383

So might be worth checking out.
 
Dog boarding $1000 :sad:
Arg! Forgot the dog and cat boarding! DH usually picks them up and pays the bill so not sure off hand how much they charge us. Will have to look at our bank stuff from this past May when they were boarded for around the same number of days we'll do next year.
 
You should be able to save a little bit:

Tickets: WDW 4 adult, 5 day base tickets, are available on UT for $1,700.96 and 4 adult US 2 park, 1 day tickets are available on UT for $712.24.
(savings of $187 compared to your estimate)

For the hotel, it might be worth looking at renting DVC points. You can probably stay somewhere much nicer than AoA for about the same price. Here is the current pricing on full 1 bedroom apartments at the following resorts (note there is no sales tax for DVC rentals, so that is an additional savings of several hundred dollars). Prices are for the dates you listed:

Animal Kingdom Lodge 1BR: $3,502
BoardWalk Villas 1BR: $3,298
Old Key West 1BR: $3,383

So might be worth checking out.
Thank you! I will definitely look at UT for the Universal tickets but I don't think I can get my Disney tickets there or rent DVC points and still use a travel agent. But I am still debating on whether we can get by without the family suite and maybe stay at a moderate for a nicer pool and cheaper room rate.
 
Planning to go in Feb. I used my Marriott points to book 5 nights at the Dolphin for free. There is a resort fee, so think it will actually end up being around $250. I am using the DVC Gold APs we bought earlier this year, so no additional expenses there. They were $600 each, so about $300 each per trip. We also want to visit Universal Studios for 2 days so that is looking to be expensive. Also frustrated that SW will no longer offer direct flights to MCO for us next year. Other airlines are significantly more expensive.
 
Tentatively putting down feelers for next September. Looking into renting DVC points, and hope to get 7 days 6 nights, with dining for around $4000 if possible.
 
Tentatively putting down feelers for next September. Looking into renting DVC points, and hope to get 7 days 6 nights, with dining for around $4000 if possible.

I am currently booked for the week after labor day...AKL, four ppl with 5 day park hoppers, also planning on dining plan. Current price - $4700. Using every sort of discount gift card option possible, so far I have $900 worth (paid $750).
 

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