The cost of disney

[lfw]

Thanks DSNY FN, I did see the rate at the Marriot, but we are going the last week of Feb so it doesn't apply. I'm keeping an eye out for the winter specials, but alot of the hotels on hotelkingdom haven't announced their rates for 2003 yet, and we can't book anything from dreamsunlimited yet either.

 

[abbyndrewmom]

Gee I guess i never realized how luckily we were. My inlaws live in Tampa so we always combine our trips with a visit with them. We spend 3-4 days at WDW sometimes on-site now that EE is gone usually off. The Radission parkway is a much better deal for your money then any Disney Moderate hotel and the driving distance is no different then from the Coronado or All star. We almost always have breakfast in the room before the park day then have a counter service lunch and a nice dinner. Even though Dh's father is a pilot for US Air, and we can fly for very little, after being stuck in flordia over Sept 11th we usually drive our own Surburban. That is usally our biggest expense.

Our last trip in June we didn't spend much at all. We buy 7 day passes every other year, so we still had days and passes left, Raddisson was $65.00 a night for 3 nights. We did CRT for DD 5th birthday, had dinner at Ohanas, the sushi restaurant at the Swan and Birthday dinner at 1900 Park Faire, lunch was at Pizza Planet and Columbia Park House. Souveniers were from the outlet mall. Our biggest expense was the gas to get there and back which was about $300.00 dollars US plus about $50.00 a night for hotels. Our whole trip including 5 days in Tampa and shopping was less then $2,000 USD. Of course once we got to Tampa we didn't have to pay for food or anything else. Most of the money was spent shopping.

Allison

 

[DSNY FN]

Hey lfw no problem. I hope you get a great rate I know last year they had some great offers for hotels on Hotel Plaza Blvd anywhere from 25 to 79 dollars a night.

 

[twinz]

IFW...why don't you look into staying at a vacation home? We are going in September and we are getting a 3 bedroom home, with our own private pool, for $1050 US for 2 weeks. Since you are going with that many people you could look for a larger house. We found ours through a serach on a search engine (eg yahoo.com) and typed in vacation homes. These are basically real "homes" that people rent out, and they have a full kitchen, living room, tv, pool, etc etc. Good luck, and we have got some great deals though this site, since our dollar basically SUCKS, I think we are doing ok.

 

[lfw]

I like the idea of a vacation home, but it isn't the way we want to go for this trip. We are all very good friends, and would like to stay that way! You know what they say about proximity...
Our children are all about the same age, 2 girls who are 8, 2 boys are 6, and 7 &9 year old boys. They have been friends since they were toddlers.We have different parenting techniques and I think the secret to a successful trip for us is for everybody to have their own accomodation. I have a very high tolerance for chaos and bedlam, dishes left after supper is ok with my family if there is something better to do, however one of the Dads (obviously not my DH, lol) is more, how shall I say it, "structured". Living with us for a week would make him insane. ( The other family is more like us)The general plan is for us to all stay at the same hotel, and each family to do their own thing with some shared outings. I picture the adults having a nice cool drink in the afternoon by the pool while the kids play in the kiddie pool, and rehash our day's activities, and maybe trade off babysitting so each couple could have a night out alone. If we were travelling with just one of the other families I might give it a whirl, but I think with the diversity of the group that is going we are better off in our own space.