Florida spending money

donnacraig1984

Hi. Of to florida in 6 weeks for the first time. We're trying to figure how much spending money to take with us. We are a family of 5, 3 kids aged 2, 2 and 5. MIL and FIL are also coming. We are in a villa got car hire and park tickets are paid for. is $3000 enough for wife, myself and the kids. Inlaws have said they will pay there fair share.

Also, may aswell ask.... has any one booked there Florida holiday through thomson which area was your villa in.

Thanks Craig

PeacefulWaters

While it can be done on $3,000 that equates to around £48 per day.

Less than £10 per day per person.

I know it's a money saving site, but I'd want to spend more on holiday!

Enjoy yourselves.

Have a read up on best plastic too.

jackieblack

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

While it can be done on $3,000 that equates to around £48 per day.

Less than £10 per day per person.

OP hasn't said how long their holiday is. :huh:

donnacraig1984

We are going for 2 weeks. It works out around £148 per day. 5YR old has some spending money of his own.Thanks

pleasedelete

donnacraig1984 wrote: »

We are going for 2 weeks. It works out around £148 per day. 5YR old has some spending money of his own.Thanks

Is he buying his own food?

If you are eating out allow $100 USD a day per adult person for food and drink and you will have plenty- usually childrens meals are cheap and easily available but pretty crap junk food even in decent eating places. The will get used to mac and cheese (it is made from a kraft packet- do not look at the ingredients- the food content is negligible. Remember there is an 18- 22% tip expected (sometimes added) on all food and drink eaten in bars and restaurants

PeacefulWaters

jackieblack wrote: »

OP hasn't said how long their holiday is. :huh:

I read "in 6 weeks" as "for 6 weeks". Dopey.

donnacraig1984 wrote: »

We are going for 2 weeks. It works out around £148 per day. 5YR old has some spending money of his own.Thanks

Sorry - I think £3k will be more than enough!

CKhalvashi

pleasedelete wrote: »

Is he buying his own food?

If you are eating out allow $100 USD a day per adult person for food and drink and you will have plenty- usually childrens meals are cheap and easily available but pretty crap junk food even in decent eating places. The will get used to mac and cheese (it is made from a kraft packet- do not look at the ingredients- the food content is negligible. Remember there is an 18- 22% tip expected (sometimes added) on all food and drink eaten in bars and restaurants

$100/day/person is far too much.

With a car, my advice is don't eat at the hotel unless it's all inclusive (our first morning in Florida was with horrible breakfast in the hotel we were in), but to try a Ponderosa (there are several)

Last time I was out there (about 3 years ago) was a buffet with drink for $8 in the morning, $12 in the evening (per person), so even that is $20 a day and isn't too much of a splurge.

OH saw their ad on the top of a taxi and decided to give it a try, so you may be able to find something else, if their offering isn't your thing.

pleasedelete

CKhalvashi wrote: »

$100/day/person is far too much.

With a car, my advice is don't eat at the hotel unless it's all inclusive (our first morning in Florida was with horrible breakfast in the hotel we were in), but to try a Ponderosa (there are several)

Last time I was out there (about 3 years ago) was a buffet with drink for $8 in the morning, $12 in the evening (per person), so even that is $20 a day and isn't too much of a splurge.

OH saw their ad on the top of a taxi and decided to give it a try, so you may be able to find something else, if their offering isn't your thing.

if they are eating and drinking out- 3 meals a day then $100 a day per adult which is $80 plus tips is not far too much. They will be in the parks at lunchtime and maybe tea- which are not cheap.

CKhalvashi

pleasedelete wrote: »

if they are eating and drinking out- 3 meals a day then $100 a day per adult which is $80 plus tips is not far too much. They will be in the parks at lunchtime and maybe tea- which are not cheap.

I don't even spend that in Central London/New York, so IME it's far too much.

This is, as I said, just my opinion, however.

neilbond007

I will be stopping just outside Disney for 2 weeks with my 2 kids (3 and 2) and wife this Saturday.

As a Brit living in the US here are my plans / some advice
- Breakfast
Will be eating ours at our rented house. Will pick up cereal, milk and bread for toast at Publix. Already got a publix loyalty card to save some $$
If you do go out IHOP is fine and we would spend about $25 on this.

- Lunch
Last year we ate many lunches (sandwiches) at the house. Occasionally ate at the parks at the fast food. Cost is about $40 for 4 people.

- Dinner
We ate out most nights. Places such as Outback, Millers Ale House, Logans road house. All decent enough without being fancy. A family of 4 can easily eat for $40 here too. Alcohol will push this up. Still annoys me that normally the cost of beers is not on the menu and you feel like a tight!!!!! asking the price!
If the beer is too pricey (over $5 for a bog standard American brew) I'll get some from the grocery store and have a beer when I get home. You can get a decent 12 pack for $15.
Many places have happy hours from 4-6 or 4-7. We will always try and eat during these hours.
We are eating in Disney a couple of times. These sit down meals are pricey. $250 for one lunch with the princesses. But the price is cheap when you see the look on your kids faces...

Snacks
In the parks we take our own water. We buy ice cream daily (it was in the 90's every day we were there last year). Other than that, nothing too much..

I've not thought about how much I'll spend, but I'll imagine it won't be more than $125 day total for the whole family.

You should be fine, unless you're in to champagne and steak every meal!

PS - I normally tip 15% on the meal without tax. A little more if the server is better than average. $1 is they are bad.

Spendless

We went to Florida last year, 2 adults and kids then aged 14 and 11. We took £2k spending money and fetched a couple of hundred pounds home.

A buffet breakfast was included in the price of our suite (it's like an apartment in a hotel complex) but by day 10 everyone had packed in going due to the repetitiveness of the menu and we just had something in the suite instead. We ate each lunchtime at the Parks which was the most expensive part. Once or twice we ate in our suite, I think 1 night we ordered pizzas in.

In the evenings we ate out but not at the parks. I agree with the comments about Ponderosa, that was the cheapest meal we had. We got a kids eat free card with the booking through our travel agent and used it a couple of times with our youngest. Once at Universal as we were there overnight one night and I *think* we could use it at Ponderosa too.