The 'Budget Trip' $150 Per Day for Family of 5 - May 2019 **COMPLETE P14**

[Lisa29]

The food looks so good.

Thanks for sharing.

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Wismgari

12inch pancakes?! They do look good though...

I love Olive garden - I wish I could live on their breadsticks and Alfredo... yum!

See more...

I know! We definitely should have shared but already felt guilty using the voucher they were nice though.

The breadsticks were lovely, I'm not a massive pasta lover and usually have to really fancy it to have it but I think next time I'll try the Alfredo, the salad was really nice too not too much dressing x

Originally Posted by Macsand3

I am really enjoying reading along! Getting so excited, also loving your photos

Leeanne

See more...

I'm glad your enjoying it I hope your getting some good tips yours will be here before you know it

Originally Posted by Lisa29

The food looks so good.

Thanks for sharing.

See more...

Thanks Lisa and thanks for reading x

[caitlinsmummy]

Day 7 - Kennedy Space Centre and Steak N Shake (FINALLY!)

This morning was breakfast in the room again. Kid's had cereal and rice crispie treats, Mr Grump and I had Fibre One bars.

Kennedy Space Centre

We decided to get a few meals to share between us as we weren't overly hungry. We had taken the Space Bus Tour so went to the Moon Rock Cafe. We got the following to share:

Chicken Tender Meal - with French Fries

Bacon Double Cheeseburger Meal - with French Fries

8' Cheese Pizza

1 Diet Coke

All food is prepared and you choose it from it counter. This was ok, nothing special, we all enjoyed what we ate but it was expensive for what it was. Luckily we had drinks in the bag too otherwise it could have been much more expensive. We probably wouldn't eat here again purely based on the price.

Total was $46.05

Steak N Shake

Now those of you who read the last report will know I was looking forward to this meal so much! We were seated within about 10 minutes, it was really busy and they were short on staff we were told. Once seated our order was taken after about 10 minutes ... a bit longer than we expected but it wasn't too bad. We ordered the following:

Chris

Single Bacon Cheese Steakburger 'n Fries - $3.99

Cookies and Cream Shake - $3.69

Chris really enjoyed this, he decided not to go for a double as he wasn't overly hungry, plus we'd ordered shakes. Chris enjoyed his shake but he did say it was sickly.

I ordered:

Garlic Double Steak Burger and Fries - $3.99

M&M Milkshake - $3.69

it didn't disappoint. I was so happy to finally get my garlic burger and it was every bit as nice as I remembered it to be ... I even ordered a second to take back to the room with us I really enjoyed the M&M Shake too and I'd definitely choose it again.

Caitlin had:

Double Steakburger with Cheese 'n Fries (minus the cheese) - $3.99plus a Regular Dr Pepper - $1.79 and a Birthday Cake Shake - $2.99

Caitlin enjoyed this and said it was really filling. She gave her fries to Thomas and Noah to share. This actually ended up free as I had sign up burger for a free double cheese steak burger

Thomas had:

Kid's Chicken Fingers and Fries - $3.99Plus a Kid's Diet Coke - $1.19 and Kid's Nutella Shake -$2.79

Thomas really enjoyed these and ate the lot

Noah had:

Kid's Grilled Cheese with Fries - $3.99plus a Kid's Water and a Kid's Strawberry Milkshake - $2.29

He loved his fries but he really didn't like the grilled cheese sandwich again. Not sure why he didn't go for hot dogs actually? But never mind. I've just remembered we did actually order a banana for Noah too but it never came.

This day was a Sunday, on weekends Kids Eat Free at SnS so this dramatically helped reduce the bill too So for 4 adult meals (my garlic burger meal to take away) 2 kids meals, and 4 drinks, 3 cookies and a banana ...

Total was $36.46 including tip, minus 1 double steakburger and 2 kids meals. Definitely one of our favourite quick service meals and still cheaper than McDonalds on our first evening which was over $40 and no tip!


Total Spends

Day 1 - $178.49 - $28.49 over budget
Day 2 - $42.13 - $107.87 under budget. Add in yesterdays over budget gives us $79.38 extra on our $150 a budget
Day 3 - $155.42 - $5.42 over budget - $73.96 in credit
Day 4 - $146.73 - $3.27 under budget. $77.23 in credit
Day 5 - $139.61 - $10.39 under budget. $87.62 in credit
Day 6 - $104.16 - $45.84 under budget. $133.46 in credit ($104.46 if you count the TravelZoo voucher
Day 7 - $80.51 - $67.49 under budget. $200.95 in credit (not including Travel Zoo Voucher)

[dixonsontour]

Can't beat steak and shake for the price. Glad your burger lived upto expectations.

[MumG]

Have loved reading this as we are a family of 5 too. Have now added HHAGG and Olive Garden to our list. Seeing SnS again is getting me so excited for our trip!

[Lisa29]

That garlic burger at Steak and Shake sounds good and those prices are amazing.

[theCMG]

Mmm Steak and Shake, love the 2nd burger confession Can sympathise with the Cheesecake Factory choice issue, it's so difficult to narrow down to the right one to try

[Goldia]

The garlic burger sounds awesome. What a good deal at steak and shake compared to the meal at KSC. The shakes looked yummy. Good idea to get a burger to take back to the room!

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Can't beat steak and shake for the price. Glad your burger lived upto expectations.

See more...

You definitely can't, just a shame we can't get them here ... although I imagine if you could my weight would be going up not down

Originally Posted by MumG

Have loved reading this as we are a family of 5 too. Have now added HHAGG and Olive Garden to our list. Seeing SnS again is getting me so excited for our trip!

See more...

So glad you've enjoyed reading it. I think I seen that HHAGG still has the Travel Zoo vouchers so take a look Don't forget to sign up for the birthday free dessert at OG.

I just love how there's something for every budget in Orlando and it doesn't always have to be burgers and fries. Thanks for reading xx

Originally Posted by Lisa29

That garlic burger at Steak and Shake sounds good and those prices are amazing.

See more...

Honestly it's amazing, you must try it on your trip and you definitely can't scoff at the prices either During the week 3-5pm it's half price shakes too X

Originally Posted by theCMG

Mmm Steak and Shake, love the 2nd burger confession Can sympathise with the Cheesecake Factory choice issue, it's so difficult to narrow down to the right one to try

See more...

I did debate putting it in and then I thought do you know what I don't care ... I'm not ashamed I'm sure Mr Grump will be happy to know someone else feels the same ... the kids and I just didn't get it ... choose a cheesecake ... boooom x

Originally Posted by Goldia

The garlic burger sounds awesome. What a good deal at steak and shake compared to the meal at KSC. The shakes looked yummy. Good idea to get a burger to take back to the room!

See more...

You really need to try it Goldia ... I need to find someone else with a love for the garlic burger I didn't realise until after I posted but yeah it was much better value and better tasting too x

[caitlinsmummy]

Day 8 - Perkins, Busch Gardens and Outback Steakhouse

Perkins

This morning breakfast was at Perkins. We went to the one at the crossroads on I-Drive ... opposite the big McDonalds, near to our hotel. We drove as we needed to head straight to Busch Gardens afterwards.

We arrived at 8.07am and were seated immediately. The smell in here was amazing. For those who don't know Perkins is also a bakery and the baked goods smell was just wafting through the restaurant! It wasn't too busy in here but there were a few tables in, busier than IHOP and Denny's were last week.

We ordered our drinks and perused the menu. I had a hard time choosing in here as there were a few things I wanted to try.


STRAWBERRY CROISSANT FRENCH TOAST PLATTER - A flaky buttery croissant, dipped in our signature batter, grilled and loaded with sweet glazed strawberries and Bavarian cream.

I really enjoyed this. It was so nice and different and the strawberry made it even nicer. This ended up being my favourite breakfast! It came with a choice of eggs and bacon or sausage.

Chris ordered:

SCRATCH-MADE BELGIAN WAFFLE PLATTER* -
A Belgian Waffle dusted with powdered sugar for the perfect dash of sweetness.

This wasn't exactly what Chris ordered as his was a special but it's basically the same just it had strawberry's on top. He really enjoyed this too everything was cooked so well.

Thomas ordered:

SCRAMBLED EGG, HASH BROWNS AND TOAST - One scrambled egg, with hash browns and one slice of white toast. Served with choice of one side.

Again he really enjoyed this and ate nearly all of it, he just left a bit of toast. Each kids meal also comes with a 'treat' and the kids opted for cookies.

Caitlin had:

Toast and Bacon

It is what it is she added jam to her toast. Again she enjoyed this, I think her and Noah were fed up of all the American food. If I remember correctly I think we just ordered this as 2 sides

Noah had:

Toast and Fruit

Noah enjoyed these and he actually ate quite a bit too! Chris took the kids to the car whilst I paid and collected the cookies. I asked our server if I could pay for 2 extra cookies (As Thomas got one free with his meal) she went off and came back with 4 cookies but didn't add them to the bill which was lovely of her. I signed up to the mailing list before we left and had a 20% off coupon which was applied to our bill.

The total for this was$40.62

Busch Gardens

Now I can't remember what it was called but this was from a place in Busch Gardens that specialised in Pretzels. There was cheeseburger pretzels and much more. Caitlin, Noah and I headed here whilst Chris and Thomas went to a ride. We decided to go for this one as we knew everyone would share it:

Bacon Pretzel with Chips and Cheese Dip

Caitlin, Noah and I had some and left the rest for Chris and the boys. We also got a huge cup of iced water and a sprite to share as well. We all realyl enjoyed it, it was nice and tasty and quite filling too.

This was $10.72 including tax.

Later in the day we found a stall that was offering 2 Churros for $2.50 each so we got 2 to share but I don't have a photo of these.

This cost $5.81

Outback Steakhouse

Tonight was Outback. I already had a code for a free 'Bloomin Onion' for signing up, but it was also Memorial Day so I received another code for 10% off our bills too bonus!

Earlier in the day I telephoned and booked a table as we had packing to do after this evenings meal so I wanted to ensure we weren't just waiting around for a table, plus we expected it to be busy with it being Memorial Day. I booked a table for 7.15pm. We arrived at 7.20pm. We mentioned about our table booking but they couldn't find it. Turns out they assumed I was booking a table for when I phoned even though I'd said 7.15pm. Never mind, we were seated within about 10 minutes. We ordered our drinks and we all had soft drinks then had a look at the menu.

Our server was lovely and very attentive. We ordered the Bloomin Onion and explained we had a voucher. He then came back to take our order and brought some bread with him.

Got to admit we weren't to keen on the Bloomin Onion, we found it a bit too spicy. I was so disappointed as I wanted to love it.

I ordered:

OUTBACK CENTER-CUT SIRLOIN*
- Center-cut for tenderness. Lean, hearty and full of flavor. Seasoned and seared.

You get to choose 2 sides with this, I opted for loaded baked potato and broccoli and cheese, unfortunately they were out of broccoli so I had mac n cheese. I didn't really enjoy this meal at all. The steak was ok, the jacket potato skins was REALLY salty, in fact if you look at the picture you can probably see the salt on it. I tried to eat around it as it was just the skin, but every now and then I got a really salty bit and it put me off. The mac n cheese was ok but I found the pasta too big ... again I know that sounds stupid but I just felt it should have been smaller pasta.

Chris ordered something off the specials I think:

BLOOMIN' FRIED CHICKEN - Our twist on fried chicken. Boneless
chicken breast hand battered in our Outback Original Bloomin’ Onion® seasoning, fried until golden brown and drizzled with our spicy signature bloom sauce. Served with homestyle mashed potatoes
and fresh seasonal veggie.

Again they had no veggies so Chris opted for Mac N Cheese, he too wasn't impressed with it either sadly. He said the mash and chicken were ok but he wasn't wowed by them.

Caitlin had:

OUTBACK CENTER-CUT SIRLOIN* -
Center-cut for tenderness. Lean, hearty and full of flavor. Seasoned and seared.

Obviously she's picky with sides, so so got fries and salad. Chris and I shared the salad, Thomas ate some of the fries. We also asked for extra bread as she liked that so she ended up with a whole other loaf to herself too

Thomas and Noah had:

CHICKEN FINGERS -
Our tender, juicy Chicken Fingers are made with premium chicken and cooked to a golden crispness.

Thomas had his with fries and Noah had fruit. In hindsight we should have just got Noah fruit and gave him some snacks back at the room as he was falling asleep (my fault for trying out the melatonin herbal capsules from WalMart a little too early )

Thomas enjoyed his and ate all of it but tbh there hasn't been much that Thomas hasn't ate on this holiday

We decided to skip dessert as we just wanted to get back and finish packing. Whilst waiting to pay I had an alert to check in for our flight tomorrow so I sat and did that till the bill came.

The total was $92.96

Now I know Caitlin had an adult meal but I just found it so expensive and this was with the FREE Bloomin Onion and 10% off for Memorial Day! To say that Longhorns was a similar price (and we only got a free starter) but much better quality in my opinion I felt really stung paying this and wished we had gone to Longhorns

I don't think Outback is somewhere we would return again. None of us were wowed by it but at least we've tried it and no. Next time it will definitely be Longhorns for a Steakhouse.

With just 1 last day to go (and really it's a half day) we were still over $200 in credit!

Total Spends

Day 1 - $178.49 - $28.49 over budget
Day 2 - $42.13 - $107.87 under budget. Add in yesterdays over budget gives us $79.38 extra on our $150 a budget
Day 3 - $155.42 - $5.42 over budget - $73.96 in credit
Day 4 - $146.73 - $3.27 under budget. $77.23 in credit
Day 5 - $139.61 - $10.39 under budget. $87.62 in credit
Day 6 - $104.16 - $45.84 under budget. $133.46 in credit ($104.46 if you count the TravelZoo voucher
Day 7 - $80.51 - $67.49 under budget. $200.95 in credit (not including Travel Zoo Voucher)
Day 8 - $150.11 - $0.11 over budget. $200.84 in credit