Advice re very strict budget, hotel shuttles/Lynx buses and food

[cartoonp]

Linx buses take a little planing but are worth it advice pre buy linx passes .

[bella9]

As it's all paid for and they go in 7 weeks they'll have to make it work. DC will be wonderful - food, snacks and drinks included, so they should take full advantage of that. I believe there's a free shuttle to Seaworld if that's on the itinerary.

Get them to sign up with eateries about a week or 2 before departure, and hopefully they'll be some good welcome offers - use both email addresses. Check out Early Bird, Happy Hour prices. The likes of McDs, Burger King have $1 menus at specific times.

With careful planning they'll have a great time.

[TartanTink]

Could they ask for restaurant vouchers as wedding presents ? there are lots of restaurants that you can buy e gift cards that they could take with them
They could make a list if anyone asks what they want as a gift ?
I would have suggested they have too many tickets but with the timescale probably too late to change that.
Landry, House of Blues, Raglan Road and a lot of the chains do e vouchers perhaps that would help stretch the budget

[RickT]

They need to be asking for cash as wedding gifts.

Agree, the number of parks they have is far too much, assuming they have also purchased 14 day tickets - would of been more cost effective to buy say a 4 day disney pass, 3 park Uni and DC only - for the 10 days they will be there.

They need to see if they can get any refunds on the unused / activated tickets.

Other option is to cancel the hilton and look to stay in a condo with a full kitchen, cost can be reduced massively if they self cater.

£500 / 14 days is £35 or £17 a person - this is possible staying in a villa or condo as you can get cost effective food from walmart.

The other thing to think about is do either of them get paid while they are away ?

[loves2plan]

There's a food report here where a couple had a budget of $50 per day for food that might be worth a look:
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1056013

[Eloise73]

Update: OK, she rang Ocean to get a quote on swapping hotels. It's a £50 amendment fee so the saving has to be bigger than that. She rang the hilton direct and they said her room would have a refrigerator and a microwave so that's quite good.

We can add their housekeeping money for 2 weeks to the £500 so I think we are at £650 now and she will get money for her wedding as that is what she's asked for - or rather help with honeymoon which I hope people will take to mean money.

I also told her now is the time to get acquainted with beans on toast for the next 6 weeks lol

I made her ring Ocean back and ask if the hotel shuttle (which is $8 return per day to Disney) only goes to Epcot or if they have separate ones to each park. Epcot/Magic Kingdom works ok but then to have to transfer to AK or HS from Epcot is a pain and again time consuming.

Shuttle to Universal parks and Seaworld are free. Discovery Cove includes food all day so they need to be like hibernating bears lol

She needs a taxi buffer of around $200 minimum. And money set aside for tolls.

I think we can do this - am working on grocery prices for them now. I've started doing Disney itinerary planning as a business but am doing this for a friend - good practice, she's keeping me on my toes lol

[Leec]

Something to consider is while they stay at Clearwater there will probably be resort fees and they can soon eat into your money 😬

[Eloise73]

Originally Posted by loves2plan

There's a food report here where a couple had a budget of $50 per day for food that might be worth a look:
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1056013

See more...

Thank you, i'll have a look at this. Have been compiling a list of restaurants near them and average prices plus tip so they have a good idea. I think if we are careful and find some good vouchers and coupons they can do this if they eat out once a day!

[angelcake71]

I agree that £500 for 2 weeks is definitely not enough..I don't know if the park tickets have all been bought and paid for, but that would be where I would be making my cut backs.. as you can only do so many parks in 14 days.. perhaps choose the favourite ones.. and not do them all..

[Eloise73]

Originally Posted by Leec

Something to consider is while they stay at Clearwater there will probably be resort fees and they can soon eat into your money 😬

See more...

I think when I saw their paperwork it said the hotel fees were included in the package. They will have a car at Clearwater so they can drive anywhere for good cheap food - I loved a lot of the pre-made salads at Target and they were all under $5 and quite filling (with a bag of cheetos that is lol)