I know this wasn’t directed at me but it probably applies. I will probably get around $200 more in gift cards before we go, because I think we will probably run over what I currently have and at least I can get them a little cheaper than paying directly to Disney.
Ugh. I generally pay as I go and don’t budget, so just putting pen to paper for this thread and I find that our upcoming week long Thanksgiving trip for the four of us (Me, DW, DD16 and DS14) will cost nearly $13K all in. 
$2500 – Two Connecting rooms at the Dolphin for 7 nights - (using points for one of the rooms).
$2700 – 8-day park tickets with hoppers and Memory Maker.
$2800 – Roundtrip airfare on SWA from Houston to Orlando (Thanksgiving prices 
)
$1400 – Ultimate Day of Thrills VIP Tour ( a first time for us!)
$400 – Savi’s Workshop for the kids - 2 lightsabers
$200 – Droid Depot (damn kids again! 
)
$276 – HEA Dessert party
$2400 – Meals - Just my estimate of $300/day for the four of us for 8 days.
Total – $12,676
The only silver lining is that I have already paid for the airfare, VIP Tour, HEA dessert party and park tickets, so more than half of the total is behind me.
Seriously, I could save so much money if I just went without my kid! 
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No doubt - Since my kids are priced as adults and eat like adults (my teenage son wants steak at every meal 
) I figure the exact same trip, for my wife and I, would be half the price.
I presume you mean picking oysters to get the pearls inside. Do you mean one pearl per child or two pearls per child? Or are they going to share the pearl earrings? Regardless, I’d be concern the two pearls may not match in size, shape, or color. Also curious as to why getting these pearls are so important to you.
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Thanks for the reminder. We are going the 2 weeks before Christmas. So, I’m sure there will be a seasonal surcharge for food.
I had a reality check on food prices yesterday, Thanks for your estimate on uber costs. Overall, I think we will be close to $8K. I have just under $4K to work with for Kennedy Space tickets, uber, and all food except Candlelight Processional Dining.
For Hilton stays entirely on points, there is no tax or resort fee.
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We never take paper and pen with costs to this level of detail. It was rather eye opening.
Flying a family of 4 adds that much more to the overall cost. But your airfare is really high. I know, Thanksgiving.
Oh, forgot that this site was really helpful in estimating meal costs - https://www.distripplanner.com/
And kind of fun to see how much it would change with different restaurants. Gave me something to do between booking the trip and ADR day.
Good news about no tax/resort fee. That will save you a TON!
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Those days of traveling without kids will be coming along fast. This December’s trip to WDW may be the last for the 4 of us for a bit. 
It was really hard to schedule since DD21 and DS19 are in college with their own schedules of internships, work, study abroad… Enjoy all your precious family times while you can.
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There are ways to save money on Lyfts and uber. Both have new customer discounts. There are also discounts available for existing customers. Before our trip, both my husband and I signed up for a Delta-Lyft promo where our Lyft rides counted toward our Delta Skymiles, AND we received a total of $40 off of our Lyft rides. We also signed up for a Lyft promo where we paid $5 in advance and then got a $4 per ride discount for an entire month. I think we also received some kind of new customer discount. Every little bit helps. We used Lyft for 10 rides during our trip, including to and from the airport, between Universal and Disney, and within Disney. The airport trips were obviously more expensive than the within Disney trips, but the total for all 10 was $87.
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Well, if it makes anyone feel better, friends that have Redskins tickets estimate that with parking, food, and tickets it’s a $1200 day starting at 9 AM and ending at 4
Sounds familiar 
. I am seriously considering the DDP just for this reason alone.
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I can not believe what people pay for lodging…
You all have much more generous budgets than I do!
The idea of traveling without my kids breaks my heart. Hopefully by the time DD6 is not traveling with me I will have grandchildren to travel with.
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Oh I do! I was only kidding about leaving him behind! (Even though DS12 is eating me out of house and home, plus his athletics gear/equipment and new school clothes/shoes every few months! He is pretty expensive without vacations!)
In 2016 my family of 8 spent a week in Kissimmee (with five days at WDW) AND a 7-night NCL cruise for less than that in May. Holiday travel is a beast.
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I do.
2 per child.
That’s not my intention.
I’ve thought about that. They could potentially swap earrings if it makes sense in terms of color, etc.
It is what it represents. It represents time well spent as a family and me being there for them as their dad. Nothing in the world is more important to me than for my kids to know that I love them. And they will forget about them long before I give them to them. I hope they realize that when I give them to them what it will mean to me. Of course, if they don’t want to wear them, they won’t have to. It’ll be their day after all.
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This is definitely our largest cost. For 12 nights 12/26-1/6 our lodging is going to be $4700 and that includes 2 nights free with Marriott points at the Swan. With those costs we do get 4 days of express passes at UOR for 4 people (worth a whole lot as each day of express is $189 per person per day if we had to pay out of pocket) and 5 days of club level food which helps lower food costs a bit.
Flights are a lot from the west coast as well, made much more expensive by us going over the holidays (kids in high school, have to travel when they are off school). For this trip we are paying 2K in flights which we managed to get down from $3720 that they would be out of pocket by applying Southwest points, Southwest companion pass, and 2 companion tickets on Alaska.
Now we are in $6700 and we haven’t gotten to tickets, food, or extras yet. Once I add in the $750 for 5 days of club level FPP, probably $2500 for food and dessert parties…we are up to 11K. Wow, writing it down I am about to have a heart attack. This is probably 2.5-3K more than we spend during spring break for the same length of time. Yikes.
With tax it’s more like $800 
Looking over this, a few things I’d consider (if I were you, which I’m not!):
- Driving instead of flying would save a LOT of money. You could drive, including gas, food, and hotel both ways, for probably $600 versus $2800.
- Rather than stay at the Dolphin, rent a house/condo offsite. For 7 nights, you could probably do it for more than half that price…even after accounting for cost of parking after having driven.
- Doing the above means saving some extra money in food. Maybe not a lot in your case, but some.
But since you already paid for things, probably pointless talking about it. 
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I have a question. Club level FPP are $50/ person/ day, or is it $150 for the whole time you are there? Or do you only have to get them for 3 people? I am still learning how this works so…