Orlando recommendations

Abbeygoo

Chrome worked a treat, hurrah! ESTA things now all sorted .....

On the subject of spending money, how much did you lot spend in a typical day? Also, would you take plastic cards, preloaded currency cards, cash?

Cheers

rustybin

You'll want a Revolut pre-pay card - Revolut - Beyond Banking

AND/OR

a Halifax Clarity no foreign fees credit card.

I've loaded a few $thousand onto the Revolut and will be taking a $1000 or so cash, and I've got a $500 or so in restaurant vouchers - the Clarity is for back up.

As for money...how long's a piece of string? It depends on how expensive your tastes are. We do things on the cheap wherever possible - the holiday destination itself is a massive treat.

We'll be self-catering breakfast / lunch / most snacks and have budgeted $125 a day. That's for Park car-parking, Walmart food shops, dinners out every night (for 2 adults and 2 very young children - 1 and 3), plus some clothes shopping (not designer stuff) and some treats / souvenirs here and there and petrol. Car / park tickets / hotels all paid for.

If you go on some of the Florida forums they'll tell you it's not possible to do it for that...(it is )

soupdragon

Too difficult to say about spending money. If your going for a hotel that includes park food then you'll be sorted for some meals already.

Otherwise, you could be looking at somewhere in the region of $60-$80 per person per day just on meals and drinks.

We're doing a villa for example, so we'll either have breakfast before we leave or maybe pop into ihop for breakfast where you can pick up breakfast and coffee for less than $10 per person (or more if you go for the breakfast t-bone steak lol)

For lunch, we'll maybe bring a packed lunch on some days but a simple grab and go park lunch could be around $20 each depending on how much you eat. We'll generally do evening meals in non disney restaraunts and will spend in the region of $20-$40 dollars per person depending on how nice a meal we want to go for. We'll also BBQ a few evenings/lunches depending on our schedule for the day so in that respect, we won't be eating out all the time.

Its surprising how quick things add up - food, drink, parking, toys/memorabelia and then whatever clothes shopping you may or may not want to do!

soupdragon

Anywhere non disney you recommend for a decent meal that doesn't cost the earth?

Abbeygoo

@rustybin i take it that card is accepted everywhere?

TheBlueBrazil

Manny's Chophouse

Manny's Original Chophouse | The Best Steak In Town

Donnacha

Similar to the others, its hard to put a number on it. Like Soupdragon, we rent a villa so breakfasts will be bought from the weekly shop at one of the supermarkets. Lunches could also be a pack-up of sarnies, crisps etc. from the weekly shop, or a hot dog, wrap etc. from the parks. Dinners, we tend to do every other night out and depending on your tastes can be reasonable or expensive (e.g. Charlie's steakhouse or Vito's Chop House). The other nights we will cook in the house on the bbq / grill or pasta etc.

Like @rustybin I also got a Monzo prepaid card that has zero currency exchange fees, just need to load it up from my current account. I also use my credit card for big purchases like car rental and get some air miles for that !

Cash is handy for tips (grrrr), buying drinks, the car parks, but we don't tend to have too much of it.

We don't bother with shopping and souvenirs/toys to be honest. Luckily our kids aren't too bothered, but they tend to save up some money that they then use to buy something from the trip (which we'll top up with some extra cash if needed).  

Bonefish Grill is nice, not too expensive but also a little more "upmarket". Bahama Breeze is also good for families and not too expensive. We'll be going to those again next year.