Its sad but Disneyland has priced me back to the World

[KelsiesMommy]

Originally Posted by pixiewings71

That may be the case for you but it's the exact opposite for me. I've been trying to book us a trip to WDW for years, we have a timeshare so we don't even have to pay for a hotel but the flights price us right out of the water. For a family of 4 to fly to Orlando, simply not cost effective at all.......

That has been our experience, flying to Orlando from CA...of course, we live 2 hrs north of DLR, so obviously we drive there, but flights from CA to FL are insane! We are looking at doing WDW again in 2013... Not sure we can afford it

[disneegrl4eva]

Originally Posted by KelsiesMommy

That has been our experience, flying to Orlando from CA...of course, we live 2 hrs north of DLR, so obviously we drive there, but flights from CA to FL are insane! We are looking at doing WDW again in 2013... Not sure we can afford it

I just am very confused at the analogy behind this...and KelsiesMommy, you are one in many that has voiced this same thing so that is why Im using your post...on an average, a family of 4 staying a week at wdw, will spend around $1k for food..(there are more TS restaurants in wdw than in DL) so if you did 1 TS, 1 QS, and a snack for each, it would cost that much..thats not even including if you decide to go do a character meal...if you go during free dining then you are cutting out that cost so you could spend it on airfare...I would understand a little bit more if you werent going during free dining but if you live within hours of DL (driving) then you are right! The cost is a major difference but thats not really comparing apples to apples...but if you have to fly either way, the cost isnt much different..

[sheetz]

Originally Posted by disneegrl4eva

the reason behind free dining is irrelevant...they offer free dining and DL doesnt...

Of course it's not relevant as far as how it affects one's pocketbook, but it was my impression that the OP was accusing DL of pricing themselves too high. However I'm suggesting that maybe it's more that WDW, and Orlando in general, is priced low (semantics, I know). I've priced offsite Orlando hotels and even in high season they have some of the lowest rates I've seen of any hotels outside of weekdays in Las Vegas. Some are so low I have to wonder how these hotels even stay in business.

[disneegrl4eva]

Originally Posted by sheetz

Of course it's not relevant as far as how it affects one's pocketbook, but it was my impression that the OP was accusing DL of pricing themselves too high. However I'm suggesting that maybe it's more that WDW, and Orlando in general, is priced low (semantics, I know). I've priced offsite Orlando hotels and even in high season they have some of the lowest rates I've seen of any hotels outside of weekdays in Las Vegas. Some are so low I have to wonder how these hotels even stay in business.

but it all ties into the cost factor and free dining vs non free dining definitely does affect the pocketbook and per my previous post, if you can get free dining then you could use the money that you would have to spend on food and use it for airfare.

[HydroGuy]

It is worth mentioning that not everyone can go during the free dining period. That is part of the reason of course why free dining is offered.

[sheetz]

Originally Posted by disneegrl4eva

but it all ties into the cost factor and free dining vs non free dining definitely does affect the pocketbook and per my previous post, if you can get free dining then you could use the money that you would have to spend on food and use it for airfare.

Obviously I'm not doing a good job of getting my point across so forget what I said.

[disneegrl4eva]

Originally Posted by HydroGuy

It is worth mentioning that not everyone can go during the free dining period. That is part of the reason of course why free dining is offered.

that is very true but also, it goes for a long time like aug-dec. and I guess I just assumed that people would go when it was going to give them the most value for their money because thats what I would do...

[Huff]

Originally Posted by HydroGuy

It is worth mentioning that not everyone can go during the free dining period. That is part of the reason of course why free dining is offered.

That is true. Thats why we go to WDW during free dining. Even with airfare vs driving to DLR a 7-9 day wdw vacation has been cheaper for us.

[Amy&Dan]

And at this point, free dining is covering a lot of ground so to speak. We got it last summer in June, we got in March for spring break, we have it for oiur upcoming October trip.

If you travel during the real high peak seasons fd is probably not going to happen. But then again, I consider June and spring break (ours was last week of March into first week of April so in the peak spring break time frame) peak seasons so you never know! Christmas, Easter Week, July are all times when fd will likely not happen. However, I can say that to my knowledge, July is the only month when some sort of fd, either a pin code or general offer, has not been offered.


WDW also offers room discounts almost all the time as well as bounceback offers.

Those bounceback offers offer a huge incentive to return to WDW. Never seen one of those at a DLR hotel although they did hang a thing on my door last night at the DLh offering me to stay one more night for $129. If only we didn't have to fly home today!

I have been to WDW and DL each about 18 times each. I have spent exactly two nights in all of those trips at WDW paying rack rate with no discount. I have paid rack quite often at DL.

I also live in Colorado and generally get way better (as in up to $1000 less total for four tickets) airfare to CA. But I like to stay onsite which can eat up that savings very quickly. Food is higher in DL, park tickets are slightly cheaper.

As Hydroguy said awhile back, you do tend to spend more days in WDW given the size and scope. Although DL is no longer a weekend type destination in my opionion, its generally not thought of as a week or longer one as WDW is.

Airfare and discounts are generally the big factors and it depends on where you live, when you go and how long you stay to determine which Disney park will fit your wallet the best.

[pixiewings71]

Originally Posted by disneegrl4eva

I just am very confused at the analogy behind this...and KelsiesMommy, you are one in many that has voiced this same thing so that is why Im using your post...on an average, a family of 4 staying a week at wdw, will spend around $1k for food..(there are more TS restaurants in wdw than in DL) so if you did 1 TS, 1 QS, and a snack for each, it would cost that much..thats not even including if you decide to go do a character meal...if you go during free dining then you are cutting out that cost so you could spend it on airfare...I would understand a little bit more if you werent going during free dining but if you live within hours of DL (driving) then you are right! The cost is a major difference but thats not really comparing apples to apples...but if you have to fly either way, the cost isnt much different..

Even staying a week at DLR I won't pay $1000 for food, that's ridiculously high for our family of 4. And we can't go during free dining, it's not in the cards for us to take the kids out of school for extended periods of time at this point in their educations. Airfare for our family of 4 roundtrip varies in price from $1500-$2500, not so budget friendly.

[disneegrl4eva]

Originally Posted by pixiewings71

Even staying a week at DLR I won't pay $1000 for food, that's ridiculously high for our family of 4. And we can't go during free dining, it's not in the cards for us to take the kids out of school for extended periods of time at this point in their educations. Airfare for our family of 4 roundtrip varies in price from $1500-$2500, not so budget friendly.

PixieWings, ...the this whole concept really isnt for people like us who live in CA already...that wouldnt be a fair analogy of apples to apples...of course its ridiculous to compare if you are that close to DL..same goes for people who are in driving distance from wdw...this is more for those people who live in an area where they will have to fly one way or the other...this is what I am trying to indicate as to which is cheaper in the long run? wdw or DL? Also, there are far fewer sit down restaurants in DL than in wdw...if you are doing counter service at wdw and DL the whole time then yeah $1000 would be a high amount but if you did a TB, CS and a snack for every person in your family every day for one week at DL, wonder what the cost would actually be....so if we, as people from CA took away the airfare part of the trip and you start comparing the prices vs. options for hotels, dining, parks etc...wdw would fare better

[daneenm]

Originally Posted by disneegrl4eva

that is very true but also, it goes for a long time like aug-dec. and I guess I just assumed that people would go when it was going to give them the most value for their money because thats what I would do...

Sadly, the windows are at terrible times for most school schedules in our area and taking our children out of school is not an option. Of course, this is why they offer it in these windows, to entice more people to come during periods that are typically slower for them.

[Stitch35]

Lets say you have a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children ages 3-9. WDW parkhopper tickets for 8 days is $204 more then DLR parkhoppers for 8 days. If you add waterparks and more option, it's another $88. If you go with the budget WDW hotel at $89 (cheapest I've gotten) vs $69 at the HOJO, that's another $160 at WDW and you have to spend time on some mode of transportation other then walking in your own time frame at DLR (not a monetary value but a big value if you need to go back and forth for any reason).

So to make things equal we will say each person in a family of 4 has 14.12/day to eat at DLR and WDW has free dining. That makes the cost of each place equal for 8 days.

Before you say a family of 4 can't eat on 56.50 a day, my family of 4 does it for less then that every time! We either make our own oatmeal in the am or stay at a hotel with free breakfast. I pack our own healthy snacks and peanut butter and jelly for lunch. We will always break for nap unless hours are short. And we can eat at Mimi's, order pizza or have dinner in the park. (We do counter service) and it runs about $30-35.

I have been to both WDW and DLR. I love both of them for different reasons. We live in WA and can get great deals on flights to both places. I like the immersion in WDW but the feeling of being home in DLR. I hope you enjoy whatever park you go to, after all, it's Disney and family time!

[pixiewings71]

Originally Posted by disneegrl4eva

PixieWings, ...the this whole concept really isnt for people like us who live in CA already...that wouldnt be a fair analogy of apples to apples...of course its ridiculous to compare if you are that close to DL..same goes for people who are in driving distance from wdw...this is more for those people who live in an area where they will have to fly one way or the other...this is what I am trying to indicate as to which is cheaper in the long run? wdw or DL? Also, there are far fewer sit down restaurants in DL than in wdw...if you are doing counter service at wdw and DL the whole time then yeah $1000 would be a high amount but if you did a TB, CS and a snack for every person in your family every day for one week at DL, wonder what the cost would actually be....so if we, as people from CA took away the airfare part of the trip and you start comparing the prices vs. options for hotels, dining, parks etc...wdw would fare better

I still disagree, maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying. Taking airfare out of the equation I'm still going to spend a lot less on DLR then I would at WDW. I've run the numbers, the ticket prices are comparable, the food is more $$$ at WDW and I can't go during free dining, hotels are free at both places, well actually that's not quite right, I have to pay an exchange fee to use RCI, the exchange fee is a minimum of $179 (IIRC that was for 5 days) and goes up depending on how long you stay, at DLR the only fee I have to pay is the $10 daily valet fee. I still come out ahead not counting transportation to the general location of the parks. I don't count gas if I'm going to DLR and I don't count airfare for WDW and I still come out as DLR being less expensive. I only mentioned food because someone else mentioned going during free dining would "save" you money that you can put towards airfare, which wouldn't work in MY case simply because we can't go when they offer the FD packages.

IME and IMO both parks can be priced out of someone's budget due to many factors. I was empathizing with the OP with my original posting because we can't afford a trip to WDW. That's all.......

[ValpoCory]

Originally Posted by Amy&Dan

WDW also offers room discounts almost all the time ...

I have been to WDW and DL each about 18 times each. I have spent exactly two nights in all of those trips at WDW paying rack rate with no discount. .

Which is why Free Dining is not really "free". In signing up for it, you forfeit any chance at other hotel and ticket discounts. You are forfeit any chance to rent a relatively bargain priced DVC timeshare room. Plus, with "free" dining, you still have to pay the tip, which can be very expensive. There are many costs to "free dining".