Can't take that FL trip? Think again.

[KingofSwing3000]

If you really wanted to go to WDW for "cheap" you can do it. Below is a 5-day trip budget for four adults going during slower season (though busier season isn't much higher).

Airfare: $250 x 4 (buy on a Wednesday)
Car: $25 x 5 (carrentals.com + coupon. We just did mid-size for $10 a day)
4/3 Villa: $60 day total x 5 (Flipkey/Homeaway. We got a 3/3 for $55)
Tickets: $250 x 4
Groceries: $200
Food: $200 (it all depends on what you want to save)
Gas: $40
Souvenirs: $100 (Is it necessary?)
Parking: $15 x 5
Misc: $200 (or much less)

So four ADULTS could go to Disney for 5 full days for about $3100. And I guarantee even less -- $2500 or so -- if you have a strict budget and stick to it, or go for four full days. And if you wanted to do SW/BG or Universal for a 3-4 day trip it would be about half this.

My family and I just did a full week in a 4/3 villa; airfare; rented a car; saw SW/BG/AQ/MK/Disc Cove/Uni/IOA/Treasure Tavern; got groceries; ate out every night; played several mini-golf games; had food in the Parks; and more for less than $100 per person per day.

Start saving today to go tomorrow.

 

[scanmom]

IF you can get airfare for that price (We fly out of Tulsa, which rarely has deals on airfare, if we fly from OKC or Dallas we have to drive there and get a hotel room that will keeep our car there)

IF you can get a coupon/code for the car

IF you can be flexible with your dates so you can get a good deal on a villa/rental home

These are good tips, and I have done Disney on the cheap, but it's not realistic to think everyone can get these same deals.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

If you really wanted to go to WDW for "cheap" you can do it. Below is a 5-day trip budget for four adults going during slower season (though busier season isn't much higher).

Airfare: $250 x 4 (buy on a Wednesday)
Car: $25 x 5 (carrentals.com + coupon. We just did mid-size for $10 a day)
4/3 Villa: $60 day total x 5 (Flipkey/Homeaway. We got a 3/3 for $55)
Tickets: $250 x 4
Groceries: $200
Food: $200 (it all depends on what you want to save)
Gas: $40
Souvenirs: $100 (Is it necessary?)
Parking: $15 x 5
Misc: $200 (or much less)

So four ADULTS could go to Disney for 5 full days for about $3100. And I guarantee even less -- $2500 or so -- if you have a strict budget and stick to it, or go for four full days. And if you wanted to do SW/BG or Universal for a 3-4 day trip it would be about half this.

My family and I just did a full week in a 4/3 villa; airfare; rented a car; saw SW/BG/AQ/MK/Disc Cove/Uni/IOA/Treasure Tavern; got groceries; ate out every night; played several mini-golf games; had food in the Parks; and more for less than $100 per person per day.

Start saving today to go tomorrow.

During free dining in September, I priced out 5 nights in September at POP for a little over$1700.00 , tickets included . Thats for 3 adults and 1 child.
Airfare for us is a killer though. No deals to be found.

Plus 2 bigger problems: can't pull DS from school for a week. He'll be a freshman next year AND no extra money since we're going to DLR this summer and Hawaii next summer.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

During free dining in September, I priced out 5 nights in September at POP for a little over$1700.00 , tickets included . Thats for 3 adults and 1 child.
Airfare for us is a killer though. No deals to be found.

Plus 2 bigger problems: can't pull DS from school for a week. He'll be a freshman next year AND no extra money since we're going to DLR this summer and Hawaii next summer.

I'd take this any day over WDW!!

 

[StuckInKS]

$3,100 seems a little high to me for a 5-day offsite trip where you might get one CS meal per day with that $200 food budget (I would allot all of the souvie and misc money for food too, just to be safe). I just priced out a 10-day stay for 2 adults and 2 children in an All Star Movies room with free QSDP (it costs maybe $25-$30 per ticket for an adult upgrade) for $2,475. Add on your discount airfare and it becomes $3,475; just $375 more for double the days, staying onsite and plenty of park meals and snacks for everyone.

 

[drinkme]

If you get a travel rewards cc then you can get the free miles for airfare.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

If you really wanted to go to WDW for "cheap" you can do it. Below is a 5-day trip budget for four adults going during slower season (though busier season isn't much higher).

Airfare: $250 x 4 (buy on a Wednesday)
Car: $25 x 5 (carrentals.com + coupon. We just did mid-size for $10 a day)
4/3 Villa: $60 day total x 5 (Flipkey/Homeaway. We got a 3/3 for $55)
Tickets: $250 x 4
Groceries: $200
Food: $200 (it all depends on what you want to save)
Gas: $40
Souvenirs: $100 (Is it necessary?)
Parking: $15 x 5
Misc: $200 (or much less)

So four ADULTS could go to Disney for 5 full days for about $3100. And I guarantee even less -- $2500 or so -- if you have a strict budget and stick to it, or go for four full days. And if you wanted to do SW/BG or Universal for a 3-4 day trip it would be about half this.

My family and I just did a full week in a 4/3 villa; airfare; rented a car; saw SW/BG/AQ/MK/Disc Cove/Uni/IOA/Treasure Tavern; got groceries; ate out every night; played several mini-golf games; had food in the Parks; and more for less than $100 per person per day.

Start saving today to go tomorrow.

I'm not sure Universal would be half of that. I was pricing with military tickets for Disney so take this with a grain of salt, but when I was looking Universal was much more expensive, especially if you price it out staying onsite at both locations. Your money goes further at WDW.

 

[jenseib]

I'm not sure Universal would be half of that. I was pricing with military tickets for Disney so take this with a grain of salt, but when I was looking Universal was much more expensive, especially if you price it out staying onsite at both locations. Your money goes further at WDW.

I have to agree. Universal is not cheap. If you stay off site and a cheapy hotel and just go there it can be not bad, but then you pay for parking as well. With Disney, I have done it for a lot less than quoted by the OP by staying onsite.

 

[Marionnette]

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who looked at the OP and thought that it could be done cheaper.

Not only that, but $3,100 might as well be $31,000 for a lot of people. It's not like everyone has that much extra cash sitting around and quite a few people prefer to not put it all on a credit card.

I've done some pretty affordable trips by using leftover days on no-expiry tickets, FF miles for airfare, renting DVC points during the least expensive times and using my Disney Rewards Dollars for food. But I'm also aware that this doesn't work for everyone.

Regardless, if you've found a way to get to Disney that works for you, then more power to you!

 

[indimom]

It's different for everyone. $3,000 for a week is what I consider a pricey vacation, including Disney. That's what we spend when we're going all out.

The Disney portion of our trip this summer will cost me only gas and groceries. Our Disney rewards are covering the campsite and our park tickets.

After staying onsite at Universal in 2008, I wouldn't visit any other way, and those hotels can be expensive (but worth it). For this trip, our stay is covered by Blue Sky rewards. We did have to purchase the park tickets: $600 for the four of us. Given enough time I probably could have found a slightly better deal on those.

So total oop cost I anticipate for this trip is $900 (depends on how you count the groceries, we'd spend the same amount if we stayed home, so I didn't include it). That's an 8D/7N trip, seven park days, sleeping in a tent 5 nights, and staying at a nice hotel 2 nights, eating out of the cooler for 90% of the trip, and driving the 16 hours down and back without stopping.

Not trying to argue the OP's point, but maybe add to it.

If you look at all your options and work at it, you can usually find a way to make a Disney vacation (or Universal) fit your price point!

 

[Disneychix]

I don't think this is so bad. The OP states it's for 4 adults, so presumably 2 couples. If you break that down per couple it would be $1500 for a 5 night vacation that includes park tickets and car rental.
That's pretty good.

 

[justakrazymom]

If you really wanted to go to WDW for "cheap" you can do it. Below is a 5-day trip budget for four adults going during slower season (though busier season isn't much higher).

Airfare: $250 x 4 (buy on a Wednesday)
Car: $25 x 5 (carrentals.com + coupon. We just did mid-size for $10 a day)
4/3 Villa: $60 day total x 5 (Flipkey/Homeaway. We got a 3/3 for $55)
Tickets: $250 x 4
Groceries: $200
Food: $200 (it all depends on what you want to save)
Gas: $40
Souvenirs: $100 (Is it necessary?)
Parking: $15 x 5
Misc: $200 (or much less)

So four ADULTS could go to Disney for 5 full days for about $3100. And I guarantee even less -- $2500 or so -- if you have a strict budget and stick to it, or go for four full days. And if you wanted to do SW/BG or Universal for a 3-4 day trip it would be about half this.

My family and I just did a full week in a 4/3 villa; airfare; rented a car; saw SW/BG/AQ/MK/Disc Cove/Uni/IOA/Treasure Tavern; got groceries; ate out every night; played several mini-golf games; had food in the Parks; and more for less than $100 per person per day.

Start saving today to go tomorrow.

I have 5 people going for 15 nights for 6000...

 

[hsmamato2]

I think Op is not too bad, but I'd fiddle with the details and pay about the same to stay onsite,go when I could get a FD deal , share a room no rental car,etc etc.
Saving anything is a good idea,so not too bad- my last trip maxed at 2400.00 for 4 peeps for 10 days(but I use my airline points really carefully to do that plus a couple of unused ticket days from our past included then to save some $$$)This past trip we stayed onsite at both Universal and Disney,that was great!

 

[mikehn]

Food for 4 adults for 5 days is gonna be way higher than $200. $200 is just my bar tab.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Food for 4 adults for 5 days is gonna be way higher than $200. $200 is just my bar tab.

4 adults can anticipate about 15.00 pp per meal. So roughly 60.00 per counter service meal. You can get it down some of course but just one meal on site with a drink will send that meal total over budget.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Minnesota!]

$3,100 seems a little high to me for a 5-day offsite trip where you might get one CS meal per day with that $200 food budget (I would allot all of the souvie and misc money for food too, just to be safe). I just priced out a 10-day stay for 2 adults and 2 children in an All Star Movies room with free QSDP (it costs maybe $25-$30 per ticket for an adult upgrade) for $2,475. Add on your discount airfare and it becomes $3,475; just $375 more for double the days, staying onsite and plenty of park meals and snacks for everyone.

I agree, We are doing a 10 night trip in August for just a little more than what OP said. And we are on-site. No cooking, cleaning, driving, or parking to be done. I don;t think that the prices OP quoted are really that good of a deal, overall....

 

[KingofSwing3000]

Thanks for everyone's responses. I can't "answer" everyone but I'll say this: over the past 23 years since I was 8 I've been to WDW over 500 vacation days (over 100 at the other Parks). I've helped families plan numerous trips to DW (I planned our first trip when I was 8). It can be done very affordably (I stick to the budget posted above); and our vacations cost less and less each year and we end up doing more.

The point of it is simply I know way too many people that want to go to DW but (a) think they can't afford it (b) can only go every few years, if that, because it's way to expensive (c) or do go and will never go back because they broke the bank.

Heck, last year I was talking to a family who was hoping for DW vacation for 7 and ended up saving them nearly $6,000 off their original budget (now, that's a huge savings bc this family was looking at villa on-site, hoppers, etc.) But still -- they could not afford it originally, but after 10mins with them they cut their budget nearly in half. AND still could get a villa, airfare, etc.

THE POINT: If you want to go.... go. It can be done no matter how you save. And you can still stay in nice places and eat at great restaurants. If you save more -- great. Awesome. One person mentioned $6000 for 10 people for two weeks (I think that's what he wrote). I don't disagree. You can do that. Even less, I'm sure. You can get a villa that sleeps 16 for less than $150 if you wanted. If $3,100 (a general figure) is too much for four adults than do it for less (I mentioned $2500 all inclusive for 4 adults). If you can't do 5 days, do 3. Do a 3-day Universal/IOA for even less. It can be done.

 

[brockash]

IF you can get airfare for that price (We fly out of Tulsa, which rarely has deals on airfare, if we fly from OKC or Dallas we have to drive there and get a hotel room that will keeep our car there)

IF you can get a coupon/code for the car

IF you can be flexible with your dates so you can get a good deal on a villa/rental home

These are good tips, and I have done Disney on the cheap, but it's not realistic to think everyone can get these same deals.

No kidding! I'd be over the moon if we could find flights for $250/person, but we haven't found those prices in years... and that's after researching flights for months and buying at the lowest possible time.

I agree though that Disney and/or Orlando can be done at a pretty decent price, especially if you stay off-site and do a lot of budget, packed, in-home meals.

 

[PrincessDot10k]

KingofSwing3000, how do you rent a villa for 16 people for $150? I've priced it on Dave's DVC rental website, and didn't come close. Maybe a different time of year? I would love to know. thanks!

 

[vicki_c]

KingofSwing3000, how do you rent a villa for 16 people for $150? I've priced it on Dave's DVC rental website, and didn't come close. Maybe a different time of year? I would love to know. thanks!

He's not referring to DVC but off-site, I'm sure.