Cost of Disney Family Vacation

[saskdw]

I got the idea for this thread earlier today when a handful of people expressed disbelief that someone spent $10k on a Disney vacation. I was shocked that people were shocked...lol

We wil be at DW this Dec for 14 nights for the 3rd time in 4 years and its always the better part of $10k. There are 2 adults and a teenager in our party, cost looks something like this:

Airfare from western Canada for 3: $1,950

Magic your way pkg, 14 nights waterview at CSR, 10 day park hoppers w/waterparks and more, Free Dining plan: $4,713

Passes for 3 to Seaworld: $225

Other activities, other food, spending money, souvenirs over 15 days: $1500

That brings us to a very loose total of: $8,388

Without free dining you can add $2k to that total easily and if we decidied to stay at a Deluxe resort your at $15k in a hurry.

Not sure why people were shocked that the poster in the other thread spent $10k on their vacation? For most of us Disney isn't a weekend getaway its a major 10-14 day vacation.

Last year we split 8 nights at CSR with 6 nights at Hard Rock Universal and it was $10k when the smoke cleared.

Interested in hearing others thoughts on this.

 

[autismgoesdisney]

Add me to the shock! And I'll admit the jealous department. I wish I had 10-15K to spend on vacation LOL! Power to those that do!

As for our vacation, we try to do Disney for less than 3K. My husband got a new job, though, and should be getting a bonus each year....a nice one! Of course bonuses are never guaranteed so what we discussed is that we would spend our normal 3K this year, then play it by ear for the next year and the year after that etc.

We drive down to cut down costs, stay at POR (our cheapest option for family of five), get free dining, go for one week, save points on our credit card and do NOT get park hoppers. Last year it came to $2,775

 

[shoney]

I think Disney attracts people from all walks of life. There are many people who prefer to stay at value, eat breakfast in the room, make pb&j sammies for lunch, drink water, etc... Then there are people who stay deluxe club level and eat signature meals, etc.

For me, I wouldn't spend that much on a disney vacation. I would go somewhere else. I could see how one could easily spend that given the choices at WDW.

For our upcoming trip (first onsite), we picked POR not a deluxe. I couldn't justify the extra $2k in my mind. It isn't that I couldn't afford it, I just don't feel it would be worth it to us. I would rather allocate that extra money towards a 7 night all-inclusive in Mexico later in the year!

WDW is all about choices...there is something for everyone!

 

[shoney]

Add me to the shock! And I'll admit the jealous department. I wish I had 10-15K to spend on vacation LOL! Power to those that do!

As for our vacation, we try to do Disney for less than 3K. My husband got a new job, though, and should be getting a bonus each year....a nice one! Of course bonuses are never guaranteed so what we discussed is that we would spend our normal 3K this year, then play it by ear for the next year and the year after that etc.

We drive down to cut down costs, stay at POR (our cheapest option for family of five), get free dining, go for one week, save points on our credit card and do NOT get park hoppers. Last year it came to $2,775

We are paying roughly $3k for our fam of 4 for 7 nights, 6day hoppers, and free dining. Add another 800.00 for airfaire. I figure we'd spend another 1000.00 to 1500.00 when we are there. I like to keep a week's vacation under $6k.

 

[wish*i*was*in*the*vi]

It does add up quickly. For us, we have to pay to kennel our dogs. That's roughly about $50 a day for both dogs, we normally stay 8 nights, so if we have to drop them off the day before to catch an early flight (kennel drop off is at 8 am) and don't get back to pick them up before the pick up time of 1 pm, then we are looking at 10 nights at the kennel, so $500.
Plus about $1000 for airfare and we stay deluxe plus food and tickets, and we really don't spend much in the way of "stuff". And we still come in at around $6,000.
And to us Disney is a cheaper vacation. Our other vacation "spot" is St John, and that's an easy $8-$10,000 trip for a similiar length stay. But it's worth every penny

 

[Minnesota!]

I am not shocked by the price tags of some people's vacations...I am just shocked that people pay it!

Our Feb trip is costing us just about $3600.

$1255 for 4 Rt tix from MN (OUCH!!!.....usually pay under $1K)
$2284 for 8 nights, 7 of which have free dining. 6 day park hoppers, too.

I will probably use about $300 for tips and alcohol. Last trip we brought down $400 for tips/alcohol and came back with about $100.

I don't count that in my total (the $300) because it's all Mypoints reward Visas, or Discover Cash Back gift cards (use Discover every month to pay our bills then pay it off right away).

I could get about 3 vacations for $10K.

 

[mb187143]

For 3 adults last year at the poly for 6 nights/7 days with 7 day PH tickets and dining (We got a 40% off room only rate, upgraded with tickets and paid for ddp), plus RT airfare from PHL to MCO, we spent a total of $2875.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

We're fortunate to be Florida residents, so we drive to WDW instead of flying, which saves a bundle. My husband is also military, so we've been able to take advantage of the military discounts in the last few years. Our weeklong May trip at CSR broke out something like this:

7 nights at CSR with dining plan (military discount) = $1750
1 night en route = $85 (we don't usually do this, but needed to arrive mid-day)
gas = $150
meals en route = $30
OOP meals and tips, misc snacks, souvenirs (est) = $300
Cost of tickets (we have annual passes; pro-rated per day) = $489
Day at Typhoon Lagoon = $150

So, looks like we came in just under $3000 for being gone 8 nights (7 at CSR, 1 en route) and had some extras. I think that's completely reasonable.

Our upcoming "adults only" trip should total about $1000 for 3 nights:

2 nights at Pop, room-only on either side of a one-night Premium Package: $75 each, $150 total
1 night at Pop on Premium Package, incl 2 one-day tickets, total = $623

Tips for meals on Premium dining plan + meals en route OOP = $60
Share cost of gas = $60
Pro-rated ticket cost = $159

Total $1052.

I know our January trip at All-Star Sports was probably under $1000 for 4 days, 3 nights, also.

So, for a total of about $5000, my family has enjoyed 3 trips to WDW this year totalling 12 nights. That's why Disney is a good vacation value for us!

 

[saskdw]

I'll qualify a couple of things. This is the only "vacation" we take all year, we don't take 2 or 3 $10k vacations. That is one of the reasons it's 14 nights. Christmas time is what works best for us and that of course means the resort rates for part of our trip are inflated. We are staying for 14 nights which does obviously cost more. I'm actually satisfied with the deal from Disney. At $4713 for 3 adults which includes park passes, hoppers, water parks, and Disney dining at a Moderate level resort which we like and enjoy. The DP would have cost about $1900 if we had to pay for it and we will probably eat about $2500 by my calculations on that plan. We order about $100 of breakfats supply from Garden Grocer and do breakfast in the room most mornings.

But airfare is $2k right off the bat from western Canada, so even if we stayed value and ate PB&J there's no way this trip costs less than $5k.

Just so we are clear, I'm not wanting anyone to feel sorry for us, I'm just suprised that most people seemd to be shocked by the price tag when I thought at least half the people on this board spend the same kind of money on their trip.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Maybe in the past I would have been shocked...when I used to just book Values...I never even looked at the cost of deluxe resorts and they are quite a bit of money. For our upcoming July trip, we are at approx $6300, which is with a 40% discount. It's 10 nights at Beach Club, DDP, 9 day hoppers, and rt airfare from NH...we normally only spend about $3500-$4500, but decided to splurge this year. I actually think its a pretty good deal though with the discount as we are staying for 10 nights at a deluxeand usually only stay 6 or 7 nights at values.

 

[Forensicmom]

I'm one of those people that was totally shocked when I saw the prices of a lot of Disney vacations.

We've NEVER taken the kids on a vacation out of the state of Maryland before and my kids are 17, 12, 10, & 7. So this is a big splurge for us and one we will never take again.

We have 2 rooms at the Wilderness Lodge, 7 day park hopper passes and the free dining. Our total for that was $6100. Plus $1200 for airfare, which is NOT bad for 6 people roundtrip. So that is $7300 plus spending money. Yikes, that scares me.

Hopefully, we're like most and couldn't afford a trip like this every year, or even every other year.

 

[3BoysRDisneyFreaks]

I am on the it shocks me wagon.
We were just at WDW, but stayed off site and including airfare for 6, park tickets, rental van, townhouse and food/spending money we were less than $3500 for 7 days.

I am in the boat of I am making the same awesome memories with my kids and enjoying my vacation, but not blowing the bank which makes me less stressed when I come home.


Sarah

 

[saskdw]

I'm one of those people that was totally shocked when I saw the prices of a lot of Disney vacations.

We've NEVER taken the kids on a vacation out of the state of Maryland before and my kids are 17, 12, 10, & 7. So this is a big splurge for us and one we will never take again.

We have 2 rooms at the Wilderness Lodge, 7 day park hopper passes and the free dining. Our total for that was $6100. Plus $1200 for airfare, which is NOT bad for 6 people roundtrip. So that is $7300 plus spending money. Yikes, that scares me.

Hopefully, we're like most and couldn't afford a trip like this every year, or even every other year.

Part of the problem coming as far as we do is the airfare. You would be looking at $4000 for the 6 of you to fly from here. We are fortunate to be able to take one of these trips every year or two, but we worked hard to put ourselves in that position. It's definate advantage for those who live close enough to drive or catch the $199 flight specials.

 

[saskdw]

Something weird going on with the posting order in this thread...lol

 

[NLD]

Upcoming January trip, 6 nights / 7 days: 2 adults, 1 child

$2153: room (WL), tickets (7-day base), & trip insurance
$137: breakfast at CRT
$750: additional food money
$541: airfare (roundtrip BWI-MCO)

Preliminary total: $3,581

All those costs will be paid before we step on the plane (getting a gift card to cover food). So the only additional expense will be souvenirs. That expense can be as little or as much as we'd like. So let's say.... $200 ($20 a day for dd plus $60 for me).

Grand total: $3,781

To me, that's a lot. Our first trip we paid about $3,000 for two adults, 1 child, same amount of time, at POR, and it included a rental car. In fact I think it came in under $3K, so less than $1K per person.

Anything more than $1K per person for a week feels like a lot to me.

Can I see how someone would spend $10K? Sure. But I can't imagine doing it myself, especially not every single year.

I'd maybe pay $10K for Hawaii. That's the only U.S. destination I'd pay that much $$ for. But would try to get it lots lower. And we'd have to save for it, too... it definitely wouldn't be a once a year trip.

If airfare cost that much to WDW for us, it would probably be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. As it is, I got spoiled in 2009 when we got $98 per person RT airfare so now anything over $150 feels like too much!

 

[Huff]

We go to WDW every year or so. Cost for 2 of us has been right at 3K for airfare, 8 nights at POP, 9 day MYW, free dining, souveniers, snacks etc. Our next trip for 3 of us will be 3.5K for 10 nights.

I could never afford 10K for a vacation but we do go on several smaller vacations each year including numerous weekend trips to DLR.

 

[maxiesmom]

Estimating our cost for a family of 6, it is about $5500 for 6 nights, 7 days. That includes airfare. We were able to get $91 each way on Air Tran. The first night is at a Value resort, then we switch to CSR for the rest of the trip, and Free Dining.

I don't think that is too shabby.

 

[jaceraden]

No shock here.

We're coming from Central Canada, there's 4 of us, we're staying in a deluxe and hubby's going golfing while there. I haven't gotten brave enough to put all the numbers together but I know it's around the 8 range for 8 days.

Edit to add: What I am shocked about is how people quote posts before they've even been posted. I've seen that twice today - in this thread and the thread that spawned this one - and I just don't get it.

 

[chimo2u]

Part of the problem coming as far as we do is the airfare. You would be looking at $4000 for the 6 of you to fly from here. We are fortunate to be able to take one of these trips every year or two, but we worked hard to put ourselves in that position. It's definate advantage for those who live close enough to drive or catch the $199 flight specials.

I am definitely not shocked! A fellow Canadian here who is looking at steep $2,000 plus airfare right now from Edmonton to Orlando....I don't see it coming down a whole lot more, I'll be lucky to get all 3 of our needed tickets at $1,800 or less when all is said and done this time! All of our trips have been in the 8 - 10 k range for us....except the one with Just my son and I last FEB = Free Dining and 5 nights at Disney with PH / and 3 nights at Universal with tickets/food/spending money ran about $5-6 k for the 2 of us.

Yes, we stay in Deluxe resorts Club Level....just the way we like to vacation, and I don't mind spending the extra.....
This trip for next OCT 2012, is sitting at $5,000 without airfare/spending money or our Universal Food/Room/tickets paid.....it's for 4 people, and 1 person is not part of my family, so take off about $1,000 for her portion and we are still sitting at $4,000 for just our Disney Portion.....Yes, I could probably cut that in half by staying at a value and eating PB & J/ breakfast in my room, but as I said, that's not how I like to vacation....I like to go all out, Dining Plan (nice when it is free, as it is for this trip , Park Hopper, Deluxe resort, Club level, ......souvieniers (I like to have about $2,000 on me for a week trip, not that I spend all that, but my last trip, that $2,000 paid for all our food and tickets/room for our 3 universal nights, and t-shirts galore for my oldest son who is a Marvel freak and didn't come with us, and I came home with $600 of the $2,000 not spent, which I put towards this trip).....

Whew, that's a long spiel, the point is, Yes, I make some choices which drive up my price (Deluxe vs not staying value/ Club Level add-on.... but those things I would rather save longer for and have in my vacation, so to me it is worth it.) And, coming from Western Canada, my airfare is a substantial cost too.....so I can easily see how a trip can get close to being 10K

I only wish I could get some of the cheap airfare specials my fellow American Disney Lovers can.....ding sales, $199 flight sales! WOW! that would be amazing....unfortunately airfare is one of the biggest money-drainers of my budget I pay it though because it's the only way to get back to my beloved Happy Place!

Happy Planning, ALL

 

[saskdw]

Edit to add: What I am shocked about is how people quote posts before they've even been posted. I've seen that twice today - in this thread and the thread that spawned this one - and I just don't get it.

Something funny going on with the software on this forum. Probably has something to do with the time change.