$400 per person, how would you spend it?

[PetesDragon]

Now that the average 7-day park hopper, depending on options is around $400 it's caused me to reevaluate the value of the ticket. I can find 7-night cruises, last minute deals albeit, to the Bahamas for under 400 and that's your transportation and meals included. It's also the cost of one of my college courses for a semester.

So basically my question is, $400 per person for just your ticket, is that worth it for you? If not how would you rather spend it? The more money stretching the idea the better!!

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

I just spent $1500 for three tickets to last Sunday's Blackhawks game for 2 plus HOURS of entertainment, so a park hopper at $400 is still an amazing deal.

 

[cglaura]

Now that the average 7-day park hopper, depending on options is around $400 it's caused me to reevaluate the value of the ticket. I can find 7-night cruises, last minute deals albeit, to the Bahamas for under 400 and that's your transportation and meals included. It's also the cost of one of my college courses for a semester.

So basically my question is, $400 per person for just your ticket, is that worth it for you? If not how would you rather spend it? The more money stretching the idea the better!!

Our vacation budget is just for that, and a specific amount based on my personal budget ($aa.bb/month to each fund)...meaning, we save that amount for the trip and then find what that money will afford us. We don't figure out how much a trip will cost and then save up that amount.

Even with the ticket increase is still a good value for me. I think we will always take a trip to WDW, just not every year. We go more like every 3-4 years now. The vacations we take on other years, sometimes we get more than a WDW value, sometimes less.

But it is about what we get out of the experience overall, not so much the monetary bang for the buck. If that makes sense! I mean, if I want to see the Grand Canyon, but could only afford a 5 day trip, compared to a 9 or 10 day trip elsewhere, then I'm still going to the Grand Canyon. Because that is where we want to go.

College and any other thing wouldn't play in, that would be a separate savings goal.

 

[Lucille1963]

I just spent $1500 for three tickets to last Sunday's Blackhawks game for 2 plus HOURS of entertainment, so a park hopper at $400 is still an amazing deal.

You got to see a great game!
We've been selling our hockey tickets and I have a Disney trip on the brain!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

If you subscribe to the moussavers newsletter you can get those 7 day hoppers for $349 from UnderCover Tourist.

I just got my 10 day non expire hoppers for $678. A savings of $112 per person off the reg. Disney price.

 

[worm761]

I think that the vacation should not be compared to other parts of your budget. Sure, I could do a lot of things with the cost of a vacation. But then I don't get my vacation. I don't stop to think what else I can do with the money because then I will start justifying not going on vacation in my head. And I need my vacations.

We figure out what we can afford for vacation and then find a place to go to within that figure. Most of the time it is Disney. But I am a Florida resident and have never paid rack rates for a hotel room at Disney. I bargain hunt for everything. I see no reason to pay full price for anything in life if I can pay less. That is just throwing money away and we are not wealthy enough to just toss money away.

 

[Bob NC]

Last year on our beach vacation here's a sample of our first day:

$110 each for 2 teenagers to rent a waverunner.
$85 each for another teenager and 1 adult to parasail.
$130 for me to play golf.

That's $520 and we were finished with all of this by 1:00 pm so we only had 6 and a 1/2 days left.

$400 for a 7 day PH isn't unreasonable in my book.

 

[worm761]

Last year on our beach vacation here's a sample of our first day:

$110 each for 2 teenagers to rent a waverunner.
$85 each for another teenager and 1 adult to parasail.
$130 for me to play golf.

That's $520 and we were finished with all of this by 1:00 pm so we only had 6 and a 1/2 days left.

$400 for a 7 day PH isn't unreasonable in my book.

When I start looking at other places to vacation I am always thrown at how much we would spend! Though we live by the beach so no beach vacations for us. But when you go on vacation you have to pay for all that entertainment and the costs add up. With Disney, you pay your $400 and you have 7 days of entertainment already paid for. In the realm of vacation, that is pretty cheap.

 

[cseca]

Unfortunately (or fortunately for Disney), the cost is still worth it to me.
Painful? Yes definitely but like worm761 and Bob NC said, comparing it to other vacations it is still ok.

Now if you only go to MK and pay $100/tix that day maybe not so much.
But $400 for 7 days is still not so bad. Considering you can stay pretty much all day in the park and have your entertainment covered for 7 days.

 

[amylevan]

Maybe its just me, but I still look at it as a per day price. $400 for 7 days is about $57/pp/day. In the grand scheme of things, that's not too bad for a full day of entertainment.

As someone mentioned above, sporting events? Much pricier, and usually less hours. Concerts? Ditto.

Heck, our movie theatre is $20pp.

 

[bearzabout]

Have you considered Seaworld instead? For $299, you can get a two year annual pass to Busch Gardens, Seaworld and Aquatica that includes parking.

 

[Marionnette]

Now that the average 7-day park hopper, depending on options is around $400 it's caused me to reevaluate the value of the ticket. I can find 7-night cruises, last minute deals albeit, to the Bahamas for under 400 and that's your transportation and meals included. It's also the cost of one of my college courses for a semester.

So basically my question is, $400 per person for just your ticket, is that worth it for you? If not how would you rather spend it? The more money stretching the idea the better!!

Yes, I will still spend it. Like others have pointed out, vacation money is part of our budget, so I don't wince when it gets spent. I certainly want the biggest bang for my hard-earned dollars, so I'll look for the best possible deals. But I still find it to be worth $400 for 7 full days of entertainment.

I love cruising but what I could get for $400 for 7 days (an inside stateroom heading to the Bahamas) is not the kind of trip that I want to take. Now, if you can find me a way to cruise the Mediterranean in a balcony stateroom for a week at that price, I'll be all over it.

 

[js]

Now that the average 7-day park hopper, depending on options is around $400 it's caused me to reevaluate the value of the ticket. I can find 7-night cruises, last minute deals albeit, to the Bahamas for under 400 and that's your transportation and meals included. It's also the cost of one of my college courses for a semester.

So basically my question is, $400 per person for just your ticket, is that worth it for you? If not how would you rather spend it? The more money stretching the idea the better!!

Hi. I cruise often and live in NY (next cruise is Breakaway in July, can't wait).
Can you please let me know where you find $400 pp 7-night cruises?
If you can't give the website on this thread, can you PM me and I'll give you my e-mail if you can't give in a PM. I'm also looking for a January cruise, and although I look for balconies, I'm only looking for 4 days but can't find anything close to that price. We sail RCCL, NCL and DCL.

But, to answer your question, yes, the $400 is worth it to us for DW tickets. Heck, we usually purchase 10 day non expiring and that is more than $400.

THANKS SO MUCH!

 

[eliza61]

When I start looking at other places to vacation I am always thrown at how much we would spend! Though we live by the beach so no beach vacations for us. But when you go on vacation you have to pay for all that entertainment and the costs add up. With Disney, you pay your $400 and you have 7 days of entertainment already paid for. In the realm of vacation, that is pretty cheap.

That's interesting because I find the opposite. We just returned from Paris. I got a 6 day paris museum pass that got me into almost all the attactions including Versaille, the louve, the Musuee d'orsay and a ton of others for 70 bucks per person. I brought each of us a 10 pack of train tickets (European trains are fabulous) for 13 each person and even with throwing in the cost of the Eiffel tower (which is probably the only thing not including in the pass) I may have kicked out 250 bucks per person on entertainment (which is what the park passes cover)

so my entertainment cost were
Paris museum pass 72.00
carnet of train tickets 13.0
3 day hop on/hop off bus 32.00
eiffel tower tour 16.50 to the 2nd level elevator (stair are cheaper but no way was I climbing. lol)
dinner show at Lido (a moulin rouge type show) 70.00

So we spent about 250 on things to do.

Now I live close to the South Jersey shore so rarely do I do beach vacations but I have been travelling to Europe a bit lately and the big killer is airfare. Once I take airfare out the equation almost every thing else is cheaper than Disney. Hotels are definitely waaay cheaper as is food, even in London.

Next year we're thinking about either Yellowstone (cheaper) or Disney california.

 

[eliza61]

Hi. I cruise often and live in NY (next cruise is Breakaway in July, can't wait).
Can you please let me know where you find $400 pp 7-night cruises?
If you can't give the website on this thread, can you PM me and I'll give you my e-mail if you can't give in a PM. I'm also looking for a January cruise, and although I look for balconies, I'm only looking for 4 days but can't find anything close to that price. We sail RCCL, NCL and DCL.

But, to answer your question, yes, the $400 is worth it to us for DW tickets. Heck, we usually purchase 10 day non expiring and that is more than $400.

THANKS SO MUCH!

January you won't usually find that price. January going to the warmer climates is usually prime.
We're thinking of doing a RC to Southern Caribbean in August, got a deal on a balcony for 899 per person. but that also includes the meals so I thought it wasn't a bad deal. outside price was $749.00
It's on the Jewel of the Seas not one of the Oasis ships. My other option is 4 days at Disney. I made reservations at the Broadwalk for 4 days 9/20-9/23 and the room rate was 889.00 (with a 30% discount) IMO that's expensive. the only thing that makes it not so bad is that I have an annual pass so my tickets are included. if I had to add in tickets that's a 1300 dollar vacation for 4 days. very pricey.

Disney is always a bit on the high side when I research vacations. not that I don't love it but it always comes out on the high end of my sheets.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

For us, vacation costs can be broken down into:

Travel
Lodging
Food
Entertainment

Depending on where we go and what we do, we usually have to spend a lot on some of the above, but rarely all of them. Disney has the potential to ding me on all 4. Even staying offsite, bringing food into the park, and cooking some of our own meals wasn't enough to keep Disney from being the most expensive trip we've taken as a family.

We don't feel "ripped off", but it doesn't compare cost wise to other places we've been.

 

[js]

January you won't usually find that price. January going to the warmer climates is usually prime.
We're thinking of doing a RC to Southern Caribbean in August, got a deal on a balcony for 899 per person. but that also includes the meals so I thought it wasn't a bad deal. outside price was $749.00
It's on the Jewel of the Seas not one of the Oasis ships. My other option is 4 days at Disney. I made reservations at the Broadwalk for 4 days 9/20-9/23 and the room rate was 889.00 (with a 30% discount) IMO that's expensive. the only thing that makes it not so bad is that I have an annual pass so my tickets are included. if I had to add in tickets that's a 1300 dollar vacation for 4 days. very pricey.

Disney is always a bit on the high side when I research vacations. not that I don't love it but it always comes out on the high end of my sheets.

We did the Serenade out of PR for the Southern Caribbean a few years ago (I guess the Jewel is now there). It was either the Adventure of the Seas or Serenade and hadn't done that class of ship before and it was wonderful (although I did miss the promanade). Enjoy!
I thought January would be less expensive since kids are all in school and not the hot in Bahamas but I guess I was wrong, although the prices aren't that bad.

I do find the Disney trips to be expensive and I think the size of the room you get for their deluxe price does not justify the cost AT ALL (we own DVC and also a 3 bedroom t/s at Orange Lake Country Club for our Disney trips).
10 day ticket prices use to be okay but I do not know how much they are at the moment.

But, for vacations, I can justify any price, which can make my dh

 

[CluelessDisFan]

I say ditch the park hopper. You're just burning up time jumping from park to park anyhow.

 

[EPCOTatNight]

That's interesting because I find the opposite. We just returned from Paris. I got a 6 day paris museum pass that got me into almost all the attactions including Versaille, the louve, the Musuee d'orsay and a ton of others for 70 bucks per person. I brought each of us a 10 pack of train tickets (European trains are fabulous) for 13 each person and even with throwing in the cost of the Eiffel tower (which is probably the only thing not including in the pass) I may have kicked out 250 bucks per person on entertainment (which is what the park passes cover)

so my entertainment cost were
Paris museum pass 72.00
carnet of train tickets 13.0
3 day hop on/hop off bus 32.00
eiffel tower tour 16.50 to the 2nd level elevator (stair are cheaper but no way was I climbing. lol)
dinner show at Lido (a moulin rouge type show) 70.00

So we spent about 250 on things to do.

Now I live close to the South Jersey shore so rarely do I do beach vacations but I have been travelling to Europe a bit lately and the big killer is airfare. Once I take airfare out the equation almost every thing else is cheaper than Disney. Hotels are definitely waaay cheaper as is food, even in London.

Next year we're thinking about either Yellowstone (cheaper) or Disney california.

Those things may be cheaper, but not as time consuming. How many hours did you spend actually doing something? WDW gives you much more to actually do. You could spend 14 hours a day in a theme park for 7 straight days. That's 98 hours of possible entertainment. The OP's ticket option brought his cost to $400, so that's roughly $4 an hour. I would get even more value because I don't do park hoppers. But, anyway, that includes various forms of transportation (bus, boat, monorail), shows, rides, access to all resorts, and sometimes even food(free dining).

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[goodfood4ursoul]

There are cheaper ways to vacation and enjoy some Disney parks, but you have to be willing to compromise a little.

We were getting tired of the 4 main parks, and we really LOVE the water parks.
Did some research and for an annual pass to TL, BB and DQ it's only $130 (prices probably went up a little on that last week).

So DH and I had a nice 5 night stay off site and enjoyed the heck out of the water parks last October.

Then, a couple of weeks ago we drove down with our son (20) and bought him the same pass.
We spent one night in Savannah, 5 nights in a 1 bedroom condo near ASMovies,
spent our days at the water parks, our evenings at DTD (saw Star Trek at the Dine-In Movie theater) and DQ and the Boardwalk,
spent 2 heavenly nights in St. Augustine in an inn in the historic area,
ate breakfast in, packed lunch and dinner out every night.

We had a fabulous time, made tons of memories, nobody got sick from eating too much over priced Dining Plan food,
we had tons of space in our accommodations, and as much as we enjoyed the WDW area, we enjoyed St. Augustine as much or more.

For 3 adults, gone 9 days (8 nights) we spent a total of $1440

Would we have enjoyed the trip more spending the big bucks to hit the Big Four parks?
Nope.

Money doesn't grow on trees, we are frugal because we have lots of savings and investment goals that are priorities for us, as much as going on vacation.
With careful planning we are able to do both.