$400 per person, how would you spend it?

[gigi1313]

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.

I <3 this idea!! We are planning to use our offsite timeshare and I was trying to find things to do that do not involve tickets to the four major theme parks or a ton of driving (i.e. LEGOLAND or Busch Gardens) but offer some good bang for our buck... the annual water park/quest pass is a great recommendation, one which I had not thought of! Coupled w/the amenities at the resort, a two day Sea World pass, and a few dinner shows (Medieval Times for sure), we just built the perfect vacation! THANKS!!

 

[GAGirlInVA]

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.

This is about what our vacations are turning into. We just have too many goals for big splurges.

 

[eliza61]

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

Are you kidding, we were pooped every night! LOL. now remember even in theme park you don't spend 14 hours doing some thing, much of that time is walking, meandering, eating, going in the shops.

That's pretty much the same thing you do in Paris and London. The tower of lond, The louve , Versailles are all immense and cannot be done in one or two hours. How many times do people here say AKP and HS are half day parks for them At the louve the kids did a treasure hunt that was without a doubt 5 hours. Tuileries gardens behind the louvre had sailboat races the kids could do, puppet show, musicians, mazes. We spent almost the same amount of time walking through that park as we do at HS.

So sorry, we spent a good 8 hours each and every day "doing" pretty much the same thing we do at Disney. How long are the actual rides 1-2 minutes? how long are the shows 15-20 minutes. Both vacation places the majority of time is travelling, walking and looking around.

 

[crisi]

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

You've never spent time in Paris, have you? Because this is the funniest post I've seen in months! You could spend 14 hours a day for a week in the LOUVRE alone, and not bother with any other attraction in Paris. The pass she is talking about includes Versailles (easily a day), Fontaineblau, Notre Dame, the d'Orsey (forgive my spelling of these) and about 50 other attractions in and around Paris.

 

[EPCOTatNight]

Because this is the funniest post I've seen in months!

What's the 2nd funniest?

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[mcginn08]

As most people, if you are thinking about a Disney vacation, I would think you have considered the prices in the first place. It is not a cheap vacation unless you are made of money or live in FL and can come over off and on for downtown Disney like a couple we know. But for us, I budget everything I can. We usually stay 5-6 days but do not go in the parks the 1st day that we fly in on. So, we buy 4-5 days and so that price is solid. My inlaws have the vacation club so we don't pay for the room so then I budget our food money and shopping money. I start with what sit downs we are going to eat at and then I leave money per person for quick service. We usually eat cheap with the quick service because we share a meal at Cosmic Rays or get a turkey leg or just get a snack off and on. We eat breakfast in the room. Once, my stepsons drove down as we flew so we had a car to drive to the grocery store. That helped out so much for lunch because my hubby cooked in the room! But usually we do not have that luck. So, the most we have is the sit downs and park tickets.

 

[jm0925]

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!!

Well honestly I don't know if a cruise would be the better option in this scenario. Have you been on a cruise before? The base fare may sound great but you have to remember that its an inside stateroom rate and that rate doesn't include vacation insurance. Besides that there are other extra costs you have to consider too. You have to pay gratuities per day which is around $12 a person per day, any alcohol, shore excursions, cover charges to particular restaurants on board, casino (if you like gambling). To really compare values and costs properly, it depends on what you intend to do on the cruise and at the ports as well.

I've been on one cruise to the Bahamas which was a 4 day/3 night and we ended up spending the same amount that we would have spent if we went to WDW for the same amount of time, staying in a resort and all.

Again to really know what the better value is, you have to plan what you want to do on the cruise and add up the expected costs. Then you can compare that to a WDW trip.

 

[sweetdana]

1. I'd look for discounts honestly I'd so do. a 4/5 day non hopper and get wp instead of hopper n stretch. Days too. Saving probably 300$ + our fam of 4

2. Disney won't ever be the cheapest but you can certainly do cheaper that. A huge 7-8-10 day hopper pass. Is much more than a 5 day non hopper or even with wp. ... But certainly other places are more $$ too

3 our family does APs. And gets 3-4 trips out of them and then takes 24 ish months off. This yr using a relatives time share for a 3 rd trip . It makes the per day cost much better. It also makes it okay if we leaves the park by 1 pm . Using dvc 100$ off this yr a drop more. And. Using the ap discounts everywhere.


I always splurge on something I cannot always splurge on everything. And say for cost of wishes dessert party I could cut out hopping or 2 days more of parks ... I might.