Am I the only one who sees staying in the park hugely expensive?

[disneynovic]

After reading other's advice about staying in the resorts onsite, I thought I'd double check the disney site, and compare it apples to apples to what I am planning for Nov. I expect to pay $3100 for gas down, vacation home, food, park tickets for 3 days, no hopper, no waterparks, universal 1 day. Now comparing the exact same thing at POP 2 adults, 2 children(15 &12), 3 days in the parks, on the dining plan comes to $2811, add the $600 for gas, and I still have one other kid(7) to buy tickets and dining plan(assuming he would room with my parents). Already I'm well over my offsite budget. I just can't bring myself to spending hoards of money for a one week vacation, plus DH, not a Disney fan, can't stand staying in a small hotel room with us all.

How do you all do it? Is this your only family vacation, and you must budget $5000 for a larger family to stay onsite? Just curious, I'm really feeling like I'm the only one here willing to stay offsite, and spend wisely.

Thanks for listening,
Deb

 

[maxie]

I'm using Airmiles for all passes (Disney and Univeral), plus airfare and some of the resort stay. So all I pay for is the taxes on the airfare (4 tickets- $700ish), food, part of the room and spending money. I think our total trip could cost upwards to $7000 for 13 nights but will end up costing about $3000.

We are doing a split stay between ASMovies and Beach Club.

With young kids it's nice to stay onsite and not worry about traveling to and from Disney parks.
Gotta love those Airmiles!!

 

[mermaid&cinderella]

We fly from Pearson (I have no interest in driving to Buffalo to save a few bucks), stay onsite, has always been POLY (LOVE POLY), get the dining plan, get park hoppers and for me, dh, and dd it costs just over $6000 for one week. We go away usually 3 times a year and Disney is one of them. When we went to Mexico one year and stayed at a premium resort we also paid $6000 for the week so its comparable in price. But last year we went to Cuba for 2 weeks and paid $6600 so it just depends. For me time is money so I don't mind paying for convenience. Like staying at POLY, the monorail right there to MK, boat right there to MK, the TTC right next door, fave restaurants there, etc. Also our disney trips are a vacation and to us that means relaxing so not having to drive to a rent home is great, POLY makes you feel like you are on another vacation in a tropical location, the pool, the beach, its all very relaxing and comfortable. But this is us and everyone is different!!!!

 

[yxe dad]

No your not the only one to stay off-site but I feel my choice to stay on-site is money spent wisely!

I only have to get 1 room and always seem to get a disount (AP/CAA). I also buy AP's and plan to go back 11 months later so I can get another use out of the tickets, that way the tickets are basically half price. I also buy the DDE card with gives me 20% off most TS restaurants in WDW. In my opion the Dining Plan is not worth money, and you could save money by dropping that from your price.

And no this isn't my only family trip a year, but it the one trip everyone in my family looks forward to.

 

[NikP]

After reading other's advice about staying in the resorts onsite, I thought I'd double check the disney site, and compare it apples to apples to what I am planning for Nov. I expect to pay $3100 for gas down, vacation home, food, park tickets for 3 days, no hopper, no waterparks, universal 1 day. Now comparing the exact same thing at POP 2 adults, 2 children(15 &12), 3 days in the parks, on the dining plan comes to $2811, add the $600 for gas, and I still have one other kid(7) to buy tickets and dining plan(assuming he would room with my parents). Already I'm well over my offsite budget. I just can't bring myself to spending hoards of money for a one week vacation, plus DH, not a Disney fan, can't stand staying in a small hotel room with us all.

How do you all do it? Is this your only family vacation, and you must budget $5000 for a larger family to stay onsite? Just curious, I'm really feeling like I'm the only one here willing to stay offsite, and spend wisely.

Thanks for listening,
Deb

If you are staying on site you don't have to go on the dining plan. I am sure this is a big expense. Check out the menus and costs on allearsnet . com to see if it makes sense for your family to use the dining plan.

Also don't forget parking costs at the parks if you are staying off property.

There are lots of tips on the budget boards to go to Disney on a strict budget. I don't think I would ever pay the price listed on Disney's website to begin with. There are AAA discounts and public codes offered thru the year. Do your research and you should be able to get your costs down.

I agree with others, off property is not an option for us. We would rather save a little longer and go and do it right when we do go.

Good luck!!

 

[drag n' fly]

That is why we bought DVC.

 

[yxe dad]

That is why we bought DVC.

I was going to add that to my response too, but the OP said she wanted to compare apples to apples. It really does lower our costs though.

 

[trivial]

There are many ways to pay less than Disney's posted prices, such as booking through a TA, booking room-only instead of a package using a CAA discount, not doing the Disney Dining Plan (only recommended if you don't plan on eating dinner at an on-site table-service restaurant each night), or all of the above. With your off-site quote, I'm assuming you'd plan to cook/prepare food outside the parks, which is also possible on-site (although to a limited extent in a value resort).

We fly from Pearson (I have no interest in driving to Buffalo to save a few bucks)

I'm not sure where you're located, but we're about an hour's drive from the Buffalo airport, and we saved several hundred dollars, and that was just my wife and I... quite a bit more than "a few bucks."

 

[karters*mom]

After reading other's advice about staying in the resorts onsite, I thought I'd double check the disney site, and compare it apples to apples to what I am planning for Nov. I expect to pay $3100 for gas down, vacation home, food, park tickets for 3 days, no hopper, no waterparks, universal 1 day. Now comparing the exact same thing at POP 2 adults, 2 children(15 &12), 3 days in the parks, on the dining plan comes to $2811, add the $600 for gas, and I still have one other kid(7) to buy tickets and dining plan(assuming he would room with my parents). Already I'm well over my offsite budget. I just can't bring myself to spending hoards of money for a one week vacation, plus DH, not a Disney fan, can't stand staying in a small hotel room with us all.

How do you all do it? Is this your only family vacation, and you must budget $5000 for a larger family to stay onsite? Just curious, I'm really feeling like I'm the only one here willing to stay offsite, and spend wisely.

Thanks for listening,
Deb

We are going april 18-25th
We are flying out of buffalo $209 a person ($627 for 3 of us)
Hotel - All Star Sports 7 nights
Basic Meal Plan 7 nights
8 day Park Hopper / Water Parks and More Option
$2065.

Rental car 8 days $113.

Grand total of
Flight $627
Hotel / Parks $2065
Car $113

GRAND TOTAL 2865.
advantages - extra magic hours, transportations..and all the otehr diseny perks of staying onsite!

 

[SandraC]

We are a family of 4 [mum,dad and two kids 14 & 8].

We do Florida/Disney for about $6000-$7500, we fly, rent a car, go to the beach for a few days, stay at Disney for at least one week. Our trips range from 10 days to 2 weeks. S

 

[mollyseven]

We went in March and stayed at a moderate (POR) and had the dining plan and the cost for 4 (all considered adults) with meal plan and 8 day hoppers with water parks for 10 days was 3800.00. We flew from Buffalo for 800 for the 4 of us.
Side note....Buffalo is more than saving although flights from toronto at march break were 3200.00 for the 4 of us.....more than a few bucks...We actually fly from Buffalo as much for the less stress and hassle....it's easy in and out ...no customs.. no forms....literally 35-40 seconds at the border!!!
So....for under 5thousand...including EVERYTHING for the 10 days I think that is a great price for a vacation....plus we usually go off peak time so it's cheaper.
You can't beat the value of an all inclusive and you don't have to be in a country like Cuba or Dominican .....both places I would never go to again.

 

[drag n' fly]

I was going to add that to my response too, but the OP said she wanted to compare apples to apples. It really does lower our costs though.

Not only that! The DVC perks, not cramming into a room. No more code watches, Full facilities in a deluxe resort environment...worth every single penny. As another poster mentioned all the perks with staying onsite outweigh any deal staying offsite imo. You have to balance what your priorities are.

If more room/home at a cheaper rate is your priority and you do not mind commuting to the park then do that, if you like the convenience of going back to your resort easily, ME, onsite perks then stay onsite. It really depends on what a person wants the most. Their is an option for everyone.

 

[mermaid&cinderella]

I'm not sure where you're located, but we're about an hour's drive from the Buffalo airport, and we saved several hundred dollars, and that was just my wife and I... quite a bit more than "a few bucks."

I'm about 1.5 hours away from Buffalo and honestly I would never drive to Buffalo, park my car there, and take an American airline to save. I am 30 mins away from Pearson and the conveinence of it is definately worth several hundred dollars for us!

 

[maryliz]

I hear what you are saying ... a good friend just went, and really wanted to stay on-site, but they are a family of 5 plus a toddler. They were driving down anyway, so she found a vacation condo at Windsor Palms I think ... the money she saved on her accommodations alone almost paid for her week of park passes for 5. She was nervous about not knowing where she was going, but took my advice that "once on Disney property, there's always signs to everywhere". She highly recommended it and I will consider it for another trip. I LOVE to stay onsite ... but we're a family of 4 and can comfortably stay in a room at the values. I wouldn't want one of my kids to have to sleep somewhere else.

You don't have to book the dining plan, or even buy your tickets with your room. We've done the dining plan, and a TS meal every night got to be way too much food and park-time wasted. Check your prices for room only, but you won't get cheaper than a vacation home.

I put together a trip for friends in November (I love it when they just hand over their Visa and tell me to go at it) ... family of 4 ... their airfare, room only at ASMu, park tickets (7 days no hopping or waterparks) came to a total of under $2200 ... they didn't want to have a sit down meal every day, I think they did about 3 of them and CS the rest of the week ... they were thrilled that not including souvenirs, their trip was about $3000. So it can definitely be done.

Don't worry ... you'll still feel the magic of Pixie Dust, even if you're not onsite. Just go and have a great family vacation.

 

[iluveeyore]

I'm going to pipe in with DVC props since we love our DVC, or always stay on property even if it's at Pop Century. You can rent from a member on the DVC Rent/Trade board as another option for lodging. An example for the first three weeks of November, you can stay at Old Key West in a studio for a week for $820 - if you take off the weekend nights (Fri & Sat) it's $400 for Sun-Thurs. The studios are huge and have a large bathroom and a kitchenette (visit dvcfriends.com for room layouts and tours). Or you can stay in a 1 bedroom with full kitchen, master suite w/king bed and jacuzzi, living room/dining rm and large patio with table/chairs for $1720 a week or $900 for Sun-Thurs. Just another option to consider - we are driving down for two weeks in May/June and don't have to pay for our lodging as DVC members, but the kitchenette our first week at AKV and the full kitchen at OKW our second week will be huge moneysavers as we go get groceries for the whole trip for the same price as if I was buying groceries at home - so I don't look at it as paying extra for eating on our vacation. We always do a couple of meals out for a treat, but it's not a huge chunk of money to feed four of us for two weeks.
As another poster said, check allears.net for dining menus and prices as well to help you plan if you don't need the dining plan cost.
Staying onsite is priceless - you can use WDW transportation and miss all the parking lot woes (pay to park, have to use trams or ferries to get to park entrance whereas WDW transp. drops you off by front gates of each park). Being able to go back to your room mid-day to relax, swim, snack, nap is priceless as well, and you don't have to deal with traffic to leave or go back to the parks - friends of ours stayed offsite and had to commando each park each day until it closed so they didn't have to drive back to their condo then return to the park later during rush hour traffic on the I-4 - not enjoyable.
Also, if you're doing US & IoA, it's only a 20 minute drive from WDW.
Wherever you stay, have a safe and wonderful trip!

 

[mommylo]

We went last year and our family of 5 stayed in a tiny ASMusic room (my 7 year old refused to stay in my friend's room which only had 3 people, sigh..), went to a DVC presentation and the rest is history. For last year we spend $3500 for the room, Disney Dining and park tickets. We flew on points which was great. If we had to pay for flights, it would have cost us another $3000 from Pearson or about $1200 from Buffalo.
We purchased DVC and am going back this July for 10 days, staying a a 2-bedroom at the Villas at Wilderness, mainly on the free developer points offered at the time. I also bought some resales afterwards. The only money we are spending will be park tickets (will probably get Annual passes because of member discounts), Dining Plan and flights ($1100 from Buffalo for the five of us!!) It is something we really look forward to

 

[braddillman]

I think if you're staying in a hotel, staying on-site is probably competitive value with off-site (you could save money, but you'll get less).

However, I think you get better value staying in a vacation home, condo or timeshare than staying in a hotel. IMHO, you save a lot by not eating every meal in a restaurant, plus you often have access to laundry, somewhat more privacy than a hotel room (varies). On the downside you have to cook, do laundry, etc. on vacation.

So, I'm interested in how others compare non-Disney timeshares vs. DVC. Serously, the DVC looks interesting, but I find it especially hard to compare point systems, maintenance fees, etc. (and I'm an engineer! )

On the downside, you have to pay for a rental car off-site, plus parking at the parks ($11/day?). On the plus side, I've seen some griping about on-site transport (mostly bus and ME) which advise in favour of a rental car.

Staying on-site you get EMH, but I've also seen that EMH can be the most crowded times and been advised to avoid the EMH crowd.

So, if you take away on-site transport and EMH as advantages, how much more is DVC worth than off-site non-hotel alternatives?

Please note: I own a non-Disney timeshare, so I'm kinda biased. OTOH my family is 2 parents and 3 kids, and we can only afford to visit every 2-3 years, not every year or more, so we're limited in how much we can afford - I think this drives me to find the best value; why spend money on chicken nuggets for fussy kids at restaurants, when I can buy a whole bag for $5? Cooking just means throwing them in the oven while the kids are in the pool... it's maybe not so bad as it sounds.

 

[trivial]

braddillman, you have some reasonable points. I just wanted to briefly add that one element that I always factor in, but others may not, is time. For me, time = money, especially at Disney. Driving to/from WDW, to/from an off-site location, spending time cooking (not including throwing frozen stuff in the oven ), etc. all take additional time. That can certainly be worth saving some money for some people, but I just wanted to remind/recommend considering the "time is money" factor.

Personally, I found Disney's transportation to be decent. Not great, not bad, but decent. It's possible that taking Disney transportation comes close to taking as long as driving to/from an off-site resort/home, but a rental car and gas aren't required when staying on-site.

For our last trip, I initially planned to stay off-site. What started to turn the tide for me was discovering the possibility of renting DVC points. Ultimately, I found that staying off-site was going to cost me about as much as staying on-site, so that's what we went with.

 

[karters*mom]

I'm about 1.5 hours away from Buffalo and honestly I would never drive to Buffalo, park my car there, and take an American airline to save. I am 30 mins away from Pearson and the conveinence of it is definately worth several hundred dollars for us!

Benefits of flying out of buffalo
-quicker
-you deal with customs at the Border.
-you only deal with the typical security checks on buffalo.
-Airport is smaller .
-PRICE

We paid $627 for the 3 of us out of Buffalo
Toronto was $1385 (Saved $758 flying out of Buffalo)
Hamilton was $1460. (saved $833 flying out of Buffalo)

Less than half the price!
Well worth it....

 

[disneynovic]

Thank you so much everybody for all your opinions and how YOU spend your vacation time/money. I have learned alot, and was afraid I would get blasted for even suggesting that Disney is the biggest people trap set out by a mouse. The DVC rentals still seem really expensive, especially since I am only paying $650 for a 4 bedroom home with private pool, only 10 mins from the parks(no need to travel on the I-4), thus also saving time. Since we are driving down, no need to rent a car, and I have included parking fees in my budget as well. I have alloted $700 for food that week, and I plan on eating one meal out EVERY DAY.
I think I was just feeling overwhelmed with some advice given to 1st timers, that they must stay onsite, get parkhoppers and waterpark passes and get the dining option.
Still, if I had unlimited funds, and DH was into WDW, I would love to stay onsite. Remembering we are a family of 5, most responders have the optimal 4 in a family, and I feel this makes a world of difference. There is no way DH would agree to $6000 for a one week vacation, no matter where we went!