Cost of a beach vacation vs. a Disney vacation

[Judique]

Our beach trips are usually shorter than our Disney trips. I'm content with three to four days at any beach, so usually do hotels. And beach trip for me means height of summer, not shoulder season. So for similar time at the beach, beach is slightly cheaper as we don't need tickets. Disney trips are more off season, because for the most part we don't do summer at Disney.

Hotels are similar - I always want the best quality my budget allows.

 

[loves to dive]

Actually I did a comparison my first solo trip to WDW. I had planned on doing a 4 night solo trip to either Jekyll Island, GA which I love staying at the Jekyll Island Club or going on a 4 night solo trip to Amelia Island, FL staying at Amelia Island Plantation another love of mine. This was in early April, for my birthday. On a whim I priced out a 4 night stay at WDW since it was only 3 weeks out a lot was booked up but I ended up getting 2 nights at POP and 2 nights at BWV for less than the hotels at either place. I drive to all places so travel expenses were taken out of the mix. I'm not talking $100 less, I'm talking over $300 less. I also took food out of the mixture because I was going to eat out at any of the places and I actually eat less at Disney then I do any other place, don't know why that is and it was F&G so I knew I was going to snack at booths most of the time. I once had a meal for one at JI, GA for over $100 so I knew I would spend less on food at Disney. If I stay at JK an umbrella chair on their private beach is included at AI you have to pay extra so I figured the food costs at AI were less than JI but I was going to spend more for a beach chair since I can not be in the direct sun without one. Wash there between those two. So, I started investigating tickets. I always do PHs at Disney, not negotiable. I also knew I would be going back for F&W in Sept. and maybe another trip later on with DS and DIL. So I looked at prices for AP. At the time AAA still had discounts with Disney, so with an AP I got both an AAA discount and a room discount at Disney, which actually combined with the saving over lodging at the two beach resorts ended up with Disney costing less for that trip including tickets and added bonus, didn't have to buy tickets again for a year, would most likely get room discounts again and get small discounts on food and merch. No brainer, Diseny it was. I have done the same comparison for a mid-late Dec. trip this year and you got it, Disney is less and we wouldn't be able to enjoy the beaches anyway except for to walk on them. I realize I do beaches different than others, I don't do budget and don't do condos because frankly I'm at a time in my life when I don't have to and if I'm on vacation I like to be pampered. The exception to that is if I'm diving because there are very few dive resorts that are lux. let's face it divers are going to drag in wet equipment, sand and no telling what else when they come back who is going to try to have something nice. We rarely do land based diving, we do what is called liveaboards which are kind of like cruises for divers except they are smaller ships, no activities since it's dive, dive, dive and you usually get real close and personal with your fellow divers. The live aboards aren't cheap and you have to factor in air fare to get to whatever exotic location you are boarding from. So you could probably stay at GF for a week for less than a dive trip.

 

[shoney]

I can do a week at an all inclusive in Mexico (rivieria maya) cheaper than Disney.

a week at a beach town, like Ocean city Maryland, would probably be more, once you add in all of the entertainment. Little things like go-carts, mini golf etc add up. So, we wind up going down to Mexico for our beach vacation fixes.

 

[Grendalynn]

subscribing!

 

[eliza61]

As others have said so many variable. We do deluxe when we stay so no way is a beach vacation the same cost.

Anyhoo, we love Ocean city Maryland or OC/Cape may NJ OC NJ we can get a 2 bedroom beachfront condo for about 2K. food is such a wide variety. No park tickets, which for my family can run 1500 bucks extra.

basically my beach vacays are much much cheaper. Heck, I've gone to Paris a few hundred dollars overr what I've spent at Disney. I love the mouseworld and I do well in keeping cost down but never would I say it's not expensive

it's really hard to do apples to apples. for example when I go to the beach, I'm not looking for all the entertainment options. we love the beach, we may rent bikes and do 1 day at the water parks but that's about it.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

it's really hard to do apples to apples. for example when I go to the beach, I'm not looking for all the entertainment options. we love the beach, we may rent bikes and do 1 day at the water parks but that's about it.

People talk about the Disney "bubble", but for us it's definitely a beach "bubble". Our last trip, we left the hotel for 1 meal in 5 days. Didn't do anything else away from the hotel at all.

 

[sheetz]

Just as there are ways to cut costs at WDW there are plenty of ways to cut costs on a beach vacation. For many families it's the WDW tickets that are the deal breaker.

 

[AZMermaid]

We are on the west coast, but for us, a week in San Diego is cheaper than a week in Disneyland hands down. We have DVC and a 1 BR in the summer is like 300 points. I could rent out 150-180 points and rent a house in San Dorgo for $1500-1800 dollars. We did this in June 2014. We went to Sea Workd twice for about $100 each. DL tickets would be over $300 each for 5 day hoppers. We cooked a ton in the house, also saving a lot of money. When it was all over, our family of 4 spent about $2500. We usually only visit Disneyland for 3-4 days and easily spend that.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We are on the west coast, but for us, a week in San Diego is cheaper than a week in Disneyland hands down. We have DVC and a 1 BR in the summer is like 300 points. I could rent out 150-180 points and rent a house in San Dorgo for $1500-1800 dollars. We did this in June 2014. We went to Sea Workd twice for about $100 each. DL tickets would be over $300 each for 5 day hoppers. We cooked a ton in the house, also saving a lot of money. When it was all over, our family of 4 spent about $2500. We usually only visit Disneyland for 3-4 days and easily spend that.

I think this illustrates one of the issues with the cost of Disney. With the way the ticket costs are front loaded, it's impossible to use a short stay to make Disney "cheap". The "per day" cost is outrageous for a short stay and a longer stay is the only way to bring that down.

On the flip side, our per day cost would probably increase the longer we stayed at the beach. 5 nights at the beach, our entertainment costs are $0, food minimal. If we stayed twice as long, we'd get restless and start eating out more & paying for more expensive entertainment.

 

[cmarsh31]

Beach vacation is cheaper, mainly because we can drive to OBX, Delaware, etc, even Myrtle Beach (although that was a bit long). We usually go with the ILs who do not believe in making meals in the house/condo. Beach always seems more expensive because it's not paid as one lump sum and done - gas, food, eating out, individual activities, etc but total is significantly cheaper. However - when we price other trips that involve flying, Disney ends up the same or cheaper! Flying from where we are to Disney is under $1200 when I get the good SW fares. We flew to Seattle this year, so the flight was double. Add in food, hotel, car rental & gas, plus a City Pass, etc and it was easily the same cost as our last Disney trip. We'd like to go to Hawaii, Yellowstone, Alaska, Bahamas/Atlantis and as I price out all of those trips, Disney comes out cheaper.

I'd imagine, if you lived somewhere where you couldn't easily drive to the east or west coast beaches and had to fly, rent a car, etc, Disney wouldn't be much more expensive, if at all. Hard to find free dining, 30% discount, all your transportation costs covered, and such on many other vacation destinations!

 

[msmama]

More than cost, you have to take in entertainment value too. My son and I would kill each other one day 2 if our vacation was sitting on a beach every day!! We'd both be bored out of our minds (granted, I live near the ocean so beaches have always been day trips for us).

So, to pay for a hotel (there's 2 of us so I'm guessing a condo would be overkill) for a week, groceries + eating out, plus entertainment for all of those days, I'm guessing we'd come out pretty close to a Disney vacation.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

Beach vacations are significantly cheaper for us.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

The cost of our beach vacations generally run 1/4 the price of a Disney vacation, no comparison.

 

[jimandami]

I think it is really family dependent. Our kids (and us really) are just not that good at "relaxing" so when we go to the beach, they are bored within a couple hours of playing in the sand/pool/ocean. So, we end up spending a lot of time and money entertaining them/ourselves with go-karts, zip-lining, mini golf, etc....Our last 2 beach trips have been almost as expensive as our Disney trips, even though the cost of lodging is much cheaper.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Our last WDW vacation ended up running about $7600 when all was said and done. I believe if it were 7 nights I wouldn't spent about 6K.

That was deluxe with the magical deal, 10 night stay. 8 day hoppers. Plane tickets. Memory maker.

I live 45 minutes from Atlantic City. We like Wildwood for the boardwalk and the kids enjoy it. I can get a beach front house for 1500-2K for the week. Some sleep 8 so I can split that huge house with another family.

We usually eat breakfast in the house, head to the beach, hang out there. Head back to the house for lunch if we didn't pack things in our cooler on the beach. Then hit the boardwalk at night and eat there, play games, sight see, etc. We will grill a few nights too. I don't mind cooking on my beach vacations because they are relaxing.

No need to purchase WDW park tickets but I do buy 1-2 days for Morey's Pier. Rides and water rides. That runs about $400 for our family of four. Food and activities about 1K.

Way way way cheaper than WDW. We also aren't into a lot of souvenirs since we live in the area. I don't need stuff with NJ plastered all over it.

But like a PP said, all inclusives in Mexico and Dominican Republic and even Jamaica can at times run cheaper than the shore. We are doing two in the next two years. And maybe just doing a cheaper hotel for a few nights at the shore.

 

[Dakota731]

We just got back from the beach and spent $800 on a 4 bedroom beach front condo and $700 on food. We eat lunch and breakfast in the condo and we are a family of five. The last time we went to Disney we spend $5000 (we had to fly) so it is quite a bit of difference for us.

 

[dja14]

We have found, with a family of five, especially now 5 'adults' that I can control food costs and housing costs depending on budget. I can't control ticket prices really. Longer disney stays are cheaper per day ticket prices, sometimes you can get coupons, but really you are locked in to that. We are not beach sitting people, so for us a week at the beach, a week in Gatlinburg, or 9 days at Disney work out, in general the same. We stay offsite at disney though, and we do a mix of eating in and out. Last time we did mountains with extended family and they wanted to eat out every meal and we spent a lot more when you added in all the activities everyone wanted to do, 12 -15$ here and there a few times a day (per person) and we might as well gone to disney.

 

[star72232]

For us, a beach vacation means Sauble Beach, ON. That means a 2.5 hour drive each way, and staying with my parents. Total cost - 2 tanks of gas, a weeks worth of groceries, and a few ice cream cones. The beach is the entertainment.

A Disney/Florida vacation means a 3 hour flight (or a 2 day drive). 4 kids + 2 parents means staying offsite. 3 day tickets, a day at the ocean, a day at the Clearwater Aquarium, a couple of down days. Cost - if we fly out of Buffalo, stay in a 2BR at WBC, get tickets through UT, and eat the majority of our meals at the condo - it will be at least $4500USD. To stay onsite, do 6 day tickets, and primarily eat out - more like $8000. Add the CDN to USD exchange, and we can't really do it.

 

[Kingdome8]

We stay at myrtle
Every summer. This past summer we stayed in ocean front condo 3000 per week for three bedrooms. I payed half 1500.
Still gotta buy food and all entertainment.

Went to port Orleans last sept with free dining. Week for 4 people 5 day tickets 3000.
We drive though. Close I think

 

[Minnesota!]

All the times I have priced it, Disney is cheaper.

Now, here is why:

Flights from MSP to MCO are cheaper than flights from MSP to almost anywhere else. I can still get to MCO for about $200/rt. Pricing out flying to a "beach destination" (we looked at Outer Banks, Hilton Head, and Tybee Island), is about double that.

WDW - we don't need a car. So, saves $250 or so right there.

We don't do the parks most trips these days. So, that right there is a good $2000 we don't spend. At a beach, we would be content to do "the beach" every other day or so, but we would be running around doing mini-golf, fishing, boat rides, and the like, too. Which, would eat up $$$.

A lot of the stuff we do at WDW is super cheap or free. We spend a lot of time at the pool, playing ping pong (Pop), watching the animals (AKL), playing tetherball, watching the blacksmiths, watching the horses, laying on the beach (Ft Wilderness), or perusing the Boardwalk.

We bring breakfast stuff, snack for lunch, and a sit down dinner. I hate cooking on vacation, so we would probably do the same for a beach vacation.

So, for us, WDW is always the cheapest option.

But, I REALLLLLLY want to do a beach vacation on of these years. Maybe when my boys are a little older and enjoy "down time" a bit more.

ETA - we did a "beach vacation", Wisconsin-style a few weeks ago. Cabin on a lake. We dropped the same amount of money we would have had we gone to WDW the same week.