Cost of a beach vacation vs. a Disney vacation

[ellie05]

You are not really going to get the real answer to your question because everyone vacations differently. A beach vacation can cost as much or more than a Disney vacation because there is so much range in Disney and also so many beaches. There are also people that have annual passes, own dvc, etc. We are not beach people we can only do that for a day or two and then we will get bored, even when we lived 5 min away from the beach we went maybe 8 days during the year, so even if it was cheaper for us the value is not there. With that being said our next Disney vacation is going to be cheaper than last weeks trip to Atlanta.

 

[girli565]

Disney definitely isn't cheap but depending on the beach and season you go beach vacay's can be just as pricey.

That said, we do an annual beach vacay in the late summer (first week of august) with family and we ended up using VRBO to rent a condo on the beach for under $600 for a week in Marco Island, FL. Between the rental, gas, groceries, and eating out maybe 3 times we spent less than $1500 in total. The condo was a 2 bedroom 2 bath, beach view, and had a huge wraparound balcony. We loved it and are thinking of doing it again next summer.

 

[Eureka]

Beach vacation for us is much cheaper. We go to the Delaware beaches in August, so it's peak pricing. Our share of the house is close to $2k for the week. But then we grocery shop, which we'd do at home, for most breakfasts and lunches and probably about half our dinners. We go every year so we don't do a lot of souvenir shopping. We do, however, spend a lot of money on ice cream and skee ball . But even that doesn't add up to what we've spent in Disney. We like a good meal in Disney but we drive down and stay value.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

Offsite vs. onsite, for me, is the difference between a Florida vacation and a Disney vacation. That's a whole 'nuther topic for discussion. I could also point out that I could stay at a hotel that is a 10-minute drive from the beach and I would save a heck of a lot of money over the cost of my ocean-view 3-bedroom condo rental. But that would be the difference between a vacation in New Jersey vs. a beach vacation.

Oh yeah, it's all about priorities. It's just funny who to me that people value luxe on site accommodations at Disney and stay in a bare bones condo at the beach?? Well if you were staying in like accommodations like one of the PPs, you'd probably find the price more similar.

I definitely think it depends a lot on the person. I don't value location as much as you seem to.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Oh yeah, it's all about priorities. It's just funny who to me that people value luxe on site accommodations at Disney and stay in a bare bones condo at the beach?? Well if you were staying in like accommodations like one of the PPs, you'd probably find the price more similar.

I definitely think it depends a lot on the person. I don't value location as much as you seem to.

For us, location is 10,000 times more important for a beach vacation vs a WDW vacation. For the beach, we have to be ON the beach, and facing the beach. Period.


For WDW, the room is pretty much just where we sleep, and they all look the same in the dark.

 

[crisi]

Beaches we've done:

Hawaii - more expensive than our WDW vacations. Airfare, rental car, island hopping, surfing lessons
Mexico all inclusive - much cheaper than our WDW vacations. Airfare, no rental car, mostly sitting by the pool, a few excursions
"Up North" - the Minnesota way to say "some friend's or relative's cabin on a lake" - practically free.

 

[La Bill]

Interesting question I am a family of seven we take two trips each year one to Destin florida one disneyworld we camp at henderson on the beach cost for week 210 dollars beach is free cost for fort wilderness 450 dollars park tickets 3500 disney is definitely more expensive

 

[Wes1stTrip2016]

I know there are many different factors and it is not apples to apples, but just curious how much a vacation for a family of 5 to Myrtle beach or Outer Banks for a week vs. a week at Disney (let's say a value/moderate) resort? Cost should include food/lodging/entertainment costs. We cannot vacation at the beach, since my husband can only take vacation time in the winter months....which is why we love going to warm and sunny Orlando! I am sick of hearing people comment how "nice it must be to afford going to Disney" when I have the feeling that a beach vacation isn't much cheaper! Thanks!!

Our annual beach trip to the FL/AL gulf coast in May costs about 1/2 of what we are paying for a Feb/Mar Disney World trip - same # of nights.

 

[loves to dive]

We are doing a sort of beach vacation for Christmas this year. 3 adults 3 dogs (well one is a yorkie so sort of giant rat really). We will be driving down from Athens, GA to just outside of Gainesville, FL for one night at Ginnie Springs to test out scuba gear that we haven't used in a year. Then down to Key Largo for three nights in a beach resort that is actually a group of little cottages (3 dogs and hotel rooms don't mix) and will pick up one morning dive each day so two days of diving. Then drive back up to spend the day at Kennedy Space Center, which will mean 2 nights at a Radison. Then drive back up to Athens. The hotel at Ginnie Springs is like a Motel 8 so nothing fancy, 2 rooms will be needed there, we will share the cottage and the room at the Radison (DH, myself and adult son who owns two of the dogs and would happily board his but DH will not board our spoiled rotten rat). This 5 night vacation will end up costing more than a 5 night stay at Disney in a deluxe does for us. It's all a matter of how you vacation.

 

[NewRVLady]

We have a fave condo place in Destin...its smaller older - right on beach...we stay hours on the balcony chilling
Eat out for lunch cook other meals - free beach chairs and umbrella here- other places are like $25 a day
Save lots going after first week in August ( we are retired- no kids at home)
It's a LOT cheaper than Disney and way more relaxing

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

My family is a little different because we have never paid for anywhere to stay at either the beach or Disney and transportation (we drive) is nearly a wash. So for us it comes down to food and extras at the beach versus prorated APs and food at Disney. This year my DS and DS13 and DS4 have been to the beach three times (two school breaks and our summer beach trip which I had to miss due to a death in the family) and honestly I have no idea how much she spent. Last summer when we went to the beach we were there for 7 days. We ate dinner out every night at around $100 per night. The kids ate lunch at the pool every day at about $35 per day. The wife and I had an avg of 4 drinks a day at the pool (total, not each ), at a cost of about $50 a day with tip. Total of that comes to about $1100. I took out a half day at the beginning and end for travel. One night we went to the movies for $75 and one night we went to a funpark for about $100. So, all in it was about $1300 or so.

We went to Disney this May and were there for 7 days. We bought $200 worth of groceries, ate at Olivia's twice ($110 total just DW and I), ordered Italian once ($100) and bought Mother's day dinner at Cape May for $350. Prorating the annual passes park tickets come out to $511 for the four of us. Some of that food was for the other 3 people that were with us. That total is also around $1300 or so. So I guess for us it's a wash.

 

[caracarn]

You certainly avoid the park ticket cost, but lodging a food can be similar. If you are a DVC member, then the lodging questions becomes more complex as you basically have a much better prepaid rate than trading out (unless going to Vero) and then that saves some money. In general our most expensive vacations ever are the Disney trips so a beach vacation would definitely be less.

 

[tink9702]

We can do a beach vacation for a lot less for one reason. We don't need to fly to get to the beach. Now if I'm choosing Mrytle beach vs. Cape Cod (which I live close to) then the cost goes up quite a bit because I doubt we'd drive to Mrytle Beach. The Disney tickets are also expensive but if we went for a whole week to the beach we would be doing other things than just the beach. A 2-3 day trip we can just do the beach but otherwise we get bored.

 

[5kidsmommy]

My husband decided next fall he wants to do a beach trip instead of a Disney trip. We are renting a house off season in the Outer Banks. The house is 5 bedrooms, has a pool, hot tub and pool table. The rental on the house along with all the fees comes out to about $2500 for a week. It's a mid range house, less than 500 feet from the beach. We will drive, eat out some and cook in some, it will end up being about the same cost as our Disney trips. Sure we could get a cheaper place but we like having a private pool and we like having a bigger home. We all have our own bedrooms at home and when we vacation we like to be able to spread out.

 

[dlavender]

Beach is definitely cheaper for us, out of TN. However, the gap is not as big as it initially appears. It is really the tickets that get you at Disney. We can stay for a week at a beach condo for around $800, and with three kids we do really enjoy just swimming and taking in the environment at the beach. We cook/eat QS meals a lot at the beach, so roughly $250 for food. We may buy a few things, but all in all we get out of there for about $1000. Disney runs about $2500 for the week when done as cheaply as we can manage. However, the experiences are VASTLY different. I really wouldn't compare them. If we could afford Disney every vacation, we would. It's like comparing a Camry (no offense, I love Toyotas), to a BMW. They both are cars, but not really in the same class...

 

[Crystal824]

We took a trip to the Outer Banks a few years ago. That same year, we took a trip to WDW and stayed at POR. We didn't cook at either location really. We did have breakfast in the hotel room at WDW and we ate cereal, etc. at the beach. We would typically eat lunch at the beach house (sandwiches, etc).

We did rent a house at the beach, an enormous house that we split with another family. The house was beachfront had a pool and a hot tub. We did go to a spa at the beach and played mini golf, a museum, etc. It cost a little more for the Outer Banks vacation than the WDW vacation all in all when totaling the food, entertainment, transportation, etc. The house was a lot more than the hotel at WDW. Dining out was about the same...maybe a little more at the Outer Banks as we did eat at some really nice places at the Outer Banks...entertainment was way less than WDW tickets.

We probably could have done the beach for way less. That is the thing about the beach, you have more choices for entertainment instead of one fixed price for tickets.

 

[Dakota731]

Prorating the annual passes park tickets come out to $511 for the four of us.

How do you figure this number? An annual pass is over $600 per person??

 

[Ava]

It all depends on what type of vacation you enjoy. You CAN do a beach trip for a lot less than a Disney trip, but it's a very different type of vacation. Personally, renting a house/condo where I still have to cook most of our meals and then spending the days just hanging around on the beach is not my idea of an enjoyable week's vacation. It's boring. I'd rather save my money until I have enough for a Disney trip, even if it means not taking a real vacation some years.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

How do you figure this number? An annual pass is over $600 per person??

I assume by "prorating", that meant those tickets were used on more than one trip.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

How do you figure this number? An annual pass is over $600 per person??

Answer: We were gifted DVC 4 park 4 day tickets. We upgraded those to APs. The out of pocket cost for the APs up grade was close to $1900 (sorry...don't remember the exact number). Take that $1900 divided by the number of days we will use them (7 in May, 5 in Sept, 7 in Dec, 7 next April for a total of 26) equals $73 per day. $73 per day times 7 days is $511. So out of what we paid for the APs, $511 should be allocated to this trip. Even if we use the total amount for the APs the ticket cost for all four of us for this 7 day trip is $726.

Make sense?