Cost of Vacation

[TwistGrl101]

On average, what does your family spend on a week long vacation at WDW?

 

[DawnM]

This is a very common question on the Dis, and it just depends on what you WANT to spend. You can rack up $8,000 for the week if you want.

It also depends on if you fly or drive and how many are in your family. And it depends on what you count towards your total. I don't count our regular food budget of $150-$175 for example, because I would spend that if we stayed at home. So, if I spend $300 for the week on food, I only count $125.

Too many variables for a true picture.

We are frugal Disney folks, but we can drive, we stay off-site, eat a lot of our own food, go during YES ticket offers, etc.....

Dawn

 

[Missy29]

We are looking at $4200-4500 for our up coming trip. We are a family of 4, staying off site and flying. Our last Disney vacation we had $3500 so I know I could do it cheaper but I like having enough $ where I can eat,buy, and do what we want, but it would be nice to come home with $$

 

[stacy347]

Family of 6 here, never spent more than $2,000 on a trip (we always drive down).

Our upcoming trip

Resort: offsite (Regal Palms, sharing a condo with my sister's family) $300

Gas: $300

Tickets: YES program 3 day hoppers w/3 WPM visits $940

Groceries and a few counter service meals: $400

 

[TwistGrl101]

Wow, I spent $7,000 the last two trips, and am trying everything to save $6,000 to book my trip this summer.

I don't know how I would even get this price down---we go the last week of August, stay at the Beach Club (my MIL is coming, so we have 4 adults, 2 children, 1 infant.) Moderate wouldn't be an option, we'd be too squished at POR.

I am hoping to go on free dining or a % off discount.

We fly down, but even when I priced out staying off property, when you add in renting a car, and all of the meals, and $1500 airfare, and spending money, I am at $6,000 for 7 nights...and I don't know how to make that any cheaper!!

 

[torinsmom]

We go every year by going the budget route. YES tickets, driving or taking the train instead of flying, eating 1/2 our meals offsite, getting tap water instead of soda, and limiting souvenirs, allows us to do both Disney and Universal for under $2000.

2 YES tickets(7 day hoppers)---$380
7 nights in a 3 bedroom condo--$450
Gas round trip from NC-- $200(covers Orlando as well)
Parking-- $98
Universal tickets--1/2 AP $190
Food-- $650

$650 is on the high end for food for us. We tend to at 2 meals at the house or offsite each day. We get one CS meal and a snack onsite. Souvenirs are covered by the change jar we save in all year, and a survey site I cash out before trips. I don't count that in our total, but it is usually around $50 each, so $100. I'm paying for the Universal APs on the Flex Plan too, so that really isn't money out of pocket all at once like the rest of the costs. We have done a couple trips with dining when my son was younger, one with regular and one with free dining. Those were more expensive, probably in the $3000 range.

 

[DawnM]

Are you just two people?

We do Disney for under $2,000 as well, but we don't do Universal and we eat most of our own food.

There are 5 of us.

Dawn

We go every year by going the budget route. YES tickets, driving or taking the train instead of flying, eating 1/2 our meals offsite, getting tap water instead of soda, and limiting souvenirs, allows us to do both Disney and Universal for under $2000.

2 YES tickets(7 day hoppers)---$380
7 nights in a 3 bedroom condo--$450
Gas round trip from NC-- $200(covers Orlando as well)
Parking-- $98
Universal tickets--1/2 AP $190
Food-- $650

$650 is on the high end for food for us. We tend to at 2 meals at the house or offsite each day. We get one CS meal and a snack onsite. Souvenirs are covered by the change jar we save in all year, and a survey site I cash out before trips. I don't count that in our total, but it is usually around $50 each, so $100. I'm paying for the Universal APs on the Flex Plan too, so that really isn't money out of pocket all at once like the rest of the costs. We have done a couple trips with dining when my son was younger, one with regular and one with free dining. Those were more expensive, probably in the $3000 range.

 

[kmb584]

This number varies for me with each trip - I can do Disney on a $1,000 budget or a $5,000 one, depending on what I want. The average cost typically falls into the $3,500 range but as decreased as of late with the purchase of an AP. Since we travel to the World so often it just made sense for me to purchase one for myself, and DD will get her very own in April as she'll have just turned 3 for that trip.

We fly for every trip. I live in PA and the thought of driving down makes me shudder especially with an antsy, Disney-loving toddler in tow! We also tend to stay at a monorail resort but in April will be staying off-site for the first time. I've stayed off-site before, as a child, but this will be DD's first. Family will be coming along (they haven't before) and the extra space at a fraction of the cost just made the most sense.

 

[DawnM]

How can you do Disney for $1,000 if you always fly and always stay at a monorail resort and include tickets?

Dawn

This number varies for me with each trip - I can do Disney on a $1,000 budget or a $5,000 one, depending on what I want. The average cost typically falls into the $3,500 range but as decreased as of late with the purchase of an AP. Since we travel to the World so often it just made sense for me to purchase one for myself, and DD will get her very own in April as she'll have just turned 3 for that trip.

We fly for every trip. I live in PA and the thought of driving down makes me shudder especially with an antsy, Disney-loving toddler in tow! We also tend to stay at a monorail resort but in April will be staying off-site for the first time. I've stayed off-site before, as a child, but this will be DD's first. Family will be coming along (they haven't before) and the extra space at a fraction of the cost just made the most sense.

 

[AnninIowa]

My dad and I usually spend around $3500 for 5 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge, 4 days with park hoppers and airfare. That is with a discount of some kind on the room. We also fly out of Iowa-no direct flights and no low-cost airlines mean tickets are $600+. i have a Disney Visa card, and those reward dollars usually cover our food.

 

[preschoolmom]

I think one thing these type of polls don't take into account are all the "extra" expenses.

I keep a spreadsheet for ALL of our expenses - not just the Disney Package.

I include travel (flights or drive - if flying, parking or limo, if driving, food/hotel for the driving days). I include boarding the dog. I include tips.

Our trips have ranged from $3,500-$6,000. That's staying on-site, three kids, two adults.

We stayed at the Contemporary in one room once (dining plan, pin code for room).

We stayed at Pop Century in two rooms once (discount code for rooms). Regular dining plan.

Our next trip is Pop Century again, two rooms, free quicky dining.

I've priced staying off-site, and I think it isn't really cheaper, you just get a lot more space.

We go every other year. We couldn't afford to go every year (and I can't seem to get it below $3,000 no matter how we do it - driving, staying off-site, no hopping (we don't hop as it is), food, gas, boarding the dog).

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I have never added up all the little things like the pet sitter, gas, etc...

But for strictly our WDW package we usually spend btwn $2500-$4000 depending on the resort for a week.

Our room account generally has btwn $700-$1000 on it as well.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

Our 10 days cost us $7,000 and we had free dining. If we would have had to buy all our food it would have been closer to $8,000.

10 day package in the Family suite with 5 day non-hopper tickets $4,000
4 of the 5 of us flew 1 drove, flights $1000
Universal/IOA tickets $630
Cirque Du SOleil tickets $500
Groceries $200
Out of pocket TS meals $300
Gas for DH driving round trip $250
Souvenirs $150

 

[preschoolmom]

I have never added up all the little things like the pet sitter, gas, etc...

But for strictly our WDW package we usually spend btwn $2500-$4000 depending on the resort for a week.

Our room account generally has btwn $700-$1000 on it as well.

You said this really well, Can I change my answer to yours? LOL...

 

[mirage0306]

Part of the reason our costs are on the higher side is because we can't drive--DH can't take extra days off work for it, and it's pretty far (we are in New Mexico). So flights are a must, and if I can get them for under $1600 it's a pretty good deal. We also like to stay deluxe if possible, which is obviously more expensive! And I include boarding our dogs in the total cost, too.

For our upcoming trip we're staying 8 nights and the total cost is around $2600. Food--at least a grand. Flights around $1200 (I will have a free one). Dog boarding $450. Tickets (PH) about $1200. So I'm already over six grand. That doesn't include tips or souvenirs.

One nice thing about this trip is we will have a large chunk of Disney visa rewards and gift cards, which I'm hoping will pay for the majority of our food.

 

[budafam]

Our last 2 trips have averaged around $3000... the first one was 2 adults, 2 children and the second one was just me & my 5 year old son.

Our next trip in May SHOULD be costing me a lot more but I have cut a lot of corners to get our price lower than $4000. We're staying at Bonnet Creek (2 bedroom condo with full kitchen for $693 for the entire week), 5 round trip plane tickets from Wisconsin to Orlando ended up being $190 TOTAL (this was because I signed up for a Southwest Visa and I got all 4 of our flights for free)... I also have lots of rewards racked up through credit cards and coupons plus we'll be purchasing the TIW card to save on dining. We could save a TON more on food but when I'm on vacation, I don't want to cook.

We'll be spending the same amount on food for a week that we do for our family for an entire year to eat... yeah, that just sounds crazy but different people like different things

 

[mirage0306]

Our last 2 trips have averaged around $3000... the first one was 2 adults, 2 children and the second one was just me & my 5 year old son.

Our next trip in May SHOULD be costing me a lot more but I have cut a lot of corners to get our price lower than $4000. We're staying at Bonnet Creek (2 bedroom condo with full kitchen for $693 for the entire week), 5 round trip plane tickets from Wisconsin to Orlando ended up being $190 TOTAL (this was because I signed up for a Southwest Visa and I got all 4 of our flights for free)... I also have lots of rewards racked up through credit cards and coupons plus we'll be purchasing the TIW card to save on dining. We could save a TON more on food but when I'm on vacation, I don't want to cook.

We'll be spending the same amount on food for a week that we do for our family for an entire year to eat... yeah, that just sounds crazy but different people like different things

Okay, if you don't mind my asking, HOW did you get 4 flights for free? Did I miss an amazing promotion? I also signed up for the SW visa and am supposed to get 25K points for it, but that will only cover one flight of ours (around $400). Is there a tip or trick or something you used to get the cost so low? Because that is awesome.

 

[rentayenta]

We go every year by going the budget route. YES tickets, driving or taking the train instead of flying, eating 1/2 our meals offsite, getting tap water instead of soda, and limiting souvenirs, allows us to do both Disney and Universal for under $2000.

2 YES tickets(7 day hoppers)---$380
7 nights in a 3 bedroom condo--$450
Gas round trip from NC-- $200(covers Orlando as well)
Parking-- $98
Universal tickets--1/2 AP $190
Food-- $650

$650 is on the high end for food for us. We tend to at 2 meals at the house or offsite each day. We get one CS meal and a snack onsite. Souvenirs are covered by the change jar we save in all year, and a survey site I cash out before trips. I don't count that in our total, but it is usually around $50 each, so $100. I'm paying for the Universal APs on the Flex Plan too, so that really isn't money out of pocket all at once like the rest of the costs. We have done a couple trips with dining when my son was younger, one with regular and one with free dining. Those were more expensive, probably in the $3000 range.

What are YES tickets?

 

[crisi]

Its hard to say and varies. We are DVC members who have "paid for" our contract - we have our ROI now - so for us, lodging is our dues (about $1000 a year). We go every other year, so that's $2000 for hotel, but we are staying in a two bedroom onsite. And that has none of the original purchase cost of the contract in it. We fly, that's another $1600 for our family of four (airfare from the Twin Cities is never cheap). We spend about $300 each day on food - that's $2000. Park hoppers run us about $1200 or so. So we are at something around $7k for a week, not including cabs to the airport, the pet sitter, etc.

 

[torinsmom]

Are you just two people?

We do Disney for under $2,000 as well, but we don't do Universal and we eat most of our own food.

There are 5 of us.

Dawn

Yes, that's for just the two of us, but may be 3 soon if I am able to adopt. Last year, the whole family(well 6; it was supposed to be 8 but my dad had a GB attack) went. We still did pretty well...

8-7 day hoppers--$1500 through YES
5 bedroom pool home--$800 for 8 nights
Parking--$98
Food-$300(seriously, we kept up with it) We didn't eat any meals onsite this time though)
Gas--2 cars--$400

Now, on my end, I did have the other half of the Universal APs, because we spent 2 days at universal before the others came. Got a refund from YES for my mom and dad's tickets since they couldn't go last minute.

Unless I am going WITH my sister, I don't have to pay for a pet sitter. We trade off that responsibility when one of us is out of town.