Did your beach vacation cost more than your Disney vacation

[kevschickee]

What I'm noticing everybody compare is the lodging cost. I think what you really need to look at is what your family wants to do. If I rented a campsite and tried to get my kids to hang out in the forest and on the beach for a week we would be miserable after the first hour.

Our disney vacations are significantly cheaper than our other trips because we have to keep finding things to do. My kids won't even go on a beach because the sand creeps them out. Then we end up going to putt putt golf, looking for entertainment places, going shopping, and doing tons of crap that adds up fast and doesn't last long. My family has a cottage on a beach and we spend more THERE staying for free than we do per day at Disney. The per day cost of entertainment at Disney saves us money because we like to go for long periods... Short trips just aren't worth the hassle for us.
Then my son has a bunch of allergies so we really have trouble even finding places to eat out if we aren't at Disney.

My kids love the beach. We go in the morning plop our stuff down and will get some thing there for lunch then have dinner at the camp site. We do dinner out once and it is always lobster and clams. It rained real bad one day so we did movies and bowling. I can see how some kids can get board with it. Maybe when my kids get older they will start to not like it. Right now they are 7&5.

 

[crisi]

For us, the beach can mean different things.

We are in Minnesota - our annual "beach" vacation is the North Shore of Lake Superior. Its a friends "cabin" We give them a little cash to help cover taxes and utilities, and bring groceries. That plus gas money is the total cost.

We've done Hawaii, that was much more expensive than Disney, but from Minnesota, airfare is really expensive.

We've done All Inclusive Mexico and a private Villa in Mexico, both were cheaper than a week in Disney.

 

[disykat]

The beach is definitely cheaper for us. While we might do something that costs money occasionally, most of the stuff we enjoy at the beach is free. Beach-combing, hiking, biking, etc.

If we're just hanging out on a more secluded beach area we stay close to the beach, but if it's an area with lots of touristy activities we tend to stay a short walk inland to save money.

 

[DISNEYNV]

We rent a house in OBX right near the beach and it is a little over $3000 for six of us. A bit more than Disney, but we drive to NC from PA, and make meals to take and also cook at the house. It is a full sized beach home with large bedrooms, pool, hot tub, full kitchen, decks, and short walks to the beach. It is very economical for a family that splits the bill, but as much as I love it I would rather spend the money at Disney. The kids love the beach though and the relaxed vacation so it is worth it to us.

 

[pigletto]

We came back from our last Disney trip determined to go somewhere else this summer. I spent about a month putting trips together. We want to go to Europe.. way out of budget. Alaskan cruise? Way more. Royal Caribbean cruise.. a thousand more and that was going to islands I've been to already and didn't really want to see again. D.C. and Williamsburg? About the same as a Disney trip for us. Yellowstone.. way more (flights were a killer). Banff.. way more.. again, flights.
So I laid out all our options and was willing to spend more. I asked the family to help me choose. And they all picked... Disney

A few other things came into play like the fact that we really want to do the D.C. trip but not in the dead heat of August. And we still really want the Alaskan cruise but not when our budget means we'll have to scrimp on shore excursions.

So the end result was we went with the popular vote. It's hard to give up on somewhere that I know we'll have a good time. We really aren't beach people. We'd die of boredom and dd and I are so pale we're practically translucent
Disney *can* be as expensive as you want to it to be but for us, it always comes in under the magic number in the budget. This time we're trying offsite and more offsite activites so the budget is even lower. I do think it is one of the reasons it's so popular.

 

[Cobern]

Ours was about the same but we took a beach vacation in high season (4th of July weekend). We only stayed 3 nights versus 4 nights at Disney. We also have another kid added to the mix now so I guess Disney is cheaper for us. We are FL residents though so they do make it a bit more affordable for us

 

[HM]

It looks like we need to go camping or get a house at the beach. I think the hotel is making our cost go up. Sadly we can only travel in the summer. We are both in the education field. It is sad how much hotels cost! We will definitely look into a house next time. Thanks for the tips! I know we all still love disney!!

Spring break falls in off season at most beach rental agencies.

 

[3boymthr]

The beach is definitely cheaper for us.

Our beach vacation is costing us less than $1,500 this year including house rental, gas to OBX from MA and tolls. We cook at the house so I don't count groceries because I'd buy those anyway - I'll spend MAYBE an extra $50 in grocery costs but that's a big maybe as I don't buy things like cleaning supplies and flour and sugar. The house/cottage we are renting is one house back from the water with direct beach access about 50 feet away. We spent about $1,700 for our Cape Cod vacation a couple of years ago. That house was right on the water with spectacular views but had no direct beach access. Of course, I think the biggest difference is when we go to the beach we don't do a ton of activities with cost besides the beach. One night of mini-golf (maybe), a bit of shopping. We also tend to stay in areas that have National Seashores so there are lots of free or almost free activities.

By comparison our trip to to WDW cost over $4,000.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Disney is never cheaper for us................just never is...

Our beach vacation weeks (and we have not done it the last three years) are always about 2500-2700 for the Monday arrival and Friday checkout...yeah four nights three houses from the beach....
tho none of us wanna go back....................
sadly there were several unsolved murders and bodies found in the general area and uh..................then the storm damage
so no one has even thought about returning...........very sad

And those beach days were Fun, tho expensive...but like everything else....it costs when you get the amenities that we/family required....
Disney regardless of when we go always seems to cost more overall, but IMHO its always worth it.....................its just the "feeling" I get when I go there, like Im at my second "home"

 

[bellebud]

Disney is never cheaper for us................just never is...

Our beach vacation weeks (and we have not done it the last three years) are always about 2500-2700 for the Monday arrival and Friday checkout...yeah four nights three houses from the beach....
tho none of us wanna go back....................
sadly there were several unsolved murders and bodies found in the general area and uh..................then the storm damage
so no one has even thought about returning...........very sad

And those beach days were Fun, tho expensive...but like everything else....it costs when you get the amenities that we/family required....
Disney regardless of when we go always seems to cost more overall, but IMHO its always worth it.....................its just the "feeling" I get when I go there, like Im at my second "home"

omg! where was that????

 

[Pakey]

I am going to Maui again next month, staying club level with ocean view room. I stayed club level BWI in December.

With all costs totaled, I estimate Hawaii will be about $2000 less than WDW.

 

[shells4]

We rent a house, less than a block from the beach. We like the privacy, kitchen, washer and dryer. We can do 3 week long trips to the beach for less than 1 week to disney, staying on site, park hoppers, and dining.

 

[DawnM]

No, beach is cheaper. Mountains are cheaper.

 

[Granny square]

No, beach is cheaper. Mountains are cheaper.

We can rent a house at the beach or the mountains for less than the wdw tickets. And food is far cheaper

 

[Marionnette]

The place that we rent for a week at the Jersey Shore costs almost as much as a week in a moderate resort at Christmas time. But, we don't do boardwalk games or rides, miniature golf or any of the other "tourist-y" things when we go to the shore. We sit on the beach during the day and play cards with friends at night. I cook most of our meals, which I would also do at home. We *might* go out to eat a couple of times during the week.

So, when you consider the total cost of the a Disney trip (eating out every day, tickets to the parks, airfare, rental car), the Disney trip comes out to be far more expensive than the trip to the shore.

 

[kellietony]

I am going to Maui again next month, staying club level with ocean view room. I stayed club level BWI in December.

With all costs totaled, I estimate Hawaii will be about $2000 less than WDW.

Where do you stay and where do you rent through?

 

[Dizisfun]

We are in Maryland. When the kids were younger we would go to Ocean City. It def cost us more to go to the ocean than to do wdw. We have paid as much as $1600 a week for a nice place on the boardwalk. (I don't camp). Than you have to find "stuff" to do with them. Parasailing, jet skiing, even jolly Rogers can put a real dent in the budget.

 

[vicki_c]

We are in Maryland. When the kids were younger we would go to Ocean City. It def cost us more to go to the ocean than to do wdw. We have paid as much as $1600 a week for a nice place on the boardwalk. (I don't camp). Than you have to find "stuff" to do with them. Parasailing, jet skiing, even jolly Rogers can put a real dent in the budget.

Agree. Our Rehoboth long weekend a few years ago cost about the same as a short trip to Disney because I calculated it out after the fact.

 

[plutospalforever]

Agree. Our Rehoboth long weekend a few years ago cost about the same as a short trip to Disney because I calculated it out after the fact.

We are in Maryland. When the kids were younger we would go to Ocean City. It def cost us more to go to the ocean than to do wdw. We have paid as much as $1600 a week for a nice place on the boardwalk. (I don't camp). Than you have to find "stuff" to do with them. Parasailing, jet skiing, even jolly Rogers can put a real dent in the budget.

I was just thinking along those same lines. We usually do WDW one year and Lido Key, Sarasoto the next; except for one year we went to Ocean City, Maryland and all I kept saying was Lido Key would have cost half as much and WDW 1/3 as much and we only stayed there 4 days compared to 7. We go to Lido Key during the summer and stay on the ocean for one full week and it costs significantly less than the World. Of course our children love the beach and we spend sun up to sun down on it. We go out for 2-3 meals, we have a kitchen and stock up on food when we get there and BBQ several meals or walk to a nearby beach front counter service eatery. We pay less than $900 for full week rental at Lido Key and
food is about $500 for a family of 6. There is no way we can do Disney for that cheap!

 

[likescarrots]

We have found Disney to be much more expensive the past few years, and because of this, we have traveled elsewhere. Last year we traveled to hawaii for 2 weeks, and including airfare, car rental, and accommodations (studio apartment), it was much much cheaper than the same two weeks at disney (without car rental and in a smaller hotel room). We also had a kitchen so we were able to make breakfast and lunch in the room when we were around, which saved us more money.