Disney is cheaper than going to the beach

[Sparkly]

A huge chunk of our costs is flying from the UK. It costs £1500 at least just for airfare.

We always stay offsite, and enjoy it just as much as if we were onsite. In fact, more, because we aren't squashing ourselves into one tiny hotel room.

 

[beansmom]

I am sorry you hate southwest so much but I happen to like them and have never had an issue. I only have one other major credit card so it is not like I go around opening cards just for some little perk. It didn't just give me "cheap" airfare...it gave me virtually free roundtrip airfare for 4 people! That is a huge deal! As far as the hotel discount, I have to say you are off the mark on that one. I saved nearly 50% off rack rates for my CSR ressie for 10 nights. Even with the room only discount going on right now it still would have cost over $500 more. Free dining???? It's not really free! You are paying rack rates for rooms plus you have to buy a 2 day ticket for each person!!!! 4-2 day base tickets ($737) cost almost as much as my 8 day hoppers with warterparks ($880)!!! I priced out a portion of my trip and what I paid vs. What you are suggesting can be done for virtually the same cost:

What I paid:
CSR 10 days with 4-8 day hoppers with waterparks= $1910

Disney "room only" Discount:
CSR 10 days $1533 plus $1587 for tickets=$3120
POP 10 days $949 plus $1587 for tickets=$2536

"Free" Dining for same time frame:
POP 10 days with Quick service dining (we would never want to eat CS everyday for 10 days) costs $2755 almost $850 more than what I am paying...for lesser accommodations and food we wouldn't enjoy.

CSR's "free" dining deal would cost $3583!!!! Almost $1700 more for only 10 days!

I can guarantee we will be spending a lot less that $1700 on food!

I always put a lot of work into making our budget Disney vacations NOT FEEL like it was done on a budget! We have never stayed at values in the past because I have always been able to get a deal renting DVC points for less than or equal to the cost of values.
Anyway...I'm very proud of and quite content with our amazing deals for this upcoming trip!!!

to each their own and all that. We all have our ideas of what constitutes the perfect vacation and, happily, we can all achieve that in different ways.

 

[mill4023]

Despite their attempts to clean up their image, Myrtle Beach is a fairly rough place. The groups who frequent Myrtle include massive numbers of just-graduated seniors and bikers (and I don't mean doctors and lawyers who ride on the weekends).

People who will argue with this aren't making the distinction between Myrtle Beach and Myrtle North or Myrtle South. North and South are still budget-oriented, but they are more family oriented and have golf ( mini golf Capitol of the world), water parks and family restaurants. But people who aren't from this area don't get that the three areas are not alike. Myrtle itself is very small and very different from the two towns who share it's name.

We spent a weekend at an Embassy Suites in North Myrtle and it was great. Beautiful beach, the whole area around us was a very nice resort area.

It was our first time in the area so we figured we should check out the main strip of Myrtle Beach. It is a couple miles of really crappy, run-down looking hotels, where half the people looked like they were on an episode of Cops. Definitely not a place I'd want to vacation and we certainly aren't a luxury vacation type family.

 

[disneysteve]

CSR's "free" dining deal would cost $3583!!!! Almost $1700 more for only 10 days!

The Disney marketing team has done a tremendous job of convincing people that "free" dining is actually free.

 

[20yBWDW]

I find the tone of some of these posts to be rather condescending. I would never mock someone who chooses to do things differently. Yet somehow it is okay to insinuate that people who make the choices I do are less informed, naive, gullible.

 

[Swan4Me]

W e used to rent a condo at beach and cook most of our food- it was a lot less expensive than WDW

 

[mom2t]

Just priced out a house and booked for the Outer Banks next summer. We moved 20 miles south of Nags Head to get a cheaper price on a house - I can drive up for want we want to do for 2000 less on our house. My Dad commented yesterday that it costs more to go there than when we go to Disney. We are doing it because some of our family have never been - our 10 year old son, my 74 year old father, and my 78 year old aunt. I was shocked at how expensive the houses are - we are on the oceanfront, nice house but no pool, or extra gamerooms. We go several times a year to Myrtle Beach and are not used to these prices. We are going the 1st of June because the houses are cheaper then. When we go to Disney and stay at OKW or Saratoga.

 

[shalom]

Myrtle Beach (also known as the Redneck Riviera) is super-cheap,

I don't like downtown Myrtle Beach, but North Myrtle Beach and some of the other towns in that area are quite nice, I think. And still cheap.

We figure that WDW will be more expensive, mostly because of park tickets. Everything else will be relatively the same (driving, lodging, meals).

For us it's the tickets and the food. The lodging is almost exactly the same -- oceanfront is more but that's because we get two units instead of one, because we want the space, but if we're off the beach a bit it's the same (we don't stay onsite at Disney so off the beach is probably the more direct comparison). Driving to Orlando is $100 bucks more than to the Myrtle Beach area. The eating costs are higher at Disney because we eat out more when doing the parks, and because we eat where we're at.

When we're visiting Myrtle Beach, I can usually find a nice-but-cheap place in between two attractions. For instance, last time we were in Myrtle Beach, we drove up to Wilmington and did the Battleship North Carolina and the Fisher Aquarium, and went to a restaurant about halfway between them that gets some of the best reviews in the area, with costs comparable to a pretty basic diner around here. Other than that we did a bit of shopping (less than $100 worth), and free activities at the resort. Past visits we've done Brookgreen Gardens (a ten-day pass for $14), the state parks (when we weren't staying on the beach), etc.

For the seven of us, Battleship North Carolina cost $84, while the Aquarium was essentially free because we are members of the local zoo and they're reciprocal. Next time we go to Orlando, we're getting five Y.E.S. tickets and already have two we got from Undercover Tourist a while back, which altogether will be about $1600 -- more if 2013 Y.E.S. prices jump much.

So Myrtle Beach entertainment & shopping prices: $84
Walt Disney World tickets: $1600

Our WDW tickets alone -- with five Y.E.S. tickets, no less! -- will cost $500 more than our first Myrtle Beach vacation. And somehow our Orlando shopping bill is well over $100, too. But IMHO it's that ticket price that's the reason a lot of families think WDW vacations are pricey. I doubt it breaks down to twenty times the usual cost for most, but I expect it's a lot higher than most people budget for non-Disney vacations. The only people I know who regularly spend that kind of money on entertainment are either those who always do theme part or amusement park-type vacations, or skiiers. If you're the type who normally hits State or National Parks, or who goes to historic sites or museums and zoos and do the reciprocal thing, Disney tickets are killer.

 

[czycropper]

We go to LBI (Barnegat Light) at the Jersey Shore the week before Labor Day every year and it costs about $2500 for the 4 of us. That's including the house rental, grocery bill, gas for both cars, and dinner out at least two nights. We get a house on beach block - 3 houses from beach front. It's relaxing and wonderful. We are beach lovers! In addition, we do another vacation at the beginning of the summer. We save for vacations throughout the year.

We have never been able to do WDW for that amount - the flights alone from Newark to either Orlando or Tampa are $800 add in the cost of parking at the airport, the hotel rooms (even the value resorts), the tickets and food the cheapest we've ever been able to go is $4,300 - that was in June.

I will say that we don't go to WDW every year since we like for our DDs to see places, like we've been to the Caribbean (3x), Galapagos, Mexico, Canada, western US, Outer Banks, all over the Eastern US.

Last year we went to Cedar Point, Holiday World and Kings Island since we are also roller coaster fanatics for 9 days and that trip cost about $3,000 including the gas, park tickets, hotels, & food.

Next year we're planning on going to England & Paris and we will be going to Disneyland-Paris because my DDs want to see the difference between there and WDW.

But we have lots of friends that go to WDW every year and love doing it! It's just not for us since we like to experience different things!

 

[disneysteve]

I will say that we don't go to WDW every year since we like for our DDs to see places, like we've been to the Caribbean (3x), Galapagos, Mexico, Canada, western US, Outer Banks, all over the Eastern US.

But we have lots of friends that go to WDW every year and love doing it! It's just not for us since we like to experience different things!

Keep in mind that for many families, it isn't a choice of one or the other. Some are fortunate to have the time and means to do both.

We go to WDW every year, but we've also been to Canada, Vermont, New Hampshire, Boston, DC, taken 4 cruises (non-Disney), California, Vegas, etc. Of course, part of being able to do that also ties in to the fact that we don't spend that much on our WDW trips (or our other trips). By doing things more frugally, it allows us to travel more often to more places.

 

[KELLY]

You can do disney for 2 weeks for less than 5,000. We are 2 adults and 2 disney kids staying at pop next year for 2 weeks with a 10 MYW with WP&M and free QSDP for 3200.00. I'm guessing air will be about 1000-12000.00. We went this year for 11 days and we didn't even spend 500.00. So it can be done. I don't want a beach vacation I live down the street from one. So yes we find disney very affordable. We are in talk right now to see if we may want to do the RDP next year. Which would tack on another 1000.00 because we would just stay at a moderate. But not sure I want to be tied down to 14 days of adr's.

 

[disykat]

:But IMHO it's that ticket price that's the reason a lot of families think WDW vacations are pricey. I doubt it breaks down to twenty times the usual cost for most, but I expect it's a lot higher than most people budget for non-Disney vacations. The only people I know who regularly spend that kind of money on entertainment are either those who always do theme part or amusement park-type vacations, or skiiers. If you're the type who normally hits State or National Parks, or who goes to historic sites or museums and zoos and do the reciprocal thing, Disney tickets are killer.

Exactly. At the beach we pay for hotel and transportation but our entertainment is free, at WDW we pay for hotel, transportaion, and entertainment. Two totally different trips, with the beach being much more budget friendly.

 

[disneysteve]

At the beach we pay for hotel and transportation but our entertainment is free

That depends on what a beach vacation means to your family. To us and many others, going to the beach means walking on the Boardwalk every night, going on rides, playing carnival-type games, spending time in the arcades, etc. That can easily burn through at least as much as tickets to the Disney parks.