Disney trip pricing...2012 vs 2014

[tbonestl]

Hello everyone. My family of 4 went to Disney in 2012(2 adults, 2 kids). We are planning a trip for the first week of May(2nd-10th). This is basically the same time we went in 2012. We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort in a standard room, and 5 day base tickets. We are basically booking the same vacation this year. Including airfare, our trip in 2012 was roughly $3000. This year, including airfare, the total is roughly $4000. Have the Disney prices really gone up that much? Both times we are using the spring resort discount promotion.

One other question. When booking through the Disney website it doesn't have any information about the new magicbands we get. Do we order those separately after we book our trip?

Thanks for all the help fellow WDW fans!

 

[manicstreet]

Hello everyone. My family of 4 went to Disney in 2012(2 adults, 2 kids). We are planning a trip for the first week of May(2nd-10th). This is basically the same time we went in 2012. We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort in a standard room, and 5 day base tickets. We are basically booking the same vacation this year. Including airfare, our trip in 2012 was roughly $3000. This year, including airfare, the total is roughly $4000. Have the Disney prices really gone up that much? Both times we are using the spring resort discount promotion.

One other question. When booking through the Disney website it doesn't have any information about the new magicbands we get. Do we order those separately after we book our trip?

Thanks for all the help fellow WDW fans![/QUOT

Don't include airfare. Then check the price. It will be more expensive but not a grand.

 

[tbonestl]

Ya. I'm sure airfare is part of it. Unfortunately, I can only find the grand total on the invoice. I wish I could find the breakdown from my last trip for a more exact comparison. I was just a little surprised on how much more it was in total.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

My experience has been that airfares have gone through the roof in the past couple years. We went the last week of May in 2012 and are going the same week this year. I'm paying almost double for our flights this year compared to 2012.

I know the increase isn't all airfare. The resort room costs have increased substantially as well, not to mention the ticket price increases. But for us at least, the vast majority of the increase in the cost of our vacation is coming from the airfare portion.

 

[suz_cute]

Sounds about right. We typically go every 2 years, and travel at off peak times. Airfare is almost doubled per/person this year. Where we used to be able to get great discounts and fly for about 200 a person, this year it was 400 per person. Also, Disney has raised the rates, and stopped the deep discounts of 40% and 50% of the past. The most we have gotten the past 2 years was 35% off.

 

[mickeynut1]

Hello everyone. My family of 4 went to Disney in 2012(2 adults, 2 kids). We are planning a trip for the first week of May(2nd-10th). This is basically the same time we went in 2012. We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort in a standard room, and 5 day base tickets. We are basically booking the same vacation this year. Including airfare, our trip in 2012 was roughly $3000. This year, including airfare, the total is roughly $4000. Have the Disney prices really gone up that much? Both times we are using the spring resort discount promotion.

Both room rates and ticket prices have gone up, but I think airfare also plays a big part in the overall increase. What we used to pay for R/T flights is what we are now finding for one way.

 

[Marionnette]

Hello everyone. My family of 4 went to Disney in 2012(2 adults, 2 kids). We are planning a trip for the first week of May(2nd-10th). This is basically the same time we went in 2012. We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort in a standard room, and 5 day base tickets. We are basically booking the same vacation this year. Including airfare, our trip in 2012 was roughly $3000. This year, including airfare, the total is roughly $4000. Have the Disney prices really gone up that much? Both times we are using the spring resort discount promotion.

One other question. When booking through the Disney website it doesn't have any information about the new magicbands we get. Do we order those separately after we book our trip?

Thanks for all the help fellow WDW fans!

I agree with the others that it is a combination of rooms, tickets and airfare increases that is causing the sticker shock. I cannot believe how much more it costs to visit Disney than it did when we first took the kids in 1996!

As to the Magic Bands - you will get an email to customize your bands about 45 days or so prior to arrival. They want to wait until final payment is made before they spend the money to ship them out. You will then go onto the My Disney Experience website where you can choose the colors and assign them to each person. Shipment is pretty quick after you have customized them.

If you fail to customize the bands or if you forget to bring them with you, you can get replacements at check in but I believe you can only get gray bands and they will not have names on the inside to distinguish one from the other.

 

[smiths02]

I don't think it is just airfare. Also, have any of your kids graduated to be Disney adults?

Room rates, ticket prices and DDP prices have gone up and discounts have gone down.

ETA: I just ran some numnbers. Our trip in 2009 was about $5k for EVERYTHING (driving, 4 adults and 1 toddler in AKL savanna room for 7 nights and 7 day base tickets with DDP)...I would estimate the same trip this year (with discounts) to be around $7K

The discount in 2009 was buy 4 and get 3 free (This applied to the room and I think the tickets), which is over a 40% savings on the room...the deal now is a percentage off (only 20% at AKL savanna view) and 1 day of ticket free

 

[FutureMayor]

I think a lot of the posters above have touched on the best places to start. There are resources on other sites that provide historical hotel room rack rates for comparison purposes. Check those out to isolate the cost of your room. The costs of your tickets should be fairly easy to isolate. Depending on where you are flying from, airfare may be $100/person higher. All of these subtle changes could add up to the amount you're missing... in just 2 years.

 

[rspencer38]

I went in 2012 and will be going again this year around the exact same time as my 2012 vacation. The price is almost identical except for slight increase for the exact same trip.

 

[piratejill]

Interestingly enough we traveled that same week in 2012 and plan to this year too! We don't pay airfare (DH works for Delta so we fly free), but our costs went up a few hundred dollars. Higher room rates and ticket prices were to blame for us.
I am a little concerned about the May 3 and 4 weekend as I just found out it is a Cheer competition weekend at WDW. We considered staying in the All Star Music family suites, but opted for POR instead for fear of hundreds of young cheer kids staying at the Value resorts. I hope the parks won't be more packed than normal due to that competition.

 

[jimandami]

One more comment regarding Magic Bands. The other poster is correct that you are supposed to get an email to customize them, but you don't always. We had a split stay in Nov/Dec, one in my name and one in my mom's. She got emails all the time about MB and FP+ for the later res, but I NEVER received anything for the first res. So, if you log onto MDE, link your resort reservation, go under "magic bands and cards," and confirm your address, you should be able to customize bands now. They won't ship until closer to your trip though. We have ours customized for Oct and Nov already.

 

[wiigirl]

My experience has been that airfares have gone through the roof in the past couple years. We went the last week of May in 2012 and are going the same week this year. I'm paying almost double for our flights this year compared to 2012.

I know the increase isn't all airfare. The resort room costs have increased substantially as well, not to mention the ticket price increases. But for us at least, the vast majority of the increase in the cost of our vacation is coming from the airfare portion.

Me too....

 

[tbonestl]

Thanks everyone! We fly out of St. Louis. My kids have not yet become "Disney adults". They will be 8 and 5 when we go on the trip. The airfare is ridiculous. I've been searching around. To get my family of 4 there and back it looks like its going to be about $1,200-$1,300! That makes it roughly $2,700 for the Caribbean Beach resort and 5 day tickets this time around.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We have been going on basically the same vacation for the last 4 years - this year will be our 5th in a row and it is $1000 more than our first one for the sane thing - and that doesn't even include the airfare - that is just the price we pay to Disney.

 

[davedmaine]

Thanks everyone! We fly out of St. Louis. My kids have not yet become "Disney adults". They will be 8 and 5 when we go on the trip. The airfare is ridiculous. I've been searching around. To get my family of 4 there and back it looks like its going to be about $1,200-$1,300! That makes it roughly $2,700 for the Caribbean Beach resort and 5 day tickets this time around.

I wouldn't complain too much; that airfare sounds pretty cheap to me