How much are you willing to spend for your vacation?

[MrsJ Henry]

I was wondering what other families feel is a reasonable amount to spend on your vacation to WDW.
Now that we have a child our vacation ways and budget are changing. So I'd love to hear what a family of 3-4 (or more) are willing to spend on their vacation to Disney. Including everything.

 

[Kim1964]

I went with $4000-$5000 but now I realize I should have voted $5000 or more. Airfare alone this year was $1300 for us (family of 4). An 11 night stay (split between mod and deluxe) is $2400, park tickets were around $1200. I estimate around $1000 for food, $200 for rental car, and $300-$400 spending money (kids have their own, this is just for DH and me).

This is our longest stay yet. Prior to this, we could do it for about $5000 for 6 or 7 nights, but that was when we got a couple of free airline tickets with a rewards card.

 

[ssmarsh]

Just booked our trip for March '09. Family of 4, 4 nights, 3 days at CSR with 3 day park passes (no hopper with dining) ran around $2100. Haven't booked the airfare yet since Southwest isn't taking reservations that far out yet. We have four free airline tickets so that will be free...otherwise we'd be staying home!

 

[Aliceacc]

A typical week in upstate Lake George runs us about $2000 for my family of 5.

This 6 night Disney vacation, even with our 40% off PIN code, is $4600 including resort, tickets, meal plan, and plane fare.

We have $770 in Disney gift cards (every single occasion for the past year has included gift cards) and another $280 in Chase Disney Visa rewards, so spending money is more than covered. The change we had saved in a jar covered the new waterproof camera my husband wanted for the trip (He's a photographer on the side, and didn't want to lug 30 pounds of cameras and lenses along.)

 

[MUFFYCAT]

A typical week in upstate Lake George runs us about $2000 for my family of 5.

This 6 night Disney vacation, even with our 40% off PIN code, is $4600 including resort, tickets, meal plan, and plane fare.

We have $770 in Disney gift cards (every single occasion for the past year has included gift cards) and another $280 in Chase Disney Visa rewards, so spending money is more than covered. The change we had saved in a jar covered the new waterproof camera my husband wanted for the trip (He's a photographer on the side, and didn't want to lug 30 pounds of cameras and lenses along.)

Very similiar for us. Our week in Lake George is almost $3000 now.
Our Disney is about $5,000. It would have been less but the airfare killed us this year.
We have $560 reward money and $700 from saved change so that helps alot.

 

[RMulieri]

My 6 night pkg this Sept at BCv in a 1 bdr with 6 day park hoppers and dining plan for 3 ( 2 adults 1 child) is $3117.
airfare RT $ 780. So that is about $4000. before we even get to spending money.

 

[magicmouse2]

for 5 of us coming from the UK for 3 weeks it costs around $10000-12000 As the airfare is half the cost we stay longer to make the most of it.

 

[ShellyLynn3630]

Our 8night/9day vacation in September with free dining is costing us 3100. But we have $650 in rewards and gift cards to help out, so were paying 2500 OOP. Two adults, one junior and one child. And were driving from north Georgia.

 

[rt2dz]

Here are the generalities: We spend $5K-$6K for a 10 day vacation for a family of 5. We go every year and get APs every other year--renewing isn't a financially good move since the month we take our trips usually change and it's 30 days past the AP expiration. By renewing you generally get one month free v. regular cost. We travel value or regular season and so far, knock on wood, have never paid rack rate. We don't do DDP since it isn't a good value to us, but do purchase the DDE card. We drive since round trip it's $500 in gas for 5 people, much less than airfare; 20 hours in the car is just fine with me.

 

[earthelves]

The Disney Deluxe Suite At WL CL For Our Christmas Vacation Is Way Over $5,000 I Guess If I Didnt Have It Though I Wouldnt Be Spending It

 

[Brooke4]

We booked a six night stay at the Poly recently with a 1 day base ticket, it came to just over $4000. We still have to add on more park days and the dining plan...

 

[twinklebug]

My rule of thumb for the past 5 years has been to shoot for around $1,000 per person per week. Doesn't matter what my income is - it's my rule & if I can't afford it, we don't go (gasp!). If I can afford more, we go more frequently (yea!), or it hits the savings (found money - cha-ching) If I come in under that $1K/pp after airfare, rental/transfer, hotel, food, tickets & misc. I've done well.

It's easier with the kids younger as they're less expensive to get through the gates & to feed. Once they hit preteen - look out! You can't satisfy the hunger or need for ~stuff~. LOL.

 

[Coconuts]

I voted for $3-4000 but I think our last trip was realistically $4-5000 for 8 nights. Our package was @$3600 with airfare(that was last year before airfare went up) and we probably spent at least $1000 more on extras.

 

[Crisgw]

We budget 4-8k per trip depending on how long we stay

 

[mmmears]

I voted over $5K, since we have to pay alot for airfare and we tend to go to WDW less often and stay longer when we do go. Also, we like to stay in the deluxes.

This poll is showing how ridiculous that WDW commercial is -- a family of four can have their dream vacation for $1K! Funny!

 

[chimo2u]

Just booked our trip for March '09. Family of 4, 4 nights, 3 days at CSR with 3 day park passes (no hopper with dining) ran around $2100. Haven't booked the airfare yet since Southwest isn't taking reservations that far out yet. We have four free airline tickets so that will be free...otherwise we'd be staying home!

Hi! We just booked at Coronado Springs for Sept of 2009.... 11 nights, 10 day park hopper water park tickets plus the dining package. I thought it was a pretty good price at $5700.00 for all of us (a family of 4... our 2 kids are considered adult pricing at 13 and 17 ) I still have to add airfare on, but 5,700.00 for tickets/accomodation and food was pretty good, I thought after getting quotes for deluxes that started at about $ 7,000.00. I had to choose a moderate resort this time (our first trip was AKL Club level and we all fell in love of course!).... but with the economy and the Canadian dollar doing weird things lately, I couldn't justify the 2 grand or more price difference. Hey, at least we'll be at Disney World, right!
Marie

 

[3boys4me]

I voted 4000-5000. lets see, we have 8 nights at csr with park hopper and dining with a code for right about 2700. We drive so I'm going to guess about 500 for gas roundtrip. We have 300 visa card reward points, so i guess 4000-5000 sounds about right after all the souveniers and extras. But I also have to add that I will buy the kids some new clothes before we go so that I don't have to do laundry on vacation. We also get new socks and we will all get new tennis shoes within the next week to break in for the trip. So I guess that is probably another 300 or so. I guess that still keeps us in that range.

 

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

I voted over $5000. That is usually what our cost is, but we have gone for less. Our past trips have included stays in monorail resorts, but with the rising cost of room rates and fewer discounts, we are being priced out of those resorts.

Our last trip in Feb. 08, we stayed fewer nights (5 as opposed to 8+) and stayed with a teacher's discount at the Dolphin. Our cost was, of course, much less than usual.

We also don't purchase packages and DDP. We just come out cheaper without a package and the DDP would not suit the way we like to eat at WDW. We sometimes eat offsite at Giordano's (great Chicago style pizza) and other restaurants and some nights like to 'eat around the world' in Epcot instead of a sit down meal.

I can't imagine how much it would be if we booked a package with DDP

 

[Missin'Disney]

My 6 night pkg this Sept at BCv in a 1 bdr with 6 day park hoppers and dining plan for 3 ( 2 adults 1 child) is $3117.
airfare RT $ 780. So that is about $4000. before we even get to spending money.

How did you get such a good price for a 1BR???

 

[sharadoc]

Round numbers for our trip 11 nights (3 adult price, 1 child):

$2,000 All Star Music Family Suite (AAA Discount)
$1,000 10 day Tickets, no add-ons
$ 700 Driving, gas, hotel, snacks
$1,000 Food (groceries for room, CS meals 1/day)
$ 500 Spending

We think that's pretty good for 2 weeks at WDW. If we went with a villa or any other suite arrangement, it would be out of our budget.

That's the real key - how much of a percentage of your annual income are you willing to spend? A two earner household where both earn over $100,000 could easily spend $10-15,000 on a family vacation and not blink an eye!