How much are you willing to spend for your vacation?

[mhconley]

I did not choose a dollar amount. The answer to, "How much are you willing to spend for your vacation?" should be the same for everybody. That answer is, "What I can comfortably afford."

I have a vacation fund line item in my budget and only spend what is available in that fund. Some years we may only spend a couple of hundred dollars, other years we've spent upwards of $20,000. It all depends upon one's financial situation at the time.

This year, between $4,000 and $5,000 was comfortably affordable.

Martin

 

[CindiF]

For the three of us at CSR for eight nights, Park Hopper with water parks, food and flights, it will end up around $3000. However -- 2 of our 3 flights were free (frequent flyer miles) and we got a pretty good discount on the room rate. But we really don't want to spend more than that for a vacation, anyway.

 

[parmtoo]

This next trip we are treating our kids & grandkids,(10 people total), so we are spending alot more then we usually would, about 8k.
Usually we would only have Me, DH & DS (13), so I think it would be about 3k
Last trip, Dec. 07,we stayed value, Pop, and it was my mom, myself, and DS. We spent about 2700.00 for the 3 of us.
I say spend what ever you can afford, and enjoy!

 

[rangerfan94]

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.)

Funny reading this,my family and i go to Lake George every summer(Depe Dene )and i was just telling my wife that the $3000 we spend there isnt that much less than the Disney trip we took last October

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Definitely over $5,000! I just booked our July 2009 trip. 14 nights at GF with AP dining plan. We already have APs so no ticket cost involved. Room and dining are $9100 plus airfare plus spending money.

 

[brekin67]

We have only gone during the free dining plan for the past 5 years. We generally pay $250pp for airfare from Tulsa to MCO. Then we pay around $2,000 for our hotel and tickets. This is for a family of four.

 

[Hugpug]

I spend what I can afford. General being between 1500-2000 for 1 person. I always stay mod or WL and mostley 1 sit down meal a day. I only purchase AP if I know I can afford to go twice within the year and maybe get the DDE card. I always choose Value Season so I can stay at least 7-9 days. I budget every penny so as not to be stuck with any bills when I get home. Its no vacation if I am going to be in dept for a year to pay for it. As much as I love Disney my days are numbered as to how ofen I can go with the prices getting out of my reach. I have had to skip 2 years now and more then likly after this trip it will be 5 years or more before I can go again unless I come upon a winfall LOL

 

[jdd]

EEKS! Do people really spend over $5K for a one week vacation?? My husband would kill me and we'd never go back!

As a PP said, though, it's all what you want to do. We can easily do our vacation for just over $2,000. Last November, in fact, I think I spent, out of pocket, about $1,500. Now, my youngest was still free (now he's 3- ), we stayed at ASMo, no park hoppers/water parks (we don't really need them), we drove instead of flying and we had the Disney Visa deal. We did 5-nights, 6-days, so that's really not a whole week either.

The deal came out to about $1,200, I had $400 in Visa rewards to offset that. Gas totalled about $250 (there are no tolls), and food was about $400 for the 6 days. We only did one TS restaurant (Crystal Palace, our favorite!), and we had breakfast in our room each day, so that kept the food costs down (and got us more time in the parks )

We're not big souvenir people either, so each boy bought one small thing. Took LOTS of pictures though.

 

[triplet_mom_2001]

I voted 3k-4k. Our family of 5 will be going to Disney is December for 6 nights Here is our anticipated expenses:

$2,500 POR, dining and passes
250 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
400 Airfare (we have 4 Southwest flight vouchers)
700 Airport parking, tips, souvenirs and misc.

We try to travel as economically as possible. Your budget will depend on your own travel priorities.

Have fun,

Lisa

 

[bigbabyblues]

It depends. However much I am able to save for the trip is the amount we have to spend. It's a little more than normal this year, because we bought APs for the four of us. Our trip is Thanksgiving week, and we decided that we're going back at the end of May when school is out, so that affect our spending a little bit this trip.

 

[Luvamouse]

If I figure just the part for my family of four from our Grand Gathering last Thanksgiving- 10 nights at the Poly, 10 day hoppers, no dining plan but 1 TS meal each day plus whatever else we wished, a number of pins and lanyards I am almost embarrassed to admit to... about $7000. This includes a 1400 mile drive (each way) with expenses totalling about $1000 total- gas, food, one night lodging either way. I am budgeting the same for next year's Easter 6 night trip. Increased gas, room cost due to holiday, $700 for kennel for the hounds... Maybe I spent more last fall and don't want to admit it to myself. Actually, we put everypurchase on the KTWW card and paid 1 lump sum when we left- it was a room only so all I had paid ahead was 1 night's lodging- so I really do know what we paid.

Is it worth it to me? Yes. It is in place of an approximately $3-4000 trip for several weeks to visit family in the mid-west, so I consider this a $3-4K upgrade . I think the Poly is worth every extra bit for my family. It makes the trip for us. I admire those who go and enjoy their trips on a much smaller budget- it just isn't for us. I'd rather cut back somewhere else in my life and go to WDW less frequently, but kind of splurge. I would rather save- like we just did- for several years to go and do it "our way".

When it's all said and done, all you have are the memories, so let's start making some right now!

 

[Lizzybear]

Coming from the UK it's pretty much impossible to keep it under $5k for a 2 week trip when spending money is factored in, even for the cheapest accomodation/flights/food options. Our last trip was $5400 for the 2 of us for 2 weeks at POFQ, flights, 14 day ultimate WDW tickets, hire car (including under 25s insurance) and we also got free dining. We bought tickets for Busch, Seaworld, Cirque, KSC, MNSSHP and Universal separately but I don't have the figures for those anymore. Spending money.. Well we went a bit crazy with shopping (I hardly shop over here for clothes, make-up etc and stock up in the US since it's cheaper!) but DDP covered most of our food with the exception of a few offsite meals and some Walmart groceries like bottled water. We save hard and sacrifice stuff over the year for our vacations, though, and don't mind splashing out a bit as long as we can afford to

 

[SplashMtnCrew]

2 adults/ 1 child (12yo)
Just booked 7days/6nights WL club level (value season)
1 day base tickets pp
basic dining plan
3 day park hopper for DS
gas
spending $

$4500

 

[LegoMom3]

Our family of 5 has taken/booked two week-long trips to Disney.

1st Trip: 7 nights at POR (most affordable lodging for 5 people); 7-day Park Hoppers; $100/day spending money; Free Dining; ~$860. for airfare. If memory serves we spent in the neighborhood of $4K altogether.

2nd Trip: 8 nights at POR; 7-day non-Hopper tix; $100/day fun money; Free Dining; $912. airfare. Again, right around $4K.

I consider that reasonable for my family, for a week at Disney.

.

 

[tlrotzoll]

It sure makes me feel better to read this. We will be spending about $5000 four our trip. 1 week in WDW for 4. Add about another $1000 to spend some time in US/IOA before WDW.

We have only been one other time & won't go again for, at least, a few years. Therefore, we are doing all that we can afford.

 

[ReneeA]

This trip is the most expensive for us yet! We always go during free dining and go for 8 or 9 nights. The most we've spent until this trip has been $2150 - which included 9 nights at CSR, airfare from Detroit, park tickets, and the DDP.

This trip is 7 days/6 nights at CSR with park tickets, DDP, and airfare and will cost us $2570. Still pretty good since we had a PIN code and couldn't make the free dining dates work for us this year.

 

[REL1203]

well, for me its hard to say. I take a couple vacations each year. For example, this year, we went to Disney for 10 days in June, going to the beach for 10 days in late Aug/Early Sept, DW for 5 days in Oct, and a couple days at the beach in Nov/Dec, so combined its high, seperated, its still high, but not that bad

 

[hoosiergirl7]

I voted for over $5,000 because although we might not spend that we budget that much. The next planned trip is in Dec 2009. We are treating my parents to their 1st ever WDW trip. Staying BWI on the club level, with park hopper tickets and DDP and it's going to cost us $6600 for all of us (4 adults + 1 child). This does not include airfare. None necessary as we will be moving to Atlanta this fall and can drive the short 6 hr distance.

I know living only 6 hrs away we will go between now and then.

 

[proteus]

We have spent anywhere from 1,500 to 10,000, our typical WDW stay is 8 days and around 5,500 for 2 people. Vacation time is sacred to me so we spend freely. Usual breakdown (for 2):

3,200 for deluxe resort and tickets
240 travel costs
960 for meals (120 per day)
500 for activities like renting boats
1,100 for buying stuff

That is the budget and we don't always spend the entire amount. I know a lot is spent on buying things but I get stuff for the house, clothes, and whatever I can find in the way of interesting items at Epcot.

 

[YolantasKids]

There are 6 of us, so my vote is $5K+. The hotel/tickets alone are more than that for all of us.