How much do you pay for a Disney World/Universal vacation?

[CalDisneyMomof2]

I wonder if part of it is that his time off carries over. Ours does to an extent, but for annual leave (for example) you lose anything over 45 days you have come January 1st. So, not actually pretty common for the people who've been around forever to end up taking the entire month of December off b/c come 1/1 they lose everything they earned for the year.

His bosses just always think it's a bad time to take a vacation He works for one of the major 4 sports organizations and during the season it's a bad time to take a vacation, during the off season it's a bad time because they're preparing for the season - there's no in between! I've given up. I dream about taking a 2 week long European vacation and while the funds will be there, I worry about the time off. Not going to happen with this job. Oh well - first world problems.

 

[HM]

His bosses just always think it's a bad time to take a vacation He works for one of the major 4 sports organizations and during the season it's a bad time to take a vacation, during the off season it's a bad time because they're preparing for the season - there's no in between! I've given up. I dream about taking a 2 week long European vacation and while the funds will be there, I worry about the time off. Not going to happen with this job. Oh well - first world problems.

When do the bosses take vacation? I'd use theirs as a gauge of what should be acceptable.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

When do the bosses take vacation? I'd use theirs as a gauge of what should be acceptable.

Problem is, my husband is a boss, too. So he can't take vacations when they take vacations. Someone has to manage. He's been there for 4 and a half years now - it's still a learning experience. He doesn't want to risk his job (nor do I) so we do our best with what we have. I shouldn't be complaining - we do take vacations. I just wish we had a couple days longer sometimes. I feel like I'm just starting to relax on day 5 then poof, it's time to pack.

We are doing 10 days in the beginning of August (missing 6 work days one of which is a game day but there is no way around it) and we are more than thrilled - he's put in his time off already, but I imagine he will still get some flack. It's inevitable. We're used to it by now. We try not to let it get to us and just enjoy the time off we do have. I'm just envious of others is all. Happy for everyone else, really, but a tad bit envious.

Edit: By learning experience, I don't mean his actual job, but learning when it's ok to take a vacation. We've taken big vacations in February, April, July & November and they all seem to be the wrong time - they're all different times of the year. Like I said, first world problems.

 

[OhMari]

Thanks for this information, lol...I relayed it to my hubby, and he was all proud of himself, and basically told me that DVC would cost probably more than what we usually spend at Disney, lol...he said if you finance it the finance charges are crazy expensive and then you have your annual dues on top of that...oh well, he's the math guy, lol

How much are the Annual dues. I once heard it was $500 and I heard someone over talking that it is $1000. I just stayed at the Wilderness Villa's and rented points and paid close to $1000 for 6 nights. We were only in a studio and it was me and my dh, but why would people want to pay that, when I just paid that amount to stay there.

 

[Minniesgal]

We have just stayed 16 nights in 1 bedroom villas. As we haven't been for 3 years and won't be again for 3 years we really splurged on food and drinks.

Our budget is huge but mainly because I see it as a 1 in 3 year splurge.

Flights $4000 but paid by my employer as we are expats and that's part of my deal
DVC annual dues $2000
Tickets $2000!disney and universal
Food and drinks $3000
Spends $1000

So about $12000 for 4 of us for 16 nights but we only paid $8000 purselves

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

For me and the hubs, our budget is $2500 (but sometimes I go over) but we generally keep our trips short (4-5 days). We do 2 TS/day and don't buy much souvenirs these days. We just like to eat lol. We generally stay moderate or deluxe.

 

[garnetandblack]

We rented a 1 bedroom for 7 nights at SSR, bought 7 day hoppers through Tickets at Work, and spent about $700 on TIW, food and souvenirs. The total was under $4,000 after upgrading to AP 2/27-3/5/16.

We have a June trip planned and are staying at Summer Bay in a 2 bed 2 bath for $315 through Sky Auction. Our November trip will be at Wyndham Reunion Resort for $425. We plan 2 more week long trips with our APs and possibly a few long weekends. I'm also trying to convince my extended family to rent a house for 2 weeks over the summer with me. We won't buy any souvenirs on those trips - only food. I think we will spend about $8,000 total as round trip driving cost is only $75.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

Me, DW, DS13 and DS5 April 9-16
Tickets $505 (portion of annual pass expenditure based on prorated days)
OKW studio $0 (DVC points - compliments of DM)
Food/misc - $800.00
Gas $135.00
Arrival day hotel $75.00
Total $1515.00...Can't wait until Saturday 4-9-16!!!!!

 

[lustergirl]

May 8-May 13th, 2 adults, staying at AS Sports with 6 day hopper passes.

$1300.00

 

[Happyinwonerland]

We usually try to keep it at $3500 or less.
We stay off site in a rental condo or townhouse for $100/night or less for 7 nights. We drive, gas costs $150 round trip. We buy about $100 worth of food and water for the condo, and bring water and snacks into the parks. We eat all breakfasts and maybe a couple easy dinners in condo. We don't buy a lot of souvenirs because I have enough "stuff" in my house and I hate clutter. So we let DD get a couple things, I buy a Christmas ornament, and that is that.
Breakdown:
Gas $150
Lodging: $700
Groceries: $100
Tickets: $1148.92 if we buy through park savers. Our next trip will be the first time we've had to pay for a ticket for all 3 of us ( DD was under 3 on all our previous trips, and I currently have an AP to use for our next trip)
Food- I budget $1000 for this, but I usually spend way less
Dog boarding: $150
Souvenirs: $100

We like nice vacations but we also try to budget so we can take a few trips per year.

 

[Marionnette]

How much are the Annual dues. I once heard it was $500 and I heard someone over talking that it is $1000. I just stayed at the Wilderness Villa's and rented points and paid close to $1000 for 6 nights. We were only in a studio and it was me and my dh, but why would people want to pay that, when I just paid that amount to stay there.

Dues are based on the number of points that you own and your home resort. The cost per point for each resort in 2016 was:

AKV $6.4152
BLT $5.2830
BWV $6.1753
SSR $5.4391
VWL $6.2152
HHI $6.8153
Aulani $6.7913
Aulani (Subsidized) $5.1036
OKW $6.0107​

Six nights (Sun. - Sat.) at VWL in a studio (mid-March) would have been 106 points. The dues on 106 points for a VWL owner would have been $658.81. It would have cost the owner even less in dues if they owned at another resort with lower dues.

 

[OhMari]

Dues are based on the number of points that you own and your home resort. The cost per point for each resort in 2016 was:

AKV $6.4152
BLT $5.2830
BWV $6.1753
SSR $5.4391
VWL $6.2152
HHI $6.8153
Aulani $6.7913
Aulani (Subsidized) $5.1036
OKW $6.0107​

Six nights (Sun. - Sat.) at VWL in a studio (mid-March) would have been 106 points. The dues on 106 points for a VWL owner would have been $658.81. It would have cost the owner even less in dues if they owned at another resort with lower dues.

Ok, I get it now, I thought it was the same price for everyone across the board. So let's say you bought into DVC 15 years ago, does Disney ever raise the points for to how many it takes for one night? And you may not have enough points anymore to stay for a week?

 

[Marionnette]

Ok, I get it now, I thought it was the same price for everyone across the board. So let's say you bought into DVC 15 years ago, does Disney ever raise the points for to how many it takes for one night? And you may not have enough points anymore to stay for a week?

Each resort has a finite number of points that are sold and that's it. It's kind of complicated, but the short explanation is that if Disney were to increase the number of points needed for a villa during one part of the year, they have to reduce the number of points needed at another time of the year. So, for instance, they *could* increase the cost for Friday and Saturday nights to double the amount that they are currently, but then they would have to reduce the remaining nights in a calendar year by the same number of total points. Or they could increase the number of points needed during the Christmas season, but they would have to lower the number of points needed during the rest of the year to make up for that.

 

[OhMari]

Each resort has a finite number of points that are sold and that's it. It's kind of complicated, but the short explanation is that if Disney were to increase the number of points needed for a villa during one part of the year, they have to reduce the number of points needed at another time of the year. So, for instance, they *could* increase the cost for Friday and Saturday nights to double the amount that they are currently, but then they would have to reduce the remaining nights in a calendar year by the same number of total points. Or they could increase the number of points needed during the Christmas season, but they would have to lower the number of points needed during the rest of the year to make up for that.

I never knew that. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[QVCshopper]

I found a deal for the end of August, and we are doing 8 nights at the Polynesian with 8-day non-hopper tickets (and 1 free water park day) for five people for $3542; plane tickets from Philly are another $949. For five people for over a week, I don't think that's too bad. I already have most saved on gift cards and paid off. For food, we will mostly do quick service bc 2 of my 3 kids are now considered Disney adults.

 

[mrsabbott]

We are a family of 6 on a budget. My oldest is 11, youngest is 4. We drive down and stay in a condo off site. We will get the Military Salute Tickets (4 days, Water Park & More). We will eat some at the condo, but plan to eat out fairly often. Some TS, but mostly QS. I don't mind cooking some, especially on our relaxation days at the condo, but for me the best part of vacation is not having to feed everyone all the time! We usually eat breakfast before leaving, just drink water, and pack a few snacks with us for in between. We will let each of the kids have $50 for souvenirs, plus some extra for family souvenirs. We will take our own pictures (minus the ones we get for free at the Disney Visa Meet & Greets) and I will make them into a souvenir book on Shutterfly. The miscellaneous is for parking fees and things like that.
Gas: $300
Condo: $800
Tickets: $1200
Food: $2000
Souvenirs: $400
Misc: $150

Total: $4850

That doesn't include pet sitting.. we aren't quite sure which route we will go for that one. Looking into boarding them but may pay someone to stay and take care of them for us.

 

[angierae]

My trip to Universal in January 2016: (Me and DD21, early Friday morning through Tuesday afternoon.)

$1497.03 - 4 nights at Royal Pacific Resort (2 people) 3 day park to park tickets and their shuttle
$59.99 - Photo connect (Black Friday special)
$340.40 - two round trip flights (Spirit airlines)

Hotel breakfast before we flew out Friday morning: free
brought snacks on the plane for lunch.
Split some tacos at Bumblebee Taco as a snack.
Friday night dinner at Margaritaville: (2 drinks each)
Saturday lunch at the park: (Three Broomsticks - got their dining plan which got us another drink and a snack later)
Saturday dinner, Luau:
Sunday lunch at the park - ate at Louie's,
Sunday dinner was at Red Oven Pizza
Monday we had breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron and did the dining plan again
Monday dinner we ate at the Mexican place in CityWalk and had one drink each as well.
Tuesday morning before we left we had breakfast at Islands Dining Room

Looking at my receipts it was about $525 for food (we could have eaten much, much cheaper, but the luau was a gift and this wasn't really supposed to be a "budget" trip.

So it was about $2500 before souvenirs.

 

[MamaBelle4]

Family of 6 + my sister.
DVC rental: 2,000 (my inlaws picked up 1,000 for their share since they're coming too)
5 day non PH: 1,980
DDP: 1,817 (based on 2016 pricing)
Plus gas and possible vehicle rental fro driving down from PA, so 5,797 for a 7 night stay.

 

[tripletmomsrock]

We are a family of 5 staying for 8 days going in July. It's going to run us 7k.

 

[dsdeleon]

We always split stay deluxe. I cannot for the life of me find my spreadsheet from last Spring Break Easter week but me and my 2 sons did 6 nights AKL and 2 night Royal Pacific, 1 night transfer on points for $3600. Points were used for flights, annual passes (both Disney and Uni) were spread out over trips, we rented DVC points and rented a cheap car for the Uni part only. That included Simbas Clubhouse, arcade, go karting, oh and even an Everglades Airboat tour.

We have an upcoming split stay in August (11 nights) that looks like this (family of 4):
AKL Concierge(7 nights):$1987
Convertible Rental(12 days): $390 (might downgrade to $255)
Sapphire Falls (3 nights with $75 food credit - not deluxe but brand new): $441
One night at POP for transfer: $127
Flights : Southwest points + $21 (May use ebay bucks for Jetblue instead)
Disney 6 day non hopper : $1020 (gift cards and my company gives 10% off)
Memory Maker : $20 share
Uni Tickets : APs spread out: $313
Wild Africa Trek: $800

So this is $5200 without food, but it's concierge mostly with the expensive tour. It will hit $6200 (one ADR only and we eat in the villa) but it's a great deal IMO. My biggest savings is transferring a lot (going somewhere cheap or free on one Sat night), renting points, doing the gift card churning (not even really reflected above) and renewing Uni APs.