How much does a week cost?

[Suzie75]

Curious how much people spend....especially since people go yearly or even more than that. This is our first family trip and we are spending so much I have no idea how the heck people so this yearly. What are we doing wrong??? This trip off property with rental car and flights and tickets is costing $5,000 before food etc. I am boggled how people can afford to do this over and over.

 

[CAS239]

Depends where you're coming from, if you're going to the parks everyday, what you'll be eating, what hotel staying at, etc

We live about 2.5 hours away and have AP's. Never stay on property and eat outside the park so save a bunch of money there. We generally go about 3-4 days at a time every month and a half to 2 months. If we were staying a week though I'd anticipate to spend around $700-1000..including hotel and food

 

[MrWonderful]

Family of 6
7 nights old key west 2 BR Villa at 35% off rack
Standard Dining Plan
6 days park hoppers
$8800
add airfare (super cheap Spirit)
10 grand for the week... difficult, yes, but we've saved 7 years, and about half that amount is credit card points and Disney Dollars from our 2% Disney card. So about 5k out of pocket.
Certainly cant do this often. Last trip was 2009 and was about 30% less... Welcome to get less, pay more; But we will have a blast anyway!!!

Enjoy your trip!

 

[smchristy]

I thought it was just me feeling this way. It is not cheap to go to Disney no matter what you do.

I am just at the beginning of the planning stage for our family of 5 (me, hubs, DS14, DD8 and DS5). I am completely overwhelmed by the planning process and ADR's and FP+ etc.... My husband and I are looking at this trip as the "Trip of a Lifetime" or a "One and Done" trip.

Any tips on how to figure out if the dining plan is worth it?

 

[WDW Traveler]

We have gone almost every year or so for the past 10+ years. We usually do it on the cheap unless we are staying with my in-laws who own DVC (then we go cheaper with no hotel cost ). For three of us (all Disney Adults for the past 8 years), if we are going alone, an average cost for 7 nights/8 days, staying at a Value Resort, with Flights, Food, Rental Car and Park tickets (usually 6/7 days with no park hopper) will run us about $3500 depending on the time of year. Now we haven't been to WDW since 2014 (went on a cruise in 2015) so not sure how prices have increased in the past couple years - I might be surprised!!

We spend as little as possible on our room because all we do is sleep there. We are the type of people who don't care about resort amenities as other do, so hotel is unimportant. We usually get a mid-sized car (DH hates the buses, we always rent a car) and I use the best coupons I can find and usually score a car for $150 or less. Flights, we are at the mercy of the airlines, usually can get them for about $250 RT each. And food, we eat when we are hungry, ad a few TS in the mix. Tickets aren't negotiable. You pay what they are!

 

[MrWonderful]

To see if the dining plan is worth it for your eating style/plans, try http://www.distripplanner.com/

 

[dashofsunshine]

We are from TN. It's just myself and my husband. We usually drive down, and always stay off property. We always go in April or May, and I've never seen even a value room for less than $130 per night during F&G (and most are more). Last trip we got a room at an off property golf resort...completely renovated with kitchen (granite counter tops and stove, full fridge), jacuzzi tub and shower, living room, and bedroom...enormous on site pool with water slide...$85 per night. 10 minutes from Disney gates. We never do the dining plan, either. Park tickets are what they are and we just pay full price for those, but that's ok!

We don't have tons of money and we LOVE Disney - so, we do it on the cheap. We go usually every 2 years or so - there were a few years there that we went every year. Rarely do we spend over $1,600, and that includes 5 days of parks, 5 nights at a resort, gas, food, alcohol, and souvenirs.

 

[smchristy]

To see if the dining plan is worth it for your eating style/plans, try http://www.distripplanner.com/

Perfect! Thank you!

 

[loves to dive]

Caution, that planner is going to use average costs and can be off by a significant amount, if you are really trying to figure it out, look at the menus on line and actually pick what you think you are going to order, you'll come closer.

As far as how much it costs, I go twice a year, at least one of those trips is solo the other with my grown son. I have an AP and don't always stay the same amount of nights so it's hard to factor in how much tickets cost but I'm going to guess for me around $350 for 5 nights/ 6 days. Last trip I bought my son the deal on parksavers that was 7 day park hopper for the cost of 4 days, I think it was a little over $380. I'll use those numbers for my upcoming trip in Sept. just for a guess. I'm actually going solo but I'll factor in my son for comparison sake. I'm doing 2 nights at CS which is costing me $257 total (went through Orbitz and had a discount of theirs to apply then had some Orbitz points) 3 nights at Swan which will be $855 (that includes parking since I drive down). Total lodging $1111.36 for 5 nights/6 days. The lodging would be the same if my son went. We drive down so gas will average around $75 round trip. Without food I'm at around $1900 if my son were to go, around $1500 without him. Now for food. It's during F&W by design so most of my meals will be sampling from booths, last year I spent about $150 for that but I got a glass of Dom Perignon which was over $35 for that one glass (and so not worth it). I'm guessing this year it will be closer to $125. I'll most likely do at least 1 seminar a day, they are $15 ea so that is $75 for seminars since I won't be drinking wine on that last day then driving 8 hours home. Chances are I'll do 2 on some days and most likely at least one food and wine pairing meal, I'll guess around $75 for that. So for food and seminars I'm at around $275, I'll add another $100 to that to fudge as if my son were there. Now I'm up to $2275 if my son were there $1795 for just me. I'm going to round up to $2500 just for possibly other meals, a souvenir (which for me is either a mask from Italy about $180, or a Dooney bag about $190 or a watch about $130). So there you go, a trip to F&W if my son were to go would be around $2500 for the two us, going solo (which I'm actually doing) would be around $1800 or so.

How do I do that twice a year? I save and am cheap where everything else comes in. I reuse zip lock bags, I buy store brands, I rarely buy new clothes or shoes for me and we rarely eat out. Note, my honey is not on these trips, he hates to travel and he hates crowds, he prefers the alone time. The AP is paid for up front, in my case it will be a renewal and that is a little less than buying a new one. I use the discount that I get with it for event tickets and meals if offered. For my upcoming trip my AP is still current and this will be the third trip on it, I happened to luck out and get F&W last year, F&G this year and F&W again on it, it expires a week after my trip and I will most likely renew. But for this trip, tickets are not a factor. I had to pay for the room through Orbitz up front, that was $256.70 on my credit card which will be paid off when it comes due, I have a cash back on all purchases cc so I'll get 1% of that back, only $2.56 but I use that card for all my purchases and pay if off every month. Doing that I usually get at least a $50 cash card free for each trip, sometimes $100. That goes toward those food and misc. things. So I only owe $854.66 for the other leg of the trip. I had to make a deposit of $215 on the second leg up front. Again the cc, again 1% back from that so another $2 cash back and again that will be paid off when due. So I only owe $639.66 for the rest of my resort stay, I'll use the cc and pay that on check out and again earn cash back and pay it off when due. In the mean time, if any of the seminars come available before the trip to book early, I will and most likely get an AP discount, last year I paid $13 for the $15 seminars, again using cc getting cash back and paying before I went. I send a certain amount of money out of my paycheck every month to savings, it goes directly from my direct deposit so I don't even miss it. Currently I doing what the difference in my salary would be if I were a 3/4 time employee (I'm experimenting to see if I can live on that since I want to cut my hours back). So if I need it, there is money in savings. I will most likely buy at least one disney gift card for $50 from target, using my red card so I get 5% off. My red card is hooked back to my checking account so that will come out of cash but gives me another $50 to use along with whatever cash back from the cc I'm using, I currently have a $50 visa card in my drawer from that. Sam's Club also offers a disney gift card for 5% off if you are a member and I am so I might go ahead and buy another $50. Giving me $150 for that food spending money.

So that is how much it costs me and how I do it. Not easy and I'm not rich by any means, just takes some creative thinking and a lot of math and searching resort discounts. There is a possibility that the Swan will come up with a better discount than I currently have (I use my AAA discount) if they do I'll switch my reservation. I changed it 4 times last trip, once at the Dolphin then moved to the Swan and got another discount at the Swan the day before my penalty date for cancelling after that. If Disney comes out with AP discounts for the time frame I'm going, I'll check those and if it's a better deal then I'm paying at Swan for either BC/YC or BW, again I'll switch. There is no cancellation fee at Swan, I got a higher rate for that could have saved $40 a night for no cancellation but knowing I might change it, it was worth hedging my bets. The CS has a $25 cancellation fee, that is new through Orbitz, I think I could have gone through Disney and not had that but I would have paid around $60 more per night, the $25 was a better deal.

 

[Darcy03231]

This is such a subjective question/answer as people have different income levels, family size, and vacation priorities. For our family the amount can vary greatly depending on how many of us are traveling, how long we're going for, where we are staying, etc.

Last trip there were two of us, we stayed for a week at the Grand Floridian with park hoppers, did the deluxe dining plan, several tours (Keys to the Kingdom, Behind the Seeds and Backstage Safari), La Nouba, and bought some expensive merchandise. We fly in from the northeast and I like to rent a car. I spent roughly $8,500.

I've also gone with four of us for a week, stayed at All Star Movies, 7 day non-park hoppers, did all QS dining, had breakfast in the room, everyone got one souvenir and spent about $3500.

As to how we afford it, both DH and I have good jobs and we live well below our means. We've always been good budgeters and savers. We're also at a point in our lives now that our children are grown and out of the house. We have no debt other than our monthly bills. We've always budgeted a dollar amount each year for vacations from our paychecks and then we've supplemented that amount with overtime pay, bonuses, selling things on ebay/craigslist, rebates, etc. Any extra money went into our vacation fund.

 

[klmall]

For a broader view check this thread out:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/how-much-is-your-2016-disney-vacation-going-to-cost-you.3466603/