How much is too much to spend on a disney vacation?

[nataliesdaddy]

How much is too much to spend on a disney vacation?

I am not even going to say how much I just put out for my final payment... but yikes...

So, what would you say is the borderline from reasonable to ludicrous?

 

[pdchris]

How much is too much to spend on a disney vacation?

I am not even going to say how much I just put out for my final payment... but yikes...

So, what would you say is the borderline from reasonable to ludicrous?

I think your question isn't specific enough. It all depends on your income. If you net a million a year, staying at Disney for a week is still peanuts compared to your income.
With car rental, air and accomondations (pofq) and 5 day tickets for 3 people, I'm in for about $2600. Add in food and I agree with you: yikes!
But, in my own foolish way, I justify it by saying it'll probably be my last Disney trip. My DD is 27 and agreed to go along and my DS is 16. Couple more years and he's in college and vacationing with his buddies. I've also got to save up $ for a trip to England I promised him for his graduation present.
P.S. glad I bought air tickets back in Feb. They've really started to go up.

 

[nataliesdaddy]

I think your question isn't specific enough. It all depends on your income. If you net a million a year, staying at Disney for a week is still peanuts compared to your income.
With car rental, air and accomondations (pofq) and 5 day tickets for 3 people, I'm in for about $2600. Add in food and I agree with you: yikes!
But, in my own foolish way, I justify it by saying it'll probably be my last Disney trip. My DD is 27 and agreed to go along and my DS is 16. Couple more years and he's in college and vacationing with his buddies. I've also got to save up $ for a trip to England I promised him for his graduation present.
P.S. glad I bought air tickets back in Feb. They've really started to go up.

ah... my foolish way of justifying it is my daughter is a child only once and I am making all the memories I can for her now

 

[Harmony]

I was adding up the total cost of our vacation (NICK Hotel and Univeral and Hard Rock Hotel and Disney for 7days) and YIKES! Gee, I could buy a car for that amount! LOL

But..the memories you create while on the vacation...priceless!

(I sound like a commercial, no? LOL)

 

[leighe]

DH and I don't even have kids yet and when I add up what we spend total -

I usually have the room and tickets totally paid for before we leave so we never really spend a huge chunk all at once but still . . . when I add it all up - Wow! That could buy a lot of other stuff. But somehow Disney is worth it.

 

[Mady/Sophiemom]

Trying not to think about it too much. the term "too much" is just so subjective.

I'm sure what we spend is a cheap vacation to some, but we enjoy vacationing, and manage 2-3/per year. Not always to Disney, but usually.

 

[nataliesdaddy]

well I guess I should not kvetch - this will be the "surpise - will you marry me?" trip. And my daughter will be with us so that can't be bad...even if I am getting apoplectic right about now

 

[dmslush]

Well, I think it is whatever you can afford.

We are taking our dd for one last 'hoorahh' before she goes into the 8th grade and we have to buckle down:

Room, MYW tickets, and MYW dining plan for three of us, 6 nights at AKL is $3,200, add another $1,000 for gas, and anything else we might need. So, $4,200 is our TOP limit. We couldn't afford anymore than that.

 

[DisneyDotty]

Since this isn't on the Budget board, I'll go ahead and say that IMHO a Disney vacation is NOT the time to be scrimping and saving. We go every 3-4 years or so, and each trip has been better than the last. THerefore, I'm gonna relax, enjoy and SPEND TIL THE COWS COME HOME! (Moooo) It's only money...

 

[kilee]

We average a Disney trip once every 6-9 months and usually 2-3 smaller trips per year. I'd say on a whole I spend about 15% of our annual income on vacations. I actually sat down and calculated. At least 1/2 of that is in the 2 disney trips, then the rest is split up over the other trips.

 

[Mandabella]

Too much varies from person to person....

I think if you charged it all, and it takes you awhile to pay off then it may be too much.

 

[Becky2005]

That one is so hard to answer because the variences of ages of people going, etc...

We are spending a small fortune to go but we have a larger family, so we went with the Deluxe hotel, we also have 1 child that is an "adult" ticket price but I suppose that offsets her free brother! LOL!!! We then decided to go with the Premium package deal because this is our once in a lifetime trip and we have been planning this for over 2 years, etc...

I'm just ignoring the $$ that show up. I'm figuring by the time everything is all said & done somewhere in the $10,000 range (gas, hotels down & there, food on the road, snacks, souveniors, etc....). Our total vacation time is 12 days but 8 nights at a Disney Hotel, etc...

Now, if it was just 4 of us, we would be doing a Value resort and of course the ticket price would be cheaper, etc.... so even if our income didn't change the cost of the vacation would change.

 

[DAWGPOUNDAJ]

Well I'll come right out and drop our bombshell. Just under $5,000 for 5 nights at the CBR, 3 at the AKL (Savannah View), and we are driving down, we over estimated the cost of driving, plus driving food, hotels, and gas to be $1000.00. For 9 days at WDW we estimated $1000 in food (for 2 people), and we are bringing about $700 in spending money. We never spend anywhere close to that amount but are being careful since it's our honeymoon and were doing extras like a Wishes cruise, cake in the room, etc.

 

[Bugdozer]

Hi,
This trip I am doing VERY well on price. $1000 for 2 of us for 7 nights But before you wonder how can it be possible here is the facts-
we go every 6-9 months.
We my 12 year old son and I travel with my friend and her 12 year old son.
Costs:

Round trip air fair $118 each
Hotel-we are staying at POP and splitting the room cost so I am paying $41 a night. $41 x 7= $287

No car using ME
Food $350 we are using our dining discount card
Chef Mickeys $35.00
Housekeeping- $14 my portion
$75 for misc.

We have annual passes so no tickets to buy.
Son has his own spending money

So total is around $1000

If you figure in the cost of the tickets divided by the number of times we used them add another $ 233 to the total.
Not bad

We like to go for reasonable price and go more often
This trip is a SURPRISE the boys don't know.
Cheryl

 

[calie_j]

From this thread the answer to your question varies on how often you go along with other variables. Speaking only for my family WDW is a once/twice in a lifetime trip so we're going all out within reason. I'm budgeting $6000-7,000 for our family of 4 for everything. That's for 3 nights in St Petersburg staying with my sis and 7 nights at WDW.

Calie

 

[disneyeveryyear]

Too much would be $1 more than I have in my vacation savings account when the credit card bill comes due.

 

[WaltD4Me]

Really, how much is too much to spend on any vacation?

I've done cheap vacations and very expensive ones. I think Disney can be done either way (part of the beauty of Disney) and that generally Disney is a good value.

It sorta bugs me when people get all appalled about my Disney trips, going on and on about how expensive Disney is, yet some of the same people will blow much more in Vegas or on a cruise or at some spa type place than I do going to Disney. I call it the "Ticket Factor." I think people THINK Disney is more expensive because usually you think of a package that includes your theme park tickets, so that you are paying more upfront than on other vacations and it seems like more, but in fact you have a major source of vacation entertainment paid for before you even get there and on other trips you more or less "pay as you go" entertainment wise and that doesn't get added in to the vacation cost the same way (if at all) as park tickets do.

Our last trip to Disney cost $6,200 (not including food and spending money while we were there) - we stayed 6 nights at POFQ and flew to Orlando.
Sounds like alot I know, BUT there were TEN OF US! I can't imagine where else we could have gone so cheaply and had so much fun!

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Too much to spend on a vacation....hmmmm...... I would have to say what DH and I spent on our last Disney vacation was too much money...$2500. That was hotel, tickets, eating, and souvees!! I did a package and I won't do that again. Our next trip sits about $1000 right now for hotel and tickets. Great being a FL resident! Once I take on food, then we're up to $1200. We'll be eating offsite and a lot of counterservice. One meal will definitely be eaten in the room to help with expenses.

Our trip to GA sits at about $400 right now and that includes all of our entertainment, hotel, and food. I CAN'T WAIT!! Just 30 more days from today EXACTLY and we celebrate our 14th in Stone Mountain GA!! This time next month we'll be sleeping in our hotel room in Stone Mountain after an exciting day!

 

[imatoad]

How much is too much to spend on a car, or house, or just about anything? It's whatever you are uncomfortable with. Unfortunately that doesn't ring true with many people in this country, and get in wayyyy over their heads.

 

[alicenwonder99]

Our last trip a few months ago I budgeted $4000 and spent a little bit less than that. We are a family of 6, and we weren't extravagant with any of our spending. I think I would feel comfortable spending around that much each time. Too much would probably be closer to $5000.

Mary