How much is your 2012 Disney Vacation costing this year?

[Goofy_Girl]

Me and dd16 March 1st-March 6th 2012 AKL with free regular dining and hoppers for 2800. Used the current stay,play, and dine deal.
I am hoping for a decent deal with airfair =)

 

[vdub322]

Well, it's tough to calculate room cost since we bought DVC prior to our April/May 2012 trip, which cost A LOT but will be worth it in the long run.

5 nights BLT 1 BR Lakeview
+ 3 nights Kidani 1 BR Savanna view
= 317 DVC points

3 Disney Adult and 1 Disney child Annual Passes- $1759
(to be used for 2013 trip as well)

3 Disney adult and 1 Disney child dining plan-$1357

Gas from PA-$300
Hotel on way down-$100
Souvenirs-$500
Preorder Photopass-$100

Total (without DVC investment or dues) $4116

So actually the total we gave Disney this year was much higher. We hadn't ever been to Disney as a family before and I hadn't been there in five years. With some careful planning, we are using points to go in January 2013...

6 nights BWV Standard View 1 BR- 154 points
Tickets-$0 (Annual passes purchased for last trip)
Food budget-$900
Tables in Wonderland Card-$75
Airfare from Baltimore-$750 (we were very happy with this price!)
Souvenirs-$300 (kids have also asked for Disney gift cards for Christmas)

So this trip will be $2025 without factoring in the cost of DVC, and I'm hoping we can come out even lower.

Then no trip until 2015...hopefully during F&W!

 

[DznyCrzy11]

It baffles me that people can go to Disney every year, much less every decade!

It's been 30 years since our Honeymoon, so we did a big trip for our 30th anniversary, but here's what our cost was:

Contemporary, Magic Kingdom view, Eight day park hopper, deluxe dining, Triple A package-$6700

Airfare for the two of us was less than $500, through Southwest

Parking the car in Park N Fly for the week, about 70 bucks.

Nephew and wife housesit/catsit for the week, about 500 bucks.

Went with 125 on Disney Visa Redemption Card, and 15 dollar gift card for opening Disney VISA

Used all our meals and snacks, and charged some things to our room, leaving us with only 350 on our final room charge

No souvenirs, only about ten bucks in sodas from vending machine when came in late

Only two adults this trip.

Friend is going next month with her two kids, upgrading free dining to deluxe, staying at Caribbean, and is paying about half what I paid, no agent, just booked through Disney

Will probably be another 30 years before we can afford to go back again

I see tons of ways you can cut down your cost. It just really depends if you would rather go every year or every two or three years or ever 30 years and "go all out". My DH and I prefer going every year and we make it work.

Sent from my GalaxyS II

 

[jsw1114]

I see tons of ways you can cut down your cost. It just really depends if you would rather go every year or every two or three years or ever 30 years and "go all out". My DH and I prefer going every year and we make it work.

Sent from my GalaxyS II

We drive straight from Ohio, got free dining, going in value. What else can we do to cut costs?

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

jsw1114, make sure to stop at a motel, look for coupons at the rest stops, so that when you get to DW you will not be wanting to sleep that first day away?

If you are there when I am please say hi to a fellow Buckeye.

Slightly Goofy

 

[stindall]

We drive straight from Ohio, got free dining, going in value. What else can we do to cut costs?

Use the bus system to save on gas while you're there. Then you'll only have to pay for gas to The World and from.

 

[Yahweh]

2 adults and 2 children (6 and 2). We are staying 7 nights at the Polynesian standard rooms from Jan 30- Feb- 6 with the dining plan, 7 day park hopper tickets.

By using the "January-March Room" offer (35% off deluxe resorts), it is costing us 4189.04 That is a $1186.86 of the regular price. And $610.50 off of booking the same deal with the "Stay, Play, and Dine"-


January March your way plus dining plan- 4189.04
Stay, Play, and Dine- 4799.54
Regular rate with dining- 5375.90

Direct flight from Halifax to Orlando Return was $1450

For a total of 5639.04. Which sounds like a lot! But It could easily have been well over 7000 If I hadn't lucked out on finding the cheap flight (at least cheap by Canadian standards)

 

[MomofKatie]

We drive straight from Ohio, got free dining, going in value. What else can we do to cut costs?

Don't get hopping or waterpark admissions on your tickets.

Don't go crazy with souvenir buying (we never spend more than $25 each for DH and me and DD saves her own $$ to bring).

Pack breakfast food and snacks to bridge the gap between Free QS dining allotments and what you want to eat. We usually bring our own b'fasts and extra snacks so we don't need to spend any extra $$ in the parks for anything not covered by Free Dining.

Take advantage of free cups of ice water at QS restaurants rather than buying bottled.

Since you are driving, stuff your bags with all conceivable stuff you might need that is expensive at WDW- cold meds, sunscreen, beach towels, extra batteries, etc, etc. Won't cost you anything extra to bring it along. If you don't need it while you are there, cart it back home after the vacation.

Buy "Mickey Gifts" for kids before your trip at Disney Store or Dollar Store- things like glow bracelets, stuffed animals, T shirts, spinner toys, coloring books, etc, etc- and leave them on their pillows every day. Cuts down on the "I want..."s at the parks.

 

[DznyCrzy11]

We drive straight from Ohio, got free dining, going in value. What else can we do to cut costs?

Hi! What part of Ohio? I'm just south of Cincinnati! Since you drive down, do you also drive to the parks? If so, have you looked at staying offsite? There are tons of offsite places for reasonable prices. I personally prefer staying onsite just because we fly down so we use ME and use Disney transportation.

Don't get hopping or waterpark admissions on your tickets.

Don't go crazy with souvenir buying (we never spend more than $25 each for DH and me and DD saves her own $$ to bring).

Pack breakfast food and snacks to bridge the gap between Free QS dining allotments and what you want to eat. We usually bring our own b'fasts and extra snacks so we don't need to spend any extra $$ in the parks for anything not covered by Free Dining.

Take advantage of free cups of ice water at QS restaurants rather than buying bottled.

Since you are driving, stuff your bags with all conceivable stuff you might need that is expensive at WDW- cold meds, sunscreen, beach towels, extra batteries, etc, etc. Won't cost you anything extra to bring it along. If you don't need it while you are there, cart it back home after the vacation.

Buy "Mickey Gifts" for kids before your trip at Disney Store or Dollar Store- things like glow bracelets, stuffed animals, T shirts, spinner toys, coloring books, etc, etc- and leave them on their pillows every day. Cuts down on the "I want..."s at the parks.

Those are some great suggestions!!

 

[Carbonfiber07]

Don't get hopping or waterpark admissions on your tickets.

Don't go crazy with souvenir buying (we never spend more than $25 each for DH and me and DD saves her own $$ to bring).

Pack breakfast food and snacks to bridge the gap between Free QS dining allotments and what you want to eat. We usually bring our own b'fasts and extra snacks so we don't need to spend any extra $$ in the parks for anything not covered by Free Dining.

Take advantage of free cups of ice water at QS restaurants rather than buying bottled.

Since you are driving, stuff your bags with all conceivable stuff you might need that is expensive at WDW- cold meds, sunscreen, beach towels, extra batteries, etc, etc. Won't cost you anything extra to bring it along. If you don't need it while you are there, cart it back home after the vacation.

Buy "Mickey Gifts" for kids before your trip at Disney Store or Dollar Store- things like glow bracelets, stuffed animals, T shirts, spinner toys, coloring books, etc, etc- and leave them on their pillows every day. Cuts down on the "I want..."s at the parks.

Great tips. Please consider the water tip as gold. I like soda as much as the next guy, but the prices they charge at the QS locations is just outrageous.

 

[denneg]

We are staying at the POR for 11 nights, with free dining. Total for resort was $2975. DS and I bought season passes for $400 each, DH's 7 day park hopper was $190 (we had to buy 2 day passes to get the free dining, so his was an upgrade on what was included in the resort reservation). Flights for the 3 of us were $1000. So in total, $4965. The good news is that DS and I can go down in Feb for 2 weeks on DVC points and our annual passes, and it will only cost us for the fights and meal plan!

 

[dgagnon519]

We are going 2013, but I wanted to join in. We are DVC so accomadation prices are low.

06/13-06/30
2 adults and 1 child
Airfare $730
AKL - $0
BCV -$0
AOA - $350
POR - $700
Spending $900
Tickets - $1170
Food - $2800 (includes mugs, tips, cost of TIW)

Total: $6650. It is crazy, but worth every penny.

 

[Montegut]

H wanted to be there on our anniversary, October 9th, which apparently was a peak time. He also wanted to stay at the Contemporary, have a fireworks view, so yes, we paid top dollar for that, too. Got the Deluxe because he wanted to eat at the fancy restaurants. Got the park hopper because we were afraid of the crowds and wanted to be able to go to another park if it was too crowded. We did actually park hop at least two, maybe three of the days.

H refuses to stay off site because he said if he drives, it's not a vacation. H did a Father Son trip with S for middle school graduation, where they stayed at a Value, perhaps Music, and hated the bus time. Also wanted to be on the monorail.

So, because of what H wanted for the big trip, don't know where I could have cut costs, but hoping for help, as I feel like my ignorance probably cost me a lot.

I would really love to go with my S and H for a family trip, something we've never done. We paid Catholic school tuition all Son's life, so it was always a choice of tuition versus vacation, so I can count on one hand how many vacations we've had.

Now, son is 20 y/o, and I really want to see Animal Kingdom with him. Since H has the provision of onsite, hoping to get some tips from you guys.

May have to move this post to another thread, but would love to hear some advice, as son will turn 21 next year and will be off to grad school, so time is running out for us to have that family trip.

We were blessed that son got a full scholarship to college, so we were able to make this trip, but thanks to the Disney Visa, we have six months to pay off without interest.

Thanks for any help, guys!

 

[hsmamato2]

I can't remember posting here before...hmmm...Ok, I'll bite....
-2294.00 for 10 days vacation for 4 people.-
airfare= 20.00 for 4 people (govt. fees) (SWA visa )
One night at Pop 95.00
6 nites at POFQ w/ free dining plan 1996.00
rental car 130.00
2 nites tickets included in package,using old pass for other days
Staying Universal 2 nites onsite-0.00 (SWA rewards)
3 -2day parkhop tix to Universal-0.00 (SWA +AMEX rewards)
1 -2 day ph ticket to Uni.- 148.00
Of course there's the box of cereal for breakfasts,plus the occasional off plan food...but overall a decent price for 4 "adults"
cost breaks down to approx. 57.00 per person per day for FUN!

 

[Disney2013]

There are 13 of us-total cost $24000.00!!!!!

 

[DznyCrzy11]

H wanted to be there on our anniversary, October 9th, which apparently was a peak time. He also wanted to stay at the Contemporary, have a fireworks view, so yes, we paid top dollar for that, too. Got the Deluxe because he wanted to eat at the fancy restaurants. Got the park hopper because we were afraid of the crowds and wanted to be able to go to another park if it was too crowded. We did actually park hop at least two, maybe three of the days.

H refuses to stay off site because he said if he drives, it's not a vacation. H did a Father Son trip with S for middle school graduation, where they stayed at a Value, perhaps Music, and hated the bus time. Also wanted to be on the monorail.

So, because of what H wanted for the big trip, don't know where I could have cut costs, but hoping for help, as I feel like my ignorance probably cost me a lot.

I would really love to go with my S and H for a family trip, something we've never done. We paid Catholic school tuition all Son's life, so it was always a choice of tuition versus vacation, so I can count on one hand how many vacations we've had.

Now, son is 20 y/o, and I really want to see Animal Kingdom with him. Since H has the provision of onsite, hoping to get some tips from you guys.

May have to move this post to another thread, but would love to hear some advice, as son will turn 21 next year and will be off to grad school, so time is running out for us to have that family trip.

We were blessed that son got a full scholarship to college, so we were able to make this trip, but thanks to the Disney Visa, we have six months to pay off without interest.

Thanks for any help, guys!

I don't blame your DH for wanting to stay onsite. My DH and I are the same way. We feel it's more relaxing to just take the ME from the airport and not have to bother with baggage claim or driving there.

CR TPV is an expensive room type! Have you considered staying at any of the other Deluxe resorts or in a different room type?

 

[dgagnon519]

We will only stay onsite. If you really want to stay at CR, you might want to consider renting DVC for BLT. That would be much cheaper.

I will not cook on vacation so we eat out every meal. We will bring snacks for the room or for breakfast on the go. I would recommend buying the TIW card instead of doing the dining plan. It might not be a huge saving, but it includes drinks and you only order what you want. It gives you 20% off.
Purchase your tickets through somewhere like AAA. Right now they are doing buy 3 get the 4th free. Even without the promotion they are usually the cheapest.

 

[bookgirl]

I just did my cost breakdowns. 1 adult (+1adult just for POFQ stay) Room Only resservations, PH tickets, no DDP

I ran around $1500 after all was said and done.


1 night AoA Little Mermaid standard room ($135)
4 nights POFQ standard room ($640)
2 nights ASMu standard room ($204)

5 day park hopper ($336)
1 day/1 park pass for Universal ($92)

1 week rental Thrifty Full sized car ($218)

OOP Food:
Hollywood Brown Derby Fantasmic Pkg ($60+tip)
Kona Cafe ($25 including tip)
F&W festival for 3 days ($100+)
Refilable Mug ($15)
about 4-5 CS meals plus one CS lunch at IOA, one off site Panera meal and one meal at MCO ($9-$15 each)
5-7 snacks (milk, karamel Kuch goodies, Goofys snack, popsicles, souvinner Popcorn bucket, pretzel, plus some bagged snacks brought back for work) ($3-$15)

Souvineers from IoA (>$20)
Souvineers from WDW ($133)
Shopping off site Vera Bradley outlet and Northface outlet ($250)

Tolls and Gas ($45)
Walmart run ($22)

That was including what I prepaid and some off site shopping that I had waited on till I got to Orlando because of two particular places that I wanted to go that I don't have at home and minus what a friend paid for her parts of one of the stays and rental car, the $150 credit cashback on my Discover and the $125 dollars in giftcards I had from work incentives.

I was right about where I thought I'd be as far as price. I included the shopping off site since it was a planned part of my vacation but what I bought were non souvineer things that I had been looking for and decided to buy at the outlets. This was my first non-value season stay and with a year to save up I had a number of planned splurges that I could have cut out if needed. I did the values at the beginning and end to help with price, brought quick breakfast things in my suitcase, bought water at walmart, and used counter service ice water in the park.

 

[hsmamato2]

I can't remember posting here before...hmmm...Ok, I'll bite....
-2294.00 for 10 days vacation for 4 people.-
airfare= 20.00 for 4 people (govt. fees) (SWA visa )
One night at Pop 95.00
6 nites at POFQ w/ free dining plan 1996.00
rental car 130.00
2 nites tickets included in package,using old pass for other days
Staying Universal 2 nites onsite-0.00 (SWA rewards)
3 -2day parkhop tix to Universal-0.00 (SWA +AMEX rewards)
1 -2 day ph ticket to Uni.- 148.00
Of course there's the box of cereal for breakfasts,plus the occasional off plan food...but overall a decent price for 4 "adults"
cost breaks down to approx. 57.00 per person per day for FUN!

I'd love to cut that 130.00 out and bus it, but we need transport between Uni/Disney ..and shuttles for 4 are more expensive than that!