How much is your 2025 vacation going to cost you?

[ruadisneyfan2]

May 2025 trip expenses for two adults:

$293 both plane tickets, including luggage (Southwest Airlines with Companion Pass)
$58 airport parking
$10 tips for the airport parking shuttle driver
$390 car rental
$0 Stay at a DVC resort with our points, so maybe it is sort of free?
$180 groceries for the DVC resort
$210 Sea World admission
$110 Sea World ECV rental
$35 Sea World parking
$85 Sea World pre-paid food festival credits
$424 Universal Parks one day, two-park admission tickets
$32 Universal Parks parking
$95 Universal Parks ECV rental
$808 Disney admission tickets; four days for one person and one day for the other
$65 Disney World ECV rental for one day

$2,795 total

The above total does not include Lightning Lane, and most park meals and airport meals.

DVC is sort of free???!!!

 

[anrew]

Around $3,500—we haven’t booked it yet though. There are still a couple of details we need to sort out with vrbo customer support before we go ahead and make the payment. Just want to be sure everything’s clear—especially regarding cancellation policies and any extra fees. Once that’s sorted, we’ll be ready to lock it in. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly

 

[leebee]

none of the hotels offer free extended secure parking with a stay? that's a popular perk at some of the airport near'ish hotels we've flown out of-you may pay a bit more for a room but it more than offsets the cost of parking (and additional perks are 24/7 hotel shuttle that drops you off/picks you up, some hotels even have an evening free cocktail period/buffet breakfast or grab and go hot items for those on the way to the airport).

It's college graduation weekend in the area. I can't touch hotel rooms for under about $300 each, and we'd need 2 with 5 of us. Besides, it's quite the drive from our house to the airport (235 miles each way) and the only car we own that is big enough (just barely) for all 5 of us is a 2003 CRV. The new iteration of the plan is to do two one-way car rentals and avoid parking at the airport at all. DH is just as happy to keep the miles off the vehicle, and it's $88 each way for a minivan, which will hold us all more comfortably than our CRV!
We also canceled Mears and are going with GearFusion for airport transportation in FL. It's $99 each way, plus tip. This buys us help with luggage and no waiting around after a long time traveling to GET to WDW (and a little guy with ADHD) when we arrive, and when we go home, they'll pick us up at 7:30am; Mears wanted to get us at 6:45. I'll pay extra for an extra 45 minutes in the morning, and I know GearFusion will wait for us if we are running a tad late (been reading nerve-wracking things about folks missing the Mears bus).

 

[barkley]

We also canceled Mears and are going with GearFusion for airport transportation in FL. It's $99 each way, plus tip. This buys us help with luggage and no waiting around after a long time traveling to GET to WDW (and a little guy with ADHD) when we arrive, and when we go home, they'll pick us up at 7:30am; Mears wanted to get us at 6:45. I'll pay extra for an extra 45 minutes in the morning,

oh my gosh-i SO remember doing specific travel plans with my youngest's ADHD in mind. we did many 'day rate' stays of a handful of hours at the hotel inside the Orlando airport on departure days when we could'nt book a reasonable flight that wouldn't have us checked out of our Disney hotel with several hours to kill before we needed to get to the airport.

 

[PrincessNelly]

May 30th - June 7th (2 Adults)
6 Nights at SSR standard studio - $0.00 DVC points ($851.89 if you count DVC dues)
2 Nights at CSR standard room - $324.58
Frontier Flights (TTN to MCO) - $274.96 (including upgrading our seats & baggage)
Frontier Flights (MCO to TTN) - $134.20 (used miles for the flight, paid to upgrade our seats & baggage)
Alamo Rental Car - $362.90
2 H2O Glow Nights Tickets - $149.10 (dvc discount)
1 1 day ticket to Epcot - $93.13 (after 4 convention ticket)
1 1 day ticket to Epcot - $0.00 (gifted)
2 1 day tickets to Animal Kingdom - $0.00 (gifted)
Total: $1,338.87
Food & Merch Spending: $1,000

We won $2,000 in Disney Gift Cards and decided to put it towards a cruise. We've never been on the Wish, so we decided to give it a go! We only had to pay the difference.

May 30th - June 7th (2 Adults)
3 Nights at OKW one bedroom - $0.00 DVC points ($851.89 if you count DVC dues)
Disney Wish 4 Night Cruise - $1,381.84 (includes port fees, taxes, & gratuities after the gift card)
1 Nights at CSR GD Tower King room - $232.32
Frontier Flights (TTN to MCO) - $274.96 (including upgrading our seats & baggage)
Frontier Flights (MCO to TTN) - $134.20 (used miles for the flight, paid to upgrade our seats & baggage)
Alamo Rental Car - $362.90
2 H2O Glow Nights Tickets - $149.10 (dvc discount)
1 1 day ticket to Epcot - $93.13 (after 4 convention ticket)
1 1 day ticket to Epcot - $0.00 (gifted)
2 1 day tickets to Animal Kingdom - $0.00 (gifted)
Total: $2,628.45

Estimate Food & Merch Spending: $1,000

 

[PrincessNelly]

It's college graduation weekend in the area. I can't touch hotel rooms for under about $300 each, and we'd need 2 with 5 of us. Besides, it's quite the drive from our house to the airport (235 miles each way) and the only car we own that is big enough (just barely) for all 5 of us is a 2003 CRV. The new iteration of the plan is to do two one-way car rentals and avoid parking at the airport at all. DH is just as happy to keep the miles off the vehicle, and it's $88 each way for a minivan, which will hold us all more comfortably than our CRV!
We also canceled Mears and are going with GearFusion for airport transportation in FL. It's $99 each way, plus tip. This buys us help with luggage and no waiting around after a long time traveling to GET to WDW (and a little guy with ADHD) when we arrive, and when we go home, they'll pick us up at 7:30am; Mears wanted to get us at 6:45. I'll pay extra for an extra 45 minutes in the morning, and I know GearFusion will wait for us if we are running a tad late (been reading nerve-wracking things about folks missing the Mears bus).

Just fyi, gearfusion has a promo code WDWTT, it takes 10% off.

 

[tampabrat22]

We are sailing the Regal Princess in September also. It's a 12-nt British Isles cruise for our 30th anniversary.

I'm expecting it to be around $13k. It's around 7 or 8 port stops so I think excursions will be a lot. I haven't had much free time to research the ports but I'm off Easter week and hopefully I will find some time to search then. We should have enough Chase UR points to be able to use them to book our pre-cruise hotel stay.

What airline are you finding $1500 for 2? We'll be flying from Philly and it's around $1000 pp but I haven't booked it yet.

Oh how exciting! Our sailing in the 28th, you must be going before me. We will be flying roundtrip non stop from Tampa, FL and the going rates for economy on British Airways to Gatwick runs about $650-850.

 

[kathy884]

I posted info about a mini Tampa-Orlando trip, a trip to Puerto Vallarta for four, and a trip to Glacier National Park for 4 (still coming up in July) earlier

Anyway, I ended up doing a mini Chicago long weekend trip with my son too (four days total including transportation time and three nights) and total cost of that ran around $2190 (very similar to a short budget Orlando get-a-way for two). DH wasn't interested. DS's husband had to work, so it was a mother-son trip. Note our primary purpose to go was to see the off Broadway musical show, "Titanique", (a spoof on Celine Dion and the Titanic movie) that is now playing in Chicago as well as New York. DS and I are both big fans of Celine Dion and the movie, so this was a perfect excuse to spend a few days in Chicago.

Here's the breakdown of that $2190

$75 - Amtrak from St. Louis for two (we had a $75 credit)

$225 - Dog boarding (DH did not want to get up early with our dog)

$700 - three nights Hilton Garden Inn Chicago Magnificent Mile (decent hotel, great location, one of the less expensive options in the area I wanted for our dates) ($233 a night including taxes)

$400 Food and drink - Actually it was $53 a day per person. This was less than I expected and about 1/2 what I budgeted. We had one higher end Italian dinner out. Other dinners were at an inexpensive Ramen place that was very good and a small takeout Chicago style pizza. DH did have an adult beverage each day with dinner. I just drink water with meals. Lunches were sandwiches at museum food places, fast food by Millennium Park, etc. And we did stop at Ghirardellis for some amazing hot chocolate. We also picked up snacks at the grocery store that was very close to our hotel.

$300 ubers (more than I expected), but what we ended up doing on one of our days was visiting homes our ancestors used to live in, in various neighborhoods around Chicago and doing a little walking around in those neighborhoods (super fun). Note there were two homes we would have liked to visit on the south side that we didn't go to (advice from trip Advisor experts that neighborhoods weren't particularly safe now, but there were plenty of others we could go too more North). We also ubered to the Griffith Observatory, but took public transportation back to our hotel afterwards. It's a place my grandfather had photos of back in the 30s, and we recreated some of those photos. Still it was great not having a car in Chicago due to parking charges, the fact that you can walk most places, and that for the places we drove to that it was nice to have someone who does more driving in the city, do the driving. This would have been way less had we not visited ancestor homes / neighborhoods.

$490 - shows, museums, entertainment (sounds similar to pricing for theme park tickets on a short get-a-way lol), Titanique tickets, Field museum tickets, John Hancock observatory and tilt experience, Driehaus house museum tour, Chicago architectural cultural center admission. There are lots of interesting free places (historic buildings, parks, etc. to walk around). Steps we did are similar to doing Orlando theme parks too lol. (14,000 1/2 day 1, 24,000 full day 2, 11,000 full day 3, and 14,000 1/2 day 4.

Anyway -- it was a fun little get-a-way weekend.

 

[toesmom]

our Christmas disney trip will be expensive. Flights from Canada are over $1200 per person, exchange rate is not great, we have DVC staying at boardwalk on our points but it was expensive and exchange rate for maintenance fees, we have park tickets bought from a long time ago, and food is always expensive. Almost 2 weeks in Disney World over the holidays while office is closed makes it sort of worth the price, but it is very very expensive to go. Just not affordable for most families. We tried Cedar Point Sandusky last year, it was a really great closer option for us.

 

[kathy884]

our Christmas disney trip will be expensive. Flights from Canada are over $1200 per person, exchange rate is not great, we have DVC staying at boardwalk on our points but it was expensive and exchange rate for maintenance fees, we have park tickets bought from a long time ago, and food is always expensive. Almost 2 weeks in Disney World over the holidays while office is closed makes it sort of worth the price, but it is very very expensive to go. Just not affordable for most families. We tried Cedar Point Sandusky last year, it was a really great closer option for us.

I haven't been for many years, but boy do I have fond memories of Cedar Point. From age 6-15 we'd meet our cousins there, camp, and spend a few days. And we took our son there maybe five times when he was growing up. Love that place - so family friendly.

 

[tvguy]

Booked our first big trip of retirement. A Princess land/sea 14 day package. Just under $14,000 with air fare/excursions/pre-paid tips/hotels and about half the meals on land. Our retirement planning included a budget of $1,000 a month for travel, so that money every month has been going to pay down that trip.
7 days touring American Historic sites by bus, all around Washington D.C Philadelphia. Boston, Gettysburg ending up in NYC getting on an Eastern Canadian cruise for 7 days.

Took over a year to pay off, but it is paid for as of last week. Now just have to wait a little over 4 months to take the trip!

 

[weewuvvdisney]

Last time I checked the flights, hotels, tickets etc plus Canadian $ exchange rate, I just shook my head and that was it. For now! I know the prices will only go up but there is always a glimmer of hope.

 

[aam808]

Took our 5 grands 15/10/9/8/7 to Disneyland for Spring break, 1st night at great Wolf Lodge to recover from the red.eye flight

Total 7 ppl excluding food & snacks. $10,022 (yikes)

Delta 1600 (some miles)
SUV. 700
Great.wolf.lodge (1n)$750
Anaheim.Desert.inn(3n) $1467
Disneyland.villa(3n)2rm $1,716 (dues per point+tax)

Tix includes LL
Tix- 3.day.dvc(6)$1860
Tix 4.day$569
Tix 1.day(6)= $780

Fantasmic.pkg-$328
Car.LL-$252

 

[AJ1983]

For flights for 4 people, 7 night stay at Pop, 6 day park hoppers, food, Mears shuttle, airport parking and petsitter for the week will be about $6,000 (August month)

 

[Pridemom]

Our WDW trip is Feb 7-3, 2025
We’re covering some costs for DS and DDIL, and all grandkid costs since it’s for DGS’s 5th Bday.

DVC rental for 2 studios $3000
DDP x2 (kids are free) $1400
Park Hopper Tickets (2 adult, 1 child) $2400
Memory Maker $185
MCO to OKW (RT) for 6 $200
Airfare -AA Points $44 fees
Pet Sitter $300

$7529 without spending money

ETA: seeing the total makes me , because we struggled for so long while our kids were growing up. I am so thankful we can do this now.

 

[Darcy03231]

We did a 14 day cruise earlier this year. It's just DH and I.

Cruise - $3075.00
Hotel - $538.00 (1 night pre-cruise, 1 night post cruise)
Airfare - $22.40 (booked using points)
Shore Excursions - $400
Meals - $200 (when not on cruise)
Souvenirs - $500

Total - $4735

We're also doing 2 weeks in Maui this year

Condo: $2600
Flights: $1600
Hotel: $446
Rental Car: $700
Food: $1400 (est)
Excursions: $1500 (est)
Souvenirs: $500 (est)

 

[danceintherain]

Disneyland soon: with DD and my sister (my sister will pay for her own stuff for the most part)
4 nights Springhill Suites - $0 (172,000 Marriott points)
Three 3-day+LLMP military salute tickets - $1173
Airfare - $33.60 (54,000 SW miles + Companion Pass)|
Food - $500-750 (probably more than we need)
Lyft/Uber/Shuttle/ART - $225 (into LAX, out of SNA)
Incidentals/Souvies - $150+
Total: $2331 (my part should be about $1562, which is right on target for the $1500 I told DH)



WDW with a friend in August (we'll be splitting pretty much 50/50)
6 nights AoA Little Mermaid room - $1334.27
Two 6-day military salute tickets - $872
Airfare - $11.20 (32,000 SW miles... I think)
Food - $1000? (haven't really priced this out yet)
Lyft/Uber - $150ish
Incidentals/Souvies - $1,000,000 (I'm actually not a huge souvenir buyer, so this could be a lot or not a lot)
Total: $3367.37 (my part = $1684....I told DH $2000, so that tracks)
With so much time to plan, we could end up opting to change hotels. If WL had any 2Q rooms available, then I'd probably splurge for that, but the added cost for everywhere else doesn't appeal. The Little Mermaid is my friend's favorite, so I don't think she'd be interested in POR, which is the only moderate I haven't done...

(EDIT)Non-Disney:
We did Legoland, Discovery Cove and SeaWorld for Spring Break. My dad was supposed to be working on a project in Orlando for 4 months this year, but it got cancelled in late January. I had already purchased the Legoland and Discovery Cove tickets, otherwise I may have pivoted to Disney....or cancelled altogether. I'm glad I got to do Discovery Cove, but I didn't pay enough attention to the cost of this trip.
Airfare - $3600 (1 Companion Pass)
AFVC Condo at WorldMark Reunion (7 nights) - $916.50
5 admissions Discovery Cove - $1485.40 (included 14 days of Seaworld. 3 of us did the dolphin encounter)
Legoland/Peppa Pig - $461
Food - I did not keep track. Probably like $1000...maybe more....
Transportation - my dad paid for a rental car
Total = $7462

 

[AngieInOH]

Disneyland soon: with DD and my sister (my sister will pay for her own stuff for the most part)
4 nights Springhill Suites - $0 (172,000 Marriott points)
Three 3-day+LLMP military salute tickets - $1173
Airfare - $33.60 (54,000 SW miles + Companion Pass)|
Food - $500-750 (probably more than we need)
Lyft/Uber/Shuttle/ART - $225 (into LAX, out of SNA)
Incidentals/Souvies - $150+
Total: $2331 (my part should be about $1562, which is right on target for the $1500 I told DH)



WDW with a friend in August (we'll be splitting pretty much 50/50)
6 nights AoA Little Mermaid room - $1334.27
Two 6-day military salute tickets - $872
Airfare - $11.20 (32,000 SW miles... I think)
Food - $1000? (haven't really priced this out yet)
Lyft/Uber - $150ish
Incidentals/Souvies - $1,000,000 (I'm actually not a huge souvenir buyer, so this could be a lot or not a lot)
Total: $3367.37 (my part = $1684....I told DH $2000, so that tracks)
With so much time to plan, we could end up opting to change hotels. If WL had any 2Q rooms available, then I'd probably splurge for that, but the added cost for everywhere else doesn't appeal. The Little Mermaid is my friend's favorite, so I don't think she'd be interested in POR, which is the only moderate I haven't done...

(EDIT)Non-Disney:
We did Legoland, Discovery Cove and SeaWorld for Spring Break. My dad was supposed to be working on a project in Orlando for 4 months this year, but it got cancelled in late January. I had already purchased the Legoland and Discovery Cove tickets, otherwise I may have pivoted to Disney....or cancelled altogether. I'm glad I got to do Discovery Cove, but I didn't pay enough attention to the cost of this trip.
Airfare - $3600 (1 Companion Pass)
AFVC Condo at WorldMark Reunion (7 nights) - $916.50
5 admissions Discovery Cove - $1485.40 (included 14 days of Seaworld. 3 of us did the dolphin encounter)
Legoland/Peppa Pig - $461
Food - I did not keep track. Probably like $1000...maybe more....
Transportation - my dad paid for a rental car
Total = $7462

Considering you're not a huge souvenir buyer, that is a pretty hefty budget. $1,000,000. Certainly, puts my souvenir budget to shame.

 

[danceintherain]

Considering you're not a huge souvenir buyer, that is a pretty hefty budget. $1,000,000. Certainly, puts my souvenir budget to shame.

The last time I traveled with this friend, I bought a lot more than expected. Maybe I shop more when my kids aren't around to stop me? I love Disney art, and I'm still waiting for the "right" Disney Loungefly to cross my path. Probably not a million, but it's hard to put a cap on it, when I know that if the "right" thing pops up, I'll buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[gcpantazis]

DVC is sort of free???!!!

hehe all budgets look good if you nullify the dvc rental line item!