How much money.....

[gingerfeathers]

DH and I are going in September and staying at WL for seven nights, on the dining plan, and with park hoppers. Including airfare and souvenirs, we will probably be spending between $3,000 and $3,500. I'm hoping closer to the bottom end of that.

Honestly, it depends on how cheap I can find our airfare.

 

[mh1973]

Haven't booked everything but we are driving down in Aug for 8 days. For 2 adults and 2 children, QSDP, 6 day park hopper tickets and staying at ASM, it's gonna be around $2500. Add extras and we will probably spend around $3000. That's going thru Dreams Unlimited of course! Through Disney it was gonna be almost $300 more.

We went last September. We had 2 adults and one child (my youngest was only 2) and we stayed off site at a house split with 2 other families. We had 7 day park hoppers and we spent probably around $4000.00 So we are gonna be saving around $1000.00 and we've added one more child ticket and eats to the picture. Plus we get the perks of staying on site. We shoulda gone thru Dreams last time

How does DU save money on this? Can they save on campsites?

 

[GranddadTom]

We routinely go down for 6 days and five nights. We use the trip as a family reunion. There are 21 of us spread out from Maryland to South Carolina to Orlando (actually Windermere - 20 miles north of WDW). Some of us drive, some fly. When I estimate the costs I think in terms of five almost equal categories - room, food, transportation, tickets, and Misc (tips, quarters for the pressed penny machines, boarding the dogs, airport parking, pins, etc). We go every 18 months and buy 10 day tickets as we need them (we also have a bunch of water park tickets left over from old 10 day plus tickets) and usually use three park days and one water park day. We routinely spend around $2,000 to $2,500 in each of the five categories. We own points at the Boardwalk that were paid for long ago so I only figure the maintenance cost for the 450 points that we use on each trip - which is a little under $2,000. We stay in either three 2-bedroom suites or (as we did the week before Christmas) a grand Villa and two studios (we fit because the baby is only 18 months old).

 

[budmonster]

Well I'm lucky enough to live in Florida so my daughter and I go every year for a week stay at a value resort usually for around $80.00 plus tax a night (450.00) Seasonal FL Resident tickets for 478.00 and then I take day trips the rest of the year. I usually spend around $550.00 for extras.

 

[Tomh]

Last summer was our first family trip. There were 7 of us all together, and it was the first visit for our DD13, and DS4. We stayed at VWL for six nights / seven days, on the dining plan, and paid rack rate (ugh). We drove from New York over the course of three days. With the extra hotel nights on the way down, and back, gas, food, souvenirs, etc. the grand total came to right around 9,000.

This summer it will be four (or five) of us, we'll be staying at POR for 13 nights / 12 days, with 10 day park tickets. We're hoping to get free dining, and our cost will of course depend a good bit on whether we get it or not. The cost of the room / tickets, assuming that there are five of us, will be $3,400. Gas will be right around $200, unless the price goes way up again. Our hotel on the way down / back will be about $200 also. We figure around $100 for food during the drive, so we're looking at just shy of $4,000 for everything but food / tip on site, and what ever we spend on souvenirs / entertainment while we are there. Probably under $6,000 for five people, 12 days. A much better deal than last year. Of course, if we don't get the free dining, then it will be more like $7,700, but that's still better than last year.

 

[Vexorg]

On the 4-day 5 night solo trip I took in December, I'd break it down something like this (some of these are approximate);

Airfare: $400
Hotel (5 nights at the DTD Hilton on a $99 a night special $550 with tax
Hotel (1 night near Sea-Tac airport, so my parents wouldn't need to drive me to the airport at 5am on icy roads $50
4-day parkhopper and MVMCP ticket: $350
Food, souvenirs, incidental expenses, etc. (including one souvenir-related splurge): $500

This would put the total at about $1,850 or so, but that's just a guess. If I had it to do over, I would have definitely gone for whole week rather than 4 days, since 4 days is a rather short time, especially when it takes a cross-country flight to get there. So much for a "cheap" vacation...

I could probably do Disneyland a lot cheaper than this though (There are much lower airfares from SEA-LAX, more inexpensive hotel options, and 3-4 days is plenty for DLR.)