If you were spending $5000 on a Disney vacation...

[Amyg]

That's just about what we are paying, our airfare alone is over $2100 for me, DH and DS-9 (it's expensive to go on trips when you live in Hawaii). We will be staying at POFQ for 8 nights and we've included the dining plan.

Looking forward to our trip in July! Woohoo!

 

[blestmom]

When I mentioned this thread to DH (a high school teacher), his eyes bugged out and he said, "Where in the world do these people work to be able to afford vacations like that?!!" We are definitely the value resort-bring-our-own-food-and-even-stay-offsite-if-it's-cheaper type of people...can't even imagine having $5000 to spend on a vacation!!!! Wow-you are all very blessed.

Ivy

We do feel very blessed. I'm a stay-at-home mom, DH is a kindergarten teacher. He also moonlights weekends, and works another job during the summer. My two oldest boys (16 and 14) have done odd jobs here and there that help contribute. We've used either frequent flyer miles, or had a hotel deal, or had annual passes, so that at least one BIG portion was taken care of. And we're pretty frugal once we get there. It obviously depends on your size family, too, for example, $5000 for two will go a lot further than for six.

I just love that Disney has so much to offer to so many...large families, small families, grandparents, single people, college students...large budgets, smaller budgets...fancy resorts, value resorts...onsite, offsite...lots of options. But we're all having fun together, right?

 

[brack]

If I had a windfall of $5,000 to spend on my next WDW vacation I would make it last as long as possible. This December we spent 15 days at WDW and probably spent half that much money. If that is the case then we could stay a whole month!!! This would be much better to us than staying in the Polynesian, Grand Floridian or Contemporary. We use our rooms to sleep (for a short time each night) and cleanup. Why spend big bucks for that? Stay at Pop Century and save the money for more Disney stuff. (Man I'm going to need a bigger house!)

 

[abeyst]

I'd use most of it as a down payment to purchase a DVC contract, then use that to book my rooms. I'd us the remaining money to buy DDP and discounted AP. then I could come back in future years with a great place to say.

 

[DisFlan]

I'd use most of it as a down payment to purchase a DVC contract, then use that to book my rooms. I'd us the remaining money to buy DDP and discounted AP. then I could come back in future years with a great place to say.

Ayup, that's just what we did, including the AP, except we paid the whole thing. Now we have gorgeous pre-paid accommodations through 2038 - without worrying about the cost increase of rooms from year to year. No more hunting and hoping for codes. We can spend our money on other fun stuff and have it go a lot farther. For us, it was a no-brainer.

DisFlan

 

[AnotherHappyHaunt]

Well, not counting the APs which I already have, I think I'd stay at a mod for like, a month.

 

[michygoomy]

Well, my budget has been upgraded to just under this amount, and what it has bought us is:

*move from value to mod
*move from 8 days to 10
*including the dining plan (moved from mostly CS last trip)

And that's only possible with a discount we have. (It hurts having two "Disney Adults" this time!) Doesn't buy as much as you think it would!

 

[Andrea]

we are spending close to that this june just for my hubby and i

 

[k5thbeatle]

"If you were spending $5000 on a Disney vacation... "

I wish I could get our WDW trip down to that amount!

 

[AnotherHappyHaunt]

we are spending close to that this june just for my hubby and i

How long are you going for?? That seems really high for just two people.

We're going this week, for 4 nights/5 days. Our breakdown is:
1 night AKL S/V $240 with AP discount
3 nights at BWI standard with AP discount $252
=$996

+approx $450 airfare roundtrip combined

=$1446

+apprx $800 for APs (which for us we already have them so it's not an expense this time, but lets just say it was...)

=$2246

+food $500 is plenty for the two of us for meals

=$2746

Even if we added a few more nights in a deluxe, we wouldn't be at $5000

 

[Disneynutbsv]

Well, so far Ive got $3356 for two rooms at pop century, 7 day park tickets w/ water parks (only $10 difference between 5 & 7 days) and dining plan.
$657 for 5 people allegiant air
$318 for Chrysler Pacifica for 9 days
$160 for two days Liki Tiki Village
I've paid $2200 for disney vacation so far, paid for the airline tickets and paid $60 of the stay at Liki Tiki. We still need spending money, gas money and I still need to decide whether or not to do sea world.

 

[elastigirlfan]

It's really not hard to do. Things add up quickly between the hotel, flight cost (if flying), food & tickets. And the bigger your family, the larger the cost, especially when your kids are over 9 and you have to start paying adult prices for them

You can do Disney under $5000 - you just have to plan and be careful!
Where there's a will...there's a way!!

 

[Andrea]

How long are you going for?? That seems really high for just two people.

=$2746

Even if we added a few more nights in a deluxe, we wouldn't be at $5000

so basically your trip is $2746 for everything ?

hubby and i are thinking about staying at the polynesian resort (with the lagoon view) for 5 nights
with buying the 4 day ticket, with the park hopper pass & the water ticket right there is
$3148.32

or the animal kingdom lodge for $ 2,786.02

that doesnt even cant for anything else

 

[AnotherHappyHaunt]

so basically your trip is $2746 for everything ?

hubby and i are thinking about staying at the polynesian resort (with the lagoon view) for 5 nights
with buying the 4 day ticket, with the park hopper pass & the water ticket right there is
$3148.32

or the animal kingdom lodge for $ 2,786.02

that doesnt even cant for anything else

Pretty much. With $70/night off the hotel for 4 nights, one AP pretty much pays for itself in those discounts alone. That's $280 off the room over the 4 nights.

Do you have AAA or anything else that might possibly get you some discounts? Can you save some money buying non hoppers?

Depending on what else you need to buy varies a great deal between families. We are two people who eat light, drink light, snack light and don't buy a lot of souvies. $100/day for food for us is overestimating it. Some days we will have a nice meal, but we can't eat 3 big sit down meals a day. We'd be stuffed. We probably won't spend close to that. For souvies, all I know for sure I want to pick up is 2 Off Kilter cds I don't have (total of $40) and a poster of some sort to frame for my living room (about another $20-$40)

My airfare was on the high side from Manchester NH to Orlando.

 

[DznyLvr2005]

We took advantage of the "go to DW for $1500" Well, let me tell you... The total price for our next trip is $2600!! (Not bad, but not $1500 either!)
We're staying at CSR for 7 nights. We got the super duper extra special park hopper tickets. We also got the dining package as well. So technically we don't have to buy a thing once we're there....wait, who am I kidding
World Showcase Shopping is my favorite!!!

 

[Andrea]

Do you have AAA or anything else that might possibly get you some discounts? Can you save some money buying non hoppers?

oh its no big deal, were going to be spending more then that in december in our las vegas trip!!!

thanks for helping, see we will have at least one big nice resturant with wine, and were both going to spend a day at the spa in grand floridian, ( and the one in the venetian in las vegas love that place)

dont get me wrong, i love to save money... but it never happends on our vactions ... proberly once we have kids, we will be more money savers.

thanks for your help

 

[vellamint]

Well we would be staying offsite
Renting a car
Visiting other (horrors!) places
Eating our breakfast in the room
CS for lunch
TS for dinner
and being very careful with our money because we go for 12 days and have four kids

BUT WE WOULD BE HAVING A GOOD TIME ANYWAY!!

 

[helenm29]

yup, we are definately spending over that! We are coming from California so airfare isn't cheep, staying 2 days at AKL 1 bedroom suite, 8 days at Polynesian Concierge Lagoon View, F & W festivel, MNSSHP, Carachter (Rats, Need spell-checker!)breakfast, Mickey's backyard bbq, Sunrise safari at AKL and TRYING to get into the Chef's table at V & A!
if it makes anyone feel better, we refinanced our house for this trip! obviously we won't be doing this again for a LONG time!

 

[hubby_of_newtodisney]

I'd buy a tent and stay just off property for a month...but my DW would never go for that!

 

[Joann]

Geez how do some of you do it for so cheap? Is going from Canada more expensive? In may we went may 2 2005 for 10 days and it cost us total 8 thousand and that was staying at Pop .... I forget how much our hotel and flight were ... 7 day hopper plus was 1400 canadian for 4 park tickets 400 $ american for 4, 5 day park tickets to universal 175 canadian for 7 day car rental food was I dont know but I know 4 days into our trip we had already blew 600 on meals and we didnt eat alot.... shopped abit How the heck do you do it cheap ???