It cost us nearly $4000 to go to DL...

[Lynzer Torte]

and $445 in souvenirs? wow.

Rudy

I know, right? We bought everything we thought our 10 month old (at the time) would like. After all, it was his first time! Our teens didn't buy anything except food.

We spent about $120 @ Fairytale Arts having our last name and baby's name painted- so that's where a big chunk of it went.

 

[Gisele]

Fairytale Arts sounds very nice, I don't believe that I have seen that particular store, although I thought that I had seen them all, last year, maybe I just need to be more observant!
I hope that your baby still likes all of his things, if not, EBAY! or you can trade, barter with others on this site

 

[carole88]

We are going with five people in October too - but you can save a LOT of money by staying at the Hojo. We are getting two rooms with the Entertainment rate and the total is less than $700 - that's not EACH, but in TOTAL. Apparently, distance wise, the Hojo is about the same distance as the DLH..... If only one of you has an AP, the others could still get the Magic Mornings with their Park Hoppers.

See, you can save a bit ($1200!!!)

The price she paid for her room included 3 6 day PH passes so the savings for staying at Hojo would not be $1200.

 

[Gisele]

Still better than the $6,000 - $7,000 that a week at WDW seems to always cost us.

If you have the money to pay for it, all the power to you. If you depend on credit and keep accruing these type of costs, it will catch up to you. Do what you can afford to do.

I so totaly agree with you!
Do you watch Dave Ramsey? I like what he has to say about financial matters, even though it may be a bit hard to listen to at times, but then sometimes one really has to rewire how they do things, otherwise?
Which of course, it can take time, for when we learn bad habits, it is not over night.

 

[Lynzer Torte]

Fairytale Arts sounds very nice, I don't believe that I have seen that particular store, although I thought that I had seen them all, last year, maybe I just need to be more observant!
I hope that your baby still likes all of his things, if not, EBAY! or you can trade, barter with others on this site

Fairytale Arts isn't a store- it's a kiosk type place outside of the Matterhorn. They custom paint your name using watercolors & Disney characters. Our last name turned out absolutely stunning!

 

[mariezp]

Here's a rough estimate of costs for our trip last in November:

$ 1107 Airfare for 4 DFW to SNA
$ 1516 11 nights at DI, largest C2 room (basically 2 rooms)
$ 1036 4 annual passes (will also cover next years trip)
$ 170 grocery delivery
$ 400 tour/fantasmic
$ 1500 meals, snacks, souvineers (guestimate)
$ 300 cab fare (round trip to airport and 2 trips to Jiu-Jitsu class)
$ 80 parking at airport 11 days
$ 100 housesitter to check on house
$ 120 kennel for dog
________
$ 6329 Total

I don't think that's too bad for me to have almost 2 glorious weeks away from home at my favorite place. I certainly think it's worth it! I could probably come up with ways to save more money but we generally just go with it and splurge where we want. At least I don't demand to stay in one of the Disney hotels! We would have to take out a loan for so many days!

 

[brenda1966]

Fairytale Arts isn't a store- it's a kiosk type place outside of the Matterhorn. They custom paint your name using watercolors & Disney characters. Our last name turned out absolutely stunning!

I don't think I've ever seen these. Does anyone have a picture of one?
Does it come framed (it better for those prices). It sounds wonderful!!

 

[janc]

Right now our DL trip is running just under 4000 grand. It includes:

8 nights at Hojo
8 day park hoppers
3 Alaska airline tickets from Sea Tac, this is where I really paid to much, I was afraid prices would rise with gas going up and up so I am sure I bought them to soon and paid to much
5 days Minnie's Disney Dining - It works for us, food is paid for and we use all the tickets - It includes 2 character meals
3 admissions to Mickeys Trick or Treat party
3 Legoland admissions with transportation
3 Universal Studios with transportation
Transfers from SNA to hotel and back

Feels weird discussion finances in public like this...my mom would be shocked!

 

[brenda1966]

California is not a cheap vacation. Our trip is going to run around $3000

That includes $400 in airfare to LAX
1 week at Santa Barbara Family Vacation Center UCSB
3 nights at Hojo's
4 day hoppers
rental car one way from LAX to SB
rental car one way from SB to Anaheim
One princess meal.

This is for 2 people. Not cheap, but not too bad for an 11 day trip.

 

[sunshinemummy]

I always wonder what others have spent, our trip was in April and we came from Canada.

$2400 - Flight & hotel(off site) for 13 nights
$750- 6 day hopper passes
$250 Car rental
$1000 - Passes for universal/sea world/knotts/swimming w/dolphins in SW
$250 Gas
$2000 - Food/meals/treats

We spent as much as our food budget on souvenirs, shopping, new clothes for the family, etc..

So for 2 weeks I guess we come is at $6650 plus our shopping...so really not too bad.

 

[RudemanRB]

is that canadian dollars??


and wow 11 days.

 

[mom4princesses]

I think thats why we never stay on sight (once you do you don't want to stay off sight). With a family of 7, we would never be able to afford DLR Hotel (once every two years might as well be never ).So we stay off sight and don't know what we are missing.

 

[sunshinemummy]

is that canadian dollars??


and wow 11 days.

Actually when we travelled the US and canadian dollar were almost on par, but that would be US prices. We spent 2 weeks in California, it was an awesome trip!

 

[EnnEss]

I don't think we could ever stay off-site. I just love having the Disney magic all throughout the trip- even when we head back to the room for a break or for the day!

Could have done PP and saved a lot. I stay offsite sometimes at DLR, I always stay onsite at WDW. The prices due to availablity of hotels is so high in DLR for what you get onsite. WDW is much more reasonable. On the plus side offsite at DLR is no further than onsite.

 

[Lynzer Torte]

Could have done PP and saved a lot. I stay offsite sometimes at DLR, I always stay onsite at WDW. The prices due to availablity of hotels is so high in DLR for what you get onsite. WDW is much more reasonable. On the plus side offsite at DLR is no further than onsite.

That's ok- we weren't looking to cut corners to save $ (obviously!). It's got to be DLH for us!

 

[bonita_babe232]

We didn't keep a list of how much everything actually cost us last time is it was a quick do it now trip cause the doctors did know how my grandma would hold out. But one thing we did and i will do when ever i go now is make sure that i pay for everything b4 i go. It was SOOOO nice to have our hotel/airfare/charecter meal paid for before we went.... so i knew how much money i had saved up for food and extras i wanted, with out having to worry about hugh bills waiting for me at home!!!! But i am planning my next trip over a year in advance so i will be watching what i'm spending so i will know ways to save and cut, as i want to get ap's and go back atleast 1-2 times durning the year!

 

[sydangel68]

Our airfares from Australia for the 3 of us are $6,000 alone. That's USD. Given we are paying so much, it's just not worth spending a good amount of time at the parks. So we have 5 days at DL and then 2 weeks at WDW. The WDW part is suprisingly economical as we have timed it to fit in with the free dining offer they are having.

I can't wait, 3 whole weeks of Disney and only 7 weeks to go!

 

[Sy-]

Our airfares from Australia for the 3 of us are $6,000 alone. That's USD. Given we are paying so much, it's just not worth spending a good amount of time at the parks. So we have 5 days at DL and then 2 weeks at WDW. The WDW part is suprisingly economical as we have timed it to fit in with the free dining offer they are having.

I can't wait, 3 whole weeks of Disney and only 7 weeks to go!

Wow... now that sounds like an epic vacation!!! Just curious how long ago you booked your plane tix? Make sure you check out Sea World and Universals while in FL. 2 weeks of mouse on top of 5 days in CA will lead to insanity!

 

[Lizzybear]

Our airfares from Australia for the 3 of us are $6,000 alone. That's USD. Given we are paying so much, it's just not worth spending a good amount of time at the parks. So we have 5 days at DL and then 2 weeks at WDW. The WDW part is suprisingly economical as we have timed it to fit in with the free dining offer they are having.

I can't wait, 3 whole weeks of Disney and only 7 weeks to go!

We travel from the UK and while our flights aren't quite that much (about $1100 each) I know exactly where you're coming from in that for the cost of the flights it just makes more sense to stay longer (we're doing 18 nights this time, starting in San Francisco and ending in Las Vegas) I don't know how much it'll end up altogether just yet as we haven't figured out spending money but we're looking at $5000 so far for flights, hotels, car hire and travel insurance for 2 adults which i'm happy with, tickets I guess another $1000. We budget and make sacrifices to afford one really good vacation a year and it's 100% worth it to us

 

[Sy-]

We travel from the UK and while our flights aren't quite that much (about $1100 each) I know exactly where you're coming from in that for the cost of the flights it just makes more sense to stay longer (we're doing 18 nights this time, starting in San Francisco and ending in Las Vegas) I don't know how much it'll end up altogether just yet as we haven't figured out spending money but we're looking at $5000 so far for flights, hotels, car hire and travel insurance for 2 adults which i'm happy with, tickets I guess another $1000. We budget and make sacrifices to afford one really good vacation a year and it's 100% worth it to us

Sorry.... People from the UK are not allowed to complain about prices because with the current exchange rates your $1100 flight is only going to cost you like £10!