Planning a Disney trip with a $800 budget

[happymommy]

I did it in 1992. Our tickets were leftover ones from a trip where I took a group (back when you could do that), the hotel was offsite at $59/night, rental car was under $200 for the week, and we cooked our own food or ate offsite (there was a Chinese restaurant next to our hotel that had a $5.99 lunch buffet). Didn’t eat at all onsite, had free breakfast at the hotel (which is closed now, it was the Residence Inn Lake Cecile). I used airline miles for my flight, and his was $200. He had to borrow his portion of $300 for his cost. Now, no way can it be done.

 

[Marionnette]

The $800 was including airfare, hotel, and park tickets. Thank you for giving me insight and hope that it's possible.

I really don’t believe that it’s possible to cover all of those expenses for one week given your budget. A shorter stay with only a few park days and cheap airfare might happen but I would be reluctant to travel anywhere with a tight budget that doesn’t allow any wiggle room for unexpected expense.

 

[tobikaye]

OP: You might be able to do a 2-3 night trip for $800, but no one here can really give you a specific breakdown without specific details such as were you would be flying in from and dates.

I was just curious on if I could do such a trip so I did one for 12/7 - 12/10.

I could stay at B Resort for 3 nights flying from CVG to MCO via Frontier with 3 day tickets for about $675. This would then require uber or lyft to get to/from the airport and the parks. Although, I would consider using the return from the parks via DS and then walk to the resort. So, I would estimate the round trip to the airport at about $60+tip. B Resort to TTC/DHS/Epcot is about $12+tip each way, but AK would be about $36+tip each way. So for about $750-900, not including food or souvenirs, I could do a WDW non-resort trip for 3 days.

If I wanted to stay onsite, it would probably be about $900-1000 if I stayed at a value resort for WDW.

 

[LizzyDragon]

I believe most of the replies indicated that there was no hope of achieving your goals on this one.

Yep, I second this. $800 for a week is just not realistic, unless one or more of your major costs don't exist (like using points for airfare or hotel). The OP really needs to consider shortening the trip or expanding the budget to have any hope of actually making a trip work.

 

[smadath]

Umm....build a time machine and go back to 1982?
But seriously, if you are successful in your $800 endeavor, please come back and update us. I love any and all stories of budget travel success!

Yay! I want to go! I might run into little 3rd grade me while I'm there. Fun!

 

[focusondisney]

If you fly Spirit or Frontier, you may be able to swing it, but you probably won't be able to do many park days, as tickets will max out your budget.

Personally I would be careful with those airlines, especially in December. Sometimes they have only 1 flight a day. If weather causes them to cancel your flight, you could be stuck for days or needing to buy a high priced ticket on another airline.

 

[fla4fun]

Do you know anyone who has some hotel loyalty points they would be willing to give you? For example, both my sister and I belong to the Hilton loyalty program, and we can give each other points to use if one of us is short. You would need to set up an account, but there’s usually no cost to do so. I can also combine points and cash to pay a reduced rate on a room, sometimes very low. There are a lot of hotel loyalty programs out there, and there are quite a few that have lowered the amount of points needed per night to encourage people to visit. With so many people not traveling right now, if you know anyone who has points to spare, it couldn’t hurt to ask. The worst that could happen is they say no, and you’re no worse off than you are now. If they say yes, that frees up a good chunk of your budget to spend on tickets and food, and you might be in a much better hotel than you would be by looking for something cheap out of pocket. Just a thought.

 

[Brett Wyman]

The $800 was including airfare, hotel, and park tickets. Thank you for giving me insight and hope that it's possible.

I don't think anyone said it would be possible.

Lets say you got lucky and

Airfare = $100
Very Budget Motel at $300 for 5 nights after taxes and fees.
Shared Shuttle to and from airport = $38
The most basic groceries ever(assumedly delivered) = $80
Base 4 day Park tickets = $420.93(undercover tourist)
And this is ZERO for in park food or souvenirs.

Thats at a motel where you probably need to block the door with your chair and basically no pocket money and its still 938.93.

3 days in the parks could save you $100 and get you close. But this is still pretty far fetched.

But for around $1138.93. I think you could stay in a safe and clean budget motel(+200 to motel) and have four park days, assuming you could keep the other costs in line. I really feel like $1140 is the cheapest an out of town person can safely enjoy 5 nights and 4 days in the parks. And thats with the super low post-covid hotel rates we are seeing now and at the cheapest time of year for park tickets(early September).

 

[rwdavis2]

The $800 was including airfare, hotel, and park tickets. Thank you for giving me insight and hope that it's possible.

Not a chance. sorry.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

not for $800

 

[FSU Girl]

There’s just no way. Not for all those things you want included in the $800. Disney isn’t a cheap place to visit

 

[serene56]

have you considered changing to Universal. I had to do that in the summer when it was 5 people and tickets to disney was 2000. we stayed at Endless summer for the week. 3 park to park annual passes and spent 2400.00

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I don't think it will be possible due to the expense of park tickets and hotel for 7 days. You could go for less days and tent camp at ft. wilderness and end up saving money on a hotel and use the free disney transportation and disney magical express from the airport.
But then that still leaves you with flight costs and food. (If you flew southwest you could put the camping gear and maybe some non perishable food in the 2nd suitcase since Southwest lets you fly for free.
Get a Southwest Credit card and start using it to pay for everything in your normal life and rack up points that you could use to book the flights - then you would just have to pay the taxes and fees for the flight.

Start saving up for Disney gift cards and use those to pay for food - I calculate out my grocery bill costs and grab a disney gift card at the grocery store. Then I put the difference between what I'm spending for my groceries and my budget on the gift card.

When I get home, I combine the gifts cards using disneygiftcard.com and then delete them off there so they won't get hacked.

That could help you get your food budget covered. Just brainstorming here to help out!

 

[rwdavis2]

Has the OP responded yet? I haven’t seen it which makes me think it was possible a troll in the first place given how unrealistic the scenario is.

 

[CheshKAT]

I'm in the process of pricing a 4 day stay (with 3 others ) at pop century, 4 day tickets and light meals + airfare. Best I can get is $900 That's with 4 of us in one room.

 

[Sarahslay]

Has the OP responded yet? I haven’t seen it which makes me think it was possible a troll in the first place given how unrealistic the scenario is.

It looks like they responded on Friday. It is pretty much an impossible trip if someone actually wants to go and enjoy themselves, I don't think I would enjoy it at all when you think about what you have to do to stay in that budget.

 

[markpenske]

tickets will take a big bite out of your budget. A suggestion might be to get a hotel on the east side of WDW, I think the area is called "crossroads". You could walk to many good less expensive places to eat (Uno's, McDonalds...….) If your hotels doesn't have a free shuttle its a short walk to Disney springs where you can use Disney transportation to get anywhere.
Thinking budget: Water park tickets are a good value. And, you don't have to go to the parks everyday. It's kinda nice to explore the deluxe resorts. Wilderness lodge has some nice trails. You could watch fireworks from some of the resorts. Good luck

 

[Eastern]

Has the OP responded yet? I haven’t seen it which makes me think it was possible a troll in the first place given how unrealistic the scenario is.

I don't think it is a troll. I think it is a younger person who is trying to get a feel for what it costs to go to Disney.

 

[rwdavis2]

I don't think it is a troll. I think it is a younger person who is trying to get a feel for what it costs to go to Disney.

Good point

 

[Heather07438]

Going solo costs more. You aren't splitting room costs, and others could be reduced thru sharing bulk groceries and airport taxi, etc.

Personally I think the best bang for the buck is planning ahead to find a great offer thru WDW site (like free food at Pop) for 7+ days and finding some people to share the trip. Then you're able to get a full WDW experience without feeling rushed/ragged, and for a relatively low cost per day. Value isn't only about the lowest cost, it's also about what you get for the money.

My best advice would be to plan it out a bit further, save a bit more, and find some people to enjoy WDW together.