Resort only trips, what say you?

[SL6827]

For those who go on resort only trips, what's your budgets?

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Oooh! It can actually be more expensive than going to the parks! My husband and I spent easily $150 per day between drinks, food, movies and mini golf. Mainly drinks. Budget $10 per drink minimum.

I think with kids along it would be a lot cheaper actually! Just budget for your meals and plan to spend the days doing resort activities.

 

[disneynutz]

We cook simple meals, buy a case of coke, sleep in, pop into a park if we feel like it, go out to eat if we feel like it. Overall we save money by not being park commandos and we don't need a vacation when we get home from vacation.

Bill

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You still have to travel there and eat and the rest would depend on what you want to do. Sitting at the pool drinking water? Not much. Shopping, sitting by the pool drinking pool drinks, golfing, parasailing etc is all going to add costs - perhaps more than just buying a multi day ticket and going into the parks.

 

[RumpleMom]

We have been members for 17 years and have never done a resort only trip. We keep saying we should one of these days, but it just doesn't happen. We love our annual pass for a quick trip to a park for a meal.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I did not have an AP in 2015-2016 and really didn't see any reason to go to the parks. I KNOW I spent less money just going to SSR and having a resort weekend.

If I wanted a drink I made it... trust me my diet coke with rum is a lot cheaper to make than Disney's selling price! LOL!
I probably had one nice meal a weekend in DTD and that was my big expense.

It's very relaxing IMHO and I plan to do it again once the AP expires (the only reason I have one now is I can get both last year and this year's Food and Wine on one AP thanks to that 13 month promo)

 

[Tigger031266]

We do resort only trips most of the time. The parks have become somewhat old. The rides don't really change much year over year. Also, having kids, the times of year when we go are usually packed. For a family of 4, I would rather take the $2000 of park costs and do other things. The magic for us is being in Disney World. We spend our time swimming, eating at great restaurants, community hall, playing tennis, working out, relaxing, reading, watching movies, going to Disney Springs for shopping, mini golfing and people watching. Somehow, doing those things seem better than big crowds, hot sun and standing in long lines.

 

[com_op_2000]

We do a lot of resort only trips.
DW and I budget $50 for the two of us per day for whatever we are doing that is not a park day. We include in that any eating out, purchases, and things we want to do that day.

 

[gmboy95]

Oooh! It can actually be more expensive than going to the parks! My husband and I spent easily $150 per day between drinks, food, movies and mini golf. Mainly drinks. Budget $10 per drink minimum.

I think with kids along it would be a lot cheaper actually! Just budget for your meals and plan to spend the days doing resort activities.

Overall it is certainly cheaper if you minus the cost of park passes....but you are correct, I would add at least $50 to whatever you per day budget is when you go to the parks....it could be just as expensive if you choose to eat at predominately fine dining restaurants

 

[quandrea]

We love those trips. Just did two weeks in January after our APs expired. Pool, movie nights, great meals out and in the villa, a few special activities, Community Hall. We will have another in January 2019 when our APs expire again.

 

[DisneyaHolic23]

We enjoy a resort-only trip on a regular basis, but I will say, I think we spend MORE. For one thing, we usually stay at a nicer resort, since we are spending so much time there. We usually will do a tour that does not require park passes. We definitely do water vehicles. We always do a Monorail Drink-a-Thon trip, using these awesome personalized passports we found online because the passports are one of the cheapest things we buy for Disney (searching online for Monorail Drink A Thon passports). We eat at nice restaurants. I really love the pool time. I will say that we do save money by bringing drink makings for the pool. So, take that ticket money, and plan ahead for how we are going to spend it intentionally. You will have a blast!!

 

[bwvBound]

We've done plenty of non-park (aka, 'Resort only'?) trips at the Grand Cal. Our budget can run from $0 additional expenses (when we bring our own foods, soak in the hot tub and kick back watching borrowed movies) to, perhaps, $70-90/day if we focus on 'dining out.' In the latter case, we make dining a big deal and do everything slowly ... stretching out the time to savor the restaurant experience.

 

[WDWMom]

We have done several resort only trips. We spend less money because we eat in for two meals and buy our own alcohol to make our drinks. We pool hop for variety and pack our lunches and snacks. We usually go out for dinner and find entertainment. We listen to musicians at Disney Springs. We never seem to be bored, but we have low expectations and do not require to be entertained all day. We read by pool, go for walks, check out resorts. Works for us.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

As others have said, it depends on what you do.

For us, we pick up groceries and cook in the room. for breakfast and lunch and usually grab dinner out. The more nights, the cheaper (since a can of peanut butter is the same if you use it one day or 10). Generally we budget about $10 per day per person for food. $70 for dinner for 2. We don't drink so there is no cost there and we don't need to spend anything else, so we usually get away with an average of around $100 - $110 / day not including a shopping budget which we calculate separately (that's like $200 / hour for those darned trading pins if DW is around any ).

 

[Murron]

We successfully did a resort only once at SSR. We had a 1 bedroom full kitchen so breakfast & lunch were in room with dinner out. That kept the spending down. Did our walks in the a.m. (no longer "jogs" ... feeling old..), hung out at the pool, played some golf and had Disney Springs in our backyard. So it was nice enough to try again. This time BWV .... right next to husband's favorite Epcot ... needless to say it quickly changed to "not resort only."