WDW has become so expensive - what do you let your vacation cost?

[maxiv]

Not sure if anyone might be open to discuss this, but I guess most of us are anonymous here, so it might not even matter ;-)

I am from Germany and, unfortunately, don't get to go to WDW very often. My last trip was in 2012.
Back then my friend and I did 4 nights POP, 4 nights AoA and 4 nights POFQ, as far as I can remember.
We didn't eat any meals in the room and had 10 day park hoppers. We didn't go to super high end restaurants.
As far as I can remember, that trip cost about €2000 - €2500 including flights - those cost €700.
So, let's say €2000 for 12 days Disney, which would be around $2200 today (a bit less back then).

Now I'm planning a trip with my girlfriend at the end of this year - both of us around 30 years old, double income no kids.
We're looking to splurge quite a bit, so we booked 6 nights Old Key West and 6 nights AKL Kidani Villaga with a Savannah Studio - we rented DVC points.
We're budgeting about $100 per person per day for meals, since we want to go to many of the nice places.

So, right now we're looking at about $3500 - $3800 per Person for those 12 days, including flights (flights cost $550).

I'm just curious - do you think this is incredibly high? How much do you let your Disney vacations cost you?
I read so much about People staying at Coronado, Poly, Grand Floridian, Boardwalk....and just can't help to think "oh my god, those places are SO expensive".
Yes, we're not exactly staying at cheap places ourselves, but I feel we got somewhat good deals through DVC rental.

In general, I think, it might also come down to cultural differences - in Germany we have more vacation days (30 per year) in addition to many bank holidays, so we need to spread our income to more vacations per year. We might also be less willing to spend our savings for holidays, whereas I get the impression that Americans tend to splurge more in general when on vacation.

I hope this doesn't come across in any wrong way, I'm just curious as to what people's mind set is when budgeting for a Disney vacation and possibly how many monthly salaries such a vacation is worth to them.

 

[kathy884]

I'm from the Midwest in the United States and get 28 vacation days a year, quite similar to you. Please note that there are many ways to do a Disney vacation and that people with higher vacation budgets, people coming from so far away like you, or people doing that once in a lifetime Disney trip often like to stay onsite and splurge a bit more, like you are doing. I don't think that is the norm, though, for people who go to Orlando pretty often.

For someone like me, (I love Disney, but have been there a zillion time -- been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt.), and my Orlando trips are going to be more in the modest budget category and not look anything like yours. But also I have relatives in Orlando (probably go every other year to visit them and hit a park or two). I never stay onsite (more than I want to pay) unless it's a work seminar, and my company or my husband's company is paying. I don't do any high end dining in Orlando either. For me it's not my main vacation of the year and will not be a big part of my vacation budget. Ten of us from different parts of the country gathered in Orlando in this past December. Most were there for eleven nights, ten days. For the first seven nights, one in the party has a timeshare bought on the resale market and did a timeshare trade and seven people stayed in the condo for the first seven nights. Then the next four nights when we had 10 people we did two, two-bedroom condo retail rentals at Cypress Point. Each condo including taxes for a prepaid rate ran about $150 a night, and each condo slept six people (pretty inexpensive per night per person cost). We mostly did family visiting and nature activities, just two theme parks (one day at SeaWorld and one day at the Magic Kingdom). Two out to the ten did Hollywood Studios too (a third theme park day), to check out that new Star Wars land. We did a lot of eating in (all breakfasts cooked at the condo, etc.) Most other meals were cooked in too. At the Magic Kingdom the only meal we did there was "Casey's Corner" the hot dog place. We had both breakfast and dinner at the condos. At SeaWorld, it was breakfast at the condo and a little Orca presentation and buffet "Dine with Shamu" and a quick service place later. The only other meals out (just easier to cook in with a baby, etc.) was that some went to a "Pirate Dinner" and others went to "Sweet Tomatoes" -- a modest offsite buffet chain we really like that we no longer have in our hometown. We also ordered pizza once too (picked up pizza and salad) and family members made a huge spread they brought over to one of the condos for a Christmas Eve dinner. We are talking el cheapo here except for theme parks tickets which you really can't get around (and we did minimal park days), but this was in no way a once in a lifetime or rare Orlando trip. It was all about family gathering and hanging out, nature activities our Orlando locals love with a few theme parks thrown in.

More on par with your trip though, this year DH, DS, and I are doing a rare trip to Europe (Paris and Belfast). Since I rarely go to Europe (it's more like a once in a lifetime trip), I am spending more for close in convenient hotels that have some historical charm, etc. It looks to me like you got a great deal on flights (looks like a really good deal all the way from Germany), compared to what I'm paying to fly to Paris and then back from Dublin (late spring). We are doing an inexpensive flight from Paris to Belfast too. I'm paying about triple per person compared to what you are when I add flight costs up per person. For long haul flights I did an upgrade to premium economy for a little more space. No wonder I hardly ever go to Europe with my high priced flights lol. My trip to Europe is costing me about $3700 a person for way fewer nights than what you are doing in Orlando - just five nights in Paris and three nights in Belfast (meals out, tourist sites, all of that). I am paying $300 a night for my Paris hotel for three (a triple).

A typical vacation year for me is typically one bigger week long or longer trip that costs around 6K or 7K for three or four people, two shorter getaways around 2K each, and other vacation is taken hosting out of town family at my home, activities at home, or going to relatives homes and staying a few days with them (out of normal discretionary income and not part of my vacation budget).

 

[Dreams&wishes]

Yes it's expensive, but very comparable to other European holidays. I mean I don't know how you worked out €3500/€3800 per person when I was able to book a £2900 for 14 nights stay at CBR. Yes I know mod instead of LUX, but even BC was like £4500 per room so if you sleep in the same room as your GF your cost shouldn't be as much. But anyway, given that we are a family of 6 and spend waaaay more than usual as everything is always double. You can book a 10 days stay in a 4 stars resort in mallorca in August for around £3000 without flights or a week in an hotel in the apls for even more money than that, depending on the period. Plus If you go skiing you know how expensive the ski pass and gear rental can be etc.

So it obviously depends which level of resort you choose, but back in Oct we stayed 21 nights at the Poly and, yes it was expensive, but not shockingly so. If I stayed 21 nights in an hotel in the mountains or in Sardinia I would have paid waaay more than that. I also think that we Euopeans stay there much longer which makes the price way higher, compared to Americans who maximum go for a week. So one week in a Delux resort it's not too bad, cost wise, but at two weeks you feel the hit.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I like to go for 10 days and keep it under $5000 for two people. Last trip was just DD12 and myself. We did two nights at POFQ, 7 nights on rented DVC points at BWV, 10 day hoppers, MVMCP tickets, flights and spending/food money. It came out right at 5K. We did do a lot of eating and snacking and TS places. And DD got a spirit jersey/sweatshirt that cost $75 and a few more souvenirs.

We haven't gone as a family of four since 2015. We didn't have a so great family WDW trip so since then I've been doing trips with each kid separately and soon SO and I will go separately also. If we were going as a family of four I would still like to keep it at 5K so we would have to adjust in other places. Go less days, drive instead of fly, more QS, less TS, not many extras, etc. That's why I don't see us doing another big family trip to WDW again unless Disney starts giving out some great deals.

I only do Disney every 3 years or so. We vacation at other places often and feel we get much more bang for our buck. But I still love Disney and spend the money every few years.

 

[Darcy03231]

My WDW trip this year for two adults, one child and one infant. We booked week at All Star Movie (2 rooms)s, 6 day base tickets, and DDP. Cost came to a bit over $4600. I opted for the DDP since we plan to do a character meal every day. I ran the numbers and we'll save a little bit. It's more of a wash than a savings. I have points for flights so I don't have to add that in. If I did it's usually about $250/pp from my home airport. I plan to get Halloween party tickets and to book BBB for the 6 y.o. I'm sure we'll spend on some souvenirs too.

 

[RamblingMad]

I think WDW vacations are expensive. I think folks will take on debt to go. In other words I agree with your observations.

What’s different culturally is that Germans save more money than Americans. And the German government is fiscally conservative as well. Coming from that POV, I’d also wonder why Americans spend so much on Disney.

As for vacations, I have unlimited. But I usually take a month or less of vacation. I’m usually camping out somewhere.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We’re DVC members so we don’t “pay” for our resort and we drive down (from Maryland) so no flight costs. We usually stay for 2 weeks. But we’re a large family (7 people plus my parents always go with us) so we still end up spending a lot on our yearly Disney vacays. A lot. Food alone is about $300-$400 per day (that’s one table service and one quick service meal per day, we eat breakfast in room) and we usually do a few extras like dessert parties and such. Our park tickets run around $4000 for 10 day park hoppers for all 7 of us, plus another $1200 for our Universal tickets. We go to Europe to visit family every other year and don’t spend nearly as much (flights included) as we do at Disney. But we’re addicted to Disney World and to us it’s worth the money. As for vacation time, we’re lucky because DH runs a business and can take whatever time he wants and I have a very flexible part time schedule that I can easily work around.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Personally I think your budget doesn’t sound high at all. I do think 100 a day for food is light especially if you wAnt to go to signature restaurants for dinner and drink alcohol plus have breakfast and lunch. A bottle of wine is between 40 and 50 minimal, beers from 5 to $10 each, entrees are anywhere from 20 to 50 for a steak and apps and dessert adds another 15 to 25 per person, just for dinner. Plus tips. We never do the dining plan but you may want to consider it since it will be prepaid. You can look at menus to see prices. You can always split meals if that helps or eat breakfast in the room.

 

[Brett Wyman]

When I feel like WDW is too much I just price out a Disney Cruise and then WDW feels very affordable again.

 

[MillauFr]

We just go to Disneyland. Much cheaper.

 

[Brett Wyman]

We just go to Disneyland. Much cheaper.

???

If you're locals maybe. DL trips cost us considerably more to stay onsite and higher airfare and rental car costs too. Car for 7 days in Orlando $300, from LAX $900.

 

[RamblingMad]

???

If you're locals maybe. DL trips cost us considerably more to stay onsite and higher airfare and rental car costs too.

There is really no reason to stay onsite at DL. And you can take super shuttle from the airport.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I don't have a set price. We pay what we are comfortable paying. I have enough in our vacation fund to take at least 2 trips. It would be great to keep the costs down and stretch those dollars as far as we can. Full disclosure: I already have tickets in my account. I bought them in 2017 before a price increase.

 

[firefly_ris]

I'm in the US so my answers will be based on that. I'm also self-employed so I don't "get" any vacation days, I work my schedule around when I want to take them, and some vacations I work while there (like a beach vacation, I would work a few hours per day in the evening).

Last year we took our family of 5 to WDW for approximately $4000. We stayed for 7 nights at Caribbean Beach Resort with a room-only discount and had 6 day base tickets that we bought from Undercover Tourist using the "buy 4 get 2 days free" promo -- 2 adults and 3 children. We flew from Western New York.

I prefer not to pay to fly into Orlando, so we use a Southwest Visa card to rack up rapid rewards points which we use for the flights. So we only paid tax and fees which was about $50 for the 5 of us.

We ate breakfasts in the room -- I am not a huge breakfast eater and I prefer to get the kids to the parks at rope drop so we ordered food from Amazon Prime Now and had things like granola bars, bagels, fruit and cereal for breakfast before heading out the door.

I 'splurge' on Starbucks when I am there but even still I did this by saving gift cards I had received as gifts (or earned them via savings apps like Ibotta). At home, I rarely buy coffee out as it's a money suck, not to mention I buy Frappucinnos at Starbucks which are about a zillion calories so I save them for 'special' things these days like vacations. I'm not a big alcohol drinker, I did have a few drinks here and there in the parks over the week but not much. I did have a case of Trulys back at the room for the evenings. I also don't drink soda and brought water bottles with us.

My kids eat like birds so we had them split some meals, this saved a lot of money (and food waste). Our first place was Be Our Guest lunch which I had ordered online ahead for and got each kid their own full meal and this is where I learned it wasn't worth it as they all had so much left over. We had I think 4 or 5 table service ADRs throughout that week and everything else was quick service meals or snacks. We did not do any expensive character meals since they charge per person and it would have been a bit of a waste for my family. This worked perfectly for us, we didn't have to plan around too many table services, flexible, and we had more cash for some fun treats and "small bites" this way -- it was Epcot Festival of the Arts so they had a lot of good stuff to try.

I don't feel like we are particularly 'missing' anything by not buying dining plans or buying add-on events, staying club level, etc. That's great for people who like to do those things, but I don't go home and think my vacation was not fun because I didn't do that stuff. I made some wonderful memories with my children. For us it's about the parks and my kids are excited to stay at any hotel anywhere, regardless of its cost or theme.

The last way we saved money on the last trip was to not have a rental car and rely on Disney buses -- this was the most painful point for us as I do not care for the bus service, and prefer to come and go on our own without waiting at bus stops. We had 2 times returning from parks waiting nearly 40 minutes for a bus to arrive (returning from EPCOT and DHS). Next time a car will have to be built into the budget no matter where we end up staying.

I also have stayed off site in the past in more spacious (and cheaper) accommodations which are also great. Driving to and from the parks was easy (10 minutes to the parking lot), and we had more room.

For the next trip in a couple of years I'm trying to see if it will be possible to really splurge on a DVC studio rental, but I'm still in the research phase. I like the studios because they include a microwave, toaster and a sink which is helpful when eating in. Some people scoff at the idea of not eating at a restaurant for every waking moment of their vacation but I am not one of those people, lol.

I love Disney but for me "absence makes the heart grow fonder" so I don't really WANT to go every year or multiple times a year even if I could -- and I like to do Disney as budgeted as possible because I won't take away from other aspects of my life such as vacationing other places, whether that be a "big" week long vacation or the "mini"/extended weekend vacations as we are more apt to do throughout the year, along with upgrading my home, and proper retirement savings, so I watch my dollars quite carefully when I'm planning a Disney trip. I don't go into debt for anything except a mortgage so a Disney trip is no exception...

Of course, all answers are going to be different because everyone has different preferences, where they are willing to cut and not cut, their income, their family size, where they are traveling from, etc.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

I agree. Prices have gone up substantially.

We stayed at CBR (moderate) in 2016 on a free dining package with the regular dining plan for 10 nights/11 days as a family of 5 for about $3,500. At the time, the required ticket purchase for free dining was a 2 day ticket (which we saved for a later trip because we had APs).

I priced out the same package this year at CBR when free dining was offered and it was $7,850!!! Of course, this year at least a 4 day PH is required and only the quick service dining plan is offered, so the $7,850 includes an upgrade to the mid-level dining plan that we had in 2016. Way too much for us to pay. We can afford it, but don't see the value in paying so much more than we did just 4 years ago.

We're taking this year off from Disney and will probably go back next year for the 50th Anniversary Celebration. I'm hoping to convince the kids to give US/IOA a try this year as we haven't been there in YEARS.

 

[MillauFr]

???

If you're locals maybe. DL trips cost us considerably more to stay onsite and higher airfare and rental car costs too. Car for 7 days in Orlando $300, from LAX $900.

Why do you need a car at Disneyland? You can stay offsite and walk to the front gate in 10 minutes. It is much cheaper and easier just to take Lyft from the Airport.

 

[easyas123]

Personally I think your budget doesn’t sound high at all. I do think 100 a day for food is light especially if you wAnt to go to signature restaurants for dinner and drink alcohol plus have breakfast and lunch. A bottle of wine is between 40 and 50 minimal, beers from 5 to $10 each, entrees are anywhere from 20 to 50 for a steak and apps and dessert adds another 15 to 25 per person, just for dinner. Plus tips. We never do the dining plan but you may want to consider it since it will be prepaid. You can look at menus to see prices. You can always split meals if that helps or eat breakfast in the room.

I concur with the above poster, I think your daily food budget may be a bit low.
We are two adults, no kids. I budget $300 per day on the assumption that we will probably do counter service breakfast and maybe lunch, and a decent sit down dinner. We have a few drinks every day as well. Sometimes we don't come anywhere close to our budget, some days we might go over it. We aren't really into souvenirs, and anything we might pick up is folded up in that $300 / day.

Over the years we have transitioned into more of a WDW trip that is 3 or 4 nights as a mid winter break vs. a full week or more of vacation. We recently had the opportunity to travel to Germany (beautiful) & the Netherlands and honestly - we are looking to spend our "big" vacation dollars to go back to Europe instead of any more long WDW trips. We usually rent DVC points (depending on where and how long, approx. $700-1200), buy park hoppers (approx. $800-900 total) and fly down (on points) from Maryland. Add to that the $300 per day food/booze budget and that is what we spend on a typical 3-4 night break in WDW.
Last trip to Europe was about $10K total for both of us, we were there 8 nights I think. Next trip will be closer to 10-14 days and its looking like $12-13K. I can't wait.

 

[gottalovepluto]

There is nothing wrong with your question! It's just there is no easy answer It cannot be broken down to dollars or even a percent to compare everyone because our incomes, backgrounds and personal situations are all so very different. A week at Pop with tickets for a fam could be someone's vacation budget for 2 years while a week at a theme park view room at GF might be only a portion of one year's vacation budget for another family.

(Time does have something to do with it. I think many American's have no idea what they would do vacation wise if it was normal to get 30 days off plus holidays- dang lol. I should move )

 

[DLgal]

To answer you question about how much we spend on vacations a year...about one month's take home pay. So, a bit under 10% of our net income. This sometimes gets spread out. My husband gets 30 days of leave a year plus federal holidays, but can have up to 60 days banked at a time, which he always does. Sometimes, it is one big vacation.

We did 10 nights at WDW in July 2018, family of 4, and it cost about $10,000 all in (flights from California, hotels, tickets, food). That trip was a splurge and we stayed Club level at the Contemporary and Beach Club, albeit at 40% off.

Last year, we did some smaller, more local vacations, but spent similarly. Staycation at the Grand Californian over 4th of July; Las Vegas with a major splurge on expensive concert tickets; Great Wolf Lodge for 2 nights for summer kid birthday, and I went on a girls trip to WDW.

We spend what we have to spend at the time. We book trips in advance and try to make payments leading up to it so its mostly paid off when we get there (except for food/souvenirs). We don't charge vacations to the credit card and just let it rack up interest, but we do use credit cards to earn rewards.

 

[gottalovepluto]

There is really no reason to stay onsite at DL. And you can take super shuttle from the airport.

I try to stay onsite when I can stretch the budget because I get so much out of EMH at DL, takes a lot of pressure off my trips when I can knock out a bunch of stuff at the beginning of the morning without the crowds. (But, I also go every few years so I know the ins and outs of making EMH work for you and I know once in a while you get a bum morning where everything is like broken/still getting up and running at DCA.) So yes, some people do have their own reasons to stay onsite at DL.

Btw Super Shuttle doesn't exist anymore, but ride shares are prevalent and there are many private shuttle companies. I concur in that if you aren't leaving the Anaheim Resort area I see no reason for a rental car, even if you are leaving the Anaheim Resort area it can work out cheaper to rent the car there in Anaheim for the day or before or after your time DLR.