WDW on $1600

[Becky2005]

I haven't read through everything but I don't think it would be possible for us to do that.

Tickets alone would probably cost that much!!! Next time we go we will have 5 adults & 1 child for tickets. Unless, I suppose, we went for 1 day or something.

 

[cuppycake]

If you don't count travel expenses, it's a simple fact that you can do it for less than $1600. Of course, it depends on where you stay and what you choose to do.

There are 4 of us (DH, me, DD6 and DD4). We'll be at Pop for free dining this year for for 9 days/8 nights. We're getting 7 day basic tickets, and that is costing us $1656. If you cut off a couple of days, that money would account for the tips we'll need on the dining plan. So, my guess is cutting it down to 6 days/5 nights and we could do it. That wouldn't be buyiing any souvies, or many extras, but we rarely do anyway.

Though, that still doesn't get us there....so I guess it depends on what they mean by "doing disney"...does that mean AFTER you get there, or the total for the trip??

 

[J3nn78]

We went last April 2-7 for under $1800 including airfare and food. We are a family of 4. We stayed at POP. But we had a 2 year old and 1 year old at the time so one flew free and both were free at the parks.

 

[CherylA]

I beg to differ. We are a family of 4 and we are going for 7 nights staying at ASMo, (preffered room) with 4 day park pass (no hoppers), and free dining and we're paying almost $1,600. So it can be done at certain times of the year.

We're doing an 8 night trip and only spending 4 days in the major parks. We're going in August for free dining. On top of that one day at Blizzard Beach, One Day at Typoon Lagoon, One day by the hotel pool with dinner and shopping at DTD in the evening. Makes for a relaxing and fun trip! After our 1st couple trips to Disney we no longer felt like we needed to see everything. We hit a few favorites and whatever is new. It also works because we plan on going in February for 8 nights and spending 6 full days in the parks from morning until closing but I can handle it in the cool weather, not in August!

 

[Embel]

During Free Dining, 7 nights at the Pop Century & 7 days of Park Hoppers for 2 Adults & 2 Children is 1762. Cut it down to 6 nights & no hoppers & you are at about 1600.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I remember watching that program. It made me so mad. They were doing 3 and 4 night vacations for that price and calling it a budget show. NOT!!! On top of that, the price didn't include flights or tips of any kind. The producers of that show know nothing about how to do things on a budget. Again, these were 3 or 4 night trips, not 7 night trips.

Our first time staying on property was September 2007. My kids were 9 and 7 so they were both kid prices still. We did 7 nights on the free dining promotion and stayed at Pop. With our 8 day WYW base tickets, we paid just under $1500 with taxes, plus our flights which were obviously extra. That year tips were included in the DDP so our only other costs were airport parking at home (I love ME) and anything we wanted to buy.

 

[theduck619]

I have priced it and it seems as though it can be done. We will drive next time and that reduces the cost by about $500-600 overall when we cut out air fare. We just have to factor the possibility of a hotel somewhere along the way.

 

[robinb]

I think I could do it for under $1600 for the week for our family of 3, but not onsite.

$1600
Gas to drive 2500 miles round trip from Wisconsin to Orlando
(-$260)
$1340
Hotels & food on route, approx $70 each way:
(-$140)
$1200
Park passes, undercover tourist 7-day passes @ $229 each
(-$687)
$513
Priceline 2.5* hotel @ $40 per night including fees
(-280)
$233
Parking at WDW for 7 days
(-$77)

That leaves ...
$156 for food for 3 people for 7 days.

Opps! Maybe not, LOL! I guess we could live off of sandwiches, etc but I don't even do that at home.

The killer is the park passes, but you really don't save a bunch by buying a shorter pass.

 

[a1tinkfans]

My sister and I were just talking about a week vacation ANYWHERE and said neither one of us ever gets something under 3K

I think it really depends on what "works" for a family, each is so different...us NOT having dining or NOT having park tickets for each day or NOT having enough cash to buy what we wanted (obviously within reason) really makes it not worth doing for us.
Fortunately, planning ahead and keeping my "eye" on the trip works for us each year so that we still get to visit and do other vacations as well..............its what works for our family and I am SO THANKFUL we can do it.....

 

[Jennia]

We went last year for 948-it was during free dining in November during one of the Visa promotions. DD was free, of course, and I found a super good deal on air fare (187 each, which is amazing considering we were going out of Seattle!). Most of our souvenirs were paid for with my Disney Reward Dollars.
Forgot to mention we were there for five nights, had four day park hopper tickets, and tickets to MVMCP.

 

[jana616]

We are a family of 4 (DH, myself, DS5, and DS2-so free) and we are going for 7 nights/7 days of basic tickets to POP in September for free dining. Our total is $1330. We have been accruing rewards dollars on our Disney Visa for tips and souvenirs and will have the $75 Birthday Fun Card, so we are not planning to have many OOP costs over what those cover. So not factoring in transportation there and back, we are well under $1600. Airfare added an additional $600, driving would have been about $375.

I think a great deal depends on the ages of your family, time of year, and what you are willing to live without. We are fine without park hoppers and water parks. We are choosing lots of buffets and family-style meals since DS2 will eat free. We are definitely watching every penny and doing it on the cheap, but I don't feel like we're giving up anything!

 

[livie1205]

we are going in nov for less then 1600.00
staying at CSR for 6 nights with the dining plan,we drive and we have passes already so that helps.We are only paying around 1100.00...I got the 40% off pin also

 

[lanasboys]

WOW! $1600? I hope I am seriously overbudgeting. Well, I know I am, because I'd much rather have money left over to bring home than to run short. My family of 4 (DH, me, DS13, DS6) are staying at POP in Sept., 9 nights, 8 day park hoppers, free dining, and the total was $1998. We added MNSSHP to that, so that's about $215. We're driving from North MS (I like having my car there), so I've budgeted $250 for gas and $150 for food, misc on the trip there and back. So that's roughly $2615. Although I don't really think we'll need it, I've budgeted $20/day for extra snacks, $20/day for an extra CS meal, and $240 for 3 OOP TS meals. Also, $100 per person for souvenirs. Oh, and we're getting refillable mugs, so another $52. So that brings it to approx. $3750. Oiy, I try not to even think about it, but, again, I have tried to WAY overbudget so as to leave us lots of breathing room.

 

[kevschickee]

My trip cost $2800 for a fam of 4 (includes airfare, hotel at a value, dining plan for 3 2 adults 1 child, 3 park hopper tickets) and I thought we were going cheap.

 

[livie1205]

WOW! $1600? I hope I am seriously overbudgeting. Well, I know I am, because I'd much rather have money left over to bring home than to run short. My family of 4 (DH, me, DS13, DS6) are staying at POP in Sept., 9 nights, 8 day park hoppers, free dining, and the total was $1998. We added MNSSHP to that, so that's about $215. We're driving from North MS (I like having my car there), so I've budgeted $250 for gas and $150 for food, misc on the trip there and back. So that's roughly $2615. Although I don't really think we'll need it, I've budgeted $20/day for extra snacks, $20/day for an extra CS meal, and $240 for 3 OOP TS meals. Also, $100 per person for souvenirs. Oh, and we're getting refillable mugs, so another $52. So that brings it to approx. $3750. Oiy, I try not to even think about it, but, again, I have tried to WAY overbudget so as to leave us lots of breathing room.

wow at least you will have enough to bring back...we stayed at AKL club level last dec for 5 days with dining for 1900.00 that was with a 40% code and that was for 2 adults 2 kids (1 adult age) and a baby.

 

[jessrowe]

I was quoted this price today -
August 27 - 31, 2009
Magic Your Way package plus Free Dining
5 day Magic Your Way base ticket
Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, Standard View
2 adults, 2 children (5, 2)
$1346.03

So that's under $1600. Am I missing some hidden costs? We went last year but my parents paid for everything but souvenirs so I have no idea how much all of this costs!

 

[disfan07]

Our cheapest trip we ever did was for 6 nights/7 days in Dec 2007

We went Dec 18th-24th adn stayed at the ASSp adn got park hopper tickets
Airfare- $115/person RT---$345 total
Hotel- $65/night AAA---about $400 total
Park Tickets- about $815 for 3 adults
so that totals $1560 before food
w/food adn souveniers we spent about $2300
and i thought that was cheap!!!
we did do 5 sit down meals though and we only usually do one or 2 per trip

we're budgeting at least $5000 for our trip next yr b/c we just moved to the west coast so we'll be paying for cross country airfare instead of from virginia adn we'll be staying longer since traveling will take up more time than we're used to. our budget is:
9 nights/10 days
Hotel- $1800 (no discount yet)--9 nights CBR
Park Tickets- $900
Airfare- about $1000 for 3 RT tickets
Food adn misc.- about $1200 (3 sit down the rest CS)

that would leave us about $100 over budget....its not set in stone yet, we might switch to a value adn save like $600 adn hopefully southwest comes out with good fares
if we do a value adn get about $300 RT for airfare we can get away with a budget of about $4300

 

[DawnM]

We are a family of 5. We could not do it and stay on property. We pay around that much, but we stay off-site.

 

[disneyjunkie]

In my experience it's impossible to do Disney for $1600.

It costs the 4 of us over $1000 to fly to WDW. I'm not sure they figure travel expenses into that $1600, but heck I can't flap my wings and get to Florida. If we manage to keep it under $3500 I feel we've done good. I've never gone during free dining, so eating is a big expense. We get snacks if we're hungry - lots of Mickey ice cream bars. The kids get a souvenir or two. I don't want to scrimp on vacation, I'll do that when I'm at home if I have to. If I can't afford a decent vacation I'll wait until I can. [/QUOTE]

I was quoted this price today -
August 27 - 31, 2009
Magic Your Way package plus Free Dining
5 day Magic Your Way base ticket
Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, Standard View
2 adults, 2 children (5, 2)
$1346.03

So that's under $1600. Am I missing some hidden costs? We went last year but my parents paid for everything but souvenirs so I have no idea how much all of this costs!

You need to add in transportation to/from Orlando and tips for all of your table service meals

 

[jessrowe]

You need to add in transportation to/from Orlando and tips for all of your table service meals

We would drive. I calculated the miles/gas and stops for meals and that would be $350, much cheaper than flying the four of us. Is there a way I can estimate how much for tips at the table service meals? We would probably only do 1 or 2. My 2 year old is no fun at sit down restaurants and we did lots of character meals last time.