What dollar amount do you consider to be a budget trip?

[SEA333]

I love the way that you worked your budget but I agree with 4HppyCamprs in principle. When you ignore the amount that you spent in order to get your "free" stuff, you're misleading yourself.

Those of us who purchased DVC contracts put out $$$ upfront and we continue to pay into that commitment through our annual maintenance fees. The same goes for any timeshare owner who makes their budget look better by ignoring those costs.

If you purchased an AP, you spent a ton of money with the initial purchase. Obviously, the more you use it, the less it costs you on a per-day basis, but it still costs you something. The same holds true for people who use leftover no-expiry tickets from previous visits or unused passes they bought in order to get "free" dining. The price of admission is not $0.

That dining plan is not really free. Not when you consider that you could have gotten a room-only discount and purchased your tickets from an outside source instead. The dining plan in reality = (rack rate - discounted room rate) + (Disney's gate price for tickets - a discounter's price). It may still be a great deal, but it is not free.

There are so many variables and each person's situation is unique. When I said $2500 for 2 adults for a week, I meant paying OOP for everything including all transportation, food, tickets and accommodations. I know that it can be done more cheaply if you don't visit the parks, stay with relatives and bring a freezer full of homemade dinners with you. But to actually plan a vacation at Disney, tickets for each day and food each night, I really believe that $2500 is about the least amount that you can expect to reasonably spend in a week for 2 people.

LOL I agree! But, for a family of 5, it is a much better deal than 30% off a room. And I've never been able to find tickets that will save me the nearly $1000 that the "free" dining plan is. I could totally get a hotel room at the Hyatt like we did last time for $79/night and buy groceries from Wal-mart when we get there to save on food costs. But, that would really make it an "Orlando" vacation that happens to include Disney, then, in my opinion.

$1000 in free DISNEY food is appealing to us as we have never done it before and it is, in fact, FREE because we are not paying for it, no matter what other types of discounts we are choosing not to take advantage of. If I were to go into Kohls and have the choice between getting a $40 shirt for 10% off, a $20 pair of pants for 5% off, or a $100 pair of shoes for free if I buy the rest of the outfit, I think I'd choose the shoes. (disclaimer - I am not saying my math example matches the discount ratios given by Disney...I'm only saying that there are real-world comparisons) I'm still saving more by purchasing the other two items at full price and getting the free pair of shoes - AND saving my budget.

Funny thing is....my family of 5 is STILL flying to Disney World, staying onsite with transportation and meals included, for 5 days/4 nights for about $3500 completely out the (front) door, to WDW, and back again....no matter how much we can argue what is or isn't considered "free", I am paying $700 per person. To me, that is a deal - and on the low end of a lot of people's budgets. Last time the 5 of us went to Orlando (which included WDW), we spent about $5000, and that was with driving 25 hours, eating off site, and getting a great hotel for a good price. We were in Florida for 6 days.

 

[jsmla]

My DH is not a Disney fan and our kids are now adults so I have learned to take solo trips to get my "fix" Because these trips are solo they aren't a part of our vacation budget so I try to keep them as low cost as possible

I wrote up this cost breakdown of a trip I took last October to post on another forum and really did try to cover everything. I couldn't come up with an exact number for the things I pulled from my freezer and pantry. I suppose could argue that this isn't an extra expense since these meals would truly cost the same whether I eat them at home or on vacation. The transportation cost obviously varies with changes in gas prices.


I priced out everything I could think of for a typical trip except for alcohol and non-food shopping. Alcohol is my big splurge in the parks, especially during Food and Wine. I usually use my Disney Visa Rewards to purchase things like those yummy Grand Marnier slushies in the France pavilion in Epcot. Since I always pay my credit card balance in full each month I'm going to go ahead and call this expense free although I can see that this is a somewhat debatable point.



TRANSPORTATION
Gas $200 (I drive-it's roughly 700 miles each way but I am a nervous flyer.)
http://fuelcostcalculator.aaa.com/

Bus pass $16 (I like an adult beverage or two in the evening and sometimes prefer not to drive. Wyndham Cypress Palms has excellent Lynx service to Disney-the main focus of my trip.)
http://www.golynx.com/fares-passes/

Parking $0 (Free at condo and at WDW with my AP)



INTERNET/RESORT FEES $0 at Wyndham Cypress Palms



LODGING $234/week via vacation certificates purchased through SkyAuction. I believe these have since gone up. I stay here:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re...ws-Wyndham_Cypress_Palms-Orlando_Florida.html



TICKETS $113
Annual Pass (renewal) $563/average of 25 park visits per year, so $22.52/day X 5 days=$112.60



MEALS/SNACKS $80 (out of pocket)
Food in parks $50 (Disney gift card I purchase at our supermarket with spare change.) On my most recent trip I spent it on lunch at the Be Our Guest and tastings at the Food and Wine Festival.

Grocery Shop at Whole Foods (milk, yogurt, fruit, veggies) $30

All other is food brought from home. I don't usually purchase anything extra for the trip but pull from my pantry and freezer. I freeze dinner leftovers as single-serve meals and stock my pantry with staples when they are at a significant sale, sometimes with a coupon. I also bring things that would otherwise spoil while I'm gone. For instance I paid $.50 for the box of whole grain pasta I packed and $1 for the package of whole wheat pita bread. The potato, cheeses, cereal, bread, peanut butter, garlic and trail mix were all things that were left over from the week prior to the trip.

After I arrive at the condo I cook the pasta while I'm unpacking and settling in and store it in the fridge for later use. I also wash and store all of the salad fixings. Daily I'd estimate that I spend around 15 minutes preparing breakfast and packing a lunch in the mornings. Dinner timing depends on the cooking times of various items but most things just need to be popped into the microwave. It takes me maybe a minute to rinse my plate and pop it into the dishwasher. At any rate I'm pretty sure that it's less time than it would take to get to a restaurant and wait for a table (or in the line in the case of quick service) if I were eating out.

Here's a list of what I ate on that particular trip, it's fairly typical:

Breakfasts
Yogurt/berries
Cereal/banana/milk
Coffee

Brownbag Lunches
Pasta salad/grapes
Peanut butter/whole wheat/apple
Spicy homemade red pepper hummus/pita wedges/carrots/cheese/apple
Veggie sandwich (hummus/broccoli/tomato/cheese) on whole wheat

Dinners
Macaroni and cheese/black-eyed peas/sliced home-grown tomatoes
Bean burrito/salad
Pasta with veggies (broccoli, carrots, spinach, tomato), garlic and Parmesan
Baked potato topped with lentil chili and cheese/salad
Large salad with cheese and assorted veggies/toasted parmesan pita wedges
Black beans/rice/salad

Snacks
Cheese
Trail mix
Grapes
Peanut butter/celery
Carrots/hummus
Apples



PROS/CONS

Cons (Because anything "budget" usually means a compromise!)
-I do miss the easy transportation to the parks from the Disney resorts.
-We generally avoid the parks with Extra Magic Hours no matter where we're staying but I do occasionally attend the evening EMH at the Magic Kingdom which isn't possible with off-site.
-I'm used to it but can be a bit of a pain to lug your lunch and snacks around.
-The Lynx schedule means I have to miss Wishes and Illuminations if they are scheduled much later than 9:00 PM.
-No housekeeping-I only mention this because it seems to be important to some. Personally, I'm not crazy about having strangers in my room and normally only get housekeeping when we run out of towels. This also saves me the $5 daily tip. I know it's not mandatory, nor is it the main reason I skip housekeeping, but if I get service, I tip.

On the flip side
-The Disney Dining Plan (and I've tried all three multiple times) doesn't really suit the way I prefer to eat-I always struggle to get value from it even when "free". The last time we had the Basic Plan we had over a dozen QS credits left on our final day. I can't handle all of those desserts and really do prefer plain old iced water with meals.
-My homemade stuff is much higher in quality-mostly organic, whole grain and unprocessed. It also suits my tastes better and I only pay for the things and quantities I'll actually eat. I waste an unbelievable amount of food when dining with Disney.
-No need to plan ADRs in advance or wait in a line for Quick Service.
-The refillable mug isn't great for me either. I don't care for Disney coffee much and rarely drink soda except in the mornings as a coffee substitute. I'm the kind of person who needs coffee BEFORE I can manage to dress myself and hump it over to a food court. At my last two Disney resorts the food court was a crazy long walk from our room, while at the condo I can preset the coffee maker and it's waiting for me in the next room when I wake up.



That comes to a total of $643 for the week. The cheapest 7 day WDW package (solo) I could find was for the All Star Music (where, by the way, BOTH of my main Disney travel companions refuse to stay) at $1076 (with a 5 day Park Hopper and pretending that includes the Quick Service Dining Plan gratis). Add $200 for gas and I'm at $1276. That's over a six hundred dollar (almost double) difference. Would I prefer to always stay with Disney? I think probably, yes, especially on my solo trips. If I ever win the lottery I'll either buy a million DVC points or stay exclusively in club level at the Deluxe Resorts. Till then, do I prefer on-site enough to take half as many trips as I could if I go with off-site? Probably not.

This, of course, is just me. *Your mileage may vary.

 

[amie416]

I wrote up this cost breakdown of a trip I took last October to post on another forum and really did try to cover everything....

This, of course, is just me. *Your mileage may vary.

Thanks for this. I found your post really helpful!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We spent $3,100 for Disney. Most expensive trip we ever took, but "budget" for Disney IMO for 4 people.

That included:
Gas (2,200 mile round trip)
Food
Hotel each way
4-day premium Y.E.S. tickets (2012 before the price hike) which we spread over 7 days.
1 princess lunch
8 nights in an off-site cabin
parking
locker rentals
incidentals

We ate 1-2 meals a day outside the parks and carried plenty of food/snacks/drinks with us INTO the parks.

So, for us, that's how we do Disney "on a budget". Ordinarily, a "budget vacation" for us is more like $1,000-1,500.

 

[purpledisneyprncess]

We are doing a budget trip soon, and we just did one this past April as well! This one is even "More budget" than the April one.

For this upcoming trip for our family of four, after it's all said and done it will be around $1,800-$2,000.
*5 day base tickets for 2 adults & 2 children-- $900 (this is including the extra $100 back we got from buying thru Ebates/Orbitz)
*$537 for 7 nights at Pop Century, booked through online travel company and I included $-30 cash back from going thru Ebates)
*$260 spent on $325 Worth of Shell Gas Gift Cards (bought them at 20% off at my local grocer)
*Food costs are TBD; however I have appx $270 in Disney Dollars that I will use on food.
*Going to estimate $100 for souviners

 

[lauradis]

Nothing is ever free cheaper yes but not free... if your spending money, memberships, points, your time to get it "free".

 

[disneysteve]

8 nights in an off-site cabin

I'm curious what an "off-site cabin" is. Tell me more please.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I'm curious what an "off-site cabin" is. Tell me more please.

We stayed here:

http://www.tropicalpalmsresortfl.com/

In one of these:

The one we were in had a loft where the kids slept. The ones pictured are the base cabins. There's also a larger 2-bedroom + loft (we had the 1 BR + loft).

Now, we actually booked ours through VRBO with a private owner, not through the resort. And then shortly after booking, the owner sold to the resort. The resort honored our rate since it was already booked - no idea if it was comparable to their normal rate or not. We were there June of 2012.

Really, the best part was we were REAL close to the parks - like front door of the cabin to parked at Epcot in 8 minutes close

 

[Grendalynn]

subscribing

"I" am a family of 5. We typically will spend $3500 to go to Disney for a week. Most recently, that was at a moderate resort with free dining, basic park tickets. DS13 was considered an adult but the other two DSs were considered children. Now with the boys getting older, the cost is gradually going up and up. And we are limited as to which resorts we can fit in. No travel is included in the above cost as we usually drive down from NH and spend some time with the inlaws or at the beach. We try to go in the spring and or during free dining promos. That saves us a fortune and we eat like kings!

Its not "budget" by far, but after pricing out what we "could" spend and where/how we "could" eat (and where we DO eat), I think its a pretty good deal for a family of 5, on property, at WDW.

 

[misca]

Thank you all so much!! I had seen a couple posts elsewhere and some of the ladies were saying they didn't think having $2000 for food and souveniers would be enough! This scared the crap out of me!

Looking at this thread I realize that my budgeting will be just fine and we will never get another chance at the deal we are getting right now. Hubby is in the military, but getting out late September. We were trying to figure out if we wanted a budget trip now when he has the time, or, try and find the time later, but we will have enough money.

With a 30% Discount on rooms at Shades of Green, we are paying $86 per night. Tickets for a 4 day park hopper for myself, DD, and DH are only $159. I over budgeted money for gas just in case, and have $325 on Disney Gift Cards through Swagbucks.com and other earning sites, and so we have about $500 total for food and souveniers(not counting a meal at Cinderellas Royal Table that we paid out of pocket). Total expense right now with that and parking and stroller rental comes out to about $2300. Free tickets to Sea World as well, but I know we will need food there too.

I was quite scared that I was severely under budget but thanks to you all I can show my husband that it will be well worth it to go now, and now wait till later.

For the people that go all the time, is staying off site worth it to save money? Do you feel like extra time in the parks is worth it?

 

[disneysteve]

For the people that go all the time, is staying off site worth it to save money? Do you feel like extra time in the parks is worth it?

Absolutely! We CHOOSE to stay offsite. It isn't just about the money, though that's a benefit. Offsite, we get a 3-bedroom house with a private, screened-in pool, full kitchen, living room, dining area, washer/dryer, maybe a hot tub, 2-3 bathrooms all for the price of a tiny cramped value room onsite.

It is so nice at the end of a day in the parks to come home, jump in our own pool where it is peaceful and quiet and relax on a nice cushy sofa and watch tv. After days of eating theme park food surrounded by thousands of other tourists, it is so nice to retreat to the house and prepare a simple meal (or even bring in take-out) and eat together at the table in a nice quiet room.

As for extra time in the parks, I assume you mean EMH. We always intentionally avoid the EMH parks due to the crowds on those days. We check the schedule and make sure to go to one of the other parks so we don't see access to EMH as a perk at all.

Having our own house also means parking right outside our door and not having to lug suitcases from the parking lot. We also don't have to depend on Disney transportation. We hop in our car and within a few minutes, we are at our destination. So much nicer that way.

 

[hsmamato2]

With a 30% Discount on rooms at Shades of Green, we are paying $86 per night. Tickets for a 4 day park hopper for myself, DD, and DH are only $159. I over budgeted money for gas just in case, and have $325 on Disney Gift Cards through Swagbucks.com and other earning sites, and so we have about $500 total for food and souveniers(not counting a meal at Cinderellas Royal Table that we paid out of pocket). Total expense right now with that and parking and stroller rental comes out to about $2300. Free tickets to Sea World as well, but I know we will need food there too.
For the people that go all the time, is staying off site worth it to save money? Do you feel like extra time in the parks is worth it?

It sounds like you have a great budget plan! You will have fun! SOme like offsite, my family LOVES onsite,I can't overstress that..... I could be happy in various places, but anywhere but onsite Disney,and they just aren't as happy. Go figure..... I love onsite too,and highly recommend for a 1st timer,etc. Shades of Green is quite nice,I hear-you've got a great rate for a Disney hotel!

 

[mistysue]

A budget trip is whatever fits into your budget. A trip in my budget is about $6600. We go on vacation for two weeks and this budget includes the amount we would have spend on food and daycare if we had stayed at home.

If I want a cheap vacation for two weeks, we spent about $3,000 last time when only one kid counted. With the 5 of us I think I could keep it close to $4,000.

If I am cooking and stressed about every penny I don't feel like I am on vacation.

 

[BeerMe]

With a 30% Discount on rooms at Shades of Green, we are paying $86 per night.

That is a great deal. We've been going to SoG since 1995 and we love it! We stayed there again in February. It is truly a magical place to stay. You'll enjoy it there. You may want to check out this site - they give tips for military visiting Disney. Enjoy your trip.

http://www.militarydisneytips.com/Disney-Armed-Forces-Salute.html

ETA: You may want to check out this site too - you can get condos for $369/week through them. We've had good luck with the ones we've rented. www.afvclub.com/‎

 

[jsmla]

I'm not qualified on the on/off site for every visit debate because I do both. My super budget visits are always my solo trips. DH is still working and his vacations need to involve a bit more pampering. At WDW this can mean onsite resorts and lots of dinners out at Narcoossee's and Yachtsman, etc.

When DH or our adult DD go with me it comes out of the family vacation budget and is a lot splurgier but it's also not a Disney trip every time, or even most of the time. Our priciest family WDW trip was a week spent Club Level at the Grand Floridian to celebrate DD's college graduation and acceptance into medical school. That was to fulfill a dream she'd had since back in her childhood trips when we'd sail past the Grand on our way to the MK from our ratty old camper parked at Ft Wilderness, a homemade lunch in the backpack, spaghetti sauce simmering in the crockpot for dinner back at the Fort.

Really, I enjoy both the Disney resort AND offsite condo stays. I mean it's Disney World!

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Thank you all so much!! I had seen a couple posts elsewhere and some of the ladies were saying they didn't think having $2000 for food and souveniers would be enough! This scared the crap out of me!

Looking at this thread I realize that my budgeting will be just fine and we will never get another chance at the deal we are getting right now. Hubby is in the military, but getting out late September. We were trying to figure out if we wanted a budget trip now when he has the time, or, try and find the time later, but we will have enough money.

With a 30% Discount on rooms at Shades of Green, we are paying $86 per night. Tickets for a 4 day park hopper for myself, DD, and DH are only $159. I over budgeted money for gas just in case, and have $325 on Disney Gift Cards through Swagbucks.com and other earning sites, and so we have about $500 total for food and souveniers(not counting a meal at Cinderellas Royal Table that we paid out of pocket). Total expense right now with that and parking and stroller rental comes out to about $2300. Free tickets to Sea World as well, but I know we will need food there too.

I was quite scared that I was severely under budget but thanks to you all I can show my husband that it will be well worth it to go now, and now wait till later.

For the people that go all the time, is staying off site worth it to save money? Do you feel like extra time in the parks is worth it?

My SIL and her family stayed at SOG last year and loved it. They found the restaurants very affordable, the rooms nice and large, the other guests were great. They loved everything, especially the price per night and military salute tickets. Since they did such a high quality trip on such a small budget, she won't even consider paying Disney prices now. They want to go again but her dad is the military person and he's not ready for another Disney trip just yet. It's killing her!

As for the food budget, we are a family of 4 (two adults, DD14, DS 16). On our last two family trips we spent $900 on food per trip. Each trip included a characted meal or two, several table service, several CS meals, snacks, drinks and groceries for breakfast in the room. Hope this info helps.

I'm not qualified on the on/off site for every visit debate because I do both. My super budget visits are always my solo trips. DH is still working and his vacations need to involve a bit more pampering. At WDW this can mean onsite resorts and lots of dinners out at Narcoossee's and Yachtsman, etc.

Really, I enjoy both the Disney resort AND offsite condo stays. I mean it's Disney World!

I have done both as well. I run the numbers for the trip and choose whichever option works best for us and is most cost effective at the time. When DD and I went to see the Christmas stuff we only went for 4 and a half days and couldn't take the extra time to drive down. We flew, stayed on site, used the busses, had free dining, had a great time. When the whole family goes, flying becomes too expensive and we need more space so then we drive down, stay offsite and have a great time.

Maybe because I grew up going to Disneyland as a day visitor (DL has no Disney bubble) I don't really need to stay in the bubble to feel the magic at WDW. Disneyland is the most magical place on earth despite being surrounded by urban sprawl and despite my never having spent the night there.

 

[disneysteve]

We stayed here:

http://www.tropicalpalmsresortfl.com/

Cool. We will definitely look into that for a future trip. Thanks!