What is the value in a Disney vacation?

[JKMJ441724]

Hi, everyone.
This may seem like a basic question, but what is the value in a Disney vacation? We know that Disney vacations are costly- but we choose to spend the money anyway. So, why do we do it? What value/benefits do you get from going to Disney?

You need to go back and read trip reports by ZZUB. He puts it very elloquently.

 

[AppleDisneyDad]

I concur. For me it is the time when I do not have to worry about what to do, eat, how to get there etc. I have 4 kids under 10 and Disney allows me to get as close to relaxed as possible without medication....

 

[Pigeon]

For us, it's a very expensive vacation. We have to go during school break weeks. The airfare is much higher than normal, and there are no deals to be had.

The value for us is the the high quality of the entertainment in the parks. Many of the rides and shows are really unequalled elsewhere. They are enchanting, not just rattle your fillings rollercoasters. We stay on site and it is also blissful not to have to think about driving anywhere for a week.

That said, the price of WDW has gotten to the point where I think it really outweighs the value. The nail in the coffin for me was when I found out that they charge more for restaurant meals during the weeks we are restricted to going. So, I don't know that we'll be back any time soon.

 

[mm1971]

Hi, everyone.
This may seem like a basic question, but what is the value in a Disney vacation? We know that Disney vacations are costly- but we choose to spend the money anyway. So, why do we do it? What value/benefits do you get from going to Disney?

I can think of three reasons:

1) While expensive, I find it good value for the money for us. We do other vacations as well and none have provided the entertainment and customer service we get at Disney.

2) It's easy. Once the planning is done, we fly in and Disney takes care of everything. If we want something different, US/IOA and SeaWorld are 15 minutes away.

3) My children absolutely love being there and the memories we make on every trip make it worth every penny. We have such a great time together seeing and doing everything.

 

[mm1971]

I concur. For me it is the time when I do not have to worry about what to do, eat, how to get there etc. I have 4 kids under 10 and Disney allows me to get as close to relaxed as possible without medication....

Medication is underrated. You should go to Disney and bring it with you.

 

[gcmeyer2]

We asked ourselves a similar question in the car on the way home in Feb. The answer? It's where we go to be a family.

Sure, we are a family at home but we are always running and our quality time is limited. Violin lessons, baseball, Boy Scouts, dance, the gym, 2 jobs, out with friends... I could go on. Even when we visit with extended family our quality time is limited. We are always trying to please everyone else and not ourselves. When we go to WDW it is for us not someone else.

So, while we are together as a family at home, we never really spend quality time together. We could go tons of other places but all 4 of us love Disney. The feeling we all get when we first step onto Main Street USA is priceless. It's just our happy place.

 

[edk35]

for us, the value is happiness. we LOVE disney world, and going there makes us happy. planning is easy, we know where we want to stay, where we want to eat, and what we want to do, so there's no stress. we just go, and do what we want.

DITTO!!! DITTO!! DITTO!!!

 

[edk35]

We drank the koolaid back in 1992 and have our 24th trip planned in less than 2 weeks and our 25th planned for Aug. WE LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT DISNEY WORLD. It's our happy place!! Our dd also did the Disney College Program last Jan. ......it's just a part of our lives. Our kids have been raised on Disney.

 

[soccerchick]

Lots of good answers here already, but I'm going to add mine with the disclaimer that we do not do Disney regularly. We vacation to a variety of places - Grand Canyon, beaches up and down the east coast, France, Hawaii, NYC, Philly, etc. I went to Disney three times as a child and we've made 4 trips over the last 11 years with our own kids. In the early stages of planning one more.

1. It's a destination where there is something for everyone.
2. Families can ride almost all of the rides together. I'm talking grandma to toddler.
3. There is a variety of resorts so you can go budget or all-out. The pools are nice and provide a great option away from the parks.
4. When we've done values, or deluxes with codes, Disney is very competitive or cheaper than other places we've stayed. I can stay at Disney cheaper than I've been able to stay at the beach or NYC. For DD's softball World Series in Salisbury , MD I paid $149 and $169/night at a Hampton Inn.
5. The Magic. Hard to describe it in detail, but to see my kids interact there is different.
6. We tend to go for longer trips to maximize our per day value with tickets, etc. By comparison, to see three sights in NYC in one day, I'd be paying the WDW ticket price.
7. We chose to stay onsite because it just makes life easier with the transportation.

We plan to do one more trip with our kids to see the changes at MK. Then I'll forward to taking my grandkids there in a couple of decades.

 

[wishesuponastar]

I go for the memories we can share as a family Plus we have so much fun there on the rides, seeing shows and trying new food.

 

[smokeyblue]

For us the value is in the value itself. Just spending a weekend out of town to go to a "big city", shopping and a concert can be $500-$1000 for the two of us.

We usually do 8 nights in Orlando spending 6 days at Disney World. Lodging is free with my parents, car rental is $200, plane tickets are $1,000, park tickets are $700 and we spend about $300 on food. So roughly $2,200 maybe $2,500 if we really splurge on food. On average its probably around the same or a bit cheaper than our weekend getaways and far more entertaining and the feeling of being far removed from our every day lives is priceless.

 

[mistysue]

Two years we went on a non-Disney trip. We spent the entire trip trying to save money, had entire days where we were basically just bored and it cost as much as Disney did. Our Disney trips we can't run out of things to do that are included in the price.
Now my son is allergic to everything, so we can't even figure out anywhere else we can go where he can eat. I have zero interest in going on vacation and having to cook every meal he eats.
It is also very difficult to find activities that entertain a 10 year old, 4 year old and 2 year old that all of them can do. My 2 year old has a muscle condition and physically can't do most things kids his age do... so even trying to take him to something like mini golf is just frustrating because he can't even try.

 

[sillylily]

The value of Disney isn't monetary for us. It gives my DDs, who are both teenagers now, a chance to hug characters and get excited about spinning in tea cups. They laugh like loons when they come into a nearly empty MK for pre-opening breakfast, and purposely hugged each other for the ride photo in Dinosaur. My Dh and I get drug along to every attraction, every show and every coaster, and for a few days get glimpses of the little girls our high schoolers used to be. for that, I'll go until disney prices me out completely.

 

[wishesuponastar]

The value of Disney isn't monetary for us. It gives my DDs, who are both teenagers now, a chance to hug characters and get excited about spinning in tea cups. They laugh like loons when they come into a nearly empty MK for pre-opening breakfast, and purposely hugged each other for the ride photo in Dinosaur. My Dh and I get drug along to every attraction, every show and every coaster, and for a few days get glimpses of the little girls our high schoolers used to be. for that, I'll go until disney prices me out completely.

Awww, that's sweet!

 

[nunzia]

It is a very different answer for most people. I think Disney has a shelf-life. When our children were small they loved the rides, characters, fireworks, etc...As they got older they valued sleep, surfing and girls. So we went to Europe and that is our current vacation for July and Hilton Head in August.

I'm not overly concerned on the price as long as my family is having a good time.

I get this, but my kids never really had a shelf life on Disney..they always wanted to go and loved it and as adults..now aged at 32, 29 and 27 they still do and now we go with various configurations of kids and grandkids (9 of them aged 12 to 2 with number 10 on the way) and since we have DVC (thank heavens) we are able to provide a room (sometimes a whole trip) and the kids can afford to save for getting there and tickets and food.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

The value on any vacation is the time to be with family away from daily interruptions, relaxing and the memories.

A Disney trip just brings a added value because it's so special.
I swear they must sprinkle pixie dust on everyone because for one week we feel like we've been transported to a special place!

 

[crisi]

1. There are lots of things to keep busy if you want a keep busy vacation.
2. Its clean and well organized - when you want clean and well organized
3. Disney is REALLY good at manipulating your emotions, and that feels good.
4. They handle special needs really well, if you require that sort of thing.
5. For those of us that go with any frequency, it becomes an "easy" vacation, you know how to do it.
6. It is a fantastic vacation when your kids are a certain age. They may or may not out grow it.

As to it being expensive, it depends on how you measure it. We take vacations at all sorts of expense levels - for us, Disney is pretty expensive. Airfare is expensive to Disney, food is expensive, hotels - we have DVC, but that wasn't a cheap purchase and dues aren't cheap, and tickets are expensive.

When we do an all inclusive in Mexico, its a little less expensive, but its a sit on the beach vacation. Airfare is about the same, there are no park tickets, and hotel and food are combined in a package that is about what we pay for that at Disney.

When we went to Washington DC, food and hotel were expensive, airfare was about the same, but no park tickets and everything had been paid for via my tax dollar.

Europe was pricey all the way around.

Go stay in a friend's cabin - that is food and the gas to get there.

 

[Marionnette]

I happen to think that every vacation has value and benefits, so Disney is no different. When we choose to go to Disney, it's because the trip fits into our schedule and budget. If time allowed, I would rather tour in Europe or relax on the beach of a Caribbean all-inclusive than spend the same amount of money in Florida. Disney just happens to be close enough by air that we can go there for a long weekend (or shortened week) and not have to spend a disproportionate amount of time actually traveling.

 

[tina.tina]

First family trip:

I accidentally drank a little bit of anti-freeze before we left (please don't ask- it's embarassing ) and we were concerned that I might have to visit the hospital but I was okay. We got started 3 hours late, though.

My sister called while we had stopped at Daytona Beach on the way to WDW. She lost a signed check from my account made out to cash for $700. I had no idea of the check number and spent over an hour on the phone with the bank taking care of that!

DS5 poured an entire sand bucket of ocean water on me while I was on the phone to the bank. Because of various issues, I ended up wearing those clothes the remainder of the day- even to Chef Mickey's.

We got stuck in the sand on Daytona Beach and were pushed out by 3 guys who cursed more in quantity and quality in those few minutes than my DD9 & DS5 had heard in their lives.

I cried the first morning because I couldn't get DH & the kids to make rope drop AT ALL. We missed 1/3 of our ADRs on the trip because of transportation and health issues.

I got an extremely painful eye infection and had to get my doctor to call in some medicine. Talk about feeling unattractive beside of a Disney princess in our pictures from CRT. Why didn't I just have the kids in the picture?

DH & I both had blisters & I got the Disney rash. I ended up having to soak in a very hot bathtub every evening. We were so exhausted we only spent about 3 hours at Animal Kingdom on our 9 night stay.

I lost DH's wallet on the day we were leaving Disney and we ended up spending another night to wait to see if the wallet was reovered by lost & found. It was recovered thankfully but it was a very sad, tense night.

We got home to find that real (not Disney) mice had moved into our home while we were gone for 12 nights & I have a horrible phobia.

To sum it all up, best vacation ever! We can't wait to go back and I wouldn't care if all of the above happened all over again. We all agree it was magical and the bad stuff didn't seem so bad even when it was happening.

 

[elaine amj]

We do all kinds of other vacations too. But for us, nothing has equalled Disney. And all other vacations are practically just as expensive.Since we go for 10-12 day trips, Disney costs us about $300 a day, incl tickets, free dining, and value hotel.

I looked at a week in Yosemite (combined with Disney of course!) and my DH howled when I told him how much a tent cabin with no bathrooms were ($150 a night!!). Food is super expensive, so about $100/day for a family of 4. Plus car rental and gas so maybe $25-$30 a day. That brings us to about $280 a day, not including any activities like tubing, horse riding, etc. We'll do it....one day.

We did a cruise on Royal Caribbean and it was breathtakingly expensive for a simple inside cabin. We spent the same for a 5 day cruise as a 10 day trip to WDW with free dining.

We've done weekend camping trips, but man, they weren't as cheap as I had thought either. After throwing in canoe rentals, it was well over $100 a day.

During Christmas, we spent one single night on a tropical paradise in Thailand. One of my favorite places ever - the ambiance, the water, the sand, the massages, it was amazing! It cost us $600!!!!! (including ferry transportation, but NOT flights).

I want to take my family to Europe but still trying to drum up my DH's interest. I know he'll love it - but can't seem to get him enthusiastic about it. My dad asked us to think about it for this year but that plan is out of the window now. So maybe next year. I can see Europe being easily $300 a day. With flights, it will be double that.

We're planning a trip to the Mayan Riviera for NYE this year for my nephew's destination wedding. I'm gasping a bit right now - where are all these cheap trips to Mexico?! Flights are easily $700+ - $1000+ per person!!! (Compared to $300 or so to Orlando). I'm cringing about how much it will cost for a family of 4 in an all-inclusive. Easily $300 per day I'm sure. This is going to completely blow my vacation budget. UGH!

So for our family, Disney is pretty good value.