What is your OOP limit for a Disney Vacation?

[Jadyreen1282]

We use bonus money for Disney so it's generally never OOP. We do put money on gift cards for expenses, tips and souvenirs. We never pay for anything big with cash while there.

When bonuses stop I guess we're going to have to budget better.

 

[Darcy03231]

I agree with that, especially as my children get older where they will appreciate other things more.

That's a factor for me too. I might feel differently if I still had very young children, although we've been taking them on cruises and to all-inclusives since they were young and they all agree that their favorite trips of all time have been cruises.

 

[DLgal]

We try to keep ALL vacations to a budget of about $1k total per DAY. So, regardless of how many are going, where we are going, etc.

 

[Hikergirl]

While I don't have a set dollar amount, I have to see a value for the money being spent, which is why we haven't been back since 2013. With all the price increases and nickel and diming without new attractions and closures of attractions while construction is going on, for me the value just isn't there. It would have to be really inexpensive right now to get me to consider a WDW vacation. We may return in the future when new stuff opens up, but we'll see what the prices are at the time. If its going to cost me as much to go to WDW for a week as it will to go on a luxury vacation, the luxury vacation will win out.

I feel exactly the same about the value of WDW. To me, it just isn't what it used to be, and the cost keeps going up for what is a lesser experience for us.

 

[Ava]

Our last couple trips were in the $1000-$1200 per person range for 2 adults, 1 child, & 1 toddler staying onsite with "free" DDP. Next year I'm planning for about $1500/person. We're going in the spring so no more "free" DDP, plus my youngest will be over 3 so we have one more park ticket to buy. We also fly down.

Now, that said, I'm hoping to keep our actual costs down by using airline miles for at least some of our flights and getting discounted Disney GC's to pay for our food.

 

[Bebella]

$2500 is a comfortable trip budget for our family of 4 (our kids will be 4 & 2 when we next go to WDW) ...EXCEPT for Disney...where it's really difficult to do the type of vacation I like for under $4000 ...and that is a 7 night trip at a moderate in Sept/Oct, with 5 day base tickets (we don't park hop with the kids this young), memory maker & then around $1000 for food ($100/day at Disney and then $200 on groceries and snacks for the room and travel). So given that our 2 year old is essentially "free" at Disney, our Per Person OOP Limit is roughly $1,300.

 

[Night Huntress]

I don't usually have a limit. To me it's what I want to do for the trip and what I'm willing to pay. However we have never done Disney before. We went to Hershey a long time ago, then universal studios for 3 days about 4 years ago, but most of our vacations are just driving to Georgia and staying with my dad and doing things like the zoo and stuff. Those trips are usually around 500 or less for family of 3 for a week.

Being our first time going to Disney I was sticker shocked to get the first quote. But after researching and deciding what I wanted I decided to go for it. It's just myself and two kids (who are technically adults at Disney) and I am afraid if I don't go now with them I won't get a chance and they'll be all grown up.

This trip is 8 days, pop century with park hopper, dining plan and memory maker

So I figured it up and it's currently about 1355 per person for the 8 days. But I still have to account for MNSSP, 2 hotel nights driving to and from Ohio, gas, and extra food. So it would be closer to 1500 a person. (With no discounts) still waiting on fall deals to come out and although I am not gift card churning like many I am buying Disney giftcards from target and save 5%.

It is an expensive trip to me and I could easily cut back and do things differently. The fact is I just don't want to. It's my first trip and so some things for me are not negotiable!

 

[kathy884]

My summer vacation budget (somewhere out west usually) is typically $5000 for a week long trip with three people.

My Orlando or Disneyland mini trip (usually annually) is usually a four night / three day mini trip with freebie air for two people. I have budgeted $2300 for LA Disneyland -- one night in Hollywood and three nights at a good neighbor motel -- $800 // dog kennel - $300 // Food budget -- $300 // Parks -- $400 // Titanic attraction -- $50 // Warner Brother Studio tour and Madame Tussauds -- $150 // Rental Car $300 // for air -- free -- using Southwest Points // This is just for two people (DH doesn't like theme parks), so I am doing $1150 per person. Extra spending isn't budgeted, as it is similar or actually less than cash I would spend for the week at home (parking mostly, we don't buy souvenirs, gas for rental car, so I don't specifically budget for this) Going to Orlando is typically a little less money and higher quality lodging (great offsite condo resort for less than motel in California and would be one Disney park day, and two days at SeaWorld). We would like to for a change, though, do Disneyland and California Adventure in January next year during DH's college Christmas break that lasts till after the MLK holiday, and that's our plan. So typically the costs that change are that my lodging is closer to $500 ($300 less) and attractions are just $400 ($200 less), so for Orlando I'm typically at $900 pp rather than $1150 per person and use fewer airline miles too.

Usually too I can get a better rental car deal than what I have listed and come under what I have listed on the food budget too. Park tickets are high on cost per day when you only do one or two days at Disney, which is all we ever do. But then we do go annually.

 

[AquaDame]

To be honest I am not sure... its just my husband and I, retirement age is a long ways off, and we both have good jobs with a solid paycheck and are fully matching both our 401Ks and all that. I tend to price it out, first seeing what a hotel would cost (anywhere else I check airfare first but at Disney the hotels are SO expensive...) then airfare. If we are OK with the price we get on those two then we don't worry much about the rest aside from 'this meal will likely be $x - do we still want to go?' 'This event is $x more, do I still want to do it?'

 

[amylevan]

We have a set per YEAR vacation budget that is based on what we can afford due to salaries, planned home improvements, other expected expenses, etc...Then that is divided up based on the number and location of our trips that coming year. So, that said, our WDW vacation budget varies. And the years that we go to WDW, it is usually our "big" trip, with others being relatively inexpensive such as a week camping in our camper at a lake.

Our most recent trip (Feb 2016), we ended up spending about $1400 pp. (2 adults/2 children, WL, 8 nights, airfare, hoppers, some dining "splurges")

 

[bjscheel]

We are a family of 4 and our vacations run $3000-$4000 for a week. I would not want to go much higher than $4000. We've been able to fly on SW points for the last few years so that helps a lot. Then we can have a nicer resort or stay longer but still be within that range. Disney trips are on the higher end of that range and our other trips may be closer to the $3000.

 

[Darcy03231]

I don't usually have a limit. To me it's what I want to do for the trip and what I'm willing to pay. However we have never done Disney before. We went to Hershey a long time ago, then universal studios for 3 days about 4 years ago, but most of our vacations are just driving to Georgia and staying with my dad and doing things like the zoo and stuff. Those trips are usually around 500 or less for family of 3 for a week.

Being our first time going to Disney I was sticker shocked to get the first quote. But after researching and deciding what I wanted I decided to go for it. It's just myself and two kids (who are technically adults at Disney) and I am afraid if I don't go now with them I won't get a chance and they'll be all grown up.

This trip is 8 days, pop century with park hopper, dining plan and memory maker

So I figured it up and it's currently about 1355 per person for the 8 days. But I still have to account for MNSSP, 2 hotel nights driving to and from Ohio, gas, and extra food. So it would be closer to 1500 a person. (With no discounts) still waiting on fall deals to come out and although I am not gift card churning like many I am buying Disney giftcards from target and save 5%.

It is an expensive trip to me and I could easily cut back and do things differently. The fact is I just don't want to. It's my first trip and so some things for me are not negotiable!

I can completely see going all out for a first trip, no matter what the destination! Especially if its a place you may only visit once.

For a lot of us here, WDW is/was a yearly trip (and in our case sometimes 2-3x per year). For me (and it seems like others), we're just not feeling that we're getting the value for our dollar with WDW anymore. I definitely won't go back until some of the new attractions they're building are open, and even then it would depend on the price.

For fun I priced out a WDW vacation in place of our upcoming Sandals La Source Grenada vacation. I priced the same week out to be fair and included airfare to both destinations. For WDW I went with Deluxe (using the summer saver code), 7 day park hopper tickets, and deluxe dining plan. This doesn't include alcohol, which our all-inclusive does. Our all-inclusive includes everything (meals, drinks, everything at the resort including snorkeling, scuba diving, watersports - both motorized and not). Pretty much the only thing it doesn't include is the spa and off-site excursions (although our package does include a catamaran trip).

WDW cost - approx. $6000
Sandals cost - approx. $5600

 

[mi*vida*loca]

In the past it was about 1K per person but last trip we spent 8K. We hadn't been in 4 years. Last time we went I was still married so this was kind of my "I made it" trip. We did deluxe but on a magical deal. Paid OOP for all meals and did TS about everyday. We went for 10 nights/11 days and the 8K included food, souveniors, hotel, park tickets, drinks, etc.

That was most likely our last family Disney trip so I didn't mind spending the extra money.

 

[Smbmoyers]

Typically? 1200 pp. This trip? I haven't nailed a bunch down yet but probably close to 2500 pp. Yolo

 

[eeyoresmom]

I just did the cost breakdown for a smallish trip I have planned this year and I'm not happy with the results. Its coming out at $914 pp. I'm not thrilled with the number because
1. its a 5 day trip in off season
2. the park tickets are half of annual passes I bought ( with a discount of $37 per ticket),
3. We got super cheap flights at $190 RT
4. That's 4 nights at POFQ with a 50 percent CM discount!
5. We are eating very moderately. Three TS lunches only , no alcohol, the rest cs.
Close to $3000 is just too much for this kind of trip. Too late now but I will definitely be reevaluating future trips.

 

[MalkaR]

Hmm, this WDW trip is a one time thing for us, but here are my calculations:
5 people, 7 nights
Flights: $1500 (hopefully I can find $300 tickets for us)
Off-site 3 bedroom townhome with private pool: $1000
5 five-day parkhoppers: $1559 (corporate partner tickets)
Rental minivan: $400
Parking for 5 days: $100
Supermarket trip at beginning of trip: $300 (eating breakfast and dinner at townhome, packing lunches, can't buy food in the parks due to dietary restrictions)
Total: $4859
Divided by 5 is $972 per person

 

[ottjdub]

We try to stay around 5k but would depend on the CAD Exchange rate.
4ppl Flights included.

 

[wallskm]

We don't necessarily have a budget per vacation, we put a certain amount per month towards vacation and as long as we can have it paid in full by the time it needs to be paid then we are in budget. But the more expensive the trip, the longer time in between vacations! Once one is paid off we start paying on the next. We are going to Disney in October and will finish paying for it in July and then will start working on our May 2017 cruise. Our Disney World trip in October will be around $1000 per person, the Cruise is more like $1400 per person.

 

[Jake]

I can't figure out your pricing. From NYC. Air fair is like 320 and five day tickets are like 380 that $ 700 with out any thing else CS is $1000 per person so at $1700 with out food any anything else. Gas to airport parking PP
We only are two so if we had kids the room PP will be lower. But still !! We don't eat that much especially in the heat of the summer. But food has to cost a few hundred

 

[DawnM]

I typically spend about $600 per person for 2 weeks for Disney. So, $300 per person per week if we go for 2 weeks, which we have typically done. That includes gas, lodging, food, and tickets. Sometimes we spend more on food, it just depends.

Last year we didn't do Disney, we got Universal APs and went 3 times. That was much cheaper. $850 total for 5 APs. $250 per week in condo, $350 per week food budget, $250 each trip for gas. Total of 4 weeks for about $110 per person per week! It was really nice actually!

We may try Disney again this coming year, but have nothing planned so far.

I assume with prices going up, our limit will need to go up.