What's the MOST you've spent on a WDW vacation?

[hokiefan33]

A lot of people on these boards talk about staying at some of the nicer WDW hotels - Poly Concierge, AKL Concierge, GF Concierge, etc... And alot of those hotels are (seemingly) out of reach for a lot of us, at least on my budget they are.

So, along those lines, I was wondering...

What's the MOST you've ever spent on a WDW vacation (hotel, air, tickets, food, souvenirs, tips, the whole enchilada!), and for how long did you stay?

And for those of you who have jobs who allow you to do this, is your company hiring?

 

[newholidayx2]

it was our Oct 01 vacation

the yr we joined DVC! Id say it was well over 10K (just for that!)

 

[nygrl]

we spent about $7000 on our last trip 6 nights cr concierge 4 day park hopper and a great deal on airfare. just me dh and ds 8 had a blast though!

 

[zurgswife]

Aug 1999 We went for my Dh's 40th bday...family of 6 started at the Wilderness Cabins...hated it transfered to the BWV for a coupld hundred dollars more... Fell in love with DVC....So, the grand total for that trip was about $3,000 for the trip and $9900 for DVC for a grand total of $11,900....I've never spent more then $3000 after that trip though...

 

[elmo2wdw]

I have 3 Kids (9, 6 and 1). We usually stay for 8 nights at a value or moderate resort, we have APs and we drive. We usually take $2000 for spending money and we never spend it all. We eat out the whole time and we buy lots of souveniers and pictures.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I would never do this again and actually dh booked it all without consulting me, he felt sorry for me and said I need a really nice vacation because my mom had just died, I had just had 3 major surgeries and almost died myself and then my 91 y o grandma had to come and live with us and 3 kids under the age of 7. We went on a disney cruise and stayed at the polynesian and also did seaworld too I think. It was at least $10,000. These days I have a much lower budget and try to save wherever I can for our disney trips, and yes, my husband has a very, very good job. I just wish he is able to keep it, its govt. funded, so you never know. He works hard and is well known in his field of expertise. I am very proud of him.

 

[jckdisneybound]

Our honeymoon and our last trip was around $3000, that includes airfare, car rentals, tips, eating all the meals out, everything. That time we stayed at AKL Savannah view, but we did the Military Salute so only paid $99 for my 5 day park hopper ticket. This year we are trying to spend less so we can go and it's looking to be about $2300, I've cut my spending budget.

As much as I'd love to stay concierge or anything like that, I don't think I could ever justify spending that much money on a room. Shoot I won't even pay rack rate.

 

[kirbsam]

January of 2004. Took my family and my sisters family. 9 of us total. airfare from wisconsin, 8 nights poly lagoon view concierge(2 rooms), uph tickets, town car and meals and souvenirs...I never really added it all up. Still dont want to, got great rates on the rooms though.

 

[Becky2005]

We haven't gone yet but I'm guessing we are going to spend at least $10K - hopefully less but who knows - that is my guesstimate. We are going on the Premium package and that alone is slightly over $8K for our family of 6 (one of our kids are considered an adult but the youngest is free - so I guess they can cancel each other out! ).

We are driving, so who knows how much gas will be this summer and then we need a hotel on the way down & back. Then souveniors, which I'm hoping not to spend *too* much on but it's our first trip and probably our only trip for a very long time (I do have some Disney Reward monies which I plan to use for those though), misc.

(I should say we don't go on vacations very often and this one has been in the works for at least 2 years! This is way more than I usually spend but we are splurging!)

 

[Stitch Inside]

Let's see, $582 for 6 nights at SOG, $280 for 2 nights at POFQ AAA, 1 PAP for DS (6) $470, estimating about $700 for 9 day rental of Suburban, $900 budgeted for food and fun, $50 DDE card, $110 fee to upgrade my AP to PAP. $3,100 total plus part of our APs purchased at beginning of January trip. So, about $3,500 total. Hoping for AP rates so we can upgrade to AKL for first two nights. Food will probably cost less for us with the DDE card and dining with my parents who love to pick up checks.

 

[stacy6552]

I think we spent about $6k on 10 nights at OKW (1 bedroom), plane tix, rental car, 7 PHP tix and food.

Thats was August 2000.

 

[lajones81]

Well, I'm sure it doesn't sound like that much, but so far for my upcoming trip it is $700 (includes airfare, Disney tix, and hotels). Not sure what it will be when I'm all done, but to me it is a lot because I'm just out of college! Each penny is so important, but Disney is too! Hehehe!

 

[lildeb724]

May 2003 - Myself DH and DD 2. 6 nights WL Woods View, including airfare (NY) park tickets,food and souveneirs - $5000
October 2004 - Myself DH DD 3 and DS 11 months - 7 Day Disney Magic was booked for cat 4 family suite - upgraded at port to Cat 3 Suite - flew in and out the day of cruise port - Whole shebang $8500.00
May 2005 - Myself and DD 4 - AKL Savannah View 4 nights - with 5 day Park Hopper and Airfare to NY - Nothing else because we haven't gone yet. Unless a code comes out $2300.

 

[HappyLawyer]

before finding these boards it was a total of $10,000.00 but since i have found
the boards
skyauction
timeshare
ticketmania.com
and a whole bunch of other stuff i have not gone over $6,000.00-excess is brought back
this includes like 3 weeks, tickets, cruise and spending money

 

[copper68]

DW and I got married at WDW 2/17/03. We had about 75 guests come, who paid for their own airfare and rooms etc...

We stayed at the BWI Garden Suites for 3 nights and then stayed an extra night at Poly GVC because our flight back was cancelled due to snow in NJ...

The wedding was held at the Wedding Pavilion next to the GF and the reception was in one of the GF convention center ballrooms...

Between airfare, rooms, annual passes, meals, the wedding itself, and the rehearsal dinner, it came out to about $30,000....and it was worth every penny!!!

 

[Marseeya]

Wow at some of these prices!

This is our first trip and I just spent $4200 on 9 nights at AKL, 7 day park hopper pass and dining. It'll be around $150 for the gas to get down there and back. We're budgeting around $1,000 for souvenirs and whatnot (more whatnot than souvenirs, LOL). Then we'll be driving back and stopping at a couple of beaches, so let's say about $500 for the trip home.

After that, we've decided that if we want to do this every year from now on, we'll do value resorts and really tighten the budget. Or we can wait and do it every few years and do the deluxe

 

[G00fyDad]

We havent been yet but we are budgeting $7000 (thats $1750 for each of us. Including DS2) for spending money and $600 for food (we have the dining option) and $1000 emergency funds for our trip in October.

 

[Julia M]

We havea trip planned for December 2005.

Here's the budget so far, although a few of the items are subject to change:

airfare from SFO to MCO: $1179
2 nights at PO, 8 nights at Poly, GVC: $3343
10 day hopper passes from Ticketmania: $1135
dog boarding: $350
MVMCP passes: $189
car rental: $200
food budget: $2000

total: $8396

It's for 5 people, and 3 kids: 13, 11 and 8.

This is our first trip onsite (usually we exchange our timeshare).

Dh makes a good salary, and I work part time, to help pay for extras. We're like many people here on DIS, in that we haven't moved up to a bigger house, and we drive "regular cars" (Hondas), rather than SUV's, BMW's or Lexus. I only buy my clothes at Macys or Kohls off the clearance racks (like $40 shirts for $5.....cheaper than Target), and we don't have expensive furniture in our house. It's been our choice to send our kids to Catholic schools, take lots of family vacations to many different places and allow our kids to participate in lots of activities (ds golfs, dd competes in baton) We have friends who never travel, but bought nicer homes, which where we live (in San Jose, CA), means 800K for a home. It's all about choices, as many people have noted.

I will admit that the cost of this tip makes me want to gulp!

Julia

 

[Lindamary123]

Let's see.. here's what we have so far for our June trip:

10 nights, 2 rooms WL woods view-3055 pin code
5 Pap's all adult- $2610
Driving down and back- I'll pack snacks, drinks ect. A meal or two on the road, maybe $250
Food and spending- $2500

Wow! $8415!!

Linda

 

[beattyfamily]

I'd say the most was last year because it included the DCL cruise. We try to cruise every 3 years because it adds alot of expense to the trip so we just can't do it every year or I would!!

Last year my total, without the resort or the passes (because we had APs from our 2003 trip), was $5500.

We are DVC members so I'd add the dues ($1125) to that total or I could take the amount of points it took (143) and mulitply it by $10. (the going rate per point) which is $1430. So that is what we paid last year for resorts for our August trip at BWV and Cont and our October trip at the BCV. So you'd take that total of either $1125 or $1430 and divide it by two since we had two trips last year. Not bad for such nice accomodations.

The passes were bought in 2003 and were used for 3 trips.

Anyway, that $5500 is everything except resort and passes.

So that includes spending money of $100 a day, rental car, kennel, dog shots for kennel, airport hotel with parking, MNSSHP tickets, tips, all food, gas for rental, some groceries, renting a boat, cruise photo package, cruise tips, and the cruise cost.

I try to have everything budgeted and I pay for everything I can for before I leave except the food and souvenirs of course. I have a spreadsheet where I plug in every single thing I can think of in; I even put in the exact amount the sit down meals will cost and I put in all the tips I expect to pay etc.. and I've come out even the last 2 years! I think seeing it all in a spreadsheet and having most of it paid off really helps us stay on budget.

Once down there, I charge most stuff and pay it off when I return with the money that's been saved for the trip.

We treat every trip like it's our last. We buy lots of sovenirs and photos still!

ps...this year's trip this coming December is at $5400 but that includes new APs as I must buy new passes and we're also going to Universal for one night so I have to pay for that resort and their passes as well. Also MVMCP. I guess looking back, most trips end up around $5500 give or take.