Typical Disney world vacation expense?

[OutHouse]

Wtf? You could do a week long trip to Hawaii or the Caribbean at a 4 star resort for way less.

yup, last june my wife and i spent 2 weeks on a remote bahamian island for just about 4K. fucking most awesome trip ever.

 

[Eureka]

We did 2 adults for around $2500 including airfaire, hotel, food, tickets and memorabilia.

Don't know how you racked up $6k in costs.

 

[irishScott]

We did 2 adults for around $2500 including airfaire, hotel, food, tickets and memorabilia.

Don't know how you racked up $6k in costs.

Gullibility. The Disney resorts just aren't worth the money. Get a hotel a few minutes away and rent a car. Much cheaper.

 

[lxskllr]

Gullibility. The Disney resorts just aren't worth the money. Get a hotel a few minutes away and rent a car. Much cheaper.

Depends on what you're looking for. Staying on resort gives easy access to buses, so you have no hassle getting around as long as you don't want to go anywhere but Disney.

I don't think the high cost of Disney is out of line. It's as unique as Europe, or anywhere else you might want to go. Whether or not you appreciate what they offer is a subjective matter.

 

[LookBehindYou]

Damn, that's a lot. We went in 2010 and spent right around $4500 for my wife and I plus our son. That was for resort, gas (we drove), eating out all day everyday, souvenirs, etc. Had a blast and will definitely do it again. As for the lines, you need to do your homeowork and utilize the fastpass system. We didnt have a problem with two hour lines at all since we planned it right. You almost have to execute a trip to disneyworld as a military mission to get the most out of it. This was over 4th of july weekend for us btw.

 

[purbeast0]

meh if you have $6k to blow and it doesn't hurt your pockets, and you had fun, then good for you. i personally like to stay at nicer hotels when i go on vacation as well and gladly pay more money to do so. i was just in the keys for a week and we stayed at the top rated hotels in both keys that we stayed. we could have stayed at places and probably saved $1k or more, but we wanted to do it. we also didn't need a convertible mustang for the trip but we wanted it. we also ate at many expensive places for dinner but could have eaten at places for $20 instead, but we didn't.

it's vacation, splurge a little. there is nothing more annoying than going on vacation with people who are always being budget concious and don't want to do anything because of spending money. i'd rather not go somewhere than go somewhere and worry about not being able to do things because of money.

 

[IronWing]

We could do two weeks on the Outer Banks for half that including flights, rental car, beach accommodations, and food.

I think if I had the choice of being tazed or spending a free week at Disney World, I'd go for the tazing.

 

[BergeLSU]

If you are within driving distrance, it is very doable to have a Disney vacation on a budget.

The two of us went for 4 days (5 nights) for about $1000 plus food. It was a 10 hour drive for us. $250 for gas, $250 for hotel (off resort, Priceline), and about $450 for tickets.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

we will only go in oct/nov for the food and wine festival @ epcot, that was good times.

I plan on going back to Food & Wine Fest next year...in 2012 I spend $600+ on food/wine in a week on MYSELF - only ate at Epcot all week. 10000% worth it, can't wait to go back w/ the financee.

I think all in I spent about $2000 for 5 day park hopper disney+ 1-day universal/IoA tix+flight+food. Luckily I spent my SPG points @ the Swan/Dolphin which was walking distance to Epcot/Hollywood Studios.

 

[Doppel]

You did it wrong. You can get a house with heated pool for ballpark of $1k/week depending on time of year (no, not February), rent a car, then pay park fee. This is better than a hotel because you have more room.

I know somebody who recently got an $800/night room at Disney and honestly I did not look impressive.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

$6,000? Fuck that!

No trip within the continental U.S. is worth that much IMHO.

But that is subjective to you. Last December the wife and I did a five-star trip to D.C. for a week. Ate at some of the best restaurants and stayed a block from the White House. Well worth the money, IMO.

Of course, $6K means different things to different people.

 

[HomerJS]

Ok with 6K as long as it includes all you can eat churros!

 

[chin311]

Wow, they saw you coming.

I live about 40 min away from Disney and I won't even go there and get raped for the $100 a day admission. In fact I don't think I'd go if you PAID ME. But I also don't enjoy the company of children so there's that.

Epcot I do enjoy though from time to time.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Why on earth would adults EVER go do a Disney theme park if they don't have kids? Let alone for 6 freaking days... I think suicide is a better option. Christ, my wife and I went to Maui for a week, stayed in a nice suite with a full ocean view at the Hyatt Regency including airfare, rental car and breakfast buffet every morning for almost $2k less than you paid.

I'm going to Orlando in November for a few days with my wife and our son and we aren't going anywhere near Disney.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

You're an idiot if you pay $6k and wonder how or why at the end... It's one thing if you just have money to blow I suppose.

Your main costs
1) Airfare. Unavoidable, but you can use prime time to get the best rates.
2) Hotel. I go for a 2-4 star max, ideally in the middle from places like Hotels.com. Ideally < $100/night, if you cheap out to 2-star as little as $50
3) Rental Car. You can get a rental car for a week for < $125 easily if you look in the right places
4) Merchandise. It's easy to want some cool shtuff (especially exclusive stuff) while you're there. I don't blame you. But if you walk out with more than $500 for your whole family that's just bad...
5) Food. It's tough not to overspend sometimes on food, but 90% of the time any food in a theme park (Epcot aside) is complete shit. It was hard as fuck to find anything other than greasy hotdog/hamburger when I was in Magical Kingdom about a year ago.

$6k regardless of bringing your 2 kids is insane. Staying in a resort is probably one of the biggest kickers.

 

[TecHNooB]

i heard smoked turkey leg went up in price. now it's 8 bux instead of 5? was my go to meal at disney :|

 

[JulesMaximus]

You're an idiot if you pay $6k and wonder how or why at the end... It's one thing if you just have money to blow I suppose.

Your main costs
1) Airfare. Unavoidable, but you can use prime time to get the best rates.
2) Hotel. I go for a 2-4 star max, ideally in the middle from places like Hotels.com. Ideally < $100/night, if you cheap out to 2-star as little as $50
3) Rental Car. You can get a rental car for a week for < $125 easily if you look in the right places
4) Merchandise. It's easy to want some cool shtuff (especially exclusive stuff) while you're there. I don't blame you. But if you walk out with more than $500 for your whole family that's just bad...
5) Food. It's tough not to overspend sometimes on food, but 90% of the time any food in a theme park (Epcot aside) is complete shit. It was hard as fuck to find anything other than greasy hotdog/hamburger when I was in Magical Kingdom about a year ago.

$6k regardless of bringing your 2 kids is insane. Staying in a resort is probably one of the biggest kickers.

I'm flying to Orlando from California in November to visit my Mom and for 3 of us (Me, my wife, and our son) it will cost less than $1,000 round trip.

We have a 2 bedroom house we can stay in for free just blocks from the beach in Melbourne that is right next door to the house my Mom and her husband (not Alkemyst) live in.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Wow what in the world did you do OP?

We're going for a week in early October. Rented a studio at Animal Kingdom through DVC for ~$1000. Park tickets for 2 with park hopper was ~$750. So that's $1750. Round trip airfare was basically free since we did some credit card point accruals to get companion status with Southwest but even if we count that in it would have been ~$750 round. So that's a total $2500 for a week including airfare (that we didn't really have to pay, so truly $1750).

I also hear a lot about people who wait in line for hours. Why? If you plan properly you should know which parks to go to on a given day based on places such as undercover tourist. Get there and take advantage of AM EMH or just regular rope drop and you should be able to knock the headliners out without issue plus get fast passes for later. We rarely wait in line longer than 10-15 minutes.

I will say we do have the advantage of not having kids and are cursed by being early risers so this strategy works just fine for us but may not for others.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

I also hear a lot about people who wait in line for hours. Why? If you plan properly you should know which parks to go to on a given day based on places such as undercover tourist. Get there and take advantage of AM EMH or just regular rope drop and you should be able to knock the headliners out without issue plus get fast passes for later. We rarely wait in line longer than 10-15 minutes.

I will say we do have the advantage of not having kids and are cursed by being early risers so this strategy works just fine for us but may not for others.

EMH and queuing up before rope drop is by far the best way to not wait in line. Basically I would go to a park for rides in the morning, and then go to a different park for shows in the afternoon, then Epcot for dinner. 5 days was more than enough to do everything I was interested in at all the parks (which was just about everything!). Of course, we were hustling the whole time, no dilly dallying w/ long lunches. So it wasn't super relaxing, but it was fun!

 

[alm99]

Wow, sounds like you got boned.

My family of 5, two adults three children, went in 2012 for less than $3k.

That included airfare from central NY to FL, we stayed onsite at a Disney property and had the Disney dining plan.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

Wow, sounds like you got boned.

My family of 5, two adults three children, went in 2012 for less than $3k.

That included airfare from central NY to FL, we stayed onsite at a Disney property and had the Disney dining plan.

explain how you got it this cheap?

 

[Viper GTS]

I was there last week with the g/f, she had a work conference so costs were heavily subsidized by that.

It's the first time I've been to a Disney property since I was a kid, I had no idea how isolated those properties are. Going into the trip I naively assumed there would be normal food options around, Chipotle is everywhere these days right? If you don't have a car you may as well be on a cruise liner. They are getting 100% of your food, alcohol, and entertainment spending. Quite the business model, particularly since they are adept at getting you to forgo the car (Magical Express).

And yes - Stupid expensive. I will give them credit though the entire experience from when you land at MCO is orchestrated perfectly. They hand hold you every step of the way and it's a very consistent, high attention environment with plenty of staff everywhere. The parks aren't my thing (nor should they be at 31) but the resort stay experience is incredibly well curated.

Viper GTS

 

[alm99]

explain how you got it this cheap?

Went during slow periods, got free dining, had airline miles to cover four of us so we had to pay for one ticket. Also used a couple of cash back CC offers, the ones that offer $100/200 back when you spend $500, over a few cards to lower the cost.

 

[zinfamous]

I came in to post one or two testicles, but it seems the OP was intended to answer his own question.

...holy shit that is horrible. You could have traveled just about anywhere in the world for 7 days at those prices.

My step-mother has a Disney season pass/membership whatever it is called--they live in Jacksonville--and she goes down maybe once-thrice per year? I have no idea why. It's one of the last placed I want to visit.

 

[flexy]

For $6k I travel the world and end up buying a house in some countries. Sorry...INSANE.