Anonymous wrote:The only people I know that did not spend a fortune on Disney either live in Florida, grand's paid for it, or they only went for a day or so. Everyone else -- it is an expensive vacation.

The park tickets alone will cost you $300-400 per day for your family. You will need a minimum of about $500 per day you spend at the parks.

I have seen people stay off site at a nice hotel and just do 1 day at Magic Kingdom. This would be much more affordable.

We have done Orlando 4x, once a year for the past 4 years. Each time we go, we have a completely different experience. You could have a great time at just a nice resort with a pool.

Anonymous wrote:How do some of the people I've seen at Disney afford to do this? Seriously. I don't understand how the average American can afford a $3k-$5k trip to Disney.

What do you mean?

Disney has made staying on site more of an advantage with their new fast pass system.
I think if you are going during a busy season, staying on site is practically a necessity. If you are going during a slow time, staying off site is fine--the savings are totally worth it!

We stayed offsite in a 5 bedroom 5 bath home in January at a development less than 10 mins from the parks. You don't get all the magic but I will be reluctant to stay onsite again when I figured out the cost savings.

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks all!

We are a family of for (5 yo and 7 yo). We would likely stay for 4-5 days. Would love to stay at one of the resort hotels ,if possible, and keep the whole thing under $3,500.

Is that reasonable?

absolutely

OP, I think it is possible to do to this on your budget. We're a family of four including kids ages 5 and 2. We went this year during the last week of February and stayed on site at Port Orleans Riverside for 5 nights. We bought well in advance through the Disney website and our full package cost was $3100, which included airfare to/from DCA, lodging, 5-day tickets, Disney dining plan, and the magic express shuttle. The dining plan was essentially free as a result of a special that Disney was running last fall. Our only additional out of pocket costs on site all week were for souvenirs and tips at our meals. The cost of the trip would've been a bit higher if our 2-year old was already 3 and needed a park ticket.

We considered staying off site but the potential savings on lodging were more than negated by the need for a rental car and parking costs at the theme parks.

The only people I know that did not spend a fortune on Disney either live in Florida, grand's paid for it, or they only went for a day or so. Everyone else -- it is an expensive vacation.

Anonymous wrote:How do some of the people I've seen at Disney afford to do this? Seriously. I don't understand how the average American can afford a $3k-$5k trip to Disney.

Some people just cut back in other areas. Maybe they don't take other vacations, and that is their total vacation spending of the year. Maybe they don't go out to dinner or wear expensive clothes or re-decorate their house very often. Maybe they don't have pets. Maybe they just make a lot of money--most areas of the country are not as expensive as DC and in a lot of places, a family of 4 can live very well with just one salary of $75,000/year or so.

Family of 5 ~ 8k. Stayed at the Grand Floridian, ate all meals out

Anonymous wrote:How do some of the people I've seen at Disney afford to do this? Seriously. I don't understand how the average American can afford a $3k-$5k trip to Disney.

You save like mad.

We are going in April -- just me and ds for 7 nights at an all star resort on site.

Airfare $400
Hotel $800
Tickets, hoppers from under cover tourist $700
Budgeted $100 a day for food and treats but bringing food and hoping to spend less so $800

That is $2700 for 2. Add in another $1000 per person.


We've stayed off site and the savings were outweighed by the travel.

How do some of the people I've seen at Disney afford to do this? Seriously. I don't understand how the average American can afford a $3k-$5k trip to Disney.

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks all!

We are a family of for (5 yo and 7 yo). We would likely stay for 4-5 days. Would love to stay at one of the resort hotels ,if possible, and keep the whole thing under $3,500.

Is that reasonable?

Family of 5 here. We stayed in a suite at the Art of Animation, which had a kitchenette with fridge and microwave (I highly recommend it). It's considered a value hotel and we booked it while they were running one of those 1/3 off deals. Then you don't have to worry about renting a car or paying to park. Plus all the online Fast Pass+ stuff was so convenient and worth anything extra it might have cost to stay on property.

You can get groceries delivered to the hotel -- there are several companies that do it -- and while there's a premium it is still cheaper than buying all your food in restaurants.

We didn't do a park hopper ticket because that increases the cost a lot. I couldn't imagine a scenario where I would have had the energy to "hop." One park a day was plenty, although my kids are younger than your's.

We did splurge on some character meals. If you have to choose a princess meal I recommend the one at Epcot as opposed to Cinderella's Castle. The food was better and cheaper. We didn't do any other character meals, although I had initially booked some and then cancelled. I decided to focus on what my kids were really into at the time and make that happen, instead of trying to expose them to everything Disney had to offer. For my kids, that was princesses.

NP here. Do you think it's worth saving airfare by driving down? We could stop and overnight at my parents, who live about 1/2 way down. Or is that totally not worth it?

We are four (2 kids, 2 adults) going off-peak for six days, five nights.
Total package is $3900, for meal package, Nemo suite at Art of Animation, park hopper passes for five days.
Airfare is $850.

So I think you could do it under $4K by getting a non-suite. and maybe a four-day ticket.

Anonymous wrote:Our family of three went this past January and it was around $5,000. We drove but rented a car, stayed in a park view room at the Contemporary, used the dining plan, had park hopper tickets and were there for 6 nights.

The Contemporary is way spendier than the Pop Century. You did good, though.