Financial Details on My Trip to Disney

Last fall my wife and I took our kids to Disney World for a week. I detailed ways to save costs in Disney Money Saving Tips: Avoid Crowds, Be Flexible, Shop Around and How to Have a Great Trip to Disney World While Saving Tons of Money and Time, but I never posted the actual breakdown of our spending. Since vacation planning time is upon many of us again, I thought it would be interesting for me to post and comment on our actual expenses. First, here are the costs and the percentage of the total cost that each represented:

• Disney Tickets -- $1,033.10 (34.9%)
• Lodging -- $735.04 (24.8%)
• Transportation -- $699.34 (23.6%)
• Food -- $297.78 (10.1%)
• Misc -- $196.2 (6.6%)
• Total cost -- $2,961.46

Comments:

1. No wonder Disney is a multi-billion dollar business! Their tickets are VERY expensive!!!!

2. Lodging costs include the hotel we stayed in the night before our flight as well as the three-bedroom, two-bath condo we rented that was 10 minutes from Disney. We saved a bundle on it since we went in the "off-season." (September)

3. Transportation includes our plane flights as well as a rental car for the week. It was so cheap because we went in the off-season (that tip again) and were willing/able to fly to/from an alternate airport about 2 1/2 hours from our home.

4. We saved on food mostly by buying our own stuff at a local grocery store and making meals in our kitchen. We saved a BUNDLE this way. We only ate one full meal on Disney property (and it wasn't too expensive).

5. Miscellaneous is everything from the guidebook we purchased (which we've since given to friends) to fanny packs to hold food, drinks, etc. in the parks to suntan lotion to cash expenditures I didn't have receipts for.

6. For just under $3k, the trip was a GREAT deal. My kids still talk about the trip often and three of us would like to go back soon (my wife would rather visit new places -- imaging that!!!!) ;-)

7. I charged almost 100% of these expenses using my Blue Cash from American Express card and earned over $50 doing so. Not bad at all! ;-)
 
If you want more details and specifics on how to save money on a trip to Disney, read How to Have a Great Trip to Disney World While Saving Tons of Money and Time. Just applying a couple of the tips there can save you hundreds of dollars.

Comments

[The Shark Investor]

The tickets cost $1,033 for just 2 persons??? Or were you with kids?

[FMF]

Shark --

My first sentence was:

"Last fall my wife and I took our kids to Disney World for a week."

4 people.

[rwh]

That's actually about the same as 5 days skiing in Colorado or 5 days in Manhattan, and you got two extra days. It looks like you got a pretty good price on things.

I also have 2 kids. We do essentially the same thing on meals in Colorado since we also stay in a condo. We eat lunch on the mountain and prepare our own breakfast and dinner.

Unfortunately for us our kids are in school and sports so an off-season Disney trip isn't possible, unless July is off-season, and I don't think I want to go to Florida in July.

[db]

UM -- the tickets alone cost $1033? Wow. Just wow.

Now I know why I've never gone to DisneyWorld.

[J in FL]

Yea, even though it was 4 people, 1033 for tickets sounds a bit much. Don't think I'll be taking my family there... when I have one ;)

[sahm]

I'm sure those were 7 day park hopper tickets which allows unlimited access into ALL of the Disney parks (including the water parks, magic kingdom, animal kingdom, EPCOT, etc). If this is a once in a lifetime thing for your family, it is worth the money, especially if the kids are older and will remember it. I will never forget my first time at Disney as a child.

You could always do a few less days at the park and several at one the local beaches. Cocoa Beach is just over an hour drive from Orlando!

[Odnal]

If you are considering going to WDW, consider playing with the ticket price tool at http://tickets.disney.go.com/buy/TicketTrans

The base price for a 5-day ticket is $43/day for adults and $35.80/day for children. Adding a park-hopper option adds $45, regardless of the number of days and adding the water park option adds $50 regardless of the number of days.

At the current rates, the basic tickets for a 5-day package for 2 adults and 2 kids is $788. Add the park-hopper and that makes it $968. Add the water parks to make it $1168. I'd question the value of the water parks under this option since it increases the cost so much. The park hopper options is more useful to some people than others, so decide if it is right for you.

Also note that after 5 days, adding an extra day to your pass costs only $2 (yes two dollars). A 5 day adult pass is $215 ($43/day), and a 6 day adult pass costs just two dollars more at $217 ($31.29/day).

[FMF]

A few clarifying comments from me:

1. I believe "kid" is defined by Disney as 10 and below. Maybe that's not the cut off, but we ended up paying for THREE adults and a child (our oldest is 11.)

2. I'd recommend no park hopper but yes to the water parks (this is what we did.) We were so exhausted every day just seeing one park that there's no way we could have gone to another one. And the kid's LOVED Blizzard Beach -- we'd go again in a heartbeat.

3. Buy tickets for only what you need/use. We over-bought and actually could have gotten by with one less day of ticket "value." We thought a side trip to see a relative would take less time, but it ate up most of a day for us, so we didn't need as much ticket as we purchased.

[Sheryl]

I'm all about saving money when possible, but it's just not a vacation to me if I have to food shop and COOK!!! When my family goes to Disney next April we'll be dining out, not in.

[DizFan1999]

I agree 3k for a week is not bad when you are adding everything up. Take a trip to NY for 7 days and see how much it ends up costing you. The room will be more and if you want to do stuff for every day of your trip it is going to add up fast. Yes the Disney ticket is expensive up front, but you are done. You get 7 days of activities that each could cost you a bundle. You can see multiple shows, and movies (the 3-d ones), rides galore, tons of other happenings and entertainment. We usually go for 7 days and do not leave the property from the day we get there til the day we check out.

[Lee]

enlighten me, please!

would it be true that you would save even a bigger bundle of money by NOT going to Disney??

some of your money saving tips make sense, but some of them seem to work together to defeat the purpose of a vacation where people should be allow to indulge and pamper themselves a little.

it is a fine line to draw, but we have to, otherwise why even go to vacation?

[FMF]

Lee --

I'm not sure what you mean. We had a BLAST and didn't spend a fortune doing it (we've had friends do basically the same thing we did for a few thousand dollars more.) What's the problem?

[Nicole]

You wore fanny-packs?

otherwise, job well-done.

[Debbie M]

We decided it would cost about the same to stay at the cheapest hotel at Disney World and eat there (except for some snacks we brought in our luggage) and then not have to rent a car or pay for a taxi. They pick you up at the airport and have shuttles going everywhere.

Yes, the tickets cost twice as much as at regular amusement parks, but going there was the first time I ever told myself, wow, some things really are worth the extra money. These parks were very nicely done.

Disclaimer: I don't have kids.