How do you do it ? $$$

[38053WDW]

We try and go every three years and partically this is because of cost... I know cost can be what you make of it... offsite or standard/moderate/deluxe Resorts... I read of these two week stays and I think.. how ? We're looking at 8n/9d / BLT / MKV .. airline and tickets (PH of course) for 5 and cha ching!!! This does not even include eating ... I'm just courious on what people spend to go here ... The trip reports are great but then I think 'What did that cost?"

 

[38053WDW]

Remember that some people who do multi week trips, the travel to/from vacation can be significant. Especially with the front loaded park tickets, it's very easy to decide to stretch a trip out if your flights are costly.



Some towns/states in the US require proof of absence. Any things short of medical emergencies are often not accepted as valid reasons. Some schools will refuse to let your child move on a grade if they miss more than a set number of days, others will flag them as being truant, and then both the parent and child can get in trouble under the law. Some schools get their funding based on the number of students that attend on a given day. So they have significant motivation to ensure that kids are in school, and not on vacation.

Yes - we are in that delima now .. School canot tell us spring break week for next year yet so we have to take the chance it will fall hopefully within the same week as the last few previous years. We want to try and book an 11th month window at a DVC to see if we like it ... so what do you do? We are going for it and hope we do not mess things up.

 

[PhilharMagician]

We have typically spent about $3500 - $4000 for a 16 day stay with DVC. So that is food, airfare, airport transport(or rental car) AP's and miscellaneous expenses like party tickets, shopping and adult beverages.

I actually should add in the $800 in DVC maintenance fees which would break the 4K mark.

 

[taz0162]

Do Disney Gift cards expire?

no Disney gift cards do not expire.

 

[WDW-2017]

Wow you guys are lucky!!! My hubby and i are saving for our family holiday with 2 kids (they will be 9 and 7 when we go). I have done a budget and we need to save aprox $12k. We are spending 2 weeks in orlando then 1 week in Hawaii on the way home. Going to the World for 5 days and IOA Univeral ect..and LOTS of shopping!
We are going with my dad and my sister and her 2 kids.
Also my father is paying for our airfares and has time share accommodation. So we do not need to pay for accommodation either
This is a once in a lifetime trip for our family so we are saving every penny so that we don't have to scrimp.
I have been to the States twice when i was younger 11 and 13yrs old.
This will be my hubby's first time out of the country and only 2nd time on a plane..... btw we are traveling all the way from AUSTRALIA!!!

I'm so jealous of those who get to visit every year or so, i can only dream of that!

I'm already counting down... 1124 days lol

 

[38053WDW]

Been a while (bump)

 

[cbettua]

I will play,
7 nights, 8 days at POR
Resort came out to $1100 roughly
we have approximately $900 spending
1 night of MNSSHP for 4 $220
Memory Maker $149
gas to get up and back $120
We are already annual pass members: $2490 for 4

 

[tmitch]

What the heck
2 adults, 1 child turns 2 at time of flight.
6 days at all star music with upgraded dining plan, 4 day ticket=1300, 4 day cruise with inside room =1350. Dcl transfer vouchers =150Use southwest airline card to pay mortgage for 3 months to get bonus 50,000 miles, flight is free. Total=2800.

 

[BOOMitsGeorgia]

coming from UK, Its more expensive and I can't go very often. my last trip was october 2009 and probably wont be able to afford to go again after november for about another 5 years cause I wanna travel the world. No idea how much the trip was in 2009 cause I was only 16 & didn't pay for it. This year i'm 21 so have to pay for it myself. Its cost me and my best friend about £4500 between us for 18 days, so about $7000 or $3500 each which includes 17 nights and 18 days staying at POR, park hopper tickets, dining plan and flights.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

We go (on average) every three years and we have stayed for 14 nights on all but one trip. Our last trip was only 10 nights.
When you're flying for over 9 hours there's little point in doing a short trip because the bulk of our cost is on the flight anyway (especially as the airlines rip you off for flying at peak times)
We just save and save

 

[DManRightHere]

I think a better average cost per person would be a better comparison.

We are thrifty. Spend $700-$900 per person for EVERYTHING (2 people at coronado springs 2013, and 4 people animal kingdom lodge 2014). We drive too. Disney actually ends up much cheaper when I run numbers for other vacations, but no one seems to believe me.

 

[TB4244]

We go (on average) every three years and we have stayed for 14 nights on all but one trip. Our last trip was only 10 nights.
When you're flying for over 9 hours there's little point in doing a short trip because the bulk of our cost is on the flight anyway (especially as the airlines rip you off for flying at peak times)
We just save and save

Same here, it's just not worth it for a week so we do a 14 night minimum. The flight cost is horrendous from the UK, so we save, work our backsides off and eBay anything that isn't bolted down. It's taken us 16 months so far but we're almost there.

 

[Chernaboggles]

We also take advantage of the longer-stay = savings approach, but we use unconventional methods. We drive, stay off-property and stay for a long time, a working vacation. We get a lot of mileage out of our APs in terms of per-day Disney and savings on parking. The downside is that there's no "disney bubble" and we must work part of the time, but we do take at least one full week off whenever we're down there.

Many people wouldn't enjoy this approach (it's not really resort-ish), but we love it and the savings are huge.

 

[DVCPluto]

Yes - we are in that delima now .. School canot tell us spring break week for next year yet so we have to take the chance it will fall hopefully within the same week as the last few previous years. We want to try and book an 11th month window at a DVC to see if we like it ... so what do you do? We are going for it and hope we do not mess things up.

So did you like it? Did you buy DVC?

We bought resale DVC and will probably even out our initial cost in about 4 trips. That's how we afford it... just give the mouse your money up front and don't look back!

 

[got2lovedisney]

Our annual trips are usually 5 nights using either the Play 4 days pass or the Florida resident seasonal pass. Rooms are discounted. Drive to and from so no flights or rentals. Breakfast, snacks are in the room and we (DBF & I) usually share meals just cuz we aren't big eaters. How do we pay for it? Lots and LOTS of Disney Reward dream dollars and 5% off disney gift cards.

 

[DisneyDelirious]

We go for 14 days each Spring (late May-early June.) There are four of us. We stay on site at CBR, participate in the DDP (for convenience) and fly from the Midwest, most often St. Louis but sometimes a smaller regional airport. It usually runs around $8,000 unless we get a great deal on flights. When I can get a good deal on flights we have gone down for MVMCP and are considering MNSSHP. We did make a deviation and went to DLR this spring instead of WDW. My wife and I both work, and while we share some savings accounts, our checking accounts are separate. We set aside X number of dollars each pay period for WDW just like we set $ aside for pensions, bills, etc.. It is budgeted and takes place. She simply gives me cash and I apply it with my piece of the pie. We don't have credit cards, I don't take loans for vehicles as a general rule. I have a mortgage, otherwise I don't like to pay for interest. If it comes to a point we can't afford it, or it is taking away from more important things like the ability to have safe transportation and properly put money aside for kids/ retirement it would be discontinued or scaled back.

 

[TXDisney]

It's all relative money wise. Flights to Orlando aren't that bad. You can catch it for around $200 round trip if you check it often. Also if it's too pricey for you to stay on site, than look into staying offsite. I like staying on site just bc it feels like it keeps you in the magic, but I've actually stayed offsite way more bc my parents and close aunt and uncle have timeshares offsite. At that point it's really just rental car that's an added expense than staying on site. It's just me and my wife no kids. I like to prepare to spend around $300 a day when I'm there at max, so I bring enough for that. Whether it be food, drinks, souveneirs whatever. For instance we're going this Wednesday till Sunday so 5 days 4 nights and staying at the boardwalk water view. The flights and hotel cost me less than 2k. So then it's spending money. We do a few nice dinners each time we go and we do drink around the countries which gets pricey. But since it's just the 2 of us, there's very few maintenance besides that. Which I'm sure you get with kids, with always wanting snacks, sodas, souvenirs, etc. So for us mist trips cost us 4k or less on site and when offsite around 3k.

 

[BrianV]

Depends on how you do the math. We usually go to the beach (Sanibel island) for 7 days followed by 2-3 at disney. All one vacation, though. Looking at just the aspects dealing with disney:

Airline tix : 1250 for 4 (can't really break apart the flight)
Rental car : 50 (250 for 10 days)
Disney tickets: (we bought non expiring park hoppers years ago, but assume $65/pp/day, two days in parks)$520
Hotel: always stay at deluxe, cheapest room with a discount. Usually ~900
Food: for the disney part, I'll assume about $200/day for three days. $600

Total for disney part: $3350

(But we stay with friends at Sanibel, so if you do the math this way, the Sanibel vacation is virtually free...$200 for the rest of the rental car maybe $1000 for food and fun...total $1200 since the air is already accounted for)

 

[Arty Cordova]

I live 20 minutes away so I buy the annual pass and go every other weekend

 

[scoobygirl39541]

2 people + 5 nights at AKL(always savanna view) + flights + food = $3000-$3600

Split that in half... $1500-$1800 a person, easy payment!

 

[harryk]

Purchased DVC (WL) in 2001. Now each visit runs between 2-4K depending on costs of airline tickets, AP's (always get 2 years out of these, since we only visit once a year) and purchase Deluxe DP. DVC paid for itself within 3 years - but have since added points - costs still down though. This all revolves around the old saying 'CHOICES'.