% income spent on WDW?

[DrummerAlly]

It's a popular topic, let's just air it out here: WDW is expensive. We all agree, let's just settle that before we start.

I started pricing vacations for next year - it's been a while since we've been, but with kids and a family of 5 the cost seems more impractical than it did before. When we were (double income no kids), I didn't think too much of spending this much money. Now it's got me thinking... how much does the average Disney-obsessed family like mine spend on their WDW vacation as a percentage of your gross annual income?

Pricing out rack rate with air fare (obviously I'm not going to pay rack rate) on the vacation that we'd probably like to take is 3% of our annual gross income. We haven't been in a few years, we could do it cheaper, etc. etc., but when I thought about it in terms of a cut of our family's income, it made me a bit more squeamish to hit the "check out" button. So... as a vacation cost as a percentage of your annual income, where does the "too expensive, no thanks" line start to get drawn for you?

 

[flynnibus]

Obviously people value what they do and what they spend on differently... so this will be a wild west of answers.

I hate what I spent on our last WDW vacation... but reality is I probably spent the same amount or more on my personal hobby topics.

What one person may see fit to spent on WDW every few years, another person may see fit to spend yearly or more frequently.

I haven't totaled our last trip yet.. but based on guestimates... It's less than 3% of our income. But its still probably 3-4x I spend on our normal regular escapes. We only do big spend vacations every few years... since we have a beach house in the family where we can vacation for only expenses

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I would say this...any amount is acceptable as long as you’re not paying interest on it.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Hard to define Disney. I take the family to Orlando 3 to 5 nights pretty much every month. Disney usually gets 6 to 8 of the total trips with Uni getting the rest. But there are times I'll stay at the Royal Pacific and drive to Disney for a day and others I'll stay at POR and drive to Uni for the day. (I have AP's to both). My overall Orlando trips come to about 4 to 5%.

I read something a while back that the average total annual vacation budget should be around 5-7% of household income. Which when calculating my total vacation percentage - I'm right about there at 7-8%.

 

[allgiggles]

Obviously people value what they do and what they spend on differently... so this will be a wild west of answers.

I hate what I spent on our last WDW vacation... but reality is I probably spent the same amount or more on my personal hobby topics.

What one person may see fit to spent on WDW every few years, another person may see fit to spend yearly or more frequently.

I haven't totaled our last trip yet.. but based on guestimates... It's less than 3% of our income. But its still probably 3-4x I spend on our normal regular escapes. We only do big spend vacations every few years... since we have a beach house in the family where we can vacation for only expenses

We're in the same boat as you. I just totaled up our costs from our trip last week and it's just under 3% of our total yearly income. We usually only do a big trip (like Disney) every 2 or 3 years and the other years we do mostly day trips or extended visits with family who happen to live in a beautiful vacation/tourist area and do day trips from there. But I think I might mention to my husband (who thinks we spend a fortune at Disney) that according to national averages, we could double the amount we spend on a Disney vacation and still be right on budget.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

 

[DrummerAlly]

Well, that all makes 3% every few years not sound as insane.

 

[larryz]

Who here thinks 10% of your annual income would be too much to spend on a 5-day trip for four adults?

 

[yensid67]

I am on disability and make less than $1,000.00 per month. For that fact, I have to begin to save YEARS out! But I go the cheapest way possible, just so I can go! I love Disney just as much as the regular Disney Geek, but sadly I have planned that this will be my last trip. If its too expensive for those with regular jobs, how much harder do you think it is for someone that is on disability!? IT'S HARD...sometimes seem so out of reach its not worth it! But this will be the trip I spend a lot of detail to souvenirs! I am taking twice as much as I usually do, just to make this trip something I don't have to ask myself, "Do I have the money for it?" I WILL have the money and will buy it! Best part is, I don't really have to buy anything for anyone except my partner!

 

[YankeeMouse]

Take several short trips a year, long weekends and my husband was horrified to discover we had spent a month of the year in WDW.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Who here thinks 10% of your annual income would be too much to spend on a 5-day trip for four adults?

Percentages are skewed. If you make 50k - well then 10% probably not a good idea. If you're at 500k...Much different story.
Percentages are always factored considering that 100% of income will be spent for something or the other. If you are in the position where you can live off of 40% of your annual income - then the additional 60% can go towards savings, investment, and discretionary spending. So if someone says 30% of my annual income goes towards vacations....it's not necessarily an issue. It's never a good idea to get heavily into debt though. So to answer your question....if 10% doesn't extend you....why not?

 

[allgiggles]

Who here thinks 10% of your annual income would be too much to spend on a 5-day trip for four adults?

As long as someone isn't paying interest on credit cards or not paying other household payments and not taking out a loan in order to go on vacation, I don't see a problem with it. Personally, I wouldn't spend that much at this point in our lives even though we could afford to do it. We'll have our house paid off in 2-3 years from now and by then we will only have 1 child in college (instead of 2) so at that point I wouldn't have a problem spending 10% of our income on a vacation. I wouldn't do it every year, but I wouldn't bat an eye at doing it every few years. Right now I just prefer to put most of our "extra" money towards getting the house paid off (our only debt) and paying a large chunk of the kids' college expenses, so we take vacations that are a little more budget friendly.

 

[eliza61nyc]

LOL, I'm easily at 10% of my salary, if not more. I think there are so many factors that go into it. My kids are out of college, I'm totally funded for my retirement so I've got a bit of disposable income. I'm not in a rush to pay off my mortgage so no issues there.
The thing I don't get is that, I find all vacations tend to be expensive.

For example last year we went to Ocean City nj weekly rental? 3,000 bucks and no I wasn't directly on the beach, food, beach tags and boardwalk games. we were easy at 4,000 bucks for the week.

This year is a bit higher in that I have got 2 disney trips, went to Savannah earlier this year and got a long weekend in Pittsburgh.

 

[allgiggles]

LOL, I'm easily at 10% of my salary, if not more. I think there are so many factors that go into it. My kids are out of college, I'm totally funded for my retirement so I've got a bit of disposable income. I'm not in a rush to pay off my mortgage so no issues there.
The thing I don't get is that, I find all vacations tend to be expensive.

For example last year we went to Ocean City nj weekly rental? 3,000 bucks and no I wasn't directly on the beach, food, beach tags and boardwalk games. we were easy at 4,000 bucks for the week.

This year is a bit higher in that I have got 2 disney trips, went to Savannah earlier this year and got a long weekend in Pittsburgh.

I agree, all vacations tend to be expensive. Even when we just do day trips, we can easily spend $4-500 dollars a day (especially if we go to an amusement park) without even needing to stay in a hotel. A week of day trips can easily cost us a few thousand dollars. A friend of mine (who keeps saying she can't wait to go back to Disney with her 2 kids but she just can't afford it right now) just went on a 14 day road trip through New England and a bit of Canada. She said that trip cost her over $5,000 total and they stayed at very cheap motels the entire time. And don't even get me started on going to the Jersey Shore. I know plenty of people who don't bat an eye at spending $5,000+ on a week at the shore but tell me Disney is too expensive. A friend of mine told me that their 4 weeks (yes, 4!!!!) at the shore every summer costs them nearly 15% of their income (and that's with her in-laws covering part of the cost of 2 of those week)...and then she complains about not having any money because they still have student loans, have 2 kids in college, built an enormous house and have an equally enormous mortgage, yadda, yadda, yadda.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

LOL, I'm easily at 10% of my salary, if not more. I think there are so many factors that go into it. My kids are out of college, I'm totally funded for my retirement so I've got a bit of disposable income. I'm not in a rush to pay off my mortgage so no issues there.
The thing I don't get is that, I find all vacations tend to be expensive.

For example last year we went to Ocean City nj weekly rental? 3,000 bucks and no I wasn't directly on the beach, food, beach tags and boardwalk games. we were easy at 4,000 bucks for the week.

This year is a bit higher in that I have got 2 disney trips, went to Savannah earlier this year and got a long weekend in Pittsburgh.

Just say manco manco poisoned you and sue them for your money back

 

[eliza61nyc]

Just say manco manco poisoned you and sue them for your money back

lol, nope I'm getting scared of them. they've got pizza joints on darn near every corner at the Boardwalk. my kid swears they are part of the illuminati

Heck, we went to see Disney's Aladdin live a few days ago in Philly.
4 tickets 187.00 a pop. once again not orchestra. 1st mezzanine 6 or 7 rows back. then we had dinner at a seafood joint in the 9th street Italian market. ~200.00 after tips. so one night, nothing fancy, easily set us back 850.00+

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

lol, nope I'm getting scared of them. they've got pizza joints on darn near every corner at the Boardwalk. my kid swears they are part of the illuminati

Heck, we went to see Disney's Aladdin live a few days ago in Philly.
4 tickets 187.00 a pop. once again not orchestra. 1st mezzanine 6 or 7 rows back. then we had dinner at a seafood joint in the 9th street Italian market. ~200.00 after tips. so one night, nothing fancy, easily set us back 850.00+

That pizza sucks

And Aladdin might be the most overrated broadway play ever. Saw it last year and I wasn’t impressed

 

[eliza61nyc]

That pizza sucks

And Aladdin might be the most overrated broadway play ever. Saw it last year and I wasn’t impressed

+1
We were underwhelmed.

 

[Networth]

No way this ends well.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

No way this ends well.

I bet that is the one thing agreed upon by everyone...