To think a (not Paris) Disney holiday is possible for the average working family?

I agree id say not affordable, if you have to pay for it all yourself & not load it onto credit cards. Also not sure I'd want to go anywhere near the US at present. However my brother's in laws, who I know barely work, both very part time in min wage jobs,, have 3 kids, rent & I know are on some sort of benefits. Go every 2 or 3 years for 2 weeks & stay in a Disney hotel. Obviously I have no idea how they afford it. I know you can get deals etc. But DH & I have 1 DC both work full time him min wage, I'm on about £40k, have a mortgage & there is no way we could consider it. We are off to Devon for a week at Whitsun in Avery lovely caravan.

We went to a Greek island and Florida last year and as wonderful as Rhodes is, we all (including our children) enjoyed Disney/Universal much more.
Have you been to WDW, out of interest?

That’s good to know, we weren’t sure about upgrading but is was £1200 for the full
stay so not too bad for 4 considering we also want to do the character dining. I would love to go deluxe but wow it shoots up in price! One day!

@PurpleFlower1983 Yes I imagine it depends on a lot of factors, and prices seem to change all the time.

We went for the full dining plan as we wanted to do all the character meals and it was great. It was also worth it for peace of mind that food was paid for - although tips aren’t included (apart from at CRT)!

We stayed at a moderate resort which we loved, but we are considering upgrading to a deluxe one next time, as prices sometimes go down to not much more than than what we paid for the moderate.

I should also add my DH thought he’d hate Disney - he loved it and is just as eager to go back! I thought I was only going for the kids too - I have never felt holiday blues like it when coming back!

These threads always get people being sniffy / judgey - live and let live and spend what money you can afford on what makes you happy!

we've been Disney in Paris, Orlando and California (with kids and without) and love it. I've also had holidays to Thailand, Malaysia, NZ, Australia and Europe! what i'm saying is it's possible to enjoy Disney holidays and more "adventurous" holidays!

id love to go disney in the Far East but not sure that will happen a anytime soon!

i get a lot of pleasure out of planning a Disney trip, researching the best deals on flights/hotels etc, and then have it to look forward to. There's a lot of blogs/vlogs out there about doing Disney on a budget etc for tips

We earn average salaries, and prioritise holidays as what we spend our disposable income on. We don't have expensive cars or expensive hobbies and don't really eat out that much and aren't big drinkers. We do enjoy going on a couple of holidays a year. (We also only have 1 child which obviously is a factor in holiday cost)

We are off to Disney in California later this year (we prefer it to Orlando plus it's the 70th anniversary) but this probably will be the last Disney trip for a few years as want to start doing more city breaks with DS

It was possible for us, we saved hard and managed 2x Disneyworld holidays when the kids were little. Cost us around £8k each time, this would be closer to £11k now I'd imagine though. At that time, we prioritised disposable income by staying in a small house whilst our pay rose. We didn't holiday often, still don't, we've not been abroad for 5yrs.

I compared against the deal for free nights and it was cheaper with our free dining deal for us by 1.5k but I have heard people say this too. Suppose it depends when/which resort.

We’re doing 18 nights in August, moderate resort, upgraded to full dining plan so we can do character dining, flights from Manchester for £11.5k. Didn’t think it was too bad all in all.

We're going to Orlando this year, our children are 10 and 8 and we have been saving for about 6 years with smaller holidays (Butlins etc).

I have been to Orlando as a young adult and the children really want to go so think it's worth it. After this one we'll save again for another big holiday when they're teens.

Ooh thank you! Although we have found that the prices overall go up when this is on, so it’s not that much of a saving. We paid for the full table service dining plan as it was worth it for us for what we wanted to do.

The free dining deal is back within the
next few days - £200 deposit! I’m a
bad influence! 🤣

Yes it is possible. We went to Florida last year with a 9 and 11 yea old. We saved up. It was very expensive - if we were going to go we wanted to stay in a Disney hotel, eat in all the themed restaurants (I.e. eating at Cinderella’s Royal Table in the actual castle!) and do all the experiences - and it was worth every single penny,

It cost us £12,000 for flights, accommodation, park tickets, sit down meals and lunches for 4 of us. We spent another couple of thousand on top of that on spending and excursions e.g. to the Kennedy Space Center.

We’re currently saving to go again.

We did it a couple of years ago, 18 days for £18k in August. We booked it a year in advance and paid it off monthly, and were pretty frugal that year. Our standard holidays can cost around £6k for a week in Greece/canaries all in, it’s something that we budget for, however I can’t wait until we can travel outside the school hols (3 years to go!)

I would really like to take to take my own DC but I just can't afford it as a single mum. I went twice to Florida in my early teens and absolutely loved it. I've known three lots of people to go in the last few years: one was a group of colleagues from work who shared the expense, one family stayed with people they knew who lived in Florida near the park, and the other family are fairly well off but still booked two years in advance and (presumably) paid it up. I know several people who have been to the Paris one but for me I just don't think it would be the same without the sunshine, bright colours and americana that I feel is quite central to the experience.

DLP isn’t much cheaper, it’s comparatively a lot more expensive staying on site. We could have done 2 weeks in Florida for the same price as 5 nights at DLP. We did a couple of trips and it’s gone up so much since then, it’s crazy! We looked at Lapland but couldn’t justify the costs for a couple of nights but it’s all different priorities isn’t it, we have been recommended to try that outside of the Christmas season for much cheaper options.

See I much prefer Paris to Orlando. Especially the castle.

Just wanted to add - parking at hr resorts is now free, but also no need to hire a car.

We looked quite seriously at Florida but haven’t ended up booking for a number of reasons including the expense and prioritising school fees. we’ve done other bucket list holidays including Lapland which is do again in a heartbeat but I’m finding it hard to justify the cost of Florida at the moment. We are likely to do DLP when frozen land is open.

The things that have put me off include:

• balance of crowds versus the heat and humidity. We wouldn’t cope with the August heat (when it’s cheaper and less crowded) so would be looking at more expensive/crowded months around spring which changes the costs a lot.
• i don’t really like rides and nor do my children which knocks down the value proposition a bit.
• Level of accommodation for the price paid (we’d want to stay on resort). Even some of the deluxe resorts look a bit tired.
• the general busyness of everything.

It’s not a ‘never’ for us as my husband is keen to go but I don’t think we’d get enough from it at this point to justify the price. I’d rather go all in for a few days in Paris and splash out on the Disney Land Hotel and maximise princesses etc

We’ve been two or three times when the kids were younger. We saved is the short answer to how do you afford it, and we stayed in a suite away from the parks with a kitchen so we could do at least 2 meals a day at ‘home’.

It wasn’t somewhere I wanted to go but I decided to park my cynicism and enter into the spirit of it and it was amazing. Universal, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Epcot more than Magic Kingdom or whatever it’s called. The kids loved it so much that as young adults they want to go back, paying for themselves and really want our grandkids (from older step sibling) to come along and share the same experiences and memories.

People are so snooty about Disney. We’ve been 3 times and loved it, also been to Italy/Greece for culture 🙄. It’s fun imo and lots to do in Florida other than theme parks.

The accommodation is cheaper than Europe and often better - especially off site. It’s possibly to get flights £600 each, less if fly indirect. Accommodation for 2 weeks from 1k, tickets around 2k. We priced up both last year and Europe was more expensive.

I would second considering Hong Kong Disney. It’s small enough you’d only need a couple of days and then you could have a great holiday there or pop to Thailand or Vietnam which are far cheaper than HK, Europe or the US. Or stay in HK which is amazing for kids - do the beaches, the big water park and experience the culture generally n

I like Greece as far as European sun holidays go, we go every year to a different island, but it really can’t be compared to a Disney holiday they are 2 different things. I also don’t find Greece any cheaper than a Disney holiday (per day) if you want to stay in a decent hotel etc.

We go on one ‘big’ holiday a year. Disney Florida would be about 3 years worth of holiday. So that’s how I would do it if we really wanted to.

Have you looked into other Disneys? Hong Kong perhaps? Are these personal reasons you won’t go to Paris really big enough to spend an extra 10 grand on Florida? (You’re absolutely right not to disclose them here as they will get jumped on as ‘not good enough’)

if you are absolutely set on Florida then price it up. Look at quieter times of year, join facebook groups to get hints about the best deals. Then think realistically about what you can save per month and work out from there how long it will take you.

People can be a bit snooty about Disney - it does divide opinion as you can see. My dh didn’t want to go but we booked it as part of a wider Florida trip and it was great and dc really enjoyed it.

We travelled in October - less crowded and humid, cheaper flights. We stayed at the Universal and Disney hotels but you can do this a whole lot cheaper by staying in a self catering apartment or villa. Car hire isn’t that expensive but parking at the resorts is as is the cost of tickets. Eating is as expensive or cheap as you want to make it. It takes a lot of planning but there’s a very helpful forum called The Dibb which is so useful. It’s also quite tiring as the parks are huge.

We love Greece, went to Paxos last year for a lovely week, not cheap though! I would say it came in around £4K including food for the week. We have done Greece more cheaply in less desirable resorts such as Sidari on Corfu and Kalamaki on Zante but it’s not that cheap holiday it used to be when you factor in food etc. We did get a good bargain on Kefalonia pre-Covid but that was just the two of us pre kids.