AIBU to ask how much you pay for your Disney trips...

[Ffiffime]

I know this is a cheeky question. I’m looking into taking the kids to Florida in a few years. The price is eye watering but I think it’s doable.

There are so many different options, I don’t know where to start. Do I book separately? Do I book a package? Park tickets are just extortionate but I want us to do Disney and Universal, maybe Sea World and Kennedy.

We’re not loaded so don’t have a massive budget. I’ve been looking on TUI and a fortnight next year in July is looking around £4000 without park tickets.

What is the best way to do this! Help!

Oh and I don’t think that parking is free anymore if you’re staying in a Disney hotel so will be an added cost.

Kennedy is a good day out, haven’t been to universal for a couple of years due to price and prefer Disney

DP and I are hoping to get a couple of days in Miami away from the rest of the party and explore a different area but is looking expensive

Disney is engineered to suck money out your handbag so take a lot of spending money.

DH’s boss looked at Disney but found that renting a private yacht with crew and all the toys for a week in the Florida keys was cheaper.

We booked an apartment in a lovely spa that cost us about £1k for four for two weeks. Much nicer than cramming the whole family into one room at an extortionate disney hotel. Park tickets were about £2.5k and we just did Disney and Universal. Flights from Stansted were about £3k. Probably spent another £1.5-£2k on eating out and souvenirs etc. Got stung on the hire car though. Tried to convince us to have an SUV for only a bit more then what we’d already booked. Turned out to be a lot more. About £600 more, rather than in total. Customer services didn’t want to know. Beware of the smiley people at Alamo.

3rd trip booked for next year.

We booked in January through Virgin Holidays and don't go until June 2019. Direcr flights from Glasgow with Virgin Atlantic and accommodation for us (staying on I Drive) for 3a & 1c is £3300.

Park tickets (Disney & Universal) was another £2100 but we did manage to get them on sale before the massive price increases this year.

Shop around travel agents. Have seen some great deals over the past few days on Travel Agents FB pages, e.g our local Thomas Cook had advertised a 2 week holiday in Orlando, staying at the Rosen Inn at Pointe flying from Glasgow via Gatwick in June next year for £1999 for family of 4.

Ah Thankyou for the tips! Hoping to take them in about 2/3 years when the kids will be about 8 and 6.

I’ve been before and loved it.
I like the idea of a villa. I’d prefer to go in school holidays because I’m reluctant to take them out of school for 2 weeks. I’ve heard April can be really busy is that right? x

Please don’t support SeaWorld. Watch ‘Black Fish’ first.

SeaWorld has some of the best rollercoasters. If you want to go, go.

Easter is the busiest holiday, along with Christmas. If you have to stick to holidays go as late in August as possible, or try to piggyback it onto October half term. August brings the threat of hurricanes but US schools are back between the 10th and 20th August most years so the crowds die down slightly. If there is a hurricane or tropical storm forecast locals also tend to rearrange trips so it can sometimes help of there's on the horizon.

I’ve been at April and it was busy but manageable with early starts and lots of planning.

Christmas was a nightmare - wouldn’t do it again

Go to the Space Centre rather than SeaWorld. It's so much better!

We've been in February, June, July, August and this year it will be October. We used to go for a fortnight but these days just for a week at half term - though a week isn't good value really as it's pretty nearly the same cost as a fortnight.

February - weather can vary. We've had it with the odd day at 15/16c and needed hoodies on, and other days at mid 20s in shorts and t shirts.

Summer - hot and humid. But one very manageable including for children. There quite a bit of indoor places to grab some aircon and many of the queues have shade and water mists, if not inside. You often get some rain, normally you can see it coming in the distance sometime mid aft noon, you find shelter and it lasts half an hour to an hour. Some days you might fall unlucky and it will rain for much longer, but then we've also had other visits where weve had no rain for the fortnight.

We've had one hurricane, back in 2004. Tbh it didn't really affect us that much. The parks closed early, just after lunch around 2ish. They then opened an hour later the following morning. It was incredibly windy and extreme heavy rain, but the villas are fine as they're designed to deal with this, as are the big hotels. The parks were near perfect on arrival. There were signs etc down on the roads but not blocking them -
A lot of work was done by florida workers once the hurricane had passed over cleaning away any road issues etc. Only main issue was that the storm brought in a lot of ants to the villa. We asked for it to be sorted and they just moved us into a new villa as it was quicker and easier to do so. So lost a couple of hours there I guess too. But overall was okay. The hurricanes cause more problems in the costal Areas or in areas with poorly Built or old buildings.

Always spend 8 to 10 thousand per trip for a family of five.

Fucking hell.

We will never be doing Florida Disney trips, then!

That is a fairly standard budget for a Florida theme park holiday in holiday time, and probably towards the lower end too for a fortnight. We pay around that for three - all classed as adults.

God. Disney is a day, 2 max-?any longet is too much. Universal is better but we also did that in a day with fast passes.

Flew virgin uc on points so £500 and stayed at Waldorf Astoria with Hilton points.

We went at Easter. We mostly avoided the crowds by getting to the parks for opening time - easy as our bodies still on UK time.
It's been a while since we went so our costs are probably irrelevant , but things I'd say are - Parking costs at the theme park - wasn't expecting that one. Restaurants are cheaper outside of the parks, but you need to add in 20% service, portions are huge though and you often get a salad thrown in so don't need to order an appetizer.

Look at the Disney options- they are many and confusing. The two /three week pass is good if you're planning to visit all the parks and includes their water parks and a couple of really good minigolf courses.

God. Disney is a day, 2 max-?any longet is too much.

CatchingACold If you actually think this you’re doing Disneyworld very, very wrong 😂

CatchingACold
each park takes 2 days or you're missing a hell of a lot of attractions, even off peak.

We have 5 kids are are going next year. No expense spared and it will cost about 18 thousand euro!! Have been thinking about it for years, it will be the trip of a lifetime.
Can't believe how much it will cost!
May well take a lifetime to pay for......

We are staying onsite in both Disney and Universal . Club Level at Universal . I reckon we could save about 3 k by removing all the 'luxury' bits but not worth it for a once in a lifetime holiday. Will skip skiing and a summer holiday to go.

God. Disney is a day, 2 max-?any longet is too much.

Well, there are 4 different theme parks plus two large water parks. So, there are 6 possible days already.
Universal Studios is another 2 separate parks and another large water park.

We don't like to rush around. We do it at our own speed and we all enjoy rides, so tend to ride almost all of them, barring the very small children ones - though DD does still like one or two even as a teen. We eat in the parks too. At Universal we have Express passes for the two days, although tbh its often not too busy in those parks anyway. For Disney we pre books our dining and our Fast Pass tickets to aid with planning on the day.

These days we go for a week. We spend one day in each of the Disney parks and the same for Universal. We don't go to the water parks on those visits.

If going for the first visit then I'd say you really need more time to explore the parks fully and get to experience all they have to offer. This is especially the case with children. Its not like Orlando itself has that much to offer other than the parks (Disney, Universal, Legoland and, for some, SeaWorld, anyway. We like the Space Centre but that is a good hour away by car and Busch Gardens is further. The coastal areas are lovely, but they are not day trips really as a little too far.

I actually prefer the original Disneyworld in California. Off topic I know, but good for a first visit with kids as it won’t overload them and so much to do. We did a few of the hidden Disney’s tours as well so you get to go backstage. Amazing at halloween.

I wouldn’t go again. I only really went because the Dh had booked it all for the dcs and it might have put a downer on the family holiday if Mummy wasn’t there.

We’re now back and I’m exhausted. Two weeks of queues, noise, walking miles, massive theme parks that take an age to get anywhere and the most crass commercialism you will ever see in your life. There’s more extortionate gift shops than there are rides and the rides themselves simply aren’t worth the hype. I shit you not, there was a half hour wait for the Dumbo carousel. You know where you sit in an elephant and it just goes round and round for two minutes? Like you’d find on any seafront? Utter madness.

I can’t believe how much it cost to go. I feel like I need a week at the beach to recover.