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

[Lilylouis]

DD is nearly 9 and has wanted to go on a Disney holiday for years.

We took her sibling who is 11 years older to Florida, before DD was born (not thinking we’d be able to have another) and it was a once in a lifetime experience and nowhere near as much money back then- we both also had better paid jobs and our mortgage wasn’t as high add onto that the COL.

We wouldn’t do Paris for personal reasons I’d rather not go into.

Do any average families do any Disney holidays?

Currently we have to save hard for a week in Spain!

How do people do Disney?

@TheIceBearah I thought you were going to answer my question there but no such luck. The NEED people have to tell OP that she’s wrong to want to go to Disney is really quite incredible.

I don’t think I said that you liked cheap holidays. I was asking why you feel sad when people choose Disney over something that you consider to be preferable.

Hahaha @TheIceBear who pissed on your Mickey waffles?

In your opinion you mean.
Some of our favourite family memories are from Disney. You state your views like it’s a fact 😂

Yes it is. It’s not necessarily easy and might mean sacrifices so there’s a balancing act. You can make a Disney trip cost varying amounts depending on where you stay (Disney hotel, hotel, self catering), find cheaper flights by going indirectly, get a credit card that gets you airline points, limit how much you spend when there (it’s nowhere near as much as you think, kids meals are massive, a lot of souvenirs aren’t great anyway) etc. there’s lots of ways to do it by researching.

Well I wouldn’t spend that money going to Florida but that’s personal preference. I have been to Disney parks in Paris, Tokyo, California and Hong Kong. None of them are once in a lifetime but maybe I’m missing something because it’s not Florida? I got family in Hong Kong so I have been to the Hong Kong one almost every year but it’s a small park. (Though it is the first to have Frozen and very short queues). Tokyo is the best in my opinion because Japan itself is an amazing holiday destination.

Ha ha, I'm a big fan too! I love all of the historical stuff, in fact probably more than the newer things (although Rise of the Resistance was pretty fantastic). I'm the one boring DH telling him which Imagineers designed Big Thunder Mountain or the Tiki Room, and who all the names in the windows in Main Street are!

OP.. to get back to your question.. one thing I would say is that of course it will be an expensive trip, but you don't have to get sucked into the spending more and more when you get here. You don't need fast passes, if you time things right you can queue for less than an hour on even the big rides. You don't need to eat the fancy meals - we just buy snacks or bring a packed lunch with us. On Monday I saw a family eating bowls of spaghetti and meatballs that they had carried in with them! You don't need to pay crazy money for reserved seating to watch the fireworks.. you can see them anywhere in the park and in fact our favourite place is on the beach a mile away, where you still get the music piped in and no crowds.

Can I ask who the travel company was? X

I’m not saying she’s wrong. All I said was that I don’t think it’d be worth depriving a family of holidays for years to go in my opinion and even saying that people have been jumping down my neck about it.

I went to Paris last year for a few days with my children. We spent a day in Disneyland as part of it, which was long enough. It cost me £225 (£75pp) to get access (just one of the two parks). It helped massively it was the very start of September, before our schools had started but just after French schools had. Factor in travel and a couple of nights to bookend your day in Disneyland (doesn’t need to be resort hotels), you could do it for well under £1,000.

One day was ok, but I can’t imagine spending a week or so in a Disney resort… it would drive me insane!

when reading threads like this I think it’s sad that people who can’t afford Disney long for it like it’s the ultimate goal for children(apart from that it’s something I never think about btw)
I would literally consider any other (safe) country to be preferable to visit other than the US. It’s not snobbery or acting cultured like I’ve been accused of I just really dislike that type of thing. I don’t feel the same about a BMW because it’s totally different.

So many holiday snobs on here. Might not be what you want to do but it is what @Lilylouis and her family want. I hope you manage it one day OP, we went once - for ref I hated the idea but the kids and DH really wanted to. In the end we all had a ball - did 1’week Disney/universal and then a week in Tampa by the beach to recover, unexpectedly (for me) great holiday. Stayed offsite and drove in each day, was no hassle.

FWIW I preferred Universal and we also had a day at Busch Gardens x

I’ve only been to Disneyland Paris, which can be done FAR more cheaply than Disney World Florida, but personally I’d struggle to justify saving for years, and paying multiple thousands extra simply for a somewhat grander Disney resort, when I could get a great Disney experience closer to home for far less.

Also, can’t you have too much of a good thing? For example, I like a nice coffee and cake on a Saturday afternoon… but would hate to have, say, 5 coffees and cake over the course of the day…. Unless you’re a Disney obsessive, any more than a couple of days is surely going to turn into purgatory! How many times can you hear “it’s a small world” without going insane! For me, and I expect most people, one day is enough… Any longer, and you get rapidly diminishing returns.

@TheIceBearThe OP has been before. She liked it. She wants to go again. She’s asking for tips to make it more affordable. That has resulted in dozens of people feeling compelled to tell her that she shouldn’t want to go. That’s really quite incredible. She’s an adult who knows that she likes this holiday and wants to go again. As I say if someone said they wanted to make a skiing holiday more affordable you wouldn’t get this kind of reaction.

I’m sure you would get some of those comments about skiing too. If I started a thread called “I hate Disneyland” or the like looking for people with similar opinions I’m sure there would be plenty of people commenting about how they love it. That’s the nature of conversation, people comment what they want to comment.

Our Disney holiday (just three days, in Paris) I think back to a lot more often and fondly than Thailand. I disagree with those who say it is (necessarily) rubbish.

It was hideously expensive even for two nights.

I was given to understand that Disney changed its business model from getting lots of guests to having guests spend more per head?

Thing is Disney World isn’t 14 x Disneyland Paris days. They’ve got 4 completely different parks, plus 2 x water parks, then you’ve got universal which is a whole other different feel, and most people then intersperse those days doing something else like go to a beach, pool days, or even places like Kennedy Space Center. So no, it really isn’t just an extra long Paris holiday.

It’s a special holiday, you can’t do anything like it anywhere else so yes it’s a parental bucket list item for many and they will choose to forgo other things for it. No one is right or wrong here, using words like ‘depriving’ is emotive, you can just disagree.

@ioioitdj thats how I would feel about it though. If my comments about Disney make you feel a certain way that’s a you issue.

Your comments don’t make me feel anything, we go on holiday 2-3 times a year and didn’t need to hold ourselves back too much to go to Disney so no personal skin in the game here for me, I’m just more open minded and understanding as to why people choose the things they do.

I can't answer for the PP but i've had quotes in the past from Ever After Holidays who are Disney specialists after following them on Facebook. i ended up booking it all myself and separately eventually as picked California over Orlando but they get good reviews and i was happy with all the customer service from them when discussing Orlando with them.

You’re looking at a minimum of £10K for a family of 4, so no I’d say this isn’t affordable for most.

How much does it cost?

@TheIceBearthe post wasnt “I love disneyworld” though. That may well have invited a difference of opinion. It was “I’ve been before and WANT to go again, any tips to make it a more reasonable price?” This compelled people to tell OP she was WRONG

We booked through an American holidays specialist who had lots of Disney experience. Hired a car and booked an apartment near but not in Disney (in complex with pool). We saved hard. We self catered in the apartment quite a bit. And we didn’t do Disney everyday - we had a “7 days in 10” ticket, and actually used the water parks and wildlife park a lot as well as the main parks - we did the water park one day and went to Epcot for late night fireworks, after a rest back in the apartment in the afternoon, that sort of thing. And we had done a lot of research to get good deals on a NASA visit and a canoe safari trip in a town about 15 miles away. And we did a proper supermarket shop when we arrived to be able to cook and relax with nice snacks in the apartment (and enjoy different content on Netflix! Which kept DD happy some evenings).

it was expensive!!! But worth it.