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?

Honestly, I have no idea either! Not sure if we just got a good deal or if it was the norm.

Direct flights (with great flight times) Moderate hotel, $750 in gift/food cards (which felt like free food when we went!), park tickets for 2 weeks.

We did then hire a car and go to discovery cove as our budget allowed due to coming in under on everything else.

we didn't do universal as our youngest wasn't tall enough for a lot of the rides so it would have been a waste of money.

We love disney and always have a great time. For us it is far better value than Europe, the average family could definitely go, we ho every other year with no other holiday.

Try Port Aventura in Spain. It's owned by Universal Studio's and is really good. You can stay in Salou and get a little land train to the park. Been twice. I've also been to Disney and Universal in Florida more than once, and can attest that it really is as good.

A 14 day park ticket for 6 people to disney and universal ( is on sale at the mo so cheaper than 7 days) is £5895 .

Flights for 6 people came in at just over £7K this year.

A virgin holiday for 6 people ( easter holidays next year) with park tickets is £32,432 at the wilderness lodge and this is ROOM ONLY.

So it's easy to see where i got my original £25K quote from. So many posters on this thread have not included park tickets in the costings they have shared or spending money for food etc.

Easter break and Xmas are the most expensive times to go.

A booking for 6 is always going to be extortionate. But you can reduce your price by staying off site, a villa or apartment hotel will work out a lot cheaper.

If you have to go during school holidays, try the last 2 weeks of August or the October half term.

We have been 5 times and never stayed on site. Shop around for park tickets ... Black Friday is a good time to get discounts.

When there reduce the amount of times you eat out and take your own food into the parks.

Take Ubers instead of hiring a car to save on parking.

Do you mind me asking how old your children are? I’d love to go to Japan but worried about flight times and also the system to get even get in the queue for rides seems overwhelming!

It’s cheaper in August because the weather is crap and we only have one week at October so that’s not long enough. I’m sorry, I just don’t buy into this ‘holiday of a lifetime’ if you have to cut corners and do a half hearted version! If I’m going, I’m going. I’m not spending half or more on a villa ( not a holiday for me) making sandwiches etc.

No it isn't.... it's cheaper as the US schools have gone back.
The weather is fine in August, it's Florida... you get rain, sun and humidity whenever you go.

I dont understand your attitude to compromise.

So if you can't afford the platinum level of something ... you just don't do it? Or do you do a version you can afford?

Absolutely get that not everyone wants to spend the money on an Orlando holiday. Fair play, we all like different things. But for some reason people LOVE to tell Disney fans how shit they think Disney is or what a a waste of money it is.

Last year we did a trip to Ibiza... it was one week, cost £4000 and we were bored. Personally I'd rather use that money towards a Florida trip for 2 weeks. As £4000 would get us there and pay for a hotel for 2 weeks. But again each to their own.

We go every year. But we bought DVC (Disney vacation club), it was a big outlay but now means I don’t need any money for hotels (just the flight and the tickets).
I agree with previous poster about demand dropping - we cancelled our trip this summer because of how the US / Ukraine visit went in the White House.

I think it depends how you do it - we couldn’t afford to book through a company and stay at a Disney hotel, but we could afford to book our own flights, independent apartment or Airbnb and get tickets to the parks, taking a packed lunch each day. We have no desire to go to Disney world though so it’s not an issue for us.

Two weeks entry to universal was $99 in 2010. It's now comparable to 2 weeks in disney. I would cut that out. I would also make the most of the pricey disneyworld tickets. Deregister the kids or pay the fine and go for longer. Book midweek flights in January or early May. Maybe even book flights the week before if I'm feeling lucky? Stay onsite for the minium amount for the free food deal (5 nights?) Then to a cheaper villa to spread out. Uber/lyft eliminates parking fees and aids park hopping. Get the free internal bus to animal kingdom lodge and be picked up from there is your villa is nearby. You can see the animals and toast marshmallows. We always prefer breakfast in our room, whether in a disney hotel or not. A box of cereal, milk and some fruit is cheap and does not detract from the holiday feel. Don't order domino's, it's not as good as in the uk.

I'm glad that most kids don't know about disneyworld as it is unachievable for many. It's good that they think Paris is the same as it leaves them satisfied with the experience or happy in an opinion that it's not for them. I consider paris poorer value day for day, took my kids to parc asterix instead. Apart from Ant and Dec pre covid, there isn't the constant assault in the media whereas in the 90s everyone were doing specials there, even roseanne. They don't aim their marketing at UK as they can get enough people from the USA, who can afford to spend more because they're paid in dollars. In the 90s it was 60p or less to a dollar which made up for the high dollar price of groceries, meals out and goods (plus tax remember!). In Jan this year it was 82p.

I can't stand venice but I rarely feel the need to tell people that. So many people seem to need to tell others how they don't think they'd like disney. It's rare that you get an evangelical disney fan. They don't want to make it more popular and there's a big enough disney fan base audience for them to share things just with them. By telling the Internet you dislike disney you're just giving key words to algorithms that will show you these videos you don't wish to see (or maybe you do, so you can tell them how rubbish disney is?)

I could afford it, but refuse to go as it’s a complete ripoff. But told my daughter how much it would cost (5 years’ pocket money) and she lost interest.

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

Is the title of this post, so I honestly have no idea why people are posting stick up their arse comments about how they would never go and awful comments about how commercialised and bad and how shit it is. That wasn’t the question was it…
Nobody is forcing you to go and everyone enjoys different types of holidays?

Me and my mum literally say all the time how it is our favourite holiday ever. (I’m 33 now and she is 57) we are lucky enough to make this our family holiday every 5 years. You get to be a big kid again, always things to do and eat and live in bloody fantasy land for a couple of weeks and divulge in all the calorific American food, rides, shows etc. never bored and we have the best memories to show for it.

Me and DP are extremely lucky and grateful that my parents always get a villa that they pay for ( they won’t take no as an option and never let us pay for this) and we pay for our flights etc. the park tickets are expensive and you do need a lot of spending money but honestly staying in a villa and hiring a car works out more cost effective if you can. We are in no way in the category of extremely high paid jobs (I work NHS Band 3 Community and my mum is a TA in a school, partner works for the Metal Industry) but we save and make it work. My step dad is a Project Manager however so he always researches for months before each holiday and makes his bloody excel spreadsheets about best times to go restaurants, certain parks, when is cheaper etc so happy to help with any questions if you wanted to plan a holiday to Orlando on the next few years as we have a lot of experience (this is in no way trying to be a show off) just trying to say that there are ways of doing it cost effective but also understanding it is a very expensive holiday but so worth it! Think - food shop at Walmart so you can make breakfast in the villa before you go to the parks - take food and water and snacks in backpacks etc. you always have the option then of just having a villa day - where you can just chill by your pool but still entertaining for the kids.

Again; happy to help with some tips if you ever need it! I wish everyone could experience it at least once in their life it is a truly magical holiday X

I am going to go against the grain…and say yes… but go in term time… early March is great… after half term… before Easter and Spring Break… but accept that you will not be seeing Orlando or anything not Disney… stay on site… in a mid grade hotel… that way there will be no car/parking/fuel costs…. All of the transport between parks will be included… and it is brilliant… I would say paying a little bit extra for a hotel with the Skyline is worth it for time saved… look for offers with the ‘free’ Disney money included… and a ‘gift card’ which you can also spend on food and drink… for us family of 4, we spent very little additional money on food and drink, we didn’t drink alcohol, and drank lots of water with our meals. We even did some character dining within that budget… the meals are so large that we generally only ate twice a day… or at breakfast and lunch we would eat in the ‘fast food’ places and share 3 adult meals between the four of us… we bought the refillable mugs at the hotel (that last for 14 days) and filled them up before we left the hotel for the day… we did not buy ‘stuff’ we were clear with our girls before we went… but they did get to chose 2 special presents each… and enjoyed window shopping choosing what they would like to choose for those…. I am really really glad we saved up to go… the months of saying ‘no’ to things at home that we would normally spend without thinking about were completely worth it…

11 and 5 :)!

I wouldn't even dream of taking myself to the USA these days, never mind the kids.

First time responding so hope I’m doing it correctly! If not please be kind.

So we’ve been 7 time. 2 adults no kids. We generally do 1 day at Universal with express passes and 1 day at Hollywood Studios (Disney park) and this costs around $1K. Most people with kids will buy 14 day passes but not cost effective for us. We were just there in March (booked well before Trump was elected) and the cost for flight (premium economy), hotel (basic on IDrive) and car hire was £4500! This is almost double what it cost when we were last there just before lockdown.
We didn’t find that eating out was much more expensive than in 2020 but groceries were. The other issue is the exchange rate isn’t great so that has an impact.

We saved for 18 months for the holiday and were frugal in those months, any spare penny went in the Florida fund. We love to explore more than just the parks, there’s loads to see in Florida if you choose to go looking! If you’re serious about going my tips would be go outwith term time if you can, if you need to go term time then go at Easter as the heat and humidity in the summer is intense! Put money away each month in a specific Florida account and have a serious look at your outgoings and make sure you have the best deals for utilities etc - any savings you can make go in the Florida fund. Realistically I think most people do without a holiday for a year in order to go.

We were hoping to return in 2026 to check out the new EPIC park but that will be on hold until Trump is out of office (not judging anyone else going!).

We prefer on site as we take advantage of early magic hours and also when the heat is less intense at the height of August. We don’t spend all day in the park(s) so head back to the room after lunch and chill and then head out again later in the evening. Plus saves travel time and hassle on a daily basis.

Definitely possible I’ve been quoted under £8k for 2 weeks in August holidays staying at a moderate resort and that’s with some time at the beach too. That’s for 2 adults and 2 kids.
10 days in the parks and a cruise is c 10k inc flights.

is that possible if you’re on min wage? Probably not but if you’re a relatively decent earner and can save. We can’t go every year but we can do every other year and there’s compromises you can make along the way. The years in between we do cheap holidays, like DLP and an AI in turkey. Year of well do a haven as well as our second holiday to break up the year.

you don’t need to do 2 weeks you can do 1 and get a deal with TUI for under £3.5k staying on property

Can pay less staying off property in a place like the Rosen inn that does transfers to Disney

This, except do not book through a tour operator or you can pay several 1000s more than needed.

onsite you book directly with Disney at the end of April (the year before travelling), then flights through BA in the first week of release (usually cheapest but obvs shop around)

14 nights onsite in August (don’t listen to the nonsense about the weather - it is HOT) is £4032 for a moderate room, add £523 per person for tickets to include free quick service dining plan, and 600pp for flights. This is a little higher than previous poster but she mentions time at the beach so those nights will drop the price significantly (perhaps 1k for every 4 night).

I go EVERY year, and have done even when on low income, I work to have holidays, not to go to sleep and get up again for more work. It is affordable for those without high debt and 4 figure mortgage repayments, but only if you are willing to forgo other luxuries like a second car etc

talk to me more about this.

we got 4500 for moderate and qs dining plan for 10 days. We want 3 days at the beach and then we’re speaking to a tour operator that thinks we can get those both for around 3k inc flights for 4 people but flights closer to the time

Will it let you PM me? If you send me your dates I’ll check some prices online.

I always do the last 2 weeks of August, as late as possible before the schools go back as flights get cheaper. Also the American schools are back by then so the crowds are much lower.

The 4500 was how much it is for Disney when booking direct. But in terms of flights I wouldn’t want to pay that much for them.

is there a reason you are going to the beach? I ask because it is difficult to fit in all of Disney (and universal) in a 2 week break, and with 2 Disney water parks (they’re both opening again now), volcano bay, and options like aquatica and discovery cove, and it seems like a waste of days.

I would also consider the food upgrade too. 10 nights for 4 people (ages 10 and above) it is £1200 extra, but means you get 10 table service meals so you can do character meals and nice restaurants rather than always using quick service.

We won’t be doing universal my kids are too small for the rides. We’re doing the beach because my eldest loves seashells plus we thought a nice relax for 3/4 days after 10 days on the go might be nice.

the 3k was a hotel in st Pete’s or Clearwater and the flights xx

Yeah that’s exactly what we’re doing, happy to come back a few days into sept for lower flight prices, one day of school and the inset days missed to save over 1k easy,

ill pm you