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?

@Nevaenuf Tom Bricker just ranked Pop Century the best overall Disney Hotel!

He isn’t right though. It is cheap, super, has only a food court, doesn’t give quick service dining plan, and the only transport option is the bus. It is basically an expensive motel.

The best for budget (value vs price) is one of the moderates as they give the free qsdp. If you choose either of the port Orleans hotels you can also take a water taxi into Disney springs which is much nicer than queueing for a bus. The rooms are nicer, there are real restaurants as well as a food court, and we have found it to be much quieter

We’ve done the Disney thing, but our 100% honest opinion is that Phantasialand and EuropaPark in Germany are better on every single front. Shorter lines, better and far more reasonably priced food, better rides, far cheaper (and nice!) on-park accommodation. We like the Bell Rock hotel at Europa Park which is sort of a knock-off of the Newport Bay one at Disney.

My kids don’t like Disney because you spend so much time in lines. Europa Park has a free virtual queue system. Disney, of course, makes you pay dearly for that kind of feature.

Mack (the company that owns Europa Park) actually is a ride maker, and they sell their roller coasters to Disney and other companies if they are successful in their own parks. You could take, say, 3 days to do a Europa Park visit complete with a day or evening in Rulantica, and then from there go on to spend a few days hiking in the Swiss Alps. Far nicer than Florida, which is hot and flat and muggier than the devil’s armpit.

All of this is true but I won't make a difference because it doesn't have the back story and character/film engagement that WDW and UOS have. That will always be the pull.

We went to DLP and loved it but it's the kind of holiday I wanted to do once and done. I had a quick look a few years ago and Orlando was out of reach for us cost wise and tbh if I could I'd prefer to go to Tokyo. There are ways to get the cost down but in my view this is a holiday you need to plan. I joined Facebook groups a year before we booked to learn things like when tickets get released, whether magic hour was worth it, get a balanced view of staying onsite vs not. If you want to do it op then prepare to save even if that means no holiday abroad for a year or even a few, join the Facebook groups and do your research.

We've just been to Disney for 9 days plus 3 at the coast. Stayed on site sauna moderate. Total cost including spends c. £13k. If we hadn't done the 3 days at coast I am guessing we would have spent £11k. We did not have a dining plan and ate at a number of nicer restaurants worth pointing out that food was significantly cheaper than anticipated - probably because it is so expensive here now! Yes we could have done it cheaper but viewed it as a "one and done" as they say on the Disney forums.

I have looked several times and seen deals to cheap hotel on International Drive including one for £600pp last Feb half term with TUI including flights and basic hotel. So whilst your park tickets are always going to be expensive and annoying that you have to buy a 14 for the price of 7 (why not just make a 7 cheaper!) there are still cheaper ways to do it.

That should say "at a moderate" not at a sauna! FFS

Pop has the Skyliner to Epcot and Hollywood Studios so you don’t need a bus to get to those parks. There are multiple hotels on the Skyliner route with good table service restaurants so it gives you multiple dining options.

Only one of the Port Orleans resorts has a table service restaurant and it isn’t very good.

Yes, if the characters and Disney-specific theming are the primary pull and nothing else will do, then that makes sense. We found however that our kids were not that into the characters in the parks when we got there because they could immediately tell they were just random actors dressed up in costumes. 🤷‍♀️ They weren’t bothered about Disney-specific theming either beyond a passing interest… they were just as happy with the (arguably better done) theming of the German ones. The one exception to that for us was the Harry Potter world over at Universal, which they loved for the theming, but again they found the rides disappointing compared to what they were used to at Phantasialand and Europa Park. We also got sick on a lot of the newer rides because they use so much VR.

IMO the best part of Disney is the evening fireworks/drone shows with music etc. That is truly magical for kids and I’ve not experienced in other parks. Is it worth paying an extra 10-15k? Debatable.

We actually find the whole ‘Disney adult’ culture a bit weird. I do get it though if people have a small kid who desperately wants to meet Cinderella in her castle or something.

A couple of points. I actually checked the Europa prices and found that the park tickets would be more than the equivalent WDW 14 day passes (per day). So that was disappointing. No annual passes were available. Hotels weren't especially cheap either. I've done this exercise before and found that going to Florida was cheaper (per day) than DLP if priced for 14 days.

Agree about the Disney culture being weird. I kind of overlook it and just bundle WDW and USO together. The firework shows are ok but they ruined Epcot when they removed Illuminations and replaced it with oil rigs on the lake!

We are a normal family and used to go most years. It is much more expensive now and the USA is very different too. Setting aside the discussion of whether a trip to Trump's America is a a wise thing to do with children I imagine much of what we learned still applies.
There were a few tips to make it cheaper. Research is key.
Choose your departure airport and airline carefully. Prices can vary by hundreds of pounds.
We used to go in the October holidays (Scotland) and if you go a couple of days before the school term ends or come back a couple of days later it was much cheaper. September is the cheapest month but I couldn't justify taking them out of school for more than a couple of days.
What made Florida so expensive was the park tickets. My children were not impressed by Disney but loved Universal. You know what your children like so choose your park tickets carefully. You can get multi-day/ multi park tickets. They are still really expensive but cheaper than day tickets per day. You buy them in the UK.
We always stayed in a villa and hired a car. We ate out in the evenings but everything else was self catered. The villa was much cheaper than hotels as there were 6 of us. The space, private pool and games area with pool table etc made It easier to deal with the different needs of everyone (and stopped any fighting). It also gave us more freedom to do and see other things.

@XVGN Ah, see, maybe this is where the calculations differ because we never go to parks for more than a few days. Europa is easily doable in 2 days with maybe an extra day for Rulantica. I guess maybe you can get through it faster because you spend less of your time in lines. A two week holiday to Florida or California would make more sense because of the flights, but personally I feel a 14 day trip for just the parks is too much. When we did Disney we did a few park days and then moved on to other stuff.

We are currently saving to go to Orlando and it will probably be another four years until we end up going. We do one holiday a year on top of that, usually staying with my parents in Europe so we don’t pay for accommodation.

we joked the other day that by the time we will be able to go, Universal studios in Bedford will be finished and we might as well go there!

Yep, it's a toughie. I priced up Europa - Hotel and Park Tickets for 4 nights end of Aug in the cheapest of their hotels and it was 2900 EUR for 2 Adults and 2 Children (b/fast included!). That's without transport costs and other meals. I just find it difficult to stomach that kind of daily rate. I guess the best option would be to make a 1 day trip to see if the 4 day holiday would be worth it.

Toverland in the Netherlands is also great!

I honestly think even one day would be enough to get through a fair bit, though be forewarned, August is their absolute busiest month, so lines may be long and hot regardless of where you go at that time of year. If you stay in the hotels you do get early entry which is worth it for the popular rides. We have never been for more than one day at a time and we always go when the German and French schools are still in session. Have a look at Phantasialand too, their hotels include 2 days of park tickets (which I think would be enough). Phantasialand often runs deals where they sell tickets for 25 euro apiece. I actually think they have the best roller coasters of any of the parks, if you’re into that sort of thing. We went on a random (non-school holidays) Friday in early December for their holiday theming on the cheap tickets one year, and it was an absolute blast. We paid 100 eur for 5 of us and it was a fantastic day.

It is still just a motel, or a travelodge at best. And by the time you start paying OOP for dining you are back to having paid out the same money as if you stayed at a moderate, but with far less comfort. And with regard to restaurants, I’m not saying it is great quality (I don’t eat there) but I’m saying at least there is choice, something not afforded at the lower end of the scale.

Please don’t tell people that Pop is the ‘best’ without context. it may be best for people with small children, or those on a tight budget who won’t eat at parks, even good for transport to 2 of the parks for those who don’t get a car (I do), but it is still just a motel, long journey times on buses to some parks, and not accessible by water taxi to Disney springs which is where you can end up doing half of your table service. But when you look at value/quality/experience, the value resorts (particularly riverside) are far superior.

I’ve not got enough money to book Grand Floridian (fingers crossed one day) so instead I still just reminisce about the days we could book OKW more than 11m out so we could get it on the free DDP. The amount of space there was incredible and the area was amazing.

Pop has the skylines and bus