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?

I don’t think people can really compare a full on Disney Florida holiday with a week in Greece. They are totally different types of holidays. I would get bored shitless on a beach for 2 weeks. I think I’d die of knackered-ness on a hiking holiday. You either like these sort of things or you don’t. I know someone who books 2 weeks every year walking in the Peak District. They obviously enjoy it. Good for them! I wouldn’t tell them to try a week in Greece instead as it’ll be better!

As others have said here people get really weird and snooty about people who enjoy Disney holidays. Beach or camping holidays (or pretty much any other type of holiday) are often thought of as “better”. And God forbid you’re like my husband and I who don’t have children and love Disney!! (we could actually have had about 4 more Disney holidays on the amount we spent on fertility treatments over the years). But we are now childless not by choice and too old for it to work now so instead we save for 3 years and go to Disney in Florida. We don’t have holidays for those 3 years. It’s our choice. We enjoy it. Us enjoying it doesn’t mean we think everyone else should. In fact, if you don’t we’d rather you stay away so there’s less people there!

We’re going next year. 2 weeks at Disney and 1 at Universal. We’ve been planning it for the last 2 years. Cannot wait. Staying on property. Each day planned and which park etc. It’s how we enjoy it. Others would hate it. I get that! But I just don’t think others should think less of people who do enjoy it.

I have a work colleague who went to Florida Disney last summer with her kids. I didn't know until after she’d been. I was talking to her about it and I was asking about things she did. She didn’t seem to have enjoyed it much and felt it was a waste of money. I asked about certain rides, she kept saying no she didn’t do that and didn’t remember seeing them. This happened a few times, it turns out she only went to magic kingdom. In the entire two weeks they only went to magic kingdom or stayed at the hotel pool. She said she didn’t realise Hollywood Studios, Epcot or Animal Kingdom had rides or was worth visiting. She thought magic kingdom was “Disney” and it sounds like she thought the other parks were either something else or was maybe Universal (at first she kept saying she didn’t do universal when I asked about the other parks ). So she didn’t do any research and didn’t really know what she was going to. It’s also why I don’t really understand people who say they went to “Disney” for a day and say that was enough and judge others for happily staying for weeks. I’m sure if I was to say I did Greece for a day and that was enough they’d tell me there’s much more to it than that! And rightly so!

As I said I get it if you hate theme parks and crowds and the “fakeness” of Disney. It’s not your thing. Absolutely fine. But for others it is and totally worth it. Others would buy a handbag or shoes for 2k. My handbag is £15 from Amazon and about 2 years old. Everyone spends their money differently and no one should be judged for it.

It’s all about priorities too. We could stretch ourselves and live in a large house but instead we live in a small house, just big enough for our needs. We only buy clothes as needed, rather than buying fashion for fun. We don’t redecorate every couple of years to change colour scheme, only doing so every 10 years or so when it’s needed, we don’t do weekends away during the year other than to visit family. A car to us is for getting from a to b - we don’t care what brand, what it looks like or how new it is (and I don’t drive so there’s only one in the house).

All these things probably make people assume we put our DisneyWorld holiday on a credit card, as posters above are presuming people do (I can imagine the “how can they afford it when they live in a small house and have a terrible car!”) but that was not the case for us!

Our DC absolutely loved it - they had said they’d love to go, as a couple of friends had been, and it lived up to expectations (and more!) for them!

And I agree that you need to do lots of research! I spent hours researching, writing notes for each park etc! We needed 3 days minimum in each park to do everything that we wanted to do. People say animal kingdom is a half day park - how?! Unless you have no interest in animals! Animal kingdom was our second favourite park, after Epcot!

We couldn’t do Florida etc and we earn well.

We did four days in Disneyland Paris last year staying at one of the Disney hotels. It was a big treat as we’d stopped paying for childcare (bar after school club) and DS hadn’t had many holidays. It was a one off, worth it, but a lot of money.

Maybe we’ll go back in 5-7 years when DC2 (on the way) is old enough, but doubt we’ll ever go to Florida. With saving for the DC, a huge mortgage, our own pensions to save into and another three years of nursery fees looming big holidays aren’t a thing for our family- not for years anyway. Too many other places that money has to go, and you can only cut your cloth so many ways.

@Yetegs try phantasialand. It's amazing for theming. Wipes the floor with anything uk based and in my opinion is better than Disney. Easy to get to with public transport too.

Has brill shows that mix up the languages so you get it in English too. And for a massive immersive treat book Charles Lindbergh hotel.

We are doing Tokyo Disney this year, one day at each park, we are visiting family and flying via Tokyo was a good price. They've just switched to the dynamic pricing model, but on the cheapest days tickets are £44/£37/£27, those prices are adult, child 12+ and a child < 12. It's only marginally more £5-£10/person on the most expensive days. Queues are long though, I imagine we will be spending money on some fast passes. Aside from the parks I'd rather spend time and money in Japan than the US! I lived in Japan for a while, it's a great place.

The whole of 'Greece' is rubbish😂. Where did you go?

@Yetegs totally agree with your post.
For people who go just because they think it’s something to tick off, if you don’t do a lot of research in advance I can totally see how it would be overwhelming and confusing when you get there, and it would be easy to miss a lot of stuff.
We did a lot of research and planning and because of that had a really easy time when we were there, had a great experience and we all loved it (went in a big group with other families so not just speaking from our own experience).
There are loads of ways to minimise wait times, make your money go further when you’re in the parks etc but if you rock up with no pre-planning I can see how it would be awful.

This is always the answer, isn't it?

Perhaps they are driving an old banger of a car rather than splurging £400 each month on a lease. Perhaps they cut their own hair and never spend on botox, fillers, facials, nails and pricey make-up. Perhaps they give up having nights out drinking.

Everyone spends money in different ways.

I really enjoyed Paris and California Disney. I tagged California onto a cruise holiday for my 40th and it was a relatively inexpensive way to get the Disney fix in case we didn’t make it to Florida. Plus I wasn’t sure if I could handle a whole holiday based around parks. We had Merlin passes at the time so were often at UK theme parks.
We did end up going to Florida Disney/Universal Studios etc after GCSE’s/A levels for a week before another cruise. I didn’t get the magic of why it would be so good as a two week holiday. I’m pleased my DC enjoyed the parks but for our family it never makes out top 10 list when we talk about our holidays.

But a week would be nowhere near enough time to do Disney and Universal, and get the full experience. Disney has 4 parks alone, which need more than one day each, never mind the water parks! See the research posts above - I think it makes a difference.

If you're self-catering then just have your dinner at lunch time. Do non-park stuff in the morning. Head out to the parks in the afternoon. Avoid all Disney trash food and drink!

The park tickets are actually pretty cheap - around £40 each a day.

I think my family are just more into other stuff, China was my DC’s favourite holiday.

We’ve been to China too (and Greece 😂) but it’s a totally different holiday. Older teens might prefer it, but I struggle to believe younger ones would!

That's the plan. It doesn't work out bad value but my point is adding another £2.5k onto a holiday is what really makes it lot more expensive than a different type of holiday.

Taken ours twice and will take them again next year. It’s all about choices and where you want to save. We don’t do takeaways or eat out much. We do focus on holiday savings and eat out then! There are always deals to be had. Saved lots last time when we got flights and park tickets separately and saw other parts of the US too. Cost about the same as friends who just did Disney. Nothing is impossible!

In my opinion Disney is worth every penny, and something every kid should be able to experience at some point in their childhood. Obviously they can't because it's expensive and many families can't afford it.

It's a truly magical place. We've been three times and going again this summer. Nothing compares.
We've been to Greece several times and you can't even compare. Completely different kind of holiday, it's crowded, you need to plan well, but if you do it right, it's magical.

I doubt it to be honest. The vast majority of visitors to Disney in the USA are other Americans.

We love it and go each year. We pay around £10k for 4 of us. It would be much cheaper outside of school holidays, but I’m a teacher. I’d go while she’s young enough to be taken out of school without it impacting GCSEs.

We had Orlando booked when Covid hit, DD would have been 12 then. It was eye watering for one week (May half term) but we decided to save and managed with Virgin air miles.

We obviously never went and by the time we were happy to plan again DD wasn't keen anymore.

I have lots of colleagues who have children and we earn decent money. I know of a handful who have been to Florida. Most of them combined Disney with a general holiday, either in Florida or did a second location with a domestic flight.

We then spent the money plus other savings on a 2 weeks US holiday as DD's 16th birthday/my 50th birthday present far away from Florida in New York and Boston.

I do get annoyed at the “we did Florida for £3k” type comments I see, that’ll be such a strip backed version and rarely includes everything, so it’s disingenuous. There’s just no way of getting the theme park tickets down.

We had it booked during Covid with an £8,000 budget for 4 people (on site universal and Disney so not trying to do on a shoe string) when we rebooked post Covid but the same month it was £12,000 (this includes everything, food too) and was not like for like as the dining package was dropped back then so no moderate hotel, only value.

Our household income when we first booked was around £60/65k I think, but outgoings weren’t too high. By the time we came to rebook our income was much higher, but so were our outgoings (new mortgage), but it was something that was always on our parental bucket list.

No regrets, it’s such a special holiday, my parents did it for us despite being very modest earners. We hope to go again when they’re teens, but will try to do cheaper with a villa style holiday, it’ll still cost close to £10k though I’m sure.

I’ve done a Disney/Universal Florida holiday and wouldn’t go again, it’s all so false. But we went for the kids, I’m glad we did it when I had the energy, and glad they had the experience.
Theres a place in southern Spain that has a big park with rides, how about that instead?

Just to clarify, I didn't mean that all Disney food is trash - just the brown and garishly coloured stuff!

Going to WDW can be affordable. Disney have budget hotels and you can book a package with 14 day parking tickets.

But most people don’t just want to go to Disney, they want to do the other theme parks, day trips, etc. That’s where the costs add up.

We’re lucky we just like Disney so it can be more affordable for us.

Of course it’s all false. You know Mickey Mouse isn’t real right?