I will be honest, it can be a very expensive holiday and I'm well aware that a lot of people will go once and that's it. But my girls and I absolutely love it there, I don't spend money on much else, don't smoke or drink, don't go out a lot throughout the year, don't have expensive hobbies etc, I work from home so my car costs are low (no parking and low fuel costs over the year). So for me it is worth it.
We went in November, stayed at one of the moderate level Disney resorts and also 1 night in a Universal hotel. Had Universal park tickets, Epic Universe tickets, obviously the Disney park tickets, Disney Dining Plan.
For 3 of us I paid around £2500 for flights with Virgin, Disney hotel, tickets and dining plan was just under £5k, Universal tickets for the original parks and Epic Universe and hotel for 1 night was £2258. Christmas party tickets came to around £500. This was for 10 days in November.
Then we took around £4000 spending money. I'll be honest, it sounds a lot for 10 days, considering we had the meal plan so already had most food paid for, but by the last few days of the holiday I was panicking a bit that I was going to run out of money! I spent more than I expected on things like Ubers to off Disney places, meals that weren't included on our meal plan and then a few gifts & souvenirs.
There are cheaper resorts on Disney, hotels off Disney are even cheaper again and you can save money in other ways, don't go to the Universal parks (or don't go to Disney, depending on personal choice), eat out less if you stay in accommodation that has cooking facilities etc. For me, cooking on holiday is a no because I hate cooking anyway, so definitely don't want to be cooking on holiday 😂. We did go to Walmart on our first day and spent about $200 on things like cookie packs, snack size Pringles tubes, bottles of water, coke and juice, plus a few other bits. That way we didn't have to spend money or meal plan credits on those items while we were in the parks.