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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Disney - Realistically how much am I looking for 2 adults 1 child?

19 replies

hulahoopsilove · 07/03/2015 09:04

Looking to maybe and I mean maybe go in 2-3 years time - DS will 12/13 then - probably do hotel stay, couple of parks. Realistically how much are we talking for all in flights, hotel, parks.

I overheard a couple talking in a cafe yesterday and they were say 4 of them £15k!!!!!!

OP posts:
Hulababy · 07/03/2015 13:05

Flights are the biggest cost at the moment. Long haul flights to the US have become much dearer over recent years. In school holidays you will be looking at £1000-1500 per person for return flights.

However, we have NEVER spent £15k for the three of us to go to Disney, and we've been a few times.

At 12y your DS will be an adult when it comes to the flight, and from 10y he will be an adult for park tickets.The best value tickets are the longer duration ones. When we go to Orlando we do pretty much a fortnight of parks - we love the rides, and tbh there isn't much round that area other than the parks. Also you can generally get 14 days park entry for the same price as 7 days. For Universal and Disney- we pay around £500 per adult for the tickets I guess.

Villas are not generally very expensive. We normally pay about £500 a week - and that would be a big villa with a private pool. You'd get a condo cheaper with a shared pool. A Disney hotel would be dearer though sometimes you can get he Dining pass included as a package so can work out not too bad.

You'd need a car - but they are often reasonably priced too and cheaper than Europe - £300 for the fortnight perhaps.

So - £4000 on flights, £1500 on tickets, £1000 for villa and £300 for car - £7000 not including food.

BloodyDogHairs · 07/03/2015 15:31

Go online to get a rough idea of prices, some months are alot cheaper than others if you are doing a package holiday with Thomas Cook etc.

I have been 7 times and going this year again, I have spent nothing like £15000 on a holiday but we don't mind staying at the cheaper hotels. Parks ticket prices soon add up depending on what you plan on visiting.

plipplops · 08/03/2015 17:52

We're going in October (4 of us but sharing a family room); flights (economy out, premium economy home), car hire, staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge with Disney Dining Plan and park tickets is about £7200. You could easily spend £15K but you don't have to at all...

somewhatavoidant · 08/03/2015 18:07

Disney hotels are off the scale expensive and not worth it. I found the Hilton in Bonnet Creek at $160 a night with a 5 min shuttle bus every 20 mins to the parks. Because of your dc's age you can sure.y avoid the disney hotel/ character breakfast thing. I'd also consider self catering, literally thousands of houses for rent might work out cheaper!!

Fortysix · 08/03/2015 23:17

Everything Hulababy says.

Lordofmyflies · 09/03/2015 20:46

I would budget at least £9000. We went last summer, ( end of August) and Virgin flights were £1500 each, our hotel and tickets to disney were about £3,000 though this did include a disney dining plan and free transfers to disney parks. We still ended up paying £2,000 more for entrance to Seaworld, Busch, shopping, car hire, universal etc, so all in it cost about £9.5k.

HermioneWeasley · 09/03/2015 20:47

We are going peak season and it will be £10-11k for four of us for everything, I reckon (flights, villa, car hire, park tickets and food)

BaconAndAvocado · 10/03/2015 18:08

5 of us are going for 2 weeks this August (yay!) and it's going to cost about £12K.

It'll be our first Florida holiday so,I've booked through Thomson. Next time I might work up the courage to book everything separately and so more cheaply.

Indantherene · 10/03/2015 18:53

You can do it for much less than that.

holiday

and tickets

It's one of those how long is a piece of string questions. We always took the view that we'd rather GO, and put up with a less than ideal hotel, than insist on the best and never be able to afford it.

dixiechick1975 · 10/03/2015 19:15

Come over to thedibb.co.uk - lots of disney info for brits. I'm on as dixonsontour.

We go pretty much annually and aim for £5000 for the 3 of us all in.

Flights are the key - look at indirect for big savings. I try and pay no more than £500 each. That is school hols. Look at flying on a Monday not sat/sat flights With decent flight times you maybe take 2 hours longer than direct and clear immigration at the first city you land in.

Dont overbuy tickets we do disney or universal. A 12/13 boy may well prefer universal/I of A not disney.

Booking DIY is a lot cheaper. Travel agents are a rip off imo.

eg this October we are going to disney onsite in a deluxe hotel, with tickets and free dining booked direct with disney uk in July 2014. At xmas I booked 3 flights - use skyscanner or kyak to compare. Just need to book a car £300 (can be done without onsite but we prefer with) and shopping money.

dixiechick1975 · 10/03/2015 19:20

Virgin flights are a rip off. But they charge it because they can as many first timers people with young kids will not contemplate indirect.

dixiechick1975 · 10/03/2015 19:24

Disney free dining deal for 2016 should be released April 2015.

It can work out well if you are wanting just or mainly disney.

Disney hotel + tickets+ food and no need for a car (they even collect you at airport)

Offsite you need accomodation, food, car, parking at the parks $17 a time.

Hulababy · 11/03/2015 17:40

I have to admit that we always pay more for direct flights. I wouldn't use indirect generally - I don't want my journey taking any longer than necessary and eating into my holiday time. I also hate flying - so reducing the time in the air is key for me.

Cantdecideondinner · 12/03/2015 15:02

We are doing it in August for £5200. That's 5 indirect flights with a 3 hour stop over at JFK and a car booked as a package flying to Tampa rather than Orlando, a 4* condo in Kissimmee and park tickets. Shop around on tickets, you can save a fortune by not doing hopper and buying shorter durations if you don't use the parks every day. Obviously there will be food and spending money which will be about £1000 - £1500 max so about £6500 tops.

BrownOwlsShinyToadstool · 12/03/2015 20:15

We're going in August and have paid just over £7000 for 5 of us. That's direct flights to Orlando, park tickets and staying onsite at Disney with free qsdp.

LucasNorthsTwiglets · 13/03/2015 11:50

£1500 each for flights, LordofmyFlies?! Is that in school holiday time? We've always been in term time but have never paid more than £700 each. we will have to go in school hols in the future though and I'm terrified if those are the prices!!

Hulababy · 14/03/2015 18:02

Direct flights for school holidays are currently high. Over £1000 per person and often higher. You can get it cheaper if you book further ahead.

gillybean2 · 24/03/2015 11:32

Wow, 15k for 4 people seems a lot!

Have you considered going to California Disneyland instead?
We've been there several times, done independantly it is much cheaper, although obviously the flight is longer.

If your ds wants to do Harry Potter than you will have to go to Florida. But California also has Universal, Disneyland, California Adventure (great for older kids), Knotts berry farm (if you like massive coasters), and 6 flags.

We've also done Florida, once in my twenties and once with ds a couple of years ago. They are different, even the same rides aren't always the same at the different parks eg pirates of the caribean is California is fab, Florida is good but not the same, and Paris is rubbish compared to the others and I wouldn't go there again.

Would definitely choose California over Florida next time. Florida was hugely more expensive, the parks were heaving every day, and we did a package which left me feeling ripped off by all the 'extras' such as flight meals, luggage, and the 'free' car hire which was anything but. Won't do a package again, but I know some find that easier.

In California you get less uk tourists so the parks can be much quieter during the week. The exception being Halloween. You can get a good neighbour hotel right by the park entrance so you can easily come and go, and see the fireworks from your hotel too even. We would go early, head back for a midday sleep and go back at night as we simply had to leave the park and cross the road. We actually had a longer walk when we stayed in an official disney hotel.

If you go for a hotel be sure to book somewhere that includes breakfast as lots of places don't. Also check if they have a fridge so you can stock up on drinks and food. On the plus side they don't take the payment till you arrive so you don't have to pay months up front and it gives you more time to save up, and you can cancel up to the day before. I check BA website for flights and wait to buy them in the sale. You can easily see if going one or two days differently is cheaper on their website. Then when you have the cheapest dates check other airlines to see if their tickets are any cheaper.

Disney hotels aren't cheap and you can spend a fortune staying at those. My ds did love when we stayed at the paradise pier, but I couldn't afford it for the whole holiday so we moved there for the last 4 days (which cost the same as staying the first 10 days at the ramada inn maingate!) He agreed that next time we'd spend the money on days out rather than the hotel though.

If your budget is tight you can do it quite cheaply by shopping around and booking things independantly. But if you're only going to go the once you might want to splash out a bit more.

If budget is your main priority, then make a list of everything you need and budget each item. Insurance, flights, hotel/villa, park tickets, car hire, spending money, food over and above what you would spend at home, travel to and from airports etc. Then look at what the packages offered are and go from there.

SameAsYou · 06/04/2015 20:15

I'm just starting to look for April 2016....its a minefield! I'm like a sponge trying to take everything in. I do like the sound of California though x

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