Disney Florida - how much we talking??

[Bashitcrazy]

So my husband and I would really love to take our kid to Florida. We went with family in 2013 as a surprise family holiday so I have no idea about how much these things cost.
It would be 2 adults, 1 3 yr old and 1 just under 2. And probably around October time.
We were thinking of booking a Disney holiday as a package

There’s a website called The Dibb www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/ I used it before our trip and found it invaluable. Loads of practical advice and tips.

I can’t really respond to cost as we stayed on the gulf coast and then a few days in universal so a different holiday to what you’re looking at.

Depends how you do it and what you include. Staying on International Drive in a hotel with free transport to the parks and eating at the breakast diners can be reasonable.

At the other extreme staying on site at a Disney property you are talking
£££££.

We are going in August for just over a week, Disney moderate resort and dining plan £5.5k. We went 2 years ago for less than 1/2 that by staying offsite and buying tickets from Undercover Tourist.

It really is down to your budget and your plans.

We are also going in August but for two weeks, staying at a Disney Value on-site hotel but we are also spending two nights at Universals Royal Pacific moderate. We have the quick dining plan and have hired a car for the whole duration and its costing us around £9000. That price also includes us flying premium economy mind. I must admit though I'd rather go at a cheaper time of year than the summer holidays but our son is in his GCSE years and we have no choice. As many have said, best to shop around. We bought our package from TUI although we did find Thomas Cook a little cheaper, reason we went with TUI was for the dreamliner plane.

We were £650 pp last October holidays, Glasgow-gatwick-orlando and booked a package through British Airways. Took a lot of time and research to get it so cheap though! We had hotel and car hire included in that cost and bought our tickets from attraction tickets direct separately. There is a Facebook group called "it's Orlando time" which is really helpful. Think we could do it cheaper next time by booking a villa rather than a serviced apartment!

We are hoping to go for the first time in May next year. We have budgeted £3000 for flights and accommodation, £3000 for park tickets and about the same for spends. Can't decide whether to get a villa or hotel at the minute

We are going in October.

3 adults as now DS who is 10 is classed as an adult.

Flights £1240 with BA.

10 nights at SSR which is an on site deluxe property with free dining plan £2400. Also included is free memory maker and $100 gift card.

Tickets are just over £1000.

Universal hotel is offsite and costs £55 a night for 5 nights. Universal tickets are just over £700.

Add spending money.

October is quite expensive because it’s school holidays. If you and go in November you should get better deals. Free dining for 2019 holidays is due out next month. Basically try and stay away from school holiday times.

You need to work out if you want to stay onsite or off site in the first instance.

Play around with dates on the website and get a costing then consider 2019 when the deals come out next month.

We are going in 9 days!!! Two adults, two children, staying offsite with hire car in a villa, travelling premium economy. £8k for the holiday, £2k for 14 day tickets to Disney and Universal. More for spending. Easter is one of the most expensive times to go but Spring weather in Florida is perfect.

If you're aiming for October then definitely aim for the beginning of the month. I was pricing it up & the prices almost tripled for the end of the month, I thought it was due to half term but apparently due to Halloween & Americans go mad for it!!

I think it a £10k holiday

It depends on how much you want to spend / what sort of holiday you want to have.

For the four of you, going at the beginning of October, you could do it all in for around £4500 for two weeks, including flights, off site hotel with breakfast, spending money if you keep meals simple/have occasional takeaways, and Disney park tickets.

However, if you want stay at a Disney hotel, eat out at Disney themed restaurants, do a lot of shopping, have lunch in the parks etc, then the total price will be much higher.

You can considerably cut your costs if you stay offsite. Check out Lake Buena Vista Resort and suites. And also, if you take your own food into the parks - most of the food in the parks is fast food anyway and the queues can be long.

These are our costs for October this year for two adults, ten yr old (who Disney charge as an adult for dining plan) and a soon to be three yr old.
Fights from Glasgow return £1600
3 nights in a hotel in Clearwater £440
12 night in a Disney Moderate resort inc QS dining plan and park tickets £3900
Spending money free $250 to spend in Disney , came with hotel booking, £1500 other spending money.

We aren’t big clothes shoppers although will probably spend around £100 each on bits. Most of our food is included on the dining plan and in Clearwater we are meeting up with my brothers family who live there so mostly meals at their house and hanging out at their pool/beach so not too spendy.

We plan to get Uber’s rather than hire a car. So around £7500 for a 15 night holiday.

Last time we stayed on International Drive and did it a lot cheaper but we didn’t like staying off property and I thought the deal we got from Disney was pretty good once I weighed up the free dining and transport included.

We’re going for 2 weeks in Oct (inc one week of half term), two adults and two kids tho DS is ten so proved as an adult. One week on site inc dining plan, 2 weeks of park tickets, one week in a villa with pool, flights with BA and one week of car hire comes to just over £6k. Package prices looked much higher when I was pricing up.

Can’t believe how cheap some people have got it for. We have just booked for October next year, 2 weeks which overlaps the School half term. There’s 2 kids and 6 adults and it’s cost £14,000. That includes Virgin flights, park tickets to Disney, sea world and universal, Villa at The Retreat at Championsgate and two hire cars.
We could have done it cheaper by changing accommodation, cars etc but we wanted to go all out as it’s a special family celebration.
I have no idea how much spending money to take. We have no dining plan with being in a villa. We usually spend £2K on a fortnight in Menorca self catering. We want to do some shopping whilst we are there as well, how much is a realistic amount?
I had the figure £5k in my head but looking at these posts that makes me think I’m being ridiculous

Daft question but I have no experience of Disney.

Single mum here and thinking of taking my two next year.

None of us are particularly bothered about rides. And I can’t beer fast ones etc. Is Disney worth going to if you don’t like rides?

Highhorse - it depends what you mean by rides. there are quite a few really gentle ones which you might enjoy. there are also plenty of shows and night time parades and fireworks. I have heard friends who thought they wouldn't like the rides come back and say how much they enjoyed them. I would go on the main Disney website have a look and see if its for you. you could also go to Disneyland paris first for a weekend and see what you think. the American is similar only on a much, much larger scale.

Disney is absolutely worth it if you don't like the rides. It's mostly gentle rides anyway and lots of awesome shows.

In reply to the OP, our Disney holidays always cost £15k+ but we do go all out, deluxe universal hotel, followed by deluxe Disney hotel, followed by 5* resort off site for a 3 week break. I'm aware it can be done much cheaper with flights with a connection and perhaps a villa. The tickets are always horrendously expensive though.

Florida spending - family of 3 I always budget for about £1,000 per week (that's including all meals etc).

Staying in a villa I budget $200/day for a family of 4 plus souvenirs. Meals, snacks, parking, petrol.

highhorse lots of options at Disney that aren’t thrill rides. The atmosphere, themeing a shows are fantastic. Equally if you really don’t like rides at all but want the Disney experience then the Disney cruises are fantastic.

I've priced it for a family of 6 for Easter next year and we would be looking at £16000 including spending money. We've decided to wait until 2020 when our youngest will be nearly 4 instead and will enjoy it more. We've said it's a holiday we will only do once but everyone we know who has been has said once you've been you will want to go again. OH has already said not at those prices we won't be !!

As your DC are both pre-schoolers definitely go when British DC are at school, as this will cut down the price of your flights and/or package quite considerably.

Disney/FL is an expensive trip, there is no getting around that, and a big chunk of that is park tickets. However, with two such little DC you'll no doubt stick to the Disney parks and you can get 14-day tickets that cost the same as 3-day tickets, so that reduces the per-day rate considerably. You'll want direct flights though, I'm guessing and these can be expensive, but look at a range of dates, find out when US kids are off school, avoid high summer (it's very hot and humid), Easter, Christmas and Halloween, and look at all the different accommodation options.

We've never enjoyed all being in one hotel room, so we tend to get an apartment somewhere with 2 bedrooms, and we found somewhere that was about $100 a night. Grocery shopping and eating out in America is cheap compared to here, so if you SC a bit and take snacks and bottles of squash into the parks (and refill at water fountains), you can save a lot of money that way.

I think it’s an expensive holiday when your kids are that age. They’re still a bit young to appreciate the “specialness” of Disney and would probably enjoy something nearer to home (and cheaper) just as much. I would wait until they are a bit older so that they can participate in more things and enjoy it more (obviously this doesn’t apply if you can afford to take them on multiple occasions).

I agree - they won't remember it. We took our two when DS1 was 7 and DS2 was 4. DS1 remembers it, DS2 doesn't. Personally, and having been to both (and written MN travel reviews for both), I'd take them to Disneyland Paris at this age and save yourselves a shitload of money. It's not cheap going there either, but it's a lot cheaper than flying all the way to FL.