How the holy crap do normal people afford Disneyworld?!?

[BeanCalledPickle]

I promised the kids a trip to Disneyworld before the end of primary. They will be 10 and 8. I’m not adverse to missing a week or so of school. I can cope with about 10k. Started to have a look and am horrified! Flights from london at least 2.5k, probs more like 3k. Park tickets 2k for 7 days (only seems to offer me 14 days for price of 7). Non Disney hotel but still decent resort style hotel relatively local. Another 2k min but probs more like 3k. And then I assume about 250 quid a day spending money which is 3k for a just under two week holiday. So that’s 11k. That seems like a truly huge amount of money. I used to see threads saying you could do it for 7k. What am I missing??

No idea, we did universal and booked flights, hotels and tickets separately, that was the cheapest way for us and we’re only a family of 4

Prices have gone up massively - years of lent up demand and 50th anniversary celebrations. Going off peak and outside school holidays will help reduce flight costs.

We always got a house off site with our own pool! We had meals at home some days which save money

also took snacks and packed lunches it’s us to the parks so didn’t need to spend too much while there!!

Avoid school holidays is the way to get it down.
tag a week on to a school holiday - like January or February.
Buy the passes for parks in the Black Friday sale - look at crowne plaza international drive.

Do you need to do a park every day? We've been to Florida three times, although my kids were older, and somedays we'd stay by the pool then go to the malls in the afternoon. Come back, get showered and go out for dinner

Rather than 2 weeks in a hotel what about a week in a hotel and a week in a villa off site?

Theres a FB group called ‘Disneyworld Florida for Brits’ lots of deals and best way to book etc.

You don't need to spend that much on accommodation, get a villa or just stay at a nearby holiday Inn Hotel (good little sc apartments with nice water play in pool area, you will be out at parks so no need to get the expensive fancy resort hotel. You could skip car hire if you stay close to disney and get buses from your hotel or uber it. Take your own food and drink to parks. Eat at home and in diners etc to reduce your meal costs.

My friend and I both going in May. Both families of 4, separate trips.

Her trip:
£6000 flights car hire and villa
£2800 universal and sea world pass
Plans to eat picnic lunches at parks, has bought a chiller backpack, will eat out a bit but lots at home.
Need money for petrol parking and souvenirs
Her top budget is £10000

My trip is more expensive, the accommodation is for a big group and I've not paid for it (family are chipping in) so not much point telling you costs but we will probably also drop £10k but thats becaise we are not covering accommodation or all of our meals. We are doing VIP days etc to get the most from our trip and are doing disney and universal. You could be paying less to do just disney with your dc's ages.

I've just priced a Virgin holiday flying from Heathrow staying on Disney. 10 nights, park tickets for 7 days. Transfers to and from airport included. Total was 6527 for 2 adults and 2 children. Flying in May next year. You won't need that much spending money each day if you're careful. No car included and only Disney parks, no universal.

We've just come back after a week doing universal and cape Kennedy. Mixed it up with some visits to family. It's was extortionate.

Definitely get a villa or a villa resort.

We fly from Dublin, much cheaper for us than Manchester. Look outside UK, some do boomerang flights where you fly into Europe or do non-direct flights which make the travel longer but possibly cheaper. We do Dublin as we clear customs and immigration in Dublin so land in Florida, collect cases and leave the airport. However, the downside is the flight is at 3pm rather than the 10am or 11am for the UK ones. We land at 8pm ish but the 5 hour time difference means it is 1am UK time. It depends on how well your children would cope.

Play around with different days flight wise plus do a non-even 14 days, we have done 16 before now to get cheaper flights. We use Skyscanner to compare costs.

We do stay onsite but when we transfer between Universal and Disney we use Uber, no car hire. Plus if we go anywhere else we use Uber. If you are not already on The Dibb forum go on there. Lots of people post their trip reports which show their cost breakdowns.

Everything has increased in price, we usually do Disney with free dining which saves us around £1.5k so no food costs to consider.

Disney is 1 day
universal is much better

Paris and have a decent summer holiday with a bit of culture!

We afforded it, and probably only went, because our kids one year had an Easter break at a different time to everyone else because they were both at a Jewish school at the time and Passover (when the school has to be shut) fell on a totally different week for once so we were able to go off peak just before Passover came in. We stayed in Davy Crockett Lodges, which were also less expensive (and allowed us to do a bit of self catering to save money on the insane food costs). You're not supposed to bring food into the park, but we weren't the only ones doing it!

I like the sound of villas. Which websites do you use for them?

Honestly - we blew some of our inheritance. However...
Worth looking at somewhere like Meliá Orlando or another resort hotel. Very close to parks and pool etc but you can also self cater.
Buffets such as Sizzler or golden corral good for one big meal a day and reasonably priced.
Beware that parking is also $20 + per day at the parks too.

There is a great Facebook page called Orlando DIY, the people on it have great advice and tips to get your costs down.

Are you checking flights straight to Orlando? When we went (a whopping 10 years ago!) it worked out much cheaper to fly to Miami and drive the rest of the way, although we already drove on the right side of the road so the only difference was driving an automatic for the first time. Having a car also enabled us to go to Walmart, etc and stock up on sandwitches so we didn't rely on pricy meals inside the parks.
Plus, if the flight went to Miami, you could enjoy the cheaper Outlets and not necessarily spend all 14 days in Orlando, potentially saving some more.

I’d recommend looking at the DIBB website. It’s really great for all things Disney from a British perspective.

We’re off to Orlando in June. We booked it in 2019 and have had to cancel it twice but got flights and car hire for approx £2,600 on British Airways for 2 adults and 2 kids. I checked the same flights and car hire the other day and it had gone up by over £1,300. I’m assuming the price of fuel has driven the costs up massively.

This will be our 3rd time to go and we always book flights literally the second they are released. We got a villa this year on VRBO for £1,300 approx (I’m in Ireland so trying to convert from euros). I reckon our two weeks will cost around £9k including spending money but we’ve been saving for the past two years for it.

It really does require lots of research and dedication to get the best deals though, so any of the forums or just checking the airlines and different ways of getting there, package deals, car hire deals, dining plans etc will help. Spreadsheets are your friend here!

It is not a cheap holiday no doubt about it, but it is fabulous. If I could afford it, I would go every year!

OP imo £10k is a good an excellent budget for a typical all inc beach type holiday. £10k does not go far in Florida as you have to consider accommodation, food, park tickets, car hire.

I would have loved to take my dc to Florida but unfortunately we do not have £10k to £12k spare to spend on anything let alone a holiday.

We’ve been a few times and just go when i can get a good deal. This year I’ve booked a week with BA staying at Universal including park tickets and direct flights for 2 adults for £3800 in school holidays.

We did a long weekend in Disney Paris in off season, half board - we ate at McDonalds for lunch to keep the cost down. It was brilliant - no queues anywhere, all the Christmas decs still up (went very early Jan) and it cost very little. DC still remember it 15 years later. No jet lag, long haul flights etc. Would you consider doing that instead? Inclusive of flights, half board and 4-day passes for a family of four, it would cost around £2500 for that holiday next Jan.

It’s actually significantly cheaper to go to
LA. Maybe we will do that instead!

We’ve just got back from Florida - it is expensive, everything has gone up.
Villas are cheaper - own pool, can self cater, but usually need a car which is expensive and petrol has gone up too. You also pay about $25 a day to park at WDW.
Hotels can be pricey (and disappointing), but on site you can get great benefits - early entry, early access to booking rides, xpress pass ( you need to research this stuff carefully).
You can spend huge amount in the parks, e.g. a Mickey ice cream bar is $6 in WDW - you can buy a box of six for $7 in Target supermarket. We paid $67 for four burgers and fries and two sodas in Universal!
BUT, you do need to make sure that you budget for some of the stuff in the parks, You can take your own food in (check the rules!) but you will be bombarded with food, drink and merchandise - imho you need to be able to say ‘yes’ at some point.
Have a look at preferred partner hotels - near the parks, not on site, but with same benefits.
At present I don’t think the Disney dining plan is back so food can be really expensive. Portions are huge , so can be shared (really huge, not mumsnet chicken huge), and anyone can order a kids meal.