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??

We have been twice, pre covid. £12k and 15k so prices had increased before - also the last time we went was 2013 so I would expect if we did it again to be closer to 20k. 2 adults, 3 kids BUT we upgraded villa, upgraded the car, ate out most nights and lunch, had park tickets to cover the full fortnight so we could choose on the day depending how we felt what we were doing.
it can be as expensive or as cheap as your budget allows.
kids are now young adults and a 2 week all inclusive in Kos for DH and I is over 6k for the last 2 weeks of September this year. Holidays are expensive! Hope it’s worth it as I’ve never done all inclusive before!

We found it easier to book a British Airways fly drive holiday in the January sales, then buy tickets (Florida tix) and accommodation separately.
It may also be cheaper to not fly direct.

Most people don't. I get that you've promised them OP, but to be honest I'd be sitting them down and explaining that you've now looked into the costs and it's just not affordable for your family. And then plan a great holiday either to Eurodisney if Disney is essential for you, or somewhere cheaper overseas if it's the sun which is more important,

As long as it isn't a regular occurrence it's good for our DCs to learn that sometimes, even if something is promised, circumstances change and it's not always possible to follow through on a promise and then avoid using the word promise again over major plans

it can be as expensive or as cheap as your budget allows.

This is key (for all holidays and a lot of other things). It should never be driven by anything other than how much you can afford to pay.

All my holiday planning is based on that - work out how much you have and then adapt the holiday around it

I saw on an Orlando group that over a 14 night holiday they had spent £700 on ubers so cheaper than car hiring

Also dont assume actually that non resort hotels are cheaper - All Stars Music is actually a fairly cheap motel style resort hotel that comes with all the free travel aspects.

Universal Surfside Resorts are apartments that are good value for money as well

You should with some shopping around get that kind of price - British Airways over October half term (not sure if you have two weeks or could take time out) has 10 days flying out from Gatwick and back via Miami to Heathrow from 2.5k for flights and hotel

Disney cheap is 3.6, mid range 4.6

The Swan is 5k for 10 days for 4 - which is an amazingly located hotel for Disney - wouldnt need a car at all and could walk to Epcot and Hollywood Studios but does have a resort fee

Universal Surfside is 3k

October is a good time to go I have to say - consistently the cheapest I have found if you go outside of the week

This!
Would the kids be equally happy with a weekend at Disneyland Paris?

Test

Normal people can’t afford it, that’s why most never go!
My children are desperate to go but that’s 5 years holiday budget for us!

Op what time of year are you looking at?

Look at indirect flights, they are usually a fair bit cheaper
Park tickets not much you can do about that.
Accommodation, look on trivago, they have hotels on Idrive for universal or near buena vista for Disney for £700 for 2 weeks next Easter, some of them even include breakfast. Think of the hotel as just somewhere you will sleep.
Take your own lunch and snack into the parks plus refillable water bottles, this will save a fortune.
Plenty of cheap restaurants around off site in the evenings, if you do it carefully you do t need to spend anywhere near £250 a day on that.
Ubers are really cheap compared to car hire and parking.

Second going on the dibb, there are great resources there to help get the price down.

We've done it very inexpensively but I wouldn't go now as they have changed the business model and removed a lot of the cheap ways round things. We have never done more than 1 day in a park, we stay in a villa/condo off site. Hire smallest class of car, supermarket show and make sandwiches. Take water bottles and refill at fountains. When you see the vendors be clear "No, we aren't shopping, we are on a very tight budget" and you are often given coupons/vouchers for freebies.
This is a LONG documentary but it explains what has changed and why they have made the changes. Very cynical and it's put my off ever revisiting:

We went to Florida in 2018, 2 adults , 2 kids, Disney hotel, free dining plan back then and it cost about £12K. Honestly OP, it wasn't worth it IMO! We've had better holidays for far less. The kids were underwhelmed with the queues and crappy food and there was more bedazzled overpriced mouse tat than you could shake a stick at. Unless your family are absolutely desperate to go, I'd consider other holiday options.

Couldn't agree more. We were all, including the children, completely underwhemled. there are so many better holidays for much less

That is Disney though not Florida - Orlando is more than Disney and Florida certainly is.

Yes. The OP asked specifically about Disney though.

We had a villa (with pool) which was fab, through AirBnB. We bought day tickets for the parks as we wanted to do one day at Magic Kingdom, one at EPCOT, one at Universal (two there would have been good though - each side) plus Kennedy Space Center, some recovery days and we moved to Ocala National Park in a static RV after that (with golf buggy). This was 2019 and I think we were about £7k all in for 5 of us, with hired car too - so I can imagine it would cost more now. That was the right amount of parks for us - eyewatering cost but sometimes you have to accept that's the price. Didn't pay for the queue-jumping tickets, just judiciously used the few that came included, and took advantage of the 'not necessarily together' queue jumps - but ours were all teens. Oh yeah, take food - the park food is terrible, small portions and expensive. We only bought ice cream (about $5 a head). And bottomless drink cup at Universal (one was enough for us all of course).

Because people want their children to have fun after 2 long fucking miserable years?

Totally. Universal was miles better

I also recommend getting a villa - AirBnB or similar, we stay in the Kissimmee area. Then you can have breakfast at the villa, have some days where you come back for dinner/chill afternoon by the pool, and you’re only buying lunch out, which you can do more cheaply if you go for casual options (or share) in the parks.

Sorry QUARTZ... Im meant to say we went to Florida FOR Disney in 2018. It was still underwhelming. And yes, we had a week away from the parks to see other parts of Florida. And, yes, still had crappy food, tedious, flat car journeys and thought it was over commercialised. Honestly OP, look around and suggest other options to the kids.

@Quartz2208 I agree. Disney and the parks were unbelievably underwhelming, Orlando even more so. Florida as a state, I love and have been several times . Some of the best food, beaches, activity and scenery and well worth the trip

1. Price up flights to Miami or Tampa, Orlando is usually the most expensive.
2. Consider indirect flights.
3. Look at fly-drive packages (BA is excellent on this).
4. Book a villa direct from owners (Air BNB, Vrbo, The Dibb).
5. Work out what you want from the parks. We go to Florida frequently, and never spend very long in Orlando - 4 days of parks (so that would be Disney - 2 days is enough at Universal for me) would be plenty for me. We buy tickets in the US (although after about day 3, each subsequent day becomes stupidly cheap, so there won't be much difference between a 4 day pass and a 7 or 14 day pass).
6. Start looking at flights as soon as they're released (11 months before travel dates ish). Be prepared to spend hours looking at all different variations of dates, times etc.

The flight prices are quite a bit higher then they were pre-Covid. We had several years of paying less than £2.5k for 4 flights and car hire (one memorable year we paid £1200, although I think we may have had some Avios that went towards our costs). If I found a fly drive for £2k or less, I'd book.

Because you’ve promised them, I think you will just have to find a way. You will bring the cost down & there’s been some great suggestions.

most kids don’t get to go to a Disneyland & I won’t be able to afford to take my little girl now the prices have risen so much but I’m ok with that.

Following with interest and bail king at the eye watering cost! Seriously considering going to Paris for a long weekend and having another holiday elsewhere. It'd still be cheaper!!

I have never been able to afford Orlando so we went to California Disney instead it was about £4000 all in with virgin with tickets, flights and accommodation. It's smaller which was a benefit for us but appreciate it's not Orlando.

What is £250 a day for if you are spending every day in (prepaid) theme parks?

Go to LA. There magic Mountain Six Flags there too as well as Disney and universal, plus more to do in the area too.

Nowadays - parking - $25, Genie Plus if you want it $15 per person, food and drinks (lunch) $15 per person, food and drinks (dinner) $25 per person. If you're a family of 4 it can easily add up.

We usually budget $100 per person, per day, but I think we may have to up that this year. In the past this has covered a big grocery shop at the start of the week, parking at the parks, a snack during the day and drinks, then a meal in the evening (1 main entree each and a shared dessert). We don't do that every day so some days there's no parking, but we may go out for lunch instead. Overall it averaged out to $100 a day.