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 are going Feb half term plus a week before.

Staying on universal for first week, budget hotel (endless summer), and will do a 3 day park to park pass.

Disney may just be a day or two, probably tickets bought on the gate as the only other option is the 14 day pass for £2K!

Then we will have the second week somewhere on the coast.

Flights (virgin), £2K
Hotel and Universal tx £2K
Disney tx £1K
Car £700
Accommodation on coast: £1500

So under £8K so far but haven't factored in spending money yet.

We went to Disneyland Paris instead. That was enough! Maybe stay outside of park?

I would say you’ve done the right thing in waiting until they’re old enough to appreciate and remember it.

There’s no such thing as day tickets at the gate any more at Disneyworld, you have to pre book your park days and need linked tickets in order to do so. I know of people who were unable to book park days even with tickets over the Easter holidays.

I've been to LA,Florida,Paris and Tokyo Disney.

I'll be honest Florida is my least favourite - I'd suggest the LA Disney, it's the original and it's amazing although universal in Florida is much better than LA but very similar!

I second the LA one. It's. Really lovely and not as exhausting plus there's universal which is great.
We went just before the pandemic and did a combination of air band b houses with pools and some time in Joshua tree and Palm Springs and hired a car .
Depends how much time you want to spend in the parks I guess

I really prefer the sound of Disneyland in California for a whole host of reasons but sadly neither DH nor I drive and it doesn't seem realistic without a car!

We didn't drive when we went to LA and did just fine, you can stay in Anaheim for Disney and Hollywood for all the other things.

We used Uber and I think it cost like £400 for the 10 days which is much cheaper than hiring a car.

Thanks All. I listened to Rob Becketts parenting hell podcast and j think came to the conclusion this is not the holiday for us. I was only really considering it as apparently they offer ride passes to kids with adhd who can’t queue, but even then it seems like an overwhelming amount of money and effort! I think we will do as people suggest and go to Paris on a Eurostar package and then go somewhere else sunny in a villa!

Try On The Beach.
Instead of car hire, book a hotel with free park transfers and breakfast if possible. Pack a picnic for the parks. Get the parks/water parks package for tickets.

We are going this summer and it’s been 8yrs since we last went and things have definitely gone up. It’s a very expensive holiday, lots of overtime to pay for it. DS is 18 6 days before we go and gets his A level results day before so want to make it special before he goes off to uni

If you want less than the 14 day Disney pass you can buy tickets per day if you use a VPN - undercover tourist does them but other sites too. We are getting 4 days this time as done Disney before - doing 14 day universal though

We're looking at riviera maya and the xcaret parks as an alternative- they look far better.

Also look at the free parks entry deal at the Hilton Abu Dhabi. There's free park access to Ferrari world, Warner brothers studio and some others included in the hotel price. Food will be much better too.

Time to look at credible alternatives I think.

Glad you've come to a decision OP - sounds sensible

I have just booked flights and accommodation for Easter next year and we're going to be way over our £10k planned budget with tickets/car hire etc, even with indirect flights and an airbnb! We are comfortably off but don't normally splurge on holidays, this has been eye-opening.