How Much Does It Cost to Go On a Disney World Vacation in 2024?
One threshold question many people ask before planning is “how much does it cost to go to Walt Disney World?” This answers that with updated 2024 pricing for park tickets, hotels, dining, transportation & more. It also covers a discounts that are available and how much you can reasonably expect to spend when all is said and done.
The goal is to help you avoid overspending and plan a Walt Disney World vacation that’s within your budget. Fair warning up front: prices have increased by thousands of dollars in the last few years, so be prepared for sticker shock. Walt Disney World has long had a reputation as being pricey (e.g. ‘exit through the gift shop’ jokes or ‘Most Expensive Day Ever’ shirts), but it’s gotten worse lately. That’s the bad news, but there’s also good news–more on that in a minute!
Another warning is that there is no single, all-inclusive price that a Walt Disney World vacation costs. Some people are fine with budget accommodations and the cheapest options just to get in the gate, whereas the wealthy might want luxurious accommodations and pampered treatment. The latter trip could literally cost $50,000 or more, whereas the former might cost 10% of that. The good news, though, is that the wealthy are probably not reading a post like this. So we’ll stick with average vacations, not extravagant ones!
With that said, we also don’t want to simply price out a bottom-dollar, bargain trip to Walt Disney World. There’s a lot of ground in between budget motels and Presidential Suites plus VIP tours, and we’ll try to cover a few different ‘tiers’ of trips here. But even with hypotheticals it’s impossible to pin down the actual cost for every set of circumstances.
Beyond the basics covered in our breakdown, there are a lot of variables that are beyond the scope of this post: Lightning Lanes & Genie+ vs. standby only? Rental car & paid parking vs. Mears Connect airport shuttle? Travel insurance vs. discounted non-refundable reservations?
Instead of tackling every possible scenario and ending up with a War & Peace length treatise, we’ll look at price ranges for key aspects of visiting Walt Disney World, come up with totals based on those, and let you extrapolate for your own conclusions based upon that information. Given that the thing most readers report surprise over to us via comments and emails is cost, this is a topic worth addressing, even if we can’t give any hard numbers for every possible scenario…
The good news is that after two-plus years pent-up demand, Walt Disney World is finally seeing a slowdown. The company has reported lower attendance and hotel occupancy, and has started pulling “levers” (their term) in order to entice people to visit the parks and stay in the hotels. In plain language, this means discounts.
Special offers have accelerated and improved in the last several months, with general public discounts this Christmas season for the first time since 2019 and the best discount for that timeframe since 2018. Looking forward to next year, Walt Disney World has now released several discounts for the first quarter of 2024, all of which were earlier than their counterparts in 2018 or 2019. They also offer superior savings, albeit not as pronounced as going from nothing at all during the holidays to the best deals since 2018!
If weak discounting and late releases were a sign that pent-up demand had still been running strong, all of this is a sign that the opposite is no longer be true for 2024. Although there the parks are still busy, the dynamic has changed considerably as compared to 2021-2022. A corner has been turned and visitors are no longer going on spending sprees to make up for lost time. Not only that, but Walt Disney World does not have any major, marketable additions coming in the first half of 2024.
Add to that the possibility of a recession or broader economic slowdown, and that means even more discounts to lure people to the parks. Many readers have asked about the return of Free Dining, which is one of Walt Disney World’s most popular and best deals. There’s a pretty good chance of that happening, but even if not, great deals are to be expected. We will be closely monitoring what’s released and will notify subscribers of our free email newsletter when any Walt Disney World discounts are released or rumored!
With that said, there’s even more bad news. Even as attendance and hotel occupancy are decreasing, Walt Disney World is raising sticker prices. Since the start of the fiscal year in October, Walt Disney World has increased prices on Annual Passes, Memory Maker, parking, water parks tickets, miniature golf, and more.
In addition to this, Walt Disney World bumped up the price of hundreds of menu items all around the parks & resorts at Walt Disney World and also on most character dining experiences in the parks and resorts. They also hiked prices on the “Enchanting Extras Collection,” meaning things like dessert parties and special tours.
Prior to this, hotel prices increased when 2024 vacation packages were released over the summer. If you look at 2024 Walt Disney World Resort Price Analysis, you’ll also notice that room rates are up around 3-7% depending upon the hotel and season.
Obviously, we don’t love paying higher prices, but none of these increases are that bad by historical standards. There are several silver linings here, with the first being that regular park tickets did not go up–the first time in several years that hasn’t happened. (There’s still time, so let’s not jinx it.)
Additionally, almost all of the other price increases are avoidable. Most of the “Enchanting Extras Collection” exists due to FOMO and is for people who want to splurge or go all out. It’s all completely nonessential (well, a Walt Disney World vacation isn’t “essential” in the first place…but this stuff is really unnecessary to enjoying the trip).
Of the price increases, there are only two that are unavoidable. The first is on menus, and the upside there is that the price increases are pretty minimal–and below the rate of inflation on food. (It’s to the point where we no longer have sticker shock looking at Walt Disney World menus, as real world prices and other entertainment venues have outpaced Disney.)
The second is on hotel rooms, and as noted above, there are more discounts for this year and 2024. Due to better deals, the effective prices most people pay for resorts or vacation packages have actually decreased year-over-year despite higher prices. This might lead you to wonder why Walt Disney World didn’t just lower sticker prices, which is a fair question.
We’ve half-joked for years that Walt Disney World uses the “Kohl’s Pricing Model,” where the sticker prices are almost meaningless due to discounts. Even during the Great Recession, Walt Disney World kept raising prices…while also ramping up the special offers. As Kohl’s learned ages ago, if the base price is higher, it makes the discounted rate look like even more of a bargain. It’s all about perception and the illusion of a killer deal.
It’s not really much of a joke, because it’s 100% true. Walt Disney World almost never lowers base prices, and almost always increases them in October or February without regard for attendance, bookings, or the U.S. economy. They dial up or down discounts as demand (or lack thereof) dictates. In the last few years during pent-up demand, discounts were dialed down. Now they are very much up!
Regardless of deals, visiting Walt Disney World costs a lot of money. We’re not trying to downplay the prices–it’s undeniably priced as a premium vacation destination and one of the more expensive family destinations in the United States.
Of course, travel costs are all relative. You could travel to one of the U.S. National Parks and pay a $30 entry fee for your entire vehicle for a week, camp on-site for $45/night, and cook food by campfire for $60/day for a party of 4.
As avid National Park enthusiasts, we’ve done exactly that many times and highly recommend it–one of the best vacations you can take that’s incredibly relaxing and allows you to disconnect, recharge, and see America’s Best Idea. It’s also very different–also incomparable–to Walt Disney World.
You could also travel to New York and spend more than the cost of theme park tickets seeing shows and visiting points of interest, pay $350/night for adequate accommodations, $75/night for parking, and an exorbitant amount eating at some of America’s best restaurants.
Although equally chaotic, that too would be very different from a Walt Disney World vacation. Not necessarily better or worse–different. The point is that great trips can be had at a variety of price points; even though it’s easy to compare them quantitatively, doing so on a qualitative basis is a different story entirely. Even trips to other theme parks aren’t apples to apples comparisons with Walt Disney World.
Anyway, let’s get down to brass tacks and actually start pricing out a trip…
This post assumes a 5-night Walt Disney World vacation for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids) that is not within driving distance to Walt Disney World, with no rental car unless otherwise specified. Airfare is not included. Unfortunately, flight prices vary so widely based upon origin city that there’s really nothing meaningful to say–just know that it’s another cost that’ll probably add another $250-600 per person to your trip.
In the last year, airfare prices have been all over the place, but higher across the board. We travel a lot between the Orange Counties (Florida and California) and we’ve paid anywhere from $250 to almost $600 per round trip just this year. Thankfully, prices are starting to fall again. Hopefully that’s the start of a return to normal, rather than a short-lived thing for the off-season.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the range of costs you should expect to incur for each element of your Walt Disney World vacation…
Park Tickets
After precipitous increases for several years that have seen the cost of a 1-day Walt Disney World ticket for the Magic Kingdom nearly triple in price since 2004, expectations v. reality for park ticket prices can differ dramatically. This is no surprise, especially among infrequent visitors who last went when tickets were more affordable. Note that all groups are following our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets, so we aren’t going by gate prices.
Frugal: For this tier (we’ll call it ‘frugal’ since that has a more positive connotation than ‘budget’), we’re opting for 3-day base tickets without the Park Hopper option. The other 2 days of the vacation, the family will enjoy some of the free offerings around Walt Disney World, such as Disney Springs and visiting the Boardwalk, among other things. Total cost: $1,634.
Value: At this tier, we are getting base tickets for all 5 days, meaning the family can spend every day in the parks. Note that the difference here isn’t as large as you might have expected because the incremental cost of park tickets decrease for longer duration visits. Total cost: $2,197.
Moderate: This steps up to 5-day Park Hopper tickets, so the family can leverage park operating hours to their advantage (for example, heading to Magic Kingdom and staying until park closing on a day started out at Animal Kingdom when that park closes early). Total cost: $2,492.
Deluxe: This levels up to the Cadillac of park tickets: the 5-Day Park Hopper Plus. This is a good ticket option for a 7-10 day trip, but for a 5-day visit, there’s more than enough to do in the 4 theme parks and other areas of Walt Disney World without adding the “Plus” option. Nevertheless, for those who like to make it rain, Disney-style, this is an option for a 5-day trip. Total cost: $2,855.18.
Many of you were probably a bit taken aback when you saw the cost of the ‘frugal’ option, shocked that it was so high. Perhaps you were also surprised that the longer duration tickets were comparatively lower in price per day. That’s the thing about Walt Disney World tickets: the per day cost decreases the longer you stay. (Of course, accommodations, dining, transportation and overall costs increase with a longer trip, so they get you one way or another!)
For example, the total cost of a 10-day base ticket for this family would be $2,337.56, which is right on par with the moderate option and less than the deluxe option above. The cost of tickets will probably be the most surprising aspect of your vacation, especially if you’re going for only a few days. This makes the relative ‘value’ of a 7-10 day Walt Disney World vacation better than a 3 day trip.
Hotel
The cost of your hotel is the single biggest variable in a Walt Disney World vacation, with prices ranging from $30/night for an off-site hotel on I-Drive to over $1,000 for luxury accommodations that are on-site and near the Walt Disney World theme parks. Let’s take a look at the different options…
Frugal: Staying off-site is the only true budget option, and fortunately, the Orlando area has a surplus of hotels, which drives down cost. In reviewing Hotwire’s Hot Rate option for a variety of dates, there are often 3.5 star and above hotels in the Lake Buena Vista or Disney Springs areas for around $75/night.
There are cheaper hotels elsewhere with lower ratings or farther from the parks, but I think this is a good compromise in quality and location. There are some shady hotels in the Orlando area–Florida Project is more reality than it is fiction–so unless you want experiencing the mean streets of O-Town as part of your vacation experience, splurge a bit. Total cost: $559.03 after taxes & fees.
Note that only some third party or off-site hotels offer free shuttles to the parks. This means staying in the frugal option will almost certainly incur additional transportation costs above and beyond the higher tiers, whether that be for a rental car and parking, or for twice-daily Uber or Lyft expenses. This is not insignificant, and could add $40 to $100 on top of accommodations costs, depending upon when you visit.
Value: For anyone looking to get the true “resort” experience at Walt Disney World, this is your lowest entry-point. Depending upon when you travel, rack rates for the Value Resorts at Walt Disney World range from $118 to $307 per night for most of the year (excluding peak season dates). The more popular your travel time, the more expensive the rates. Total cost: $1,184.50 after taxes and fees.
Moderate: Same idea as the Value Resorts above, except for the middle tier of on-site Disney hotels. Rack rates for these hotels will range from around $248 to $324 per night for most of the year (excluding peak season dates). Again, the more popular your travel time, the more expensive the rates. Total cost: $1,537.75 after taxes and fees.
Deluxe: The on-site Walt Disney World Deluxe Resorts are the hotel tier where there’s the most variance, with it costing $425/night just to get you in the door, and prices quickly going upward from there. At Wilderness Lodge, regular season rack rates start at $555/night. By contrast, regular season rates at the Grand Floridian start at $857/night. Prices can go up from there. Total cost: $3,433.25 after taxes and fees.
On top of all this, Walt Disney World discontinued its Magical Express airport shuttle. Visitors now need to find their own ground transportation from the airport to their hotel, and we cover the range of options in our Guide to Airport Transportation for Walt Disney World. There is no one-size-fits-all perfect solution–it depends on your party size, budget, and other factors. No matter which option you choose, it’ll cost you.
When doing a cost-benefit analysis, one thing to keep in mind depending upon your circumstances is the restoration of free parking at Walt Disney World resorts. For those who are driving or renting a car, not only are these savings more significant than discounts during the same timeframe last year, but there’s also the added bonus of not having to pay for parking. This coupled with better discounts should amount to a fairly hefty year-over-year decrease in total prices, which is exceedingly rare for Walt Disney World!
Dining
Speaking of things being restored, the Disney Dining Plan is also back for 2024! This is great news for a lot of fans who love the DDP for its ease of use, preplanning, budgeting, and other reasons beyond the scope of this post.
Without question, purchasing the Disney Dining Plan will cost you more than it would cost you to eat at Walt Disney World on a tight or even reasonable budget. What the Disney Dining Plan offers is peace of mind in paying for your food in advance and knowing that you don’t have to worry about it when you arrive. If you can budget money, you are usually better off skipping the Dining Plan and paying out of pocket.
Some people can save money using the Disney Dining Plan, but those are people who like to eat “aggressively,” not those who are trying to be frugal. With that said, those who take advantage of the Free Dining discount are much more likely to come out ahead, especially at our example party size of 2 adults and 2 kids in one room. As noted above, Free Dining is likely to be offered at some point in 2024.
With that little cautionary note out of the way, let’s take a look at a few options in terms of eating on a Walt Disney World vacation…
Frugal: Purchase groceries and bring your food to the parks. Many people don’t realize that, unlike sporting events and your local library, you can bring outside food into Walt Disney World. Not only that, but they’re pretty liberal with the rules: you can bring a soft-sided cooler (now don’t get too carried away, you can’t bring in a pony keg to make ‘it’s a small world’ more enjoyable). Figure that the cost here can be as low as what you’d eat at home, plus allowances for occasional snacks. Ballpark cost: $400.
Value: Eat a huge breakfast in your hotel before you leave for the parks each day, then have a counter service meal in the parks in the early afternoon costing around $20/person, bring snacks to get through late afternoon, and have dinner in your hotel each night. Alternatively, the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan would cost just over $800 and allow for lunch and dinner inside the park. Ballpark cost: $700.
Moderate: For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to assume the average family would be inclined to purchase the regular Disney Dining Plan, and that its price would be roughly analogous to what they’d spend on doing a counter service meal, table service meal, and snacks each day. Of course, paying out of pocket is usually cheaper than doing the DDP. Ballpark cost: $1,250.
Deluxe: In the past, we’ve used the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan (DxDDP) as the baseline for this cost. This is basically the “all-inclusive” version of the Disney Dining Plan that allows you to do multiple table service meals, character dining, and even Signature Restaurants if you so desire–and budget the time for it. Unfortunately, the DxDDP is not returning for 2024…but we’ll still use it as a baseline for these costs, which should be accurate within $100 or so. Ballpark cost: $1,800.
Total Costs
Even within the different tiers of vacations we’ve priced out for the hypothetical family of 4, there’s a pretty substantial range to the price of their Walt Disney World vacation. Still, we thought it worthwhile to give a rough approximation of totals…
Frugal: $2,593.03
Value: $4,081.50
Moderate: $5,279.75
Deluxe: $8,088.43
On-site hotel pricing is based on regular season, when prices are at their average rates. If you’re visiting in September, you’ll find lower rack rates and you might benefit from more aggressive discounts. Conversely, if you’re visiting during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s, you will almost certainly be paying considerably more.
Regardless of what your actual costs appear to be when you crunch the numbers, it’s always a good idea to build a 15-20% cushion into the budget for unforeseen expenses–that’s a savvy move with travel in general, regardless of the destination.
As high as these totals might seem at first blush, we’ll reiterate that ‘total’ isn’t an actual total since it does NOT take all costs into account. Airfare, rental cars, parking, shuttles, or other ground transportation will likely add another $1,500 to $3,000 onto each bottom line. That’s not to mention other add-ons you might elect to purchase upon arrival!
The cost of Genie+ and Lightning Lanes is also not included, and this is something we’d recommend adding for at least Magic Kingdom–and possibly Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Again, this service now uses date-based pricing, and has almost doubled in price for the most popular dates of the year as a result.
Hard ticket events like the After Hours, Halloween, or Christmas parties are also not part of the budgets. Prices for those are all over the place, but you could easily spend $125 to $175 per person on those event tickets. Dessert parties and other upcharge offerings–such as building a lightsaber in Star Wars land–also add up fast. If you start adding on these things, your costs can easily ballon by thousands of dollars more.
Some of these things are totally optional, but some form of transportation–both to Florida and around Walt Disney World–is not. When all is said and done, you could easily spend double the above amounts for your trip total. It really depends upon your circumstances and travel dates.
For our 2024 Walt Disney World vacation budget update, the base prices have seen the smallest year-over-year increase in the last 3. In fact, some of these rates are exactly the same as last year. Once you factor in discounts, 2024 Walt Disney World vacations have effectively decreased for the first time since 2019!
Don’t get too excited about that, though. This decrease comes after 2 years of massive price increases. As compared to March 2020, the value and moderate tiers have each increased by over $2,000 and the deluxe tier has gone up over $3,000. It wasn’t long ago when a value vacation total was ~$2,000 and a moderate cost $3,500 with a deluxe costing around $5,000. As noted above, base prices have increased every year for the last decade.
Again, this is exacerbated by the end of Disney’s Magical Express and free MagicBands, plus paid Genie+ and Lightning Lanes replacing free FastPass+ and other on-site perks that have been eliminated. That’s right–not only is a Walt Disney World vacation thousands of dollars more expensive, but you’re paying more and getting less. Double whammy!
With so many caveats, it might seem like these numbers are rendered meaningless, and this post is just an exercise in futility (like most things I do!). However, the info and numbers here should at least provide a good baseline so that those of you who have never planned a Walt Disney World vacation have a ballpark idea what kind of costs you’ll encounter.
There are numerous (clickbait) blog posts with headlines like “How to do a Walt Disney World Vacation for Less than $1,000.” Those make big promises that are incredibly misleading, disingenuous, and ultimately lead to disappointment or unrealistic expectations. For 95% of guests, $3k is the bare minimum needed just to get in the door, and even that’s really pushing it. You’d have to visit during the off-season, stay off-site, and be exceedingly frugal with your food and other purchases.
Obviously, this isn’t one-size fits advice or vacation budgeting. Frugal traveler-hackers may scoff at the “high” prices here, and luxury travelers may find that they spend significantly more than the amounts set forth here. There are obviously going to be outliers on both ends of the spectrum.
We’ve heard of high rollers easily dropping $25,000 to $50,000 for a luxurious Walt Disney World vacation, and that could pretty easily turn into $75,000 for a longer trip, with additional people, or more upcharge add-ons. More than a few readers have reported dropping $40k (!!!) on their Walt Disney World vacations after all was said and done.
In our case–and likely in the case of many readers of this blog–we can be outliers on the low end of things, as the sunk costs of Annual Passes make our tickets $0* and we can get our on-site hotel costs down to as low as $100/night with via Disney Vacation Club Point Rentals if we move our dates around a bit and work around deals.
However, this is impractical to a lot of people, especially those without flexible schedules or planning their first trips. (*Of course, the AP itself has a very high upfront cost, but the per visit basis drops dramatically given how often we are in the parks. Obviously, your circumstances are going to differ considerably from ours as bloggers who write about Walt Disney World!)
Ultimately, this is simply a jumping off point with specific numbers that are only meant to give you a rough idea of 2024 Walt Disney World vacation costs. Hopefully this topic can be an open dialogue about Walt Disney World trip expenses and budgets, as the way we vacation certainly differs for others.
There are tons of hacks that can bring the cost down–see our Best 13 Tips for Saving Money at Walt Disney World for ideas on that front. Additionally, if your travel dates are flexible and you want to choose the least expensive times to visit (which also tend to be the least crowded dates), see When Is It Cheapest to Visit Walt Disney World in 2024?
To that end, Walt Disney World veterans who are willing to present some information about your own budget, such as how many people, duration of trip, hotel, dining, etc., when you visit would be much appreciated. Like I said, this post is only meant to be a rough baseline, and the more actual data points and examples newbies have before starting to plan for their own trips, the better. So thanks in advance if you choose to help.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts…
How much do your average vacations to Walt Disney World cost? Have you noticed an effective price decrease when pricing out 2024 Walt Disney World vacation packages as compared to the previous few years? Think Disney is still worth the money, or has it become unreasonably overpriced? Where do you splurge and where do you “trim the fat” from your trip budget? Do you veterans have any data points of your own to help newbies out? If you’re a Walt Disney World first-timer, do you have any questions after reading this? We love to hear from readers, so if you have any thoughts or questions, post them in the comments!
Another great post, Tom! I have sent similar break-downs to friends who ask about Disney. In each category of your trip you can dial it up or down based on your family’s priorities– maybe stay more budget but do the Dining Plan. Maybe get groceries for some meals, but stay Deluxe.
I second the comment on adding “renting DVC points” as an important option because that was a huge savings to us which added a lot of quality and value to the trip experience.
We also factor in Trip Insurance to the budget– it can protect you against a range of issues from sickness to travel or luggage delays. I feel that with an investment such as a Disney trip, this is a critical piece. Adds another hundred-several hundred dollars depending on # in your traveling party and value of your vacation.
Absolutely–that’s why I did the subtotals and then the total, so people can add the elements themselves if they so choose. I’m betting a lot of those who would self-describe as frugal probably still like getting the DDP.
Travel insurance is definitely another consideration, thanks for mentioning it.
Just a quick heads up – there’s a broken link in the text “If you are going when Free Dining is offered”. It should be:
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-world-free-dining-dates/
This post is an excellent eye opener of how lucky I am to be a Cast Member (work at ESPN) and travel with my family when they want to visit. These numbers blow me away.
Tom,
I think you don’t do enough to encourage *long* WDW trips. You briefly mention under tickets how 10 days are not much more expensive than 3-days. But it’s not until the end, and it barely mentions it.
On the most frugal budget you can manage, 10 nights stay at a cheap $40 offsite hotel, and 10 days park-admission, works out to $1800 for a family of four, plus the cost of food and travel. This is far cheaper than going for 3 days a trip for three trips, even without factoring in the cost of travel.
I’m a fan of going during free dining, and staying at a moderate for 11-12 nights. I offset the cost of this upgrade by driving to florida (19 hours in a car (each way) is well worth the $2000 flight cost for a family of four flying Toronto-Orlando. We don’t go every year, this year will be our third trip with the kids in the last 5 years. Those three trips will have totalled 27 days park admission, and 29 days at Port Orleans French Quarter and Coronado Springs Resort. This has cost us about $9000 over those three trips, including food and transportation. Keep in mind — that’s $9000 for four people spending 29 nights at Walt Disney World in a moderate resort, eating at all the fancy sit-down table service dinners. That’s $78 per day, per person. That’s cheaper than the $85/day it’s going to cost people using your absolute most frugal options above.
This post really isn’t about encouraging anything, it’s about responding to a question, so I chose 5 days as that’s the average length (per what I’ve heard on multiple occasions) for a Walt Disney World trip. Why only 5 days, I’m not sure, but I do know that Americans are awful about using their vacation days–but that’s another soapbox for another day…
Regardless, I totally agree with you. Anyone who can should aim for a 10-day trip, as airfare costs are fixed and tickets only slightly increase the higher you go. Of course, food and hotel have a set per day cost regardless of duration, but still, a longer trip is always a better value.
Perhaps you could provide the coordinates of this magical planet of cotton candy and rainbows and sparkly unicorns where one can get enough time off for ten-day (plus travel time) vacations?
Heh… Isn’t the minimum annual vacation time a two week equivalent (generally, 10 days off on a monday-friday work week) in the USA just like it is in Canada?
Plus most employers give more vacation with tenure, plus most salaried jobs I’ve been in prefer you take extra hours worked as “time off in lieu” rather than paid overtime, anyway.
We are planning a trip in late Sept. (22-28) 2 adults, no kids. Renting DVC points for AKL Savanah view, flying, parkhopper tickets, MNSSHP, a day at Universal, renting a car for the Universal part of the trip, no dining plan. My aporximate/estimated cost for the whole trip is $3800 The DVC rental points are about the same as staying at a Moderate for the same number of days at that time. Biggest variable is not being sure how much we will spend on food. Breakfast in the room most days. A couple TS meals and the rest CS and Food and Wine booths. I don’t think you can beat the value of renting DVC points if you plan far enough ahead or aren’t picky about which resort you stay in.
5 day park hoppers. Doing MNSSHP on arrival day.
My girlfriend and I take two 7 day trips each year, usually one at a value resort and the other at a moderate. Generally if we stay at the value report and take the discounted room offers it comes out to about $1800 w/ airfare upon booking, and then we prob spend another $800 on food when there (we do counter service lunch and table service meals every day of the trip). Generally at the moderate resort it comes out to about $2400 upon booking w/ flight and then the additional money for food while there.
Just as a quick comparison, we are doing a 3 night Universal Orlando trip in June (staying at their on site “value” hotel) and it came to $1500 w/ airfare (not including food) just for that short trip. This shows again how the length of a trip really effects the daily value.
This also illustrates something else: the added cost of a split stay. A 3 night Universal trip plus a 3 night Disney trip is going to be significantly more than just 6 nights at either one.
I will say, though, that the Value Resort at Universal (Cabana Bay) is soooo much nicer than your average ‘value’ resort. Enjoy! 🙂
Good to know. Thanks!
In the past I have not been a huge fan of Universal. I like the rides, even love some of them (Spiderman, Forbidden Journey), but the themeing and experience as a whole always left a bit to be desired for me (with the exception of Hogsmeade).
That being said I have not been there since Diagon Alley opened so I am optimistic my perception will change a bit. I have heard nothing but amazing things about it, including from you on travelcaffine. Very much looking forward to finally checking it out.
In the staying-off-site equation, you didn’t mention the Orlando city Lynx bus system as an option.
In July of 2014, I booked a very frugal room at the Budget Inn on Irlo Bronson for $28 per night (ended up being $32 with added fee). We stayed 8 nights. I chose this room because that price is insane, but also because it is on the Lynx bus line, with a straight shot 20 minute ride to the Ticket and Transportation Center at WDW. I also did my research and learned that bus day passes are about $5, I think, but there is a 7 day pass available for $16. So, for $16 bucks plus an extra one-way fare for my 8th day (when I went straight back to the Amtrak station in Kissimmee), I had all the transportation I needed. We rode round trip to the parks twice most days, allowing for us to take a swim break back at the “hotel”.
Budget Inn is also across Irlo Bronson from the Publix grocery store, which has a killer selection of bulk health food stuff like unsweetened dried mangos, which became a park staple for us.
This was a very cheap way to go, and saved us both on a rental car and on parking. This made staying off site really worth it.
When it comes to time at the parks, I want more QUANTITY, so this option made a lot of sense.
Oh wow, this is a great point! I had never thought of the Lynx buses, but am really glad you mentioned it. Thanks for giving readers a heads up! 🙂
Lynx has the added bonus of riding with several CMs when they are “off-stage”. Kind of a behind-the-scenes feel. 🙂
LOVE this blog! Thank you for making a Disney veteran traveler (10th trip since 2004 this August) feel like a newbie with so many new and interesting articles. We have never experienced the Kiss Goodnight, but will this summer. We usually travel with my mother-in-law, with our family of 5, so 2 rooms always necessary. We have stayed at all level of resorts, many years with free dining (alas that has gone the way of the dodo for our August travel time – teenage kids plus school teachers necessitate this time of year only these days) and our trips always seems to average $1000 per person. We need to fly so this includes airfare (manageable when booked at opening date for Internet fares), but that is offset by the Magical express and no need for rental car.
We have used park hoppers in the past, but have weaned ourselves off them to save money. When we have the dining plan, we make sure to maximize the table service credits with reservations at O’hana, Chef Mickey’s, Akershus, and the like, using counters in the morning to share breakfasts (portions are huge), snacks for lunch (ice cream is Disney-speak for lunch), and with the included refillable mugs, bottled waters that come with counter service meals are easily shared.
This year, for the first time, we are heading to the Poly, but used a travel agent who ran an incredible deal, room and park tickets, no dining plan. It is for our daughter’s Sweet 16, so add 3 teenagers to our mix. We can still all fit into 2 rooms, and even with the usual meals scheduled, like O’hana for dinner, we are still at $1000 per person, actually perhaps even less (I always “over budget” so not to get the unpleasant surprise later). I would strongly urge people to check with reputable travel agents who are Disney affiliated, they are given access to rooms and deals that are often better than Disney promotions (this one is just about 40% off room) and was even cheaper than renting DVC points. If only we were already DVC members, we could get the Tables in Wonderland card and save more. I looked into buying an annual pass so as to get a TIW card, but the savings would be a wash with the extra AP cost.
For families who travel with physically limited individuals (my mother in law needs a scooter, knee replacements) staying on site and use of Disney buses which accommodate the scooter outweighs any off site savings.
Would you please comment on the cool unsettling photograph directly beneath the heading “Park Tickets”?
That is the ceiling from Haunted Mansion, is it not?
For all those UK people out there, as a couple we stayed in Disney’s Port Orleans for 14 nights with a free counter service dining plan included, 14 day all access Disney tickets, Virgin Atlantic return flights to Gatwick and Disney express to get us from the airport to the hotel.
It was in early May 2013 and it cost us £1800 each. As we stayed on site pretty much the whole holiday was covered at this cost, excluding our costs for souvenirs.
I’m frugal in areas that I don’t care about, so that I can spend more in areas I *do* care about (like a vacation). For instance, we dumped AT&T and switched to Ting for our cell service. I use my phone more intentionally, and my bill is $90 less per month for my husband and I. Are you serious!? That savings in a year alone is practically enough for my park tickets.
Negotiated my Comcast down, saved another $30/m. I hate those idiots.
Rinse and repeat.
We work the credit card incentives to our advantage. I’ll have 4 or maybe 4.5 round trip flights ready to go for our trip with points.
So I’m planning a trip for mid-December, and we are going to try to rent DVC points. If that doesn’t work, I’m tempted to just say screw it and stay where I want anyway. Close proximity to certain parks means more time for fun, less time for waiting for a bus. Means more likely for us to return in the evenings.
Plus, a more fun resort is a HUGE part of our overall enjoyment of a vacation, we have found. Sure, we can have fun in a value, but if our enjoyment goes up exponentially if we stay somewhere else? Then yes, worth it.
Thanks Tom, I enjoy your blogs very much.
We are splurging at WDW this June for my 2 graduating seniors. So basically 4 adults. We are there for 11 nights and 10 days with a split stay at Wilderness Lodge (4 nights) and Port Orleans Riverside, Royal Suites (7 nights).
I decided to go with an 8 day park hopper with water park and we chose to do the Dining with Table service.
Rooms+Food+Park Tickets = $8,345.00
It’s alot, but I started a special Disney fund 10 months ago and have been saving money each month from my contract work. And we all opted to not have birthday or christmas gifts this year and put the money towards the Disney Trip. The dedication has paid off.
We have been able to add 2 special tours, a CRT ADR, both SW ADRs and the SW Premium Pakage.
I am sharing this only because we are not anywhere close to being well-off. We just really wanted this trip. If you plan a year or more in advanced you can do what ever you like. You just have to stay dedicated to the cause.
I am planning a Disneyland trip for my 3 younger children next spring…and the savings will start when we get back from WDW with the older kids.
We go on regular vacations to National Parks and with a large family you have to plan. It is the only way we can do it.
Just do your research and know what you are getting into before hand.
😀
We did a ultra frugal trip in 2010 (family of 4, two kids under 9) for ~ $1500 including costs to drive to and from Disney. We stayed at a value resort, and did breakfast and lunch in our room, and dinner off property. We have since done a more moderate trip for $2500, staying at Moderate resort with free dining. Both of those trips were 5 day/4 night trips with 5 day tickets. Most recently, we did 6 day/5 night trip with free dining, with park hoppers and memory maker for $3500. So the costs vary significantly since there are so many factors. But I think you have presented a fair assessment of those different variables.
Thanks for the info! I’m assuming that 2010 trip would now be around $100-150 due to ticket price increases, but still not too shabby.
I agree, and I think we got some pin code deal on that trip, where the kids tickets were free, which saved us money too.
Awesome job, like always, Tom! I’ve only made it to WDW once in the past 15 years (last December), so I’m pretty much a newbie at this (and I am so thankful to Tom for taking a little of the unwanted mystery out of the process). We had a kiddo, 2 parents, and 2 grandparents, so we were planning on two middle of the road rooms at a moderate resort (and they made it very clear that they could not guarantee us connecting rooms, or even rooms on the same floor or the same wing). But after a little research, we found that renting points through a DVC rental service could get us a 2-bedroom villa at a better rated resort for very little more. When we compared the amenities between the two, we jumped at it. If we had tried to get that 2-bedroom villa at a rack rate, it would have been $2000 more. We plan to rent again when we go back (hopefully in 2016).
D’oh! Why didn’t I think of mentioning Disney Vacation Club rental?! See, *this* is why I actively solicited comments on this post. Great suggestion–can’t believe I overlooked it! 🙂
I’d love to see a post on the cost of renting DVC points. The whole concept of it seems very confusing to me and I’ve been hesitant to research it for myself. 😮
I have never commented before, so allow me to just say a quick thank you. Your blogs are not only delightful and entertaining to read, but also quite informative. The photos are gorgeous and I have particularly enjoyed the information on the foreign parks. Now onto the point, as I do have one.
I am a West Coaster and have mainly have priced out DLR vacations. WDW is only a tiny bit more expensive for a much larger value. This is assuming you are staying on site and flying of course. Technically we could road trip to DLR and stay at a Good Neighbor for cheaper, but it wouldn’t be as close to an equivalent vacation. And frankly, even though the prices are inflated, I just love the Disney Hotels down in Anaheim.
Just for fun, I ran some numbers through the Disney sites and thought I would share what vacations to each coast would cost for our family and vacation style.
We have a family of five (two adults, one 8 yr old, and two under three) and live in the Pacific NW. We like to eat a variety of things, but are not big on potions as big as our heads. I am a big planner (seriously, I have food cost spreadsheets), but like to leave plenty of room for spontaneous decisions once we launch into a vacation.
I used your time frame of early September. For us to fly to DLR and stay Sunday to Saturday at the Disneyland Hotel with a 5 Day Park Hopper, two character meals, photopass plus, and $750 dollars for food and shopping we would come in at $5377.52.
Using the same dates, I looked at a booking at Port Orleans Riverside, with a Royal Guest room (garden view too as it was only $40.00 more for the package), 7 day park hopper tickets (dropping 2 days would only save $50, but I passed on the Water Parks as this would be a first visit), memory maker, Disney Dining Plan (About $840 for the three of us included, a number I am positive we could undercut by skipping the plan and just budgeting daily), Memory Maker, and $250 for shopping would equal $6160.62. If we were to book the same vacation during free dining, we would actually come in cheaper than the DLR price.
Of course, both of these figures come from the Disney site with no shopping around or waiting for seasonal sales. We are hoping to plan a trip early this December when prices for both locations are a bit steeper. I am almost tempted to switch our plans to the Florida park, but I think the smaller DLR is better suited to our current family dynamic. In a few years time though, I think we will have to schedule a trip out East.
That is if I don’t decide to drag everyone to Tokyo first. 🙂
First, thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoy the blog.
Second, the Tokyo trip becomes comparatively more expensive given the 5 people who would need airfare. However, leaving out of Seattle, you’ll see frequent $650 RT airfare deals. That, plus the strong dollar versus the yen and cheap prices at the Tokyo Hilton Bay *might* still make the trip to Japan comparable to the trip to WDW or DLR.
Finally, thanks for the insight as to the rest of your trip. It’s insane how expensive the on-site hotels at Disneyland cost. It would be nice if they would build (or purchase and redo current off-site ones) a couple more to offset demand and allow for lower price points.
If you do go to DLR first, make sure to consider an Annual Pass for the hotel discount. Sometimes they can be pretty good!
I am figuring Tokyo would be about double a stateside vacation as if we were taking the time to fly to another country, we would absolutely be doing more than just Disney. I always figured it would be completely out of price range until I read your posts and actually looked into it. Would not be cheap, but I think it would be worth saving for.
I agree that it would be great if DLR could add in one or two value level hotels. Paradise Pier is the closest they have and it’s still about $100 a night over many of the closer GNH without having all that much of a special Disney touch as it was fairly cheaply retrofitted into a Disney property. That said, my daughter and I stayed there last month and loved it.
We are absolutely considering an AP for me if we book a Disney Hotel. The rates are so high that with an upgrade to Deluxe from a 5 day pass even a fairly small discount would pay for the pass. We also have relatives who live in LA who have SoCal APs and JetBlue often runs cheap deals, so I could possibly sneak away for a couple weekends throughout the year to get even more value.
It seems to me that Disney posts most of their deals in 2-3 month from arrival timelines. I figure we will stash the cash aside and wait to run numbers and book until we get closer to our dates. I have heard that the best AP discounts on hotels tend to be fairly last minute, so it may be worth it to just be patient and wait. I really think my girls would be enchanted with the rooms at the DLH, but it’s hard to justify the extra $1000 just on accommodations.
My husband and I have no kids, We rent a house about 10 mins from Disney (it even has a pool and hot tub) We drive down.
House – $800 for 8days
We got an Annual Pass and decided to go 3 times in a 1 year period so Free Parking – $1,350
We take food/drinks (or get free ice water at any counter service restaurant) We usually eat 1 counter meal, a snack, and then go to Earl of Sandwich for dinner (Or wendys) so food is approx. – $50/day ($350)
So 3 times in a year would be
Tickets – $1350
House – $800 x 3 =$2400
Food – $1050
Gas – $450
Total – $5250 / 3 = $1750 per 8 day trip OR $219 a day for 2 adults
We always make the most of it and stay from open to close, its exhausting but the most fun I’ve ever had in my life!!
Good call including the pro-rated cost of the Annual Pass. That’s something I suppose I could do for myself for past trips.
One thing I didn’t even think about mentioning was driving a car down instead of flying! (In fairness, the article doesn’t really mention airfare too much, either.) Of course that should be viewed as an option. To make it a fair comparison to what I have here, gas should be removed from the equation, but at least by having it there, you demonstrate how much it can potentially cost.
Two other things to consider when driving: 1) wear and tear on car, and 2) lost time. The first is self-explanatory, but as for lost time, how you calculate the value of that is a personal thing…it could be the lost value of your wages at work or whatever arbitrary value you give to vacation time. Or nothing at all.
Yes, Lost time is unfortunate, the only reason we drive (and stay off property) is we have a rescue dog that is very skiddish (I wish Disney had a pet friendly property) I just can’t leave him with anyone or do any sort of boarding. BTW Tom, I love your blog!! I’ve been reading it since 2013 and it was extremely helpful to us in planning our first trip for our Disneymoon. Thank you for all your wonderful articles and beautiful photography!
Thanks for posting the math – I remember having this discussion with a friend a ~4 years ago who was saying how expensive Disney was. We compared their recent trip to the beach in Aruba with our trip to Disney. Excluding airfare, but including lodging, food, and park tickets (in our case) the price per day was about the same. And we came out ahead on airfare.
That might have changed with the Disney price increases of the past 4 years, but it still doesn’t have to be insanely expensive. (It helps that our other hobby is skiing, which tends to be a pricey activity even for frugal/value shoppers like us. So Disney doesn’t look bad by comparison.)
In fairness, I think most people would expect a vacation to Aruba to be expensive. The first image that pops into my mind when thinking of Aruba is some debonair Don Draper type sipping a drink on the beach with a gorgeous woman reading Vogue at his side. I think people view Walt Disney World as a quintessential part of Americana, and more attainable for the bulk of Middle America. Perhaps that’s all in my head.
With that said, there are a TON of vacation destinations (skiing resorts included) that are going to cost as much or more than WDW when all is said and done.
My wife and I are regular visitors to both Walt Disney World and Aruba.(Our two favorite places on the Planet)
But the expense of each vacation is very different.
We spend far, far more money in Florida.
It’s not even close.
First, Hi Tom! Love your blog, have been reading it for a long time and am now a new subscriber!
Re: cost of a Disney trip, it is absolutely going to vary per hotel, dining etc., but one of the easiest times I was able to calculate our cost was in 2013. We stayed in a one bedroom, lake view villa at Baylake for 10 days. We had the dining plan (including one table service) and park hoppers for 10 days. There were 4 of us, and it came out to $1000 per day/ ie $250/day/per person. (this did not include airfare)
Now fast forward to 2015, we reserved at the Grand Floridian, a magic kingdom view, one bedroom villa, and now the costs are closer to $300/day/ per person.
The only difference is view and 2 years!
(And then it gets even more fun!) I decided to book one of the Polynesian Bungalows for a 6 day/5 night stay for Oct 2015. With bungalow, dining, and 6 days of park hoppers, they wanted a mind numbing $16,000 for 6 days,, ie-$2,666 per day/ or $666 (interesting) per person/ per day!!
Needless to say, my honey wouldn’t go for that one,, oh well-when I win the lottery!
Really appreciate the perspective from the more ‘Deluxe’ (or perhaps ‘Luxe’) side of things.
The cost of that Poly trip is jaw-dropping. I think the bungalows look cool, and if money allowed there were a lot of things I’d love to do, but I don’t think I could ever justify that even if I had money like Iger. It just doesn’t ostensibly present enough value-for-money to justify a price even close to that.
Regardless, really appreciate those data points. 🙂
We’re definitely not Deluxe travellers -I’ve never stayed in a Deluxe resort at Disney, but I’m already planning to take my wife the Disney fanatic to a Poly Bora Bora Bungalow on rented DVC points at some point in the future. (Probably once the kids are out of the house.) Renting DVC points makes those
My “budget” plan –
5 nights at wyndham Bonnet Creek 1 bedroom- $100/night = $500 (ebay)
Rental Car- $100 (Priceline bid)
Parking- Avoid fees with resort bus, or creatively avoiding parking fees (not endorsed/recommended)
Tickets- – 5 day base ticket mousesavers undercover tourist- $321.95 (each)
Flights- southwest – $225 roundtrip from nyc (each)
Food- Groceries from Walmart for breakfast/snacks- $65
Quick Service meals and snacks- $35/day per person
1 excellent table service- $50 (each)
The last four times I went to WDW, my family stayed at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. Great … GREAT resort! … For $100 we got 2 bedroom suites … and twice we got upgrades to presidential suites … very nice! … The first time I bought them on ebay, but I have to tell I was very scared!
I’d be curious to hear more insight into the eBay buying process there. I’ve seen them listed, but always assumed it was a racket.
Thanks to you (and everyone else) who has provided detailed numbers on this. I appreciate feedback on every post, but I think it’ll be especially helpful to give further context here for first-timers with whom I expect this post to be popular in the long-term.
I’ve hesitated a while to write it since it’s essentially a long, drawn-out “it depends” answer to the question, but I think it does provide guidance, and we get the question so often that something, anything is better than a flippant two word answer. So thank you all! 🙂
We’ve booked bonnet creek through ebay twice. Once we had to cancel at the last minute and the seller worked with us to try and get us a refund by relisting. That was a kindness that was totally unexpected. At one time you could get enough points for wyndham timeshare to get a week at bonnet creek for a penny plus about $300-$500 in closing costs. I think some people bought up millions of points and resell now. I’ve noticed costs have been going up so I think the ‘secret’ is out but during low seasons I’m sure you can get sub $100 prices. No resort fee, no parking fee, and it’s very easy to avoid any timeshare sales people. If you have a large family and don’t want to pay DVC prices it is comparable to saratoga springs in quality for way, way less money.
Thanks for the info. Might have to try that myself!
Our family (2 adults, 3 year old, 1 year old), visited last year during the free dining offer. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort and opted for the dining vs the room discount offered. We had a great time and will be returning in 2016, hopefully with a stay at Wilderness Lodge or the Contemporary.
I can’t emphasize enough to do the math on the dining plan and consider if table service meals are even a good idea for your family. Character meals are great, but only if your child isn’t scared of them and not over stimulated from the rest of the day. I also found the counter service food to be delicious and have healthy options.
Further, breakfast in the room/ on the go is great no matter what your budget is. It gives you time to get to the parks early and less wait time with little kids.
+1 on doing the math on ‘free’ dining. I stress that in other posts, but not so much here. That’s especially true if you’re staying at a Deluxe Resort, where a room-only discount can easily save more money than the free Disney Dining Plan.
Another +1 on the breakfast in the room. Plus, that way you can have something healthy to offset the (presumably) junk food you’ll be eating the rest of the day!
Plus the Disney breakfast options are not that great.