Would you take a trip to Disney if

[krisim]

you have airfare and hotel covered (credit card points).  DH has been talking up Disney to DDs but I don't think we have room in our budget for a trip this spring/summer as we are planning to build a house and move in June/July 2016.  

DH says that it'll be affordable because we'll only be paying for food and activities.  We normally take a low budget vacation in the summer (ie. drive to nearest big city and stay for 3/4 days), I think this will end up costing more than that if we want to stay for a week and we do activities each day.    DDs are 4 and 6.  I think they'll still enjoy the trip in spring 2017 and we won't have the stress/cost of building a house hanging over us (though we might be house poor!). 

Thoughts?  Am I right or is DH?

[Deleted]

I'd look into the cost of tickets to the park and see if it will cost more than your usual vacation. If it would then I'd put it off until the following year. If not, then I'd go.

Eta: I think a 5 day park hope ticket is $380 something per person. But I could be making that up lol.

[Ashley&Scott]

Reading fail: I see you already answered my questions.

Hotel & flights were the bulk of our costs, but food & park tickets are not cheap either. If you want it to be stress free I would wait another year. We just took M at 3.5, while we had fun I think it would have been even better if he was a little older. (5-6ish)

[mainelyfoolish]

Tickets for two adults and two kids for five days with no park hopper is $1300, so no, it won't be a budget vacation. OTOH, your six year old is a great age to adore meeting the princesses and experience the "magic" that she might not feel as much when she's eight. If you can afford it, I think it would be a really fun time for the kids.

[Ashley&Scott]

krisim - would you be staying on the property? Would you be doing character meals?

[ECB]

Sept 30, 2015 8:18:37 GMT -5 @awinter said:

 

Eta: I think a 5 day park hope ticket is $380 something per person. But I could be making that up lol.

Not far off.  5 day w/ park  hopper for an adult is $403. 

For 2 adults and 2 kids, this comes to about $1,570.  (OP, if you go to disneyworld.disney.go.com/tickets/ you can plug in the #s. I did 5 days but maybe you'll do less?  But the fewer days you go, the more per day it costs.  For 3 days?  It's $1340.  Not a huge savings, TBH)

[Marmee]

I personally would. 4 & 6 are great ages.

[krisim]

Sept 30, 2015 8:26:09 GMT -5 Ashley&Scott said:

krisim - would you be staying on the property? Would you be doing character meals?

We'd have to stay at Hilton brand hotels and I haven't investigated which properties we'd be able to select from.  

In terms of character meals, I'm thinking maybe one?  I don't think I'd feel comfortable doing all the extras when we have upcoming housing expenses. 

[anna7602]

I hemorrhage money on outings and activities when I am in my own city, so if airfare and hotel were covered, I can't imagine spending much more than I would on a given "staycation."

[jeaniebueller]

Food and activities are still pretty expensive. But I think that 4 and 6 are great ages for a Disney trip. I would skip character meals and dinner reservations and just get quick service meals and you will be fine.

[holly116]

We did it almost two years ago on the cheap but we drove, stayed at a value resort during non peak times, and only did two days in MK with only 1 child older than three. We did mostly cheaper dining options and I brought in all our snacks and drinks so it wasn't too out of line. It was still great, you don't need to spend a bajillion dollars to stay at the best on site resorts to enjoy Disney.

Honestly though, if you can do a week with two kids at a pretty good age to love it for around. $2,500? I'd just do it now. Being able to spend more money on what, food, souvenirs? But basically having the same experience at the parks, would not be worth waiting a few years for me.

[mainelyfoolish]

Sept 30, 2015 8:38:16 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Food and activities are still pretty expensive. But I think that 4 and 6 are great ages for a Disney trip. I would skip character meals and dinner reservations and just get quick service meals and you will be fine.

If you have a rental car, you can also save money by buying groceries and/or eating some meals outside of the park. We packed drinks and snacks and ate peanut butter sandwiches for lunch a few times. The food savings will offset the $17/day parking fee.

[jeaniebueller]

Sept 30, 2015 8:44:52 GMT -5 mainelyfoolish said:

Sept 30, 2015 8:38:16 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Food and activities are still pretty expensive. But I think that 4 and 6 are great ages for a Disney trip. I would skip character meals and dinner reservations and just get quick service meals and you will be fine.

If you have a rental car, you can also save money by buying groceries and/or eating some meals outside of the park. We packed drinks and snacks and ate peanut butter sandwiches for lunch a few times. The food savings will offset the $17/day parking fee.

Yeah, I should add that we ate a quick breakfast in our hotel room (donuts, bagels, yogurt), then would eat an early counter service meal for lunch. I also packed snacks for the park and we refilled water bottles all day. The little things like snacks are really where you bleed money at Di$ney.

[Ashley&Scott]

Sept 30, 2015 8:31:58 GMT -5 krisim said:

Sept 30, 2015 8:26:09 GMT -5 Ashley&Scott said:

krisim - would you be staying on the property? Would you be doing character meals?

We'd have to stay at Hilton brand hotels and I haven't investigated which properties we'd be able to select from.  

In terms of character meals, I'm thinking maybe one?  I don't think I'd feel comfortable doing all the extras when we have upcoming housing expenses. 

Makes sense don't forget to factor in daily parking costs too.

There are prices listed online but to give you an idea we spent character meals for our family of 3 ranged from $85-$130 not including tip. Quick service meals were $30-$45. There are quite a few sites that list prices online. 

But honestly I think I would wait until you were done building. 

[krisim]

You all are bringing up costs that I hadn't even thought about yet! Rental car, parking...

[jinkies]

If you are already have enough cc points for the airfare/hotel, would you consider opening a new card to earn points toward the park tickets?

I've looked into ways to maximize credit card points to make Disney more affordable, and there are some sites you can buy park tickets that will code them as a "travel" expense, so you can use a card that offers travel rewards to pay for them.

Here is one site that offers ideas (there are others if you google): www.thesimpledollar.com/using-credit-card-rewards-for-a-disney-vacation/ 

and the relevant passage:

Paying for Disney World With Credit Card Rewards



Now that your hotel and airfare are squared away, you’re probably wondering how you’ll pay for park tickets with credit card rewards. Rest assured it’s possible, even easy.



All it takes is for two spouses to sign up for a Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®.



Signing up for the card and meeting the minimum spending requirement will net you 46,000 miles per card (40,000 bonus miles plus 2 miles/$1 spent). Those 46,000 miles are worth $460 in travel credit, which can be used to purchase your park tickets through sites like UndercoverTourist.com or Expedia.com.



Your out-of-pocket costs will vary depending on how many days you visit the park, but as of this writing, a five-day Magic Your Way ticket costs approximately $309.99 per adult and $289 per child on UndercoverTourist.com. Putting half your costs on each Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® means you would get $460 off each ticket purchase. For example, you could purchase one adult and one child’s ticket on each card for a total of $598.99.



A family of four using this strategy would be on the hook for a total of $277.98 for two adult and two children’s tickets ($138.99 times two). The key is to order your Disney tickets from a website that will code them as a “travel purchase.” That way, you can safely redeem your miles for the purchase and enjoy some seriously discounted Disney tickets in the process.

[jinkies]

I stayed at a Hilton next to Disney for a work thing. They ran shuttles from the airports, and to the parks. You may not need a rental car or parking costs.

[Deleted]

Yup

(which is why I'm broke but I digress)

[anna7602]

Stupid question: are there sites that offer half-price tix to WDW? It's pretty easy to find Groupon/Gilt-City-type deals for EuroDisney passes, but I have zero experience on this side of the ocean.

[Deleted]

We basically are in 2 weeks actually.

We got airfare and rental car covered with points and one night hotel. And we have military Disney tickets so it's all ridiculously cheap for 4 days of vacation for 5 people. All said and done it will cost us maybe $1500.

[spankswife]

Sept 30, 2015 8:31:50 GMT -5 Marmee said:

I personally would. 4 & 6 are great ages.

I'm here. I vote yes! By 7 you risk being over princesses, and that would make me sad.

You could do a princess lunch and maybe a Mickey breakfast and do quick service the rest of the time, and that would be more than plenty. Also you don't have to do park hoppers.

[mainelyfoolish]

Sept 30, 2015 10:01:57 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Stupid question: are there sites that offer half-price tix to WDW? It's pretty easy to find Groupon/Gilt-City-type deals for EuroDisney passes, but I have zero experience on this side of the ocean.

Nope. The best most people can get without sitting through a time share presentation is a very small discount. Undercover Tourist sells the 4 day ticket at a $13 discount on a $300+ ticket. There are sometimes good deals for active duty military and their families. My DH is a DoD civilian and he was able to buy tickets at full price but tax-free through his base MWR. 

[Deleted]

I would do it. 2 1/2 years after moving to a bigger house I feel like we still hemorrhage money. If you are talking 2k at most for the trip, that's just like one upgrade in your house.

[curbsideprophet]

I think you could feel even more poor in 2017 so I would probably just go now. Moving into a new house comes with lots of expenses.

[chickens987]

Sept 30, 2015 8:31:58 GMT -5 krisim said:

Sept 30, 2015 8:26:09 GMT -5 Ashley&Scott said:

krisim - would you be staying on the property? Would you be doing character meals?

We'd have to stay at Hilton brand hotels and I haven't investigated which properties we'd be able to select from.  

In terms of character meals, I'm thinking maybe one?  I don't think I'd feel comfortable doing all the extras when we have upcoming housing expenses. 

The Hilton lake buena vista is across the street from downtown Disney and has transportation to the parks.