1 Park Per Day tickets question

$5000 for a family of five is tough if they plan to eat at WDW. I priced a 4 night/5 day stay at All Stars for 6 people (booking two rooms) for March 2020 at about $6K with the dining plan. And that didn’t include the cost of getting to Florida. Now that is with no discounts at all, so you could get less potentially.

The one nice thing is that the park ticket price per day goes way down after 4 days. It is only about $10 more per person for a 5 day ticket than for a 4 day ticket!

Yup, I just sent my sister in law an e-mail last night, and waiting for her reply. The cheapest trip I could (reasonably) price was $6100, staying off site at a nice but nothing crazy hotel. I then did another budget staying on-site at CBR and recommended a 7.5-8k budget (including everything except shopping). We’ll see what she says! Both parents in that family make a good living, but their children are special-needs kids, so they certainly have expenses in their daily lives. Still, I just want my niece to have the best Sweet 16 ever! :smiley:

Look up condo and house rentals on homeaway.com, which is what we always use to book off site.

Advantages of a condo/house rental is that with a full kitchen, you can save a LOT of money in food expenses by limiting in-park eating to one meal (plus snacks) a day, and eat breakfast and dinner in the rental.

A few years back, we did a family of 6 trip to Disney for under $4000, six days.

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Impressive!! If they won’t increase their budget, i’ll definitely have to do that. I love Homeaway, but didn’t even think of it. Great suggestion!

Our upcoming trip in May, we are renting a 5-bedroom house for $150/night. You can find cheaper than that (and smaller) easily. The earlier out you book, usually the cheaper the price you can find (most availability).

We’ve also stayed at the Floridays Resort (3 bedroom condo) which was nice, but the pricing there has gone up a bit, so it isn’t as good of deal as it once was.

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I didn’t notice this earlier. We don’t fly. We drive. Saves a LOT of money. It takes us two days to come down from Michigan. Usually works out to about $300 for gas and another $250 for hotels there/back. That’s $550 plus another $100 for food. $650 versus $1800 is a big savings. It also means you don’t have to rent a vehicle or pay for an Uber, etc, which is further savings.

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Yup, I have mentioned driving to them, but I’m thinking they’ll opt to fly. They are in Chicago and would have a similar drive to yours. I’m still waiting to hear back from them about my budget suggestions… they are very slow to respond to texts/emails.

See. You can find decent places for cheap. This one is about $52/night, for example.

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Holy cow that is cheap! And it looks amazing! I’m gonna definitely favorite that one in case!

This is what I’m saying. If you know your dates and book early, you can find some really good deals for some pretty nice places. If you wait, your options quickly dwindle. That was just one of the first I found.

6 nights - $520
Tickets (6 days) - $2320
Hotels down/back - $250
Gas - $300
Food - $1000

Total - $4390

Leaving $610 for souvenirs/extra food/etc.

:slight_smile:

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Yup, that’s IF they drive though… I’ve got a feeling their gonna be pretty against driving… :confused:

Well, with a budget of $5000, you do what you have to do!

Of course, if they up the budget, then more power to them! :slight_smile:

If you re-do to account for flying/rental:

6 nights - $520
Tickets - $2320
Food - $900
Flight - $1800
Car rental - $300 ??? (Didn’t look this up.)

Total - $5840

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For my family of 5, I have priced every which way and around $6,000 was the lowest I could get for a 5 day or more stay. Not that I know all the tricks but this was my finding.

I opted to skip the park hopper this year and we didn’t miss it. Yes, you can go back to the same park all you want AND you can go to any resorts. We were able to “hop” around by going to resorts for some meals and Disney Springs. I think the park hopper becomes more important if it’s a short stay but for a week it wasn’t a big deal not to have it.

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I concur. We never get park hoppers. The one time we did, we never hopped, so ended up being a waste of money! :slight_smile:

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I just remembered that I forgot to include the parking fee. So that adds about another $120 (assuming 6 days).

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Airfare might kill this, but like @ryan1 says my family stays off site and could make $5,000 go a long way.

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Maybe once they realize how much effort will have to go into keeping a $5000 budget they will increase their budget!

Just a thought on this - if you put a value on your time, flying can still come out ahead. Particularly if you are sacrificing real money for your time (such as if you don’t have any paid vacation days and so are missing out on your usual paycheck).

For me, losing two additional travel days (in addition to the two lost days for flying 5 hours from PHX to MCO) vastly outweighs the additional cost (even assuming I could drive to Orlando in only two days! It’s 30 hours driving straight.) If you take your annual income divided by 260 business days / year, that’s about how much it’s costing you. For me, if and when I leave my current job, any unused vacation days get paid out in cash, so that is real money - eventually.

Plus, if I am going to use vacation days, I would like to actually be resting. (Edit: or touring - not the same thing! :wink:)

All that said, I do like an occasional road trip. For shorter distances, such as the 6 hours to DLR or when visiting family within a day’s journey, we always drive. If you can drive in 1 day, you’re really not saving much time by flying anyway if you factor in security, layovers, check-in, waiting for baggage, and travel to and from the airport. Plus you take out a lot of the variability due to weather delays, etc. You feel much more in control of your vacation when you drive.

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Hmmm, would they be willing to rough it? Campgrounds are cheap and, the BUNNIES IN THE MORNING! Plus when u stay at the campground, its quick access to MK by “raft”. Definately no park hoppers. If ur not seasoned, u can spend a day in the park. At 16, I doubt there will be breaks in the day, lol. Off site is ok but u can get the least expensive value for not much more, cuts down on rental car. Some hotels offer shuttles but that is iffy in my opinion. I feel like if u stay onsite, u can knock a day off the trip. Dont forget meals. That can really UP the budget. 5k is doable, especially if travel dates are flex. U can get the bday button even if its a little off ur actual bday. Weekdays are less expensive. Bring quick eat breakfast with u for b4 u leave park or bring in with u and, if ur not a big eater, eat an early dinner, portions are big at Disney IMO. Get a “treat” for a later dinner “time” snack. Planning Disney is my FAV! Check online for cheaper tix too!

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We always drive if its more than 2 ppl. Sooooo, much cheaper.

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