Budget for our upcoming trip -- We two + 4 adult children in their 20s /7 nights /4 park days /renting a house near the parks:
Transportation to Orlando and around town: $100 for gas -- the kids will drive their own cars because they'll want to have their own transportation for non-park days.
Uber: estimate $40 for Uber (two ways) on the day we go to Magic Kingdom
Parking for one day: $25
One night at campsite: $80 -- to get no-cost Magic Bands and parking for two days
Lodging: $1000 or less for a house with pool (can't be exact; not yet reserved)
Tickets: $2136 for six 4-Park Magic tickets
Food: $1200 -- giving each person a $200 gift card for food in the parks -- this is gracious plenty considering our Disney eating habits, and if the kids go over $200 they're responsible for it themselves.
I'm estimating we'll spend $200 in groceries for the house, but since we usually spend about $100 at home (and won't be eating anything at home that week), I'm only counting it as $100. I'll make-ahead and bring a couple frozen homemade meals that'll pop right into the oven /will be inexpensive meals at the house.
I have several hundred dollars in Starbucks gift cards (everyone gives teachers Starbucks cards, but I don't drink coffee), so we're going to use them to order breakfast biscuits on park days.
Miscellaneous: I'm assuming $200 for a few new items of clothing, sunscreen, and other small necessities.
$4931 total (or $822 per person for a week)
It is easy to go crazy and spend a ton of money at Disney, and even when taking steps to save money Disney IS a luxury vacation.
Yes, Disney is a luxury vacation. Luxury, at least in this case, means expensive.
Oh I don't mind Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Don't mind? I'd love to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge, but I'd only spend that kind of money if the resort were the destination. I wouldn't pay those prices and then stay gone all day to the parks!
Next time we cruise I'm planning on going to Florida 1-2 days early and staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Disney rarely budges enough to make an impact.
Isn't that the truth? I'm kinda amazed that tickets are 50% of my above budget!
Now we have jobs that require us to travel a lot.
I don't miss much about my husband working, but hotel points /free hotel stays are at the top of that list!
I've been trying to convince my husband that us plus our little ones could have an amazing time, but he says we couldn't do it for less than $1k day so its a "no go" for now
You can't really do Disney "cheaply", but you can certainly do it for less than 1K/day.
We normally stay for about 10 days....
$200 Gas
$0 Hotel (DVC Owner)
$2000 Food
$100 Grocery
$0 AP (we have already used our pass so we are in the “free” portion as we like to think)
$500 misc and Disney shopping
I would say total about 3K for the 3 of us.... 2 Disney adult and one Disney child
Eh, DVC is far from free, so I don't think it's really fair to say that your hotel cost is $0. And you've already noted that your AP cost money.