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My thoughts exactly and so glad someone said it!! We live close and could go, but Disney has gone WOKE and not something our family wants to support. Plenty of other fun options!😄
When you really break it down, Disney, and everything about it is a complete rip off. I get the "magic" of it, but $3,500 gets you A LOT more elsewhere.
I think there needs to be a new official baby step: 3d - saving for Disney World! While you’re still gazelle intense from paying off your debt & building a 3-6 month emergency fund, maintain the intensity so you can quickly save enough money to see gazelles in real life, debt free, on Kilimanjaro Safaris at Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Ft Wilderness is my favorite place to stay!
Went to Disney January 2022. We did a 7 day trip, visited all 4 parks for a family of 5 and paid in cash! We started planning 6 months out, budgeted and saved! It is possible! We hope to go back in another 5 years but in the meantime continue working on babysteps 4,5, and 6.
We stayed at the Disney All Star Sports Resort a few years ago. It was dark, low ceilings, dingy. I would not recommend. We have also stayed at the Waldorf. It was a splurge but if everyone is sleeping well, it’s very clean it was worth it. This year we might use Costco to help plan the trip to save money or an Airbnb.
Great tips!! Here are a few we’ve used. Research: determine the “Must Dos” (and a back up) plan and budget for those top “Must Dos”. Determine your souvenir budget (even dining budget) and put the amount on a gift card. Helps with the blind spending on your debit card. Lastly, look into renting DVC points. You can rent points from DVC members and stay in Deluxe Villas cheaper than if you were paying cash. 1 and 2 bedroom and grand villas have full kitchens and washing machines/dryers. You can have groceries delivered and make your own meals as well as do your laundry.
The last time I was at Disney World (Christmas 2005), you pulled a paper tab Fast Pass at the ride with your return time printed on it. Free and easy! Disney will find any means to separate you from your money. BUT…it really is a magical place and everyone should go at least once in their lifetime.
Our son lives in Orlando, so we went to WDW for our 6th trip a month ago (Jan 2022). We vowed not to return--at least for many years. Crowds were higher than we've ever seen. Rides broken down. Ridiculously long lines. If we hadn't bought Genie+ ($15pp), we would have probably only been able to ride 2-3 rides from open to close (Magic Kingdom). Even dining options were scarce given the crowd levels. And this was supposedly in the low-attendance week of previous years. So adjust expectations if you're going there this year and keep an eye on the ride times on the app before you book. BTW, they also just raised ticket prices. :(. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but want you to be aware that the magic is much less as the cost is much more.
Ever since Bob Chapek came along a lot has changed. May wanna go to Universal Studios next time? Plus Universal is growing (Epic Universe, VelociCoaster, etc) in the right direction compared to Disney.
Staying off property absolutely does save you money unless you're choosing 5* places. I was shocked that you suggested the Animal Kingdom village as an option, $546 per night?! I'm going this summer and paying $45 a night for a Days Inn on I drive, just 15 mins away from the park. Accommodation is the biggest drain on the budget, with the amount I'm saving there, Genie+ and even a table service meal here and there aren't an issue.
Oh my gosh Rachel I loved the cost breakdown. It just makes it so manageable! Thank you so much for all the tips. We want to go to Orlando next June so the planning is starting to happen.
Beat this…During college (90’s) a roommate that graduated the year before me went to the Disney Culinary school. We (Me, wife, and kid) drove dow, stayed at their place 15 minutes from Disney, ate the kids meals at Disney for lunch and only ate out in the evenings, buying dinner for my friend and his wife, too. 5 days = $400. Found $60 in the ocean, so, really only $340. Score! Ah, the good old (broke college student) days!
Politics aside, we are going to WD to give my children memories that will last a lifetime. It’s not about left or right it’s about spending time with the people that matter most in our lives.
We went to Disney and rented an air b&b maybe 20 minutes out from the area. It was awesome! We got to use the community pool and no one was there. So it was like having a private pool. It was a 3 bedroom so my kids got to sleep in separate rooms so my baby didn't wake up my toddler. Also my husband and I had our own space. We made our food in the kitchen and we could do laundry. So we packed only carry-ons for the plane and saved money on baggage. We could rent a smaller vehicle because we didn't have to accommodate all the luggage in our rental car. We saved all year for this trip and went in November for Thanksgiving. I have family there but i couldn't stay at their house because there wasn't enough room with my kiddos. We did 3 days at Disney. We went to sea world and Legoland. It was around $6k with plane tickets and car rental etc. But we planned it. There was no regrets coming home. We really enjoyed it. Do you do have to pay for parking when driving in. So there definitely is some pros to staying in a hotel there though.
We go to Disney frequently and we're able to go for 5 nights, 6 days for $2100 total! Look for deals leading up to your trip and stay at cheaper hotels. We always stay at All Star resorts because we don't have to spend money on a rental car or parking when we fly down. Costco is a life saver for deals to Disney. We also pack our breakfast food in our carry-on luggage with some snacks to help save a bit on food costs in the parks.
Thank you so much for the information. I know it's a lot going to Disney and I know when we was young we decided to get a hotel with a kitchenette in it and we can cook our food for breakfast lunch and dinner and and I remember us doing that maybe y'all can try out the Airbnb if you didn't want to get the hotel and see if it has a pool be kind of private just like the hotel with the kitchenette and at least you can wash your clothes if you in the Airbnb so when it's time to go you have clean clothes and you don't have to worry about washing when you get home just thought.
Nice to see your all in cost explained and itemized. I think a huge expense that is missing is airfare. Depending on where you are flying in from that could be another $1k-$2k easy adding $100-200 to your monthly savings. We have made a choice to not take our kids to Disney, but you video is a great vacation planning tool for all of us. Thanks.
My daughter is a Disney concierge. She does all the booking and planning for her clients. She and her husband go to WDW several times a year. They also do the cruises and have missed them because of Covid
We drive through Orlando on the way to our grandparents’ house, about 4 hours into our trip. When our kids were little, we would stop at the turnpike rest stop that had a big fountain in the middle, a gold statue of Mickey, and a frozen yogurt shop. We’d take pictures with Mickey, get froyo, and throw some pennies in the fountain. They were convinced that was Disney World when they were small. Then we upgraded to a stop at Disney Springs and rode the small rides available there and got fun snacks and toys for under $100. There’s a lot of free entertainment- music, dancers, Christmas tree village with fake snow, etc. - that has all of the Disney magic. For theme park rides, water park, and zoo animals, we get a season pass to Wild Adventures in S. Georgia for $100/each.
We did no genie+ for Epcot and Magic Kingdom. We rode in total per park 5-7 rides. It was well worth it without Genie+ and may i mention that this was only 2 weeks ago during peak summer crowds. Genie+ is a scam, and so can Disney be. If you love Disney do it right and budget.
2:30 We just went to Disney World at Christmas week, went to Magic Kingdom only all day (9:00AM to 11:00PM) and purchased the Genie + for $60 ($15 each). We were able to ride every ride in the park using this app. There were a few rides we had to wait in the standby line, but was it worth it? definitely! We skipped at least 6 lines that were a posted 60 minute wait. Did 1 day at the pool at the resort, did the next day at Seaworld. Had a great family trip that we saved for.
The target debit card links to your regular checking account and still gives you 5% off without having to have their credit card. It does take a day or two longer to clear your checking account than if you used your banks debit card though.
@@heatherj3030 I don't want any CC linked to my checking account. For me I save up the money for the gift card, get it then within a few days pay it off with cash I have save. Easy for me but Thank You.
Maybe my math is wrong but shouldn't the midpoint Option 2 be 1,600.00-2,000.00 (depending on # of nights) more than Option 1? RC is only showing just over $1,000.00 more. It's literally $400.00 more each night...(4 or 5 nights). Just saying.
We haven’t been to Disney World, but have been to Disneyland twice here in California and I actually hated it. So expensive and large crowds. I wouldn’t even think of going all the way to Florida to experience the same thing.
We went to Florida with are kids who where 14,17,And 21 they still talk about it today and dream about going back it was in December so it was pretty special
I cant' believe you're promoting Disney. I'll take my money (my money - the government didn't give it to me as a payoff for being controlled) and show my kids American history across this beautiful country we've been blessed with. 🙂
Staying in a value one room hotel room for 5 days with kids is not fun. The rooms are cramped, one bathroom. The pool is nice, but if you're "saving" money by not having a rental car, you can really miss a lot more fun.
How so? The advice could be used for any trip, could it not? I mean, some of the prices on food and stuff was beyond like when she mentioned. Not eating out would save $100. Even when I do eat out it is max $15. Granted, I don't eat out anymore.
