Disney and Cost

I am not ready to research trips to Disney yet, but am curious about how much I should plan to save over the next 2 years. I'd like to go when my DDS are about 9 and 7, so in 2012. For a family of 4, what is the average price for a trip to Disney. I understand there are so many factors that would influece cost, but I'm talking about airfare from NY, hotel room (nothing extravagant) and theme park passes. There is so much info out there but just wondering if someone here has experience to narrow it down what my budget will have to be.

Edited to say this would be for about a week during a school vaction so I know airfare is always higher. Not sure how much time is enough to spend in Disney.

Message edited 12/31/2010 12:18:33 PM.

Re: Disney and Cost

Disney is $$$ - especially during school vacations. Hotels are more expensive as is airfare.

Disney has a wide range of hotel prices on site. Prices range from $99 a night to over $550 a night.

Meal plans for 2011 run about $45 per night per adult (ages 10 and over) and $12 per night per child (under 10).

The best way to get cheap airfare during school vacation times is to book EARLY on jet blue and southwest.

Admission passes are $$$. The best way to buy them is to add them to your room/meal package.

go to www.disneyworld.com and it will price everything out for you with no commitment.

Re: Disney and Cost

disney 5 day park hopper passes are about $300 per adult.
going next week and airfare is $300 per person.
staying at a timeshare so not sure about food.

Re: Disney and Cost

But there are ways to go cheaper - buy passes from undercover tourist, they usually have them a few dollars cheaper. If you have AAA, there are perks from buying a package from them.

going during the off season is a lot cheaper. The last week of the summer - late August- is usually the cheapest. It is the beginnig of value season (DH is a teacher so we;re stuck with school vacations too!) Usually in the fall they offer free dining plan - it is not always cost efficient to buy it, but getting it for free is def. worth it. It might even start at the end of summer. Occasionally thy offer x days of free rooms when you book X number.

Airfare is really cheap from Southwest, if you catch a sale or keep checking to get a credit. Booking early or just checking a lot.

The cheapest hotel fares are in the values (pop century, all star - music, sports, movies). They are basic hotel rooms that are fine if you just use them to sleep in. They start about $120, i think.

Really for 2012, a lot depends on the economy - they are still offering great discounts now but if things pick up they might start scaling back on those

5 days is a good minimum - you probably won't see or so "everything" but you can get all of the parks visited and see and do all of the good stuff

Message edited 1/1/2011 12:38:46 AM.

Re: Disney and Cost

We are taking our 2 sons in April. We are staying at Coronado Springs (moderate resort) for 4 nights. Because we are going during a vacation week, there are no dining deals.
So for 4 nights, meal plan, insurance and admission to parks we are paying $2700.

We are flying out of MacArthur using Southwest and frour roundtrip tickets are $1700. But we have to leave on a Monday b/c to leave over the weekend would have been an extra $300/ticket!

Re: Disney and Cost

DH and I go every year and it runs us at least $2000 for the both of us just for hotel, airfare and tickets to the park.

Re: Disney and Cost

Southwest is not always the cheapest. DH and I go every year and we always check both Southwest and Jet Blue as well as conventional airlines (American, Delta, etc) because there's no guarantee Southwest will come in the lowest.