how much for a vacation (average for fam of 4)

[PEDSNURSE]

how much on average does a family of 4 spend on a trip if you don't live in florida?? 3000, 4000, 7500 or 10,000. trip to last 7 days and 6 nights. ( i know magic journeys is the best)

thanks

[bwallace]

We just booked
2 rooms (2 adults per room) at POR for 7 nights w/ park hopper, magic plus and dining. 7 day tickets
Total was 4,400
doing everything the same but only having one room would have cost 3,700.
The way we booked though the only cash we'll need is for souveniers. We plan to bring b'fast and also have leftovers for b'fast.

To book at a deluxe you're look at adding at least $150/night, probably alot more.

[ May 01, 2005, 08:38 PM: Message edited by: bwallace ]

[hope2survive]

That's a really hard question to answer. It depends on what you want - the best of everything or a more value package. If you go during peak time and stay at a deluxe resort concierge suite, it is going to cost a lot more than if you go during value season and stay at a value resort.

I have a family of 5 and we go middle of the road - moderate resort, about $500 total for souveniers, 8 nights, seven days, park hopping but no plusses, dining package. With all that plus plane tickets, and other miscellaneous, it's costing us (and this is for June) somewhere around $6500. It IS a VERY expensive vacation and we probably won't be going back after this trip for 4-5 years.

[winky]

Yes, it totally depends. Are you flying or driving? Are you staying Value resort/Moderate/Deluxe? Are you eating 3 sit down meals a day? CS most of the time? Time of year travelling?

Our 2 person budget for early December:
7 nights WL - ~$1,400 ( a little less with AAA discount)
2 7 day PH- $480
2 MVMCP tickets- ~$80
Flights from California - ~$250 each (although mine is free due to frequent flier miles)
Food - estimating $100 a day with at least one sitdown meal a day.

So that's ~$3,000 for two adults in the lower tier deluxe for one week. You can do it as expensive, or as cheap as you want.

[DisneyLuvnNooks]

I thought Disney was advertising the special deal for a family of four. A family of four, including air for around 1500. That also includes the park tickets. Is that deal over with or is it still going on?

[mpoppins-sc]

The $1500 is for a week at a value resort and park passes (I believe during value season) and that really is not a bad price. For a couple hundred dollars more you could add the dining package.

What people are saying is that when you stay at a resort that is nicer or you fly or you eat at nice restaurants or you buy a bunch of souveniers your vacation cost goes up. So it depends on what you are looking for, but--without travel expenses-- with the vacation package listed above you could easily do it for just over $2000 for a week and stay on Disney property.

[N2DisneyWorld]

Disney is running the $1500 for 7 nights/6 days for a family of four at a value resort, but the fine print states that that package is two adults, one junior and one child (child under the age of three).

[PEDSNURSE]

i was hoping i was not too cheap and i knew ours was not that expensive. painful in pocketbook though. we went for a day years ago and they still remember, can't wait to see what they remember if we stay a week. planning on CSR, flying and park hoppers for 6 days. spending about 2550. but we still need to eat and buy stuff so i plan another 1000 for that. we plan on doing the dining plan but will add when we get there.

basically just seeing what a typical family spends on summer vacation!! always interesting to compare to what our parents spent on us!! (very little at my house)

:cool:

[conorsmom2000]

DH, myself and our DS5 are staying at the WL for 6 nights / 7 days with a courtyard view. I forget the exact wording of our tickets, but we have MYW with the park hopping option and the Dining plan - this is costing us $2800, and airfare will be about another $700, for a total of approximately $3500. Obviously we could do this much cheaper (standard or woods view, even moderate resort) but we don't take many vacations. So, when we do, we tend to go "all out" graemlins/clappy.gif Considering the $3500 includes most of our meals, I am pretty happy with that price. oops - I did forget the MVMCP tickets, which adds another $117 to the total! graemlins/mickeysanta.gif

That is one of the best things about Disney - it's not cheap, but there are ways to make it fit into every budget.

[BostonChic]

My husband and I are going in September for about a week with my son(3ys)and nephew(12ys).We booked the hotel and flight already ourselves.We spent about $2,000 not including passes,which we'll get at the disney store, and spending!We got a good deal on the hotel(pofq)with our AAA.So now that you know all our plans graemlins/rotfl.gif I hope my information gave you some idea :D

[ShanPooh]

Hmmm...
This is how we'd do it:
(Hopefully) $800 for airfare
$700 for rooms (we're comfortable with All-Stars or Pop Century)
around $1000 for tickets
meals $700 ($100 for food per day)
$300 for extras = limo/shuttle, souveniers, necessities

I guess I'd say close to $3000.
Which means I'm glad I started saving for our next trip....in 2007!

In 1999 and 2000, DH and I (before kids) probably spent close to $2000 each time.

Hope that helps!

[Jen0610]

Going Aug 13-20, staying at POR, standard view. DH, DW, DS10, and DD8. Have 7 day tickets w/hopper option. Also have dining option. With the airfare, total cost is $3,676.45. We plan on taking roughly another 500-1000, in spending money. It just depends on how much we get saved and weither or not my husbands company shuts down for 2 to 6 six weeks this summer as they are threating to do. No work, just means less money for us to spend on the extras.

[buzznwoodysmom]

We are a family of 4 and stayed at WL last year the week before Christmas.

WL, courtyard view, 7 nights, general public code: $1,200.00

2 adult 4 day hoppers, military discount (no tax): $400.00

1 child's 4 day hopper, military discount (no tax): $160.00 (our youngest son was under 3 therefor free- adjust to $320.00

MVMCP tickets, 2 adults and 1 child: $110.00

Spending money: including gas (we drove), food (5 sit down meals and 1 character meal), souvieners, etc.: $1,500.00 - $2,000.00

Our total was somewhere between $3,500.00 and $4,000.00.

You can do a trip for a lot less or for a lot more. It just depends on what kind of vacation you are looking for. We have stayed off site in a time share, shared the condo with another family and only paid about $160.00 for the entire week, brought our own lunches into the parks and had breakfast and dinner in the room. We only spend about $1,500.00 on that trip including spending money and gas.

The trip being advertised is for a family of 4 staying in a value resort. The $1500 covers room and passes, but you will have to add the cost of airfare or gas and spending money to that amount. I would think a family of 4 could have a really nice vacation on $3000.

[Sweet_Hidden]

WE are going the end of june. I have about $3000 invested. That is including $850 for air fair and adding the dinning package as well as the park hopper. That is 2 adults and 2 kids. we are staying at the All-Star Movie.
We have saved about another $2000 for spending but I sure hope I don't spend that much, graemlins/thumbsup.gif but this is our first trip so we just might.

[nell]

We are a family of 3 - our son is considered an "adult" because he is 12 for ticketing purposes.

We are going for 8 nights in June, staying at the Coronado Springs with Park Hopper Plus packs for 7 days.

With round-trip air, we are at about $3,100 for the 3 of us, not counting spending and food. We figure that will be another $1,000.

Not the cheapest trip but we sure do bring home priceless memories. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

[Scott C]

Our family of fours seven night trips run us right at 3500. We usually take 1 or two days off from the major parks and we drive down -- that helps keep the cost down. That price does include food and souvieniers.

[PetefromRI]

I'm not sure but I thought I read somewhere that you can't add on meal plan when you arrive.It must be booked with package.Anyone know if this is true?

[the Allenzez]

We are going June 4 thru 11. Myself and my 2 DS, 17 and 15. We are staying at Pop, with 7Day hopper passes. We got a deal on plane tickets back in Feb, 108 roundtrip for each. I booked with Disney Travel and paid 1498.00 which is the room and the 7day hopper tickets. So at this point I'm paying $1822.00. I plan on taking around $1000.00 for food and souveniors. (I hope I don't spend that much)

I looked into the dining option. It was going to cost around 700.00 more. I thought that was a little much for the 3 of us. Plan on getting things for the room for breakfast and snacks to help on food cost.

graemlins/muscles.gif

[crazypoohbear]

okay, nobody show my husband this. When we go I plan at least a year in advance and buy our park hopper passes one at a time. So, I might buy one in January and one in May one in August. etc. Then I start looking for airfares and check daily. As soon as you can start booking I start looking. This time for Dec I got round trip from Boston for $160.00 each. Rental car $143.00 for 8 days. We usually do 2 All you can eat places. So betwee 3 adults and 1 child I plan for about 130.00 for each. We then eat cheap. bring our own breakfast, snacks, water, juice, soda and beer and wine for back in the room. We eat at counter service about 35.00 each time. We are very blessed to have a friend at one of the hotels and ge the family rate. So, I can't really comment on that but you can book The ALL Stars for cheap. THe point is if you plan ahead, buy your passes in bits and pieces over time it doesn't seem like your spending as much money as you really are. Our last trip in July we spent about $3000.00 total and were there for 2 weeks, but we had two free airline tickets and the friend. smile.gif

[Beast_fanatic]

Originally posted by PetefromRI:
I'm not sure but I thought I read somewhere that you can't add on meal plan when you arrive.It must be booked with package.Anyone know if this is true? I believe this is true.

The only thing I could find about it though is this:


Disney Dining Plan may not be sold separately

[DisneyDudet]

Buy early. We bought our airfare as soon as we could(after paying off some christmas bills of course). We then booked the hotel, paying for the first night only, we bought our tickets teh other night and then we plan to finish paying for the room when we get there.

With our AmEx, we rack up points for rental cars, which we then get for free (we may have to pay taxes). We then eat dinners out of the park, say Wendy's, Chick-fil-a, etc. We can usually eat at Chili's (if the bf doesn't come-he eats a lot) for what it costs to eat at for one person at a sit down restaurant in the parks or at a resort. We usually have pop tarts or muffins from Walgreens for breakfast (we usually eat one buffet breakfast each trip).

We also save gift checks and money from christmas for meals and treasures during the trip.

We have AP's b/c we will be going back at christmas and it will be cheaper than buying tickets for each trip. Also, the AP rate was worth it. The total savings, even when you calculate the price of the AP in it, saves a couple hundred dollars.

I know someone who saves up a certain amount of his paycheck each time pay day comes around to set aside for their trip. They don't touch the money, unless they are buying for the trip.

Do without renting movies for a while. Try to limit nice outings to twice a month or once a month.

Also, if you plan on eating out for meals if you have a car, ask for gift cards to Chili's or gift certificates to McDonald's or other eateries around so those meals will be taken care of. Family and friends will ablige your request for those christmas and birthday type gifts.

I dont know how much we've spent this year for our trip, but its not cheap. We save and do without if that means going to WDW. I'm sure you'll do the same.

[Marilyn Michetti]

This is the time for a family to make plans with the incredible price of "around" $1500. Of course that doesn't include air fare, or meals. Watch the airfares online, and figure out how much you will budget for food. It's still really reasonable.
Good luck ! ;)