This is obviously an important question parents need to know when they are considering taking their family on a Disney World Vacation. How do you know if a Disney World vacation is affordable?
This is a very tricky question to answer. It's not because we're trying to be shady or elusive. It's because there are SO MANY variables that all affect the ultimate price that you will pay for a Disney World trip. Variables like time of travel, number of people traveling, ages of your children, transportation costs, length of stay and level of hotel ammenities will all impact the final price you pay.
The good news is that Disney World Vacation is definetly not a "one size fits all" vacation. It's actually mind boggling the amount of vacation choices that are available. There's a good chance a Disney world vacation can be tailor made to custom fit the exact needs and budget of your family.
If there is any bad news to a Disney World Vacation, it is that by comparison, you can expect to pay more for this type of a family vacation compared to say a cruise or typical resort stay. The reason for this as you will see is the cost of your park admission tickets. At Disney World, park tickets are expensive but you need to consider the amount of entertainment and fun you get for this additional expense.
So to get back to our original question, How much can you expect to pay for an average Disney World Vacation?...Let's work thru some of these variables to come up with a ball park price parents can use to figure out a budget.
For the purpose of this discussion, Let's use the example of a family of 4 - 2 adults with 2 kids ages 9 & 7....
Timing - We'll pick summer vacation. The kids are out of school so it's a popular time of year for many families to visit. It's not the cheapest time of the year like September or say early December where you might expect to save 30%. It's also not one of the most expensive weeks like the December holidays or Spring break which can cost 50-70% more. This should help get us closer to our middle of the road average price.
Hotel - There is always the debate of whether families should stay "in the parK or outside of Disney World. There are both cheaper and more expensive resorts found outside of Disney World. One would also need to take into consideration the additional travel time to get to the park each day, rental car fees, gas, parking fees and convenience in order to make an informed and intelligent decision.
For the purpose of our basic discussion here, we are going to examine the cost of staying IN the park for our family of 4.
Disney World offers families accommodation choices from Castles to campgrounds and everything in between. To help sort thru all of these choices, Disney categorizes their 20 different resorts located on property into three categories....Luxury, Mid-price and Value. For an average price, we'll choose a basic room at Port Orleans which is in Disney's average price category. Just purchasing the hotel alone would run about $1,357 for 6 nights/7 days during the summer.
Park Tickets - Disney World considers "childen" to be between the ages of 3-9 years old. Any person OVER the age of 10 needs to pay "Adult" ticket prices. A 6 day Adult base ticket is $288 and a child's ticket costs $260. This means you can visit just one park each day. Disney World ticket prices are pro-rated. The average daily rate is discounted almost 50% when you buy a 7 day pass versus a 1 day pass...so the longer you stay, the more you save on admission.
There is a park hopper pass which, as the name implies allows you can "hop" between any park any day. The park hopper option costs an additional $57 per person regardless of age or the amount of days you stay. It is also a very popular option with most families. There are also add ons for the water parks, Disney Quest and Wide world of sports. Parents can also choose to add on a no expiration policy for their tickets. For the purpose of our discussion, 6 days of park hopper tickets for our family of four totals $1,324. This is what we mean when we say a Disney World Vacation costs more than other family vacations...your park tickets cost almost as much as your hotel for the week.
Food - Many parents don't calculate eating into their vacation budgets. They think we have to eat whether we're at home or on vacation. Food in Disney World Parks is significantly more expensive than what you'll spend eat week at your local supermarket. A cheeseburger, fries and a coke will set you back $15 a person. Figure an average of $150 per day to feed a family of four for a total weekly food budget of about $1000. If you're family consists of finicky eaters or healthy appetites, you'll need to take these factors under consideration.
So...To answer our original questions of how much should our average family of four budget for a 6 night vacation to Disney World for hotel, park passes and food..about $3,485
divided by 4 = $871 per person for a 6 night/7 day stay.
To break this down just a bit further, divide $871 by 6 nights and we get an average daily rate of $145 per person/day for a Disney World Hotel, Park Hopper passes and food.
One very important point that we did not include here is....
Transportation - Some parents choose a road trip to Disney World while others fly. Again we have a ton of vairables here. That is why it's almost impossible to figure an "average" cost. One would need to consider...departure city, Time of year you're traveling, how far out you buy your airline tickets...etc.
A good rule of thumb is that if you live more than 500 miles away, it would probably be cheaper to fly and if possible, buy your tickets 9 months in advance for the best pricing. Airport transportation or a rental car would need to be included.
If a road trip makes more sense, be sure to calculate the cost of gas, a hotel en route and meals along the way when estimating your total cost.
