Hellobee Boards

Just booked ours!

4 nights at the Art of Animation Disney resort in a family suite + 3 days worth of tickets for 2 adults = 1800$. The suite is 285$/night and tickets were 90$ish a day per person.

It's definitely considerably cheaper to stay off property. I found several nice condos for like 150$/night.

Wildly enough I just went to a talk about Disney from a travel agent. She visited our MOPS group. She said a modest trip would be 2800, moderate trip 3500: for tickets, meal plan, and accommodation at a WDW resort. Family of four. Doesn't include gas or spending money.

She said WDW advertises that a family of four can go for 4-5 days on 1800, but that it would take serious work.

Her website is: http://www.ftmtravel.com. If we ever go (I'm not a Disney person but if my kid wanted), I would totally use her services, but she is local so that is part of my rationale.

We booked it ourselves through the Disney website.

First one was our honeymoon. 7 days, 6 nights, 5 days in the parks with park hopper option. We stayed at a deluxe villa, Kidani
village. We sprung for the safari view and the deluxe suite. $4,000

Our last one was during the Christmas time, but during a slow week. 7 days 6 nights, 5 days in the parks with park hopper option. Stayed at a moderate resort, Port Orleans Riverside (HIGHLY recommend!) with a standard view and regular double queen bed (although we did get upgraded to the newly remodeled rooms just by asking). $2500.

Both trips were just DH and I. Doesn't include food, travel, spending money, etc. just what we paid when we booked.

From our research the dining plans wouldn't benefit us much, but it may be different with a child. Staying on Disney property is definitely worth the extra expense. The hotels are an experience in itself and you get free transportation. Last time we went we parked our car and didn't move it until we checked out. We caught the buses to the parks and took the ferry boats (part of the hotel) to Downtown Disney to drink and get a ride back. All free.

I think it also depends on ole what other a have said. Do you want the all inclusive Disney magical vacation? If so staying on property is a must and you can hop from park to park at your leisure very quickly.

Or you could do part Disney part just florida vacation. Maybe something like staying off site and only goin to the parks for three out of the five days.

@locavore_mama: if you can also limit your parks that can really cut back on costs. Maybe two days at magic kingdom and a day at one of the others.

Remember there are lots of free Disney things to do around there too. Like downtown Disney! Still get the "Mickey" feel

We just booked a 5 day vacation staying off site at the Clarion right outside the gates. It was around $800 for the room a dn our tickets. Staying on site wasn't a priority for us.

I do all the booking myself and then continue to keep checking the Disney site for deals - if any new ones pop up that are good for your trip dates, you can call and they will apply them to your trip and lower the price.

I've never planned a Disney trip for more than two people, so obviously that affects price. I should also note that we always go for 5 days and then spend 2 days at Universal/Islands of Adventure. Actually, I guess technically it's 6 days at Disney since I don't count the day we arrive, being that it's not a full day...but we still pay for it, so yeah, I guess it counts. But for the Disney portion of our trip, my cheapest trip (if I was booking it with their current ticket/hotel prices - stupid inflation) was $1476, and that had us staying at a value resort (Pop Century) with Disney transportation with no Park Hopper or other extras - although it does include a preferred room, because being close to the building that contains the lobby/dining/the bus stop is a non-negotiable for me.

My most expensive trip should have cost $4,882, but because it was a few years ago and I got a crazy deal, we spent slightly under 3k. This included a stay at The Contemporary Resort with a Tower Theme Park/Fireworks view room (and ended up getting a free to the club/concierge level!), Park Hopper, and a Deluxe Dining Plan so that we could eat at some super fancy restaurants since it was for our honeymoon.

I highly recommend signing up for everything Disney - create an account on the Disney World website and price our/save different trip plans while logged in, request an informational DVD, etc. Anything to get you in their system ups your chances of being sent pin codes, which are special deals not available to the public. We saved like 40% on our deluxe room that way, and have also been offered early free dining that way!

@looch: yes, we just bought a Costco package to Disney world for the first weekend in May!

5 ppl (all adults)
5 round trip airfare from Chicago
5 nights (off property Sheraton resort)
5 day Disney park hopper pass
Car rental
$5000!

I personally think that sounds like a steal. We priced it out separately and it was over $7K.

We stayed for 10 days on site with park hoppers. We paid for airfare and got a dining package. We spent $3500 for 2 adults. We booked everything ourselves, including airfare, on the Disney website.