One of my neighbors owns a business exclusively for Disney trips.
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Planning a Disney vacation is practically a job
- Thread starter Nerdyone
- Start date
what is the average cost of, say, a week long Disney vacation on the park itself? i'm not trying to sound snarky, but from what relatives have told me, it seems like it's about the same cost as going to an international destination.
I went before New Years last year and it was in the mid 80s one day. Shit was nuts
Agreed! Currently planning a week-long trip to Disney World with the girlfriend and planning is fairly intense. We used to go to Disneyland a few times a year since we were local, and the most you had to do was dinner reservations if you wanted to eat at specific places. Disney World? Plan your entire trip 3 months in advance, top-to-bottom. Is 12PM a good time to ride Slinky Dog Dash on a random Tuesday in March? Who knows, but if you don't get it now you're not riding it!
It can average from 100-70$ a day per person just to get in depending on how many days you go in. The more days the average ticket cost per day goes down now but then you have to spend more to go longer.
I'm planning a 3 day park trip in LA for Disneyland with the kids and to bring my parents as well. It'll be around 3k at least. Rental car, gas , park tickets, hotel.
i guess if you're actually taking that many people, that isn't actually SO bad.
what would you estimate is about the average cost of say, a couple?
Fun story. My SO and I were in the restort on our last night in Disney, it was around 4 or 5pm and we'd just spent most of the day in Magic Kingdom. Our original plan was to wait until night and go check out Pandora at night. We were looking at the Disney app when we found a reservation for Be Our Guest open up at around 8pm or so. We basically trashed all our plans and grabbed the reservation. We immediately headed back to Magic Kingdom and spent the time going to a few of the rides we skipped like Small World.
We managed to eat at Be Our Guest then directly after got a fantastic spot for the fireworks show in front of the castle then ended our Disney vacation doing the very last ride on Jungle Cruise in the pitch dark with a guide who clearly had spent 8 hours doing this and was ready to go home, it was great.
Lesson here? I guess always be checking your fast pass/reservation app because you never know what might open up at the last minute.
This was our spot for the fireworks:
3 day tickets are about 600 for 2 people , 3 nights at a hotel nearby are about 500-700 depending on how nice you want. Then factor in transportation food n shopping
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For 7 nights including meals, hotel, and tickets we are at $4500 for a family of 3 staying at the Boardwalk hotel.
Hopefully nobody in your family will be a handicap. Last year I realized I had never been on a full family vacation (my sister is 11 years older than me), so I convinced my dad to take some time off and he, my mom, my best friend, my sister and her husband and two kids went to Universal Studios. I love my family, but there was almost never a point where things went smoothly except the day where me, my best friend and my dad decided to go to the park early and let everybody else sleep in.
My mom's body is breaking down, my sister is just...scattered, and my nephew is lazy. You can imagine how much of a nightmare it is to navigate all that and still be fair to everybody.
Hopefully your family is in good health and ready to have fun!
My mom's body is breaking down, my sister is just...scattered, and my nephew is lazy. You can imagine how much of a nightmare it is to navigate all that and still be fair to everybody.
Hopefully your family is in good health and ready to have fun!
Been slowly working on plans for a trip to Disney with a huge group of friends for either the end of this year or early next year. Without being too detailed and staying off resort with no hotel shuttling, we each can get away with spending about $800 for a 4 day visit at the park, but decided to round up to $1000 to be safe. This is taking into account that food is only going to be quick service and other stuff like gas to get there, parking, souvenirs, etc. The group is like 20 people right now so the rate for the hotel we have right now was pretty good.
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My family is all Type A. We will be at the park 30 minutes before opening
If you have anyone in your party who is entitled to a disability pass then get it. It's magic. Combined with normal fast passes we got so much more covered.
Went in November back in 2016. Didn't wait in line longer than 30 minutes for any ride. Was fantastic
One thing I'd recommend, even at the cost of shortening your trip a day or two, is the VIP experience. You get your own Disney guide and they take you through the employee's only entrance in the back of the park and basically lets you do all the rides as a fast pass. Our guide was super awesome and was so knowledgeable about everything and all the history of the park, and had some juicy celebrity gossip too, haha.
The biggest issue is the price, at $500/hr per 10 people and a minimum of 7 hours I think, not including the park tickets. It was something none of us will never forget though.
The biggest issue is the price, at $500/hr per 10 people and a minimum of 7 hours I think, not including the park tickets. It was something none of us will never forget though.
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This what my sister and brother-in-law do. They love their job
My wife and kids are going next week while I'm on a work trip. I have no idea how it's going to work out!
My wife and I went to Orlando for 5-6 nights at a hotel (Doubletree) that was still on Disney's property but not owned by Disney (Disney Springs). The hotel was pretty cheap and they have shuttle services coming in and out every 15-20 minutes taking you to the park for free. Didn't even rent a car. Just uber'd from the airport to the hotel and relied on the shuttle services. We did Universal also but had to uber there because we were staying at a Disney location. Between flights, hotel, Uber, tickets for both Disney and Universal, and food, we paid around 3-3.2k total. If we had skipped Universal it would had been around 2.6-2.8k total. If you live close enough that you don't even have to fly, even better. If you only did 3 days or something, I bet you could do it for a bit under 2k if you budgeted it well.
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Oh man! Those jobs are super tough to nab too, that's awesome.
Be Our Guest is highly overrated.
Just don't do breakfast there, it's the biggest rip off in all of Disney and that's saying something.
I went to Orlando in December, it was way more fun than the time I went in the summer. The weather was less crazy and it was still warm for me.
But yeah visiting Disney you need to set a whole schedule to ensure you can visit everything you want, you inveitably miss some shit though. Even with a 10 day pass I didn't come close to doing everything.
But yeah visiting Disney you need to set a whole schedule to ensure you can visit everything you want, you inveitably miss some shit though. Even with a 10 day pass I didn't come close to doing everything.
When my family and I planned to go to Disney World for 2 weeks a few years ago, I definitely spent a bit of time researching and planning our itinerary for each day. As we were staying at the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary, it definitely helped that transportation to and from the airport was provided. I ensured that reservations to all the restaurants that we wanted to eat at, were placed well in advanced. As part of staying at a disney hotel, some parks open early or open late on different days, so I planned to go to those parks during those available times. Even when we were at the parks, I ensured to take note of certain show times and tried to get fast passes that work with our schedule. I also made sure to allot one day for Universal Studios, one day for shopping and one day for the Kennedy Space Center. All in all, the itinerary that I made for those 2 weeks was quite intensive and I think we just needed just a few more days to do everything we wanted to do while we stayed at Disney World.
I would say Be Our Guest lunch is better than their dinner service. The roast pork they have is one of the best food items I've ever had in the parks.
For Op, some resources:
www.mousesavers.com (probably not as useful if you've already booked)
www.yourfirstvisit.net
www.touringplans.com (Has a good list of recommendations, and the $16 for the year premium membership is worth it just for their checklists+crowd calendar info)
www.dadsguidetowdw.com
And finally, have a pair of these for each day you're at the parks. Your feet will thank you. https://www.amazon.com/Merino-Hiking-Trekking-Socks-Forest/dp/B01FK5A8EW
Honestly Disney is so overrated, a vacation to a different theme park entirely is a better idea and the kids will have more fun anyway.
I feel like I live in a different reality. Spend your vacation at disneyland? You'd have to fucking pay me to do that
When we go to Disney World (typing from a lounge chair at Beach Club Resort) it's always first week of February.
It's before kids get off for February break and we usually tend to luck out on the weather. It was 63 the day we got here (Jan 31st) but it's been 70's and higher since. It's 76 today and we may have a couple days in the 80s before we leave next Saturday.
It's before kids get off for February break and we usually tend to luck out on the weather. It was 63 the day we got here (Jan 31st) but it's been 70's and higher since. It's 76 today and we may have a couple days in the 80s before we leave next Saturday.
start making reservations right now, Puck, even if you never plan on going
I went to Disney world with a friend that has PTSD who has trouble handling large crowds and waiting in line and Disney did a fantastic job a accommodating him.
Disney can provide your spouse with a disabled pass that works like a fast pass. How it works is you go to the fast pass entrance of the attraction you want to ride. Based on how long the wait for the ride is, the fast pass worker will give you a time to come back. So if the line is 30 minutes long, you come back in 30 minutes. If it's 2 hours long, you come back in 2 hours, etc.
When you get back, they will let the pass holder and 4 other people onto the ride and you enter attraction through the exit. Best part about this is that it works independently of the fast pass, so even if the run out of fast passes for that attraction, you can still get the pass to come back later.
It is horrible and has only gotten worse every year. Some reservations you either have to do some backhanded fake hotel reservation shenanigans to stand a chance at or if you go the legit route it is harder than getting a nintendo mini classic preorder.
I've generally given up on the whole song and dance and only do spontaneous short trips. You can ride anything you want with no/reasonable wait at ropedrop. All I really miss out on are the restaurants but they are too expensive these days and the food isn't worth it. FP+ is awful in general. Dedicating 80% of an attraction's throughput really kills a lot of attractions.
I've generally given up on the whole song and dance and only do spontaneous short trips. You can ride anything you want with no/reasonable wait at ropedrop. All I really miss out on are the restaurants but they are too expensive these days and the food isn't worth it. FP+ is awful in general. Dedicating 80% of an attraction's throughput really kills a lot of attractions.
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Yeah the amount of planning that goes into it now sucks. I really hate FP+, and am not crazy about dining reservations at 6 months out. Though there was a period not long ago they shortened it to only a few months, and it actually made it harder to get dining reservations.
Edit: I should add I don't bother making dining reservations anymore. We usually can get in most places we want to go - usually at "off" dining times but that suits us fine.
Edit: I should add I don't bother making dining reservations anymore. We usually can get in most places we want to go - usually at "off" dining times but that suits us fine.
The trick to Disney is just suck it up and pay for the VIP access that lets you skip all lines for the day. It makes such a difference in how much you see and how exhausted you are at the end.
No worrying about fast passes, how busy everything is etc.
No worrying about fast passes, how busy everything is etc.
OP
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The VIP experience is way out of my league. My relatives who work there typically get NFL players and wall street types. One tour my relative did was with Scarammochi
OP,
Highly recommend Tusker House Breakfast at AK and Akersus Breakfast at Epcot.
Tusker House is Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Mickey in Safari gear, and they have the GOAT Jungle Juice to drink. My Mom and I did this after our Flight of Passage in the morning, was great.
Akersus is a Norweigean style buffet, where they bring Hot plates of Breakfast favorites to your table and you can grab cold favorites as well. It's with the Princesses, and you get a photo with Belle at the beginning, it's really nice.
Highly recommend Tusker House Breakfast at AK and Akersus Breakfast at Epcot.
Tusker House is Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Mickey in Safari gear, and they have the GOAT Jungle Juice to drink. My Mom and I did this after our Flight of Passage in the morning, was great.
Akersus is a Norweigean style buffet, where they bring Hot plates of Breakfast favorites to your table and you can grab cold favorites as well. It's with the Princesses, and you get a photo with Belle at the beginning, it's really nice.
If you want tips on where to eat.
MK
For Breakfast I'd suggest Crystal Palace.
Lunch/Dinner either Jungle Skipper Canteen or LIberty Tree
Epcot
Sunshine Seasons is hands down a Top 5 quick service restaurant.
Up till recently the Biergarten was one of the best value deals, but Disney upped the price and eliminated a cheaper lunch vs dinner option.
Studios
It depends on how much kitsch you enjoy, both 50's Primetime and Sci-Fi Dine-In offer solid classic Americana fare. Don't miss the PBJ Shake from 50s.
Animal Kingdom
Flametree and Satuli are legit great quick service options. If you are adventurous and enjoy semi-fine dining then you must go to Tiffins. It's ridiculous how good it is, especially for a themepark restaurant.
Disney Springs
So many good options our favorite is Art Smith's Homecomin' huge portions of comfort food and the friendliest people around waiting on you. You can't go wrong either The Boathouse or Morimoto Asia. Guy Fieri's chicken quick serve place is apparently legit, and they have a ton of sauces to try. Also Amorette's Patisserie makes some of the most delicious desserts around.
When it comes to the Resorts there are some hidden gems. I'd strongly suggest The Wave at the Contemporary or Trails End at Fort Wilderness for breakfast. The California Grill is a legit great place, and if you are there on a Sunday and can get a reservation for their Brunch, you have to do it. It's food nirvana.
https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/review-sunday-brunch-at-disneys-contemporary-resort/
MK
For Breakfast I'd suggest Crystal Palace.
Lunch/Dinner either Jungle Skipper Canteen or LIberty Tree
Epcot
Sunshine Seasons is hands down a Top 5 quick service restaurant.
Up till recently the Biergarten was one of the best value deals, but Disney upped the price and eliminated a cheaper lunch vs dinner option.
Studios
It depends on how much kitsch you enjoy, both 50's Primetime and Sci-Fi Dine-In offer solid classic Americana fare. Don't miss the PBJ Shake from 50s.
Animal Kingdom
Flametree and Satuli are legit great quick service options. If you are adventurous and enjoy semi-fine dining then you must go to Tiffins. It's ridiculous how good it is, especially for a themepark restaurant.
Disney Springs
So many good options our favorite is Art Smith's Homecomin' huge portions of comfort food and the friendliest people around waiting on you. You can't go wrong either The Boathouse or Morimoto Asia. Guy Fieri's chicken quick serve place is apparently legit, and they have a ton of sauces to try. Also Amorette's Patisserie makes some of the most delicious desserts around.
When it comes to the Resorts there are some hidden gems. I'd strongly suggest The Wave at the Contemporary or Trails End at Fort Wilderness for breakfast. The California Grill is a legit great place, and if you are there on a Sunday and can get a reservation for their Brunch, you have to do it. It's food nirvana.
https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/review-sunday-brunch-at-disneys-contemporary-resort/
Crazy part is, if you just chilled on a bench and refreshed Fastpasses instead of getting in line, you'd have almost definitely have scored some within the first 40 minutes. I do that every time we go while we're eating, and we get on both Flight of Passage and River Journey each visit that way on the same day.
Can confirm. October is the best time to go. Plus, Mickey's Halloween party is cool for kids. When all the kids were lining up for candy we were riding all the rides we could. It was great.
Went to Disneyland and it was a ton less stressful as there weren't as many things you had to lock into advance with risk of selling out.
Also yes, the cost is nuts, but there are ways to save some cash. But it will al be worth it in the end
You essentially go to the front of the line..without fast passes
This hasn't been true for years.
You pretty much get a return time ticket and go through the FP+ line which is usually a less than 5 minute wait.
Also while true there are more peak days than not, Disneyland at least is pretty much busy through out the year
You know that is what it was. About 5 minutes, it felt like front of the line because it was pan's flight and there is no fast pass for that ride
Why do you need to plan the rides? Just fuckin go with the flow. You're makin it stressful for no reason.