Disney is crazy

hoffse

Oh yeah I agree that Europe is probably a waste for a little kid - although the Europeans do parks and playgrounds like nobody's business.  I doubt we'll take kids there until they are old enough to ask to go though.  Until then, H and I plan to visit without them.

There are just lots of other family trips that are appealing to little ones that don't cost a small fortune.

The US national parks are amazing and most people who live here are within a day's drive of one.  Washington, D.C. is a lot of fun and really family friendly since most of the big attractions are free and wheelchair/stroller accessible. What little kid doesn't love all the airplane/rocket stuff in Air & Space or running around the national mall?  Beach trips can be great because you can rent a house or condo and spread out.  Plenty of cruise lines run deals where kids sail free with two paid adult fares, and cruise ships are packed with kids clubs to keep them busy.

I'm really not anti-Disney.  I've enjoyed all of my trips there, and I'm sure we'll return. I'm just appalled by how expensive it's gotten.  I was looking into it more, and it sounds like ticket prices have more than doubled since the early 2000's.  That's just getting out of hand.

KAdams767

I'll be the anti-Disney voice, lol. Its just not for me, and honestly, if I only had the money to take a nice vacation every few years or once or twice in my kids lifetimes, it would never be Disney. We didn't have a lot of money growing up and only went on one big family vacation as a kid and it was Disney. Looking back as an adult now, I think my parents were idiots for prioritizing that. I couldn't care less that we went there, and for the money I am sure that trip cost, we could have gone on several smaller trips to better places that would have been more memorable. I am fortunate that I can afford a decent amount of travel now, and spend probably at least what a Disney trip would cost every year, but I would still never spend that kind of money for that.

BlueBirdMB

My parents did some European and domestic travels with me as a child, and it broadened my perspective on the world and life.  It also fostered my love of history.  We also went to Disney once when I was a kid.  If I could make a list of my favorite trips from my childhood, Disney would be at the bottom of the list.  

My husband and I had dinner with my parents and I brought up this Disney conversation and how I have zero desire to ever go back.  We decided my husband and dad will take our future kid to Disney and my mom and I will go to the beach!  Solved!

k3brad

We will definitely do Disney at least twice with our kiddos. My husband is retired military and we can get special prices on park tickets and stay at the on site Shades of Green resort for cheap. So for our family, we'd probably spend about $3000 total for everything! Not too bad for a family of 5 (well, it will be 6 by the time we go!)

JoanE2012

I'm not anti-Disney - I'd really like like to go there, but just for 4 or 5 days tops.  I have no desire to spend days there repeating all the parks - it's just not me (or DH, thank goodness).  I don't get it.  Then again, the Disney people don't seem to get why my DH and I like to travel all over the world.  We do keep trying to plan for a fall Disney trip (I'll never go any other time of year w/ weather/crowds), but each year when we look into it we realize we could spend roughly the same amount of money in somewhere more exciting for us - for example, we just got back from an extended long weekend in Paris and probably only spent slightly more than we would have at Disney.

hoffse

BlueBirdMB said:

My parents did some European and domestic travels with me as a child, and it broadened my perspective on the world and life.  It also fostered my love of history.  We also went to Disney once when I was a kid.  If I could make a list of my favorite trips from my childhood, Disney would be at the bottom of the list.  

My husband and I had dinner with my parents and I brought up this Disney conversation and how I have zero desire to ever go back.  We decided my husband and dad will take our future kid to Disney and my mom and I will go to the beach!  Solved!

Out of curiosity, how old were you at the time?  H went to Europe a lot as a little kid to visit his grandparents.  They would tour around whenever they visited, but he doesn't remember too much before the age of 9 or 10, just that he liked visiting.

BlueBirdMB

hoffse said:

BlueBirdMB said:

My parents did some European and domestic travels with me as a child, and it broadened my perspective on the world and life.  It also fostered my love of history.  We also went to Disney once when I was a kid.  If I could make a list of my favorite trips from my childhood, Disney would be at the bottom of the list.  

My husband and I had dinner with my parents and I brought up this Disney conversation and how I have zero desire to ever go back.  We decided my husband and dad will take our future kid to Disney and my mom and I will go to the beach!  Solved!

Out of curiosity, how old were you at the time?  H went to Europe a lot as a little kid to visit his grandparents.  They would tour around whenever they visited, but he doesn't remember too much before the age of 9 or 10, just that he liked visiting.

I went once at 7, 10, 14, and 16.  I remember all of the trips, obviously the later ones I remember better, but I believe all of the trips helped shape my appreciation of traveling.  

formerlyGDaisy09

BlueBirdMB said:

hoffse said:

BlueBirdMB said:

My parents did some European and domestic travels with me as a child, and it broadened my perspective on the world and life.  It also fostered my love of history.  We also went to Disney once when I was a kid.  If I could make a list of my favorite trips from my childhood, Disney would be at the bottom of the list.  

My husband and I had dinner with my parents and I brought up this Disney conversation and how I have zero desire to ever go back.  We decided my husband and dad will take our future kid to Disney and my mom and I will go to the beach!  Solved!

Out of curiosity, how old were you at the time?  H went to Europe a lot as a little kid to visit his grandparents.  They would tour around whenever they visited, but he doesn't remember too much before the age of 9 or 10, just that he liked visiting.

I went once at 7, 10, 14, and 16.  I remember all of the trips, obviously the later ones I remember better, but I believe all of the trips helped shape my appreciation of traveling.  

I was just a few weeks shy of 13 the first time I did Europe, I don't thinK I would have appreciated it as much if I had been significantly younger than that. 

short+sassy

Sometimes I like to be annoying with telemarketers (okay, all the time I like to be annoying with telemarketers).  I had a telemarketing phone call years ago where it was a guy trying to sell me some "awesome deal" to go to Orlando.  At my first opportunity to speak, I told him I had no desire to go to Orlando.  I'm sure he usually gets a "price" objection, so he floundered a little, and then emphasized the low price again.  I told him he could give me the vacation for free and I wouldn't waste my vacation days to go (actually true).  He just didn't even know how to respond to that.  It was fun. 

short+sassy

Frugalmama2009 said:

We are Disney people. We have spent 15,000 on 3 trips in the last 2 years. Everyone has things they like. We budget for it, and honestly, unless you are a Disney person, it's hard to explain. It's truly our ideal vacation. We are so frugal all year, when we are at Disney we don't go crazy but we really enjoy ourselves. We are not beach people, DD is insanely active so she does great doing the 12 hour days we put her through. My ADHD, ASD kid in a museum in Europe, I can't even imagine lol. Picture a kid who can walk 12 hours at Disneyland, then still needs to run laps in the hotel to burn off energy!

Back when I was in college I had two coworkers who were like this.  They got engaged to each other and decided to have a DW at Walt Disney World...which I will admit I did find odd because they were going all the way across the country when Disneyland was 45 minutes up the road.  But that was what they wanted, so I was excited for them.

In their wedding planning, they looked into renting Cinderella's glass carriage.  The body of the carriage really is made of glass.  I don't know what the price would be nowadays...this was over 15 years ago...but it was $10K for a 20 minute ride back then!

They decided to forego that option.  As neat as it would be, I can't say I blame them!

Disneygeek77

::shrugs ::

We are also disney people, but asking how much a Disney vacation costs is like asking how much owning a house costs. It depends. We won't ever spend close 7500, I laugh even thinking about it. We went in 2012, spent 6 days in the parks and paid for 3 tickets ( ds was free) and we paid around 2500 for our trip. We saved money by sharing an offsite condo with my family, drove down from missouri and brought in our own food and souvenirs. We had an absolutely wonderful time. One of the best trips we ever experienced and are planning for our next one in 2017. So please don't be intimidated. We put off going to Disney because I assumed it would cost us 5000 but after researching our options we did it for half of that.

JoanE2012

Disneygeek77 said:

::shrugs :: We are also disney people, but asking how much a Disney vacation costs is like asking how much owning a house costs. It depends. We won't ever spend close 7500, I laugh even thinking about it. We went in 2012, spent 6 days in the parks and paid for 3 tickets ( ds was free) and we paid around 2500 for our trip. We saved money by sharing an offsite condo with my family, drove down from missouri and brought in our own food and souvenirs. We had an absolutely wonderful time. One of the best trips we ever experienced and are planning for our next one in 2017. So please don't be intimidated. We put off going to Disney because I assumed it would cost us 5000 but after researching our options we did it for half of that.

See, it will cost my DH a decent amount of money because when I do eventually go, I want to stay on property, by ourselves and eat out at all of the wonderful restaurants I hear of!  Vacations to us mean no cooking.  And maid service each day.  Travel is our one big splurge.  So yeah, it will probably cost the same as Europe.  And I like Europe more, so that keeps winning out.  

Disneygeek77

That's fine too and I understand where you are coming from.  Disney isn't for everyone and trust me, I glad that it isn't for everyone.  I guess my point is that just like there are travel hacks to Europe, there are also travel hacks to Disney.  You do not have to spend 7500 to go to Disney.  When we go again, we will probably spend half of that.  We will bring in some of our meals or eat at a condo, but we will also eat some meals at Epcot and at the Food and Wine Festival too.

Princess_Lily

As a Florida resident it is pretty doable for under $1800 for a family of four however a couple of things...

You need to be within driving distance, and use your car.

You must stay in a value resort on-property and only for 4 days or less

You must travel during a "low desired time period" typically when FL resident deals are being offered - and during a weekday.

Don't by a ton of park merch. Our average is: two gifts per kid per vacation.

Don't do meal plans...so not worth it!!!

Do one character breakfast ($100.00 avg) - but worth every penny!! The lines for the characters are crazy in park - the breakfasts still allow the kids to think they had a personal experience still, even if it isn't with their "favorite" one