This is how a lot it truly prices to go to Disney World

Ever go on trip and save each single receipt to see what it actually prices? Very like I do not get on a scale as quickly as I return from a visit, I do not sometimes complete each snack, tip and greenback I spend whereas away from dwelling. Somewhat ignorance is typically bliss.

Nevertheless, conserving monitor of the whole lot you spend on the parks — proper right down to an impromptu Mickey ice cream bar to beat the Florida warmth — can assist you determine precisely how a lot it prices to go on a household trip to Disney World so you possibly can higher put together for future journeys.

Having that intel is particularly vital to these with restricted budgets, as everybody is aware of a visit to Disney World isn’t an affordable household trip.

With so many bills to consider as of late, is it nonetheless doable for hard-working, middle-class households to afford a Disney World trip in the event that they make some strategic selections to rein of their out-of-pocket prices? On my most up-to-date journey to Disney World, I placed on my adulting ears and saved each single receipt to search out out simply how a lot a visit to Disney World prices for a household of 4 in 2023.

How a lot it prices to go to Disney World

Earlier than protecting every expense from my journey, it is vital to know a number of key particulars.

For this journey, I thought-about prices for my household of 4: two adults, a teen and a baby.

Whereas our transportation to Orlando was not factored in since that expense can fluctuate considerably relying on whether or not you drive or fly (and if the latter, the place you fly from), I did embrace different features of our go to, together with three nights in inns, two days spent within the parks and sooner or later spent by our resort pool.

We neither purposefully went a strict price range route nor had a blowout Disney journey. Fairly than select the most affordable choice for the whole lot concerned, we handled ourselves to some pricier choices with out spending effectively past our means. Doing so made it doable for us to nonetheless have a pleasant however budget-conscious household journey.

Associated: Ideas for visiting Disney World: 18 methods to save cash and have extra enjoyable

Reward your inbox with the TPG Day by day e-newsletter

Be a part of over 700,000 readers for breaking information, in-depth guides and unique offers from TPG’s specialists.

Theme park tickets

The primary purpose why a visit to Disney World is rarely going to be cheap for a household is as a result of theme park tickets are dear all on their very own. Even in case you by no means ate out at Disney and used factors on your lodge keep, you’re nonetheless spending a whole lot of {dollars} a day for a household to get within the gates.

At the moment, one-day theme park tickets to Disney World begin at $109 earlier than taxes are factored in … and that value solely applies to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. If you wish to go to Magic Kingdom, it will price you extra. That is very true in case you want to go to on a day when children are out of college for the reason that ticket value is tied to anticipated demand.

Figuring out how costly theme park tickets can get for a number of individuals, we opted for two-day tickets that granted us entry to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on sooner or later and Magic Kingdom on the opposite day. Excluding taxes, the entire got here out to $282.55 per individual for everybody 10 and up and $273.10 for the 8-year-old. As soon as taxes had been added in, we collectively spent $1,193.60 for our two days of Disney World tickets for 4 individuals.

Whole for tickets: $1,193.60

Associated: Easy methods to use factors to purchase Disney tickets

Lodge lodging

Our first evening was spent on the Walt Disney World Swan Resort. To pay for the evening, we used a mix of a Marriott Bonvoy 35,000-point certificates from having a Marriott bank card and seven,000 Marriott Bonvoy factors for the reason that one-night keep was priced at 42,000 factors.

Regardless of utilizing factors to cowl the price of our room, we nonetheless wanted to pay a resort charge plus a parking charge. Consequently, I knew I might be on the hook for a minimum of $100 for the evening.

Since I used to be conscious of some out-of-pocket bills that may include our keep, I made a decision to make use of an Amex Supply that awarded me $100 again on $300 in Marriott prices. We would have liked to eat and seize a number of equipment like MagicBand chargers anyway, so by tacking on a pleasant dinner on the property’s new Rosa Mexicano restaurant and visiting the on-site reward store, we had been in a position to cross that $300 threshold.

With our $100 assertion credit score from the Amex Supply utilized, we ended up spending $210.85 on our first evening of lodging.

1 of 3

SUMMER HULL/THE POINTS GUY

For the second and third nights of our journey, we moved to a two-bedroom villa at Disney’s Riviera Resort. Unable to justify the splurge on our personal, we determined to share it with one other household of 4.

Noticing the out-of-pocket price was larger for conventional bookings, we opted to lease Disney Trip Membership factors to order our villa. By renting from a pal, which got here with a slight low cost, we collectively paid $19 per level for 118 factors (or $2,242 for the two-night keep). My household’s half labored out to $1,121 for 2 nights (or $560.50 per evening), an affordable weekend price for a collection at a top-tier Deluxe Disney resort.

Whole for inns: $1,331.85 (plus a Marriott Bonvoy 35,000-point certificates and seven,000 Marriott Bonvoy factors)

Associated: Hire DVC factors by way of TPG’s companion, David’s Trip Membership Leases

Floor transportation

On the subject of getting a automotive and getting on the highway rapidly in Orlando, Hertz has by no means let me down, so I have a tendency to make use of the corporate after I go to Disney World. This journey was no exception.

Our automotive rental (which was for sooner or later longer than this three-day journey since I used it for work after our trip) got here to $202. The most cost effective kind of automotive accessible was a supervisor’s alternative electrical automobile, so regardless of preferring a regular automobile as a result of lack of chargers in Orlando, we obtained an electrical mannequin to avoid wasting ourselves about $100.

There have been two (gradual) charging stations at Disney’s Riviera Resort, and I fortunately snagged a type of on our final day to cost the automotive again up for $5.41 by way of the ChargePoint app. Since Disney resort friends shouldn’t have to pay parking charges at Disney-owned inns and theme parks, we didn’t incur any further out-of-pocket bills.

Whole for floor transportation: $207.41

Associated: From ‘fart mode’ to battery woes: 5 issues I realized from my 1st Tesla rental

Meals and snacks

Like room charges, meal costs at Disney World can fluctuate considerably, making it doable to spend so much, slightly or someplace in between. We in the end landed someplace within the center, choosing a number of pricier sit-down meals, a number of cheaper meals and a few strategic packing of snacks and drinks we acquired at grocery retailer costs.

The vast majority of our restaurant bills got here from two meals: a $195 lunch at Roundup Rodeo BBQ in Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which was tremendous filling and quite a lot of enjoyable, and a $151.52 character breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace — Flavors of the Riviera at Disney’s Riviera Resort.

Whereas our complete household joined for lunch at Roundup Rodeo BBQ, character breakfasts can get fairly costly, so we cut up up when it got here time to eat at Topolino’s Terrace. Solely myself and the youthful children in our bigger get together — aka those that would actually worth assembly varied Disney characters — took half on this incredible expertise, because it prices $45 per grownup and $29 per little one 9 and underneath.

The remainder of the meals we loved had been all quick-service choices. Typically, these might be ordered in Disney’s cell app and common not more than $10 to $12 per individual per meal.

We would typically share meals, lean closely into the youngsters part of the menu and depart no rooster finger behind when paying theme park costs to eat. That resulted in us spending $506.69 for meals for 4 individuals on all three days of our go to, excluding dinner on the Walt Disney World Swan Resort on our first evening because it’s factored into our lodging bills.

When our price range wanted some aid, we supplemented with Uncrustables and grab-and-go snack and breakfast objects we ordered by way of Trip Grocery Supply, a neighborhood grocery supply service that caters to theme park guests. The entire for our groceries got here out to $91.09.

Whole for meals and snacks: $597.78

Associated: The most effective eating places at Disney World

Skip-the-line passes

One other space the place you possibly can see the worth on your journey to Disney World bounce is on extras like skip-the-line passes.

Lengthy gone are Disney World’s free FastPasses. As a substitute, guests can now buy Genie+ and Lightning Lanes to bypass lengthy wait occasions for rides.

The costs for these passes fluctuate by park and by date, so it is arduous to know precisely how a lot it’ll price for this service till your journey begins. Nevertheless, it isn’t unusual to see costs for Genie+ hover between $15 and $35 per individual per day.

Throughout our journey, Genie+ price $23 per individual (plus tax) for our Magic Kingdom day and $21 per individual (plus tax) for our day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Had we been visiting Epcot or Disney’s Animal Kingdom as a substitute of Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we might’ve spent a number of {dollars} much less since our chosen parks are the 2 most costly choices for Genie+.

On high of what it’s possible you’ll select to spend on Genie+, which comes with entry to shorter strains for a lot of rides within the park, you may additionally want to purchase particular person Lightning Lanes for a number of standard rides that are not lined by Genie+. Know, although, that if you are going to buy all the person rides plus Genie+ for each member of your loved ones each day of your go to, it’ll add a number of hundred {dollars} to your journey. Doing so does imply you will spend extra of your time on rides than in strains, so in the end, the choice relies on what you worth extra: time or cash.

For our journey, we opted to skip some particular person Lightning Lanes for rides we have skilled a number of occasions earlier than, together with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which might price $20 per individual. Nevertheless, on our Magic Kingdom day, we bought particular person Lighting Lanes for Tron Lightcycle / Run for the three within the household who needed to experience it ($63.90) and Seven Dwarfs Mine Practice for the 2 children ($21.30).

Like with character meals, being even handed with which members of the family really need to expertise the person Lightning Lane rides can shave some prices off your journey. On the flip aspect, if one individual goes to get Genie+, everybody within the group actually must get it to benefit from the day collectively. We saved hours per day in line by buying Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, so to me, the added price was cash effectively spent.

Whole for skip-the-line passes: $276.92

Associated: Is Disney’s paid FastPass, Genie+, value it? This is the way it saved me almost 3 hours in line

Miscellaneous bills

Whereas my household has gotten fairly disciplined about reining in ancillary Disney prices since we’re there a number of occasions a 12 months, there’ll all the time be further bills that sneak onto a visit to Disney World.

Whether or not you notice vital memento, want a alternative MagicBand or, in our case, race to purchase a fan after mistakenly leaving battery-operated ones within the room on an especially scorching night, you will need to have slightly wiggle room in your price range to cowl these sudden extras. Finally, our journey complete included a further $37 for ideas outdoors of meals and $18.38 for a hand-held fan.

Whole for miscellaneous bills: $55.38

Associated: How a lot is an excessive amount of — has theme park pricing gone too far?

What it actually prices to go to Disney World

For 4 individuals (two adults, one teenager and one child) spending three nights and three days at Disney World — with a type of being a non-park day — the entire price got here to $3,662.94. That breaks right down to $915.74 per individual for the journey, which is the equal of spending $305.25 per individual per day.

Primarily based on our instance, the vast majority of Disney World journey bills are divvied up as follows:

• 36% lodging
• 33% tickets
• 16% meals
• 7.5% skip-the-line passes
• 6% floor transportation
• 1.5% miscellaneous bills

Whereas we stored our every day bills under $1,000, it is simple to exceed this quantity as a household of 4 visiting Disney World, even in case you’re maintaining a tally of your spending, so you should definitely use as many money-saving ideas relevant to your journey as doable to convey your prices down.

With some cautious planning, it’s doable to have a budget-friendly journey to Disney.