Your cheapest trip to Disney?

[mindy32]

Hi All,

Just curious what everyone's cheapest trip to Disney has been? And what did it involve?

 

[Sugarglider]

Ha - you must be psychic! I just worked that out this morning!

$7500 - airfare, accommodation, hire car, annual pass, mostly table service dining, and shopping. this was for 1 person for 12 nights early Dec. Stayed SSR and AKV

I could have saved money on accommodation - I stayed in DVC by renting points and using my annual pass discount - but i could have done value or moderate hotels with my annual pass and knocked $1000 off. And obvi - 1 person in a room (in a 1 bed villa at AKV) is an inefficient use of the resort.

When I eat, I do table service and snacks and pretty much eschew counter service. My airfare was an economy sale price - on Qantas which adds about $200 and I fly from Canberra which adds $200 - so that was $2000 all up.
i spent $1000 on shopping - but how could i have ever reduced that??

 

[zanzibar138]

I had (roughly) budgeted for a budget solo trip to WDW for next year's TOT 10 miler. For a 7 night trip with airfares, accommodation at one of the onsite values, free dining (I was hoping for this since it would be September), and park tickets I had conservatively estimated $3500. I was going to be very strict on myself with shopping, maybe 1 or 2 Disney souvenirs, and the race entry would have been another couple hundred $$.

Now the trip has turned into the half-marathon weekend at Disneyland, with my parents, so things have changed a bit and I'll have to work out a new budget. Disneyland is always cheaper for airfares and I'll only be up for a third of the accommodation budget, but there will be no free dining and we'll probably be away for longer, and maybe hire a car for a few nights. I'm hoping it works out to a similar amount.

 

[coco392]

i got 900 airfares and kids fly free to l.a. on qantas. it was also when k Rudd gave us $900 each.
all the trip cost was spending and accomodation

awesome!!!'n

 

[ame]

We'll never have a trip as cheap as this again.. Dec 2009, 3 weeks in So Cal (3 days Disney, Legoland, Sea World, SD Zoo/Grand Canyon (plus polar express train) /Vegas (then outlet shopping in LA before flying home) for under 20K for 2A4C. Kids were aged 6, 7, 10 & 11 so cheap to travel and feed. The US economy was doing poorly so we got everything from car hire to hotels super cheap.

Dollar was okay, but best of all we got super cheap airfares (VA were a new airline and not selling). We took the kids out of school a week or so early and flew back on Dec 30 arriving SYD on New Years Day. All kids were under 12 and they gave better kids discounts back then, under 6K for 6 airfares over Christmas!!!

 

[Melbourne5]

2009 was a good year for us too. First time to the mainland USA. All up for a week at the Sheraton Anaheim , transfer, qantas flights for 5 ( 2 a, 3 k) was $5800. This didn't include dining and souvenirs.

 

[battymum]

Ok - so we have only had one trip, but here's what it cost. 5 people, all adults in 2011. All in USD.(except airfare)

Airfare - SYD -MCO via DFW - $6200
8 nights pop century - 2 rooms with free dining upgraded to reg dining and park tix $3500
7nights Freedom of the Seas - 2 balcony cabins $5000 including gratuities
4nights doubletree Guest suites New York City and flights return MCO -$3500
4nights Hard rock hotel -club level and park tix - $1400

 

[Franrose]

We were with a large group so had the benefits of group discounts for part of our trip, but our trip last year was 2A,2C, 5 nights DLH, 6 nights POFQ, 4 nights Doubletree Suites Times Square - all flights, accommodation, transfers, food, gratuities, taxes and spending money (including an afternoon/evening at American Girl Doll and a night out at Mary Poppins - we were pretty light on other spending money though) for AU$17,500.

 

[cola]

2009 $970 airfare, Sydney-Las Vegas-Orlando-Sydney on United. 8 days Vegas, 12 days Orlando, all accom done with short lead time timeshare exchanges so less than $1500 for 3 weeks split between 3 of us, so $500 for 3 weeks accom for me..... MNSSHP and 3 days on a non-Expiring Hopper, and I think one extra day, 3 days Universal for $100 I think it was.... Food and shopping was so cheap I think I spent less there than I would staying at home. My credit card bill for time away was less than staying at home (I put everything on my credit card)

 

[mindy32]

Thanks for all your replies everyone! I was dreaming about whether it was possible to justify a trip in the near future but I've realised no matter how cheap it wasn't really going to be possible. Dammit! Ah well, fun to dream hey. I just wish I could find a way to justify it in my mind!

 

[Sugarglider]

yes - I have to admit doing a bargain trip to WDW is one of the lies I live by

 

[Oz-kateer]

2009 was also my cheapest trip (speaking relatively - the trips in the 80's were the cheapest dollar for dollar but I was earning far less).

When Delta announced they were flying trans Pacific there was a big price war with the airlines, and you could get return to the US for $900-$1000. Top that with free dining and a child under 9 at the time and it was very cheap.

 

[alicia1506]

our trip cost us $4600 each (adult) and included:

insurance 101.00
passport 226.00
esta 14.00
bne - lax return 1200
lax - hotel transport 32.00
accom disneyland 98.00
disneyland 3 day hopper 190.00
lax - jfk one way 170.00
jfk - hotel transport 40.00
accom nyc 390.00
tours in nyc 60.00
jfk - mco one way 150.00
transport mco to hotel 30.00
universal accom& tickets 600.00
mco - las one way - 300.00
las transport 15.00
accom las vegas 150.00
las - lax flight 75.00
food 800.00

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I just costed what our upcoming Europe trip is really going to cost-I'd had a rough idea but hadn't worked it out properly or knew I'd decide it'd cost too much and should put it off a year or so. Also knew with us both working we could afford it so it wasn't going to bankrupt us or anything -just whether saving some of the $ instead of spending it on another holiday would have been judicious!....I'd been pleased with what savings I'd made with various costs but when you add all the little bits up - gulp!!

 

[bswift]

Bumping this thread up because I didn't want to start a new one!

Anyone got any more recent cheap trips?

I was just accepted into the WDW Aus/NZ College Program but I've also just started a new full-time job in my field so I've decided not to accept the offer (well... I have a month to decide so I'm just waiting to see what happens really). I'm thinking that since I won't be spending 6 months at WDW like I'd hoped to this year, I might plan a short trip to DL for next year. I assume since staying off-site is a lot easier at DL, it would help save a lot on accommodation costs.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Bumping this thread up because I didn't want to start a new one! Anyone got any more recent cheap trips? I was just accepted into the WDW Aus/NZ College Program but I've also just started a new full-time job in my field so I've decided not to accept the offer (well... I have a month to decide so I'm just waiting to see what happens really). I'm thinking that since I won't be spending 6 months at WDW like I'd hoped to this year, I might plan a short trip to DL for next year. I assume since staying off-site is a lot easier at DL, it would help save a lot on accommodation costs.

I've discovered plenty of ways to save money, but I'm still not confident any of my Disney holidays would classify as 'cheap'.

Congrats on getting a job in your field. At least now you'll get to see Disney through the eyes of a tourist rather than the eyes of a worker. I imagine that at least some of the magic must be lost by doing the latter.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

By the way, besides the airfare, I actually think a WDW holiday is cheaper. Particularly if you go for longer than a week.

 

[Snickals]

Cheapest Disney trip? Solo before child! lol It was also my shortest trip though. Can't remember the exact costs though. Now said child is turning 3 this year our trips are only going to get more expensive, which means we are likely to take shorter trips At this point a trip this year is even looking like it's out of the question...

 

[Vicky2jeff]

We went in April/May last year and I'm pretty sure our total for 2 adults and 2 kids aged 6 and 10 was roughly $20000.

$6300 for flights with Delta from Perth to Orlando return
$2900 for 16 nights at POP century with magic your way 10 day park passes ( you get the water park passes so that was 2 days taken a day a DTD and shopping days.
$5400 for 7 day Caribbean Cruise on the Fantasy
$1000 for Orlando accommodation and 2 day universal tickets.
$300 for transfers for cruise...from POP going to cruise then from port to Orlando.
$1000 roughly on a months worth of food..lol

The rest would have been souvenirs and just things you spend your money on.. Taxis..?? Which was $20 from POP to Walmart..lol Have so many plastic refill mugs..we sent 8 back I the post...lol

 

[teddykins]

I went last year from oct 23rd-nov 4th with a friend and while it wasn't a cheap trip the Disney side of it was relatively cheap - most expensive for us was the Backstreet Boys cruise. The whole thing was roughly $5000 each.

Airfares: melb - la: $1228.82 each
La - Miami - Orlando - la via Dallas: 446.80us each
Miami hotel for 2 nights. $258.77each
Bsb cruise: $1948 each
Universal: $564.65 each
Wdw: $629.24 each

We had about 2,500 spending money each and I think I managed to spend about $800/$900 at Universal alone on all that Harry goodness lol! I do remember our last Disney day I had about $150 left and spent it on stuff for my mum. There's quite a lot of stuff I had seen that I decided to get later and never made it back to that shop so next year I'm definitely going to live by the attitude "if you see something you want buy it now, don't wait"

Next year there's 4 of us going for a month and at the moment it's coming out to be $4,500 each but nothing is finalised yet so who knows what the total price will be