e. What to Budget for Walt Disney World

OVERVIEW

For the Basic Itinerary this site recommends, assuming you are a family of 4 with one child younger than 10 and one older, budget if you can

• $6,700 if you are staying at the Polynesian, or

• $4,300 if you are staying at Pop Century

Add to this budget the costs of getting your family to and from Orlando, and some funds for contingencies and souvenirs.

OTHER OPTIONS

• To design a much less expensive trip, see this page on designing your Disney World vacation to a budget target.

• To create a budget for a different date, resort hotel, itinerary, or family type (size, or age structure), see this page on estimating budgets for other trips.

• For ideas on how to reduce the costs of the Basic Itinerary, see this.

WHAT THIS INCLUDES

The budget figures include Walt Disney World Resort hotel accommodations, food, park tickets, and several separately priced meals and special events:

• Eight days of park tickets, at about $975 after tax

• Eight nights of the Disney Dining Plan, for about $1300 after taxes and tips, and another $230 to cover breakfasts in your room, refillable mugs, and snacks

• Approximately $925 after tax for a number of additional special tickets, events, and meals outside of the Dining Plan–including Cirque du Soleil, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, the Gospel Brunch at the Downtown Disney House of Blues, etc.

• Lodging costs: $3285 after tax for 8 nights at the Polynesian, or $865 after tax for eight nights (and a refrigerator) at Pop Century

Transportation between your Walt Disney World Resort Hotel and other Disney World destinations is free. If you are flying into Orlando International Airport (MCO), transportation back and forth between your Disney resort and the airport is also free, although you must sign up for it. Signing up is included in your To-Do List.

LINKS FOR WHAT TO BUDGET FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD

For the basic December trip recommended by this site

• See this for what to budget during the basic December trip
• See this if you are on particularly tight budget, for (difficult) ideas to reduce the December trip budget by more than $1,000

For help getting to much lower budget numbers,

• See this for links to current Walt Disney World deals and discounts
• For basic Disney World budgeting concepts, see Planning Your Walt Disney World Budget
• To design a trip around a specific budget target–e.g., what you can do for $2,500–see this
• For reducing your lodging costs,
  • See The Tightwad’s Guide to Where to Stay at Walt Disney World
  • See this for links to current Walt Disney World deals and discounts
• For reducing your dining costs,
  • For ideas on cutting your dining costs compared to what this site recommends, see this
  • For a period during which dining is sometimes free, see The Tightwad’s Guide to When to Go to Walt Disney World
• For reducing your transportation costs, see this

For Walt Disney World price seasons,

• See this for resort price seasons
• See this for Disney Dining Plan price seasons
• See this for Walt Disney World theme park admission tickets

For the Tightwad’s Guide to Walt Disney World, see this

For the Comfortable Guide to Walt Disney World, see this

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If you can’t go the week this site recommends, see Estimating Budgets for Different Trips