OVERVIEW
The budget figures on this site are for trips to Disney World during a specific December week.
This page is for those who cannot go that week, and need to develop a budget for the time they do plan to go to Walt Disney World. (If you can go that December week, but not at that price, see Families on a Tight Budget and Designing Your Walt Disney World Vacation to a Lower Target Budget )
What follows is for people who already know what week they want to go to Disney World. If you don’t, see Next Best Dates to help make your decision about your target dates, then return to this page.
BUDGETS FOR DIFFERENT TRIPS
- Calculate you hotel, park ticket, and Magic Your Way Dining Plan costs by going to the Disney World reservation site, and going through the reservation process until you get a figure that reflects your choices. (Follow section A.3 in the To-Do List…except for the “Complete your transaction with a credit card” part.) This will give you an exact amount for trips within the limits of how far out the system accepts reservations—as of December 2008, you can reserve for an arrival date anytime in 2009.
If you are planning to arrive after 2009, use the comparable week of 2009 (because Easter and Thanksgiving weeks change, you use the comparable week of the calendar, not the exact week) and inflate by 7.5% per year.* - Add a budget per person for special events and meals not covered by the above. The itinerary for the target week of this site includes pretty much everything you could possibly want, or have time, to do, and sums to about an additional $380 per person ten or older, and $285 per person younger than ten at check in. For those taking shorter trips, on a per-day basis this is about $48 per person ten or older per day, and $35 per person younger than ten. Inflate for years beyond 2009 by 7.5% as noted above.
- Estimate your transportation costs for getting to and from Orlando. Inflate for future years. (Don’t forget parking and meals while traveling if flying, or meals, gas and lodging if driving.)
- Sum these three elements, and add 5% for contingencies and souvenirs.
*That is, take your 2009 number for the comparable week and multiply it b 1.075 for each ensuing year. So if the Disney site suggests a total for these three elements of $2,730 in 2009, and your plan is to go in 2011, you would multiply $2,730 times 1.075 to get it into 2010 costs, which yields $2,935, and then multiply that by 1.075 again to make it a 2011 number, yielding $3,155.
WHAT TO BUDGET LINKS
- See this for what to budget during the basic December trip
- See Special Circumstances if for the basic December trip you are on particularly tight budget, for (difficult) ideas to reduce the budget by more than $1,000
- If you can’t go the week I recommend, see Estimating Budgets for Different Trips
- To design a trip around a specific budget target, see this
