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Post by wrongwayfeldman on Jul 6, 2016 23:16:12 GMT
If you had hotel costs covered by a timeshare, could you do a WDW / Universal / beach vacation for a family of 7 for $2500? Our family is saving for one over Christmas in a couple years, but my friend is taking her same-size family in December and thinks we are overestimating how expensive it will be. A few differences: we want to fly and do NOT have access to a time share. Her $2500 budget needs to cover gas to and from St Louis, Universal tickets for 7 for three days, MK for one day, food for a whole week, and They'll also spend three days on a beach near Daytona in a time share. Am I missing something? I'm usually good at finding deals but I can't see how a week in Florida could be this cheap, even without hotel costs.
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johnnysmom
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,682
Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Jul 6, 2016 23:20:11 GMT
I'd say no. Out of curiosity I priced out Disney tickets for 3 days, 4 adults (over 10) and 3 kids (under 10). It came to $2100.
ETA: Universal for 7 people for 3 days would be $1200. If you're only doing one day at WDW, I think it's about $100/ticket. So your friends plan would cost almost $2k just in park tickets, and that's at slightly discounted prices, I hope she's not buying them on the black market. Maybe she has several kids under age 2 and therefore free.
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Post by littlemama on Jul 6, 2016 23:22:16 GMT
Uh, dont think so, especially doing short term theme park tickets. The first days are most expensive, after a point, it's not too much to add a day, but they aren't at that point.
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Post by Laurie on Jul 6, 2016 23:24:23 GMT
I think it would be difficult if you split the time equally. It is much cheaper per day if you choose either Disney or Universal but not both.
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Post by 950nancy on Jul 6, 2016 23:24:39 GMT
$357 dollars per person? A three day ticket is $229 bucks to Universal.
My son and I went for four days (just Universal) and our flight, hotel and tickets were $2,000. That didn't include food or wands!
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christinec68
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,129 
Location: New York, NY
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Post by christinec68 on Jul 6, 2016 23:27:50 GMT
Not a chance. Park tickets will cost about that much.
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Post by Tamhugh on Jul 6, 2016 23:32:24 GMT
No way. Christmas is peak season at Disney. Tickets for the Magic Kingdom are $132 a piece for one day. Universal tickets are $229 for a 3 day pass. They have blown their budget just on tickets. And staying off-site at Christmas is risky for Disney. The parks reach capacity early in the morning and then they are open only to guests staying on-site. Gas, food, parking, etc will take them well over that budget.
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Post by lumo on Jul 6, 2016 23:46:47 GMT
Nope, not a chance. You're smart to keep saving.
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Post by wrongwayfeldman on Jul 6, 2016 23:50:39 GMT
Yikes! I'll give her these tips. Especially about the park getting full early in the day. No kids are under 12. 4 adults, and 3 kids 16, 14, and 12. I think she assumes since they are driving and don't have hotel costs, it will be next to nothing, but even one meal out will set them back at least $100. And she did mention getting discounted tickets, so I am not sure how that works.
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Post by wrongwayfeldman on Jul 6, 2016 23:52:42 GMT
Nope, not a chance. You're smart to keep saving. It's taking forever, but I'm determined to get those kids to the land of Harry Potter if it takes me til they have kids of their own. |
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Post by myshelly on Jul 7, 2016 0:05:06 GMT
Nope.
I would strongly urge you not to stay off property, especially at a peak time. You run the risk of not getting into the parks and they do fill to capacity (especially Magic Kingdom). Also, you would be at a disadvantage for Fast Pass reservations and dining reservations, which are very important at peak times.
Another thing to consider is that the Christmas party costs extra, on top of admission to MK.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jul 7, 2016 0:06:38 GMT
Nope, not a chance. You're smart to keep saving. It's taking forever, but I'm determined to get those kids to the land of Harry Potter if it takes me til they have kids of their own. If you have big Potter fans - ditch Disney. For a family of that size, one day at Disney will run you $1000. My kids are huge Harry Potter fans and loved our visit, they've both asked to go back and would be more than happy to skip Disney to make that happen. |
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johnnysmom
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,682
Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Jul 7, 2016 0:24:27 GMT
And she did mention getting discounted tickets, so I am not sure how that works. As long as they're from a reputable source (I'd guesstimate about 10% off is all you'd get) it's fine. Or she could be getting free (or super cheap) tickets by sitting thru a timeshare presentation (not how I'd want to spend vacation time, but I'm sure a lot of people do it). But if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There are a lot of people who re-sell tickets, not only is it illegal, but there's a decent chance they won't even be valid for park entry. |
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Post by littlemama on Jul 7, 2016 0:33:24 GMT
Yikes! I'll give her these tips. Especially about the park getting full early in the day. No kids are under 12. 4 adults, and 3 kids 16, 14, and 12. I think she assumes since they are driving and don't have hotel costs, it will be next to nothing, but even one meal out will set them back at least $100. And she did mention getting discounted tickets, so I am not sure how that works. One meal out for essentially seven adults is going to set them back a heck of a lot more than 100 dollars!! |
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Post by cannmom on Jul 7, 2016 0:37:59 GMT
I think your friend is under-estimating costs. I priced tickets for both Disney and Universal and came up with $2380.00 just for tickets. That was a 3 day park to park at Universal and a 1 day ticket at Magic Kingdom.I priced for all adults since the child price is not really that much less. Just an $8.00 difference for a 1 day Magic Kingdom ticket. If they have any children under 3 they are free at Disney.
I would recommend that she check out both theme parks web-sites to get an idea of prices.
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Post by iteach3rdgrade on Jul 7, 2016 2:20:48 GMT
We are here now in a timeshare. We went to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure for 2 days with a park to park pass (for the train) and unlimited express pass. We added the photo pass, too. For 2 adults and 1 child it was about $1200. That didn't include parking (priority is $30 and we used it, but don't know the difference) or food. The express pass is amazing. We probably could have just used the limited one since we didn't re-ride things.
We went to the Harry Potter things when we first arrived at opening and the wait was less than 15 minutes.
We spent a day at Sea World and had unlimited express passes. We had discounts through our timeshare for tickets and meals. I was impressed with the 4 roller coasters there (3 roller and one water). The waits were so much shorter there with the express pass, but the crowds were less. They had my favorite roller coasters. I'd go back again just for the rides and the penguins were amazing.
We are skipping Magic Kingdom this time since we are also going to LegoLand for 2 days.
I think your friend has underestimated the cost.
Food at Islands of Adventure wasn't too expensive for us. We ate twice and spent about $36 each meal total. We didn't spend much on food today at Universal Studios because it was so hot, but we enjoyed our Coke Freestyle refills.
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Post by Scrapbrat on Jul 7, 2016 11:14:39 GMT
There is no possible way. We are doing Disney this summer with 5 people, using DVC for the resort stay, and I've spent more than that already and we aren't even there yet. In other words, park tickets plus flights for 5 people were easily over that amount. We still have food/restaurants and miscellaneous spending money to add in there. And going to two places (Disney and Universal) is going to be even costlier, because you will be buying shorter tickets for each place, which mean the per-day ticket cost is higher.
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Post by Miss Ang on Jul 7, 2016 13:14:36 GMT
No.
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Post by JustCallMeMommy on Jul 7, 2016 13:41:27 GMT
This is what I come up with:
Gas - 1 vehicle, 24 miles to the gallon, assume 2300 miles and $3.50 per gallon - $335.42
Universal Tickets - assuming they buy now or there is no price increase, also assuming all adults, but kids tickets aren't much cheaper - $1609.93
Disney Tickets - also assuming buy now or no price increase, all adults, and the worst case of peak pricing (only an issue with 1 day tickets) - $798
Food - best case is that they cook all the meals in the hotel and bring food to the parks - $500
This comes to $3243.35. I think it is unlikely that they won't want any meals out, no souvenirs, no unexpected expenses, etc. There are some small deals to be had on Universal tickets (rarely on a one day Disney ticket), but I don't see many opportunities to cut expenses here.
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Post by terri on Jul 7, 2016 13:41:48 GMT
We went to both parks in January and I feel pretty confident in saying that it will cost more than the amount your friend has budgeted.
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Post by JustCallMeMommy on Jul 7, 2016 13:52:56 GMT
Nope, not a chance. You're smart to keep saving. It's taking forever, but I'm determined to get those kids to the land of Harry Potter if it takes me til they have kids of their own. Totally worth it. I will give away my secret. My cheapest trip involved a time share - I used SkyAuction to buy a certificate for a resort ($250ish for a week) and then booked Summer Bay through ResortCerts. If you go this way, always check availability at resortcerts first. You should join the SkyAuction distro list - they don't always have the cheap certificates, but they do 3-4 times a year. We drove from Mississippi, spent 4 days at Universal, did the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (to give us a taste of Disney - this ticket gets you in the park from 4:00-midnight), did one day at LegoLand (I found a buy one adult, get a child free tickets), and did some other Orlando attractions (Titanic experience comes to mind). We ate breakfast in the room, but all other meals were in the theme parks. I bought tickets through Tickets@Work, if you have access to that. It was a great trip and about the cheapest we could have done it. At Universal, we started every morning and ended each night with Forbidden Journey - we rode it over 100 times! The team members were pointing out things to look for by the end. |
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mallie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,253
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Post by mallie on Jul 7, 2016 15:36:03 GMT
And she did mention getting discounted tickets, so I am not sure how that works. As long as they're from a reputable source (I'd guesstimate about 10% off is all you'd get) it's fine. Or she could be getting free (or super cheap) tickets by sitting thru a timeshare presentation (not how I'd want to spend vacation time, but I'm sure a lot of people do it). But if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There are a lot of people who re-sell tickets, not only is it illegal, but there's a decent chance they won't even be valid for park entry. Exactly. Disney does not issue vast amounts of discounted tickets for other random people to re-sell. Does not happen. I know soooo many people who thought they were getting a great deal, only to get there and find out they'd been scammed. Especially do not buy from people saying they are Cast Members and selling their employee tickets -- Disney has cut waaaaaaaaay back on the amount of free admissions cast members get (and CMs can lose their jobs for reselling, so the odds of someone being truthful here are about zero). The best Disney discounts (and they are not big) are via the Mousesavers Newsletter -- you sign up for emails and get the discount through them. But again, it's not a big savings. Small. Not enough to make a difference in being able to go or not. If you spend a week at Universal, it's best to get the season's pass. Same for Sea World. The Value Resorts at Disney can be comparable in price to other hotels, so I would not rule them out. The Value Resorts are Pop Century, All Star Sports, All Star Music, All Star Movies, Art of Animation. We have stayed at Pop and All Star Movies for less than $90/night. Staying at a Disney hotel means you do not have to drive to/from the parks; but if you do, you get free parking at the parks. You also can get early admission to different parks depending on the day. Another huge advantage for us of the Value Resorts is that they have cafeteria dining, which is quicker and cheaper than regular hotel restaurants. A good way to get cheap prices on Disney hotels is to get on the Disney email list and you will get a discount code (that varies in amount depending on the level hotel you choose.) Although recently, Orbitz has had the same prices, especially on the Value Resorts. |
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