Disney Vacations

Gern Blansten said:

mace1229 said:

Poncier said:

$800 for a meal at Disneyland. Sounds about right these days Joe. 
Speedy will spend $800 on Dole Whips ad Mickey pretzels alone in April.

Enjoy the trip Speedy.

We're probably heading to the Anaheim House of Mouse in August coupling it with a visit to the new Super Nintendo World at Universal Hollywood that my son the Mario Kart freak has been anticipating for a few years now.

Sadly, this is why my kids will probably never know what Disneyland/world is like.
I grew up about 50 minutes from Disneyland ad we would go 1-2 times a year, so it makes me a little sad. But they've priced the average family out.
Obviously club33 is not going to be part of the plan. But last time we went it was  about 5 years ago and cost over $800 for 3 tickets (including 1 kid who was about 3 at the time), parking and food for the day. Lines were so long we barely got to do anything.
I don't blame them though, if I could charge that and sell out every day, I would too. 

Not sure where you are located but Kings Island in Cincinnati is just as exciting as Disney and no where near the cost.

I cannot fathom how people travel to Orlando to visit an amusement park. I speak from experience as we did it several times.

The last time I went we spent $1100 on Universal Studios tix and fast passes and ended up leaving at 2pm because we were all sore from riding the rides. Ridiculous.

Moved to east Tennessee over the summer. We got Dollywood season passes for all 4 of us for about $750. Kids loved it. Not as good as Disney, but for the price, I'll take it. 
Food is much more reasonable there, and getting in and out of it is a breeze. Since we had passes we usually just ate fast food near by for lunch, stayed in the park from about 12-6, by then the kids were worn out anyway. Got some other food on the way home. If we stay late and get dinner, its about $50 for us to eat if we want to eat on a budget. 

It always turns in to a conversation about the money. Ha
But I get it. Its not a cheap getaway.

We fly in Sunday and leave Saturday. That 1st day we do not get park tickets, instead we hang out at the pool and do a nice dinner at one of the hotels. We then purchase a 5 day park hopper ticket for both of us, that way we can hit any and every park when we want, at our convenience. The 5 day park hopper is about $700 each. The hotel price obviously depends on how fancy schmancy we want our trip to be. This time around we are staying at the Swan and Dolphin, and it ran me about $2200. Airfare was $475 plus I will have to pay for luggage. 

So let's see, I have dropped about $4550.00 and we haven't had one meal or one dole whip. Food easily runs us $150-$200 a day, again depending on if I am eating scallops or if I am eating a grilled chicken sandwich. Safe to say my wife and I will spend minimum $6000.00.

Oh well, we never complain.
We have a blast and we will continue to enjoy Disney. 

Gern Blansten said:

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

It always turns in to a conversation about the money. Ha
But I get it. Its not a cheap getaway.

We fly in Sunday and leave Saturday. That 1st day we do not get park tickets, instead we hang out at the pool and do a nice dinner at one of the hotels. We then purchase a 5 day park hopper ticket for both of us, that way we can hit any and every park when we want, at our convenience. The 5 day park hopper is about $700 each. The hotel price obviously depends on how fancy schmancy we want our trip to be. This time around we are staying at the Swan and Dolphin, and it ran me about $2200. Airfare was $475 plus I will have to pay for luggage. 

So let's see, I have dropped about $4550.00 and we haven't had one meal or one dole whip. Food easily runs us $150-$200 a day, again depending on if I am eating scallops or if I am eating a grilled chicken sandwich. Safe to say my wife and I will spend minimum $6000.00.

Oh well, we never complain.
We have a blast and we will continue to enjoy Disney. 

One of the best times we had in Orlando was when we rented a house with a pool for the week. We hit Disney/Univ maybe 2 or 3 visits and just screwed around at the pool, went out to eat, played games, etc. That was fun.

Of course that was in 2005 or something. Prices have really gone up since then.

1971 Disney World ticket: $3.50
2005 Disney World ticket: $59.75
2023 Disney World ticket : $109 ($16 decrease from the year before)

bootlegger10 said:

JOEJOEJOE said:

We got invited to Club 33 at Disneyland last weekend.  Very snazzy private club in New Orleans Square.

Walt took me for almost $800 when you figure-in park admission, the Club 33 meal, parking and snacks for the two of us.

I like the term "invited".  "You are invited to pay $800 to eat here.  You should be grateful."

The club 33 meal was $340.   The rest was park admission, parking, lightning passes, etc.

Poncier said:

JOEJOEJOE said:

bootlegger10 said:

JOEJOEJOE said:

We got invited to Club 33 at Disneyland last weekend.  Very snazzy private club in New Orleans Square.

Walt took me for almost $800 when you figure-in park admission, the Club 33 meal, parking and snacks for the two of us.

I like the term "invited".  "You are invited to pay $800 to eat here.  You should be grateful."

, lightning passes, 

This is one thing that really grinds my gears (to quote the great philosopher Homer Simpson).
They now charge you for what used to be free, "fast passes". It was what finally made my wife see the light and come over to my side of the Disney greed argument.

And it pisses me off that I have to wait in even longer lines now to let people who paid extra cut in front of me.

Agreed
The Lightening Lane is 100% PURE BULLSHIT! 

Gern Blansten said:

Poncier said:

JOEJOEJOE said:

bootlegger10 said:

JOEJOEJOE said:

We got invited to Club 33 at Disneyland last weekend.  Very snazzy private club in New Orleans Square.

Walt took me for almost $800 when you figure-in park admission, the Club 33 meal, parking and snacks for the two of us.

I like the term "invited".  "You are invited to pay $800 to eat here.  You should be grateful."

, lightning passes, 

This is one thing that really grinds my gears (to quote the great philosopher Homer Simpson).
They now charge you for what used to be free, "fast passes". It was what finally made my wife see the light and come over to my side of the Disney greed argument.

yeah it's bullshit...I got screwed at Universal for that because when you buy online they dangle it in front of you because they "sell out quick" yet when we went we didn't really need them because it wasn't extremely busy. Too late to ask for refund then.

I won't pay extra and just take my chances.
One thing to do when it's possible (and I know it often isn't especially with kids) is to try and go at less busy times. Definitely avoid school vacations. We did Disneyworld a couple of years when my son was middle school age just after Christmas and the crowds were misery. NYE was ridiculous. Magic kingdom at full capacity and closed before noontime. After a couple of years of that I convinced the wife to try Disneyland in August instead (wasn't going to Orlando in August, no thank you). Have found that late August isn't too bad (weekdays at least) as many California school districts have started back already. Now that my kid is in college and doesn't start move back in until early September, we are going Aug 21-29 this year and hoping for decent crowd sizes, not doing any parks on the Saturday. Most important this year is Universal Hollywood as they have opened Super Nintendo World and my son is a Mario Kart freak, so he's been looking forward to that for a few years.
Speedy should have a good week, late April to mid-May is a decent time for Orlando crowd wise as is November (excluding Thanksgiving week) and early December.

Johnny Abruzzo said:

The place basically sold out for spring break. Still looking for ideas where to go. The Dollywood thing sounds cool and I've never been to that area of the country. Any suggestions about where to stay, etc?

I've never been to Dollywood, but I have been to the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg part of Tennessee. It is very touristy, so there are lots of hotels and rental houses. The last couple of times we used either Vrbo or AirBnB to rent a house. We would pick a place between the 2 towns and easily accessible to US Highway 321. Honestly though, I'm not a big fan of that area. Reminds me too much of Myrtle Beach, but in the mountains. The best things there are the Ole Smokey Distillery and finding places to go in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. If you want to take a trip to Tennessee, I would recommend Nashville or Memphis.

It's a cool area to visit with kids. Great aquarium in Gatlinburg....also Ober Gatlinburg is fun to visit. 

Cabin rental is nice because you can generally get one with a hot tub and pool table, etc. Traffic between Gatlinburg and Sevierville is ridiculous so you either need to plan your drives to avoid it or stay in the middle of it so you don't have to drive. 

Visits to the Nat'l park, canoeing, Dollywood, all kinds of shit to do

Gern Blansten said:

It's a cool area to visit with kids. Great aquarium in Gatlinburg....also Ober Gatlinburg is fun to visit. 

Cabin rental is nice because you can generally get one with a hot tub and pool table, etc. Traffic between Gatlinburg and Sevierville is ridiculous so you either need to plan your drives to avoid it or stay in the middle of it so you don't have to drive. 

Visits to the Nat'l park, canoeing, Dollywood, all kinds of shit to do

Thanks!