4000 for a Family of 4 to Disney World

Last weekend we started a serial of budgeting posts where we set a budget and walked through how to design a vacation that meets your family's needs while keeping the toll the same. We began with a $ii,000 upkeep, and quickly figured out that a family of four from the Midwest has to make some pretty large decisions about what to cut and what to include to stay inside that budget. If y'all haven't yet read that mail service, give it a expect – there are some swell tips and tricks from readers in the comments.

This week we're doubling our budget! Nosotros'll keep the same travel dates and scenario from the $two,000 post. Just we'll look together to see what flexibility a significantly larger upkeep gives united states, and whether nosotros take to make similar or different trade-off decisions to arts and crafts a WDW vacation.

Explicate the Math!

Same assumptions as the last post – nosotros'll quickly revisit them here. Nosotros're planning for a family of four (two adults, two children) from the Midwest who will be arriving the Tuesday after Labor Twenty-four hours. Nosotros still aren't allowed to overfill our suitcase, even if nosotros recollect it'south reallyreallyworth information technology for that breakfast at Topolino'south Terrace.

Our budget will still take four categories, each with different options:

1. Transportation: Same options as the final vacation. I tin fly into Orlando or I can drive from my hometown. One time there, I tin can opt whether or not to rent a car (which was besides expensive for the small budget, just might fit now). And I'll have to consider parking costs at my on-property resort or the theme parks, depending on where I choose to stay.
2. Lodging: Speaking of choosing somewhere to stay, we have LOTS of options in this category. For the $2,000 I stuck with the very cheapest value resort for my travel dates (which was All-Star Music). Now that our budget has expanded, I'm going to toss out the All-Stars and get with Pop Century as the value pick. It's a little flake more expensive (about $30/night), but information technology also has significantly higher satisfaction scores. I'g keeping Caribbean Beach as my moderate option. Animal Kingdom Social club is the least expensive deluxe resort for our travel dates, and information technology'southward likewise my personal favorite, then that'southward an easy selection. Similarly, for renting DVC points, the Animal Kingdom Lodge standard studio is one of the cheapest options bachelor, and so we'll become with that at $19/point as our default pick. Finally, I found an off-site condo that is very shut to the parks, has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a full kitchen, and it can be mine for $100/night (including fees and taxes) plus a old $175 cleaning fee.
3. Park Tickets: Here's where things get ouch-y again. Lots of first-time visitors are surprised at merely how expensive park tickets are. With $4,000 to piece of work with, at that place are more than potential options. But if we go all the way upwards to a 4-twenty-four hour period ticket (no park hopping), that eats upwards nigh one-half of our upkeep. More park days likewise require more lodging costs, so we'll run into how that balances out. So for now we'll be able to choose from 1-to-iv-day tickets visiting a single park per day, or up to 3 days of a park hopper.
4. FOOD: Yes, this is still the most important. Contend with me if you must. Thankfully, nutrient costs are one of the most customizable parts of a WDW holiday. Even without a kitchen, I could order a grocery delivery and feed my family for the duration of a trip. Information technology's not my starting time choice, but it's a pick. On the other end of the spectrum, I could eat at graphic symbol meals for every meal. Nosotros'd end up having to echo them, and it would take a lot of our time. But information technology's besides a selection. Realistically, information technology will cease upwardly being a alloy. So for the food wedges, $ represents grocery-commitment-priced meals, $$ represents counter-service-priced meals, and $$$ represents table-service-priced meals. A one-day wedge stands in for 3 of that type of meal, a two-day wedge stands in for 6 of that blazon of repast, etc. And we'll need enough meals to cover travel days and while we're on-site.

Option one: Hit All iv Parks

The start holiday option I desire to try out is striking all four parks without using a park hopper. I want a full 24-hour interval in each. Allow's run across how that fits when working with a $4,000 upkeep.

• Tickets: This is the anchor point of my plan – I desire to be able to beget a 4-day ticket for each member of my family unit, and that takes up almost half of my $4,000 budget.
• Transportation: Maximizing park time ways that I demand to save money in other areas. One of those areas is driving instead of flying. So, long drive with toddlers it is!
• Lodging: With 4 park days (and two fourteen hr drives), we'll need at least v nights of lodging. And while offsite adaptation was relatively expensive for short stays thanks to the cleaning fee, it gets more and more reasonable with a longer stay because the nightly cost is so much lower than any onsite pick. So with a $4,000 upkeep nosotros can actually afford six nights in an offsite condo. And then we'll accept 4 park days and a recovery and/or Disney Springs day too. But an offsite condo too ways nosotros'll accept to pay for parking at each of the parks. At $25/day, that adds $100 to our transportation costs.
• Food: 6 nights means we need 7 days of nutrient. For a family of iv, that's a lot of food. Thankfully, there'south a kitchen in the condo, which means nosotros tin can do a proficient number of grocery-priced meals. So our seven days volition have 6 grocery-priced meals, nine counter-service meals, and even 6 splurges on table-service meals. Bonus – I accept some white space left! So nosotros can snack or get souvenirs.

Option two: Rental Car at Brute Kingdom Lodge

Option 2 allows my family to stay at our favorite resort. Just bus rides from Animal Kingdom Lodge can get a little lengthy, so we prefer to have a rental auto. Especially during the pandemic era, not relying on shared transportation makes us more comfortable. But can we really afford a rental auto and our favorite resort?

Yes, this numbers nerd attempted to draw a giraffe to specify which resort. That's dedication. And yes, to distinguish from our ain Subaru, the rental car is depicted as … a convertible. Totally practical.

• Transportation: We're emphasizing traveling in a style that makes u.s. comfortable for our vacation, and then a significant portion of our upkeep will be going to transportation. With flights and a rental car at $fourscore/day, almost 30% of our upkeep will go toward transportation.
• Lodging: The cheapest way to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge is to rent DVC points. At $19/point and a standard studio room, we tin can stay for iv nights.
• Park Tickets: With 4 nights in my favorite resort, we take fourth dimension for 3 park days. Staying DVC, though, means a park hopper wouldn't really leave me whatsoever money to feed my family, so nosotros'll stick with a single park per day and take some survivor-fashion tournament to decide which park is the weakest link.
• FOOD: 4 nights of lodging means that nosotros need five days of meals. With our remaining budget, we've got enough room for 3 table-service meals, 6 quick-service meals, and 6 grocery-priced meals in our room or on the road.

Option 3: On-Belongings, But Cheap Lodging

My family typically has two vacation styles. Either we're spending a significant amount of time at the resort and volition dedicate most of our spending on upgraded lodging, or we're emphasizing park time and so we desire to spend equally little as possible. Just staying offsite can sometimes be a hassle, so this pick keeps us onsite but lets usa fly downwardly and rely on Disney transportation.

• Transportation: Nosotros're avoiding the long drive and rental car stuff here and just flying roundtrip to Orlando and relying on Disney transportation while in Florida.
• Park Tickets: four-solar day single-park tickets end upwards requiring 6 nights of lodging for my family unit because we need a balance day for the kids. That's non actually feasible when staying onsite and flight, so nosotros'll become with the next-best (oops, I mean adjacent-virtually-expensive) thing and leap for 3-solar day park-hoppers.
• Lodging: Park hopping typically means really long days as nosotros maximize opening hours, and that also means I demand to build in a rest day onetime in this trip. So for 3 park days and a rest twenty-four hour period, I'll need 5 nights of lodging. If I'm determined to stay on-property, I tin can afford 5 nights at Pop Century. That lets us take advantage of the Skyliner, and we can either hitting up Disney Springs or stay at the pool on our rest mean solar day.
• Nutrient: five nights of lodging means vi days of meals. With our remaining budget, I can beget iii table-service meals, 9 quick-service meals, and 6 grocery-priced meals.

Option 4: Eat ALL of the Things

With my heavy emphasis on good food, does information technology strike you as weird that nutrient has more often than not been filler in every scenario then far? Let's fix that, and plan a trip all around the food. And as a bonus, after I present the details, I'll walk y'all through how you could practise the math for a trip like this. You lot know, in instance you don't accept a million little wedges lying around to physically fill a suitcase. (I can't tell you how many footling paper wedges have been pilfered by sneaky toddlers or curious cats around this house – it'southward probably a lot).

Bonus points if yous tin guess the resort from my skillful-level drawing!

• Transportation: I get hangry if I accept to drive a long time, so for a food-centric trip, nosotros're definitely flying. Nosotros'll also need to be able to easily get from resort to resort to eat at all of the best places. And Disney transportation isnotoriously bad at letting you practice that. And so nosotros'll need a rental car.
• Park Tickets: I'll be honest, if I'one thousand going to WDW for the nutrient, I'k not particularly drawn to Fauna Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, or Magic Kingdom. Sure, in that location are decent options at each. But I tend to gravitate the stand up-out counter-service options at those parks. But I know I'll desire to be going to EPCOT, and so I'll need one-day single-park tickets for my family to be able to swallow at a couple of our favorites around the World Showcase. The rest of the days we'll savour our resort and hop to other places to eat.
• FOOD: My ideal Disney eating day is a large breakfast or brunch (looking at you, Boma and Topolino's Terrace), some potential snacking in the middle of the day to "make full in the corners", and a big dinner to wrap up the solar day. So my normal 3-meals-a-mean solar day wedges aren't a smashing fit here. Instead, I'thousand going to assume each solar day of this trip gets 2 table service meals and a $25 snack upkeep. For every expensive Boma and Topolino, in that location's a more reasonable Beaches & Cream or Sebastian's Bistro, so we'll average information technology out a $200/day for food. Keep in listen, I take ii small kids that tin can usually split a meal and my family typically doesn't spend money on booze on vacations. If either of those things isn't true for your family, $200/solar day will become spent very quickly. In the end, for a 4-dark/v-day trip, I'll take ten table service meals, and $125 for snacks in betwixt.
• Lodging: If we have a 4-nighttime trip and just one twenty-four hours in the parks, we'll need to stay somewhere that is enjoyable all on its own. Since we've already got an Animal Kingdom Order scenario, and the only park we're visiting on this trip is EPCOT, I'll price out a point rental for a studio at Beach Club Villas instead. That style we can enjoy Stormalong Bay, have quick access to EPCOT and/or the Skyliner, every bit well as any food options forth the Boardwalk.

Then how did I figure out that I could beget four nights and 5 days of meals to maximize my food budget? Information technology required a little algebra. Outset, I took my $4000 budget and subtracted the toll of flights and a ane-day park ticket for each member of my family. That left me with $2,754 to spend. With that $2,754, I needed to exist able to afford X nights of lodging, Ten+1 car rental days, and Ten+1 days of food. Each night of lodging would cost $270.75 (averaging in weekends and weeknights). Each car rental day would be $80, and each twenty-four hours'south food budget would be $200. And then I had to solve this equation: 270.75X + lxxx(X+1) + 200(X+i) = $2,754. Once we divide all of that out, we get X = four.45. That ways I can afford … 4 and a half nights. Since a half-night isn't a thing, I round downwardly to 4 nights so that I don't overfill my budget suitcase.

What Does This Mean For Yous?

1. A $4,000 upkeep, unsurprisingly, gives much more flexibility for number of park days, lodging options, ability to hire a car, or eat whatsoever you want.
2. Even at the medium upkeep size (which is all the same a lot of money), y'all're going to accept to make trade-offs, whether that's staying at a lower-tier resort or spending less time in the parks, or packing your ain tiffin every day.
3. It'due south important to know the limits of your family. I could've stuffed in some more things to my budgets, but I know for a fact that my kids tin't exercise 4 park days in a row. I accept to build in an extra day, or by twenty-four hour period iv we'll all be cranky messes.
4. Information technology's too important to know and prioritize what's of import to yous. If your family unit won't exist happy unless you've seen every park, budget effectually that. If y'all admittedlyhave to stay at the Polynesian, brand that your first priority and work everything else around it.

Which of these four options would your political party choose for a $4,000 budget? Or would yous exercise something totally dissimilar? Whatever requests for what to prioritize with $six,000? Let u.s. know in the comments!

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Source: https://touringplans.com/blog/same-cost-different-wdw-vacations-4000-edition/

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