Are you a splurger or saver at Disney?

Splurge on hotel room. I need a view whether in Orlando or NYC. We don’t splurge on food. Used too but now we eat light for health purposes and feel better. We eat a good bit in lounges at WDW. Share meals, etc.
 
I tend to splurge on resorts (deluxe), tickets (park hopper only), and flights (direct, whichever flight I want).

But for the rest of the trip I work to be as frugal as I can while at Disney (i.e. no hard-ticket events, rarely do signature dining, limited merchandise).

I figure the things I do splurge on provide a framework through which I can enjoy a full trip.

The only thing I have to fight myself on is using lyft as opposed to inter-resort transit. Its so tempting, but really adds up!
 
We stAy in a dvc one bedroom for two weeks every March. We go out every night to a signature restaurant. And I don’t really care about the bill. I know we are blessed that budgeting is not necessary.
 
V&A dinner

Sounds like you are splurging a little already hahaha.

I try to pick my spots to splurge but normally I have a sort of planned splurge.

I don't worry about the prices but I don't just randomly blow money either. As an example for the kids first trip we randomly bought a couple things as souvenirs but I had that as a likelihood before we left.
 


Disney is my happy place, so I try and make sure I'm happy 100% of the time. Sometimes that's a $10 quick service meal and sometimes it's $100 at California Grill. A good balance is where I think I fall. A few good splurges each trip, but otherwise, it's within reason.

I'm good at budgeting and knowing how much to bring for food, so I'm able to feel like I'm not breaking the bank. I usually come and just use that budgeted money all week, so my regular paycheck doesn't get touched for groceries and the like. Weirdly, it feels like I have saved extra money somehow when I get home. :)
 
I don't do either. I do try to find the best price for the resort I stay at. I tend to do split stays, staying the first night or two in a value or moderate then moving over to an Epcot resort, lately Swan/Dolphin. I (or we if my son is along) don't look at prices on menus, we just order what we want. We don't have any set budget for food, like I said we order what we want but if we are eating QS, I tend to get a kid's meal, just because I don't eat overly large amounts at a time. We tend to make ADRs about 3 out of 5 days during a 5 night trip, normally for supper. We don't book ADRs any more in advance than afternoon of. We like refreshing adult beverages and don't really pay attention to prices of those either. Lots of time we will just have bar food for supper instead of sitting down to a meal. I try to book one high ticket item a trip, it might be a special dinner like V&A or a special tour or diving at Epcot, stuff like that. We will usually buy one high ticket item per trip, for me that's normally a mask at Italy which can run about $200 or so, my son collects steins. We do this on just about any trip we take to anywhere. No we aren't rich, I'm semi-retired and my son is medically retired from the Navy and works part time. My honey doesn't like to travel so he doesn't do Disney with us but he and I do take dive trips. We recently bought a RV and he and I take short 3 or 4 night trips in that, the three of us actually camped at Fort Wilderness a few weeks ago but it was only for 4 nights then we went for 3 nights at a camp site on the beach at St. Augustine.
 
I normally stay budget to save on hotel and spend the $$$ on a special experience, like a tour or party. I'm not a souvenir shopper at all, so while I'm there money is pretty much just spent on food... even at home I eat out a lot because I'm not a good cook, so it doesn't feel like I'm splurging.
 


We tend to splurge at WDW and other vacations because we don't spend much on entertainment in our daily lives. When we want gourmet meals, mostly we make it ourselves at home. Restaurants, bars, expensive sports/concerts are things we don't do often.

We go to Wildwood almost every year. DH sold me on paying extra for Ocean Front room. I'm frugal by nature so it was hard for me to justify the cost at first. Now after 10 years of going, it is worth it to me. There's nothing like a balcony sunrise/sunset looking straight out into the ocean with nothing else in your view. We worked hard to enjoy this.

It's the same at WDW, spending extra can be justified. Savannah view AKL, Holiday Party, Park Hoppers or Table Service is worth the expense. This trip is our first trying a 1BR. It came with free TS DDP for 4ppl, otherwise I could never justify the $600 avg cost per night.
We decided against MVMCP to save, instead we'll check out those Fireworks from the Contemporary. That also gives us a relaxed nite, going to MVMCP would leave us exhausted with ropedrops. We splurge, just not everything on the same trip.

$5k for 4ppl in December: 1BR at OKW, 5 day hoppers, and DDP.
Flights $700, $300 car rental, pocket money, etc... Total will be *$6.5k+ for 5.5 days.
It has gotten more expensive so we've decided to switch 18-24 months instead of yearly.

*This will be closer to $7k lol. As long as we stay under that, I'm happy.
 
Last edited:
Definitely a splurger! We bought DVC in 2006 and have stayed in resorts I would not pay the rack rate for. Have never ever regretted that purchase. Having “free” accommodations frees up $$ for other things. Table service dining, tours, you know. We live far far away so trips generally just once a year so tend to spend what we want when we are there. I envy those who are closer and can get a dose of magic more frequently!!
 
I'm a mixed splurger and saver. The places I've splurged in the past are on annual passes (which only encourage more trips!) and plane tickets to Orlando. Since I'm occasionally an AP holder at Disneyland, that means I've had the Premier Pass 3X so far (and that used to be an amazing deal but now it's getting pretty pricey!) I'll usually eat one or two table service restaurants per trip, but otherwise I'm quick service and snack oriented.

I haven't yet paid for any party nights, after hours events, premium desserts, etc.. I personally don't see the value and use the time to hop to other parks or Disney Springs. (although I hear so many great things about After Hours, it's tempting.) I'll buy a few souvenir t-shirts which I consider a mini-splurge, and I'm lucky that I don't agonize over money if I just want a beverage or to sample a treat.

But I haven't yet paid more than $200 per night for a hotel at Disney... which usually means moderate, value, offsite, or Swan/Dolphin (which has a Deluxe location and amenities, and an occasional good deal). The Swan/Dolphin used to be a great use of hotel points, but now require so many more points as part of Marriott.

I'd love to stay Deluxe at some point, although it's hard to bring myself to pay $300+ per night... maybe someday! Whenever I see other people do stuff like buy DVC, stay for 14 days at a time, spend on club-level rooms, or book premium tours, I realize that I'm actually getting away with Disney vacations for not that much money compared to others I know and read about. I think I'm actually spending less than $1500/trip for a four-night stay with Disney whereas others spend that on just the hotel itself.
 
Last edited:
I would say i'm in between. I save on resorts but love food and drinks so I eat table service for almost every meal and I'm not a big souvenir person but I buy at least 1 shirt/sweatshirt.
 
I stay at all star sports or pop usually when i come up, and spend $100 a day in food and expenses. Wonder if thats considered splurging?
 
I think we are a weird mix of save/splurge. I realize at face value that makes no sense.

We are DVC members, so lodging isn't a factor outside of our MFs which are essentially a sunk cost because we are paying them if we go to Disney or not.
We drive down instead of flying which saves close to $3000 (five people round trip from NYC).

While we are at Disney though we never have a specific budget. We do multiple buffets and character meals - multiple sit down meals per day, breakfast ADRs on our non-park days. Souvenir spend has gone down as the kids have gotten older, although we always tried to put some limit on the amount they could spend on souvenirs. I guess we are fortunate enough to not really need to set a specific vacation budget, but now that the kids are all disney adults (and two of the three don't eat much), I do kinda want to cut down on AYCTE meals.
 
I definitely like splurge when I visit WDW. I'm a DVC owner so I stay at my home resort of Bay Lake Tower or one of the other DVC resorts, I like to fly first class since I fly from the west coast to the east coast and I want to be comfortable for that long flight, I dine wherever I choose and I never deny myself anything I want to purchase from the parks (well most things since some things I want are way out of my budget). I guess the only place I do save on purchasing groceries for my room which of course reduces the amount of dining out meals. I like to have snacks, breakfast cereal, bottled water and maybe the fixings for sandwiches in my room.
 
Last edited:
We splurge, but we make it work by being smart with discounts, credit card rewards, etc. I tried a Mod for the first time this summer on my first solo trip, but this weekend I’m staying at the Beach Club. I know this will sound snobby and I really apologize, but as much as French Quarter was nice enough, I have to be honest with myself, and I’m a Deluxe gal through and through. Admittedly my partner and i being in the DINK demographic helps a lot; it’s much easier to justify things like dessert parties and After Hours and spa days and signature meals when you’ve only got two working adults to pay for. No way could we do Disney how we do it if we had littles.
 
I do both. I save on my hotel room by staying at AS Music every year. It helps that we love this place and its' staff. But when my wife and I are in the parks or D. Springs, if we see something we want, we get it. Same goes for meals. No quick service at dinner time for us. I am on vacation a I deserve to have what I want. I should also point out that we travel without kids or grandkids now.
 
We tend to splurge on resort and events. I really like being close to the parks, so we will usually do a split stay between a resort in the boardwalk area and a resort in the MK area. We will also do a behind the scenes tour or event for a splurge. We don't get many souvenirs. We already have enough "stuff" in our house.:P
 
I am so with you Shellyred. Life is about the experience, not the stuff! I‘m so much more likely to spend several hundred on the tour or the parasailing or whatever, but ask me to drop 50 on a tee-shirt, no way.
 
I tend to splurge. I've done a few long weekend trips where I'll save some pennies but when I'm on a true "vacation" I will splurge. I am pretty frugal at home so when I am on vacation it's my time to live a little 😉
 
I'd put myself in the splurger category. I like to stay at the deluxe hotels, go on various tours (mostly animal related ones) and eat at the signature restaurants.

Although I don't really have any interest in buying the merchandise.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top