How much is your 2023 Disney vacation going to cost, or how much are you budgeting for it?

Mother/Daughter Trip : Nov. 27-30, 2023

Fuel: $200 or less
-We will be using Murphy Reward points to save on fuel & possibly paying with Wal-Mart CC Rewards to save even more money. Thankful that my 2020 Ford Explorer gets around 28-30mpg to save us money!

Hotel for Travel Days: $0.00
- We will be using Hilton Honors points received from previous stays & E-Rewards surveys...saving approx. $500)

Food for Travel Days: $150 estimate
-We will be using Chick-Fil-A rewards and gift cards received from Bing Rewards & Fetch to save on restaurants while traveling.

3 Nights @ Port Orleans Riverside & 3 Day Park Hopper Passes for 2 Adults plus parking and $500 Food/Genie+ Estimate: $2714.10
-Should cost us around $1400 cash after we use Disney Rewards Dollars from Disney CC and discounted Sam's Club Gift Cards.

My mom and I take a mother/daughter trip every 2 years so we can use the off time to build up rewards points/dollars to make our trip as cheap as we possibly can while still getting all we want from Disney! It's like a game now to see how much we can save :) Many thanks to everybody on this forum that has shared their money-saving tips that we've used...it's much appreciated!!
 
We just got back from our 2023 trip and added everything up (2 adults, 2 teenagers):

Budget: $5000

ASSp Package (4 Nights Standard Room, 3 Day Park Hoppers): $2735
Disney HHI Room Only (2 Nights): $725
Food and Miscellaneous (Average $140 Per Day for 7 Days): $970
Genie+ (1 Day for 4 people): $125
MagicBand+ (1 Band Pre-arrival): $25
WDW Hotel Parking (4 Nights Value): $60
Gas: $140

Actual Spend: $4780 ($220 Under Budget!)

Edited to add: Children bought about $200 worth of souvenirs with their own cash, so it isn't in our family budget.
 
My wife and I bought our 7 day standard theme park tickets from Sam's Club on Tuesday evening. Total cost was $2,833.61 compared to $3,208.00 from Disney. As of today, Sam's Club is now selling those same exact tickets for $3,100.57 (+9.4%). I'm glad I bought when I did, but that seems to be a big movement in a matter of 36 hours, considering Disney's price has stayed the same.
I'm confused, is that seven day base tickets for just two adults? I purchased eight day parkhoppers for two adults for $1600.
 


Here's what I've budgeted for our upcoming April trip...

7 nights SSR 1-bedroom (rented points) $2100 - GREAT DEAL!
Airfare for 4: $1,400 (ugh)
Park Tix: (2-day park tix for 3, 1-day ticket for 1): $1,122
Genie+: $150
Fireworks Cruise (split with family) $200
Food (Estimate $150/day): $1,050
Uber/Lyft Rides: $250
Misc/Souveniers: $300

We hope to keep our total costs under $6300 for our family of four.
 
Aulani in July- flights for 4 from Phoenix $2200
DVC “free”
Aulani tax $202
Rental Car $636
Luau $800
UTV tour $450
Ama Ama date night $300
Spa $300
Lanai and casabella- one day each $700
Dining out/snacks $1000
groceries/gas a wash with a week at home
Pearl Harbor plus USS Missouri $145
Surf lessons $300
Misc activities $300
souvinears $500

$6583 if my math is right! so I’ll say $7K with expenses I’m forgetting!
 
A while back I costed out a trip and nearly had a heart attack. The last time we were there was 2010. We fly from Canada so between the crazy airfares and currency exchange, plus all the additional costs, we just decided maybe some other time. Big sigh!
 


Week at a 1 bedroom at Saratoga Springs with tickets $6,800. Getting $750 back with the dining card promo but I’m hoping a better deal will come along. We have 8 day tickets but might drop. Pretty sure we are driving from NJ so gas, hotel etc. We will pack as much food and eat as often as we can in the room.
 
We are just doing a small two day trip this year since my husband will be down there for work. Our Disney portion is 2 days at All Star Music and two park days. That was $1055 for two people. I have rewards points through my visa and we are only planning on quick service meals so that will cost us nothing. We won't get any souvenirs. I still need to get genie+ and individual lightning lane possibly. We are driving down to Florida and that's about $300. We are staying in a guest house before Disney, cost of that is nothing. Food for that portion will be about $200. Overall pretty inexpensive. Don't like the idea of staying in a value but it's only two nights plus we have a big trip planned for 2024 for my 50th birthday.

So in total about $1600, including the pre-Disney portion. Not bad for a week in Florida away from the Ohio cold.
 
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Extended family of 6. 4 nights in March. Staying in a 2 bedroom at BLT - no cost - booked on DVC points. 3 park days. Using a combination of comp tickets and non- expire tickets. Purchased 1 day tickets for 5 people from Disney for $750. Will only need to pay for dining and genie plus. Probably will be around $2000.

So cash outlay of around $3000
 
2 trips planned this year. March 11-18th at 2 bed BWV used DVC points. 4 3 day base tickets $1730 from Undercover Tourist. We will drive both ways so about $500, est $200 for groceries, est $800 for 3 sit downs, some counter service and a few drinks. I have $150 set aside for a bit of shopping but I don't know if I'll spend it or not. Will also be getting Genie+ and LL those I don't know what they will be yet.

Dec 27-1st for our 30th anniversary. Will use DVC points for part of the stay and then rented points for a couple more. Est $1250 for that, 2 3day tickets not yet purchased from UCT again..about $1000 or so. We will drive down again $500ish, setting food budget at $800 again which seems high for just 2 of us but considering the time of year and where we want to eat probably not too far off. I will also not rule out a couple hotel nights for the drive and some shopping.
 
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I guess that is exactly how Disney loves to see us budget… in our planning saying DVC stay “ NO COST “ .
Shouldnt your budget cost at least include the yearly maintenance ?
Those points will never be free in reality.
But heck if it’s free why not buy more points to not spend money ?
 
I guess that is exactly how Disney loves to see us budget… in our planning saying DVC stay “ NO COST “ .
Shouldnt your budget cost at least include the yearly maintenance ?
Those points will never be free in reality.
But heck if it’s free why not buy more points to not spend money ?
I take your point but I'm not doing the math on that. Some people enjoy it and maybe they can chime in. Our contract has been paid off for over 10 years and I don't even remember what we paid. I have my Disney bubble hat on pretty tight.
 
I guess that is exactly how Disney loves to see us budget… in our planning saying DVC stay “ NO COST “ .
Shouldnt your budget cost at least include the yearly maintenance ?
Those points will never be free in reality.
But heck if it’s free why not buy more points to not spend money ?
I am going to pay the yearly maintenance fees regardless. They are just part of our yearly spending.

We have been toying with the idea of picking up some SSR points, as their price is in free fall.
 
June 4-10
1 Bedroom Villa at Boardwalk

Room - $0 (going with a friend. Using her parents DVC points for no cost.)
Flight - $530 (yikes!!!!!!)
Tickets - 4 days, plus water park. Debating hoppers. Unsure which tickets we will get but setting aside $700.
Food - estimating $100 a day for $700
Misc - $300

Total: $2230
 
5 nights at OKW using AKV points - $453 in m/f
no ticket - $0
Food - $400
transportation = $0

Total, probably around $900 ~ $1,000
 
Let's see..

April-May 2023, birthday trip for myself and my twin bro. 6 adults in our group.

2 nights (WV/GA) eto drive down for 4 from the Pittsburgh area to Orlando. (1 night was 100, the other was paid with hotel points)

8 nights @ OKW in 2 Bd, on DVC points.

2 one-way flights down for myself and DSis1- Southwest-used points.

Around $700 initial for DSis1 6 day hopper ticket, which will be used to renew her Sorcerer's AP (with an extra $200( which expires at the beginning of the trip. (Still debating on this, since this will probably be her only trip this year, but AP's are basically a renew or lose it deal at the moment....)

Food budget - Probably around $5k. We have a few bigger meals we want to do, and I ran the numbers with a 15% margin added on top to try to acocunt for price increases.

Souvenir budget - Likely gonna be $500-$1k for myself. Already planning on Savi's to get a saber, so that's 250-300 right there. Just depends on what other merch catches my eye while I'm there.

Enchanting Extra budget - $1k from DSis2 and my twin. Hopefully not going to use up the whole budget for that, but we want to do something extra this trip since we haven't had the chance to since COVID..

One night @ HHI 2 Bd villa using DVC points

One more night at $150 at hotel in NC.

Total family budget is probably around $10k-$15k with everyone's individual souvenir budget and contribution to the food budget included.

And we are starting to plan a Nov/Dec trip for 5 of us, so that'll be next to budget for..
 
Just finished the budget to actual comparison for our December 2022/January 2023 trip as all charges have hit the credit card.

Background: Supposed to fly out Dec 24, and back on Jan 9. Decided to leave two days early and drive down due to the bomb cyclone. Started driving 7pm on Dec 22, checked into Disney on Dec 24. Left Disney afternoon of Jan 7, arrived in Toronto on Jan 9. All amounts in CAD since that’s what I end up paying at the end of the day. Rough conversion to USD would be approx 1 USD = 1.39 CAD.

Accommodation $6,543.88 (see note below)
Tickets $1,744.89 (1/3 of three Disney incredi-pass AP renewal cost)
Food $3,036.72
Merchandise $226.41
Transportation $496.39

Total $12,048.29

Note: Valued Marriott points for hotels on drive down and back at 0.7 US cents per point. Assumed DVC points cost $12 USD per point (average cost over 3 contracts). No wear and tear on car factored in. Excludes cash back on credit card.
 
June 4-10
1 Bedroom Villa at Boardwalk

Room - $0 (going with a friend. Using her parents DVC points for no cost.)
Flight - $530 (yikes!!!!!!)
Tickets - 4 days, plus water park. Debating hoppers. Unsure which tickets we will get but setting aside $700.
Food - estimating $100 a day for $700
Misc - $300

Total: $2230
We went with 5 day Hopper Sports Plus or whatever they’re called from UT for 703.54. It was cheaper than doing a 4 day hopper plus single water park ticket. This way we can hop over to Epcot after our water park day for some festival food.
 
I'm just getting started so this is all really helpful. Thank you to everyone who is posting full budgets!
 

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