Wondering how much it costs a family of 4 plus 2 grandparents to visit Disney World? Keep reading to read all our about June 2021 Disney World vacation budget with some exact costs and some rough estimates. This trip included our immediate family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids between 3-9) plus my parents.
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A few days ago I shared our Disney World Vacation Itinerary, sharing the basic plan on which parks we visited and what rides we hit with our almost 6 and 8 year olds. Today I’m diving into another topic requested on instagram: our budget! If you’re looking to get an extra special glimpse on Disney in a post covid world, check out my instagram story highlight of our trip here.
BACKGROUND:
Our trip was originally planned for March 2020, just three days before the parks (and the world) shut down. Some prices (such as our park tickets) are reflected of pre-covid time and other components, such as our hotel, were purchased once we rebooked for June 2021. I wish you the best in getting a deal for your magical adventure, but I have no true tips besides watching the sale on the Disney World website and through airlines.
FLIGHT: $390.06 + miles
My family of 4 flew Frontier airlines that typically hosts cheap flight prices but you have to pay for checked in or carry on bags and if you want to select your exact seat locations. We signed up for their discount program “Discount Den” which had “kids fly free” on certain days of the week. We flew a Tuesday to a Monday, with 2 carry ons and we with selected seats.
NOTE: My parents flight isn’t included in this price as they used miles for United airlines which also has luggage included.
Also, my father-in-law drove us to the airport so airport parking isn’t included in our budget breakdown. Make sure you add that into your budget planning!
HOTEL: $4,575.36
We stayed at Disney’s Old Key West resort, a Disney Vacation Club (or DVC) hotel that DOES allow none DVC members to stay on property. We opted for a 2 bedroom villa to allow for my parents to stay with us vs having two separate rooms with little interaction at the hotel. The hotel setup was perfect as it has a room with double beds and full sized bath for my family of 4, a separate kitchen/living room area for hangout, a separate queen size bed and full bathroom for my parents, plus a patio and washer/dryer laundry space.
This hotel is considered in the “deluxe villa” category of Disney resorts so there are certainly less expensive options to stay! Note: I caught a 30% off price break at the time of booking and obvious rates vary by the time of year.
The “hospitality house” of the resort included a HUGE pool with a sandcastle water slide, hot tub, sauna (which was not open during our stay), playground and hammock area. There were several restaurants in this area, one of which was “Good’s Food to go” which we ordered and ate near the pool for dinner two evenings. It’s worth mentioning again, they have a sandcastle water slide that the girl must have went down 100 time in the few days we hit the pool.
PARK TICKETS: $3270
We purchased this package on the Sam’s club website November 2019 and reflected pre-covid offerings. We bought 6 adult tickets and 2 child’s tickets for 6 days with park hopper options. The price between 5 days and 6 days for all of us was literally the matter of $40 so we just went for it.
But as I shared in my previous post, I think 5 days would’ve been plenty, especially since we went in June and enjoyed plenty of pool time in addition to the park adventures. We also didn’t take full advantage of the park hopper concept so I’d honest suggest planning ahead and saving the cost a bit in that regard and NOT getting a park hopper.
CAR RENTAL: $307 + 1 tank of gas + $25/day hotel parking fee.
A car rental is not necessary when vacation at Disney World, but having a mini van did help to get all 6 of us to and from the parks most days, to the pool at our resort as it wasn’t walkable and we didn’t want to wait for the bus, to get lunch and snack groceries twice during our trip and to get food off site of the Disney property. And YES I realized this is a super cheap rate these days as he was able to get a discount through his work.
The hotel does charge you $25/day to park there but then you don’t have to pay for parking at the Disney World park. There is also one toll going to/from the Orlando airport which was $2.75 each way.
My parents used the Magic Express bus service to/from the airport which is free to Disney resort guests, but I know they are discontinuing this service and changing it to something else so please, investigate that!
Separately we did use the Disney bus transportation service for days when we were headed to Magic Kingdom since that’s an easier way to get to that park. There is no parking for the Magic Kingdom and you need to park at the transportation center when take the monorail or ferry to get to the park. This was an easier, more direct and never too crowded way to get a seat. Note: masks were still required on Disney buses at the time of our trip.
FOOD AND DRINK: $2000
We might not be the best family to give a budget estimate on this component of the Disney World vacation because we hit the Publix grocery store twice during our trip for breakfast items, packed lunch sandwiches a few days and alcohol to enjoy back at the hotel at night. We did at least one sit down meal in the park a day which was mostly lunch and ran $150-200 for the 6 of us. Several times we ended up getting food off site for dinner on our way back to the hotel or at the grab and go place near the pool. We are not typically ones to over indulge on vacation as being fed is more important than being fancy.
We did enjoy some Mickey Head ice cream and Mickey Head pretzel, but our family is not full of foodies so we didn’t indulge in all the awesome treats and Disney concoctions you might see on other Disney accounts. Fluff more of your budget here if you plan to partake in more treats at the park!
Remember, you can book your dining plans 60 days before your visit and you can cancel them 24 hours before. It’s better to get some reservations early then cancel them later. Animal Kingdom and Epcot seem to have them most places you could walk up to get food but we had a harder time doing that at Magic Kingdom so make sure to book things there!
MY DISNEY EXPERIENCE APP: FREE
You can download this app through the app store as you’ll need it for everything in the park! You can keep track of all your park, dining and resort reservations, see the park pass photos you collect on attractions, and most importantly, see the map and the wait times for rides!
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