It’s no secret that planning a Disney World vacation isn’t cheap — and with inflation impacting nearly every aspect of the consumer market, you might be wondering if it’s even still possible to plan a trip to the parks on a budget.
Where should you stay? How many parks will you be able to visit? Can you afford to squeeze in a table service meal? We’ve done the research and planned out an example vacation to show you how to plan a Disney World trip for under $3,000!
Before we get down to the nitty-gritty, we need to go over the parameters chosen for this hypothetical trip. In this scenario, we’re planning a 3-night, 4-day stay in Disney World for a family of four — 2 adults, and 2 kids (we picked ages 6 and 10 just for fun).
We decided to take this imaginary vacation from September 9th to 12th, 2022, and have carved out three park days and one rest day to spend at the hotel pool. We haven’t included travel costs in this trip, as your mileage may vary (literally). It’s also important to note that we’re using standard prices for everything here — no Annual Passholder, Florida Resident, Military, or DVC discounts. Just good ol’ Disney World pricing.
Now let’s plan our vacation!
Hotel
Since we’re trying to be budget-friendly on this trip, Value Resorts are going to be the name of the game. Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, All-Star Resorts, and Pop Century Resort can be great options for staying on Disney World property at a lower rate.
For our hypothetical family vacation, we chose Disney’s Pop Century Resort at $202 per night. This rate is for a standard room with no stellar views, but we’ll be so busy at the parks we won’t even have time in the room for anything but sleep (and showering hopefully!).
A standard room at Pop Century can sleep up to four adults, so two adults and two kiddos can make do just fine. Keep in mind that Disney World Resort hotel rates can change based on the time of year and guest demand, so you may find the price varies a bit.
Park Tickets
We chose 3-day base tickets with no park hopper option for this trip — saving money is the name of the game, so if it works for your family to skip a park in order to still be able to go to Disney World at all — do it! We often find that back-to-back park days WITH park-hopping can be exhausting, so choosing this option will help our budget and most likely our attitudes as well.
This will also leave us room for a day of lounging by the pool — it is possible to relax a bit on your Disney World trip! Since Disney allows guests to bundle hotel reservations and park tickets, we made our selections (Pop Century Resort and 3-day base tickets) which brought our total so far to $2,151.22.
Hotel? Check. Park tickets? Check. Let’s find out what we’re going to EAT on this budget vacation.
Dining
To keep things easy and convenient on park days, we’ve planned to eat breakfast at the Everything Pop Food Court at the hotel. We’re also bringing our reusable water bottles so we don’t have to pay for drinks at every meal. This saves valuable time that could be spent in the parks, and it’ll most likely save money too. The total comes to just under $40 for two adult entrees, two kids entrees, and two coffees.
We’re heading to Magic Kingdom for our first park day, and now that we’ve already had breakfast and gone on our first few attractions, we’ve worked up quite the appetite. Magic Kingdom can be hectic, so we’ve planned a mid-day lunch break at Jungle Navigation Co., Ltd. Skipper Canteen. We’ve budgeted about $110 for one appetizer, two adult entrees, two kids entrees, one dessert, and a tip. Dinner will be at Casey’s Corner (because we love corn dog nuggets, ok?) — for two adult entrees, two kids entrees, and two drinks (treat yo’ self) we’re looking at just under $45.
For our second park day, we’re planning on starting off at Everything Pop! again before heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studios — bringing our breakfast total for the day to about $40 again. We’re heading over to Woody’s Lunch Box for lunch where we can get two adult entrees, two kids entrees, and two lunch box tarts for around $50. We decided to dine at another quick-service location for dinner so that we would have room in the budget for a character breakfast, so for dinner, we’ll spend about $55 on two adult entrees, two kids entrees, and one dessert at Docking Bay 7.
We’ve decided to take a break from the parks on day 3, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any excitement — we’ve planned a character breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace! Since Pop Century and Disney’s Riviera Resort are both on the Skyliner, we’ll be able to pop on over and back easily. For two adult meals, two kids meals, and tip the total is around $163.Â
We’re mobile ordering lunch poolside today from Everything Pop! and for two adult entrees, two kids entrees, and two drinks we’re spending just under $50. After a long day at the pool, we’re hopping on the Skyliner to have dinner at Sebastian’s Bistro at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort for around $100.
Since we planned for a rest day, we’re ready for our final park day — this time we’re heading to EPCOT! But not before having our favorite $40 breakfast at Everything Pop! The Food & Wine Festival is going on during this imaginary September trip, so instead of sitting down for a meal at lunch, we’re noshing on some tasty festival treats. We’ve budgeted $100 for this, as many of the festival items are around $7 on average.
Despite eating all day around the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, we’ve even planned for dinner at La Cantina de San Angel just in case we haven’t had our fill. For two adult entrees, two kids entrees, and one dessert, we’re spending around $54. And that’s it for our budget Disney World vacation!
Total Trip Cost
So, did we make it happen? Is it possible to plan a Disney World trip for under $3,000? Well, yes — but there are some caveats. Our grand total for everything was $2,998.22, so technically we did stay under budget. But, our plans didn’t factor in any sort of travel costs, souvenirs, extras, or alcohol. Depending on where you’re traveling from your costs could increase significantly, and if you’re going to need that cocktail in EPCOT you might want to see if you can squeeze that into your budget.
At the end of the day, this is a hypothetical Disney World trip that might not work for you and your family — so keep that in mind. We’re always looking out for ways to help you save on your Disney World trip without compromising your overall experience, so be sure to stay tuned to AllEars for more!
These Are the 8 NEW Things to Plan for in Disney World in 2022
Now is a great time to head to Disney World — Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party are right around the corner, and don’t forget that the 50th anniversary celebrations are still going strong!
Are you planning a Disney World vacation in 2022? Let us know in the comments!
Yes we fly out on 27th of this month September.For 3 adults flights from Scotland and hotel on I-Drive for 2 weeks nearly £6000 but that’s our 14 day park passes.( hotel is room only.)
Thanks for breaking this down. You still need to add, as mentioned in this article, transportation which can be a lot. I don’t like planes so the last two years I’ve gone down by Amtrak. It’s about $1300 for a sleeper compartment for two, which includes meals and takes two days each way to get to Orlando. Then we have to book Mears Orlando for about $100 each way to get to our Disney hotel from Amtrak Orlando. Plus transportation from home to get to our closest Amtrak which is about $500 round trip. So for me it’s 2k just for transportation alone. Then add on refillable mugs, magic bands, memory maker, behind the scenes tours – it costs 7k to 8k for a week for two adults.