I feel like Alan Whicker.
Dead?
Holidays are getting more expensive across the board, especially if you travel during the school holidays.
Speaking to colleagues and friends booking "normal" package holidays to the likes of egypt, turkey and you can easily be looking at 5k for a couple of weeks.
As others have said 25K seems like quite a lot of money but as I can attest unless you keep a close eye on costs that sort of holiday can get very expensive very quickly.
We (2 adults and 2 kids aged 8 and 10) had 2 weeks in Florida last year...
- We got a reasonably priced villa,
- Flew direct but not ridiculously expensive flights, economy obvs.
- Booked a normal car not some enormo SUV (though we did get lucky in Alamo and ended up with a MASSIVE Pickup) ,
- 14 day normal Disney tickets, no other parks....
- Swamp tour to see gators on fanboat,
- Kennedy Space Centre (got free tickets for this),
- Ate out cheaply a bit, ate in a bit.
....It was still 7k by the time we were done and that's being pretty cost focused. Start doing extra parks, eating out a lot, etc and before you know it it could easily be another couple of grand. America is no longer a cheap place to visit when you're there.
Would we do it again? Yeah. We're booked to go back in Feb, this time to do Universal as the kids love Harry Potter, are the "right age" and we all love theme parks. Next time: 10 days, trying to keep the cost below 4.5k.
Most we've spent (and I'm not sure this counts) was travelling the globe for a year. HK, Aus, NZ (4 months), Singapore and then spent the Euro spring/Summer in the van travelling around the point bits of Europe. No idea how much we spent but it was probably 25-30k. But that was our wedding and honeymoon rolled into one.
The wife and I have always said that travel/holidays have been our one luxury as we both barely drink, have reasonably priced cars and a reasonable but not massive house.
14 day normal Disney tickets, no other parks….
Is there enough to do at Disney for 14 days? Or is it just cheap to buy a block like that?
Is there enough to do at Disney for 14 days? Or is it just cheap to buy a block like that?
It's the same price to buy a 14 day ticket as it is to buy a 7 day ticket.
However, even if it was a bit more money (which it is if you buy tickets out there) with kids same age as mine, I'd say so. You have 4 parks and you need 2 days per park really. It could be argued with Hollywood Studios that isn't/wasn't the case. However now with Galaxy's edge opening imminently, it's definitely a 2 day park.
So that's 8 days. The 14 day pass on the link above also includes the water parks, which are ace. We went to one once and the other one twice. So you're now up to 11 days. Throw in a couple a couple of pool days and maybe a trip to Kennedy Space Centre (well worth the drive) and that's your 2 weeks!
The 2 days per park thing is especially true in the heat of the summer as you'll not be there from opening to close. Mine started to wilt about 2pm most days so you head back to the villa for the rest of the afternoon for some pool time and a relaxing beer. Some people head back for evening fireworks but we were a bit of a drive from the parks so we didn't do this.
1600 quid for park tickets for 4 people is A LOT OF MONEY but I wouldn't say it's bad value at under 30 quid person per day.
You can/need to book fastpasses on most of the big rides via the My Disney Experience App before you go (rolling 30 days out if staying off site or 90 days before the first day of your entire stay if staying on site), so you do need a bit of a plan. I ended up booking a day of fast passes half way round the Monkey Trail at Cannock as you can book them at 7am Orlando time and you want to be on the App at 7am sharp to get what you want.
There is a STW-a-like for Disney holidays which is a mine of information but a bit scary to the uninitiated it's at www.thedibb.co.uk
At what point will the environmental cost of dragging your family across the Atlantic for a holibob start to play a significant element in ‘normal’ people’s decision making process? It’s patently unsustainable and I think we are getting to the level of environmental consciousness that we all know it even if we don’t want to admit it. Very little point in carefully using our bags for life if we then jump on a plane and do a few million times more damage.
convert - as much as party pooper it makes you sound, you are right. I wonder what the Co2 foot print a holiday causes.
Ours ran to £10k, but it was 2 weeks in Disney, staying on-site, with all meals covered, with fast pass tickets. This was about 7 years ago. Spends were probably about £1k. 4 of us.
The plan was Disney only.
about the same as 3 years of dog ownership...
CO2 emissions from a Boeing 737-400 of 115 g per passenger km
fly from here to florida, 6960km, 6960 x 4 x 115 = 3200kg of CO2
and, owning a dog puts you anywhere between 100kg and 1 ton of CO2 per year for a 25kg dog.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2017/08/02/whats-your-dogs-carbon-pawprint/
note, for 4 in a car, the equivalent number is 55g (less than a full bus, BTW fact fans)
drive from (say) Brum to South of France, 1200km, 4 people, 1200 x 4 x 55 = 264kg of CO2
so a euro holiday with you driving is around 10% as bad as swanning off to the southern states
I don't fly long haul specifically for that reason - and try to limit to one flight every 2 years. Flying is one of if not the worst thing I do for pleasure eco wise
You can/need to book fastpasses on most of the big rides via the My Disney Experience App before you go (rolling 30 days out if staying off site or 90 days before the first day of your entire stay if staying on site), so you do need a bit of a plan.
x 1000000000000000. And bias the approach to early starts when you get there and getting later in the day towards fireworks as you get through week 1. Also https://www.undercovertourist.com/ for park plans, queue calendars and tips on fastpass planning.