Budget-Friendly Disney Trip: Cost Breakdown & Tips for a Magical Moderate Resort Stay for a Couple

How expensive is a moderate hotel room the week before Thanksgiving? We will use no discounts and stay 11/20-11/23. Wed-Sat. A three-night trip during the week to enjoy cheaper rates. We will be taking this trip as a couple from Lexington, Kentucky. 

I don't like wasting your time. Here is the breakdown of every item we will discuss.

Total Cost:

- Driving: $300 (Travel) + $2152.18 (Ticket and hotel package) + $55.88 (Food) = $2508.06

- Flying: $944 (Travel) + $2152.18 (Ticket and hotel package) + $55.88 (Food) + $67.20 (Bus ride) = $3219.26 

Travel

This is a tough category. You have to choose what is most important to you. Save money or save convenience. We are about 827 miles from the Magic Kingdom, and we can drive that in 12 hours and 41 minutes. If we drive, we can assume there is $50 in gas every 300 miles. You could be getting a better MPG, more expensive tank fill-ups but for this example, it will be $300 if we drive about 1800 miles giving some room for error. This is much cheaper but in a vehicle for 12 hours and 41 minutes is not fun. That’s a tough drive. For flying you can get a round trip on American Airlines for $944 and it only takes 4 hours. You have to add a bus ride to get to your Disney resort or an extra $67.20 which makes the total $1011.20 to fly or $300 to drive. 

Hotel                                            

For our hotel, we are staying at a moderate resort. The cheapest moderate resort for these sets of dates is Coronado Springs for a price of $1008. The location isn’t great as you will be riding the bus to every theme park but it’s the cheapest hotel in the category. I like the convenience of the Skyliner. This lets you be able to connect three parks rather easily and only take the bus to one. Skyliner to Epcot. Monorail from Epcot to TTC. I would ride the bus instead of this headache, but it still is possible. Caribbean Beach has a price of $1072 without taxes so once again you have to decide how much convenience is worth to you. Since we are going for cheap cheap cheap we will be taking the Coronado Springs resort. 

        Tickets

Tickets are an expensive category when there are no specials. It is also a nonrefundable nontransferable transaction so it stinks that you can’t get a discount some days. Our total for three park days for two people is $2152.18 for our ticket and hotel package. This category could have been much cheaper if we landed on a discounted period. You can’t change one ticket for a discounted ticket if they do drop a discount, but the week of Thanksgiving probably is busy enough for them to not drop the price.

Food

We don’t have access to any discounts which is a real pain with Disney trips. We are almost above $2500 even if we DROVE 12 hours. Without restraint, this category can explode into a real problem. We need to make these dollars stretch. We are staying 3 nights so we will assume three meals each day and one extra meal for a total of a nice clean number of 10. These meals do not need reheating and they need to be easy.

Let’s go to Walmart.

- Breakfast:

  - Yogurt: $3.54

  - Granola: $2.67

  - Blueberries: $4.14

  - Bananas: $1.62

  - Total: $11.97

- Lunch:

  - Bread: $1.97

  - Peanut Butter: $3.98

  - Jelly: $2.67

  - Apples: $3.86

  - Total: $12.48

- Dinner:

  - Bread: $1.97

  - Turkey: $4.48

  - Lettuce: $2.97

  - Tomato: $1.21

  - Mayo: $4.98

  - Total: $15.61

- Snacks:

  - Trail mix: $5.98

  - Granola bars: $3.84

  - Chips: $6.00

  - Total: $15.82

By planning and preparing your meals in advance, you can enjoy delicious and satisfying food while keeping costs low during your Disney vacation.

Sandwich everything together and you get a grand total of $55.88 for 20 meals averaging $2.75 a meal. You can’t even get a bottle of water for that much at Disney. 

Total Cost:

- Driving: $300 (Travel) + $2152.18 (Ticket and hotel package) + $55.88 (Food) = $2508.06

- Flying: $944 (Travel) + $2152.18 (Ticket and hotel package) + $55.88 (Food) + $67.20 (Bus ride) = $3219.26

Remember to budget for souvenirs and additional expenses like parking fees or tips. Bringing your own refillable water bottles, sunscreen, and snacks can help you save on purchases within the parks. Consider purchasing souvenirs strategically or setting a spending limit to avoid overspending and ensure your Disney experience remains magical without breaking the bank.

It feels to finally get a cost in the ballpark you are willing to pay but we can’t be bringing back debt.

How will we save for this trip? We have about 26 weeks to save so breaking it down every week you need to save $96.46 each week to pay for this. To fly, you will need to save $123.82 each week between now and the trip. 

Going to debt for the mouse isn’t a great idea to do. It might be an amazing trip, but you don’t want to be paying for that for several years down the road. If we make some sacrifices early, we can afford it with no problem.