What’s the price of a Disney World vacation? How long is a piece of string? The answer depends on:

• How many adults and children are going, and what are their ages?
• How long are you going for?
• Which time of year are you traveling
• What accommodation level is acceptable?
• Do you like to splurge on extras, or keep things as inexpensive as possible?
• How are you traveling to Disney?

Without knowing these specifics, we can still look a some real-life, average costs of a Disney vacation for an average size family taking an average size trip to give you a good place to start. Let’s assume you:

• Are a family with 2 adults and 2 kids between the ages of 3-9 (age matters at Disney!) 
• Want to spend 1 week (6 nights) at Walt Disney World Florida

A $7,000 Trip

Here is an average Disney vacation price of $7,000 for that family of 4 for 1 week. How does this break down?

What This Includes

Food, tickets, lodging, parking, transportation, taxes, gratuity, and most extras for your trip.

Not Included

Note what I did not include in my budget, as this will vary so much from family to family I felt it was not possible to come up with a meaningful average:

• Transportation to and from Orlando (airfare, driving, etc and associated fees like airport transfers to and from your home, airport parking, and baggage fees)
• Alcohol
• Souvenirs

Now let’s go into what exactly you get for each budget item.

Disney World Tickets

You’ll quickly see that park tickets make up the largest part of the budget at $2,600 for a 4-day base ticket. That’s $162 per person per day (on average, including taxes). Disney World ticket prices are one of the most difficult areas to save money, so this is a good place to start for a trip estimate. Prices vary throughout the year, but this is a good average for budgeting.

A 4-day ticket allows this family to spend a full day at each of the 4 Disney World parks, plus 1 non-park day (highly recommended for a rest!) and 2 travel days.

But Don’t Tickets Start At $119?

When you search for tickets on the Disney website, you’ll see that 1-day tickets “start at $119.” This price is, frankly, misleading. $119 tickets are only available in August and September (the hottest, most unpleasant months in Florida), and only for Animal Kingdom park, and this doesn’t include taxes. So most people will not be taking advantage of this low price.

Accommodation

There are so many Disney hotel and other accommodation options for a range of budgets that it’s a bit difficult to come up with an average, but I used $250/night, or $1,500 for 6 nights.

The cheapest Disney hotels that sleep up to 4 people can run you around $190/night, the most expensive can start at $600/night, an Airbnb house or condo might be $150/night, and an off-Disney standard hotel room or timeshare rental could be $250/night. This does not include any parking fees, but it does include taxes and other hotel fees.

Food

Food costs at Disney are also extremely variable, so I went based on my own experience. Assuming you’re eating at moderately priced restaurants for the most part, a budget of $1,500 for 6 nights (or $250/day) can get this family of 4 approximately:

1 Character Meal	$300
2 Other Table Service Meals	$300
3 Quick Service Dinners	$180
5 Quick Service Breakfasts/Lunches	$500
1 Snack/Beverage Each Day	$180
Groceries for Snacks, Drinks, Breakfast/Lunch Foods	$100
Total	$1,560

Taxes and gratuity are factored into these prices. I haven’t added alcohol, so add that as an additional expense. If you’re staying somewhere with a full-size fridge, you could add more groceries and spend less on quick service meals. 

My family actually spent less than this and dined at more table service restaurants. Our room had a fridge, and we generally like to eat light breakfasts in our room and pack lunches. Our breakdown was:

• $600 for 4 table service dinners
• $115 for 1 table service lunch
• $200 for 1 character breakfast
• $80 for 1.5 quick service dinners
• $130 for 18 individual snacks/beverages
• $175 for groceries, which gave us 5 breakfasts, 5 lunches, drinks every day and more snacks than we could eat (we brought the extras home)
• Total = $1,300

Ticket Add-Ons

You can upgrade your tickets by adding Park Hoppers and Lightning Lanes. I included an average of $500 here, but you can certainly eliminate this expense altogether, or double it! A family of 4 might spend the following:

• Park Hoppers for 4 days: Approx. $360
• Multipass Lightning Lanes for 1 day: Average $105
• Single Pass Lightning Lanes for 1 day: Average $90

While Park Hopper costs are fairly steady, Lightning Lane pass costs fluctuate a lot. But you have more flexibility with Lightning Lanes as far as which parks, rides and people you want to get them for. My family spent $550 on our Lightning Lanes over 4 days.

Transfers and Parking

I budgeted an average of $400 for transfers and parking, although you can certainly do these for less. We found that an Uber XL (SUV that fit 4 people and all our luggage) to and from Orlando International Airport (MCO) was $50 each way including tip. However, if you are arranging for other private transfers, or you’re renting a car and potentially paying for parking, you may exceed $400.

Other Extras

There are as many extra expenses you can add onto a Disney trip as you could dream up. I budgeted an average of $500 for things like the Memory Maker photo package, MagicBands, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, fireworks dessert parties, or stroller rentals, but these extras can easily balloon into the thousands of dollars when you start adding in experiences like Star Wars Droid or Lightsaber building, After Hours events or special tours.

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While there are many ways to “do” Disney across a wide range of budgets, this should give you a good starting point for a trip that lets you experience a lot of what Disney World has to offer, including some fun extras. Is this similar to your experience? Let me know in the comments!