So we are home. v.Disney $$$$

TCG Member 5219

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Mar 22, 2005
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So yeah we left on the 30th headed to Cocoa Beach for two days, then on the 2nd we went to the Disney Caribbean Beach Resort.

Firstly, thank god we flew home out of Orlando. Our visit to the airport was around the same time as that shooter thing, and people were texting me and my wife like crazy making sure we were ok. That was such a sad tragedy. RIP to those lost.

So on to the good stuff... The money. Well, as already pretty much known, disney is EXPENSIVE. And little did I know, they have you trapped. If you dont have a rental car like we did not, you are at their mercy. We ate every meal at either a disney park, or our resort. Every meal was $70 or more. And one special disney meet and greet lunch cost me $186 for 4 people. That was so our kids could get some pictures and signatures from Sofia the first and Jake from the neverland pirates cartoon. And did I mention that lunch was a buffet? Yeah, old country buffet style food.

Disney has the food racket down to basically the same exact meals no matter if you eat at a park, restaurant or resort. Same nuggets, same pizza and same burgers. There are speciality foods, but again the price goes way up.

As for souvenirs, they got you. Every ride ends walking you through a gift shop with the same shit. All priced double than what a regular disney store would charge. I paid $60 for three of those LED light sticks for the kids. They were broke in 30 minutes.

Toys - we bought so many that we had to ship a box of them back home. That was handled nicely by the resort.

The Parks themselves. They are OLD. Most of the rides have been refreshed, but thats about it. All the same old animatronics and same old rides. Most were broken some how, or not functioning correctly. Splash mountain was dead, the racecars were junk and all the other rides had 105 minute waits PLUS. Yeah this was not the slow season. It was busy like it was a weekend in June. It was 80* and sunny every day.

All in all, we spent about $2k in just food, toys and whatever else the kids wanted. Thats not including the $4k or so ahead of time for the room, airfare and the pre vacation to cocoa Beach.

By the way, the Kennedy Space Center was by far and away the coolest place and the best time we had all vacation. You get history, patriotism and technology all in one place. Its good for all ages. We were FLOORED at the property, the attractions and the information/history this place had. This is a must do if you ever get to the east side of FL. It was $192 for 4 paying people to get in. And our little one was free.
 

TCG Member 5219

TCG Elite Member
Mar 22, 2005
12,447
18
I'm going to high five the fuck out of the mouse even harder in February. Seems like he got you good :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

You salty AF

Yeah quite a bit. The "magic" was not quite there anymore. Besides, my kids didnt really get blown away by the magic kingdom. They just wanted to eat ice cream all day. Which we pretty much did. But it was fun being in a summer setting for the last week and a half.

The kids did thank me and the wife tho, that was sweet and that made it all worth it.
 

Fish

From the quiet street
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Aug 3, 2007
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You can do it smart. Also dont buy everything you see. :rofl: Up front food packages are a MUST. Expensive, but as you saw, cheaper than paying almost $100 for every meal.

I tell everyone that asks or says they are taking their 4 and under kids to Disney. Dont waste the money. They will not appreciate it.
 

Nccstud

Daddy no likey
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Aug 20, 2012
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The week after New year's isn't slow season. It's when everyone comes on vacation because of school. Monday was as madhouse at magic kingdom lol.

My daughter met about 10 characters in all and she thought that was the coolest thing ever. The face after she met Tinkerbell made my trip worth it...

4982df3eb6a39e97689ce661d1bc87c4.jpg
 

syP

Not Banned
May 24, 2007
30,096
357
Downers Grove, Illinois
You guys are doing Disney wrong if you are spending too much (besides having kids). My wife and I have gone the last two years for my birthday. It's a tradition we are going to do the rest of our lives. Including airfare we are never EVER over $2000-2500. Including 4-5 days. Visiting all the parks. And eating GOOD.

I have more fun now then when I was a kid. Just as I remembered it. Sucks that rockin roller coaster is dead and they changed space mountain :(
 

Blood on Blood

rumble baby rumble
Apr 6, 2005
56,478
45,955
Really dislike Disney. They literally rob your wallet through your kids (and Disney does it with a Happiest Place On Earth Smile).

Not to mention visitors / customers (especially entitled Americans shit heads) are ignorant and rude as fuck. Don't know who are more of the brats, the kids or the adults.

Thinking of something we've enjoyed; Animal Kingdom and Epcot (food/drinks and night show).

But, yeah, we are done.
 

Nccstud

Daddy no likey
TCG Premium
Aug 20, 2012
2,806
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Belvidere
Fuck that mouse! Never going and this just was the nail in that mouses coffin! Will be reading this and some comments to the wife.
Lol, it's not that bad. If you have a little one, it is well worth it and can be done without spending a million dollars.

On the flip side...You could also spend a million dollars if you wanted to haha
 

10thSVT_03

DRRRT PROSPECT
Feb 28, 2009
2,153
50
Lol, it's not that bad. If you have a little one, it is well worth it and can be done without spending a million dollars.

On the flip side...You could also spend a million dollars if you wanted to haha

Seriously I'm digging my heels in on this one. You overpay for crap food and run down old shit. I told her we're going to Hawaii again or Mexico if we are going to overpay for a vacation. I'm honestly not interested in wasting a weeks vacation from work for Disney. I have serious hatred for that place. No clue why but I just think it's garbage. Don't get me wrong I love amusement parks and shit but that place is on my never visit list.
 

importcrew

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Jan 26, 2008
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So yeah we left on the 30th headed to Cocoa Beach for two days, then on the 2nd we went to the Disney Caribbean Beach Resort.

Firstly, thank god we flew home out of Orlando. Our visit to the airport was around the same time as that shooter thing, and people were texting me and my wife like crazy making sure we were ok. That was such a sad tragedy. RIP to those lost.

So on to the good stuff... The money. Well, as already pretty much known, disney is EXPENSIVE. And little did I know, they have you trapped. If you dont have a rental car like we did not, you are at their mercy. We ate every meal at either a disney park, or our resort. Every meal was $70 or more. And one special disney meet and greet lunch cost me $186 for 4 people. That was so our kids could get some pictures and signatures from Sofia the first and Jake from the neverland pirates cartoon. And did I mention that lunch was a buffet? Yeah, old country buffet style food.

Disney has the food racket down to basically the same exact meals no matter if you eat at a park, restaurant or resort. Same nuggets, same pizza and same burgers. There are speciality foods, but again the price goes way up.

As for souvenirs, they got you. Every ride ends walking you through a gift shop with the same shit. All priced double than what a regular disney store would charge. I paid $60 for three of those LED light sticks for the kids. They were broke in 30 minutes.

Toys - we bought so many that we had to ship a box of them back home. That was handled nicely by the resort.

The Parks themselves. They are OLD. Most of the rides have been refreshed, but thats about it. All the same old animatronics and same old rides. Most were broken some how, or not functioning correctly. Splash mountain was dead, the racecars were junk and all the other rides had 105 minute waits PLUS. Yeah this was not the slow season. It was busy like it was a weekend in June. It was 80* and sunny every day.

All in all, we spent about $2k in just food, toys and whatever else the kids wanted. Thats not including the $4k or so ahead of time for the room, airfare and the pre vacation to cocoa Beach.

By the way, the Kennedy Space Center was by far and away the coolest place and the best time we had all vacation. You get history, patriotism and technology all in one place. Its good for all ages. We were FLOORED at the property, the attractions and the information/history this place had. This is a must do if you ever get to the east side of FL. It was $192 for 4 paying people to get in. And our little one was free.
My family and I usually go the 2nd week of February (every 2-3 years) for a week or two. This time my wife, daughter, and I met up with my sister and her family the first week of December. By far the best time to go. Almost every ride was no longer than 10 minutes or so during the weekday. The one Saturday we went, it was completely packed (as people had school/work off). There were occasions where we waited about 30 minutes for a ride here and there but a majority was short wait times.

My wife and I used the child swap room that Universal has and Disney does it differently. At Universal, you wait in line with your kids and whomever else is going on the ride. At the front of the line, right before you get on the ride, you tell them you're doing the child swap. One parent stays in the room with the kid/s that cannot go on the ride. Everybody else goes on. They come back and you go to the child swap room, and the other parent watches the kid while the other goes on the ride. No waiting at the end of the line. You get on right away.

At Disney, you tell the employee before entering the line. The one parent and kid/s stay behind. The employee gives the riding parent a pass to give to the employee at the front of the line. Once there you exchange it for a fast pass for the current non riding parent.

Another thing to consider if going with a group of people or even an extended amount of time, rent a house. My wife and I use Orlando360.com or something like that and one other site. My sister and her husband and 3 kids, my brother-in-law, my wife, my daughter, and I stayed at a house about 15 minutes between each park. Private pool (option of it being heated), game room, 5 bedroom, bathrooms in 2 rooms, 1 bathroom next to the downstairs JR suite, and "common area" bathroom, and a bathroom by the pool outside.

We just ended up splitting the cost per family per day to be fair. If I'm not mistaken, the house was $1600 total for 8 days. The car rental (2017 Chevy Impala) was about $250 (including the gas purchase option they offered), and we went grocery shopping to have food for the week at the house (usually breakfast and dinner). My wife and I bought a lot of stuff as well and was ready to ship things home, but looking at costs and materials needed, I just arranged everything in our luggage and paid the overweight fee ($50) at the airport.

My sister and her family stayed for 3 days (despite us telling them to stay one more day for universal with us covering or helping with their costs), and my wife, daughter, brother-in-law, and myself stayed, as mentioned, 8 days. We spent 5 days going to Disney parks, and 2 days at Universal (with park to park). My daughter was free as she was just turning 2 at the time. All in all, with everything taken into account, we saved about $1k compared to staying at a Disney resort.


Tldr; My family and I went first week of Dec for 8 days with short lines. Rented a house and rented a car for cheaper than staying at a disney resort.
 

importcrew

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You can do it smart. Also dont buy everything you see. :rofl: Up front food packages are a MUST. Expensive, but as you saw, cheaper than paying almost $100 for every meal.

I tell everyone that asks or says they are taking their 4 and under kids to Disney. Dont waste the money. They will not appreciate it.
My daughter was just turning 2 and we took her back in Dec. Worth every penny. Would do it again and will do it again (possibly by the end of 2017). She loved seeing her favorite characters. Especially at Epcot. The look on her face, her running up to each character (after patiently waiting her turn), hugging each character with the big smile on her face. That's what made everything worth it for my wife and I. We will always remember our daughters first Disney/Florida experience. We will have pictures to show her as she gets older. She most likely will not remember it, but we will. And it won't be the last. It was definitely worth it to us.
 

importcrew

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Also for those of you who go to Disney with kids. I hope you know that you can bring snacks and food and have a picnic there. Everything obviously gets checked, but they do allow you to bring in sandwiches, drinks, and other food, and they do have picnic like areas to sit and eat. I took a bunch of snacks and drinks for everybody. Enough for 4 kids and 5 adults. Since we had a stroller, it made everything easier to lug around. At Universal I'm not so sure they allow it though.
 

DEEZUZ

NO PUKESTERS
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Nov 20, 2008
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One of the best things about being in my age group is watching everyone through trial and error and then having a good game plan in place for when my time comes. Even before this thread, right after my first trip to Disney 3 years ago, it was established that no kid under 10 should be there. They just mentally cant take it all in and take it for what its worth.

thanks guys!
 

GLADIATOR

aka STROKE-KING
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Mar 29, 2004
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I've been going to Disney my whole life. I wanted to take my kids just like my parents did with me. I have never flown there, always driven. It is overrated because Great America here in IL has better roller coasters. We have learned to enjoy Disney as a vacation and not try to do everything or buy everything. We did have a blow out with my daughter when she was three years old. We came to find out it is very common there. She would freak out uncontrollably at the characters. She is probably the only child on this planet that freaked out on "It's a small world".

Here are some of my tips. Take them or leave them.

Don't buy the 4-5 day passes. You don't save money. You can't even sell them if you don't use all the days. Don't fall for those free ticket scams unless you want to sit for 4 hours and get pressure sold to buy vacation packages. I recommend you buy one day park hoppers and see how much you can get to. You can prolly do all the parks in three days.
We do one day at disney and one day at Universal Studios. That's $1000 in tickets. I actually like Universal cause it is more modern. Downtown Disney is also a lot of fun and you can spend a whole day there without buying tickets.

My aunt has a time share and the past couple of times we pay her $500 annual fee and get to stay in a two bedroom condo with six pools at our disposal. I found out my kids would rather swim and be bums than sit in a line for an hour in 95 degree weather. We bring our own coffee, milk, cereal, bread, etc....
I had cashed in my credit card points for Darden Restaurant Gift cards. That's Olive Garden and Red Lobster. They also own a place called Yard House. We went there one day and never went anywhere else. They had lunch specials until 3 pm and we ate like kings with gourmet food. We also found an awesome Cuban restaurant which led me to my famous race against a GTR in my SHO.

Fuel has never been over $300 round trip and by accident the Navigation brought us into to Disney and we didnt have to pay for parking. $20 is $20 and felt like we beat Disney...LOL

Vacation for 4 for about $2K. I guess my point is there is so much to do instead of being a prisoner at the parks. If you plan on going back regularly, there is no point in trying to do everything and cramm it all in.
 

importcrew

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When my family and I usually go (and my father-in-law has 2 time shares, 1 disney, 1 vastana), and we usually plan a few days to go to parks, take a day off and go to the premium outlets, and then back to parks before relaxing another day before going back home. Plus, all the gated communities we stay at (instead of the time shares) have private pools and a community pool and small water park. They also have their own bar and small restaurant.

Another thing that Disney does; they have a vacation savings account. You put money in a savings account you open with them. You can put as little as $5 or $100k. Doesn't matter how much you put in. No fees, good for up to 10 years, and can be used for your disney vacation. Good for parks, resorts, cruises, anything disney. If you change your mind, simply close your account.


Okay, I'm out. I sound like a damn Disney spokesman. Lol
 

LikeABauce302

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I was at the magic kingdom with the GF on New Year's eve. We had an okay time, but it was very expensive and the wait time for almost every ride was over 2 hours. We did have a rental car, but we weren't sure if we'd be able to get out of the park for dinner and make it back in at a reasonable time. We ended up eating dinner at one of the buffets and the food was terrible. Ended up being $50 each for crap food.

Also it seemed like most of the park goers were miserable and rude. People watching was pretty good lol.
 

GLADIATOR

aka STROKE-KING
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One day when we went to Universal, I forgot my credit card in our room. I had only brought $50cash in case of an emergency. We were looking for someplace to eat for 4 and couldn't find anything for under $50. We ended up eating at the Burger King in Universal. 4 whoppers with fries and drink...$46.
 

Chester Copperpot

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By the way, the Kennedy Space Center was by far and away the coolest place and the best time we had all vacation. You get history, patriotism and technology all in one place. Its good for all ages. We were FLOORED at the property, the attractions and the information/history this place had. This is a must do if you ever get to the east side of FL. It was $192 for 4 paying people to get in. And our little one was free.

My mom's cousin and my second cousins lived in Tampa for a while so we made a trip out of it when I was 12 or so and literally the only thing I can remember of that entire trip was the Space Center. Infinitely times more cool and fun than the entire Disney park was. Go inside a fucking space shuttle? YUP.
 
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