Cost for a Disney weekend

Question # 1:

What kind of total costs should one expect for a budget minded trip for two people? Maybe a long weekend - hotel - food - entrance - etc.



Answer # 1:

The kind of cost to expect would depend a lot on the time of year you plan to visit Disney. But since you mentioned that you are “budget-minded”, I am going to assume that you would plan to go to Disney during the off-season (January-February, and some dates in the fall after the kids are back in school). I will also assume that a long weekend means arriving on Thursday afternoon and staying through Sunday.


Assuming that, here’s the breakdown of estimated costs:

3 nights in a value resort: ($82/weekday night and $92/weekend night): $266.00

3 day Park Hopper pass (Friday-Sunday): $271/each or $542.00 total for 2 adults

Quick service meals, a.k.a. Disney’s version of fast food, (dinner Thursday, 3 meals Fri/Sat/Sun): $25/meal for both adults or total $250.00 for 10 meals

Misc expenses (parking/locker rental/souvenirs): $75.00

Total est. cost for a long weekend at Disney for 2 adults: $1133.00


This does not include travel to the Orlando area, of course, and also does not take into account the very likely possibility that Disney will be running a special discount of some sort that will save you a little money.

Also, if you want to shave a little cost off that total, you can take off the Park Hopper option on your tickets (although I highly recommend the PH option), which would reduce your ticket cost to $438 total, or $104 less, making your trip total cost: $1029.00.

You might be thinking that this seems expensive for a long weekend get-a-way and it is. This is because Disney likes people to stay longer than a few short days. Most of the discounts available to guests are geared toward trips for 5 days or more. This doesn’t mean you’ll spend less money than above, but you’ll get more for you money! For example, if you were to buy a 7 day PH ticket instead of the 3 day PH ticket listed above, your cost would go up a total of $30 or $15/ticket. Buy more, spend less per unit.