Here is how a lot it really prices to go to Disney World

Ever go on vacation and save every single receipt to see what it really costs? Much like I don’t get on a scale as soon as I return from a trip, I don’t typically total every snack, tip and dollar I spend while away from home. A little ignorance is sometimes bliss.

However, keeping track of everything you spend at the parks — right down to an impromptu Mickey ice cream bar to beat the Florida heat — can help you figure out exactly how much it costs to go on a family vacation to Disney World so you can better prepare for future trips.

Having that intel is especially important to those with limited budgets, as everyone knows a trip to Disney World is not an inexpensive family vacation.

With so many expenses to factor in these days, is it still possible for hard-working, middle-class families to afford a Disney World vacation if they make some strategic choices to rein in their out-of-pocket costs? On my most recent trip to Disney World, I put on my adulting ears and saved every single receipt to find out just how much a trip to Disney World costs for a family of four in 2023.

While our transportation to Orlando was not factored in since that expense can vary significantly depending on whether you drive or fly (and if the latter, where you fly from), I did include other aspects of our visit, including three nights in hotels, two days spent in the parks and one day spent by our resort pool.

We neither purposefully went a strict budget route nor had a blowout Disney trip. Rather than choose the cheapest option for everything involved, we treated ourselves to a few pricier options without spending well beyond our means. Doing so made it possible for us to still have a nice but budget-conscious family trip.

Related: Tips for visiting Disney World: 18 ways to save money and have more fun

Theme park tickets

The main reason why a trip to Disney World is never going to be inexpensive for a family is because theme park tickets are pricey all on their own. Even if you never ate out at Disney and used points for your hotel stay, you are still looking at spending hundreds of dollars a day for a family to get in the gates.

Currently, one-day theme park tickets to Disney World start at $109 before taxes are factored in … and that price only applies to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. If you want to go to Magic Kingdom, it’ll cost you more. That’s especially true if you wish to visit on a day when kids are out of school since the ticket price is tied to expected demand.

Knowing how expensive theme park tickets can get for multiple people, we opted for two-day tickets that granted us entry to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on one day and Magic Kingdom on the other day. Excluding taxes, the total came out to $282.55 per person for everyone 10 and up and $273.10 for the 8-year-old. Once taxes were added in, we collectively spent $1,193.60 for our two days of Disney World tickets for four people.

Total for tickets: $1,193.60

Related: How to use points to buy Disney tickets

Hotel accommodations

Our first night was spent at the Walt Disney World Swan Resort. To pay for the night, we used a combination of a Marriott Bonvoy 35,000-point certificate from having a Marriott credit card and 7,000 Marriott Bonvoy points since the one-night stay was priced at 42,000 points.

Despite using points to cover the cost of our room, we still needed to pay a resort fee plus a parking fee. As a result, I knew I’d be on the hook for at least $100 for the night.

Since I was aware of some out-of-pocket expenses that would come with our stay, I decided to use an Amex Offer that awarded me $100 back on $300 in Marriott charges. We needed to eat and grab a few accessories like MagicBand chargers anyway, so by tacking on a nice dinner at the property’s new Rosa Mexicano restaurant and visiting the on-site gift shop, we were able to cross that $300 threshold.

With our $100 statement credit from the Amex Offer applied, we ended up spending $210.85 on our first night of lodging.

For the second and third nights of our trip, we moved to a two-bedroom villa at Disney’s Riviera Resort. Unable to justify the splurge on our own, we decided to share it with another family of four.

Noticing the out-of-pocket cost was higher for traditional bookings, we opted to rent Disney Vacation Club points to reserve our villa. By renting from a friend, which came with a slight discount, we collectively paid $19 per point for 118 points (or $2,242 for the two-night stay). My family’s half worked out to $1,121 for two nights (or $560.50 per night), a reasonable weekend rate for a suite at a top-tier Deluxe Disney resort.

Total for hotels: $1,331.85 (plus a Marriott Bonvoy 35,000-point certificate and 7,000 Marriott Bonvoy points)

Related: Rent DVC points via TPG’s partner, David’s Vacation Club Rentals

Ground transportation

When it comes to getting a car and getting on the road quickly in Orlando, Hertz has never let me down, so I tend to use the company when I visit Disney World. This trip was no exception.

Our car rental (which was for one day longer than this three-day trip since I used it for work after our vacation) came to $202. The cheapest type of car available was a manager’s choice electric vehicle, so despite preferring a standard vehicle due to the lack of chargers in Orlando, we received an electric model to save ourselves about $100.

There were two (slow) charging stations at Disney’s Riviera Resort, and I luckily snagged one of those on our last day to charge the car back up for $5.41 via the ChargePoint app. Since Disney resort guests do not have to pay parking fees at Disney-owned hotels and theme parks, we did not incur any additional out-of-pocket expenses.

Total for ground transportation: $207.41

Related: From ‘fart mode’ to battery woes: 5 things I learned from my 1st Tesla rental

Meals and snacks

Like room rates, meal prices at Disney World can fluctuate significantly, making it possible to spend a lot, a little or somewhere in between. We ultimately landed somewhere in the middle, opting for a few pricier sit-down meals, several cheaper meals and some strategic packing of snacks and drinks we got at grocery store prices.

The majority of our restaurant expenses came from two meals: a $195 lunch at Roundup Rodeo BBQ in Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which was super filling and a lot of fun, and a $151.52 character breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace — Flavors of the Riviera at Disney’s Riviera Resort.

While our entire family joined for lunch at Roundup Rodeo BBQ, character breakfasts can get quite expensive, so we split up when it came time to eat at Topolino’s Terrace. Only myself and the younger kids in our larger party — aka those who would really value meeting various Disney characters — took part in this fantastic experience, as it costs $45 per adult and $29 per child 9 and under.

The rest of the meals we enjoyed were all quick-service options. Generally, these can be ordered in Disney’s mobile app and average no more than $10 to $12 per person per meal.

We’d often share meals, lean heavily into the kids section of the menu and leave no chicken finger behind when paying theme park prices to eat. That resulted in us spending $506.69 for meals for four people on all three days of our visit, excluding dinner at the Walt Disney World Swan Resort on our first night since it’s factored into our lodging expenses.

When our budget needed some relief, we supplemented with Uncrustables and grab-and-go snack and breakfast items we ordered via Vacation Grocery Delivery, a local grocery delivery service that caters to theme park visitors. The total for our groceries came out to $91.09.

Total for meals and snacks: $597.78

Related: The best restaurants at Disney World

Skip-the-line passes

Another area where you can see the price for your trip to Disney World jump is on extras like skip-the-line passes.

Long gone are Disney World’s free FastPasses. Instead, visitors can now purchase Genie+ and Lightning Lanes to bypass long wait times for rides.

The prices for these passes vary by park and by date, so it’s hard to know exactly how much it will cost for this service until your trip begins. However, it’s not uncommon to see prices for Genie+ hover between $15 and $35 per person per day.

During our trip, Genie+ cost $23 per person (plus tax) for our Magic Kingdom day and $21 per person (plus tax) for our day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Had we been visiting Epcot or Disney’s Animal Kingdom instead of Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we would’ve spent a few dollars less since our chosen parks are the two most expensive options for Genie+.

On top of what you may choose to spend on Genie+, which comes with access to shorter lines for many rides in the park, you may also wish to buy individual Lightning Lanes for a few popular rides that aren’t covered by Genie+. Know, though, that if you purchase all the individual rides plus Genie+ for every member of your family every day of your visit, it will add several hundred dollars to your trip. Doing so does mean you’ll spend more of your time on rides than in lines, so ultimately, the decision depends on what you value more: time or money.

For our trip, we opted to skip some individual Lightning Lanes for rides we’ve experienced several times before, including Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which would cost $20 per person. However, on our Magic Kingdom day, we purchased individual Lighting Lanes for Tron Lightcycle / Run for the three in the family who wanted to ride it ($63.90) and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for the two kids ($21.30).

Like with character meals, being judicious with which family members truly want to experience the individual Lightning Lane rides can shave some costs off your trip. On the flip side, if one person is going to get Genie+, everyone in the group really needs to get it to enjoy the day together. We saved hours per day in line by purchasing Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, so to me, the added cost was money well spent.

Total for skip-the-line passes: $276.92

Related: Is Disney’s paid FastPass, Genie+, worth it? Here’s how it saved me nearly 3 hours in line

Miscellaneous expenses

While my family has gotten pretty disciplined about reining in ancillary Disney costs since we are there a few times a year, there will always be extra expenses that sneak onto a trip to Disney World.

Whether you spot a must-have souvenir, need a replacement MagicBand or, in our case, race to buy a fan after mistakenly leaving battery-operated ones in the room on an extremely hot evening, you’ll want to have a little wiggle room in your budget to cover these unexpected extras. Ultimately, our trip total included an additional $37 for tips outside of meals and $18.38 for a hand-held fan.

Total for miscellaneous expenses: $55.38

Related: How much is too much — has theme park pricing gone too far?

What it really costs to go to Disney World

For four people (two adults, one teenager and one kid) spending three nights and three days at Disney World — with one of those being a non-park day — the total cost came to $3,662.94. That breaks down to $915.74 per person for the trip, which is the equivalent of spending $305.25 per person per day.

Based on our example, the majority of Disney World trip expenses are divvied up as follows:

• 36% lodging
• 33% tickets
• 16% meals
• 7.5% skip-the-line passes
• 6% ground transportation
• 1.5% miscellaneous expenses

While we kept our daily expenses below $1,000 per person, it’s easy to exceed this amount as a family of four visiting Disney World, even if you’re keeping an eye on your spending, so be sure to use as many money-saving tips applicable to your trip as possible to bring your costs down.

With some careful planning, it is possible to have a budget-friendly trip to Disney.

For additional tips about how to trim Disney World expenses, read these stories: