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The priciest place on earth: Family of four hit with $8,480 tab for five-day Disney vacation

pedro47

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I can remember when the Disney Magical Express Bus would picked up my family up at the airport and take my family to the Disney Resort for our pre cruise stay.

It was Magical.

Luggage pickup from the airport and your luggage was delivery to the Disney Resort and to The Disney cruise ship. These things were included in the Disney cruise package deal.

Then the Disney Magical Express Bus would take my family to the Disney cruise port for out cruise vacations. A four days hopper pass was under $150.00 per adult and that included the water park.

Things have changed at Disney for the average family.
 

Talent312

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For all the belly-aching, in a few years, you won't miss the $$.
It stings for a bit, but soon you move on and forget about it.
... Until the kids go to college...
.
 

TravelTime

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It’s just best to list your costs accurately.

Just like people who say paper losses are not real losses. They are real losses .

I do not see paper losses as real losses or gains unless you sell. In the 2008 downturn, for example, we did not sell any investments and obviously the market more than exceeded where it was. How can paper losses be real losses?
 

TravelTime

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The difference is Audi, Clinique, Starbucks, and private schools exist to be elitist; they do not claim to be for everyone.

Disney claims to be for every child. But many children's parents (probably most) cannot afford it.

I would not say these brands are elitist. My two girls go to a Catholic private school and it is only $14,000 a year for both. It is very affordable in our town. Many private schools can be $50,000 a year per child and those are elitist for sure.
 

rapmarks

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I would not say these brands are elitist. My two girls go to a Catholic private school and it is only $14,000 a year for both. It is very affordable in our town. Many private schools can be $50,000 a year per child and those are elitist for sure.
When my sisters and I went to catholic school, it was $1 a month each and my father was furious
 

SueDonJ

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Twenty years ago our first trip to Disney World with the kids was through a travel agency all-inclusive package that was far more expensive than if we'd pieced together the components to try to save money at every turn. We stayed in a bunkbed room at Wilderness Lodge with a view of the lake and the Electric Water Pageant every night, and ate every meal out: Narcoosee's at the Grand Floridian, whatever the Mickey gang character dinner was at the Contemporary, the Italian character dinner in the restaurant on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, a couple nights at Trails End in Fort Wilderness because we ate there the first night and the kids LOVED it, the Hoop-de-Doo Revue, and I think I remember some kind of luau-type thing near or in the Polynesian hotel and a steak place in Epcot? Plus we had counter-service meals and snacks in every park. The meals were mostly good, Narcoosee's was EXCELLENT, and the shows were exactly as much fun as advertised. ALL OF IT was included in the package, as was entry to all the parks, Discovery Island and River Country. We used Disney transportation from the minute we landed at the airport throughout that entire stay, and we park-hopped and ate all over Disney World that week never paying a dime more than the package price.

Our next trip a few years later was pretty much the same except we stayed in a cabin in Fort Wilderness and rented a golf cart to get around, after which we never went back to a DW hotel room again. That was the trip where we learned that a full kitchen made a huge difference in breaking up the day with a lunch break followed by an hour or so of swimming.

I'd love to do every trip to Disney World as a package deal, even adding Brian's VIP tour on top, but we wouldn't have been able to afford to do that even going every few years. So then I found the disboards, first learning about the Disney VISA discounts on cash stays/park tickets and later learning about renting DVC points from owners. For a while we took advantage of specials at the local mall's Disney Store to buy park tickets and Disney Dollars, to take the sting out of paying full-price at the gate.

Everybody loves to save a few dollars when possible but there are things at DW that we won't give up - like accommodations with separate bedrooms and full kitchens, park-hopping every day so we can go where we want when the mood hits, and a little peace and quiet to decompress. My favorite lodging is still a Fort Wilderness cabin but the Old Key West and Beach Club timeshares run a close second. I've said before on this forum - if Don were as much a Disney World freak as me, we'd have bought DVC and not Marriott timeshares. :)

But it's been a while since we've been, a couple years before COVID, and I'm still not in any hurry to go back. Honestly, the amount of scheduling that has to be done in advance is a total turn-off, and the theme park admission prices are completely ridiculous. I always thought that once I had grandkids I'd be wanting to take them as soon as possible but now I can't imagine even trying until they're closer to 10YO - and that's because the scheduling craziness would probably irritate me much more than them.

<sigh> I really do long for the good old Disney days.
 
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am1

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I do not see paper losses as real losses or gains unless you sell. In the 2008 downturn, for example, we did not sell any investments and obviously the market more than exceeded where it was. How can paper losses be real losses?

You could have old before the drop and purchased at the bottom and been much better off.

Yes it is easier to just think of it as paper losses but the results are the same as you did not take advantage of actual gains.
 

TravelTime

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When my sisters and I went to catholic school, it was $1 a month each and my father was furious

Did you guys get financial aid? How was it $1? At our school, many families get financial aid. We pay full tuition but it does not cover 100% of the school’s budget. They need to do many fundraisers and get money from the diocese too.
 

TravelTime

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You could have old before the drop and purchased at the bottom and been much better off.

Yes it is easier to just think of it as paper losses but the results are the same as you did not take advantage of actual gains.

How many people actually can time the market like that consistently? We all know what happens to people who “claim” they can time the market.
 

RX8

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I’m going to Disneyland in a few days. Got a relatively cheap place to stay a short distance from Disneyland (thanks @Normita !). Have two one-day tickets (one day Disneyland, one California Adventure). We will avoid eating in the park and my boys aren’t begging for souvenirs anymore (13 and 16). Even for just a few days, and doing it as smartly as we can, we are still in for about $2400 including airfare and a rental car for 7 days. For any family, that is a lot of money.
 

rapmarks

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Did you guys get financial aid? How was it $1? At our school, many families get financial aid. We pay full tuition but it does not cover 100% of the school’s budget. They need to do many fundraisers and get money from the diocese too.
no, that was the cost probably 1950
 

TravelTime

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no, that was the cost probably 1950

That does not make any sense. How could tuition have been $1 a year even in 1950? I just looked online and $1 in 1950 is worth $12 today. I suspect that it was subsidized because there is no way $1 covered their costs.
 

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I don’t think the average Disney goer buys the 4 day park hoper pass. I have three kids and have been going since a child in the 1970’s and have never done more than two Disney parks.
 

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How many people actually can time the market like that consistently? We all know what happens to people who “claim” they can time the market.
For sure but 52 week highs and what you actually sell it for plus opportunity costs are losses.
Do you feel the same way at a casino when up?
How about when down? Even when you get back up? I bet you (most people) are sweating buckets about it. A casino is more honest then the market. Light years ahead of cyptro.
 

Ralph Sir Edward

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For sure but 52 week highs and what you actually sell it for plus opportunity costs are losses.
Do you feel the same way at a casino when up?
How about when down? Even when you get back up? I bet you (most people) are sweating buckets about it. A casino is more honest then the market. Light years ahead of cyptro.

"When the Fed starts squeezin',
It's time to be a leavin'.

When the Fed starts easin',
Buyin' will be pleasin'.

(Of course, you have to wait out a 6-18 month lag.)
 

TravelTime

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For sure but 52 week highs and what you actually sell it for plus opportunity costs are losses.
Do you feel the same way at a casino when up?
How about when down? Even when you get back up? I bet you (most people) are sweating buckets about it. A casino is more honest then the market. Light years ahead of cyptro.

Now you are using the words “what you actually sell it for…” That was my point in the beginning. You need to sell for a real paper gain or loss.

A casino is more comparable to day trading. LOL ;)
 

rapmarks

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That does not make any sense. How could tuition have been $1 a year even in 1950? I just looked online and $1 in 1950 is worth $12 today. I suspect that it was subsidized because there is no way $1 covered their costs.
$1 a month, not a year. so $10 a year. When I went to state university, tuition was about $100 a semester. When I started teaching .33 a gallon for gas and $5000 a year salary.
 

TravelTime

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$1 a month, not a year. so $10 a year. When I went to state university, tuition was about $100 a semester. When I started teaching .33 a gallon for gas and $5000 a year salary.

Okay I have to believe you but that was really cheap. The inflation calculator says says $1 in 1950 is $12 in 2022. I do not see how any school could have survived on the equivalent of $120 per year in tuition.
 

rapmarks

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Okay I have to believe you but that was really cheap. The inflation calculator says says $1 in 1950 is $12 in 2022. I do not see how any school could have survived on the equivalent of $120 per year in tuition.
The nuns lived on the top floor. As an aside the building was condemned in 1959. The high school was closed, a new grade school was built on the side yard, and I am sure it got pretty expensive.

in the summer, I would go and help the nuns. If a nun got a phone call, I would go to the end of the hall to stairwell, and pull the rope a certain number of times differing for each nun, and the nun would come down to answer the phone. Many of the nuns only spoke French. They were from montreal .also, each nun taught two grades in one classroom
 
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TravelTime

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The nuns lived on the top floor. As an aside the building was condemned in 1959. The high school was closed, a new grade school was built on the side yard, and I am sure it got pretty expensive.

in the summer, I would go and help the nuns. If a nun got a phone call, I would go to the end of the hall to stairwell, and pull the rope a certain number of times differing for each nun, and the nun would come down to answer the phone. Many of the nuns only spoke French. They were from montreal .also, each nun taught two grades in one classroom

Thank goodness those nuns are gone! ;)
 

VacationForever

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Digress.... regarding private school tuition, I paid $10K a year for my son while he was there. Here's the current tuition fee structure for his old school:
Tuition 2022-2023
  • Pre-Kindergarten – Kindergarten: $22,750
  • 1st – 5th grades: $25,650
  • 6th – 8th grades: $27,270
  • 9th – 12th grades: $29,660
  • International (9th-12th): $36,300
 

TravelTime

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Digress.... regarding private school tuition, I paid $10K a year for my son while he was there. Here's the current tuition fee structure for his old school:
Tuition 2022-2023
  • Pre-Kindergarten – Kindergarten: $22,750
  • 1st – 5th grades: $25,650
  • 6th – 8th grades: $27,270
  • 9th – 12th grades: $29,660
  • International (9th-12th): $36,300

Depending on where the school is, this might be average. Even in the middle of nowhere in FL, they are charging $25K a year for Catholic school. I looked up a Catholic school somewhere inland and south of the Saratoga FL area, and they charge over $25K a year. In the Bay Area, it can be over $50K at some schools. Our school is well below average and they have many scholarships too. I could be wrong but I think the Sacramento diocese subsidizes the schools in the Sacramento region. Even the Sacramento Catholic high schools are under $20K a year. The one I would like my girls to attend for high school is currently $15,500 a year.
 
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