Lots of us are postponing trips it seems. It really shows just how bad this truly is. I would love nothing more than to get in the truck and just head west but forget it, not until prices drop.

 

Fun! Was Doc Brown out for pictures near the DeLorean? He often is

 

We were on our way to grab food from Krusty Burger (which... big mistake to do that this time of year - we were in line to order for over 30 minutes!), so we didn't stick around to find out if he was. I would like to get a photo with him when we go back!

It was incredibly hot and humid, which caused us to do things like the above. We cut our park days short just out of exhaustion. At Disney, we were out of there before 4 PM, though we had been there since about 9:30 AM. The weather was really the worst part of the whole thing... upper 90's and high humidity the whole time. Not only that, but the air conditioner in the rental (Airbnb) broke after our first night there. Luckily they fixed it, but only after we had to spend a night in an 80+ degree house! Throw in some flying termites and a roof leak, and we managed to get a full refund - so essentially staying in a 5-bedroom house for 5 nights for free.. but man, it was miserable in there until they fixed the A/C. We really wanted to leave, but it was tough to find anything that could accommodate 10 people on short notice.

The good news is, no Airbnb can completely ruin an Orlando vacay, so we still had a great time overall. It was really special for my wife, since she had never been to Orlando, let alone Disney and Universal, and it was both her birthday that week as well as my friend with the Chrysler above. (That's the main reason we went.)

 

How much all in for a family of 4 to park, enter, and eat/drink at Disney World for a day? A grand?

 

I would budget $1k to be safe, especially if you want to eat multiple times and especially at a table service location or two.

IIRC, an adult ticket for one park was somewhere just south of $200? So add food and parking (which was $20 per day per vehicle), and yeah... $1k easily. You could be cheap.

We ate at Skipper Canteen, which was over $120 for two people with two cocktails, an appetizer, and a main course (no dessert). There were more expensive things on the menu. There are also a lot more affordable food options there at the parks, but mostly places that don't have actual seating let alone air conditioning. You get what you pay for. It was awesome to eat at that spot though. I wish I had taken the time to do some food photography for that one. If you're going to go endure the lines and the walking to be in the parks, I would highly recommend doing table service for at least one of the meals. It's a unique experience and is much more relaxing. Just make sure to join the wait list early, or make a reservation.

 

These people are filthy rich so it doesn't really matter, but they go to Hawaii for 2 weeks with their kids every year....it's apparently cheaper for 2 weeks in Hawaii than one week at Disney.

 

I could believe it. The resort prices in particular can get exorbitant for Deluxe resorts. I think that partly explains the rise in popularity of renting out vacation homes on Airbnb in the area. While not cheap, let's face it - they are still thousands less than staying on Disney property - or even Universal property, really. Even without the resorts, park tickets are no joke.

 

That sounds about right. We are heading down there this Friday and it isn’t cheap and Disney is starting to nickel and dime you if you want to ride some of the more popular rides by charging $15 per person to ride. My wife booked a dinner one night at one of the restaurants in the park which costs about $300 for four of us.

 

Summer in Orlando is BRUTAL. We go 2 times a year, we’re going back in September. I’ve been in August and it’s just horrible.

Disney is really expensive, but we own DVC (their timeshare) so at least the lodging was paid for long ago (spent about $45,000). Right now you can’t get annual passes, but when we could we had them and they ran about $2,800. Now it costs about $2,000 per trip because we have to buy tickets. So to go down for us for 6 days (about what we go each trip) it costs about $5,000 excluding the airfare and the car, just tickets and food. That’s with no lodging cost.

The nickel and dining is real. Now we pay for after hours parties and genie + and lightning lane.

Food is actually not TERRIBLE. I was just at Sesame Place in PA and a hot dog was $13. Just a hot dog. No chips or drink. Disney is nowhere near that expensive.

 

No arguments there. The problem with Orlando is that it is inland, in the center of the state, where you get that fiercely high sun-angle in the summer, but you are too far from the coast to get any cooling sea-breeze effects or afternoon thunderstorms to cool it off. And humidity is likewise awful throughout the state.

Food and Drink (and sometimes gas) is probably going to be a rip-off anywhere you have a well-used tourist-trap. At least they're being Frank about the hot-dog-prices.

Many years ago, I spent a summer in Austin, TX, which probably had comparable temperatures to Orlando, but, being more or less on the borderline between the humid and drier parts of TX, the humidity wasn't as bad as FL.

 

Yeah there is very rarely ever any sort of breeze, its very still. Then you get the afternoon thunderstorm every day which just leaves it even muggier.

I see what you did there lol