Hey, I love Disney so no hate from me there, but it's like they went out of their way to make it as expensive as possible and get no value from their money. I went last year and can't help but compare:
Flights: Can't comment here as I'm close enough to drive except to side eye 140 bucks for "airport parking." I haven't flown in ten years so I'm not the best judge but is there a reason why they couldn't uber?
Lodging: Holy macaroni and a side of cheese. I rented Disney Vacation Club points, stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (also a "deluxe" resort) for less than HALF of what they paid for a week at Wilderness Lodge (both are excellent but I wouldn't consider one more or less deluxe-y than the other. And I had a zebra hanging out outside my window).
Tickets: Park Hopper used to be a decent deal, now it's so expensive it's absolutely not worth it. If you're there for a week and have time to devote more than a day to each park why do you need to park hop?
Food: Good for them for packing breakfast, this is essential both for mustache reasons and time saving reasons. Time is its own budget at Disney and you don't want to miss a second of rope drop magic (first hour the park is open when crowds are the lowest).
But. The budget. WTF. I straight up don't believe they only ate at one table service place a day. If they did that's....really bad value for their money. We spent 800 bucks for 9 days (not counting one meal that was a part of a semi-private safari tour, which was an additional 400 but was more about the tour than the food), and we ate LAVISHLY. Boma (twice!), Flying Fish, Jiko (this was the safari dinner), Liberty Tree Tavern, Brown Derby, Yak and Yeti, Kona and tons of snacking at EPCOT food and wine festival. A couple of those are Disney "signature" restaurants (Disney-speak for $$$). Even accounting for two extra kids (both of which look young enough to still get kids meals) that is NUTS. The difference was we stocked up on regular groceries for breakfast and lunches. We got protein bars, sandwich fixings, trail mix, fruit and bottles of water. We rarely bought snacks (other than at food and wine fest). We had two breakfasts out so as not to waste the precious rope drop hour, very few quick service meals (Disney food is wonderful, unless you're getting standard theme park food like burgers and hot dogs, then it's 15 dollars worth of bleh) and had sandwiches for lunch. Not only did we not miss anything, it was necessary to balance out all the rich table service food, and even then I still got a stomachache a couple of times. We also sometimes had table service for lunch instead of dinner. Same experience, much cheaper.
Major side eye to the kids not sharing an entree either, or the adults for that matter. Disney portions are enormous.
Souvenirs: This is slightly bad but the other stuff is so much worse it seems mild in comparison. Mr. Stachey got me rose gold (because millennial) Minnie ears before we left online for cheaper than retail (they're knock offs but you can't tell the difference). We also got a Christmas tree ornament at the hotel because tradition. Managed not to buy anything else but like I said, I'll let their souvenir spending slide a bit.
Face painting: Eh, I'm finding it hard to care and the Elsa face paint was super cute. Same with the dress.
Toiletries: LOL. Sorry, it's only 30 bucks but I'm massively judging this. Remind me why they can't bring deodorant from home? And the "deluxe" hotel has all the expensive shampoo and conditioner you could ever want.
So yeah. While I can't judge a super awesome vacation to Disney, I'm judging the heck out of the value they got for their money. They could have had the exact same trip for so much cheaper.
