When Walt Disney imagined the happiest place on Earth, he envisioned a place where everyone, regardless of age, could feel like a child again. Anyone who has ever been to Disney World or Disney Land will probably tell you that he was successful. A family vacation at Disney World is hard to match anywhere else, but the costs can add up and make for a very expensive vacation, especially when it comes to hotels. If you travel often, you may want to consider researching Disney vacation rental homes or timeshares as a way to cut costs on individual vacations.
The Disney Vacation Club is a possible solution to hotel costs while traveling. The unique benefit of this club is that there are timeshares and vacation rentals all over the world, not just at the Disney theme parks. Members have a choice of where and when to go at any of the Disney resorts and other locations around the world.
This is similar to a timeshare where you are making a purchase, but instead of buying at one location, your membership fee pays for all the properties you have access to. However, for the price, you’ll want to make sure you’re going to be using it a lot. There’s a one-time fee of about $17,000 plus closing costs and annual fee, but if you and your family take two or more trips a year, it pays for itself in a few years.
Vacation Home Rentals Around Disney Resorts
If you’re not interested in making a long-term commitment, there are plenty of other options for renting vacation homes at Disney resorts. Whenever there is a major tourist attraction nearby, there will always be management companies and individual entrepreneurs buying houses to rent out to travelers.
If you don’t mind staying out of the Disney World complex, Orlando has plenty of great deals to choose from. A four-bedroom, three-bath Orlando condo with room to sleep ten people rents for $198 a night. No hotel in or near the resort can beat that price, and certainly none that has room for ten people. That’s $19 a night per person and only $133 per person for a full week!
Elsewhere in Disney, you’ll find vacation home rentals to be substantially more expensive, in part due to property values and tourism in these locations. DisneyLand in Anaheim, California has a few rentals nearby, but expect to pay close to $500 a week for a 3- or 4-bedroom that sleeps eight.
Euro Disney in Paris, France is another destination where rental houses may not be the economical way to go. A one-bedroom, one-bathroom that sleeps four (there’s presumably a sofa bed) rents for around $1500 a week. This is not surprising to most, as you would expect a rental in Paris, France to be more expensive than one in Orlando, Florida.
travel in a group
There are a few ways to cut costs when traveling to Disney locations, especially if you don’t mind traveling in a group. Try to have several people go, such as another family or an extended part of your family. The more people traveling with you, the less portion of the rental fees each party will have to pay. For example, in Paris you can rent a 5-bedroom, 4-bathroom apartment that sleeps 12 for about $5,500 per week.
This seems like a small fortune until you break it down. It’s a total of $785 per night, which works out to about $65 per person per night. When you compare this to all the other costs of a Disney vacation, you may be glad you rented instead of staying in an expensive hotel.