Can You Pay For A Disney Trip With Your Tax Refund?
Tax season is here and that means taxpayers around the United States are starting to fantasize about what they might be able to do with their tax refund. Of course, the list of options is a long one and varies [greatly] based on a number of factors that I’m not qualified to talk about. That said, what I do think I’m qualified to do is answer a question that a lot of people have on their minds: Can I pull off a trip to Walt Disney World with my tax refund?
Go ahead. . . . admit it to yourself. . . . you’ve wondered about this before, otherwise you probably wouldn’t be here. Quite frankly, it’s a good question and one that I was curious about myself. After all, there are a lot of conversations happening right now about how expensive a trip to Walt Disney World is; why not explore the topic further under this specific set of parameters? So that’s exactly what we’re going to do today. We’re not only going to answer the question of whether or not a trip to Disney World is possible with nothing more than a tax refund, we’re also going to take a look at what it would include. [We’re also going to keep in mind that neither of us here at 2 Foolish Mortals are financial advisors. . . . . so make your own decisions wisely.]
First thing’s first, we need to talk about how much money we’re working with here. As we’ve already established, we’re talking about tax refunds. Trouble is, not everyone’s tax refund looks the same. Some people don’t get a tax refund at all. That being the case, in the name of “Science”, we’ve decided to go with the average tax refund in the United States of $2873.00 [according to the IRS]. While nearly $3000 can seem like a lot of money for some, others might not see it that way. This is especially the case if you’re trying to plan a family trip for 4 to Walt Disney World. Nevertheless, we’re going to see how far we can make that $2873 stretch; the goal being park tickets, hotel, food and souvenirs. The only exception today is going to be transportation from wherever you call home to Walt Disney World due to the wide range of possibilities out there.
SPOILER ALERT: We’ve got this!
As anyone who has ever planned a Walt Disney World vacation [or any sort of trip] will tell you, there are a lot of different routes you could take to start the planning process. Today, I wanted to start with Walt Disney World theme park tickets. I made the choice to start with theme park tickets for a very specific reason. Not only are they a big part of experiencing Walt Disney World, but they would also take up the biggest portion of our $2873 budget.
There are a few different options to choose from when it comes to Walt Disney World theme park tickets. The first is a 1 Park Per Day or Base ticket. This ticket is the most affordable option, but limits holders to only visiting one of the Walt Disney World theme parks per day. While the 1 Park Per Day ticket is a great option for some families, it’s not ideal for every situation. For example, if you’re going to be at Walt Disney World for less than 4 days and still want to experience all 4 parks. In that case, there’s another option that might be worth considering; the Park Hopper. Unlike other tickets, Park Hopper tickets allow Guests to visit as many of Walt Disney World’s 4 theme parks in a day as their aching feet can carry them to. This means that, with the right amount of planing, you can experience twice as many parks in half as many days. Considering that we’re working with a very limited budget here and still want as full an experience as possible, I think that Park Hopper tickets are the way to go.
Credit: Disney [Screen Capture Taken February 7, 2022]
Having settled on the Park Hopper ticket, we’re going to plan on our hypothetical family doing 2 days in the parks. Now, I know that there are some of you who will argue that 4 parks in 2 days isn’t enough time to do everything. You’re certainly not wrong. However, we think that 2 days is more than enough time to get a taste of all 4 theme parks and enjoy a little bit of what each park has to offer. Again, we’re not looking for the perfect Walt Disney World vacation here; we’re looking to pull off the most we possibly can with a simple tax refund.
With our hypothetical family consisting of 4 people, 2 adults and 2 children, purchasing these 2-Day Tickets with Park Hopper Option is going to be a total of $1369.26 including tax. This leaves us with $1503.74 in our budget to cover the rest of the trip.
Now that the theme park tickets are out of the way, we’re going to talk a little bit about food. Everyone’s gotta eat. . . am I right!? Food is one of those things that can sometimes slip through the cracks when budgeting for a trip to Walt Disney World, but if you’re working on a limited budget, you want to make sure something is set aside.
Deciding how much money to set aside for a food budget can be tricky business. Not only are there a lot of options to choose from at Walt Disney World, but everyone has a different idea of what eating while on vacation looks like. That being the case, I have some good news and some bad news. First, the good news! You don’t need mountains of money to keep yourself fed while at Walt Disney World nor do you have to rely solely on packing your own sandwiches. [That, however, is an option available to you.] Don’t get me wrong, there are no shortage of expensive options to choose from at the Walt Disney World theme parks; there are also plenty of options that will fill you up without emptying your wallet. So what’s the bad news? While there are plenty of options available for you to enjoy on your tight budget, you won’t be without limitations. Tight budgets mean you won’t have the ability to eat at table service restaurants for every meal or sip on cocktails all day long. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t that big a deal. We still think it’s worth noting though.
Focusing back on our hypothetical family, we want to make sure that they have the most well rounded experience we can manage with the limited budget remaining. Keeping things affordable means sticking mostly with counter service options, but that doesn’t mean we have to skip on table service restaurants altogether. We decided to budget for 4 counter service meals and 1 table service meal over the course of this trip. With counter service meals coming in at between $10 to $15 per person this will cost somewhere around $200 over the course of the trip, bringing us to $1303.74 in our remaining budget. Next up, we have our table service option. Table service can be challenging to budget for without actually deciding where it is you’d like to eat with your family, because the prices range so widely. In non-hypothetical vacation planning situations, I’d recommend that you decide where it is you want to eat and research the actual pricing [all of which is available on the Walt Disney World website]. Today, we’re going with numbers that are somewhat in the middle of the road; not cheap, but certainly not expensive. This would be $65 per adult and $45 per child. This comes to $220 for the meal and we’re adding 15% gratuity of $33 to that number, bringing the cost of that meal to $253 and leaving us with $1050.74 in our budget.
Before moving on from our conversation about food, it’s worth pointing out that our budget is not counting for breakfast, snacks and/or drinks at the theme parks. This is because, when working with such a tight budget, the best want to cut out excess cost is to bring a few things with you on your trip. Over the years, I’ve found that this is easiest and goes the furthest when we’re talking about breakfast and snack foods. We’ve talked about this before and we’ll surely cover it again in the future, but you’d be amazed how much money you can save by bringing along something as simple as instant oatmeal, fruit cups or even sweets. It’s a lifesaver and a great way to stretch your budget!
Last, but certainly not least, we need to budget for our hotel. There are a lot of options out there to choose from when deciding where to stay during a Walt Disney World vacation. In fact, we explored a bunch of different options in a recent post right here on the website where we crunched the numbers to find out what the most affordable option was. Despite the claims that you can save lots of money staying at a non-Disney hotel, it turned out that staying at a Walt Disney World Value Resort is actually the most affordable option; all things considered. This being the case, we decided to look for rooms at Walt Disney World Value Resorts and came up with the All Star Music at a total of $373.34 for a 2 night stay or $186.67 per night, including tax. This leaves us with $677.40 in our remaining budget.
Now, there are most certainly a lot of things that the remaining $677.40 could do for out hypothetical family. This money could easily be used for an additional night at Disney’s All Star Music, which we personally think would be a great idea. This money could also be used on snacks and souvenirs. It would also take a sizable chunk out of the transportation costs that we didn’t factor into today’s numbers. Whatever the route, we think it’s safe to say that there’s enough money left over to allow for some adjustments.
At the end of the day, when all is said and done, the average tax return of $2873 is absolutely enough money to pull off a trip to Walt Disney World. While there’s no denying that it won’t be the longest trip or the most all inclusive, we think that we were able to plan a full vacation giving our hypothetical family a taste of everything Walt Disney World has to offer while also staying under our budget. Is this the best use of a tax return? Who’s to say! Everyone seizes their moment in life when it makes the most sense for them and we’re certainly not going to judge. That said, if you’re thinking that this might be your moment, there are certainly options out there. . . . you just need to be willing to look for them.
We hope that this has been both interesting and helpful for those of you who are considering your options this time of year. As always, we’d love to hear what you have to say! Join the Jamboree to share your thoughts, vacation plans and budgeting tips with us and other happy haunts like yourself. We’ll see you there!