Going to the “Happiest Place on Earth” may be a dream vacation for families, but a Disney getaway doesn’t come cheap. Just buying the tickets to get into the theme parks is incredibly pricey these days, and then there’s the hotel, airfare and transportation on top of that. So it’s really not surprising that new research shows nearly a half of parents are going into debt to take the kids on a Disney vacation.
According to a new LendingTree survey of 2-thousand U.S. adults, 24% of all Disney-goers have racked up debt during their trips there. But that goes up to 45% for parents of kids under the age of 18. And it’s not an insignificant amount of money, the average amount of debt for those parents is $1,983.
- LendingTree reports that a stay at a Disney World resort hotel for two adults and two kids could cost as much as $1,079 a night - a big cause of the debt.
- Concessions broke the budget for a lot of families, as 65% of those with Disney debt say in-park food and beverages cost significantly more than they planned.
- About half (48%) say transportation costs were higher than expected and 47% said it was accommodations.
- Three-quarters (75%) of those polled say their Disney trip did or would take six months to pay off.
- Still, 59% of parents have no regrets about spending that much on a Disney vacation.