In images she provided, Alyssa Leach’s family vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida, a $6,000 trip they charged on a Disney-branded credit card. Families spending more than they can afford on Disney vacations say it is because they know their children won’t stay young forever. (Alyssa Leach via The New York Times)
Alyssa Leach and her husband have visited Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, every year since 2015. To them, the theme park feels like an oasis where they can escape the stress of everyday life.
So when their son, Lincoln, was born in 2020, Leach wanted his first visit to the park to be special and spared no expense in planning it. She booked a two-week trip to visit Florida in December 2022, which included stays at Disney World and Universal Studios.
The costs quickly accumulated. Leach and her family traveled from New Haven, Connecticut, and paid extra for admission to “Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party,” an after-hours event that cost about $200 per person. She also shelled out $100 for the theme park’s photo service so she could download photos of the family that photographers took during the visit.
The vacation cost around $6,000, which included accommodations, tickets and a car rental, and which Leach charged to her Disney-branded credit card.
Leach is one of many parents who have taken on debt for a Disney family vacation. In June, LendingTree, a financial firm, published the results of a survey of more than 2,000 people that found that 45% of parents with children younger than 18 who have gone to Disney went into debt for the trip.
For a family of four, the cost of a one-week trip to Disney can range from $6,463 to $15,559, not including flights or souvenirs, according to an analysis by NerdWallet, a personal finance site.
For Johnny Esfeller of Helena, Alabama, Disney was a central part of his childhood. When he became a parent, he wanted his daughter to experience the same love for the theme park and its characters.
Esfeller, 41, who works in public relations and marketing, prides himself on nailing his budgets. So when he took his wife and their daughter, then 4, to Disney World in February 2022, he was shocked to find himself in debt after the trip.
“Disney’s never been a cheap vacation,” he said. “That’s been true since probably when Walt opened the park in the 1950s.” He had budgeted about $6,000 for the trip, but overspent by $2,500.
c.2024 The New York Times Company. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
