If you’re planning your next vacation and considering Orlando, FL, you might be wondering, is Disney  World worth it?  This post takes an honest look at the pros and cons you may want to consider before booking a Disney vacation.

If you’re on social media these days, it seems Disney is catching a lot of heat as of late.  Rising prices, changing policies, and ever increasing crowds have lots of people debating whether the trip to “the happiest place on Earth” is even worth it.

My husband and I both visited in our childhood but don’t have a lot of memories of our trips. Still, seeing friends go and watching my girls see all things Disney, I myself got bitten by the Disney bug and started obsessively planning a trip to Disney World.

Originally we’d planned to visit in the Fall of 2020, but Covid happened and we decided to visit the Keys instead.  So I’ve had two years to plan this trip.  Needless to say after 100s of YouTube videos, I’d managed to hype it up really big in my mind.

My husband has always been the rock that keeps me grounded.  He’s the realist to my dreamer. He reminded me of the reality of this trip obnoxiously often . He reminded me constantly that even magic has a cost.

So now, months after our January trip I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on our trip and I’m not going to lie.  I’ve got mixed reviews.   It wasn’t everything I dreamed it would be but there were also parts I couldn’t  have possibly even dreamed.

It gets complicated.

Is Disney World worth it?

I wanted to break this down for you and give you an honest review of my experience, the good, the bad and the in-between.

I’ll start with the good news.  There is still magic.

That’s certainly not all you need to consider when booking a vacation at Disney, however, it is something pretty special.  There were lots of things I truly loved about our Disney trip.

Whether or not it’s enough for you to want to visit, I can’t say.  I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Fun fact – Disney dropped the mask mandate a week after our visit!

Reasons you SHOULD book a Disney World Vacation

1. RIDES

I can’t say enough about how fun the Disney rides were.

There was something for everyone.

I’m far from a thrill seeker these days but my family convinced me to try a few out of my comfort zone.  Even though I may never ride some of them again, I’m glad I tried them for the experience alone if nothing else.

Everything at Disney is so meticulously planned.  You are fully immersed in the story, including the tiniest details starting in the queues, throughout the entire ride, and even the exits after rides. Disney has thought of it all!

Each ride tells a story and many put you right in the middle of the story.  On Remi’s Ratatouille Adventure, we were scurrying through the kitchen dodging angry mops and hot stoves.  In Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railroad, we were swept up in a tornado and ballroom dancing with Daisy.

We were the characters.  We felt the frantic scurry through the kitchen, the soaring heat of the stove, even the splash from the angry mop.   Immersed in the experience, we actually experienced those!  And don’t get me started on the smells.

Did you know Disney rides even have smells built into some experiences?

There’s nothing like flying through the air on Soarin’ and getting a whiff of elephant dung while watching a stampede through the grasslands!

Each and every ride we rode provided a unique and memorable experience. Even though a few rides contained a bit too much “thrill” for my taste, I can’t think of a single ride that I HATED. Each was an experience in and of itself.

2. SHOWS

We read several articles that said to skip the shows in favor of riding more rides.

This friends is a statement I could not agree with LESS!

The shows on our trip were phenomenal. Everything from the beautiful sets, character costumes, music, all the way to the storylines was AMAZING.  I can’t think of a single show that every single one of us didn’t enjoy.

As a mother of two girls, you probably wouldn’t be too surprised to learn that the Frozen sing along was a favorite.  This one was full of hidden grown-up humor and magic and music for the littles.  It even snowed at the end!

The Lion King had me feeling like we were watching a Broadway show with it’s flamboyant colors, costume designs and music. It was literally impossible to have a bad time during that show.

I could spend hours discussing shows alone, but I’ll save that for another day. The point is, the shows are incredible and not to be missed!

3. SMILES

My oldest is in the age of frog smiles; that awkward half smile with teeth jutting out that emerges any time she sees a camera.  She claims she forgets how to smile and just wings it.  What I see now as ruined school pictures will one day be brought out at Thanksgiving dinner year after year as a hilarious joke.

But the smiles we got at Disney were pure magic.  There’s no other way to describe them.

And I’d argue that you can’t put a price tag on memories like that because you only have so many opportunities in life to experience them.

4. CHARACTERS

I didn’t expect my 8 year old to geek out about characters.  But she did.  And my 5 year old’s eyes morphed into the saucers of admiration you see in cartoons.  They were smitten.

And frankly I think we all were.  The characters were funny and interactive and made a point to try to wave or in some way interact with every person they encountered.  It was precious to watch my girls return their attention with shy waves and big smiles.

Unfortunately our trip was scheduled shortly before characters returned for up close visits and hugs.  I wish we had been able to experience that, but even still, the sheer joy on my girls faces when they encountered a character was truly special.

We had a character meal at Topolinos’ (that I’ll review at a later date) and despite the super crazy price tag of that meal, it was one of my favorite experiences of the whole trip.

We had so much fun watching the characters dance and parade around the restaurant.

Speaking of smiles, some of the best ones I captured on the trip were from this day.

I know there’s a sweaty, under-paid person beneath that suit, but man do those characters know how to bring some magic.  I’d love to be a fly on the wall at character training for castmates just to see how that all works. I feel like it would be hilarious and utterly adorable all at the same time.

5. GENIE +

So this one’s both a pro and a con for me.  The positive side is that it exists for those of us that are willing to pay a price to skip the lines.  And when it works, it works well.

I won’t delve too far into the cons yet, but let’s just say, it didn’t always work in the way we wanted it to.  But we still saved an average of 3 hours, ranging from just 2 hours saved in Animal Kingdom to a whopping 4.5 hours saved in Hollywood studios!

With Genie + we walked on to many rides including Dinosaur.

We didn’t really encounter any LLs that were super backed up.  Sometimes we had to wait 5 minutes to board, but it was usually time spent quickly moving through the queue.  You can feel tired eyes bore into you as you pass standby riders in the lightening lane and wonder how many of them are starting to regret not purchasing Genie+.

The whole trip the longest line we waited in was 40 minutes and that was when my husband and the girls decided to ride Flight of Passage AGAIN after rope dropping it. Even when we  waited standby (mostly in the mornings) we rarely waited more than 15 minutes.

So for us, Genie+ was worth the extra $$.  It also wasn’t an on the fly decision.  I did a lot of research into how to best use it before we go, but that’s a post for another day.

Reasons Disney might NOT be worth it.

Yes, there is magic to be had.  But as Rumpelstilskin says, “All magic comes with a price.”  And the cost here my friends is both hefty fiscally and perhaps in other ways too.

You can find 1,000 other posts on the internet that will argue to the death that not only is Disney magic real, but that it’s worth your left kidney and defaulting on your mortgage. I tend to value realism and authenticity, so that’s what I’m going to give to you here my friends.

Don’t get me wrong.  We had lots of amazing experiences.  Most days my cheeks were sore from smiling and laughing.  But I’ve also had amazing vacations with similar results for 1/4 of the price of this Disney trip.

Here are some of the major ways in which the cost of Disney magic was a bit more than we bargained for.

1. PRICE

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say Disney is cheap.  But with prices increasing steadily over the past few years in a world where wages remain stagnant and cost of living is skyrocketing, Disney is arguably becoming increasingly unaffordable for many Americans.

Take for example accommodations on Disney property.

We ended up paying about $300 a night at the moderate resorts we stayed at, Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans – Riverside.  I’ plan on writing a completely separate post that discusses both the pros and cons of staying on property, but the overall gist is, it is expensive.  We could’ve gotten a whole house with a pool for what we paid for a small, pretty cramped hotel room.

Food was also very pricey.  Even the most basic meals cost at least twice what they would at home.  We often found the food underwhelming considering the hefty price tag.  Again, this is a topic for a completely different post, but a short and sweet summation is, budget BIG for meals if you plan on spending most of your time eating on property.

Our dinner at Cinderellas Royal Table ended up costing close to $300 after just two mixed drinks and a tip!

Disney recently increased the prices of their snacks and foods so expect to pay between $5-7 per snack.

Like a little alcohol to get you through those long days?  Careful, because those bad boys can set you back $15 each and seemingly only contain a drop of spirits.

Souvenirs are no exception to the high prices here.  My girls just HAD to have stuffed animals from the Animal Kingdom ($35), bubble wands ($30) and balloons ($15), among a few other ridiculously priced mementos.  We did allow them to budget a significant portion of their Christmas and birthday money towards souvenirs, but still cringed every time they were rung up.

2. CROWDS

Obviously, cost is a huge downfall but another big downside, at least for me, was how insanely crowded all the parks were.

Large groups of people have always made me uncomfortable and been exhausting for me. Even though we scheduled our trip for a time when crowds were supposed to be low, they were not.  Sometimes crowds were so thick, it became hard to walk without being bumped into.

I like my personal space, and limit the people allowed into it.  We live in the country so we can have lots of land and space from other neighbors.  Jumping into a sea of humanity when you value privacy and personal space can be a bit un-nerving.

Not to mention, people can be all out rude.  Unfortunately we experienced people cutting in line, ignoring cast members, running straight into us, and at one point, our daughter even got barreled over by a stroller.

3.  UNPREDICTABLE WEATHER

Crowds can be even more annoying when the weather turns against you.

Normally warm and sunny Florida took a dark and cold twist for our recent trip.  Morning temperatures dipped below freezing and it rained several days.  But when you’re dropping that much $$$ on vacation with no option to move park days around, you do what you have to do.

We bundled up in coats and ponchos and tried to make the best of it.   I suppose we were fortunate not to have to battle the sweltering heat that many people complain of during the summer month.  It’s a toss up though as to which is worse, frozen toes or sweaty shoes?

Wet, cold shoes aren’t the very best of fun, but there are other things to note when speaking of feet.

4.  WALKING

Whatever you think you’ll walk at Disney, go ahead and double it.  I figured we’d be walking 15-17,000 steps on average a day.  And we did have days where we did 17,000.

But those were our slow days.

Some days topped out at 25,000 steps.  Most days were well above 20,000.

Don’t get me wrong, I strive to get my own 10,000 steps a day, and usually end my days higher, but a week consisting of walking 20,000 steps a day wore my feet slap OUT!

By the end of the trip, my blisters had blisters and my poor feet BEGGED for my ratty old flip flops.

I knew there would be a lot of walking at Disney, but I actually think one Disney tool actually may have made this worse.

5. GENIE PLUS

While in theory, Genie and Genie Plus were designed to help you optimize your time at Disney by helping you virtually plan your day, reality was, it often meant MUCH more walking as we hopped from Lightning Lane to Lightning Lane.

I’d been a little too optimistic in planning my original Disney itineraries.  I initially pictured a trip in which LL’s would stack up perfectly.  In my mind we’d visit everything in one end of the park before advancing to the next.

This worked in Animal Kingdom and Epcot (ironically where “experts” tell you that you don’t even need it), somewhat at Magic Kingdom and NOT AT ALL at Hollywood Studios.

Our LL after Tower of Terror? Slinky Dash – the complete opposite side of the park.

Often after riding a ride, the only LL’s available were on the opposite side of the park we currently were in.  This meant we spent a ton of time walking back and forth across the theme parks.

Genie + definitely helps you save time,  but just know Genie + is not a golden ticket that will make your trip magically perfect.  There are flaws in the system that will hopefully be addressed in time and until then, you may need to adjust your expectations.

6. TRANSPORTATION

We’d seen Disney transportation billed as one of the biggest reasons to stay on property.  We did not find this to be the case.  Most of our experiences with the transportation systems weren’t great.

There was the time we had to wait 30 minutes in the freezing cold at the end of a long day for a bus back to our hotel.

Or the time when confusing buses at another resort landed us at the wrong place which added almost an hour of return trips to get to the right bus.

Even the monorail wasn’t perfect.  We got stranded for a bit due to confusing signage and getting us back from the parks SUPER late.

The limited experience we had with the Skyliner was great.  Unfortunately the hub was a LONG walk from our hotel room. By the time we got there, we might as well have driven to the parks.

And that’s mostly what we did.

We found it easier to drive our own vehicle to and from parks.  We did early entry at most every park and typically left our vehicle there during our mid-day break while so we wouldn’t lose our parking spot (i.e. 2 million miles away from the entrance vs 5).  We did get “free” parking since we stayed onsite.  However, by “free” I think they meant that the hotel billed us to park there.  So I’m not sure it was even technically free.

Final Verdict – Is Disney World worth it?

So our thoughts on returning to Disney?

I’ll be honest, after a few months I started to get a case of Disney amnesia.  Even though I know there were some not so amazing parts to our visit, I’d go again tomorrow.

Still, there’s a big, beautiful world out there There are so many places where you can stretch your dollars further.  So while we plan for our future to hold lots adventure, it likely won’t bring us back to Disney World for at least a couple of years.

That said, I’ve already got an itinerary planned for my next trip whenever it may be!  The Disney magic is real, no matter the cost.

If you are looking for more travel options, be sure to check out my Travel page for additional ideas.  Also, be sure to follow me on Pinterest, where I’m pinning travel trips and ideas regularly.