Are you ready for the spooky season? The way this summer has flown by, it feels like Halloween going to be here in no time. If you were thinking about visiting Disney World for the holiday, you’ll need to get started on planning that trip ASAP. Don’t worry — we’re here to help you out!

Disney World is a lot of fun during Halloween, with extra snacks, ride overlays, and a big party in Magic Kingdom. But the exciting additions can also mean increased expenses. To give you a better idea about the cost of a trip this time of year, we’re breaking down the budget to find out how much it would cost a family of 4 to do Halloween at Disney World.

For this experiment, we’re planning a trip for a hypothetical family of 4. There are 2 adults and 2 kids in the family, with one of the kids being 12 years old and the other 7 years old. With those ages, the 12-year-old will be considered an “adult” for many Disney prices. For example, they’ll need an adult park ticket. Because Disney often reserves child pricing for kids ages 9 and under, the 7-year-old will be the only one with that lower pricing.

We’ll say that the family is visiting Disney World from October 28th through October 31st. Since they want to be in the parks all day on Halloween, they’ll wait to go home until November 1st. That means they’ll need park tickets for 4 days and a hotel reservation for 4 nights.

This family is going to fly to Disney World, but we know that many people choose to drive instead. You can check out flight prices and compare those with current gasoline prices in order to decide which mode of transportation is best for your group. We’ll show you the total prices both with and without the flight prices included so that you can see the difference.

Flights

We used the Hopper app to look for the lowest prices when it comes to flying to the Orlando International Airport. We checked a few different airlines at a few different airports around the US. The prices in our list are round-trip ticket prices for 1 person.

The lowest prices were found at the Atlanta, GA, airport, and the highest prices were at the Los Angeles airport:

• Atlanta, GA (ATL) to Orlando International Airport: Frontier Airlines – $89; Spirit Airlines – $90; Delta Air Lines – $177
• Chicago Midway (MDW) to Orlando International Airport: Frontier – $250; Delta Air Lines – $332; Spirit Airlines – $317
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Orlando International Airport: Spirit Airlines – $242; American Airlines – $368; Delta Air Lines – $468

Of course, the cost of a plane ticket is going to vary widely depending on where you live and which airport you fly out of. For the purposes of this budget, we’ll choose a middle-of-the-road price of $250 per person. With 4 people in the family, that brings the total cost to $1,000.

If you do choose to fly, you’ll also need to consider how you’ll get from the Orlando International Airport to your Disney World hotel. This family will use Mears Connect — one of the paid transportation services that replaced Magical Express. Note that there is no longer a free option for getting between the airport and Disney World hotels because Disney canceled Magical Express earlier this year.

This service costs $32 per adult and $27 per child (ages 3 to 9) for the standard round-trip fare. That’s a total of $123 for this family. That brings the total cost of getting to Disney World to $1,123

Total Cost So Far: $1,123

Click here to see our complete guide to booking the CHEAPEST flight to Disney World.

Park Tickets

Of course, once the family gets to Disney World they’ll want to visit the parks! Let’s take a look at some different options for park tickets. They’ll be going to a park every day on October 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st. They’re just going to fly out on November 1st, so we don’t need a park ticket for that day.

For a 4-day, single-park ticket, the prices are between $127 and $128 per person per day. This would mean that the family can only visit one park each day — they cannot park hop.

With taxes added on, that brings the total for four 4-day tickets with 1 park per day to $2,140.88.

If the family would prefer to use Park Hopper — allowing them to visit multiple parks in each day — the tickets increase by about $20 per person each day.

That would bring our total for four 4-day Park Hoppe tickets to $2,502.99, about $360 more than the single-park ticket option.

Because the family will be in Disney World for 4 days, they will be able to visit each park even if they only go to one park each day. For that reason, we’ll choose the 4-day single-park ticket option at $2,140.88 total.

Make sure you check the Park Pass Reservations calendar before you book your tickets — you don’t want to buy tickets if all of the parks are already at capacity! When we looked, there was plenty of availability for the end of October.

As soon as you book your tickets, you should also make those Park Pass Reservations. Reservations are free when you have park tickets, and that’s how you can ensure you’ll be able to visit a certain park.

Total Cost So Far (with flights): $3,263.88

Total Cost So Far (without flights): $2,140.88

Learn more about Park Pass Reservations here.

Hotel Reservations

Next, the family will need somewhere to stay! We priced out hotel rooms at one of each of Disney World’s hotel categories: Value, Moderate, and Deluxe:

• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort (Value): $159.75/night = $725.27 (4 nights with tax)
• Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort (Moderate): $316.25/night = $1,423.13 (4 nights with tax)
• Disney’s Contemporary Resort (Deluxe): $637.50/night = $2,868.76 (4 nights with tax)

Remember that you can also choose to stay at a hotel that’s not on Disney World’s property, which could save you some money. You’ll just need to consider transportation if you didn’t drive, as Disney World’s free transportation only applies to hotels on property.

Deluxe hotels are generally the most expensive options, but guests also enjoy some great perks at these hotels. For example, guests at Disney’s Contemporary Resort can take the Monorail to Magic Kingdom, or they can even walk to the park! And Deluxe hotel guests can also take advantage of Extended Evening Hours, meaning they can stay in certain parks for a few hours past closing time on certain days.

You can decide what’s worth it for your group and where you’d like to splurge or save.

This family chose the Moderate option at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, mainly because this hotel has the Disney Skyliner hub, which means they can easily get to both EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. That could save them some time since they won’t have to wait for a Disney bus.

This hotel also has some decent food options, like Spyglass Grill and Sebastian’s Bistro.

Total Cost So Far (with flights): $4,687.01

Total Cost So Far (without flights): $3,564.01

See our definitive ranking of EVERY Disney World hotel.

Food

It’s finally time to look at our favorite part of Disney World: the FOOD. There are a lot of different options when it comes to dining in Disney World. You can have groceries delivered to your hotel room, dine at quick service (fast food) restaurants, or book table-service restaurant reservations. And of course you can’t forget about the snacks!

We like to have a healthy mix of all the options. So this family is going to have groceries delivered for breakfast (saving them some money in this category), have a quick service meal for lunch every day, and have a table service meal for dinner each day.

Generally, you can find quick service meals for $15 or less per person, and table service meals will cost (on average) less than $35 per person. Kids’ meals at table-service restaurants will usually be $15 or less. That’s not counting signature or character dining, which almost always costs more than that. For example, a steak dinner at Le Cellier in EPCOT will run about $60 per person, and breakfast at Chef Mickey’s is $42 per adult.

For quick service restaurants, the family might visit Sleepy Hollow Refreshments in Magic Kingdom to get Hand-dipped Corn Dogs and Sweet-and-Spicy Chicken Waffle Sandwiches. Each of those meals costs $11.29. If you add a soft serve drink to each meal, that brings them up to $15.28. Remember that water is free at all quick-service restaurants.

On their Hollywood Studios day, this family might opt for Ronto Wraps all around (which can be found at Ronto Roasters in Galaxy’s Edge), which cost $12.99 apiece.

Some table service meals that they might try are Yak & Yeti Restaurant in Animal Kingdom and Via Napoli in EPCOT.

At Yak & Yeti, entrées like the Honey Chicken, Kobe Beef Burger, and Miso Salmon cost between $20 and $36, while kids’ meals are each $11. Via Napoli has pasta dishes under $30 and several options for pizza that fit the budget as well.

Budgeting for $15 per quick-service meal, $35 per adult table-service meal, and $15 per child table-service meal, that brings our total dining cost to $720. (Remember that the 12-year-old is counted as an adult for dining prices.)

We’ll add in a budget for snacks (because of course we will) and round that up to $800.

Total Cost So Far (with flights): $5,487.01

Total Cost So Far (without flights): $4,364.01

Click here to check out the BEST Disney World restaurants.

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party

A major reason that many people are visiting Disney World this time of year is that Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is finally returning to Magic Kingdom! So far, the only date that’s sold out for this party is October 31st. So this family is going to attend the party on October 30th.

The party includes access to Magic Kingdom attractions (some of which have spooky overlays for the occasion), trick-or-treating around the park, specialty treats and snacks, and entertainment like the Boo To You Halloween Parade.

On this date, the party costs $179 per adult and $169 per child (the 12-year-old counts as an adult in this case as well). The party operates on surge pricing — if you choose to go earlier in the season, ticket prices could be as low as $109 per adult and $99 per child. The party runs on select nights from August 12th through October 31st.

With taxes, that’s a total of $751.91 for the family to attend Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.

Total Cost So Far (with flights): $6,238.92

Total Cost So Far (without flights): $5,115.92

Click here to learn all about Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.

Other Things to Consider

A few other things you might want to consider include the cost of merchandise in the parks, special tours, and stroller rentals. Stroller rentals cost $15 per day for a single day or $13 per day for multiple days.

Souvenirs in the parks can cost as little as under $5 for a magnet or other trinkets and as high as thousands of dollars for designer collections. Make sure to set a souvenir budget before you visit so that you don’t accidentally spend too much on fun collectibles!

Disney World also has various tours throughout the parks where you can learn more about the history of Magic Kingdom, see Disney’s Animal Kingdom animals up close, visit the greenhouses in EPCOT, and more. These tours usually cost between $100 and $250 per person, depending on the tour and time of year. We expect the tours to book up fast around the holidays, so make sure to reserve your spot ASAP.

And that’s a wrap on our budget for the family of 4 trying to do Disney World at Halloween. Here’s a grand total for the cost of their trip, which doesn’t include the extras we mentioned at the end (like souvenirs, stroller rentals, or tours) but does include a visit to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party:

Total Cost (with flights): $6,238.92

Total Cost (without flights): $5,115.92

Remember that there are other ways to save if that total still looks too high. You could consider off-property hotels, opt for a road trip instead of a flight, or cut back on the table-service restaurant reservations. We’ve got some great resources for saving money in Disney World that you can check out here:

• Full List of Disney Deals and Discounts
• How to Get the MOST Discounts During Your Disney World Trip
• The Best Disney World Souvenirs for Every Budget
• How to Feed a Family of 4 for Under $100 a Day
• 15 Cheap but Filling Disney World Snacks for When You’re Ballin’ on a Budget
• 19 Disney Snacks for Under $10 that We Like MORE than $50 Meals
• These Hotels Are Worth the MONEY According to Disney World Guests
• Expensive Disney World Snacks Aren’t Always the BEST Disney World Snacks

Keep following DFB for more tips on how to save on your upcoming Disney World vacation!

Click here to see everything returning to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Disney World.

Are you visiting Disney World for Halloween? Let us know in the comments.