‘Bippity boppity broke': The average American family goes almost $2,000 into debt for Disney — but some push $100K

But for some visitors, the prices are reaching stratospheric levels.

A 2024 LendingTree survey of more than 2,000 consumers found that 24% of Disney vacationers had gone into debt for the trip. Among people with children under the age of 18, that figure jumped to 45%. Parents of young children took on an average of $1,983 in debt for the vacation, with the average family going $1,690 in the hole.

That, along with a recent social media trend of people seemingly bragging about their Disney debt levels, has evoked some warnings from personal finance experts.

“There truly is nothing magical about putting your life on payments and paying for it six months later, 12 months later at 28% APR, just for some memories,” said George Kamel, co-host of The Ramsey Show and the Smart Money Happy Hour podcast with Rachel Cruze. “I fully believe that if you want to go to Disney, you should go, but you should do it with cash, on a budget, so that you don’t have any regrets later on down the road.”

The $100,000 spend

Kamel was slack-jawed when watching a TikTok video of a Disney influencer who spoke of spending $100,000 on a Disney Vacation Club contract that expires in 45 years. Had that person invested that money at a 10% return over the same time period, he said, it would be worth $8.8 million.

And the $100,000, Kamel noted, did not include annual maintenance and other fees, which typically increase over time. In addition, he said, assuming the entire family will want to go annually for that long a period of time was “a big gamble — and you locked yourself in.”

Kamel also warned about giving children unlimited spending power at the parks after watching a video of a woman who put her bank card in a “magic” wand and told her son it could get him anything at Disney.

“Now I’m bippity boppity broke, but worth it. Look at that smile,” she wrote on Instagram. (It’s a good line, but a real Disney fanatic would know it’s “Bibbidi Bobbidi.”)

Rising costs

It’s not just tickets that are getting more expensive at Disney theme parks. Even concessions are costing more these days. Cocktail prices at Disneyland hit $20 and higher last month.