August, 2026. What is the real cost of a trip to Walt Disney World - and how can you figure it out quickly and easily? I built a chrome extension to navigate the math on split stays, dining plans, annual passes, optimal dates, and - most importantly - whether or not to bring the children [kidding, you should probably bring them - although going sans kids is also really fun and, if you’ve seen my other site, theMouseAndMe, you already know I like to go solo!]
After planning the app and constructing a list of requirements, I vibe coded a fully working prototype using claude ai. This means the code is very much not production ready - and even if it were, it’s not UX ready. The basic feature set is there, but it needs a design overhaul to make it more usable.
The sweet spot in terms of UX would be enough detail for seasoned trip planners to get all the options they need (split stays, spending levels, special events, and budgeting), but enough simplicity for less experienced trip planners to get a real sense of cost - enough to know whether the trip is within their means - without having to wade through too many unfamiliar concepts. Ideally, the extension would belong to a licensed Disney travel agency which would allow the use of Disney branding and lend the data more legitimacy. Keeping the forecast data up-to-date would become part of the agency’s marketing and technology budget. The extension could become part of the agency’s acquisition funnel with a feature roadmap and its own set of KPIs.
How does it work?
The extension acts like a browser for the most part, doing what you would do if you were searching for hotels and park tickets and just presenting the information it finds in its own search. For “extras” budgeting, it makes estimations based on configurable spend profiles (no frills, balanced, or luxe). For dining plans and lightning lanes, Disney typically increases prices by a fixed % annually, so we use past years’ data to create a forecast for the coming year which can then manually maintained going forward.
For this prototype, there’s not much more to it.
What’s included?
Hotels - with split stay option and date/resort adjustments to find optimal prices
Park tickets with the option to specify an annual passholder
Annual pass holder math (ability to see if it’s worth having someone buy an annual pass)
Dining plan
Character dining
Daily spending budget
Lightning lanes
Special event ticketing
Budgeting - what’s due and when and how much to save each month leading up to the trip.
disclaimer: this extension uses a mix of real time and forecasted data (extrapolated from historic data). It was designed and developed for personal noodling and is not affiliated with the Walt Disney company. Prices quoted by the app are intended to give a reasonable picture of total trip cost and do not constitute any guarantee of actual, final pricing or expenditure.
