I have been obsessively watching travel YouTubers for many years now. These channels have even inspired me to try it out myself, although not very successfully I might add.
My latest YouTube rabbit hole has been centred around Michael DiCostanzo’s channel where he competes with his girlfriend Mackenzie to complete various travel challenges. What is a travel challenge you might ask? Sometimes, they simply race to get to a certain place or landmark before the other using various modes of transportation. Other times they have to complete different tasks while at a destination. And they even make travel into a game such as a scavenger hunt or hide and seek.
But with some (not much at all) travel vlogging experience under my belt, I started to wonder just how much one of these videos costs to produce.
Disclaimer and assumptions:
For simplicity sake (you’ll see that A LOT in this article) all prices will be in USD and will be summarized and converted to CAD at the end of the article. Since it is Michael’s channel and in some of the videos Mackenzie is seen paying with his credit card (because she says she is lol) we are going to assume he pays for all expenses associated with the video which is why the total cost is going to be for the two of them. I am not sponsored nor affiliated with anything or anyone mentioned in this article, everything said is based on my own experiences and opinions and is meant for entertainment purposes.
Let’s move on. Because I love Disney, I decided to analyze the video where Michael and Mackenzie race each other to see who can be the fastest to ride one ride at every North American Disney park.
Walt Disney World, Orlando
The video starts with them at Disney World in Orlando, FL, specifically at Magic Kingdom. The first thing to consider is how they got there. Towards the middle of the video it is revealed that Mackenzie has a car that she drove to the park. Since we don’t know where they live and how far they had to drive over the course of the video, we will omit the cost of fuel to get to and from the parks. But, she would have had to pay for parking for said car, which could range from $35.00-$60.00/day depending on where she parked and time of year. As this is a competition, we are going to assume that she parked as close as she possibly could to the entrance ensuring a speedy entry and getaway. She would have had to choose the “Preferred Parking” option to execute this which could have cost $50, $55, or $60 depending on the time visited. Because they were there in February, and not during any event that we can see, I’m going to use $55 for simplicity.
Next, they would have needed to purchase tickets for the parks. Because they needed to visit every park at Disney World in one day, I’m assuming that they purchased a Park Hopper pass. At the time of the video, I believe they were living in Florida, but because they were only there for a day, the Florida resident discount would not apply as it is only valid for multi-day tickets. Another thing to consider is that they might have annual passes. During the video Michael said that he had only been to Disney World a hand full of times in his life. For that reason I am assuming he himself would not have an annual pass. Mackenzie on the other hand seems to love Disney and has said that she grew up going to the Orlando parks. But with that being said, we don’t know for sure if she does in fact have an annual pass, and even if she did we wouldn’t know how to calculate the dollar value of this particular trip as we don’t know how many times per year she visits. So again for simplicity sake, we will say that they purchased two Park Hopper tickets for Monday, February 9, 2026. It’s hard to find what price that could have been but I will use a reference date of Monday, February 8, 2027 on which that exact ticket will be $276.00/person for a total of $587.88 after taxes for both.
They spent the least amount of time in the parks as someone possibly could and did not stop for food or drink along the way (criminal), as far as we could see. After they were done at the parks, they both happened to leave at the same time with how everything worked out and drove to the airport together in Mackenzie’s car.
Flight
They would have next needed to park at the airport for at least 24 hours ,which ranges from $14-$35 at Orlando International Airport. From my research it seems like most parking garages charge around $24.00 for 24 hours, so that is what we will assume they paid.
I’m really happy that Michael talks a lot in these videos for the sake of research because he mentioned that they took Southwest airlines which means we can have a pretty accurate picture of the cost of their flight from Orlando to Los Angeles. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to know the exact airport they flew in to as there are a few options around LA, but it was in fact confirmed in the video that they did fly to LAX. With all that being said, the cheapest option for a direct flight from MCO to LAX for our reference day, Monday, February 8, 2027 is $471.00/person flying with Southwest in their “Basic” tier. There were other cheaper options that included stops but I chose the direct option for the first flight because it seemed like that’s what they did in the video. They were also in a race so it only makes sense that they would want the fastest flight available. But because they wouldn’t have been racing back the next day, they could have chosen the cheapest option to fly from LAX to MCO which is at around $189.00/person for this coming February. After taxes and fees the flight total for one passenger might have been around $658.61/person or $1,317.22 for round trip tickets for both of them.
Uber
Even though they took the same flight they ended up taking separate Ubers from LAX to Anaheim. Because I am a crazy detective, I was able to figure out that they stayed at the Westin Anaheim Resort, where they first dropped off their luggage before going to Disneyland. When I looked up how much it would cost to Uber from LAX to The Westin Anaheim Resort it was $61.95 for UberX and $83.97 for Comfort. We are going to assume that they each took the cheapest Uber, which would have cost $61.95/person or $123.90 total to get to the hotel. From the hotel to Disneyland at the time I looked, it was $5.97 and another $5.97 on the way back. Since they were separate on the way there and likely together on the way back we can assume it would have been $5.97×3 rides which would be $17.91 total for travel to and from Disneyland. The way back to LAX from the hotel was $66.95 which they could have easily taken together this time.
This gives us a total of around $208.76 for all Uber rides, not including tips.
Hotel
The hotel that they chose to stay at for the night was, in my opinion, not the cheapest option available. From some evidence in the video we can see that they stayed at The Westin Anaheim Resort which, for the cheapest option available on the comparable date of February 8, 2027, is $721.95/night for a King Room after taxes.
Disneyland Tickets
For whatever reason, on our reference day, February 8, 2027, it is super expensive for the Park Hopper ticket option which is $219.00/ticket or $438.00 for both. For them, it could have very likely been cheaper as the next day from our reference, February 9, is $174.00/ticket. But for simplicity (and hopefully accuracy), we will use the Monday amount.
Total (Current CAD Exchange Rate = $1.42)
Parking – Disney World: $55.00 USD, $77.93 CAD
Disney World Tickets: $587.88 USD, $833.01 CAD
Parking – MCO: $24.00 USD, $34.01 CAD
Roundtrip Flight: $1,317.22 USD, $1,866.46
Uber: $208.76 USD, $295.81 CAD
Hotel: $721.95 USD, $1,022.98 CAD
Disneyland Tickets: $438.00 USD, $620.63 CAD
Total: $3,352.81 USD, $4,750.83 CAD
Conclusion
The total travel cost of this video for only one day of travel could have cost the creators around $3,352.81 USD or $4,750.83 CAD. This is assuming that they took most of the cheapest options available to them and does not factor in any costs for food consumed or tips paid, as this was not clearly shown in the video.
With that being said this video, and their other videos, are so incredibly fun. They do a fantastic job making travel into a competition and giving the audience likeable characters to root for. As the audience, we are eager to see who is going to win, which probably means that their viewer retention is pretty high. In addition a video like this, focusing on a very popular brand, gives them the potential to grow their channel by getting exposure, subscribers, and potentially sponsors for future videos to come.
What do you think, is the hefty price tag for only one day of travel and only getting to experience one ride at each of the Disney parks (usually one of the worst rides at that), worth it? Comment down below!
References:
Photo by Kitera Dent on Unsplash
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/
https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/snawa-the-westin-anaheim-resort/overview/
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