Inside mum-of-22 Sue Radford’s 50th birthday extravaganza costing £52k – as she’s taking entire family on Disney holiday
BRITAIN’S biggest family, The Radfords, are said to be jetting away to sunny Florida for a bumper Disney holiday this Easter.
With a potential brood of 39 people heading to see Mickey and Minnie, how much will it cost them? We’ve crunched the numbers to work out how many thousands it could cost them.
Leaving the UK for the sunnier destination of Orlando, Florida, the mega ménage is planning an Easter trip to Disney World to celebrate mum Sue Radford‘s 50th birthday, according to an interview with The Daily Mirror.
Sue said: “We’re going to do a big 50th holiday with all the kids and grandkids to Disney. We’ll go in the Easter break.
“The kids love it and the grandkids do too.”
Sue and her husband Noel Radford, 54, will be taking not only their own children, but all of their grandchildren with them too – making the most of the Easter break from school.
The huge holiday is going to kick off a big year of travel for the Radfords, who enjoyed 14 getaways last year alone.
Who is going to Disney?
The couple will presumably be joined by children Chris, 35, Sophie, 31, Chloe, 29, Jack, 27, Daniel, 25, Luke, 24, Millie, 23, Katie, 22, James, 21, Ellie, 19, Aimee, 18, Josh, 17, Max, 16, Tillie, 14, Oscar, 13, Casper, 12, Haillie, nine, Phoebe, eight, Archie, seven, Bonnie, six and Heidi, four.
Also joining them will be Chris’ wife Nicole Spencer, Sophie’s husband Joe Bradley, Chloe’s boyfriend Jake Wallace, Millie’s husband Harley Passmore and Katie’s boyfriend Connor Carter.
On top of that all 11 grandchildren are said to be in tow – meaning there’ll be plenty of holiday packing to be done.
Despite telling The Daily Mirror they have been “feeling the pinch” financially, they plan to spare no expense on this holiday of a lifetime – it’s a good job they have their own pie business and make money from their Channel 5 show, 22 Kids and Counting!
How much will the holiday to Disney cost?
We’ve included the costs of the children’s partners in our calculations and used April 7th as our departure date – the first Monday of the Easter school holiday according to Lancashire County Council’s website.
Flights
The closest airport to the Lancashire homebase of the Radfords is Manchester, who offer direct flights to Orlando.
The closest airport to Disney World is Orlando International Airport (MCO), which is in southeast central Orlando, Florida.
Using Google Flights to work out the average cost of a flight on that day; the top departing flights are with Virgin Atlantic, who have varying fares for infants, children and young adults.
They class babies up to the age of two as infants. Children between the ages of two and eleven pay a child fare, and young adult fares apply to children between the ages of 12 and 16.
To jet off on 7th April from Manchester, an adult ticket costs £768 – the family will need 26 of these.
A young adult ticket costs £768 – they’ll need four of these.
A child ticket costs £576 – they’ll need five of these.
An infant ticket costs £77 – they’ll need four of these.
Flights in total = £26,228
There are extra international surcharges, carbon surcharges and taxes on top of this – but we haven’t included them in our maths.
Eldest son Chris and wife Nicole are parents to Maisie, seven, Jacob, five and Oaklyn, three.
Chloe and Jake share Mila, two, (currently, Chloe is pregnant with their second child).
While Millie and Harley share Chester two, and Elodie, 16 months with Millie’s daughter Ophelia, four, from a previous relationship.
Katie and Connor are parents to baby Ronnie, three months old.
All in, the family are looking at a jaw-dropping £26,228 on flights – and that’s before the excess charges or any extra baggage.
Disney World Tickets
We’re calculating the cost of a seven-day Disney visit, which would require each guest to hold a 7-Day Magic Ticket for entrance.
The tickets include access to the park and water parks with the eligibility to enter multiple parks per day.
Holders will also have the ‘memory maker’ package which includes unlimited Disney photopass downloads – pictures taken by photographers around the park, on rides and in restaurants.
On top of that, they can use them for mini-golf, ESPN Wide World of Sports and more.
Luckily for Sue and Noel, children under the age of three go free. So four of the children on the trip won’t cost a penny to get into the park.
That leaves 10 child tickets (age three-10) at £559 each.
And 25 tickets for ages 10+ at £579 a pop.
Disney World Tickets total = £20,065
Accommodation
Sue and Noel have spoken about their approach to holiday accommodation previously, while appearing on the This Morning show – they revealed they usually opt for a villa to save costs and ensure the bunch can bunk close together.
Last September, they shared an Orlando Villa Tour on their Facebook page to their 944,000 followers.
Their glam villa had it’s own pool, with Sue captioning the clip: “The kids love it!”
The villa was perfect for their Disney trip – with a Frozen themed room and pirate ship themed room for the kids.
There was also a games room, complete with arcade-style gaming machines to entertain the children after a long day at the parks.
One eagle-eyed viewer recognised the accommodation as similar to a property listed on rental site, Vrbo.
The glam Vrbo house sleeps 15 – so Sue and Noel will need to book 3 to comfortably house all 39 travellers.
The accommodation costs £300 per night, working out at £2,100 per villa for a week.
Accommodation total = £6,300
How much would it cost The Radfords to go to Disney?
Flights = £26,228
Disney World Tickets = £20,065
Accommodation = £6,300
GRAND TOTAL = £52,593
And that’s without food, merchandise and extras!
This won’t be the only holiday to celebrate Sue turning 50 – in the same interview with The Daily Mirror, she said her and Noel will jet off for a romantic holiday for two.
“But we are going to do a holiday just the two of us as well. That will be nice,” she revealed.