What is you least expensive trip to WDW ?

[pooh2001]

We like staying on site for 10 nights
We are 4 adults, DH, DW, DS, DD
May 1 to May 10

Food = breakfast in the room, $80 per person per day = $3200
Tickets = 10 day adult basic = $1492
Airfare = JetBlue = non-refundable tickets = $1200
Pop Century Preferred room = $1694
(we want to be close to the bus stop and food area)

Our total WDW no-frills BUT still magical vacation = $7586

How can we bring down the price?

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Staying on site for 7 nights.
We are 4 adults, Me, DH, DS15, DS13

Food = free dining bounce back, little bit of breakfast stuff brought from home, 1TS, 1QS, 1 Snack per person per day = $0
Tickets (7 day base tickets) + POFQ standard room = $2,770
Airfare - Southwest - $1,184

Total = $3,954

Minus $270 saved buying Disney gift cards with discounted Target cards = $3,684!!!

 

[Disneylover99]

How can we bring down the price?

Do you have to go in May?

Value season in late August/September is significantly cheaper per night at the resort, plus free dining quick service could save you a ton of money. Also Pop preferred is not really necessary to be close to the bus/food court. Request a standard room in the 60's or 70's. That will save you an extra $150 or so on a 10 day trip.

We have done Pop for the four of us for two weeks with free quick service dining, ten day tickets and flight for less then $4000.

 

[Ngwira]

What about tip $$$

 

[pooh2001]

We went twice in late June - hated the weather
We went 3 times in April - Easter weeks and Memorial Day weekend week and loved the weather

 

[My2Qtz0205]

We went for an impromptu trip in August 2013 after we received an unexpected escrow check after refinancing our house. It was me and my 2 kids (one was a Disney adult). My MIL went with me but she paid her own way. We drove to Florida in one day and stayed at POP (pool view--will never do that again) Wednesday to Saturday nights. We had Magic Your Way tickets. We ate mostly at counter service or quick service restaurants, no dining plan. We did one character meal, 1900 Park Fare breakfast, and one sit down dinner at Plaza. All told I believe it was about $3200 including gas cost (which MIL and I split), our hotel room in Hilton Head on the way home, and a last-minute can't-believe-we-got-it reservation at Bibbidi-Bobbidi Boutique, with which my husband spoiled our daughter with the top package. I also ordered Magic Maker (which was PhotoPass+ at the time).
You can stay non-preferred at POP in the 50's section and still be close to food and buses.

Also, not sure if all 4 of your have stayed at POP before, but a word of caution: DH came with us the following April for a one night stay at POP before our cruise, and the room (well, really the beds) were too small for us! I slept with my 8 year old DD, and he (tried to) sleep with our 11 year old DS, but since DS is about my size, it was not a comfortable night for them in a full size bed. If we stayed at POP again, we would get two rooms (but then why do that when we can get a suite at AoA for about that price?)

 

[Bree]

Your food seems awfully high per person per day. Are you planning TS for lunch AND dinner? I'm NEVER one to suggest the dining plan, but it would be cheaper than what you have budgeted. I just spent 6 nights with my DD at WDW. We spent around $350 for meals and snacks. Our TS meals were at BOG, Biergarten, Crystal Palace and Kona Cafe. Our other meals were a mixture of CS and snacks.

 

[Dizlvr]

I agree your food budget is very high. Our last trip we spent around $1200 for food for 5 of us (8 nights). We had breakfast in the room, had 1 TS meal almost every day, and that included our snacks and alcohol by the pool.

 

[Minniesgal]

We like staying on site for 10 nights
We are 4 adults, DH, DW, DS, DD
May 1 to May 10

Food = breakfast in the room, $80 per person per day = $3200
Tickets = 10 day adult basic = $1492
Airfare = JetBlue = non-refundable tickets = $1200
Pop Century Preferred room = $1694
(we want to be close to the bus stop and food area)

Our total WDW no-frills BUT still magical vacation = $7586

How can we bring down the price?

Isn't $80 per person per day an awful lot for food? Maybe you could save there

 

[halssister]

That food cost sounds really high, if you are going for "no-frills".
We don't do any TS at all, and budget about $40 a day per person (not including breakfast in the room), and realistically, most of our CS meals are around $15 per person. So even if you add in ONE TS meal a day, I think you could do it cheaper than $80 a day.

 

[bababear_50]

We like staying on site for 10 nights
We are 4 adults, DH, DW, DS, DD
May 1 to May 10

Food = breakfast in the room, $80 per person per day = $3200
Tickets = 10 day adult basic = $1492
Airfare = JetBlue = non-refundable tickets = $1200
Pop Century Preferred room = $1694
(we want to be close to the bus stop and food area)

Our total WDW no-frills BUT still magical vacation = $7586

How can we bring down the price?

Hi
I would drop your prefered room to regular room
and revise your food budget.
Even looking at Quick Service dinning cuts your food costs almost in half,
and regular dining is only $ 60.00 per person per night.
I would also look at taking a few days off those tickets (cut it to 7 park days) and replacing those days with resort pool days or DTD days or a water park maybe.
We also found the 80's section to be close to the bus stop and food court.

Hugs Mel


PER ADULT, PER NIGHT(adults are 10 years and older in Disney prices) PER CHILD, PER NIGHT
(children are 3-9 years old in Disney prices)

Quick Service Dining

• 2 quick-service meals
• 1 snack
• 1 refillable mug

$41.99 $16.03
`````````````````````````````````````

Regular Dining

• 1 table-service meal

• • 1 quick-service meal
  • 1 snack
  • 1 refillable mug

$60.04 $19.23
````````````````````````````````````


Deluxe Dining

• • 3 meals (any combination of table-service and quick-service)
  • 2 snacks
  • 1 refillable mug

$109.53 $29.86
``````````````````````````````````````

 

[wdwfan1]

Two adults in November.
Staying onsite using DVC $0 dollars this trip
Using Annual Pass purchased last year ( this will be our third trip using this pass) $0 dollars this trip
Airfare via SW--paid $ for one of us, using Rapid Rewards points for the other $288 missed the big sale--will watch for lower fare
Using TIW for meals (probably having breakfast in villa most days) Budgeting $500
Rental car Budgeting $200
Grocery stop Budgeting $150
Incidntals $250
TOTAL $1388

We also have $400 in Disney gift cards left from last trip.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Well, in all fairness, saying DVC cost you $0 is very misleading. That's like saying I paid for my trip last year, so it's free! Same with annual pass. And TIW card savings. At least some portion of all those things needs to be included.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

Five nights at the Waldorf-Astoria using Hilton points - upgraded from King to King 1br suite - $0
2X Southwest Round trip using SW points - $10 (SW Fee)
AP tickets that had already passed the break-even point = $0
Round trip for 2 from the airport , with tip - about $90
About $350 on food at F&W, of which about $250 was paid via Disney Rewards - $100

Total - probably around $200 out of pocket.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

4 adults in a POP room for 10 days? That sounds horrible. Getting in daily showers alone will take up half your trip!

I'd consider off site for your group. Get 2BR condo at Caribe Cove. Eat breakfast in room and bring water into the parks with you. Consider dropping your table service meals down to every other day .

I also would not buy a park ticket for every single day of the trip. I'd maybe get a 7 day, and spend some time relaxing as well.

Do these things and you'll have money to spend on a few frills too!

I cannot imagine paying over 7 grand for a "vacation" and spending 10 nights with 4 adults crammed into pop

 

[100AcreWood]

Our least expensive trip was $2000 and that was a few years back and offsite in a condo.
I agree your hotel expense is high and the food budget is really high. Maybe less table service meals? They take up so much time we have actually stopped doing table service. If we want a nicer meal we eat off property.

Our Fall trip has a $3000 budget.
Condo for 7 nights $485
Tickets for 5 days $1562
Food $700
Legoland Tickets $250 (Costco deal on tickets)

 

[TheDisneyNurse]

I went with my best friend this May. The dates were May 4-7. It was the ultimate "we're poor college students, but we wanna have some fun on our 1-week summer vacation" trip.

Room: ASMu- $95 a night (x 3 nights)
Tickets: 3-day Discover Disney Florida Resident tickets- $139
Food Budget: $50 per day, (ate poptarts in the room for breakfast)
Airfare: $0, we drove from South Florida

Total: $963-- Divided by two, since we paid separately. So a grand total of... $481.50. Disney's expensive, man. Now that I have an annual pass, I can thankfully take even cheaper trips. Also, I would've saved more money on the room with an AP discount.

I agree with everyone else. I would suggest knocking the 10-day park ticket down to a 7-day. Trust me, you won't have the energy for 10 days a row in the parks. Also, I'm fairly certain that you can lessen your food budget. In addition, I would ditch the preferred room also, never saw the point in them

 

[Lewisc]

I think 4 adults in POP would be tight for one night, 10 nights would be torture. Off site would give you more space. Add a car rental and Disney parking and your savings will be nominal.

OP wants to be close to main building and bus stop. I'd save a few dollars and walk.

What's the difference between a 7 day ticket and a10 day ticket. Maybe $30. I'd buy the 10 day. Makes it easy to justify a non park day ending with a park visit for a nighttime activity or one or two hard to get FP.

I agree with PP. You can probably cut your food budget.

Stay off site. Use your rental car you can slash your food budget.

Tight budget. I'd reduce the trip to 7 nights. Stay off site, maybe condo and rent a car

 

[Happyinwonerland]

The difference between a 7 and 10 day ticket is $30, times 4 tickets. That's $120.
Staying off site, they'll have a kitchen, so can cut food costs. Instead of $40/day for breakfast for all 4 of them, they could have Frozen waffles or pancakes, cereal, bagels and cream cheese, microwave bacon, those frozen microwavable breakfast sandwiches. Probably would cost $10 total for their breakfast each day. So, savings of $300 for their trip just eating breakfast in the condo.

If they drop to 7 days, they could also eat in the condo for 3 of the meals on the days they don't do parks. Get a pizza and salad, grill some burgers, makes sandwiches. Instead of $35/person for a table service those 3 meals, that could spend around $10/person. Another savings of $300.

The originally described trip sounds miserable. With a few small changes they can free up a little extra cash and have a more appealing trip


I just can't even imagine the arguments getting ready in the mornings with 4 people and 1 bathroom in PoP. No thanks.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

When OP said 4 adults, I assumed Disney "adults", meaning kids over 10. We always stay in a single room with DS13 and DS15, which would be considered 4 adults. Granted, we've moved up to moderate to get the full dining plan instead of just QS. But we manage just fine with 4 of us in a room. I imagine this is what most people do when they're traveling and staying in a hotel as a family.