ºoº OKAY ~ let's get down and dirty!

[SandraC]

I love these boards ~ especially the BUDGET BOARDS! Half the DISNEY fun for me is planning and getting deals!

So here is my POST: Let's get down and dirty and share the BEST BUDGET DEALS you got!

Here's some of mine.....please add you BEST! THANKS!

(1) Book PS for character breakfasts instead of dinner's, they are less expensive, great way to start your day and if you got kids, the mornings are generally better times for them!

(2) Multi-day DISNEY pass. Unused days never expire. The savings is very good!

(3) Visit www.mousesavers.com THANKS MARY

(4) Eat breakfast in your room, have picnic lunches. Not only does this save money, it saves lots of precious DISNEY time!

(5) If you have a toddler who needs a stroller, buy an umbrella stroller at Walmart in Kissimmee for $13.00, that's two days rental at the parks.

(6) If you staying on-site, get the re-fill mugs. They cost $8.99 each. We filled them $50.00 each!

(7) BUDGET your TIME by using FAST PASS!

I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO HELP ME SAVE $$$$$$

 

[friskylady]

Ok, here's my response to your suggestions so you can save even MORE money!

1) skip character breakfasts. They are over priced and serve too much food that goes uneaten. Let the kids meet the characters in the parks.

2) Multi-day passes are a good deal if you also use early entry and hop to another park when the first gets overcrowded. And you can sell the unused days on e-bay!

3) Ditto!

4) Stay at a moderate w/food court, eat breakfast by the pool. So lovely and calm in the early morning.
Stick to counter service for lunch. For dinner, split entres. My teen daughter and I always do this! We just order an extra salad. No dessert! Buy an ice cream after dinner.

5) stroller idea great! If you're using Tiffany, maybe the Walmart can be your grocery stop?

6) Instead of buying mugs--Give up sodas before your trip! you and kids will be much healthier. Drink water or get juice packets at grocery stop

7) Budget your time further by using early entry and get a Fast Pass for your favorite ride as soon as the park opens for all guests.

More suggestions:

8) Forget about multi-day passes. Go to one park/day. You will save bundles $$$$$$$. On three separate one-day tickets you will save $15 over reg admission price at the park ticket office. But, if not hopping, avoid early entry days. Or do early entry, then leave park, and return in evening.

9) Bring water bottles, refill w/cool water in the park. Bring surprise snacks that your kids enjoy. when they get hungry between meals or if meals are delayed--pull a surprise out of your bag!

10) Finally, PLEASE gauge your child's energy level. Take rests, find shade, feed the kid frequent healthy snacks. Don't let your child have a meltdown at WDW. It makes everyone so miserable!

 

[ncbyrne]

Depending on the length of your WDW vacation - split your stay between hotels of different price ranges. I know that All Stars is popular on these boards, but for the same price, we much prefer to stay in one of the Hotel properties across from DD. The rooms are much bigger and there are lots of amenities, AND....the best part is that you can walk across the street (literally, if you stay at the Grosvenor) to the shops in DD. We choose this hotel for the days we are not park hopping.
Save your $ and spend a full day touring all of the WDW resorts. We did this on our last trip. Made B,L and D PS in various resort restaurants. And, we also used ALL of the different WDW transportation systems too. (the most fun was asking to ride up front on the monorail - g-r-e-a-t view!) We ended the day on the observation deck of the Contemporary, watching the fireworks. A day like this works best wity adults only, or bigger kids.

 

[SandraC]

Bump

 

[kbeverina]

If you have little ones to bring souvenirs to (like nieces or nephews) buy some inexpensive Disney storybooks ahead of time and then have them signed by the characters featured in the books--a very personalized and special gift that the parents will appreciate as well.

 

[mousehappy]

My wife keeps gallon zip locks in the back pack. When we go to a breakfast she "saves" our kids waffles, muffins, bannana....if they dont eat them(they are usually so excited that they can't sit still to eat). we breakfast for so long and have so much that we skip lunch and that evening make sandwiches in the room. It is so nice to relax in our own space after running all day. I also bring my carmel corn bucket to MK for refills on that delicious carmel corn @ sleepy hollow (I think thats the name)while we watch the parade.

 

[luvstiggertoo]

My best money saving tip has probably been mentioned before.
I take the 24oz. sport water bottles and freeze them. Wrap them in paper towels and then foil and pop them in your backpack. They thaw throughout the day and you have (free) cold water to drink all day. No need to spend your money on sodas. Its better for everyone too!

Another perk if you happen to be the one carrying the back pack......keeps you cool!!!

BTW, just checked out mousesavers! What a great site!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

mousehappy---great tip on the caramel corn bucket. I did not know that. If you have a souvenier popcorn buckets do they refill those at any of the vendor stands? Wow, can I save some money if they do. I think WDW popcorn is just the very best.

I also use my souvenier bucket after we get home. It holds a bag of microwave popcorn, just perfectly, and I usually smuggle my contraband into the movies when we go. I also pop a bag and take it with me when I go to work at The Disney Store. Makes a cheaper snack than anything I can buy at the mall.

 

[SandraC]

Great tips! he popcorn is re-fillable ~ did not know that!

Here's another one I forgot about.

We rented a fridge at CBR for over $10 a day ~ over $80.00 USF for the week! WE DID NOT NEED IT!

The only real concern I had was keeping baby ds's milk cold. Ice would have done it. We had PB & J in the fridge, didn't need it.

$80.00 is two char breakfasts!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

mousehappy said he got caramel corn bucket refilled, still don't know if that applies to regular plain old delicious popcorn or not. anybody?

 

[mousehappy]

the refills are for the carmel corn. They are not free but cheaper, I'll have to ask DW the price but its not much. wife says $5

 

[Radar]

Guess some of thesse are border line legal, any friends with a GAP, once you've skip the lines you never go back, in fact we're doing Universal to get FOTL there, so wife/kids don't have to do same thing.The Polynesian doesn't check keys at the pool. I'll burn for that one I'm sure.The snack bar at Polynesian, burgers and stuff, it has free refills, great AC, cable disney, the greatest place for recharging we saw anywhere. Also filled up
and carried back in, never underestimate Florida in the summer it was 92 yesterday, heat index was probably like 100, no place in US like it for heat....

 

[SandraC]

To Radar: Hello, just curious about the FOTL pass at US and GAC at WDW; is there someone in your party that qualifies for the disability passes? Forgive me if I am too forward, it's just you didn't mention a disability and you did mention "border on legal" (you of my fav terms LOL), so I was wondering if the FOTL and GAC are the "border on legal" you refer to. The reason I ask is that our dd rec's the GAC for a VERY legal disability and I would be very sad if some folks use the FOTL and GAC illegally. Again I apologize for my forwardness.

Thank you for your submission! God Bless

 

[Radar]

No problem. yes my wife is disabled, the problem with a GAP is that if for instance my wife doesn't ride thunder mountain and there's a 2 hr. line and at least last year no fastpass, then the kids don't want to wait so we skip it and go where the GAP is.
It caused some *******. And yes we put our suits in car which we parked at Polynesian, we jumped in there pool for about 10 minutes, and then we rented a water sprite and gave them $$$ at snack bar. It was the best break, would do it again in a minute. Honestly I would not do any of these parks if I had to wait in two hour lines to do it.For one thing they break all the time, we walked onto Splash mountain and were leaving and it broke, they closed it and all those people who had waited for like an hour were just out of luck.We also parked for free at the Polynesian, don't know if thats
changed, but couldn't believe people were paying to park in the regular lot. We had a shorter walk and a nice boat ride too......

 

[SandraC]

Hi, I was wondering (hoping) that we could check out the pools at other resorts. Thanks Radar for your ideas!

I don't think we entertain the idea of returning to WDW without the GAC. Our dd gets pretty tired with her disability and she only has a few active hours per day so the GAC allows her to enjoy more attractions and she can rest the remainder of the day.

THANKS AGAIN!

 

[DisneyMom]

Be careful - it is not legal in Florida to sell unused park hoppers - I thought I had heard that ebay no longer would accept them for sale, but not sure. There was a big report on a news show (20/20, Prime Time, one of them) about people buying partially used passes and WDW not accepting them - the families were out hundreds and vacations ruined. FL Attorney's Office is really cracking down on this.

Also, pools at WDW resorts are restricted for the use of that resort's guests only with a few exceptions (used to be PO and DxL could share, but it's all PO now) and BC/YC share one anyway - I think DVC members are still allowed to use any resort pool, but that's a special exceptions.

Just be careful - wouldn't be worth a ruined vacation!

 

[friskylady]

I have done this, as have millions of others. The passes do not have any personal identification! Unless it is a room card w/ticket media on it.

As for ebay.com, check it out yourself

 

[Beckles]

I would think the problem is there is no way for Disney to tell if you bought the pass or it is yours from a previous vacation. The problem is that if you buy such a thing there's no way to really know if it has any days left on it until you take it to the park ... for instance I have two three-day passes to USF/IOA in my wallet. I know that they have one day each left on them. But if I sell them on E-bay, what's to keep me from saying they have two days left on them? The persons wouldn't even know until they tried to use the second day! I had actually intended to sell them on Ebay ... but just as a seller can be dishonest, so could a buyer. I could sell them on Ebay and the buyer could come back and say they were no good and demand a refund and give me negative feedback on Ebay and so forth ... so in the end I decided it wasn't worth it and would save the tickets for my next trip.

I don't know what Disney tickets say on them, but the USF/IOA tickets say "non-transferrable", but that's a load of garbage anyway. I can go down to AAA and buy tickets ... how is AAA selling me tickets not a transfer, since AAA bought the tickets from USF/IOA first? Also, I'm an annual pass holder and can up to six or eight additional tickets ... why would I want more tickets unless I intended to transfer them to someone else to go with me? The rule is totally uneforceable in my opinion ...

 

[SueM in MN]

Guest Assistance Cards are not for front of the line access. They are for people who have a disability that makes it difficult or dangerous for them to wait in line with other people. Often, the wait for a person with a disability will be longer than the wait for an able bodied person; they will just wait in a different place. Holders of GACs are told they need to use fastpass as much as possible and the GAC can only be used on rides that the person who has a disability will be going on (if they are not going on, there is no need for special accomidation). Most people with physical disabilities do not need a GAC, since wheelchairs and ecvs can go in most regular and fastpass lines.

 

[Disneysnel]

Wow there are some really good tips here ! Thanks everyone!

I have only been once but I do lots and lots of research so here is what I have come up with, now I have only a 14 YO DS instead of little ones coming with me but here is how I am saving $$.

1. BRING YOUR OWN ALCOHOL. We bring those thermal cups with the lids on them and make them in our room and then walk around our resort, go swimming, etc. The bar drinks are very expensive and can really add up fast! You can even take them on the bus with you.

2. We are playing lots of Disney trivia games before we go that we get "paid" for in Disney dollars for souvenir money.

3. DS gets 20.00 per day to save for something or spend on video games, etc. If he wants more he has to earn it before we go.

4. We eat 1 nice meal a day, 1 in our room and 1 at food court or fast food stand.

5. JCpenney.com/ falling prices! It is fantastic! I have saved so much money on this site. Clothes, shoes, towels, etc. If you want more info on this email me and I will be glad to explain.

6. Finally, free samples - there are all kinds of free sample sites and you can get just about everything you need this way. I have a box I started a month ago and it is already getting full, deodorant, shampoo, lotion, etc.

Hope these help somebody! Have a great time!