An $800 trip

[forgetyourtroubles!]

Yep, we did this once. We decided ahead of time that we would NOT feel "sorry" for ourselves because we had to keep it so low budget. Here's what we did:
Drive
Stay in a Motel 6
Take a mini-crock pot and a mini plug-in griddle and eat dinner and breakfast in our room.
Pack sandwiches for lunch
Buy one day, one park pass and only go into 2 parks
Buy ONE souvenir for our child before we left home and give it to her as a surprise- other than that, stay out of the gift shops
Tour the resorts, just to look around and enjoy the scenery
Go to Downtown Disney to see the boats and fountains
Go to Ft. Wilderness and enjoy the petting zoo/horseback rides for $3.
Take lots of pictures and make a scrapbook of our trip
We HAD FUN!
In fact, we saved so much money on our food that we had enough for one night at Dixie Landings and we still stayed at our $800 figure.

Today we can afford to choose how much we would like to allocate for our trip and do it, but that trip holds a ton of fond memories for us. We still enjoy that book we made. In a way, it was a very relaxing trip. Everything that cost more money was out of the question. So our choices were very simple.

 

[Pat_Elliott]

A fun story. We have no children (but will finally enter parenthood in September!). We've been in times where we could spend what we wanted to, and did. One trip cost over 3 grand (an anniversary trip that included a massive amount of culinary overindulgence). And we've been so low on dough we went your route. Now, we're able to go twice a year guilt free by going low budget in the areas that don't matter to us (no suveniers, and no high class hotels, where we spend our time sleeping only).

But eight hundred is impressive! Our best: A five night trip. We flew standby on companion passes (my DBI is a pilot for US Airways). Cost: $90. For hotel, the HJME (a decent low budget!) at $23 per night x five, came to about @$120 with tax, etc. The room had a microwave and fridge, so we did all our meals via groceries (bought at the Walmart in Kissemmee), total food bill for the week, with a park treat here and there, $70 (lot's of sandwiches, lot's of sugar-laden pop tarts and granola bars); Rented a car for six days for $70 (sub-compact, I believe a Ford Festiva, complete with carrying case); And our big expense, 2 four day hoppers, bought at Shades of Green (Government purchase), for what, if I remember correctly, was $170 per (this was a couple years ago). So at that point, we had you beat at $700!

But life never works that way. The sandwishes were fine, but the overload of sugar got to us halfway through, and we started hitting salad bars and eating normal food. Ultimately, the trip came in at about $970. We've always been quite proud we did a full Disney vacation for under a grand.

Pat

 

[Snoozan]

I just helped a friend here at work book a trip & costs come to $1013 for her and her DD-all but food. Of course, she's splitting some of the costs with her sister & Mom.

$313 r/t airfare from BDL to MCO on Southwest
$275 for her share of 5 nites/2 rooms at ASMo using AEA code
$75 for her share of mini-van
$350 for 2 3day PH+ passes

She's thrilled that I was able to help save her so much money! It certainly pays to know where to find the good deals-DIS & Mousesavers!!!