Any tips on coming from California on a budget?

[temple4]

I will post this on the transportation board also. We went to Disney World in June 2002 and had a wonderful time. It was me, DH, DDs (2 and 5 then), my sister and her 2DDs (6 and 10) and my mother. We live in California and money is not as available as it was in the past. Has anyone come from California without spending too much? Just airfare alone for my family runs us about $800 at least. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. We don't even have to stay onsite, but would like a nice hotel. We usually can only go when the kids are out of school. So that means summer or Presidents Week. Spring Break and Christmas are a little too crowded for us. President's Week might be a little bit easier on my mother.

 

[BunBunzDad]

I suggest not going. Wait another year and go when you can do it right. Traveling when the budget is too tight is depressing because you will see too much that you just can't do.

 

[Mad4Dizne]

We too have to budget alot for transportation; I have gotten some great ideas on this board for traveling with a budget. There ways to save such as eating breakfast in your room, checking restaurant menus and actually figuring out what you might spend, and budgeting accordingly; There are the Meal Plus Certificates at Animal Kingdom--a superb value for the kids meals; there are Vouchers....

Good Luck
Flo!!!!!!!!!!

 

[westjones]

My suggestion is to start listing the costs you already know, and then estimate the costs you don't know yet (like food cost).

Are you planning to rent a van? Will you be staying onsite? There are 8 of your, right? Perhaps 2 rooms at a Disney Value resort would work well (we just stayed at Pop Century and loved it).

After adding up all of your expenses add 10% for 'misc.' (it is always better to plan too high than too low).

When we flew earlier this year, I managed to put some pop tarts and juice boxes in my luggage to have in the rooms for breakfast. Check out food prices on the website: http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

Give the kids a budget of what they can spend (I usually give my girls $20 to spend as they like for the trip).

Good Luck! This board is great for getting good ideas for saving money. The one that has worked out great for us is:

Splitting Meals!

My girls never seem to finish what they order, so DH and I started sharing our meals with them. This helped SO much because we didn't waste food (like in the past). Also, I have a daughter who would only take a couple sips of her pop and then we would have to either try to drink it ourselves or throw it away (again causing us to be upset over being wasteful). Well from this board I learned that ice water is FREE at all the dining places, so for her we started ordering ice water (she likes it because now we don't care if she doesn't finish her drink!). It would help if the rest of us did this too, but so are we have only done it with her.

DJ

 

[mad4themouse]

We don't live in CA but I've found that airfare from PHL to MCO can be almost as high as flying to LAX from Philly.

You can get the best airfares just after midnight on a Wednesday morning. Keep checking to see what the average airfares from your closest airport are. When you see a good fare, jump on it. They disappear quickly.

Download Sidestep to use when researching airfares. It will compare the airfare from several websites and direct you to the best deals.

Consider flying out of a different airport. Or landing in Sanford, Tampa or St. Pete. Sometime airfares to those locations can be much cheaper.

Another possibility is using frequent flier miles to pay for some of your tickets. You don't have to be a frequent flier to take advantage of frequent flier miles. I get them for using my airline credit card, for staying at partner hotels and renting cars from partner sites. My long distance service is tied to my frequent flier account. Shopping at certain sites (like FTD.com) gets me more frequent flier miles.

With 8 people traveling in your party, you may want to consider renting a vacation home. Almost all of them have private pools and will give you more room to spread out. Many are less expensive to rent than two hotels rooms for the same length of time. You would have a full kitchen, two or more bathrooms and a washer and dryer. The downside is that there is no maid service.

Even if you stay onsite, bring breakfast foods and snack items to keep in your room. Have the children wear fannypacks with little snacks to eat in the parks. Bring a collapsible cooler and add juice boxes and ice from the ice machine to take into the parks.

Get Park Hopper passes instead of the UPHs. Buy them from a reputable ticket broker like Paramount Travel or Ticketmania.

Eat lunch late and make it your big meal of the day. Lunch menus are often the same as dinner menus but have smaller portions that cost less. You'll also miss the restaurant crowds at lunch and dinnertime if you do it this way.

Limit souvenir shopping to the last day. Since every ride exits into a gift shop, it's very easy to blow the budget on souvenirs.

Those are just some of my immediate thoughts. Keep reading this board and there are bound to be some better ideas. I've learned so much from the people here.

 

[Castillo Mom]

I'm not sure where to begin, but I'll do my best. We're a family of 5 and will be taking our first trip to WDW this coming August. Even though I've never been there, I've learned a lot from so many on these boards. You've already received some great responses. Here are some of the things I did or took into consideration when planning. I'm obsessive about planning and booked our trip in December of 2002! Anyway, here goes:

Airfare: Sign up for Fare Watcher on Travelocity so that you can get a good idea of what a good price would be. I watched fares rise and fall for months before I finally purchased our tickets. I budgeted for $200-250 round trip, not including the associated fees. I ended up paying $273 round trip including the fees which was pretty much right on the mark. I could have gotten a better rate if I would have settled for a connecting flight, but we wanted direct. Look for connecting, the fares are a little lower. Remember to pack a meal for the flight. Many don't offer meals and those that do charge for the most part.

Resort: I would suggest staying onsite. Remember that if you stay off site, you'll need a rental. You won't need that if you're only planning on staying at WDW because you'll get complimentary transportation. A rental runs around $250-$300 for a week, and that's with a discount; you could get a slightly lower rate but not by much. IMHO, you'd be better off spending that on your hotel. You can stay at a value resort or check out one of the Downtown Disney hotels. Also, try not to use a credit card to pay for rooms. I used my Visa check card instead. This way you can basically put the resort on "layaway" and pay a set amount each month so that it's paid off before you even get there. You also don't have to pay interest since it's not on a credit card. Make sure you check with your bank regarding spending limits on your check card though. My bank's cap is $5,000 per day, so I had no worries in that aspect.
One more thing; most of the time it's best to book room only and not a package unless Disney decides to offer another great deal like the original Fairytale package earlier this year.

Meals: Others have already suggested getting groceries for in-room meals. You can get things like cereal, milk, snacks, beverages, water, etc. Don't forget that the food courts at the values have toasters and microwaves that you can use too. You have lots of options here. Include a grocery stop on your way to the resort. Bring a larger collapsible cooler with you to keep perishables cold in the room. Remember that ice is free, and this way you won't need to rent a fridge at $10 a night. Kelloggs has a program where you accumulate "dollars" that you cut out from qualifying cereal boxes. You accumulate them so that you can bid on character meals. I can't remember the name of the program off hand, but just go to the Kelloggs website.

Tickets: If you don't go through a ticket broker for tickets you can get park hoppers at your local Disney Store and buy them one or a couple at a time so that you don't have the burden of buying them all at once. It won't change the amount you have to spend but it might be easier on you as opposed to doing it all in one fell swoop. If you decide to get UPH passes instead, purchase them ahead time and you'll get a discount.

Spending money/souvenirs: You can buy Disney dollars a little at a time at your local Disney Store. Also, if friends or family are going to be buying a gift for one of your children and they ask you what they want or need, you can politely suggest Disney dollars. Try Ebay if you have something lying around the house that someone else might be able to use or have a yard sale with the proceeds going towards vacation. Set up a holiday account hand allot a certain amount each paycheck that goes into it. Use dollar bills only to pay for things and put the coin change you get back in a jar marked WDW or similar.

Last but not least, check out Mousesavers.com on a regular basis. There are some great ideas on that website and when discounts are offered by Disney, they're sure to be published there.

Have fun planning!

 

[temple4]

Thanks for all of the great tips. I am sure these will help for a wonderful and stress free trip sometime next year.

 

[EthansMom]

If a DisneyWorld trip becomes too expensive, I highly recommend taking the kids down to Disneyland/Legoland/Seaworld. You could drive down and save gobs of money on transportation.

Another alternative might be to get season passes at Great America there near you and take the kids several times during the summer -- they are cheaper earlier in the Spring/Summer when Great America first opens up. Plus, for relatively small amount of money, you can buy yourself another year or two of saving for WDW. (I had a season pass at Great America about 5 years ago and used it like crazy -- had a blast and it paid for itself in 3 visits.)

I hope this helps give you some alternatives!

Teresa

 

[tink2dw]

I have the same problem from Oregon!! High Airfare!! and before you tell me to go to Disneyland It cost more to fly to Anahiam than to WDW!!!

Any good suggests to get lower airfare!!

 

[Armadillo4]

temple4, if you haven't had a chance yet, I recommend reading the thread I just found the most incredible bargain! right here in the budget board. Using Travelocity's "flight+hotel" search feature can yield some great bargains. There's an especially sweet deal for r/t tickets from SJC, plus a room at the Dolphin for July 1-5.

Although, the Dolphin deal doesn't work out quite so well for larger families, other off-property hotels come up in the search results that might fit your budget. You just may want to play around with the site to see if any good deals come up. I've never used sites to book flight + hotel combos, but I may have to start looking now.