Budget advice for fantasy family trip to WDW

[mjkacmom]

Unless you plan on spending every minute together (which I truly do not recommend), stay onsite, so that you can split up.

 

[blessedby3]

Blessedby3 ...I really did get a 3 bedroom at Bonnet Creek for $110 a night. We are renting through 5starresortvacations and staying April 12-22.

I actually found out about them here on the Dis boards. Other places to rent from wanted more money...(vacation Upgrades, Farrell's, etc) the most expensive was $130 for a three bedroom...so $180 sounds very high.

Hope this helps someone out!

That is a GREAT rate! I got quotes from Ken (I think he is Vacation Upgrades) and it was $120 or $180 for the 3BR. The others I checked with couldnt give me a quote yet, but other Disers I asked had gotten about the same $120 for a 2BR. Post back about the 5starr place when you get back. I havent heard of them before

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Another option, if you wish to stay onsite, is renting points for a 2BR DVC. They are very roomy. If you have a lock off, then one family can stay in the studio.

 

[ChiCat]

Thanks for the advice everyone

 

[Disneyforus]

We did this with my brother and his family last April.

We wouldn't have been able to do it onsite.

There were 9 of us total.

We stayed at Bonnet Creek in a 3 BR. ($1,100 off of Ebay for 8 days/7nts) We had a crockpot for easy meals, and used the gas grill at the resort for several easy grill meals. The resort offers shuttles to the parks, so you don't necessarily need to rent a car. You might have to pay for a airport to hotel transfer with a grocery stop along the way. (Florida Tours)
Bonnet Creek has so much to offer as far as pools and entertainment...My brother and his family spent lots of time hanging out and didn't go all out commando like we did in the parks...it was still nice to meet back and have our evening meal together and we did enjoy 3 park days together.

We are now planning something similar with my sister and her kids for our trip in June. My family is flying, and her family will drive and meet us down there. We can't really afford to do too much for them other than free lodging for them, but it does help to free up some money she can use for other things. We will cook our meals together, which will be fun family time.

I'm getting excited for them
We have reached that point with Disney that we want to share it with our friends and family....Love it!

It's so much fun to give Disney Magic!!

 

[tzolkin]

Unless you plan on spending every minute together (which I truly do not recommend), stay onsite, so that you can split up.

This is my one major issue with staying offsite.

Even though it's usually just DH, the kids, and I and we plan to stay together the whole time it has been convenient on several occasions that we had the option to split up... baby got sick so DH took him back to the room, older DD & I go to MK for evening EMH, etc.

Our last trip, we brought my parents along. We all drove to FL in one vehicle (7 of us, 1300 miles so it's definitely do-able OP ) But we stayed onsite so we didn't have to be together the entire trip. If they wanted to sleep in while we headed to the parks for rope drop we had the freedom to do that.


If you can plan an onsite trip that includes free dining that would definitely be the way to go in my opinion. Especially since you're paying for another family it would be nice to know the food costs up front. If you don't do a DP would they be paying for their own food? If not, that would really add up and you have no way to predict how much the total food costs will be.

 

[mrsklamc]

If offsite, & someone needs to go home, you can also call a cab.

 

[torinsmom]

We stayed here and it was awesome...

http://www.vrbo.com/229838

Ended up being $807 for 8 nights. We did not even have to pay a security deposit, as the owners just kept our CC info until the unit was checked after we left. It was 7-15 minutes from the parks, and there is a back way that avoids I-4 and scoots you right onto Disney property. It was so nice to spread out, enjoy the pool, cook a few easy meals, and even throw a few things in the laundry if we needed to. We went back to the house for a break every day(it was August and HOT) and it was a breeze to get "home" and then back to the magic.

There will probably only be 4 of us next year, but we'll probably still stay here, LOL.

Year before, we stayed here..

http://www.vacationhomerentals.com/vacation-rentals/Kissimmee-Florida-vacation-rental-townhouse-proID-42665.html

Three bedrooms and the clubhouse was right across the parking lot. It was $530 for the week. Same distance to the parks, and it was a gated community.

 

[torinsmom]

So, there are 2 kids who are 8, and one is 3. How old is the other child? If you went in Jan, Feb, June, July, Aug, Sept or Oct., you could get the kids into the YES individual enrollment program. The kids would attend an educational class for a few hours one day(with a parent chaperone) and the everyone would get discounted tickets(about 40% off) in return. You could sign up you and your spouse and the twins on one registration, and then sign up your brother, his wife and the other child(if he/she is 5 or older) on another registration. It would save a lot of money and the classes are fun. When we went in August, it was around $1500 for our 8 YES tickets(7 day hoppers). Would have been $2500 if we bought regular tickets. If you only have the 2 kids the right age, it would be a little trickier to get the discount tickets for everyone.

As I said in my last post, you could get an offsite house/condo for $550-800 for the week. You'd have to pay the $14/day parking of course. Food costs really depend on what you want. We ate almost all meals at our house, mostly offsite fast food picked up on the way home. We didn't want to cook big meals, but could have saved money that way. We had cereal, oatmeal, poptarts, etc for breakfast. We had sandwiches some days for lunch too. We brought in snacks to the parks, but also bought some snacks there. We drank mostly free ice water with flavor packs in them. We ate for less than $400 for the week(6 people, 3 adults, and kids 16, 15, and 12).

The rental car would be A LOT. I don't even know if there is a company that rents 8 passenger vans. You would probably need a 10 or 12 passenger to fit luggage. Another option is if you know someone who would swap cars with you for that time period who has a large van/SUV. I would do that for a very good friend or family member. You would need something to attach luggage to the roof though, unless there was a large cargo area.

 

[torinsmom]

If offsite, & someone needs to go home, you can also call a cab.

We were so close offsite that I went back to the house one day and the rest called when they were ready to be picked up. I got there quicker than they could have waited for a bus.

 

[Belle5]

Personally, I think the other brother's family is going to feel REALLY slighted. But, besides that...


We love onsite. But, you know what? Even with free dining (speaking here as a family of eight who often travels with other family members so we have had 9-13 family members travel with us) you can not go any cheaper with a large party than a screamin' deal on an off-site condo or house. Grilling and having a pool is going to seem very vacationish to a family who would never be able to afford Disney otherwise. Is it "fun" to cook and clean-up on vacation? Not really. But it's better than not going and it can be made fun with simple non-messy meals that allow for some foods you wouldn't normally get at home. I would save up enough money that each day every person gets a snack from the parks...something fun and delicious to hold them over until you get back to the condo (try and stay somewhere close like Bonnet Creek). Could you ask your brother to save up enough to provide his own family with one counter service meal each day...say $50 a day? You could start buying a theme park pass or two at a time right now.

You are very generous and kind to want to do this. I hope you can work out something to show the other family that you love them, too.

 

[Ennazus8810]

Not much advice about where to stsy, as I hate to be off-site, just not my thing. However I did this for my Sister and her family before I re-married and had my own children. It is still one of my absolute favorite trips. My oldest niece was 5, and 7 years later she still talks about it.

 

[ChiCat]

Personally, I think the other brother's family is going to feel REALLY slighted. But, besides that...


We love onsite. But, you know what? Even with free dining (speaking here as a family of eight who often travels with other family members so we have had 9-13 family members travel with us) you can not go any cheaper with a large party than a screamin' deal on an off-site condo or house. Grilling and having a pool is going to seem very vacationish to a family who would never be able to afford Disney otherwise. Is it "fun" to cook and clean-up on vacation? Not really. But it's better than not going and it can be made fun with simple non-messy meals that allow for some foods you wouldn't normally get at home. I would save up enough money that each day every person gets a snack from the parks...something fun and delicious to hold them over until you get back to the condo (try and stay somewhere close like Bonnet Creek). Could you ask your brother to save up enough to provide his own family with one counter service meal each day...say $50 a day? You could start buying a theme park pass or two at a time right now.

You are very generous and kind to want to do this. I hope you can work out something to show the other family that you love them, too.

I completely understand it is a jerk move to take my one brother's family but not my other brother's. But given the choice of taking both or none at all I would choose none. My other brother and his ex-girlfriend have completely ruined their kids (it's actually a pretty sad story but I won't get into that here). The kids are terrible. They won't listen to anyone ever, all they do is throw fits constantly, and are completely inappropriate in the most embarrassing ways, like an 8 year old singing loudly in public rap songs that you wouldn't want your teenager listening to. That's just one example. I took them to Disney on ice this year and I will never take them to anything else again. Not only was a major headache and very embarrassing, I honestly do not believe they had any fun at all. They were just screaming and throwing fits all of the time Although I was honest with my brother about it, I love them all but just never again.

We stayed here and it was awesome...

http://www.vrbo.com/229838

Ended up being $807 for 8 nights. We did not even have to pay a security deposit, as the owners just kept our CC info until the unit was checked after we left. It was 7-15 minutes from the parks, and there is a back way that avoids I-4 and scoots you right onto Disney property. It was so nice to spread out, enjoy the pool, cook a few easy meals, and even throw a few things in the laundry if we needed to. We went back to the house for a break every day(it was August and HOT) and it was a breeze to get "home" and then back to the magic.

There will probably only be 4 of us next year, but we'll probably still stay here, LOL.

Year before, we stayed here..

http://www.vacationhomerentals.com/vacation-rentals/Kissimmee-Florida-vacation-rental-townhouse-proID-42665.html

Three bedrooms and the clubhouse was right across the parking lot. It was $530 for the week. Same distance to the parks, and it was a gated community.

So, there are 2 kids who are 8, and one is 3. How old is the other child? If you went in Jan, Feb, June, July, Aug, Sept or Oct., you could get the kids into the YES individual enrollment program. The kids would attend an educational class for a few hours one day(with a parent chaperone) and the everyone would get discounted tickets(about 40% off) in return. You could sign up you and your spouse and the twins on one registration, and then sign up your brother, his wife and the other child(if he/she is 5 or older) on another registration. It would save a lot of money and the classes are fun. When we went in August, it was around $1500 for our 8 YES tickets(7 day hoppers). Would have been $2500 if we bought regular tickets. If you only have the 2 kids the right age, it would be a little trickier to get the discount tickets for everyone.

As I said in my last post, you could get an offsite house/condo for $550-800 for the week. You'd have to pay the $14/day parking of course. Food costs really depend on what you want. We ate almost all meals at our house, mostly offsite fast food picked up on the way home. We didn't want to cook big meals, but could have saved money that way. We had cereal, oatmeal, poptarts, etc for breakfast. We had sandwiches some days for lunch too. We brought in snacks to the parks, but also bought some snacks there. We drank mostly free ice water with flavor packs in them. We ate for less than $400 for the week(6 people, 3 adults, and kids 16, 15, and 12).

The rental car would be A LOT. I don't even know if there is a company that rents 8 passenger vans. You would probably need a 10 or 12 passenger to fit luggage. Another option is if you know someone who would swap cars with you for that time period who has a large van/SUV. I would do that for a very good friend or family member. You would need something to attach luggage to the roof though, unless there was a large cargo area.

Ahhhh thank you for the excellent advice. I had no clue about YES tickets, but that's awesome! It's just the one day and not every day for the educational class?

The age of the other kid will be 6 that time next year.

I absolutely love that Indian Creek vacation home but my biggest fear is what do you guys do for lunch? Or eating in the parks in general? With little kids is it a huge inconvience to eat outside of the parks?

The rental car idea is totally out! Well sorta, I realized DH and I could never spend that long in the car. So, we would fly and my brother's family would drive down in their station wagon that fits 6 people (my brother is terrified of flying). But if we stayed offsite we would obviously have to rent a car to get to the parks? Or take a taxi?

And thank you again to everyone else for your input

 

[leebee]

Renting a vehicle while at WDW is always an interesting proposition. IF YOU STAY ONSITE, Disney offers Disney's Magical Express, a bus service that will take you from MCO to your resort, then back to MCO at the end of your vacation. They also have a nifty luggage service associated with DME. If your flight arrives at MCO before 10pm, all you have to do is attach the special luggage tags that DME sends you. You check your bags at your home airport and never touch them again. Voila! Like magic, they appear in your hotel room! Sweet! You also don't need to rent a car, as you can use the Disney bus service to get from your onsite resort to and from the parks. Sounds amazing, right? Well...

While we love DME, we find Disney busses to be a huge hassle. You wait in line for the bus, which is usually packed full of people, pressed up against each other, and you stand for the ride. The same thing happens at the end of the day, only now you've been on your feet for 6-12 hours, it's past everyone's bedtime, your feet are killing you, the kids are exhausted, and you still have to wait for the bus. In August, we have waited up to 90 minutes to get a bus back to POP after MK closing. Yes, this is extreme, but waiting 20-30 mins is NOT. Also, you can't go from a resort to a resort with Disney busses... you have to go via a theme park. This means, if you are at POP for an afternoon break and have dinner ressies at Boma, you have to get a bus from POP to any theme park, get off the bus, wait in line for a bus to AKL, and then go to Boma. We find it highly inconvenient, and time consuming.. and at Disney, time = money!! I don't want to get a bus discussion started... this is just my family's experience with the Disney bus system, YMMV.

If you are staying offsite and driving a personal vehicle to the parks, it's $14 a day, per car, to park. One parking permit works for the whole day, even if you park hop, but you still need to figure in the $14 a day. Even when we stay onsite, we rent a car for the convenience and time-savings (and if you are an onsite resort guest, parking is free!). Car rental prices are all over the place, and in addition, there are membership codes, rates, and coupons to bring the price down. Go to Mary Waring's site, mousesavers.com, for the best explanation on how this works, how to do it, and for the best list of discount codes available.

WHEN YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A CAR TO RENT... prices change in the blink of an eye, so if you find a deal you can live with, BOOK IT. You can always cancel when you find a better deal. Check rates frequently-daily-hourly... seriously, rates change at the drop of a hat. Usually what I do is check orbitz.com first, to see which agencies have the cheapest rates. Then I play with codes and coupons for a couple of companies, to see how low a rate I can get. When I find something OK, I book it. I then monitor orbitz a couple of times a day to see if general prices have dropped. If so, I go back into the specific agency websites and fiddle with codes and coupons to see if I can get a better rate than the one I already have. This worked well for last week's trip... our 4 day midsize rental started out at $328, but I ended up paying $109 by monitoring rates and using codes/coupons!

Don't get sucked into paying rental company insurance fees! Almost all personal car insurance policies will cover rental cars, and if you use a credit card with rental insurance coverage, this will also provide adequate insurance. REntal car agency insurance fees are exorbitant, and unnecessary if you have coverage on your own policies. ALSO... don't pre-buy that tank of gas so you don't have to return the car full. You can easily fill your tank at any gas station around Disney.. as long as you make sure to really fill the tank, you'll have enough gas to get to MCO and still have the tank register "F".

Don't get sucked into purchasing ANYTHING suggested at the rental car desk when you are picking up your car, whether it's insurance, gas, an upgrade, GPS, etc. Your price will skyrocket, and if it makes a change to your original reservation, those prices might not be available, your codes or coupons might not apply, etc. I always make sure i have a copy of the rental reservation that clearly lists costs, total rental price, etc., along with a copy of my personal auto insurance card (although I've never been asked for it...also figure it's a good thing to have on hand in case "something" happens while I am driving).

SO... after listing all this scary stuff, let me say that I LOVE playing the car rental game. I LOVE seeing how much money I can keep in my pocket instead of giving it to the agencies. It's really easier than it sounds here!!

 

[VAfamily1998]

I completely understand it is a jerk move to take my one brother's family but not my other brother's. But given the choice of taking both or none at all I would choose none. My other brother and his ex-girlfriend have completely ruined their kids (it's actually a pretty sad story but I won't get into that here). The kids are terrible. They won't listen to anyone ever, all they do is throw fits constantly, and are completely inappropriate in the most embarrassing ways, like an 8 year old singing loudly in public rap songs that you wouldn't want your teenager listening to. That's just one example. I took them to Disney on ice this year and I will never take them to anything else again. Not only was a major headache and very embarrassing, I honestly do not believe they had any fun at all. They were just screaming and throwing fits all of the time Although I was honest with my brother about it, I love them all but just never again.

How many kids are there? I agree with a pp that it is really sad to treat one brother's family and not the others. "Kids need love the most when they deserve it least."
Maybe you could take them individually somewhere fun--like a weekend at a Great Wolf Lodge or similar place? One on one they might be a lot easier to handle, and would give you a chance to bond...

ETA: Just looked and saw you are in Chicago...when my brother lived in Chicago he had my oldest son visit him for a weekend and they ended up spending a couple nights at the Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin. My son was 8 at the time and he LOVED it. The tentative plan was for each of my kids to do something similar when they were 8--but my brother works in an industry where he has to move locations a lot and I think he was working on a very remote base in Siberia when my second child was 8

 

[torinsmom]

Ahhhh thank you for the excellent advice. I had no clue about YES tickets, but that's awesome! It's just the one day and not every day for the educational class?

The age of the other kid will be 6 that time next year.

I absolutely love that Indian Creek vacation home but my biggest fear is what do you guys do for lunch? Or eating in the parks in general? With little kids is it a huge inconvience to eat outside of the parks?

The rental car idea is totally out! Well sorta, I realized DH and I could never spend that long in the car. So, we would fly and my brother's family would drive down in their station wagon that fits 6 people (my brother is terrified of flying). But if we stayed offsite we would obviously have to rent a car to get to the parks? Or take a taxi?

And thank you again to everyone else for your input

There is a LONG thread about the YES program here

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2332767

But the gist is that you register for a YES educational class, which is 3 hours one morning during your trip. They have ones where you go behind the scenes at Kilimanjaro Safari, ones that deal with different forces of motion(I think you ride TestTrack for that one), etc. My son went to one at the Epcot Aquarium that was about conservation. They are only given during January and Ferbuary and then June, July, August, September, and I think a few in October. You would not be able to register for summer classes until February and would need to do it fairly quickly then, as classes fill up quickly. The participating child and parents(or guardians) get discount tickets(I believe the 3 year old would qualify for the tickets too). I can help you with it when the time gets closer. I have sat on the phone with people and walked them through it before. I love to save money and help other people save money

We went back to the house for lunch. We had a AAA Diamond parking pass(AAA will give them out to members without booking a package in some areas) which put us right up by the handicapped parking. It was literally 10-15 minutes back to the house from the parking lot. We stocked the house with sandwiches, mac n cheese, fruit, cheese, chips, etc. A few days we had sandwiches, mac n cheese and chips. Other days we stopped on the way and got fast food. You could also have pizza delivered. There are so many restaurants close by there! We also got a restaurant.com gift certificate for Giordana's pizza. They have a location really close to Indian Creek and it was SO good. Dinner we tended to hit something offsite before going back to the parks, but if I hadn't been with my sister and her family(cheap) I would have done at least one character meal and eaten at the parks most of the other days. I didn't think it was a huge inconvenience to leave the parks. Especially if you go during the summer, you need a break during the worst of the heat and our kids loved jumping in the pool, and playing in the game room.

I would research renting a van or large SUV for the days in Orlando. Just know if you look now, you will see outrageous prices, but they will go down. If a van is a lot more than a smaller car, it may be cheaper to pay for 2 parking fees on top of the rental and let your brother drive to the parks as well.

It is really nice of you to do this for your brother. I can understand why you don't want to take the other's kids. It's sad for the kids, but if they are raising monsters, they can't blame anyone for not wanting to deal with them. You could always offer to pay for a vacation for their family(maybe Great Wolf Lodge like someone said) and let them take their own kids and deal with them.

 

[ChiCat]

Another question, since we don't have a car we don't have car insurance obviously. Is there still cheaper options out there for car insurance on rental cars?

We rent cars a few times a year and always just pay for all the extra rental insurance through the rental company, like Enterprise. It is expensive but I didn't think there were other options out there.

As for my other brother I will figure out something. This summer I had my brother's family come up for a weekend, we went all went to a Sox game and other stuff and since I did nothing for my other brother I sent the kids clothes (which they always need) and a gift card to Walmart. I still visit the other kids. If we are doing family stuff like picnics or bbq they of course always come. I don't deny that they need love, and I know it's not their fault, but like I said I truly don't think they had fun when I took them to Disney on ice. I paid for their tickets, their transportation to Chicago, everything we did in Chicago and at Disney on ice and they seemed miserable and it was a miserable experience for me too, what's the point then?

 

[torinsmom]

Another question, since we don't have a car we don't have car insurance obviously. Is there still cheaper options out there for car insurance on rental cars?

We rent cars a few times a year and always just pay for all the extra rental insurance through the rental company, like Enterprise. It is expensive but I didn't think there were other options out there.

As for my other brother I will figure out something. This summer I had my brother's family come up for a weekend, we went all went to a Sox game and other stuff and since I did nothing for my other brother I sent the kids clothes (which they always need) and a gift card to Walmart. I still visit the other kids. If we are doing family stuff like picnics or bbq they of course always come. I don't deny that they need love, and I know it's not their fault, but like I said I truly don't think they had fun when I took them to Disney on ice. I paid for their tickets, their transportation to Chicago, everything we did in Chicago and at Disney on ice and they seemed miserable and it was a miserable experience for me too, what's the point then?

If you're going to rent a van big enough for everyone, you could have the driver be your brother or his wife. I am assuming they have car insurance since they are driving, so they wouldn't need additional insurance(they should double check with their insurance co. of course.

If you rent several times a year, you might call an auto insurance company and ask about non-owners' insurance. It is insurance that follows the driver vs. following the car. This is what I was going to get my DS until my dad bought him a car. For him, it would have been about $600/6 months, but that is because he is a new driver. It might be worth it, depending on how much it costs to get the insurance on a rental car vs. this insurance. It would also cover you if you borrowed someone's car and something happened vs. that person having a claim on their insurance.