Budgeters ~ How Do You Afford a Disney Vacation?

[gillenkl]

I buy a disney giftcard every month for $50 - right there is $600 a year.

I read emails thru mypoints and I can usually get 1or2 $50 GC for Rainforest or TRex year.

I shop thru ebates and earn cash back - then I buy a disney card or put it towards a gift card.

I use the disney visa card or chase freedom (just started this one) depending on which one has better incentives to earn disney reward dollars or cashback. We drive to disney so a card with airline benefits doesn't benefit me. I would use a card that has incentives to benefit your trip.

Basically also I just save, save, save. I use coupons for groceries and plan all my meals ahead of time. We rarely eat out - maybe a pizza twice a month or takeout with coupons. I don't go to Target or Walmart without a list and only buy what we need to have. I don't make shopping trips just for fun and buy things I really don't need. We own our cars, so no monthly payments there. We pay off our credit card every month. I also don't work, however, I feel that my "job" is to save my family as much money as I can on a daily basis - thus affording us the ability to go on vacation.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

If you can go during FD and stay at a value, that's your best bet. Even if you found an offsite hotel for about $50/nt. you'd have to factor in the cost of food. FD would eliminate that.

Also if airfare is outrageous, I'd consider driving. You're only 14 hours away. I wish! We drive every trip because there are 6 of us and the cost of drving always beats flying hands down. Also, we stay for 2 weeks so rental van on top of flying would just about blow our entire vacation budget.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

There is a CiCis pizza on the same road as the hotel and you can take the family there for dinner for 6 per person buffet and drink. Cheap eats.

We'll likely do that once on our trip, OTOH 4 people (our family) is $24. We could buy a large pizza from Pizza Hut for $10 and eat it in our room instead.

 

[jakoky]

For me, I try and go when there are great deals...I unexpectedly planned strip for may to DL after finding crazy good airfare and an amazing hotel rate...

FLIGHT for 4-7-$730 (trick for us is to drive to Seattle out of bc)
HOTEL-for 10 nights-$690(8 minute walk from Disneyland, got the retro rate all 10 nights
PASSES-free using airmiles for 3 and my mil will use her airmiles for our 4th

Have to stay a night in seattle where we do a park and fly and it will also be free or less than $25 using my airmiles! So a tank of gas (and of course we will fill up in the US where it is crazy cheap compared to Canada) and our stupid ferry trip ride ($240 return )

So for us it just comes down then to food and shopping money, but the official trip itself is very cheap, especially with our dollar above the US ...

 

[furb & dez]

Just build your vacations into your budget. If you don't "have enough" to budget, then you really don't "have enough" to go on vacation (vacations are luxuries, not necessities...).

That said, being Disneyland born and bred, I was very leery to spend a huge chunk of change on Walt Disney World. So our first WDW trip was planned to be cheap:

• Flights: $0 (used FF miles)
• Hotels: $0 (friend lent us his timeshare as an Xmas present)
• Rental Car: ~$100 for 5 days
• Food: $25 on breakfast (in room, went to grocery store on arrival), $500 on lunch (in park, budgeted $500, probably only spent ~$300 total), $200 on dinner (out of park)
• Tickets: $500 for two 5-day non-parkhoppers

 

[Nayan]

Just build your vacations into your budget. If you don't "have enough" to budget, then you really don't "have enough" to go on vacation (vacations are luxuries, not necessities...).

I agree with this 100%. While asking how to save money or do 'budget trips' can help, you need money to vacation in the first place.

 

[furb & dez]

While asking how to save money or do 'budget trips' can help, you need money to vacation in the first place.

Absolutely. If you have trouble making ends meet every month, you shouldn't even be thinking of an expensive luxury vacation (which by all measures is what a WDW vacation is).

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

We'll likely do that once on our trip, OTOH 4 people (our family) is $24. We could buy a large pizza from Pizza Hut for $10 and eat it in our room instead.

Since there are 5 of us and 3 of the 5 are big eaters one Pizza Hut pizza would never cut it for us. The benefit of paying $6 per person at CiCi's is because you get all you can eat Pizza, Pasta, Salad and Dessert plus your drink. You can't get half of that at Pizza Hut for $6 per person.

If you have big eaters, CiCi's is the better bargain.

If we got 2 Pizzas from Pizza Hut and a drink for everybody it would be $30 plus tax. That includes no pasta, no salad and no dessert.

 

[tripletmommiesrock]

We have been saving for a couple of years for this trip but it's a big one for us. We are a family of 5 plus both sets of grandparents are coming for half the trip each. We are staying 9 days but only doing the parks for 5, because we have friends in Orlando we would like to see plus with 5 year old triplets we want them to have time to do other things like play in the pool and drive to the beach. Here is how we are saving money:
1. Staying at Sheraton Visitana. We rented two rooms, a two bedroom for us and a one bedroom for the grandparents. With a full kitchen we will eat breakfast and sometimes lunch (on non-park days) in the room which will save a lot of money. 5 people at McD's for breakfast would 25-30 bucks. Plus they have a washer and dryer so I can do laundry which means packing less.
2. Orlando has lots of good resturants off disney property. Our favorite is Cafe Tu Tu Tango and I've found coupons for it and other resturants we like at the orlando convention website which will save us money.
3. We are buying our tickets from the undercover website everyone else uses which saves a few bucks but when your taking about 9 total people that is a savings.
4. We made decisions about what Disney resturants were important to us and that is the only ones we will be frequenting.

Hope this helps.

 

[lpandorf]

Staying offsite this time to save money. Used Sky Auction for the first time and won a one-bedroom with kitchenette for $600 for 7 night stay at the Lake Buena Vista Sheraton Vistana. I have never stayed here, but the reviews on Trip Advisor look good so going to give it a try to save money and have the kitchen to say on cooking some meals in.

 

[Angie789]

I had always wanted to do Disney with our kids, but it wasn't until the Southwest credit card deal came around that DH & I decided to get serious about budgeting for a nice trip. Our kids are 3 & 11 months, so we aren't planning on going until 2013, but we'd like to be able to take them every 2 years. We also firmly believe that vacations are a luxury expense - we agreed that we'd never go into debt to take a trip, nor are we willing to touch our monthly amounts that go towards retirement & the kids' college funds - Disney is great, but it's not the most important thing in life!

That said... once we got serious about figuring out how to pay for it, it's been amazing how much money we've been able to save. We did get a nice kickstart by getting a $400 check from our insurance company - we had been overcharged for expenses involved in my daughter's birth. I've done 2 big consignment sales in my area & made $600 from those, plus we are planning a garage sale this summer. I looked around & found a marketing group in my city that is always looking for focus group members - DH & I have both done that (took 3 hours one evening) and we were paid $120 each. I'm a college instructor, and textbook companies are always sending me new books to review. If I don't like them, I sell them back - I've made about $130 there. DH has helped a buddy of his do some house restoration projects & made $200 from that. Our biggest addition to the fund came out of the blue - a old friend that DH had loaned $1000 to YEARS ago (like before he even met me) showed up & paid him back! We were in shock - DH counted that money as long gone It's actually kind of become a fun game for us - looking for ways to pick up a few extra bucks here & there.

 

[bettymae1121]

In the past we just saved up and stayed where ever we wanted (from Deluxe to Value). But for future trips I'll be using my Amex Starwood points to stay at the Swan/Dolphin for free. I also fly for free due to a perk of my employment. So we'll only need park tickets, food, souvineers, and airport parking/transfers. We earn enough hotel points (just by buying things we would anyway, like gas and groceries, and we do pay it off every month so no interest) to go to WDW about once ever 2-3 years, which is about how often we want to go, anyway. We can also go to DLR (and stay at the Sheraton Anaheim) or do non-Disney trips too. I wish I'd thought to get the Starwood credit card sooner!

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Our key lies in our regular household budget--with that tool we are able to see clearly how much we can afford for a vacation and then we plan around that. And the truth is sometimes we have found that the thing we can afford is not what we want to do, so then we wait.

 

[englishteacha]

We always stay offsite. It's always worked out cheaper for us. We live 26-28 hours away, so driving, while an option, takes a huge chunk of our vacation time. We prefer to fly and rent a car. I get the cheapest car rental I can find, the cheapest flights I can find, and we have rented a condo in Kissimmee for 3 trips that is really reasonably priced. It's a bit more than a motel room, cost wise, but we have a kitchen, 3 bedrooms, room to spread out, and a washer and dryer. (one trip we went with another couple and split the cost of the condo and car, making for a very cheap trip!)

We eat some meals in the condo and offsite, pack snacks into the parks, and drink free water rather than buy water or soda when we can. We eat counter service meals in the parks (can't convince DH to pack a lunch...yet.)

I have "earmarked" my stipend for running our school drama club as vacation money. It's not a lot, but it gives us a starting place. We then save some in addition to that whenever we can.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Since there are 5 of us and 3 of the 5 are big eaters one Pizza Hut pizza would never cut it for us. The benefit of paying $6 per person at CiCi's is because you get all you can eat Pizza, Pasta, Salad and Dessert plus your drink. You can't get half of that at Pizza Hut for $6 per person.

If you have big eaters, CiCi's is the better bargain.

If we got 2 Pizzas from Pizza Hut and a drink for everybody it would be $30 plus tax. That includes no pasta, no salad and no dessert.

CiCi's is a pretty good deal regardless. But, for my family we can feel all 4 on a single large pizza. And we wouldn't buy drinks if we were carrying out, just drink a 25 cent can of soda each out of our fridge. So for us, the buffet isn't as good of a deal & we do it mainly to enjoy the variety. BTW, I don't know about Orlando, but the CiCi's here has a carry-out special of 3 medium pizzas for $9.99

 

[Gumbo4x4]

plus we are planning a garage sale this summer.

If you're in a sub-division that has a big annual sale, those can go very well. For us living in a semi-rural area, they're always a waste of time. I remember one year we spent weeks leading up to a garage sale pricing everything. When the day of the sale came around, my father-in-law & I both could have been working that day on overtime if we hadn't needed to do the sale. I believe that sale netted less than $200 (which was one of our better ones). My wife & mother-in-law were thrilled. I told the FIL that we'd have been money ahead to just throw everything in the trash and go to work for the day instead

 

[scottmel]

We are a family of 3 and stay in a Deluxe Club Level every week - every year. Here is how:

1. Sign up for Southwest Visa, in 2011 I earned 800.00 in sw gift cards and 2 free round trip tickets. Flew us to WDW in 2011 for free, 2012 for free and have around 225 left for 2013 plus a free one way ticket left.

2. Open chase rewards visa in my name and one for dh in his name. We each earned 300 free dollars after first purchase. I took this 600 and bought disney gift cards for our own version of free dining.

3. Use room only code b/c last year purchased a 10 day NE ticket and we use 3 days each trip, so I have no ticket bill this year and none next year either.

4. We eat breakfast in lounge and do a mini dinner meal in there. Our only food purchase of the day is a nice sit down lunch. We dont buy snacks at parks b/c we know our yummy desserts are in the club lounge at night.

5. I know this is regional but if you can buy your disney gift cards at Giant Eagle for the free gas it equates to 12% off a gift card. So 1000 in gift cards cost me out of pocket $888. So my PIN this year of 35% I like to say is really a 47% pin. (and of course you can use them on meals, souvineers. etc)

6. I love doing mystery shopping., survey taking, ebaying, etc. I make a lot of money off of this (specially the ebay part!!!) so this becomes really a way I nearly pay for the trip

It takes time and organization but honestly there are soooo many ways to get free money~

 

[Beemitchcowski]

I think a Disney Vacation is the same as any other "luxury" in life...if you REALLY want your family to experience the "Magic"....you can do it! Now I think that if you are months behind on your mortage/rent and searching the couch cushions to send your kid to school with lunch money...then Disney shouldn't be on top of your priority list...

When I was in elementary school I begged and begged to go to Disney...my parents didn't have much money...BUT my parents decided to use some income tax money and some "bonus money" and do a trip to Disney...We packed ourselves into the car..drove a couple of days..spent ONE DAY at MK...stayed at the CR and drove back! I didn't dine with Mickey..I didn't walk away with Mickey Ears....Would I do it that way with my kids? No...I would opt to stay offsite so we could stay a few more days...But my Dad really wanted to see us stay at the BEST resort money could buy at the time..so thats how we did it! My Dad was so proud to take us! If he was still around he would LOVE the fact that we are taking his Grandchildren again! I still think we should "honor" my Dad and stay at the Contemporary!

BUT..I think there are ways that the average family can go to Disney....We decided to "treat" ourselves last year..Did we have the money to just "toss away"? NO. Could the money go for other things? Of course....But our family NEEDED a Disney vacation!....To some that may sound selfish...but we did..I We have a son with special needs (I know I am not alone on this..and there are people that suffer more than us)..But We needed a week that we could really ENJOY our children! We stayed offsite..made several meals at the townhouse...only did one Character Dining experience....didn't buy many souveniers....but we enjoyed ourselves and now we are going back ( we were silly and bought AP's the last time we were there because we wanted to make sure that we treated ourselves to another vacation at about the "one year mark".....figured that if we budgeted correctly..we could try to go to Disney once a year.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

My parents saved for 3 years before we went on our first WDW trip. I was 11. It was supposed to be "once in a lifetime" but it turned into every 3 years and then every year as my brother and I got older and got jobs. My parents were always good at saving and living within their means, though. Honestly, as great as that first trip was, I have some of the best memories of my childhood from cheap camping trips we took.

Now that I'm older (30) and my fiance (35) and I both have decent paying jobs and no kids, we're able to afford to go more often and longer. I would love to still go every year, but he wants to cut it back to every other year so we can go see other places. I agree (for now ).

When we do go, I find the best deal I can (usually a room only code) or rent points. I buy discounted tickets from undercovertourist through Mousesavers and I try and find gift card deals for places to eat (like last years half price T-Rex/Rainforest Cafe gift cards). We don't buy souvenirs. Trips aren't cheap, but I try and get a loose budget together of the trip as far in advance as possible. Then I divide by how many months between now and then and set up an Automatic Savings Plan for the money to just come out of every paycheck.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

When I was in elementary school I begged and begged to go to Disney...my parents didn't have much money...BUT my parents decided to use some income tax money and some "bonus money" and do a trip to Disney...We packed ourselves into the car..drove a couple of days..spent ONE DAY at MK...stayed at the CR and drove back!

My first trip to Disneyland was part of a much longer trip, but like you we spent ONE DAY at MK on that trip. That was 1977 & I still don't feel like I got "cheated" on that deal We had a very short stay planned for this year, although we relented & upped our duration after we made a couple "deals" that made things more affordable. Plus, the travel expense is such that it was "worth it" to us to amortize that out over a couple more days Still not staying nearly as long as many though. Found a really cute place offsite for a great price