Budgeters ~ How Do You Afford a Disney Vacation?

[disneysteve]

it would take us 14 hours to drive

We are wanting to plan another trip in October 2012 but want to try and stay on a reasonable budget. This is going to be hard to do though with the cost of fuel, airfare, and food cost increasing. And, I've heard ticket prices have went up too.

My question is: What do you do to be able to afford the trip at a reasonable price?

Is it more affordable to stay off site at a hotel? If so, where do you stay? Did you book your hotel and purchase your park tickets from the WDW website or use a travel agency?

Haven't read the other responses but here's my 2 cents.

We drive every year from NJ, about 17 hours, so 14 hours, IMO, is not a reason to fly. I wish I lived 3 hours closer.

Absolutely stay offsite. You can find a nice 2-bedroom condo for about $80/night. You can find a basic hotel room for even less but the condos are so much nicer, plus it gives you a full kitchen so you can do some basic meals on your own and save more money that way.

I buy my park tickets from undercovertourist.com.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We drive every year from NJ, about 17 hours, so 14 hours, IMO, is not a reason to fly. I wish I lived 3 hours closer.

I completely agree with this. I live about a 12-13 hours drive from WDW. Out of the 14 trips I've gone on, 11 have been by car. When we were younger, we would stay overnight on the way down or leave about 6-7 a.m. on a Saturday and get there that night, stay until the next Saturday morning, and head back. I loved it as a kid, eating road trip snacks, playing the license plate game, taking naps in the sunshine, etc. (and this coming from a girl with an obnoxious older brother ). Our little family car was packed to the gills, but it was our only otpion. It probably would've been another year or two if my parent's had had to save for airfare.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Haven't read the other responses but here's my 2 cents.

We drive every year from NJ, about 17 hours, so 14 hours, IMO, is not a reason to fly. I wish I lived 3 hours closer.

10-4, 16-17 hours for us & WAY cheaper to drive. Now, for those that are traveling solo or with just a spouse, it gets a little trickier. The more people you put in your car though, the cheaper the driving option is.

 

[disneysteve]

Now, for those that are traveling solo or with just a spouse, it gets a little trickier. The more people you put in your car though, the cheaper the driving option is.

True, though honestly, I think we would drive even if it cost more. It is so much more convenient and it lets us pack stuff that we couldn't possibly bring if we flew.

Really, the cost of a rental car generally exceeds the cost of driving so even if I was going alone it would pay to drive.

 

[Southernmiss]

Save, budget, save, work, live frugally, no big splurges all year, rarely eat out, rinse repeat.

Our family of 6 has seen Disney in a full vacation twice. We did do 1 night at MK this December while at Universal, but with a senior in high school right now, it will be a while before we can afford the decent Disney Vacation again.

DH referees soccer every chance he gets and that extra money helps to pay for our kid's own soccer fees and extras. Any surplus from that will go into vacation savings.

I have a Disney Visa rewards CC and charge gas and groceries and gifts and other large expenses on it. Pay it off every month and rack up the points.

When we go to Dis, we drive (8 hours away). We stay in the cabins or one of my kids stays with my brother in his room (only 3 of them). We don't do the dining plan, the Disney Reward points pay for our counterservice meals (not into big table service meals anyway) and some of ticket/hotel expenses. We ate at the cabin for breakfast, back for lunch (something from the crockpot) counterservice or snacks for dinner. And we all thought that was the BEST way to do Dis.

We are not into sovenirs--kids bring their own $ and I buy an ornament and a magnet with my reward $s or pocket money.

By the way, I am an onsite kinda person-don't want to drive, fight traffic, enjoy riding the bus and sharing the day's experience with our entire group. Love evening EMH.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

True, though honestly, I think we would drive even if it cost more. It is so much more convenient and it lets us pack stuff that we couldn't possibly bring if we flew.

Same for us, plus my wife has always hated flying anyway (to the point she said "no more" after 9/11). I've never cared for it myself honestly, though I've had to do plenty of it for business. I've had WAY too many flights that with delays ended up taking longer than if I'd just driven

 

[mousiemom]

this is what we do:
it's me, dh and 11yr dd
we always stay @ pop, we go during free dining(nov/dec), we drive down, we always stay at least 7 nights, we do the qsdp so we don't even have to pay for any tips, we book as soon as the deal comes out so we have longer to pay on it, we always get the 2 day base ticket and then once we check in, we upgrade our tickets to a 5 or 6 day, it gives you more time to save! my dd and i roll our change and put it into our disney fund, and we do this for a year so that's our spending money!!