Can you help me do a super budget ($1000) trip?

[scrapper2k]

You can also buy bread and fixings and bring sandwiches for lunch. I think you should look into the hotels on Hotel Plaza Blvd. They all offer free shuttles into the parks so fiance doesn't have to drive.

Also, I always took the Disney bus but rented a car the last three times. We found driving to be so liberating. No more waiting and then standing for the ride......

 

[torinsmom]

Lots of ways to save, the first being staying offsite. I know many prefer not to drive on vacation,but jumping in the car in the A/C and driving 10 minutes beats waiting in the heat for 20 minutes among dozens of people any day for me. I paid $75-$80/night for a 3bedroom townhome at Emerald Island. Yes, parking is $15/day, but again, SO worth it not to have to wait for the buses. We get there early enough we don't have to wait for the shuttles either.

We have a full kitchen, so we can do breakfast and either lunch or dinner(we take a break from around 1-5pm) at the house. The other meal we have at the parks. We don't cook four course dinners or anything, but things like pancakes, sandwiches, frozen pizza, or even pulled pork in the crockpot are pretty easy. We also take advantage of offsite restaurants vs. Disney CS. Chick-fil-a is SO much better than chicken at a CS restaurant. You can also get free ice water at any place onsite that sells fountain sodas. That saves us a bundle in the summer. I bring in the flavor packs to add some flavor.

I would do some strategic saving to pay for things like gas on the way. Maybe start saving change; it adds up. Or like someone else said, buy a gas card once a month for a tank of gas. It wouldn't be much per week to add to your budget.

A trip is totally doable if you are willing to try something new. We go once a year on a single mom NC teacher's salary, and we use these tips every trip.

 

[Hannathy]

I would cut out the money for mousekeeping. They are union and paid well. This is not a position that relies on tips.

I was just coming on to say this !! Thank You

Housekeeping at Disney is not a tipped position. They are paid a wage that does not rely on tips to supplement it,. Like servers are paid an hourly wage that relies on tips housekeeping is not. They do not need to be tipped.

Only way I tip I leave is if I'm running late the last day and leave a lot of extra (above normal usage) trash or trays from the food court.

As far as tidying yourself-why? that is what you are paying Disney for in your room rate.

Put that $20 towards feeding a teen you will need it!

If you stay at a value, buy the min ticket for the 3 of you and get free dining I think it would be the cheapest way especially with a teen, he can eat as much as he wants with his daily allotment and you will have more than enough to share with the 2 yr old off your and your partner's allotment. and if you watch where you eat you can get a ton of food!

Plus the tickets are good for ever so you can save them till you want to use them

 

[rdevine10]

I know you mentioned you want to be onsite, but I was going to suggest looking into skyauction. We have rented with them before and it was a great experience.

I just looked and for September you can get a 2 bedroom at 3 or 4 offsite resorts (full kitchen with 2 full bedrooms and 2 baths) for around $275 for 7, yes 7 nights!

You can easily cook in your own kitchen (so say $200 for grocery's) and you will have to pay for parking at WDW (ok say $100), and you are still way under budget:

$275
$200
$100

is $575

Plenty of money still for a couple counter service meals and souvies. And, you can have a few days to relax by the resort pool of your condo.

IMO, I would go this route!

 

[JUSTAND]

Cant you pack some food from home for snack and take botle brinks from home also that will cut down on your expenses. Many of the offsite hotels provide trasport to the parks so no need to drive

 

[Bonniec]

buy the min ticket for the 3 of you and get free dining I think it would be the cheapest way

The OP can't do free dining. You have to buy tickets and she already has season passes.

And yes, housekeeping gets a normal hourly wage but it's not very much. Housekeepers could not function only on tips the way a waiter does. People generally tip about $1 per person per day. If they relied only on tips they'd make about $3 an hour. Do you HAVE to tip? No. But personally, I wouldn't feel right not tipping based on their wages.

I'd recommend staying at a condo like Wyndham Bonnet Creek or Palisades where you don't have housekeeping. Then you don't have to tip and the resorts are cheaper.

 

[Hannathy]

The OP can't do free dining. You have to buy tickets and she already has season passes.

And yes, housekeeping gets a normal hourly wage but it's not very much. Housekeepers could not function only on tips the way a waiter does. People generally tip about $1 per person per day. If they relied only on tips they'd make about $3 an hour. Do you HAVE to tip? No. But personally, I wouldn't feel right not tipping based on their wages.

I'd recommend staying at a condo like Wyndham Bonnet Creek or Palisades where you don't have housekeeping. Then you don't have to tip and the resorts are cheaper.

She can do free dining just buy the minimum ticket for the 3 adults-I believe it is 2 days and simply save them for another trip, the are good forever.

As far as the housekeepers they are not in any way paid expecting to get tips. It is not a tipped position, they make an hourly wage just like the cashiers or the ride operators or the desk people. Do you tip every cashier that waits on you? every time you get on a ride? or every desk clerk? if not why then if they make the same as the housekeepers who you claim need tipped. your housekeeping is paid for out of your nightly rate.

 

[Mic]

Definitely rent points to stay on property. Budget $500 for this: if you can find someone willing to rent for $10 a point (some of us still do), then you can stay 5 nights at Old Key West. If the owner asks more than $10 per point, then you can rent enough for 4 nights. Either way, you will not spend more than $500, and there is no tax. Also, no housekeeping, just a trash and towel service, so no tip needed. For the price of a value room, you will have a deluxe resort room, with a kitchenette. With the larger fridge, microwave, toaster, and coffee maker in the room, breakfast in the room will be super easy. Stock up on bottled water/soda for the park, and easy-to-carry snacks. Having a cold drink and a snack in your back-pack saves as much time as it does money...who wants to wait in line for a pretzel? I always include my weekly grocery money in my Disney budget because I am not going to be home to eat...use that money to purchase snacks and breakfast food. A family of four can easily eat for four or five days for $300, even if 1 of them is bottomless. You didn't mention any dining habits, but when my kids were younger and we were on a budget trip, I would make a reservation for a character breakfast or a nice lunch or dinner near the end of our trip. My plan was to cancel the reservation if we went over-budget during the week with our quick-service meals, but I never had to cancel. This was long before they had the Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney...home of the best $6 sandwich you will ever taste. I also carry in my own drink at Earl's (my kids and son-in-law like Cheerwine and Dr. Pepper) and just get a few cups of free ice. My daughter, myself, and son-in-law order 3 sandwiches and share 1 salad, for @ $20 if we use our AAA card. We also order pizza for dinner once during each trip, so figure $20 for that. Right there you have 2 dinners for $40. I have taken teens to Disney for the last 12 years, and most will spend $10 for a meal at a quick-service restaurant without any planning. If you do the ordering for your son, though, you can order the combo for him, a combo for your Fiance, and just order an entree for yourself, as you can share their drink and fries. I usually just order a kids meal for myself, because Disney has made them a lot healthier than they used to be. I would budget $25 for each quick-service meal if I were you, especially if you were carrying a few snacks with you to help with the low blood sugar issue. And definitely carry something for the 2-year-old to eat. You can easily take a trip in September with $1000...I say go for it!

 

[tinah159]

I changed my mind about my post!

 

[stitchlovestink]

Please do not let me see you, or anyone, say this again . Disney used to offer buses to the parks, but thanks to folks taking advantage they do not anymore. Keep it up and free parking at DTD might go away as well and that would truly suck for those of us locals who like to go eat there.

Well considering mostly all of DTD is shopping, dining, Disney Quest, Cirque, and the Movie theatre... I would think it would hurt Disney greatly to start charging for parking. People who have their own transportation would then DEFINITELY travel to International Drive to the Gazillions of places to eat and shop and the several other outlet malls. The only people who be forced to use DTD would be those who wanted to do Disney Quest or Cirque. Others could certainly shop/dine elsewhere without having to pay to park. KWIM? So I really think it would be Highly Unlikely to see Disney Start to charge for Parking at DTD.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I'm not saying that selling them is the right thing to do as they are supposed to be non-transferable... BUT
How can they press charges against the seller?? It's not like the seller sold 'stolen' goods. The original owner did pay for them. So I think this would be a case of let the buyer beware.

As I stated in my post this transaction which includes the orginal ticket holders name is stored in the computer system. When a ticket that was issued in someones name is exchanged for a ticket with no name on it. Disney knows who the original owner of the ticket with no name is. I am just relaying info that my Aunt shared with me regarding the ticket fraud she has to deal with.
Another one of Disney's biggest offenders is those little stores which offer to buy your tickets with unused days and they resell them.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Please do not let me see you, or anyone, say this again . Disney used to offer buses to the parks, but thanks to folks taking advantage they do not anymore. Keep it up and free parking at DTD might go away as well and that would truly suck for those of us locals who like to go eat there.

It would be nice if Disney did check to make sure everyone riding the bus had a KTTW card. Just like they do if you try to get on a ride at the parks during the EMH . It would take some extra time for the driver to look at the card but it would eliminate the abuse.

 

[stitchlovestink]

As I stated in my post this transaction which includes the orginal ticket holders name is stored in the computer system. When a ticket that was issued in someones name is exchanged for a ticket with no name on it. Disney knows who the original owner of the ticket with no name is. I am just relaying info that my Aunt shared with me regarding the ticket fraud she has to deal with.
Another one of Disney's biggest offenders is those little stores which offer to buy your tickets with unused days and they resell them.

Okay, well first off you didn't answer the question... how are they going to press charges on the seller?? for what???
It they have used a day on the ticket and THEN sold it, then YES, that is a problem because the ticket is NON TRANSFERABLE. And if you look at your own post above, That is what your aunt is dealing with! the resale of tickets with UNUSED days. (which means that a guest has entered a park using that ticket linking it to a particular guest) That is clearly not allowed.
Now I KNOW this is going to start arguments on here because there people who are going to say it is not allowed...but I know for fact it has been done. I have done it myself TWICE. And yes they can see in the system that it has been done for me so after they did it the first time, the manager chose to do it again a second time. I have done this at the ticket window at MK and MGM. When we buy a pkg deal we pull our tickets off of our room keys and have the names removed from them because we often have AP's. I have used more than one of those tickets to buy a bigger ticket. For example.... The first time we got free dining, you only had to buy a one day ticket. So we bought 4 one day tickets, one for each of us to meet that package obligation. Later, I then used 3 of those one day tickets to buy an Annual Pass at the ticket window at MK and just paid the cash difference. Now apparently, they are not suppposed to do that, but the ticket agent did. When I attempted to do that a few years later, I was told I couldn't, I wasn't rude but asked to speak to a manager, and explained what I had done previously, and they checked their system and saw that I certainly had been able to do that, and they allowed me to do it again since they had done it before. Again, I wasn't rude or argumentative, but said well if you did it before why and the manager kinda agreed. So, as far as them being nontransferable... I will argue that it isn't really applicable until you use it. And if your opinion differs we will have to agree to disagree because the CM managers seem to have varying opinions on this too!

 

[SaraJayne]

As I stated in my post this transaction which includes the orginal ticket holders name is stored in the computer system. When a ticket that was issued in someones name is exchanged for a ticket with no name on it. Disney knows who the original owner of the ticket with no name is. I am just relaying info that my Aunt shared with me regarding the ticket fraud she has to deal with.
Another one of Disney's biggest offenders is those little stores which offer to buy your tickets with unused days and they resell them.

The tickets can be used by anyone until they've been used the first time. If people are selling the original unused ticket they bought, there is no exchanging at Disney going on.

I don't know about you, but I have never once been asked for ID when going through the turnstiles. So Disney has no way of tracking that ticket until it's been used the first time.

 

[arihillfarm]

It would be nice if Disney did check to make sure everyone riding the bus had a KTTW card. Just like they do if you try to get on a ride at the parks during the EMH . It would take some extra time for the driver to look at the card but it would eliminate the abuse.

The problem with doing that is that the Disney transportation system is open to all Disney guests, not just Disney resort guests. I guess they could check that everyone has a ticket of some sort or another, but that would really take a long time for each busload.

-Astrid

 

[Bonniec]

Yeah, the card wouldn't work because everyone is free to use Disney transportation. If they stopped that, a lot of people would stop shopping and eating at the resorts. I really don't think DTD transportation is a big deal anymore. If someone wants to take the bus to a resort and then to a bus...have at it. They'll just end up wasting half their day. It really just isn't worth all the extra time.

As far as the housekeepers they are not in any way paid expecting to get tips. It is not a tipped position, they make an hourly wage just like the cashiers or the ride operators or the desk people. Do you tip every cashier that waits on you? every time you get on a ride? or every desk clerk? if not why then if they make the same as the housekeepers who you claim need tipped. your housekeeping is paid for out of your nightly rate.

A cashier ringing up an order or someone putting you on a ride is a lot different than someone cleaning up your mess, fixing your hair, carrying your bags, etc. Not every service position gets a low hourly rate like a waitress, yet it's commonly expected to tip. I'm sure there are quite a few heated threads on tipping around these boards. I suppose not tipping is another way to save money. I just couldn't do it.

 

[DisneyEater]

I think you could do it if you do some food scouting before you go. In Epcot's France you can get a ham a cheese crossaint for under $4. In the MK you can get a pretty big waffle sandwich at Sleepy Hallow refreshments for around $7, I think. You can get 3 meatball sliders in DTD for like $7 at Portebello.

The key for keeping food costs low is to bring your own drinks. That will save you a ton of money. That and some advanced scouting of food prices can go a long way. Check out mouse savers for some ideas on saving on food.

I would also look into seeing what price you could get on renting points for a DVC studio at OKW. September is the lowest points of the year.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

DH was the one pushing for another trip this year and I was against it. Not because I don't LOVE WDW, cuz I absolutely DO! But we have our oldest dd starting college in the fall, and I just didn't want to spend the money. So we're compromising. We have 4 kids, so it's usually the 6 of us plus the oldest brings a friend. Which means a 2-bedroom villa (we are DVC members). Oldest isn't coming on this trip, so it's just 5 of us. That means we fit in a 1-bedroom villa. We have enough points for 5 nights at Old Key West. DH prefers a longer trip. So we are trying out Windsor Hills. Got a 3-bedroom condo for $385 TOTAL for 4 nights. Our kids are doing a Y.E.S. class, so we got heavily discounted tickets. Told DH we have to do the majority of the meals in the condo/villa. Our budget is $1000 for food for 10 days. We drive, so we have our car and do some off-site dining. Having a full kitchen in the villa is awesome. We get bagels and cream cheese from Panera for breakfasts. VERY inexpensive! We also hit up Costco for milk, cereal, muffins, eggs, some ready-to-bake meals like chicken alfredo, lasagna, etc. Get a case of water (like $3, WAY cheaper than the parks!), Diet Coke, beer/wine, etc. We will do at least 2 meals per day in the villa. Giordano's is a great off-site meal, very reasonable. Normally we don't like deep dish pizza, but we tried it and it was awesome. And a large will EASILY feed 5 of us! We also love Smokey Bones, and you can sign up for coupons on their web site. Earl of Sandwich at DTD is one of our favorites and VERY reasonable (easily $10/person or less).

I agree with other posters' comments that any Disney is better than no Disney at all.

I also think you should reconsider the free dining deal. You can always use the 2-day tickets you will have to buy to put toward your pass renewal later. And you can easily feed your 2-yo off of your plates.

So my suggestions are the free dining deal, renting DVC points and doing majority of meals in the villa or renting a condo off site... again, doing majority of meals in the condo.

 

[DisneyEater]

So my suggestions are the free dining deal, renting DVC points and doing majority of meals in the villa or renting a condo off site... again, doing majority of meals in the condo.

Can't do the free dining deal if you rent DVC points.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

Can't do the free dining deal if you rent DVC points.[/QUOTE

I am aware of that. I am a DVC member. Those were 3 separate recommendations... doing the free dining deal OR renting DVC points and doing majority of meals in the villa OR renting a condo off site and doing majority of meals in the condo.