Doing a Disney Vacation on a college students budget

[MickeyMouseCD524]

Hey Everyone! My friends and I want to go away to Disney together in the summer but we are all poor college kids and are trying to figure out how we can go, I don't want to say cheaply because that's kind of an oxymoron, but how how can we go without to totally breaking the bank.My dad has offered some DVC points but it comes with a catch I'm not super sure I'm willing to accept. We know park tickets are going to be expensive but we don't really know what to do about food and the hotel room because most affordable options can't accommodate 5 people in one room. I don't know if anyone on here has done what we're trying to do and can offer some advice but if you can I'd really appreciate it.

 

[ilovebassets]

Hey Everyone! My friends and I want to go away to Disney together in the summer but we are all poor college kids and are trying to figure out how we can go, I don't want to say cheaply because that's kind of an oxymoron, but how how can we go without to totally breaking the bank.My dad has offered some DVC points but it comes with a catch I'm not super sure I'm willing to accept. We know park tickets are going to be expensive but we don't really know what to do about food and the hotel room because most affordable options can't accommodate 5 people in one room. I don't know if anyone on here has done what we're trying to do and can offer some advice but if you can I'd really appreciate it.

My husband and I used to go as college students quite frequently, and in graduate school, too. When is your summer break? In many parts of the county, colleges let out quite early in May while it's still relatively inexpensive and uncrowded.

To be perfectly frank, as college students, saving money was always at the forefront of our minds. We used to stay in fairly cheap hotels and motels on W Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, and typically only went to two of the major parks. Our trips were usually about four days. We would spend one day at downtown disney shopping and hanging out and going to DisneyQuest and/or the movie theater. You could spend another day at the water parks. We never ate at table service restaurants and breakfast was either a powerbar or something like that in the hotel or a trip to denny's or mcdonalds. If you MUST do a TS restaurant, pick ONE by looking at menus ahead of time. I think the first TS restaurant we ate at was Tony's in MK because it was so cheap for lunch.

With five people, have you looked into Fort Wilderness Cabins? I don't know if two of you would be willing to share a bed, but you have four beds in the room total which is more than you're going to get compared to any other accommodation that sleeps five.

How long are you going for? If you're planning a week trip, I would buy a 4 day water park and more ticket for $357.08 through Undercover Tourist (saves you $19 per ticket). That's one day for each major park (as college students, my husband and I could easily do all of the Magic Kingdom in one full day without kids to slow us down! Not so much anymore!) Then hit DisneyQuest once, both water parks once, and throw in a round of mini golf for fun, too. Skip park hoppers--it's just not necessary and doesn't add anything to the trip.

What part of the country are you coming from? Driving will obviously save you lots of money, but five people would probably need a large SUV or minivan.

 

[MickeyMouseCD524]

My husband and I used to go as college students quite frequently, and in graduate school, too. When is your summer break? In many parts of the county, colleges let out quite early in May while it's still relatively inexpensive and uncrowded.

To be perfectly frank, as college students, saving money was always at the forefront of our minds. We used to stay in fairly cheap hotels and motels on W Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, and typically only went to two of the major parks. Our trips were usually about four days. We would spend one day at downtown disney shopping and hanging out and going to DisneyQuest and/or the movie theater. You could spend another day at the water parks. We never ate at table service restaurants and breakfast was either a powerbar or something like that in the hotel or a trip to denny's or mcdonalds. If you MUST do a TS restaurant, pick ONE by looking at menus ahead of time. I think the first TS restaurant we ate at was Tony's in MK because it was so cheap for lunch.

With five people, have you looked into Fort Wilderness Cabins? I don't know if two of you would be willing to share a bed, but you have four beds in the room total which is more than you're going to get compared to any other accommodation that sleeps five.

How long are you going for? If you're planning a week trip, I would buy a 4 day water park and more ticket for $357.08 through Undercover Tourist (saves you $19 per ticket). That's one day for each major park (as college students, my husband and I could easily do all of the Magic Kingdom in one full day without kids to slow us down! Not so much anymore!) Then hit DisneyQuest once, both water parks once, and throw in a round of mini golf for fun, too. Skip park hoppers--it's just not necessary and doesn't add anything to the trip.

What part of the country are you coming from? Driving will obviously save you lots of money, but five people would probably need a large SUV or minivan.

Thank You! Oh I don't think I looked into those cabins! Well two of the 5 are brother and sister so they can probably share if need be. We get out around the May 19th and will probably want to go down for about a week. We don't know yet if we all want to go back our respective homes first and then to orlando or if we want to go straight from school in D.C. Jet Blue has $45 flights we could probably get on and then magical express it. Our big problem with staying off site is that no one in our group owns a car and you need to be 25 to rent one which none of us will be by then so we're kind of stuck being onsite with Disney transportation. I suggested the Water Parks when we first came up with this idea and the boys wanted nothing to do with it so we were kind of out numbered. We're 2 girls and 3 boys by the way I don't think I mentioned that. I think we might TS it one or two nights. For most of them this is their first time or they haven't been in years so they want to do all of these thing and have put most of the planning on me but I question if we can swing more then 2 TS meals. It's just hard trying to please five of us and keep us on a budget of something. The hard part right now is trying to price it out and add in a buffer should prices go up.

 

[j2thomason]

Thank You! Oh I don't think I looked into those cabins! Well two of the 5 are brother and sister so they can probably share if need be. We get out around the May 19th and will probably want to go down for about a week. We don't know yet if we all want to go back our respective homes first and then to orlando or if we want to go straight from school in D.C. Jet Blue has $45 flights we could probably get on and then magical express it. Our big problem with staying off site is that no one in our group owns a car and you need to be 25 to rent one which none of us will be by then so we're kind of stuck being onsite with Disney transportation. I suggested the Water Parks when we first came up with this idea and the boys wanted nothing to do with it so we were kind of out numbered. We're 2 girls and 3 boys by the way I don't think I mentioned that. I think we might TS it one or two nights. For most of them this is their first time or they haven't been in years so they want to do all of these thing and have put most of the planning on me but I question if we can swing more then 2 TS meals. It's just hard trying to please five of us and keep us on a budget of something. The hard part right now is trying to price it out and add in a buffer should prices go up.

A cabin at FW will also give you a complete kitchen if you need to make your own meals. The cabin also has a separate bedroom (double and bunks) and the living room has a Murphy bed....just in case you wanted to put boys in one area and girls in another. Another food savings option is to make some sandwiches and take them into the parks. You can get cups of ice water free from QS restaurants, too. Also, kids meals are a great deal....they usually come with a drink and a dessert, too! The portions are plenty for an adult. Staying onsite will also save you parking costs each day. Some of the All Stars have family suites, too, which also have 2 bathrooms, which the cabin doesn't. There is a discount out now for the time period you are desiring. Check it out on MDE.

 

[jordanri]

i wish i could be more help with accommodations but i generally book through cast members to get a discount. make sure you check out undercovertourist.com for tickets. i am planning a food and wine trip right now and a 3/4 day park hopper is 27 dollars cheaper through them versus gate prices. as far as food goes, it might be in your best interest to either pack things like cereal or pay for a taxi to take you off-site. you may even wanna check in to garden grocer and such. stay away from the goodings outside of downtown disney and you'll be golden.

 

[jessicalynn88]

I went in college (it was just 3 girls) on a strict budget. We booked southwest flights at awful times really cheap and stayed off site. The hotel we were in offered shuttles to Disney for like $10 roundtrip. We ate breakfast in the room and only ate quick service except for once at rainforest cafe. We didn't get hopper passes either. It was fun and relatively cheap!

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

@monarchsfan16 can probably give some advice about trips on a budget.

 

[monarchsfan16]

One way to cut down on costs is to bring breakfast foods for the room. Things like granola bars and cereal bars travel well. Even some of those individual cereal things that you can pour milk right into. You can get them at home much cheaper than at Disney and then you can just get milk in the food court. Think about bringing some snack foods too to take into the parks, just be mindful that in the summer, things you don't expect to melt will.

Do look into the offsite hotels that have a shuttle. They usually charge for it, but if you can find a good enough deal, it might be worth it (and it pains me to say that because I'm very into staying only onsite...but with 5 people...). Hilton Garden Inn Sea World has a Disney shuttle, as does the Hilton Grand Vacation Club Sea World. Sheraton Vistana does too, and you can usually get a pretty good deal there, and they have bigger condo units.

For tickets, certainly check undercovertourist, but if anyone is a AAA member check their prices too. My AAA office has always had either better prices than UT, or prices within a dollar. To not have to risk tickets getting lost in the mail I will happily pay one extra dollar (since I'm still saving money over buying through Disney). You'll need to actually go into the AAA office and ask for their price list for Disney.

For table service meals, I like to go at one of their last breakfast seatings (10:30 or so). Then it's more like brunch and I don't need to eat more than a snack again until dinner. This may or may not be an effective strategy for the guys in the group, but snacks are cheaper than full meals. By doing a late breakfast, you can experience the restaurant and the breakfast menu is MUCH cheaper than the dinner menu. Captain's Grill is one of my favorite budget TS breakfast places. They have both a menu and a buffet. Menu breakfast items are $10 or $11. The buffet is about $18 per person (CHEAP for a Disney buffet) and has a very large variety of food. When I do the late breakfast thing I either do it on a non-park day or on a day where I've gone to AM EMH at a nearby park (EMH at MK, then breakfast at Kona for example), and so I leave the park as the crowds are getting bad and then go back after a refreshing breakfast.

If anyone in your family is a BJ's member, they sell discounted Disney gift cards. It's not a huge discount, but buying a $100 gift card for $95 is a help, particularly if you're putting it towards something expensive like a room. I do buy them for expenses too though. Or if anyone has a Target red card, the 5% discount works on Disney gift cards when you buy them at Target. Again, a little savings, but it does add up.

 

[FFMatt12]

I can vouch for Target and AAA from the post above mine. With AAA, the nice benefit is that they will monitor for any discounts that come about between booking and arrival. They will automatically give you that discount

 

[monarchsfan16]

I think what FFMatt12 is referring to is when you book the whole vacation through AAA. You can do that OR you can simply buy tickets through them. You don't have to book the whole trip through them.

 

[FFMatt12]

I think what FFMatt12 is referring to is when you book the whole vacation through AAA. You can do that OR you can simply buy tickets through them. You don't have to book the whole trip through them.

Correct sorry that I wasn't clearer. The only thing that I was VERY disappointed with this year between Disney and AAA was their cancellation of their partnership for the discount and Magic Rate. Between that and Target team members losing their 10% off the Disney gift cards (My DW-to be), my vacations became a ton more expensive.