DW Vacation Tips for Family of 6

[Brenda in CA]

We are a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 children ages 12, 9, 4, and newborn). We would love to plan a WDW vacation in a year or two, but each time I've looked into it, it is so expensive. We live on the west coast, so we have to add airfare for all of us into the price too. Any suggestions on how to make a trip affordable, yet not feel like we are skimping on some of the important things. This will likely be our only trip to WDW (at least with the kids). We usually do DL every couple of years.

Thanks!

 

[RockyMtnMaria]

We are a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 children ages 12, 9, 4, and newborn). We would love to plan a WDW vacation in a year or two, but each time I've looked into it, it is so expensive. We live on the west coast, so we have to add airfare for all of us into the price too. Any suggestions on how to make a trip affordable, yet not feel like we are skimping on some of the important things. This will likely be our only trip to WDW (at least with the kids). We usually do DL every couple of years.

Thanks!

We are also a family of 6, but you have the advantage of still having one free. The cost has been keeping us from WDW as well. I will tell you some of the things we have been doing to cut the cost down. First (and the biggest) is that we could not get decent fares out of Denver or CO Springs. We could find reasonable prices for 2 people, but once we bumpted it up to 6 the price would almost double. So we are combining our WDW trip with one to our family in KS. That allowed us to get airfare at about a third of the cost. Do you ever travel to other states? Check airfare from those, as well as all airports around you. Also be sure to go directly to the airline websites, because I have often gotten lower fares there than what shows up on travelocity.

For lodging you have a few options. You could stay offsite, you could get 2 value hotel rooms (we did this and are visiting during free dining) or you could stay at Port Orleans Riverside for about the cost of 2 values. You would all be in one room, with a crib and a trundle bed. The advantage would be a moderate resort vs a value, and having a fridge in your room. The disadvantage is that it would be more crowded and you would only have 1 bathroom and less privacy.

We are spending about $3,400 for our family including airfare and food. We will have 8 days (2 halves) and 7 nights at WDW. I figure that dropping one child would only subtract about $400. Pick a value time, unless you are staying offsite, and hope they do free dining again. I think that it beats any other deals I've seen. Going on the Disney website, most of their quotes were about $6,500. They wanted to put us into cabins because of our party of 6, and that would have been $250 a night.

 

[lady9]

You may want to consider the cabins if the free dining isn't available. You would have a full kitchen so you could eat some meals there. The value resorts also have some family suites now that have 2 full bathrooms. Start saving now. Each night put all your change and $1 bills in a jar. You will be surprised at how quickly it adds up. There are lots of ways to do Disney on a budget. You can search this site for other tips.

 

[sameyeyam]

Sign up for SW Airlines ding special. Go to their website and it will explain how to download. Watch it every day for specials.

Staying offsite is a good way to save money. Go to hotels.com and check out their prices. If you don't mind staying at a cheaper Days Inn or budget hotel you can get rooms for about $40 a night. Be sure to check it out on tripadvisor.com to make sure it is somewhere you would feel comfortable staying.

However, you can now stay onsite and use Magical Express, so if you stay onsite you won't need to get a rental car and can utilize Disney's free transportation system the entire time.

We never eat breakfast out. We bring a suitcase full of non-perishable food. Bring individual cereal boxes for breakfast (buy milk in the gift shop or food court). Also bring a small coffeemaker (if staying at value) and make your own tea or coffee. We also bring Cup of Noodles and use the hot water from coffeemaker for when kids are hungry between meals. Bring along snacks for park (fruit snacks, peanuts, etc...). Really cuts down on buying of snacks. Plus by the end of vacation all the food is gone and you have an extra suitcase to carry home souvenirs in.

I would also suggest that you post this question on the Budget Board. Many of the posters on there have wonderful budget ideas.

 

[noodleknitter]

I would suggest a condo from skyauction. There are many very nice condo complexes within a 15 minute drive to the parks, and they are a great deal.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

Hello! We are also a family of six, and try to cut as many corners as possible so we can enjoy our trips to WDW. We are going in October. We are staying in two value rooms. We did fine with 5 of us in one room last time (one was a baby), but with 6 now, we have to have the space. We opted for two value rooms instead of one at a moderate that would sleep all of us because we figured the two separate rooms would be extremely helpful getting everyone to sleep..not to mention two bathrooms will be heavenly! I looked into renting points, but nothing came out cheaper for us. I've heard you can rent some really nice places offsite.

We joined AAA to get a discount, and we saved about $300 that way. We're doing the dining plan, but missed the free dining by about 2 weeks!. That would have saved quite a bit!!! We always bring along our own breakfast food, so that helps, too. The kids have been getting Disney dollars for the past several holidays, so that will help with spending money, while we are there.

We also use our Disney visa card for everything, so we've saved up quite a few reward points, which are helping to fund our trip!!

Our total for the trip, including the dining plan and airfare, is around $3800 for all of us. That certainly isn't cheap, but I feel like we did OK. The last time we went (with only 5 of us) we spent $3200 with no dining plan. So, I'm excited to be spending less total this time.

Good luck with your planning.

 

[Tinksmom5]

BEING FROM A BIG FAMILY MYSELF {WE ARE A FAMILY OF 7] I CAN RELATE TO THE MONEY SITUATION WHEN IT COMES TO DISNEY.HOWEVER I JUST FOUND OUT DISNEY MUSIC RESORTS NOW HAS SUITS THAT ALLOW UP TO 6 IN A ROOM.THAT WOULD BE GREAT FOR YOU .STILL CAN'T HOLD MY FAMILY OFCOURSE BUT O'WELL.I WOULD LOOK INTO IT IF I WAS YOU .AS FOR THE DINNING WE DID DO THAT LAST YEAR AND ALTHOUGH WE ENJOYED I MORE THE LIKELY WOULDN'T DO IT AGAIN .AT THE END OF THE DAY IT REALLY DID COME OUT TO BE A LOT OF FOOD AND A LOT OF MONEY THAT WE NEVER WOULD HAVE SPENT OTHERWISE.MY LITTLE ONES NEVER FINISHED THEIR MEALS.WE COULD HAVE HAD THEM SHARING AND SAVED,OH WELL LIVE AND LEARN.GOOD LUCK WITH YOU PLANNING AND HAVE FUN.

 

[java]

We are a family of 6 too- kids are 12,8,3,1. Your best bet for a single room would be to travel before your baby is considered a "guest"- I think it is up to age 2(or is it 3?) but up to at least 2 you can stay in one deluxe room- and we were very comfortable at the Poly- the room was plenty big enough for us and the convenience of the location was well worth the price. Food is another biggie that you can save on- My 4 shared 2 kids meals. We found several of the cs meals were just too much food for them so we started small and figured if they were still hungry we could always order more. We brought our own waters- because you go through them like.... well like water.. I also got some of those lemonade single serve mix ins for when they got sick of water. The thing that turned me off of the family suites at the Values was the fact that you will have to convert 3 of the beds into beds from sofas everynight.- pull out everynight? I think. And the price didn't seem that great to me mid $200 a night for a value? When we could still fit in a single room we went for it. I think we will be able to still do it next year.. but we may look into a vacation villa- but onsite for us.

 

[dougsmom98]

We are also a family of 6. We are 2 adults, a 7 year old, two 5 year olds and a 1 year old. We stay offsite. We don't know the difference so it doesn't feel like we are skimping. We stayed in vacation homes and condos that can sleep 6-8 comfortably. On our next trip we are staying at a 4 bedroom, 3 bath townhome for $600 including taxes. They even have a pack 'n play for the baby to sleep in at no extra cost. We eat breakfast and dinner offsite. I don't usually cook that much. We get take-out which is less expensive than a table service restaurant. The places we stay at have full sizes refridgerators for left overs and lots of drink storage. Washers and dryers in our unit help keep the number of suitcases down to a minimum. Flying with 6 people is a hassle especially with all the baggage that come with it, I don't have to worry about over or under packing with a washer and dryer. If you can be flexible with your travel dates, then you should be able to fly for less money than we can. We are teachers and are stuck going at peak times. That being said, we have always gotten good deals on airfare. We are willing to endure a couple of stops and airplane layovers to keep the price down. We consider the journey to Florida as an adventure. I start checking as soon as flights are available for my time period and I check morning, noon and night until I find a good price. The baby flew free and sat on my lap for the last trip. She was 9 months old. This time she will be 18 months and could fly for free on my lap, but she is active so we are buying her a seat so that she is a little more confined and will hopefully behave. I know you are coming from the west coast so it will be expensive, we let the price of our airfare set the stage for what we can spend for the rest of the trip. If we get a good price we can spend more money on lodging for example. We have to rent a car because we stay offsite, but we have never paid more than $275 for a minivan despite going at peak times. Use the codes and advice given on mousesavers.com and you should be able to get a good deal. We bring a small soft sided cooler and bring drinks to the park. We still buy a few there but not quite so many. We basically squirrel away money whenever we can throughout the year before our trip. The budget board forum has some great ideas on how to save money or get free samples that you might be able to take with you. The biggest money savings you will have if you go soon is that the baby goes to the parks for free. You may worry that the baby won't remember it, but the pictures will last a lifetime and it is so cool to take when they are that young. My kids have never been big souvenier fans. They usually get one $25 thing or less per trip. That saves us a lot of money. Good luck!