Has anyone priced a bare bones trip?

[Ready to go in Ok]

Like offsite, no hoppers, eating only a snack or two bought at WDW. Just wondering how cheap it could go? I was kicking around staying offsite this December, but we got a free dining pin! I still say having a washer/ dryer would be worth a ton!

 

[LockShockBarrel]

I thought you had to stay on property for free dining.

Either way...no. I haven't. Because for me, a bare bones trip isn't worth it. It's just not my style of touring. I know some people want to go as often as they can or for whatever reason can't spend a lot, and will make a lot of cuts to what they'll spend money on. I'm just the type of person who would rather go less often and save money for the stuff I know I'll want. Plus I know that even if I went with a budget in mind, once I got there it'd go out the window anyway.

 

[Ready to go in Ok]

You do. We are staying at CSR. I was seriously considering a rental house though. But 11 people for over a week in one house....just didn't sound like a good time. I'm right there with you, but a couple more family members were supposed to go, but didn't because they thought the price was outrageous. So I was just wondering, how cheap can it get? Just a curiosity thing.

 

[LockShockBarrel]

Ah ok.. that makes a lot more sense now.

Well depending on how cheap you can get flights or gas, codes for car rental and buying discounted tickets you can definitely knock the price down quite a bit. Some people swear by going offsite for meals but I figure what you spend on gas and the rental you spend as much if not more than eating on site (plus the time factor). There are people that bring food into the parks.

There's a book called Disney on a Dime that gives a lot of ways to save but I was disappointed with that book because it really is bare bones travel.

I suppose what I'd be concerned with is would those other family members see you guys eating or park hopping or what have you and feel left out or throw a guilt trip or anything like that? You know how family can be.

 

[Ready to go in Ok]

Ah ok.. that makes a lot more sense now.

Well depending on how cheap you can get flights or gas, codes for car rental and buying discounted tickets you can definitely knock the price down quite a bit. Some people swear by going offsite for meals but I figure what you spend on gas and the rental you spend as much if not more than eating on site (plus the time factor). There are people that bring food into the parks.

There's a book called Disney on a Dime that gives a lot of ways to save but I was disappointed with that book because it really is bare bones travel.

I suppose what I'd be concerned with is would those other family members see you guys eating or park hopping or what have you and feel left out or throw a guilt trip or anything like that? You know how family can be.

Well, if they do decide to go, this planner is done! So good luck to them haha. No way could they keep up, I have us hopping too much. I just didn't think the price was that bad. But we do seem to wear Disney colored glasses from time to time I think.

 

[indimom]

If you work at it, you can manage a pretty cheap trip. We're using Disney rewards to pay for our trip. We're tent camping at Ft. Wilderness for five nights, have two-day park tickets with water parks and more (so four days in parks total), and have about $250 in rewards left to use for snacks. We're eating at our campsite most meals and are driving down. I estimate $600 out of pocket for the four of us for the gas and food. Not too shabby.

We're also going to Universal on this trip. I paid for two nights at Royal Pacific using blue sky rewards. We'll eat some meals from our cooler in the room and that food is included in the total above. I bought three-day tickets for the four of us: $600. And I have about $100 in visa rewards cards we'll use toward snacks or a meal or two in the parks. I estimate another $200 out of pocket during this part of the trip.

So our grand total out of pocket should be under $1,400 for an 8 night trip to Disney and Universal, staying on-site at both, and doing seven park days, for four "adults."

 

[disbelle]

How lucky! Have never priced a bare bones trip because staying onsite at WDW seems more convenient,especially with Magical Express!

 

[HeatherC]

We have done some very cheap trips. We have rented condos or villas for about $300 a week including all taxes through SkyAuction.

One of these was at Orange Lake Resort which was awesome! Great ameniities, on golf course, and quick drive to the parks.

We also stayed a few times at Regal Palms in a four bedroom villa for about $600 a week.

Lately, we love Bonnet creek where we stayed last year for $110 a night in a three bedroom.

We always bought ten day non expiring tickets and got at least two trips out of them so that cut the cost quite a bit.

Can definitely save a ton on lodging costs in Orlando. Beautiful places and tons of competition.

We are a family of five so the idea of cramming into a Disney hotel room never appealed to us.

 

[sweetdana]

Like offsite, no hoppers, eating only a snack or two bought at WDW. Just wondering how cheap it could go? I was kicking around staying offsite this December, but we got a free dining pin! I still say having a washer/ dryer would be worth a ton!

Bonnet creek is beautiful. Having a kitchen saves breakfasts n you can make over 1/2 meals there n take picnics. IMO hoppers are not really a big deal at all. Wp n more will save $$ though you can buy nearly 1/2 the days, and the lazy river/ pool at bc is very nice. Rent from an owner.

You can make food nearly the cost at home if you stay there. Buying snacks isn't ever a big deal, bring a box of granola bars with you and a box of fl oranges. Instead if Mickey ice cream bars n popsicles.

Dd4/5 ish did this. Had APs and a dvc owner from rent trade board had a room 2 nights out for nearly nothing. Had free airfare available. I think we spent 80$ for 5 nights. Had I had a kitchen it would have been less. Brought bagels in suitcase for breakfast and all snacks. Bought salami and loaf of bread at store for most lunches. And shared A QS dinner. No TS.

Skipping junk you don't need at parks. Puts costs really at park tickets.

 

[aubriee]

We were just at WDW (at Bonnet Creek) in May (10th-20th) and will be back Dec 6th-16th, but I am considering adding an eight night trip in Sept. I already have an AP, so park admisssion and parking would be free. I also have an AP for Universal, so park admission and parking would also be free over there, plus they give a 10% AP discount at all their restaurants (TS and CS). Last Sept I got a rental car for $123.00 for a week. I just got a quote for a one bedroom at Bonnet Creek for the eight nights for $595.00. I looked at the menus on AllEars for lunches and would do most dinners in the condo or offsite. Since I would have a washer/dryer in the condo, I could easily do carry on only, so would save on bag fees. I go often enough, that I very seldom ever find souvineers down there anymore. I ran the numbers and figure I could do the eight nights/nine days for around $1300.00-$1400.00, without even cutting any corners. I checked using the AP discount for a room at Pop, but found Bonnet Creek alot cheaper (as well as alot nicer). Hmm, eight nights at a deluxe resort in a fully equipped condo that is basically within Disney property. Sounds pretty cheap to me.

 

[Marionnette]

It really is difficult to do "bare bones" if you want to visit the parks at all. With the new ticket prices soaring to over $100 for a single day of admission to the MK, you really would have to get creative to be able to take a family for a week.

I could very well say that I own DVC, so the room is "free". I have an AP (okay, right now it's just the voucher), so admission is "free". And I have tons of airline miles, so airfare is "free". Which pretty much means that all I have to pay for is food and souvenirs, and I can cover using my Disney Rewards Dollars (I have over $300) and GCs earned through online rewards programs. Can you say "Free Disney Trip!!!"? And it wouldn't even be a gift! But we all know that all of these things came at a price, whether it was by using a rewards credit card, making a DVC investment or having purchased some sort of non-expiring ticket that got tucked away for future use.

But a real bare bones trip would mean starting with nothing and paying as little as possible to make the trip happen. And that's going to cost a lot more than "free".

• You can Priceline a resort or check Skyauction for condo rentals
• By far, the cheapest way to get tickets would be to suffer through a timeshare presentation.
• You can carry your food on your back instead of buying food in the parks.
• Limit yourself to no souvenir spending.
• Drive to Orlando from your home or take a Greyhound bus if you don't own a car.
• Rely on your resort shuttle to avoid paying the parking fees.

It's not something that I'm willing to do but I know that there are a lot of people who will. You can suggest to your friend that they might want to consider doing some or all of the above to keep withing their budget.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Rather than a "bare bones" Disney trip, have you considered doing a week at another set of Orlando parks instead?

We visited during peak season (Christmas week, December 23 - 30) and got seven nights in a full one bedroom suite at the Residence Inn SeaWorld, free parking, free internet, free hot breakfast buffet daily, free Quick Queue (front of the line passes) for SeaWorld, free transportation to the parks, unlimited admission to both SeaWorld and Aquatica for the entire week, free all-day dining for each of us at SeaWorld for one day, and free all-day dining at Aquatica for one day for a grand total of $1330 with tax (and that's three "adults"). That breaks down to $166.25 per day.....less than a night at a Disney moderate without tickets or food. For an extra $60 total (plus tax....$20 each person) we could have also added on a length-of-stay pass to Busch Gardens with free roundtrip transportation.

Disney prices for Christmas week were ridiculous. This gave us an AMAZING vacation at a fraction of the price and we felt we got way more value for our money than at Disney (don't get me wrong....we love Disney....but Orlando has so much more to offer too). I, personally, would rather do a SW based trip in upgraded accommodations at half the price of Disney than a bare-bones trip elsewhere. JMHO!

 

[pigletto]

It really is difficult to do "bare bones" if you want to visit the parks at all. With the new ticket prices soaring to over $100 for a single day of admission to the MK, you really would have to get creative to be able to take a family for a week.

I could very well say that I own DVC, so the room is "free". I have an AP (okay, right now it's just the voucher), so admission is "free". And I have tons of airline miles, so airfare is "free". Which pretty much means that all I have to pay for is food and souvenirs, and I can cover using my Disney Rewards Dollars (I have over $300) and GCs earned through online rewards programs. Can you say "Free Disney Trip!!!"? And it wouldn't even be a gift! But we all know that all of these things came at a price, whether it was by using a rewards credit card, making a DVC investment or having purchased some sort of non-expiring ticket that got tucked away for future use.

But a real bare bones trip would mean starting with nothing and paying as little as possible to make the trip happen. And that's going to cost a lot more than "free".

• You can Priceline a resort or check Skyauction for condo rentals
• By far, the cheapest way to get tickets would be to suffer through a timeshare presentation.
• You can carry your food on your back instead of buying food in the parks.
• Limit yourself to no souvenir spending.
• Drive to Orlando from your home or take a Greyhound bus if you don't own a car.
• Rely on your resort shuttle to avoid paying the parking fees.

It's not something that I'm willing to do but I know that there are a lot of people who will. You can suggest to your friend that they might want to consider doing some or all of the above to keep withing their budget.

Marionnette makes some interesting points as far as DVC and Annual Passes. We had AP's last year, yet none of our trips were truly budget trips because if I break down the cost of the AP's and add them in to each trip I still paid over $2000 for the year for tickets. Sure I could not include them in the totals of the second or third trip, but then my first trip budget is pretty astronomical. Or even if my (hypothetical) DVC has paid for itself, the dues need to be included in the trip total budget right? I mean I've paid them over the year to take the trip I am on, so it counts.

As far as bare bones.. I've never done it. Though I wouldn't be opposed if it was required. There are some things I won't go without on vacation, and others that are negotiable. A rental car, a visit to Universal, and park hoppers or waterparks are usually my negotiable items to play with in the total. Food can be, but we do enjoy eating out on vacation so we'd be unlikely to eat all of our meals in the room. I'm even willing to drive sometime instead of flying if I can't get the flights cheap enough.
I like to see how low people are able to get their trips. It gives me ideas.

 

[DawnM]

For 11 people????

We do bare bones almost every trip. DH is not a Disney fan at all, but he goes if I can keep the cost down.

Gas: $300 roughly
Condo: $250/week, so $500 for a 2 week stay, 2 bedroom off site
Parking: $100-$150
Food: Our regular grocery and eating out budget plus about $200 extra
Tickets: YES tickets, $1,100 for 8 day hoppers with water parks and more
(this will change this year as the YES tickets have changed.) for 5.
Dog Sitting: $200

Roughly $2,200 for two weeks for a family of 5 including transportation and dog sitting. It is around $300-$400 less if we go for only one week, so it is worth it to us to go the full 2 weeks. Plus, DH has a conference in November in Orlando so he takes an extra week after that for his own vacation.

Now, DH's work also pays him the equivalent of a plane ticket back, so really, we get an additional $400-$500 back after the trip, making it even less, but I didn't include that discount in the above.

 

[ceecee]

We have done cheaper trips (we bought 4 or 5 day hoppers at AAA and got a $49 at ASmo 15 yrs ago!) but we have always stayed onsite. Even the values offer free Magical Express and bus service and all of the resorts have laundry rooms. We usually go for 8-10 days so we do laundry at least one time.

 

[sjs314]

No Bare Bones trips for me either. For me it is not worth going someplace especially WDW if I have to "pinch pennies"

 

[loveysbydesign]

For 11 people????

We do bare bones almost every trip. DH is not a Disney fan at all, but he goes if I can keep the cost down.

Gas: $300 roughly
Condo: $250/week, so $500 for a 2 week stay, 2 bedroom off site
Parking: $100-$150
Food: Our regular grocery and eating out budget plus about $200 extra
Tickets: YES tickets, $1,100 for 8 day hoppers with water parks and more
(this will change this year as the YES tickets have changed.) for 5.
Dog Sitting: $200

Roughly $2,200 for two weeks for a family of 5 including transportation and dog sitting. It is around $300-$400 less if we go for only one week, so it is worth it to us to go the full 2 weeks. Plus, DH has a conference in November in Orlando so he takes an extra week after that for his own vacation.

Now, DH's work also pays him the equivalent of a plane ticket back, so really, we get an additional $400-$500 back after the trip, making it even less, but I didn't include that discount in the above.

We do WDW similar to the way you do
BUT we got our tix. for YES for this June and it was almost $1300 for 6 day premium ones for 5 of us, sure do miss the huge discount we used to get

 

[Couchy]

I thought you had to stay on property for free dining.

Either way...no. I haven't. Because for me, a bare bones trip isn't worth it. It's just not my style of touring. I know some people want to go as often as they can or for whatever reason can't spend a lot, and will make a lot of cuts to what they'll spend money on. I'm just the type of person who would rather go less often and save money for the stuff I know I'll want. Plus I know that even if I went with a budget in mind, once I got there it'd go out the window anyway.

This is exactly what happens to me. I get sucked in by the magic and suddenly start spending all sorts of $$ i had not intended

No Bare Bones trips for me either. For me it is not worth going someplace especially WDW if I have to "pinch pennies"

Yep

 

[mrsabbott]

We can only afford a Disney Vacation if we pinch pennies. Shoot, we're pinching pennies now and only have about $250 saved in our Disney vacation fund! Looks like it will be at least 2 more years before we can afford to go.

We are a family of 6 with children who are currently ages 1-8. I've follow a group of rentals at Windsor Hills and they regularly have $299 weekly specials (just add tax and cleaning fee). As soon as we have more saved up, we will probably go that route as there is just no way that we can afford to stay onsite, even with military discounts (DH is a medically retired veteran) or free dining codes. Having a full kitchen and washing machine plus some room to spread out is worth it, although I would LOVE to be able to let the kids have the full Disney magic experience.. even the value suites are out of our price range.

Whether or not they renew the Armed Forces Salute tickets by the time we can afford to go has alot to do with how many days at the park we will have. With those tix, we get 4 days. Without, we will probably only do 2. But the resort has a pool, we have family in the area, and wouldn't mind packing a picnic and driving to the beach for a day. I would LOOOVE to have a day to spend at WWHP! However, that depends on the budget.

We would be driving there, so just the cost of gas and parking/tolls is the only transportation expense.

We would eat most meals in the lodging, plus we would pack snacks and bring our camelbaks into the parks. That said, spending a little on some Disney treats or maybe a meal or two onsite wouldn't be unreasonable.

I think that, if we cut it down to the bare bones minimum, we could do a week long trip for around $2000 all included. My ideal budget is $3000 though..

 

[Ready to go in Ok]

No not for 11 people. I know that large of a group is pretty unusual. I was just curious. I know that there is a way to do cheaper, but we have stayed onsite for the last 15 years or so, and never thought much of it. Until a couple of family members thought the cost was outrageous. Just never hurts to know the options out there for the future. We could all unexpectedly be in a place where having to pinch pennies is not an option, ya know?