Help me come up with the cheapest WDW trip ever!

[Jex]

A quick search brought this up. http://orlandotouristinformationbureau.com/freetickets/freetickets.htm

No idea what its about, but I am sure you could do some searches.

 

[singnring]

Priceline bonuses aren't mentioned much, they are one of the hidden gems you have to dig for.



Let's say you have a $10/day bonus for up to 5 days, with a 3 day minimum. You bid $20/day for 5 days on a 3 star. Priceline adds the bonus and makes your bid $30/day. Let's say instead that you want to stay for 10 days. You bid $20/day again. Priceline divides the max bonus by the number of days and makes the bid $25/day. Something to consider:

Le's say you wanted to spend 3 days close to Universal and 3 days close to WDW. You have your $50 bonus, $10/day for 5 days. You bid $20/day on the Universal hotel. Priceline adds in the bonus and makes it $30. You win Now you go to bid on your other 3 days. You bid $20. Priceline adds nothing. You have one chance to use your bonus so pay attention to the details and maximize what they give you.


If you go to sites like betterbidding and biddingfortravel you can usually get an idea of what hotels are awarding winning bids. You can also get a list of hotels in your star range and research them. Between these 2 strategies you can get a decent idea of where you will end up. If you also are on a budget, especially one trying to get off as cheaply as possible, go in with the attitude that you are looking for a comfortable, safe to sleep and you can be pleasantly surprised when you get something that exceeds your expectations. I've been using Priceline as long as there's been a Priceline and I can say that I've never had a room that would have made me regret bidding on it. Something like a resort fee is an annoyance but it still only made the room $33/day.

Here is a little tip you can use as an insurance policy if you are the skittish type. I've never had this not work though theoretically it's possible at a super busy time. Let's say you wanted to stay in Orlando for a week but you're nervous about being stuck in a dump for that amount of time. Bid for 2 or 3 days. When you win, Priceline will tell you the name of the hotel and offer to extend your stay at the same rate.

Now you have a name, a location and a rate. Open another window in your browser and check out the hotel. Read the reviews. Call the front desk and ask if they have a resort fee or charge for parking. Satisfy yourself that it's where you won't mind staying. If it isn't you only have it for 2 days and can look for something else. If you like it then extend your stay at the same rate. It will actually cost you a couple of dollars more because they will charge you a 2nd booking fee but it's worth it for the peace of mind.

Lots of good info and ides! Thanks!

I always scope out the hotels that I might get in the different areas , and check sites like tripadvisor, expedia, and the like for reviews. Then I only bid on areas where there aren't any stinkers.
Problem in Orlando is, there's so many hotels in each area, there's always stinkers in the mix!

I like the idea of only doing the 2-3 day bidding though and adding to the # of days once I know it's a keeper!

I'll also try scoping out those other sites to help research things better before bidding.
Thanks again!

Sorry OP for hijacking the thread temporarily!!

 

[frostymom]

Just to point out, your family will need to eat regardless of home or in florida. I think you should figure part of your food budget into that as well.

Last year we drove down and stayed off property. We were not so happy with the shuttle situation, but made it work because we did not want to spend the extra money on parking. We shared our meals by doing salad and entree or entree and appetizer. Our kids eat what we eat so that saves us a lot of money.

I put a bag in our closet and would buy things each week for trip. Loved trips to the dollar store for drink mixes, snacks and little things that would be good for our trip like ponchos and such. We took a cooler each day, filled with ice and water and fresh fruit. We did breakfast at chick fil a one day and got wraps to put the cooler for lunch. The best was the ice cold watermelon on a hot august day. We drove down with the melon in the car.

I too agree with the don't have to do parks everyday. Tour the hotels! Animal Lodge has animals and CMs who will talk with you about them. Fort Wilderness has a lot to do, fishing, horse rides, and a cheap (er) buffet to eat at.

Good luck!

 

[Evi]

you said your driving down right? So your saving on cost of a rental. I'd consider staying off site but know that unless you take your hotel shuttle you will pay parking. Hrm your talking budget right have you considered renting a pop up and staying in wilderness campsite? If you already have camping gear throw in a few air mattresses if your willing to camp. If I lived closer to disney I think I would try it just for fun but when I camp its in Maine and it just wouldn't be cost effective to haul all our camping gear to Florida. If you know anyone who ownes a camper maybe you can rent it then you could still payless for campsite then a hotel you'd be on property so you wouldn't pay for parking and you could cook at camp ground and do like cs plan or something.

 

[TnTWalter]

WDW...
WE paid $64.30 per night for a THREE bedroom condo. Having the kitchen made eating cheap easy. If you didn't eat out, you could go to Publix and use your normal weekly grocery budget.

parking was $12 or 15 per day. We only went to one park per day [save money not getting hoppers] and you can leave and come back for a nice afternoon break at the pool.

$450 condo
$0 because normal grocery budget
$12 or $15 per day parking
whatever cost of your tix as we had 3 adult and 2 kid tix ours were more expensive. We did 7 day tix through UT.
gas there and back....pack cooler with meals to save money and sleep at rest stops....

that's about as cheap as I'd go IMHO.


ANNA MARIA
We stayed in a little 2 bedroom house with pool called pineapple house. We found it on VRBO but she's a realtor with www.annamariaparadise.com They have tons of rentals. We'd absolutely go and rent with her again [Sue on the real estate page].

http://www.vrbo.com/91669

You could do cheaper there easily....we were limited because we had our doggie and my parents wanted to have a separate place but be close. They actually rented a one bedroom right in front of pineapple cottage.

There are condos there called 'runaway bay' which you could google. You could get for like $500 for the week. A nice inexpensive vacation. I would go there easily without even going to WDW!

This summer we're renting a house in SW Michigan coastal town called Grand Haven for $600 for the week....that plus normal groceries [$0] plus a few hundred for fun + gas = $1k or less for vacation!

And of course, there's camping [we do lots of camping]. Can't get too much cheaper than that! You can camp at WDW and do the dining plan!!

throwing out other options that are cheap and fun.

Good luck to OP.

Trish

 

[Shmily1]

I always hear about these prices but never seem to land them. I don't know what the secret is.

When you are on the WDW website, click on specials and follow those links. I always stay on the cheap even if it's deluxes! Good luck!!

 

[Purseval]

When you are on the WDW website, click on specials and follow those links. I always stay on the cheap even if it's deluxes! Good luck!!

"Cheap" is a relative term. A good 3-star hotel offsite will still be a lot less money than a cheap value hotel. Even if you are talking deluxe the Waldorf Astoria, which is a truly world class hotel, has rates that are breathtakingly "cheap" if you are comparing them to the top tier of WDW hotels.

 

[Shmily1]

"Cheap" is a relative term. A good 3-star hotel offsite will still be a lot less money than a cheap value hotel. Even if you are talking deluxe the Waldorf Astoria, which is a truly world class hotel, has rates that are breathtakingly "cheap" if you are comparing them to the top tier of WDW hotels.

To me it's cheap. I'm not staying off property again.