Help Me get my frugal friend to Disney World with me!!!

[Fiveisaparty]

I have a friend that is considering going to WDW with me but she is super super SUPER frugal! I consider myself frugal, but I've got nothing on her

Anyway, I wanted to bounce some options of you guys. I would be the first week of Dec probably 4 or 5 nights. She has 3 girls (9, 3, 1). So she could get by with a 4 ppl room and a crib. POP? AOA? I think she'd like the dining plan, but not a deal breaker. I just wanted to check and see if you had any secrets to a great deal. I was thinking maybe Orbitz, but then you have to pay at once, so I don't know if that would be that great. If she buys her tickets from UT and her room seperate, will she lose out if there are discounts offered on packages come this fall?

TIA!

 

[happygirl]

I have a friend that is considering going to WDW with me but she is super super SUPER frugal! I consider myself frugal, but I've got nothing on her

Anyway, I wanted to bounce some options of you guys. I would be the first week of Dec probably 4 or 5 nights. She has 3 girls (9, 3, 1). So she could get by with a 4 ppl room and a crib. POP? AOA? I think she'd like the dining plan, but not a deal breaker. I just wanted to check and see if you had any secrets to a great deal. I was thinking maybe Orbitz, but then you have to pay at once, so I don't know if that would be that great. If she buys her tickets from UT and her room seperate, will she lose out if there are discounts offered on packages come this fall?

TIA!

Stay off site, Isn't Dec consider peak season which means it really be really expensive then

 

[Fiveisaparty]

The first week is not expensive. It's 102 a night for pop

 

[happygirl]

The first week is not expensive. It's 102 a night for pop

Okay, 102 is a lot for me when you get rooms much cheaper then that.

 

[WDGPCFR]

Go to the Disney site and go through the process of booking a trip for the dates but just save it not book it. There is a good chance they will send you a pin number for a discount. Another option is look at buying someone's DVC points.

 

[Fiveisaparty]

Another option is look at buying someone's DVC points.

I thought about this one too! I will have to look into it further. I totally want to do this for our next trip. Although really I want to buy a DVC, but DH is not a disney fan, so I don't think he would go for it

 

[Darcy03231]

Last time we went the first week of December free dining was offered. I don't think the codes for it came out until October.

 

[mjlewis23]

I went the second week of December in 2011. Stayed 4 nights, $75 a night for 2 nights and $85 a night for the second 2 nights at All Star Music. Watch the deals that come out, you will probably get the same deal. With little ones, there are so many opportunities for meal splitting. Get an adult portion at most counter service and you can feed all 3 of them. The pizza at ASM feeds them all easily for $20 (and they'll have leftover cold pizza for the morning...lol)

That December trip was by far my cheapest, but one of the best!

 

[MSSANDRA]

I would do a value on site. Early December is low season and there is a good chance of free dining. Being on site would make it easier to split up if need be to return to the resort for rest with little ones. I would strongly encourage the DDP even if its not free as the kids would love the freedom of drinks and dessert if they are used to a very frugal mom.

 

[dzneelvr]

I'm very budget minded as well and wouldn't consider staying anywhere but an all-star resort for that time in December! You can bring snacks and beverages into the parks now, so plan for one main fun meal with the kids and stay away from the wallet-busting drinks and snacks. There are plenty of days between now and December for kids to do chores and special work to earn spending credits for their souveniers. We used to do a spend down when our DS and DD were small and when they ran out of money they were doneDepending on finances, she could do one day at the resort and Downtown Disney and avoid park admission entirely. Also, don't spend money for a park on your travel days.Bus over to MK and take the monorail or boat over to deluxe resorts for some exploring. Animal Kingdom Lodge is an awesome place to watch the animals, look over all the historical items and African art objects without spending a dime for admission. For evenings in the park, gather a nice selection of glow sticks, necklaces, and wands from DollarTree. They sure beat the heck out of the complicated and very expensive glow toys sold off the carts as sundown approaches. This board hosts tons of tips for making the most of your hard-earned money. Keep searching and reading.

 

[tigger51276]

I second trying to rent DVC points. The first two weeks in Dec are off season and you can get a deluxe property like Animal Kingdom Villas for the same price you would pay to stay at the All Stars. I would forgo the Dining Plan as she will most likely pay less money out of pocket. I admit it's a nice "conveinence" factor to have meals pre paid, but I find it's too much food that gets thrown away and way too many desserts. I bring a small suitcase with breakfast foods with me, plus snacks and a refillable water bottle for me and my kids as you can go to any quick service location as they will give you free ice water. I even bring some microwave mac and cheese, chef boyardee, soups, etc that we can do for quick dinners and bagels, peanut butter-jelly-fluff for some sandwiches. There are several places that offer half chicken meals and that is way too much for me and I always hated throwing half of it away, however me and my two girls are able to eat the whole thing together plus the two sides and then we actually have room to share a big dessert somewhere later on.

 

[hsmamato2]

depends on how 'frugal' your friend is..... if she's simply too cheap to go,that's one thing.....DDP is a tremendous waste of money,and isn't at all 'frugal' at full price. She and her kids can eat far cheaper paying OOP.cereal and milk in the room, kids share some meals at CS..... bringing snacks in the stroller...DDP makes no sense,unless it's discounted.
Stay at the cheapest onsite hotel you can,and take the buses everywhere,it will be fun. Pay OOP for tickets and food,and that's about as cheap as it will get. Like a pp said, go to the disney site and price out the room,then you'll know what you're dealing with. I personally don't like offsite choices,and the only way renting DVC would be cheaper is if y ou can all get into a 2 bedroom,and share the cost.
I've taken my kids when they were young, brought our own food, ate some cs,rarely ate TS,shared a large soda at lunch,you name it,we did it. we always had lots of fun.

 

[disneymayz]

depends on how 'frugal' your friend is..... if she's simply too cheap to go,that's one thing.....DDP is a tremendous waste of money,and isn't at all 'frugal' at full price. She and her kids can eat far cheaper paying OOP.cereal and milk in the room, kids share some meals at CS..... bringing snacks in the stroller...DDP makes no sense,unless it's discounted.
Stay at the cheapest onsite hotel you can,and take the buses everywhere,it will be fun. Pay OOP for tickets and food,and that's about as cheap as it will get. Like a pp said, go to the disney site and price out the room,then you'll know what you're dealing with. I personally don't like offsite choices,and the only way renting DVC would be cheaper is if y ou can all get into a 2 bedroom,and share the cost.
I've taken my kids when they were young, brought our own food, ate some cs,rarely ate TS,shared a large soda at lunch,you name it,we did it. we always had lots of fun.

Exactly what I was thinking when I read OP. Ice water is FREE at CS places. So no need to spend $3.00 for a bottle.

 

[Marionnette]

I second trying to rent DVC points. The first two weeks in Dec are off season and you can get a deluxe property like Animal Kingdom Villas for the same price you would pay to stay at the All Stars.

The first two weeks of Dec. are very popular with DVC members because they require so few points. As a result, it can be very difficult to get reservations. This would be especially true if you think that you can somehow get an AKV Value Studio, which is the only villa that I can think of that would cost less to rent than to stay in an AllStar room.

IF you could find someone who owns at AKV and IF they were somehow able to snag an AKV Value Studio for the dates the OP wants, then it is most probable that they would want at least $13/pt. for the rental - paid for at the time that the reservation is confirmed - because it is the type of reservation that requires the DVC owner to work very hard at getting. Those 4 nights would be $500+. And like I said before, this is a reservation that would be almost impossible to secure at this late date.

Compare that to a room at ASMo for the same time period. The rack rate is just under $500 for 4 nights in a standard location. With a room discount, the OP's friend would make out much better to stay in an AllStar resort than to rent DVC points.

 

[Marionnette]

OP, is your friend just tight with her money or is money tight? There's a big difference and if it's the latter, I don't know if you will be able to get her there without having to compromise on your own vacation ideals.

Forget the dining plans. You can eat cheaper without them. That's not to say that you will eat as well. If you want to eat well when you're at Disney, you're going to pay a price for it. If you want cheap, there are ways to do it. You've already gotten suggestions on snacks and light meals.

Accommodations are almost always cheaper offsite. She would need a resort that has transportation to the parks so that she doesn't need to rent a car. If the two of you are driving to Orlando, then the cost of parking needs to be considered.

Tickets are a major budget-buster and there's no getting around the high cost. Even buying them from a ticket discounter is going to be expensive. At least the baby gets in free! She might be able to do a timeshare presentation to get free tickets, but there are restrictions. If she is married, her spouse needs to be present, too. If she doesn't have an income above a certain level, she won't be able to take advantage of it.

If she is really motivated to go, then maybe she can focus on some of the rewards programs that a lot of people do for pocket money. She could do a few surveys every day and maybe make enough to pay for one meal by December. If she works really hard at it, she might be able to earn enough to pay for one or two nights in the hotel.

 

[danceintherain]

If you really want to help her...I recommend pricing out a couple options to show her, and have a good idea of what her budget is.
Frugal means different things to different people, so even if it sounds like a good idea to you to stay on property, she could likely spend less money to stay off, and get more space.
Personally, I found 4 people in a Moderate to be crowded, so I can't imagine putting 5 people in a Value.

As others have said about the dining plan, it is not a good way to save money UNLESS you plan on eating exactly what it provides. We spent close to $500 less than we would have spent on the dining plan for our last trip, because we don't eat how it specifies. If we had done the dining plan, we would have had to pay for several things out of pocket and some credits would have gone to waste.
If she likes the idea of having everything paid for in advance, then it might be ok.
Also, with the dining plan, what will her kids ages be during her trip? Will the 9 year old be 10 by then? If so, will she eat enough to justify the extra cost for the plan?

 

[DisneyMomma81]

I'm a big fan of Disney Gift Cards as a way of pre paying for meals, on site rooms, tickets, souvenirs... You can add money to an exsisting card by calling DelivEARS ~ 800-362-4533 *you give the CM your credit/debit card info and they mail you the receipt. Last time I did this *a couple months ago* the $$ was on the GC the next day.
Take a picture of your card(s) email the card number and PIN to yourself that way if it's lost it can be replaced.
You can also purchase DGCs at Target by using their debit or credit card - save 5% or more *prescription refill additional discount after 5.

Kroger and other grocers occasionally offer fuel reward discounts on gift cards and carry the Disney GCs.

 

[Fiveisaparty]

She is tight with her money, but money isn't tight per say. She just wants a good deal

 

[bumbershoot]

[

depends on how 'frugal' your friend is..... if she's simply too cheap to go,that's one thing.....DDP is a tremendous waste of money,and isn't at all 'frugal' at full price. She and her kids can eat far cheaper paying OOP.cereal and milk in the room, kids share some meals at CS..... bringing snacks in the stroller...DDP makes no sense,unless it's discounted.

Well it's really going to depend on how they eat. I can't get the DDP (or QS plan) to work for my family because of the way we eat.

But in her family there are TWO children who would be on the kid's plan, and if they eat exactly how the plan calls for, those two kids might make up for the mom's plan (if the mom's plan doesn't quite match how she eats). If there are two parents going then they would really have to work it out.


So I think the first step is to print out the dining plan brochures and really go over what the plans entail. Go through wdwinfo and allears menus with prices, explaining what the Plan entitlements mean, etc.

There are almost no desserts on site that my family can have and we don't drink soda at all, so those parts of the meal entitlements are useless to us. If her 9 and 3 year old are used to desserts and sodas, and there are no ingredient issues, then it might be worth it. (we have relatives who ONLY allow soda at WDW, and the kids have really bad reactions to the sweetener in the sodas, so it makes for very DIFFICULT days for everyone...I personally would rather allow a "treat" like that during normal life rather than an expensive vacation!)

So they have to figure out HOW it works and IF it would work for them. IMO there's no absolute when it comes to the plans and how they work for any given group of people, except for there being no absolute.

The first two weeks of Dec. are very popular with DVC members because they require so few points. As a result, it can be very difficult to get reservations. This would be especially true if you think that you can somehow get an AKV Value Studio, which is the only villa that I can think of that would cost less to rent than to stay in an AllStar room.

IF you could find someone who owns at AKV and IF they were somehow able to snag an AKV Value Studio for the dates the OP wants, then it is most probable that they would want at least $13/pt. for the rental - paid for at the time that the reservation is confirmed - because it is the type of reservation that requires the DVC owner to work very hard at getting. Those 4 nights would be $500+. And like I said before, this is a reservation that would be almost impossible to secure at this late date.

Compare that to a room at ASMo for the same time period. The rack rate is just under $500 for 4 nights in a standard location. With a room discount, the OP's friend would make out much better to stay in an AllStar resort than to rent DVC points.

Good point.

If she buys her tickets from UT and her room seperate, will she lose out if there are discounts offered on packages come this fall?

TIA!

If she already has tickets, then yes she would miss out on packages offered later. Packages involve tickets, so she would end up double-buying tickets, and that's very much the opposite of frugal.

So if she wanted something just in case no packages come out, she could reserve a room-only booking. PLAN to buy the tickets from undercovertourist, but don't buy them until the trip is closer and she's sure there will be no further packages that would end up being cheaper overall.

If a package comes out, she would have the room-only deposit returned, and would be charged a package down-payment. As far as I have read, they can't swap the money between the two. Then the full package payment would be due at 45 days out. With room-only, the balance is due during the actual stay.

 

[seashoreCM]

Generally (on average) you do not save on a package compared with room only / separately purchased tickets unless there is something special such as free dining in the package.

Just a personal prejudice but I don't like dealing with private parties for rentals such as with Disney Vacation Club point deals. Too great of a chance for something to go wrong. I also don't like dealing with on line middlemen such as Orbitz or Expedia either but that's a different (and OT) program.