Help needed...budget ideas for large family's 1st visit

[Local_Girl]

This board has been invaluable to me in helping our family plan our WDW trips...so I know many of you will have some great ideas to help with the following situation. I have some friends who are going to WDW for a week in mid-Sept., taking their family of 9 (6 are adults/teens, 1 is a child, and 1 an infant grandchild) for the first time. They are staying offsite at Cypress Pointe GV in a 3 bdrm condo, which is already paid for (and non-refundable). Unfortunately, they will have extremely limited finances and may only be able to do 1 or 2 park days. Aside from pool time at CPGV, what other things can they do to have an enjoyable visit on such a limited budget? They will do most if not all meals in the condo.

They debated about postponing the trip to save more $$$, but decided that the kids deserve this promised trip after some rough times recently, so they are going and will try to make the best of it. I have a few ideas, but I'd appreciate any ideas from my DIS friends to help this family to have a memorable trip.

Thanks so much for any help!



*edited to add, there are 7 adult/teen/preteens...my math was flawed!

 

[Amirah95]

OK for offsite things to do I recommend they check out this website http://www.orlandoinfo.com (Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc.).

If the trip wasn't so close I'd say order the free attractions book they have and the Magic Card (takes 4 to 6 weeks by mail). I called the Center and they said that anybody can print out the Magic Card online and use that if it is needed quick. They have lots of offsite things the family can do without spending a lot of money.

 

[disneysteve]

There are a lot of things we do while at Disney that are free or close to it. Spend time at Downtown Disney, both the Marketplace side and the WestSide. There are some nice shops and we always enjoy browsing even if we don't actually buy anything. Sometimes, you can even catch some type of free show on the stage there.

We also love to go hotel-hopping. Catch the monorail at TTC and ride over to Contemporary. Browse the shops, go up to 15th floor observation deck for a great view of MK (go and nite and you can watch fireworks from 4th floor observation area). Then take monorail to Poly and GF and spend time exploring those properties too. From there, take a boat over to Fort Wilderness. Visit the petting zoo and walk the nature trail.

One evening, go over to Old Town on 192 East. They have rides and carnival games as well as a lot of fun shops. They have an antique and classic car cruise nite every Friday and Saturday. You can also be entertained watching folks ride the Sky Coaster or the mechanical bull - all free to watch.

Minigolf is always a family favorite and there are a bunch of courses in the area. Disney has 2 but I think the offsite ones are cheaper.

Go to Belz outlet for the Disney outlet for some inexpensive souvenirs. There is also one at the Orlando Premium Outlets.

Spend some time walking around in Celebration. Nice shops and galleries - very picturesque area.

Anyone else have ideas?

 

[4greatboys]

I do recommend they do a realistic budget for eating out. It will be easy to have breakfast in the room but its going to be close to impossible to eat lunch in the room. Thats really a lot of running back and forth from room to park if thats what they are planning. I went to Deb's site before we went and estimated our big meals and put money aside in envelopes for them. We had (and have) a large group. 11 on our last trip but our family alone is 7.
Do they have park hoppers or what type of admission?

 

[FayeW]

Would they consider doing Universal/IoA instead of Disney? If so, they can get 5 consecutive days at US/IoA for $95. per person, and if they order online with a mastercard, they can get 5 for the price of 4! This would give 5 days of activity for less than the cost of 2 days at Disney. (My family absolutely LOVED the Universal parks, and I suspect the teenagers would prefer them to Disney).

Seaworld also offers a second day free, so with one day paid admission, they can come back a second time within 7 days for free.

 

[mad4themouse]

You've already gotten a lot of great suggestions but I'll toss in my 2¢ anyway.

MouseSavers.com has a whole section on free and cheap things to do in WDW. They include visiting the Boardwalk area, window shopping in Downtown Disney and the campfire at Fort Wilderness. You can see a complete list by following this link:
MouseSavers.com - Free and Cheap Stuff to Do in WDW

Another little-known but fun side trip is Disney's Wilderness Preserve. It's about 15 miles south of WDW and it can make for a very relaxing day. Admission is $3 per adult, $2 per youth (ages 6-17). Swamp buggy tours are $12 per adult and $6 per youth. Here's a link to their website:
Disney Wilderness Preserve

I would also point out that a 2-day/2-park pass would cost them each $111.30/$87.86 (adult/child) and they would have to choose which 2 parks they would visit. There are 3-day PHs with a DQ or PI plus available at discountorlandovacations.com for $185/$155 (adult/child). The passes expire 10 days after their initial use but for about $70 more per person they would get 2 additional days of entertainment. I don't think that that would be able to find many places that they could spend only $35 apiece for a full day of entertainment. Plus, they would have the added luxury of being able to park hop. If their budget can handle it, I would recommend this this type of pass for them.

I'm sure that they'll have a good time, no matter what they decide to do. Just being in Florida and on vacation will be wonderful.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by 4greatboys
its going to be close to impossible to eat lunch in the room.

OP said they'd probably only do 1 or 2 park days. For those days, I would suggest packing lunch. We've brought in PB+J sandwiches and "picnicked" in the park. And we've seen plenty of others doing the same. There is no reason you must spend a lot of money to eat at Disney if your budget is really tight.

Stick with stuff that doesn't require refrigeration. Its a lot more convenient that way. Single serve containers of fruit or apple sauce are good. Granola or cereal bars too.

 

[mla973]

As previosuly mentioned, I would also suggest "resort-hopping" to check out all of the things at the different Disney resorts. At the Animal Kingdom Lodge, you can enter into the Savannah overlook area and watch the animals, and some of the other resorts are just plain fun to go explore. I think you can canoe for something like $6 at Fort Wilderness Campground. You can also watch the Electrical Water Parade (not sure of the official name) from Fort Wildness or one of the other MK hotels at night, and that costs nothing!!!

Now, security rules keep changing, so there may be trouble getting in a resort if one is driving, since they are not guests of that particular resort. I have known some people to "stretch the truth" and say they are eating at the property in order to get through the gate, but I guess that's up to the individual how they want to proceed.

If they will have a rental car/transporation, I would also recommend checking out Celebration. There is a lot of fun history there, plus some really neat things to look at. They might luck out in that a festival or something is going on. (I was there once when they had a beach party, where a whole street was filled with sand, and they had castle making contests and everything.)

Walking around DTD is always fun too, but much more fun when you can shop!!!

I hope they enjoy the weather and have a great time - everyone has a budget on their trip, so they're not the only ones!!!

 

[tweetylori]

Lots of great ideas already from folks here...one thing I could add is to do the Adventurer's Club at Paradise Island. It opens at 7:00. You can enjoy two hours for FREE. You just have to leave at 9 unless you want to pay $21.50 per person after that. Two hours there was just right for us. It was lots of fun. Watch out for drinks, though. They can be expensive, but you could always nurse one for two hours.

 

[lovemygoofy]

This suggestion may suck and please don't flame for it.

What about the adults sitting through a timeshare presentation or two? You normally get some kind of free tixs to something or good discounts to things. I have heard of families that didn't have much money or whatever and the mama or father or both sat through to get free tixs to WDW.

Good Luck,
Tina

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by lovemygoofy
What about the adults sitting through a timeshare presentation or two?

Actually, that's not a bad idea at all and is really worth considering. 1-1/2 or 2 hours may earn you a couple of park tickets or something of similar value. If you are willing to give up the time, that might be worth looking into. Ask around on the Orlando Hotels board because some presentations are much lower pressure than others. Some probably aren't worth the time for the stress they cause.

 

[Amirah95]

I agree with you Steve, but those timeshare people can get annoying at times. They say you'll be there for only 90 mintues and some hold you up for 3 hours. We did it once and got a 20 dollar bill and 50 bucks in Disney Dollars out the deal. We didn't have to pay for Sci-Fi for dinner which was a good thing, but I don't think I can sit through another. This calls for a proverb, "Patience is a virtue."

 

[LMC]

One aboslutely free thing to do is go to Fort Wilderness in the evening (you will have to do another post - on the camping forum- to get the show times for when they are going) but they can go to the Campfire singalong and movie. IT IS FREE!!! They can take their own hotdogs, marshmallows (smores stuff), drinks, chairs, etc. FW has a campfire they can use to roast their food (the program starts at 7 or 8pm) and CHIP AND DALE make an appearance. Then after the sing-along, they show a disney movie (FREE!). This will take up about 3 1/2 hours one evening if there are little ones in the group or nothing else to do. If you post on the camping board, you can get alot of info on this!

Oh, if they do the time-share presentation, I would stay away from Westlake (westgate) villas. Their 90 min presentation turned out to be about 4 hours! Check out the resort forum and see if anyone is talking about TS presentations over there. I am sure there are others that don't require nearly as much time and aren't nearly as high-pressure!

 

[gigi1313]

i agree if one has more time than money, a timeshare presentation is a great way to "earn" park tickets... dh and i did a timeshare presentation (we were really interested in learning how they work) before kids and got a lovely free breakfast and fifty disney dollars out of the deal... it only took about an hour and a half and as soon as the presenter learned that we were just married, were in the middle of building a new house and i quit my job, he did not pressure us at all! LOL! (i heard some of the timeshare places even offer kids' club type atmospheres for the kids, which could be fun too!)

 

[powellrj]

If they have a car, Daytona Beach or New Smyrna Beach are nice free days. Pack a sack lunch and you only have to cost of gas.

 

[Local_Girl]

You guys are awesome! Thank you for so many great ideas...and I welcome any more you can come up with!

To answer some questions...yes, they will have a car. They probably will not have park hoppers. I asked them if they would consider doing Universal vs. WDW due to the better ticket price options and was told they would really prefer WDW. I also wondered about a day at WDW and a day at Sea World, with SW's 2nd day free option, it would give them 3 theme park days for the price of 2.

I was concerned about mentioning the Ft. Wilderness campfire/movie night because I thought you had to be WDW resort guests to attend. Though I realize there's a good chance they'd never be asked to show resort IDs, I'd hate to put them in a potentially embarrassing situation. I was also under the impression that they either need park hoppers or resort IDs to ride the WDW transportation, though I know it's rarely checked.

I had already thought of Boardwalk, DTD, resort hopping, and the outlet malls. Also, they may want to check out the beach, though we live on the west Michigan coast with some nice sandy beaches. I doubt they'll do PI.

As for sitting through a time share presentation...it's a valid suggestion, but I'm inclined to tell them to run in the other direction! They are so sweet and nice, I'm worried they'd agree to buy something even though they can't afford it.

Amirah95, thank you for the idea about the Magic card. I can print that up for them.

disneysteve, thank you for the reminder about Old Town. Not sure if they'll be there on a Saturday night (the car show would be cool...it's something we plan to try ourselves), or traveling, but it's worth a suggestion.

mad4themouse, thank you for the info on the wilderness preserve. I've been on these boards for a couple of years and have never heard of it! What a great option!

Again a big thank you to everyone who has posted ideas and info so far...keep 'em coming!

 

[MrsPete]

You've already received some great ideas, and I'll throw in a few more:

It seems obvious, but for their very limited park days, they should plan to arrive well before opening time, have an idea of what they want to see most, and plan to stay late. Be sure they understand how to use Fast Pass -- I think many people ignore it because they don't know what it is.

I know that Universal has a five-day (?), several-park ticket. I think it's less expensive than Disney tickets. The teens might prefer Universal because of its larger number of thrill rides anyway.

Be sure they know NOT to buy tickets from ebay. We've all heard horror stories, and since their finances are limited, it would really hurt them to be ripped off.

Downtown Disney is fun and entrance is free.

Watch MK fireworks from the Polynesian beach (or some other fun location).

I'm not sure whether the time-share idea is practical. With such a large group, they might not receive enough tickets for everyone.

Fort Wilderness is great. From FW, they could enjoy a free "cruise" around Bay Lake, stopping at the different resorts.

Animal Kingdom Lodge could be a fun afternoon diversion.

This sounds like a little thing, but my girls LOVED it: Visit Beaches and Cream and order the Kitchen Sink sundae. ($22 range.) It was a major highlight of the trip for my kids. I really think that it'd be more fun for the kids than eating a regular meal out -- less expensive too since everyone can share the sundae.

I don't know if this is still true or not, but Disney used to admit people into their water parks for half-off after 2:00 PM (or maybe it was 4:00?). Definitely look into the truth of this before appearing at the gate! I could be wrong!

 

[CheapMom]

Disney Quest is a full day of Disney fun for about $20 per person- Kids ages 6 and up would really like it. There would not really be any amusements for the infant there. I don't know how old the child is in your group but I think the best attractions at DQ require that you be 52 inches. My son (7) was 51 inches so he was excluded from a few things but he still loved it.

 

[pjlla]

Originally posted by mla973
As previosuly mentioned, I would also suggest "resort-hopping" to check out all of the things at the different Disney resorts. .... Now, security rules keep changing, so there may be trouble getting in a resort if one is driving, since they are not guests of that particular resort. I have known some people to "stretch the truth" and say they are eating at the property in order to get through the gate, but I guess that's up to the individual how they want to proceed.

We have stayed off site our last two visits, but we like to visit the resorts (DS loves to visit the giant Buzz at ASM). When we approach the gate we just tell them we are visiting the resort. They usually ask for ID, but that is it. No problems, no lying! I have even been tempted to ask mousekeeping to let us see a room at various places, when we have seen them, but I haven't gotten up the nerve!....................P

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by pjlla
When we approach the gate we just tell them we are visiting the resort. They usually ask for ID, but that is it. No problems, no lying!

I agree. They sometimes ask for your driver's license and take your tag number and that's it. We've gone to various hotels to eat, rent a boat, or just browse and shop. We've never been turned away.