How do Canucks save on your Disney Trip!

[Disney-Chick]

Not entirely true, you don't get Extra Magic Hours when you stay off-site. We absolutely love EMH, especially the late night hours, you seem to be able to ride a lot more during them. We also love leaving the Magic Kingdom at 3am sometimes. There's just something amazing about the park after midnight.

We're from Winnipeg and if we're just going on a short trip of 5-7 days, we fly out of Fargo or Grand Forks. The also flew out of Minneapolis once, using the park'n'fly option at a hotel there. But with trips of two weeks or more, we love to drive down. Amazingly enough, it's 32 hours driving from Winnipeg to WDW and 31 hours to drive to Disneyland! (doing the speed limit that is ) There's tons to look at on the way and we stop at Cracker Barrel as often as we can! We save a good amount of money driving too!

I agree with staying onsite for the EMH. This will be our 5th time going in Dec and we have always stayed onsite. When we go back in Feb. we will have the free meal plan so that is also a benefit and a money saver. We do the drive as well so we usually leave earlier than planned so stay in Kissimmee for a couple of nights and do Old Town etc. Plus when im on vacation I do not want to cook or clean or even make my own bed. I want to get up and worry about what park we will be doing and should we stay for the whole day or come back for a bit. To me that is what vacation is all about. But everyone is different and are on different budgets.

 

[irisesareblue]

That's funny - we always to the park that doesn't have EMH - less crowds...I will have to try staying onsite one of these days....

 

[busyshrew]

We're much the same:

a) fly out of BUF (we're in Waterloo, so it's only 2 hrs away vs. 1.5 hrs to Pearson) - even with recent price increases it's still cheaper to fly than to drive & motel.

b) watch the dollar like a hawk and exchange whenever it's over .98 in a US dollar account. We found RBC to have the best exchange rates, much better than CIBC.

c) buy our park tickets in advance when the exhange rate is high.

d) stay offsite. Even with the car rental, we find that we eat better and enjoy our time more when we can cook some of our food and spread out in a condo.

e) limit our DD to only ONE purchase per trip. We are willing to spend a decent amount, but it can only be ONE item. That cuts down on the "death by a thousand purchases" and if she starts asking for stuff when we leave a ride, we just ask her "are you sure that this will be your ONE THING?". (usually, it isn't and she stops asking).

f) and with apologies to my fellow Ontarians, but now with the HST hitting our pocketbooks, we are going to start doing most of our (adult) clothing purchases when down in Orlando. Cheaper tax rate and great outlet malls beats 13% any day. That's not really saving on our Disney trip, but it's a savings for us overall.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

We're much the same:

a) fly out of BUF (we're in Waterloo, so it's only 2 hrs away vs. 1.5 hrs to Pearson) - even with recent price increases it's still cheaper to fly than to drive & motel.

b) watch the dollar like a hawk and exchange whenever it's over .98 in a US dollar account. We found RBC to have the best exchange rates, much better than CIBC.

c) buy our park tickets in advance when the exhange rate is high.

d) stay offsite. Even with the car rental, we find that we eat better and enjoy our time more when we can cook some of our food and spread out in a condo.

e) limit our DD to only ONE purchase per trip. We are willing to spend a decent amount, but it can only be ONE item. That cuts down on the "death by a thousand purchases" and if she starts asking for stuff when we leave a ride, we just ask her "are you sure that this will be your ONE THING?". (usually, it isn't and she stops asking).

f) and with apologies to my fellow Ontarians, but now with the HST hitting our pocketbooks, we are going to start doing most of our (adult) clothing purchases when down in Orlando. Cheaper tax rate and great outlet malls beats 13% any day. That's not really saving on our Disney trip, but it's a savings for us overall.

If your flying watch your weight if your buying new cloths down there. Thats one reason we drive. We do alot of cloths shopping below the border too.

 

[jmann]

I fly out of Detroit, I just booked last minute for next week and I still got 2 return flights for $404 US total on Delta. WestJet from Toronto was $1600.
I have learned to be flexible with my dates. I was going Wed to Mon. but my flight prices went up $100 in a day of thinking about it so I checked leaving a day earlier and I saved $120 total. Thant also allowed me to get the hotel I wanted (Pop Century) which was not available Wed-Mon but was available (Tues-Mon). I booked it all September 20th to leave on the 5th of October.

 

[Ancien Maestro]

Hi.. new to the board and just checking out what Canadians are doing.

We booked Christmas Break for three weeks to Orlando.. December 15th to January 5th

Flights $324 (tax and fees in) pp round trip.. 3 paid tickets plus currently 8 month old son flies free.

Accomodations at Vista Cay on Universal Blvd, 2,097 sq ft, lake view, seaworld fireworks view each night, granite kitchen, 3 bedrooms, luxurious finishings. 22 reviews on tripadvisor.com, 5 out of 5. Regular during Christmas Break was $178 pn plus plus, negotiated it down $100 pn plus plus over the holidays.

So far, I've got a minivan for three weeks, for $217 per week.. so total around $918 all in. Is there any better minivan deals out there? This one was Orlando Magicard.

Is there a ticket deal for Canadians? I heard somewhere Europeans get a deal for longer stays, but seems the annual pass is the next step up to a better deal.

 

[Ken_Breadbox]

We're much the same:

...

f) and with apologies to my fellow Ontarians, but now with the HST hitting our pocketbooks, we are going to start doing most of our (adult) clothing purchases when down in Orlando. Cheaper tax rate and great outlet malls beats 13% any day. That's not really saving on our Disney trip, but it's a savings for us overall.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we always pay 13% tax on clothes? It's just that it was two taxes before, and now it's one...

 

[Ted in Halifax]

we just went back to 15% in NS .....

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we always pay 13% tax on clothes? It's just that it was two taxes before, and now it's one...

yes we already paid 13% for years. Ever sence GST came into effect. HST costs us no more money.

 

[amw]

So far, I've got a minivan for three weeks, for $217 per week.. so total around $918 all in. Is there any better minivan deals out there? This one was Orlando Magicard.

Is there a ticket deal for Canadians? I heard somewhere Europeans get a deal for longer stays, but seems the annual pass is the next step up to a better deal.

No deals specifically for tickets ... many years ago they used to offer Cdns tickets at par. Of course, with our strong dollar in recent years, there's been no need for this. You can save a few dollars by ordering tickets online beforehand. I've used Undercovertourist in the past. Their prices include all taxes and it's free shipping. If you subscribe to the mousesavers website, you can get a few more dollars off as well.

In fact, I highly recommend the mousesavers.com website for any research on savings ... especially for your car rental. She lists all the codes for all the agencies there. You may be able to stack a coupon code on top of your discounted magicard rate.

 

[busyshrew]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we always pay 13% tax on clothes? It's just that it was two taxes before, and now it's one...

Absolutely we did! Sorry... that didn't come out right.
What I mean is that now that the HST is hitting our pocketbooks in so many other areas (gas and utility prices are making me grit my teeth right now...) we are going to give in. And start cross-border shopping.

We had always resisted before this - buying clothes and toys and such in the US seemed almost.... unpatriotic? But in the last two years it feels like our prices for food & gas seem to keep going up and up.

Part of me still feels guilty for buying stuff in the States. But the prices are SO GOOD!!! And the taxes are SO LOW!!! The tax difference alone more than makes up for the slight difference in dollar parity. And with a week-long trip, our duty-free allowance is huge and we can easily buy everything we need while in FL for SO much cheaper.

Oh... the guilt....

 

[Nicoledee44]

I love the great tips! I too am guilty of spending most of my money across the border...but do not feel guilty because of the selection and price. One question I do have is when in the best time to book a flight to MCO from BUF, as I have a cruise booked May 2011.
Thanks....

 

[papertraveller]

Here's my Canuck saving tips.

4) Save my returnable recycling until a week before my trip .... can add up to $50 in a few months. Save them in shed. WARNING: WIFE HATES THIS

[/B]

I got a kick out of this one. I do the same thing -- except I return the items more regularly, and pocket the proceeds in an envelope. We use it for 'seed' money for the vacation, or for souvenirs.

I also stalk these boards. That's how we learned about TIW vs. the DDP, got great car rental codes and more!

 

[Ancien Maestro]

No deals specifically for tickets ... many years ago they used to offer Cdns tickets at par. Of course, with our strong dollar in recent years, there's been no need for this. You can save a few dollars by ordering tickets online beforehand. I've used Undercovertourist in the past. Their prices include all taxes and it's free shipping. If you subscribe to the mousesavers website, you can get a few more dollars off as well.

In fact, I highly recommend the mousesavers.com website for any research on savings ... especially for your car rental. She lists all the codes for all the agencies there. You may be able to stack a coupon code on top of your discounted magicard rate.

Just scored a ticket deal.. www.orlandoattractions.com .. Sells tickets for $50 per ticket then the going rate.

Not only that, they sell the UK 14 day and 21 day passes. I called them up after placing my UK order, and they confirmed that anyone can buy em and use em. They are prohibited from marketing outside of UK. Final price for 21 day tickets is $405 US.. only $8 more than the 10 day MYW park hopper, water park and fun (with 14 day expiry). Disney won't refuse those who want to take advantage of these deals.. they just won't advertise it. Anyone can buy this ticket.. but its going thru the hassle of getting it.. and only if it makes sense or you to do it. For us, our trip is three weeks, so its good to have that flexibility to go whenever we want and how often we want.