I go twice a year, but from what I can tell, DW and I spend less on two trips than many people spend on one. There are tricks, and learning the tricks, making a plan, and putting into action is half the fun.
Bottom line, though, it takes us about $1,200, cheapest posible, to go, and we have no kids. So all the tricks and plans in the world can't get around that. I take my first trip courtesy of business. They fly me down, they pay me a consulting fee to be there, they fly me back. I loose four to five days work, but I can usually get most of the hotel paid for. Taking my wife is an extra plane ticket, plus park fees and food. The real trick is trip two. How we do it:
#1, go in off season. September, or January, or even the October/November time frame (a little more crowded than the first two, but not much). Everything is cheaper, everything is less crowded. Park hours are shorter, but I swear I can get more done in eight hours in September than twelve hours in June.
After that, your three biggest costs are transportation, hotel, and park tickets. There are various ways to save on park tickets, but they are what they are. We've taken to buying PAP's, and that's our birthday and Xmas gift to each other, every year. However, we have friedns join us and arrange shorter term tickets for them. You can spend three days in the parks plus one in the water parks for a three day hopper plus that's occasionally available ($175 for adults). Or do two days, single park ($100 a person). Know that there are many, many "free" things to do that are "Disney-Like." Touring the grounds and the resorts is an endless experience. We try to spend a day each year doing this, just marveling at the sites
Hotels: There's Priceline, where you can get a great price on a decent hotel. Or, there's options like Magic Castle, where you can often find a $25 per night room with continental breakfast during the off season.
As for transportation, when work pays for it, or when we can find cheap air fare, we fly. When time allows and the air fares aren't favorable (hasn't happened in a while), we drive. Granted, this puts wear and tear on your car and body, but it IS cheaper on the immediate cash flow (note, many will disagree with this tact on several grounds that make sense, but cash in hand is cash in hand).
So by lowering your travel costs, getting a cheap hotel (maybe one with a free meal kicked in), and understanding that you can really enjoy Orlando without buying seven day hoppers, you can start to fashion a trip with lower cost. Claiming you can do Disney "cheap" is wishful thinking, but you can drop the cost.
There's many other ways to cut costs, such as eating your own food (carry a backpack with as much non-perishable food as possible); take water bottles and drink only water, refilling the bottle from the fountains; simply accept no suveniers, instead settling for a lot of nice pictures, maybe a few things like napkins from a restaurant, etc.; and really, really take advantage of all that is "free" at Disney. This takes research, but it's out there.
I'm happy we're at a point where we're able to get there now when we want to if we spend reasonably. But there was a time we couldn't. And believe me, if you can live with the "minimum cost," which I think is six to seven hundred dollars a person for a five to seven day stay, you can make it happen.
And I should also point out that every time we want to do something (eat out, go to a movie, take a weekend trip somewhere for no reason), if we can afford it, we evaluate it. We've often taken thirty bucks we were going to spend on a pizza and a movie out, bought McDonalds and rented a video, and thrown the rest in a jar. It adds up.
Pat
