How do you save money while at WDW?

[braydensmom]

Just looking for some ideas or tips on how people save money while they are walt disney world.
I bring water and snacks from home for the room, but thats really all that I do...

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

We eat breakfast in the room -- we're not big breakfast eaters anyway, so it doesn't make sense for us to spend a lot of money on that meal. We also bring bottled water (with flavoring packets) with us, as well as some snacks. Our girls (ages 10 and 14) have their own spending money (they save up their allowance and extra money that they earn) so they don't ask us to buy them things -- they know they have to use their own money to buy things. The only souvenirs I bought on our last trip was a pin that said "Princess" for me and a Mickey charm for my charm bracelet. This trip, we're not doing the dining plan -- we did it on our last trip and it was way too much food for us. We each picked a TS restaurant we wanted to go to, and the rest of the meals will either be CS, snack-type items (I love the egg rolls from the egg roll cart in MK), and breakfast in our room). Just that alone will save us a few hundred dollars on this trip. Plus, at most places the CS meals are HUGE and so we end up sharing meals. Since we don't spend much time in our room, we don't stay at the deluxe resorts (we're only staying at a moderate this time because of the 40% off military discount).

 

[dyna]

1 We stay in the value resorts OR this up coming visit later this month it's cheaper to get a townhouse offsite than 1 value room at disney we have AP's so no parking fee for us an we going on a harley so very close parking to the gate in fact closer than the bus stops from disneys cattle cars.

2 We always take a cooler from home, drinks for the room an usually each take 1 with us as we leave for the parks, breakfast in room the same cereal we eat at home, maybe a few snacks for room, always a jar of peanut butter an loaf of bread lots of peanut butter sandwiches eaten at disney. Sometimes cold cuts for sandwiches small mayo an either dinner or supper in room we trade off.

3. Most of our trips has been without any sit down meals. At CS DH an I share a meal most of the time. NO buying extra bun either we just cut the burger in half.

4. Go when disney has a deal in Jan we went got the buy4 get 3 nights free, a 200.00 gift card plus I got another 75.00 in disney merchandise for my birthday which I bought the tshirts etc for the DD's at home with.

5. Souvineers the few we buy has a purpose over the years I've bought magnets for fridge, bottle opener, clock for kitchen, towels, many many tshirts that I wear almost daily.

6. We don't do the extra parties an things that cost extra money, don't pay to park hop. When we stay onsite let disney do the driving an ride the cattle cars saving on gas an the chance of gettin in an accident.

7 When we stay onsite knowing we won't arrive to disney till mid day or later we stay offsite that 1st night usually spend about 40.00 that night for the night up an at the resort by 8 am an usually in the parks by a few mins after 9. No sense in wasting a park ticket for an evening or payin disney prices for a night that we not in parks.

8 We don't buy the ride pics or photo pass etc.

9 Those resort mugs are a joke way to small an costly much cheaper to do cooler in room with own drinks. Even use a cooler in room when we travel on harley just unpack an make a trip to walfart for drinks an styfoam cooler breakfast food etc.

10.When traveling with DD she has her own spending money

 

[kidsicet]

There are lots of good ideas already. We've done Disney really cheap in the past by staying off-site and bringing stuff in for lunch. We had access to a full kitchen, so we stocked up on things, and put the food in a backpack cooler that we put in the stroller. We had things like peanut butter sandwiches (so we didn't have to worry about anything spoiling), carrots, fruit (apples, grapes), and chips. We basically ate no CS or TS meals at Disney - breakfast and dinner at our hotel, and bringing our own lunch and snacks to eat. And believe me - you won't look strange or odd by bringing in food for lunch. A lot of people do it. It actually saved time. I'd see people standing in huge lines to place their orders at CS restaurants, and we were able to just find a nice shady bench somewhere to enjoy our lunchh.

We've also purchased a popcorn bucket, and refilled it with microwave popcorn throughout the week. The kids always enjoyed having that to snack on in line, etc., and it was nice because we could hook it onto the stroller, and also cover it up when they were done.

We usually bring a couple bottles of soda with, and get free ice water from CS stands.

We definitely limit souviners. The kids are basically trained at this point to not ask for stuff. They love looking, but they don't beg to buy stuff. They get some money that they can pick out a souvenier at the end of the trip, but they don't buy something every day. A nice cheap souvenier is the pressed pennies. They really enjoy getting those, and you can't beat the price - 51 cents!

 

[pepe of ohio]

We always go during value season and book room only either with an AP or AAA discount. We never rent a car but relied on Disney transportation for 42 trips. We think breakfast is the most important meal so we do the food court and split the meal, ample for 2. We do an in route grocery stop and pick up alot of sandwich fixings, salami, ham, bologna and assorted cheeses and make lunch sandwiches and have a pool lunch along with chips and assorted drinks, pop, beer, wine and alcohol. We feel TS's meals are over priced and over stated and mediocre at best and prefer the different CS offerings everywhere on property. Some of the best and cheapest buffet on property is at Trail's End in FW. We do believe in the resort mugs, use them all the time at the pool, which we spend considerable time at and it's no big deal to get your money's worth the first day refilling with lemonade and at night we top off with a hot chocolate. We stay deluxe, WL mostly, and the drink refill food court is quite close to the pool and even just a short walk no matter where your room is at.

We purchase AP's, and do 2 trips a year but they are like 10 months apart, second trip is great, no ticket purchase and we stay 9-12 nights every trip. We do not do packages, to much we won't use and we never do any dining plan, we hate schedules and ADR's, and no money saver is our book since we share most meals and enjoy our lunches from the fridge.

We been traveling this way for years and I try to keep our stays around the 2200.00 figure, not back for the 2 of us, 9-12 nights and always deluxe.

 

[goofy4mykids]

For cheap souveniers I always do to the disney outlet store they have alot of the park souveniers... the spinners with lights (my kids always want one!) and when on vacation you dont want to say no.... pick up a few at the outlet for 1/2 of what you would pay at the park, The kids have a blast while you save $$$ Also your son is under 3... if you do the QS meal plan that would save you

 

[cmusschoot]

Great ideas thank all of you.

I always try to do Disney on the "cheap".

Here are some things I do.

- I fly on Saturdays as they are generally cheaper...(Tues/Wed. Thurs too)
- We stay in the cabins at fort wilderness. They are a "moderate" resort, but have one bedroom and a full kitchen. They have great location to MK, by boat also great service to Contemporary and Wilderness (by boat) Also a fun campfire at night with a movie they also have a petting zoo with horses. Decent pools and a few playgrounds
- I purchase one annual pass to get a room discount, sometimes the room discount pays for the pass.
- We eat breakfast in the room
- I ship food/water to our resort in advance (mac and cheese, peanut butter, snacks etc.)
- My kids love Chef Mickey's so we do breakfast as it is generally cheaper
- I bring peanut butter and crackers into the park to serve as lunch/snack
- My kids bring their own money and we take one trip to DTD for them to spend it. AP holders get a few shopping discounts, World of Disney at DTD is one of them
- Earl of Snadwich (DTD) is a great place for a meal, great sandwiches...GREAT value there!!!!

happy planning!

 

[flamingglobessigmund]

We bought souvenirs when they went on sale, at the Disney Store, instead of succumbing to the thrill of the moment at WDW. I didn't buy one full price tee shirt or mug at WDW.

I wanted some charms for my charm bracelet, but didn't want to pay $10 a piece online. When we got to WDW, I found charms in bins all over the World for something like $3.95/piece.

DH has been wanting a new watch for some time. He found a Mickey watch and with that purchase, we paid $15 more for a Mickey watch for me.

Our resort, POFQ had a clearance table (can you believe it???) I got a 1/2 picture frame with the resort's logo on it.

 

[ZoZo]

We also eat breakfast in the room - saves both time and money.

Limit your souvenirs - I only "let" myself buy three per trip (otherwise, I'd end up with 20 Tigger things!).

Have you visited the Budget board on DISboards? They have lots of money-saving tips.

 

[kpipkin]

The cheapest we did WDW was back in 2000 when we stayed in a condo off-site. With the full kitchen, we were able to eat a big filling breakfast, packed lunches for the park, and returned to the condo for dinner (it was Dec and parks closed early.) Meals are really where they get ya! We drove for that trip, so we brought a lot of groceries with us. We even brought a whole spiral cut ham and ate off of that all week!

My kids save their own money and grandparents help by sending them Disney Dollars before the trip. They know when they get to WDW that the money they have is all they have for souvenirs. That way I don't have to deal with begging and I don't have to be a mean mommy. They make their own decisions (with some guidance from us) and when their money is gone they are done souvenir shopping. When all is said and done, the little stinkers usually have more spending money than I do! For myself, I usually only get a Christmas ornament as a souvenir of our trip.

I shop at the Disney Store sales BEFORE we go for little Disney trinkets and t-shirts. That way we're not compelled to buy that stuff at the park. This year I've also purchased glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets for the kids to wear in the park at night. Ridiculously cheap to buy beforehand. I've also purchased Disney comic books and sticker books at Target in the $1 spot section.

This year, we're staying on-site and I'm finding it harder to find cost cutting methods for dining. We are driving again, so we'll have our cooler and a fridge in our room at Shades of Green. We'll eat breakfast in the room every morning. If we take a break from the parks (although we usually don't) we can have PB&J or deli sandwiches in the room too. Other than that we plan on just eating snacks that we bring and carry into the park and counter service meals. I don't go to Disney for fine dining, so we're OK with that.

Interested to read the other cost cutting tips!

 

[braydensmom]

great tips everyone, I really appreciate it! We will be going in October and both my son and I will be on the QSDP (DVC so I wrote him down as 3), simply because i dont want to eat the same thing as a 3 year old for 2 weeks...did it last year and would rather not do it this year.
Another tip I have is that when we are at F&W festival, we are going to use our snack credits to eat lunch and dinner, sampling the different booths, hopefully that will still be allowed this year.
My son is still pretty young, and we were there last year, so Ill be bringing his ears from last year, and buying him a balloon, but other then that I dont see myself buying him any souviners, other than a shirt from House of Blues or something to that effect.
Great tips though, and I hope people will continue with more!!!

 

[snickerboo]

Condo off-site. Buy groceries at Walmart & eat almost all meals at the condo or from the cooler in the world. Instead we let the kids get one 'treat' at the world each day. Really, do they want the chicken nuggets or would they rather have a sundae from Mrs. Potts'?

Disney outlet store at Premium Outlets for souvenirs. Also, Walmart supercenter has tons of souvenirs much cheaper than WDW.

We don't bother with Photopass. I have a good camers and take lots of pictures.

Buy Disney stuff and bring it for the kids. Disney stores often have the tees on for $5. I buy a few and bring them. Then, when they see souvenir tees I say, "you don't need that because you have your new....shirt". Also, do NOT even take them in the stores. Of course they're going to want things! Instead, you go in while they're on a ride with someone else in your party and surprise them. That way, you'll be picking something budget-friendly and useful as opposed to whatever thing they want and never look at again after the trip.

There is a website that has all the Disney menus. I don't remembe roffhand but you could google it and be armed with which restaurants will fit your budget before you go (but I still stand by the cooler method!)

 

[LovesTimone]

There are lots of ways to save money.

I have a Disney Box that I start putting items in as soon as we get back, all the stuff you must have for the trip, We shop at Sam's club alot when they have a small size included with shampoo or body wash. I put it in the Disney box so that when we get ready to go I have all that stuff ready and don't have to fork out extra money for it. I also shop all along starting about 2 months out.

We take a cooler to keep everything cold and add ice and drinks as needed. I also take a collapsible cooler for the pool.

We always take a case of water, soda,& gatoraid. Which save alot of $$$

We have breakfast in the room, or lunch by the pool or when we get back from the parks late. We like to have deli meat and cheese, crackers, dip, cookies, chips, Banana's. I just get the simple stuff.( family favorites)

We never get the mugs, If it comes with the package we use it as a souvenir.

We have split meals before, Dh and I and DD and I.

We buy souvenirs the last day so we really get what we want. When DD was little I would buy at a Disney store on Clearance.

 

[VAN]

I just want to say that this thread is generating some of the best cost-saving tips that I have read. Usually they are a bit off the wall, but these are real-$$ tips. Most of them center around having a pre-set limit for souveniers and bringing own food/drinks rather than purchasing from Disney CS/TS restaurants.

To be honest, when my kids were younger we did all these things ... it enabled us to take a trip to WDW every year and our experiences are priceless!!

One time we went to Washington DC and after having a hard time finding a cost effective way to have lunch on the mall, we brought PB&J sandwiches and chips with us in a backpack the second day. I can still remember all the people asking us where we got our food as we sat on the steps of the Library of Congress and enjoyed a great (and cheap) lunch!! Talk about people salivating!!!

Many people would not "dream" of taking their own food into the parks; but for many, that is the only way we can take our families to WDW. Go for it everyone!! Sometimes those "cheap" trips are the ones that everyone remembers.

 

[braydensmom]

it is great hearing things that everyone can do. One more thing we do is just get base tickets....considering its just my son and I and hes still so young, we dont need to be jumping around to different parks. We also dont rent a car, and just put all our faith in Disney Transportation, which has been nice to us so far, and hopefully will continue to be.
Oh and we bought our park tickets a couple months ago at the Disney Store here in Canada, the Disney Store was selling the tickets at par, so that was a great advantage as the dollar has been swinging and god only knows what it will be in October, plus the price is more than likely going to rise again in August .
In the past we have printed out the snack cheat sheet so that we know how we can get the most out of the snacks, and make mini meals.

Lets hear some more

 

[CarolinaGirlTiss]

A lot of you mention an outlet. Is this in Orlando, near Disney? We used to have a Disney store in a mall about a half hour away but it closed and I don't think we have close by now. I woud love to know more about this Outlet if it is a place I can visit while we are there.

 

[braydensmom]

I know there is the online outlet store, i might buy some stuff on there and have it sent to the resort so that its a nice little surprise for when we arrive!

 

[defendthehill]

I just returned from WDW one week ago. And like a lot of the PP's we did breakfast in the room on most days. We had breakfast type foods delivered to our room from gardengrocer.com. It was worth the expense compared to eating breakfast out. We did do Chef Mickey's and Cape May with our ADR's on two mornings. We also did bottles of water and fresh fruit in our room. All which worked out very well. We also did the lemonade packets for our bottles of water. When we were in the park we took along Coleman collapsable cups for the kids (7,5,3) since they never drink an entire bottle of water by themselves at this point. I also bought each of my kids three Disney Princess tshirts before we left and took them with us. On three different mornings I presented them with a new tshirt. They wondered how I kept getting them tshirts without them knowing. I didn't let the magic secret out. They still think I went out after their bed time and bought them a Tshirt. They loved it and I saved a heck of a lot of money buying Tshirts on sale instead of at Disney.

You can read my in progress trip report here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2201376

 

[dzneelvr]

Reserve flight as soon as it is listed on the airline flight schedule ($79 base pp) TIW dining plan, Disney Reward Dollars, ASMo resort, sharing entrees and desserts, limiting purchases to only those exclusive to the parks or with resort logos, taking advantage of disboard help--I printed off a $10 coupon for Rainforest just yesterday that we will be using on Tuesday...and many of the ideas from this one thread have allowed us to go annually and do almost anything we want. We leave in just hours and are so PUMPED

 

[Simba22]

Don't buy souvenirs right away. If you see something you like and you will be back that way later in your trip then wait on it. Once I've thought about it, and seen EVERYTHING there is to see, then I decide what I really want. I am a huge impulse buyer so this has saved me tons of money! If you go home with out it, and you REALLY want it, you can always call and order it over the phone.

Refill your water bottles in the room and bring them with you to the parks. You will save a ton when you aren't paying $3 per bottle, multiple times a day. I don't even worry about keeping them cold because they don't stay cold once we're in the park anyway.

Bring a first aid kit. I keep tweezers, nail clippers, a nail file, band-aids, neosporin, and those little alcohol swabs/wipes in it. It's much cheaper than trying to buy that stuff on property and it will prevent you from visiting the gift shop which means you are less open to impulse buys.