How Do You Save/Pay For A Disney Vacation?

[Pooh Girl 71]

I cannot stress enough how valuable the change jar savings plan is!!!! We started one in May and had saved over $350 by Aug. And I normally use my debot card for everything. I was just amazed. That money paid for $170 spednign money for my DD, Pooh dinner at 1900 Park Fare, Epcot princess breakfast and the Ice Cream Social.

We bought Ap's this last time and are thinking about staying off site. We're going again in Feb and April 2003

 

[mom2of2]

I started planning our vaction for March 2003 in August. I got another part time job at night and although I work about 12 hours a week it adds up. I opened up a savings account and every 2 weeks I deposite my check. When I had figured out how much I'd be able to save by vaca time I started planning. I got on this board and read everything I could about saving money. Then I bought a passporter. It's a guide book/budget/map/hints/everything else you could imagine in it. Wonderful book for 29.99. They have a cheaper one but I got the deluxe addition, the web site is www.passporter.com. Once I got that I read about all the hotels and restaurants. I decided on ASMo. I then joined the Disney Club and hooked up with a travel agent that called for info for me. Working with the numbers I was able to book 6 days 5 nights. Then I started on Air fare. I was able to find a cheaper flight...about 50.00 each ticket if I flew a different day and into Sanford instead of MCO. Since I was saving a lot of money I was able to change my ressies for 8 days 7 nights for less money. When I had enough money in my savings account to pay for the Air I charged it and then sent the money to my credit card. Air paid. Now I'm working on my passes. I found a great deal for a 6 day hopper w/ character meal at paramountinternationaltravel.com. I have flex days too so will spend a day at a water park or the sports complex. With my money and hubby's vaca fund through work I will only have to supply spending money and that's most likely where the tax return will come in. I've also told the grandparents and family that Disney Dollars for the boys...12 and 4 would be great. They both just got Halloween cards with 5.00 Disney Dollars in them and they were thrilled. I save change, have yard sales and do whatever I can to save money. I have wanted to do this trip FOREVER......Sorry this is long but if you are anything like me you want to do this right now more then anything else and if yo want it that bad you'll get it.
Good luck

 

[NHMickey]

What we do (now) is I have $25 bucks a week taken out of my check and put in a vacation fund... Then we saveall the coin change we get during the week and that too goes towards our trips. I put in any extra I can during the year and by the time our trip comes up... We have saved about $2,000 or so for our trip. I was amazed at how just little amounts saved added up so quick...

 

[mareemouse]

To mom2of2 :
You are to be congratulated on all of you hard work and intelligent planning !
You are staying within your budget, and teaching your children the value of saving up for something.
You are also staying within your means, and will return from a wonderful trip with no bills coming in the mail !
Kudos to you............Have a wonderful trip, you certainly earned it !

 

[mom2of2]

thank you for the words of encouragement. I of course owe most of the credit to the wonderful people who post to these boards everyday. The only way to "Do" WDW is to do your homework and decide what is most important. For us just getting there and staying in the world is a dream come true.
Thanks again