I have a serious problem, please help

[daisyduck123]

I would cut out the hopping.

No way would I cut the dining plan.

To me, a WDW is eating their food & not eating any stuff brought from home.

We always do the DP, & never even bring one snack from home...we just eat what we get on the DP & it's more than enough. Besides, the kids love to eat at the character meals for dinner...we do one just about every night.

To me, eating sandwiches that we make & brought into the park would be well...not right. Ughh!! But that's just me.

 

[disneyjunkie]

I would cut out the hopping.

No way would I cut the dining plan.

To me, a WDW is eating their food & not eating any stuff brought from home.

We always do the DP, & never even bring one snack from home...we just eat what we get on the DP & it's more than enough. Besides, the kids love to eat at the character meals for dinner...we do one just about every night.

To me, eating sandwiches that we make & brought into the park would be well...not right. Ughh!! But that's just me.

I agree. For us, food is a big part of the vacation.

 

[Kellyscrapbooks]

Something I didn't include in my first post... even if you don't cut the dining plan and don't bring food from home or the grocery store, bring bottled water!

 

[auntie]

I don't know the ages of the kids. This is where I'd say drop the dining plan if the kids are over 10 and you are paying the $39.00 a day for each member over 10 in the party. If the kids are under 10 years of age and you are only paying the $10 or 11 dollars a day for their dining ..then I wouldn't drop it. You can't feed your kids for less than $10.00 day anywhere in disney. I personally have not used the dining plan. I am considering it for our next trip...but that would only be because our kids..aren't kids..they are adults..youngest being 15..and eats like a growing teenager. We also usually have a sit down meal each day. Even at that..it's probably a close call as to whether it would be worth it to us..and I don't like the pressure of having to make sure we get our money's worth out of it. We could easily eat food court or counter service..and often do. You might want to also consider Garden grocer..they deliver to the hotels..and you could keep cereal and milk and some breakfast items in the hotel. Then food court or counter service for the rest of your meals. The hoppers are another way to cut costs. We always have the option of park hopping, but there are often days when we don't do that.

 

[Tess'smom]

The other posts which suggest going at value season rates are a great idea! Cutting your days wouldn't be a good option IMO because the longer you stay the cheaper the tickets become. I might drop the hoppers and maybe split my trip so that room only and then maybe adding the dining wont be such a heavy hit. Good luck with everything.

 

[mommylicious]

Sorry to hear about your predicament. I haven't read the entire thread but here are my suggestions:

-drop the hoppers. I agree with what I did read, it's nice to have but it's not a MUST by any means. At $47.93 (tax included) per person, that's a nice savings.

-maybe shave a day or two off if you feel you need to. You could always drive down on the day you have planned and spend your first night super cheap in a hotel from priceline then move to the resort the next morning.

-This is my big one, I'd drop the dining FOR NOW. You have to prepay everything 45 days before you leave. I'd plan to add it back about 5 days before you leave so save the $ for it but that way it's in your pocket, not Disney's untill right before you leave. If you didn't have the dining plan, you'd still need to save $ for food anyway so this is basically just prepaying it before you leave. Having been in a big income cut situation ourselves, we wanted to keep as much cash in savings as we could *just in case* we had an emergency. You can always add dining back in as long as you do it at least 3 days before you arrive.

Hope you are able to have a great trip!

 

[TENIA66]

I hope the best for you all, will pray for you. I would definitely take my one water bottles and stick to water. Buy souvies in advance at disney outlet clearance. Eat in room offsite.

 

[makinorlando]

II have decided not to buy a park hopper ticket this trip but I am buying a 10 day base ticket to cover any park hopping we might want to do it was cheaper than buying a shorter park hopper

Correct me if I am wrong, but you are not able to do this with base tickets - non hoppers are good for one park admission per day. - Per the Disney web site - Magic Your Way Base Tickets permit entry to one Theme Park a day for each day of your ticket. No one would by hoppers if you were able to do this because it is definitely cheaper.

The only reason this jumped out at me when I was reading the post was that a couple weeks ago we had run to EPCOT to pick up a tempy DDE card, and there was a CM dealing with a VERY irate guest who was trying to do just this - enter EPCOT with his non hopper ticket, after having been in MK earlier in the day. He had extra days on his ticket that he was not going to use since he was leaving the next day and thought he could use one in this way. He wound up being advised to leave on his own or be escorted by security!!

 

[Arvandor_Ilfirin]

I am so sorry to hear about what has happened...The unexpected difficulties are the ones that shake you the hardest, but like Rocky Balboa says, "You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. " It sounds like you both are lucky to have such a loving and supportive family and I'm sure the future will have much better things in store.

My mother was a single parent working on a 26k yearly salary, and she somehow managed to save up just enough to take me to WDW year after year, and let me tell you that the magic of Disney is something that you can't put a price on. Someone paying for the tickets alone can have the greatest time of their lives because they're just grateful to be there, but someone else buying every toy and expensive option there is may find themselves less than satisfied. That being said, I think I'd have to agree that the best course of action is to drop the Hopper passes, and the DDP. My DM and I had no dining plan, but we did fly in and utilized the free transportation available on property...when you take the trip down there, if you do decide to stay on site then use the busses! With gas prices having shot up to ridiculous prices being able to save every drop you can is a huge amount of money back in your pocket. If you have a costco/sam's card then buy staple food supplies for meals like lunch/breakfast in bulk! Making sandwiches for lunch with juice and fruit, and eating cereal for breakfast will be a lifesaver compared to the prices you may end up paying there for barely the same amount...leaving you free to choose counter service or an actual sit-down meal in the parks later if you'd like.
Buying souvenirs is a must have for my family, but be smart about it...give your children each the same amount of money to be spent on your trip and tell them that they are free to spend it however they like, but that once it's gone it's gone. I had 100$ one trip, and was in heaven beacuse I spent it all on one beautiful hand sculpted Maleficent statue for 99$...It was my choice, and I was proud! Photos are memories that last a lifetime too, so if you're a big photo person you can sometimes find resonably priced gorgeous photo albums to commemorate such an important trip. If you drop the hopper option, make sure to learn which parks have EMH on which days during your stay, to get the most out of your ticket...It's great to know even if you're still keeping the hopper option.

-use on site transportation during your stay to save gas
-buy food in bulk or on sale to save $$$
-give out money allowances to your children and budget yourself as well per day.
-drop the DDP in place of eating your own food/snacks
-Drop the hopper option

I don't think you have to shave off days from your trip unless your pre-planning leads you to believe you'll be spending way too much after cutting costs, because my DM mother and I found that when we were conservative with our spending we had saved much more than we thought, enough to stay 3 extra days....so we did!

I wish you the best of luck, this trip is much needed for your family to forget the pain of everyday life and stress. Have a magical vacation!

 

[TheDizMom]

I know exactly how you feel . My DH just had the same thing happen to him last week. Actually 2 times since October, needless to say we are looking into other options for him there. I just started working again to make up for what we were losing from the first demotion, and boom it happened again . It is such a struggle.
I understand that you don't want to cut the trip shorter, but that may be your best option so you can all go and your DH will feel more comfortable about going with you. If not, cut the park hopper for sure. We saved a lot doing the dining plan, and eating breakfast in our room. I also packed light easily transportable snacks for the kids when they got the munchies, since one snack is not usually enough for a whole day or you can use them for drinks instead. You probably could cut down by doing CS meals all the time, and no dining plan, but if you really want to do some character meals it will cost you. I always feel that eating well is part of the trip and the experience of D, but that is my feeling and may not be right for your family. Try putting aside about $10 bucks a week to have money to spend when your there and keeping your incidentals down while your there. Give yourselves a daily budget and stick to it. Tell your kids they get X number of dollars for souveniers so they need to think about it long and hard when they want to get something. Once they have used their budget that's it(unless they have their own money to spend). You could cut out a few park days and maybe just spend a day or 2 hanging out at your resort pool and relaxing. You kids will like this just as much, and you could have just 5 day park tickets, be able to hit each park at least once and do your favorite park a second time. I know the tickets get cheaper with each day, but when you are multiplying it by several people it will save you to do fewer days.

I hope things get better for you . Good luck .