Luxury Trip turned Super Cheapo trip to Disney and I am tickled, well, green after saving almost $3,000!
We are heading to Disney for a last minute trip over our April Vacation.
I originally booked 8 nights at the Poly and included a visit to Seaworld. The trip was going to cost us about $4,200. We could swing it this year as my dh and I both have decent incomes from our jobs. But I started thinking. Do we really need to spend so much? So over the past few weeks, I started shaving here, shaving there and voila! A massive savings and I know we'll have just as much fun!
Our trip is now costing us $1,556.
How'd I do it?
Here's the breakdown.......
Original Trip
lodging $2300
airport parking $60
airfare $1200
1-5 day Park hopper $277
rental car $146
Seaworld $275
Food /souvies
(free with $700 dis card)
Total $4,258
Revised Trip
lodging (3 nights HI, using FF) $0
lodging (5 nights@ $79 Sheraton Safari) $350
(found $50 online coupon/signed up
for expedia cc and got $50 off)
Airfare (delta messed up and I weasled a $1,000
refund on non-refundable, then rebooked
for $200 less as the rates had decreased)
Airport parking $60
1 day parkhopper $0
(did volunteer for a day, will use $200
disney dollars we have that would have
gone for food)
Rental Car $146
Seaworld (canceled- will use old water $0
parks/disney quest tx leftover)
Total $1,556
We have $500 Disney Dollars to use in the parks for food and souvenirs. We actually have $700, but decided to upgrade the volunteer tx to a 5 day ph using $200 DD) We have non-expiring tx for 4 of us, so we only needed 1 tx) By using the DD for the one pass we need, we decided to reduce our food budget by $200 to cover it.
For some odd reason, I am not even upset about not staying at the Poly. We have done deluxe many times and will do it again. However I am happy about the bargain this trip will be and both our hotels have suites so we will have extra space which is a huge bonus with 3 high energy kids. I had already decided to do a car rental for convenience and to save a bit on food so not have ME is fine.
It was really fun finding all the deals. Just before I booked the hotel through expedia, I googled 'expedia coupons' and found a $50 coupon! Add that to the $50 bonus on signing up for an expedia credit card gave us an additional $100 off our already cheap $79 rate at the Sheraton.
My husband is thrilled. He is much more of a miser than I am. Our kids will love the pool at Safari and really not notice the difference in the two hotels (poly vs. sheraton) and we were not planning on using the EMHs at the parks this time. So this is an easy compromise this year.
Just wanted to share an uber budget trip. Now we have almost $3,000 to do some home renovations or put more money toward our kids college fund.
We are heading to Disney for a last minute trip over our April Vacation.
I originally booked 8 nights at the Poly and included a visit to Seaworld. The trip was going to cost us about $4,200. We could swing it this year as my dh and I both have decent incomes from our jobs. But I started thinking. Do we really need to spend so much? So over the past few weeks, I started shaving here, shaving there and voila! A massive savings and I know we'll have just as much fun!
Our trip is now costing us $1,556.
How'd I do it?Here's the breakdown.......
Original Trip
lodging $2300
airport parking $60
airfare $1200
1-5 day Park hopper $277
rental car $146
Seaworld $275
Food /souvies
(free with $700 dis card)
Total $4,258
Revised Trip
lodging (3 nights HI, using FF) $0
lodging (5 nights@ $79 Sheraton Safari) $350
(found $50 online coupon/signed up
for expedia cc and got $50 off)
Airfare (delta messed up and I weasled a $1,000
refund on non-refundable, then rebooked
for $200 less as the rates had decreased)
Airport parking $60
1 day parkhopper $0
(did volunteer for a day, will use $200
disney dollars we have that would have
gone for food)
Rental Car $146
Seaworld (canceled- will use old water $0
parks/disney quest tx leftover)
Total $1,556
We have $500 Disney Dollars to use in the parks for food and souvenirs. We actually have $700, but decided to upgrade the volunteer tx to a 5 day ph using $200 DD) We have non-expiring tx for 4 of us, so we only needed 1 tx) By using the DD for the one pass we need, we decided to reduce our food budget by $200 to cover it.
For some odd reason, I am not even upset about not staying at the Poly. We have done deluxe many times and will do it again. However I am happy about the bargain this trip will be and both our hotels have suites so we will have extra space which is a huge bonus with 3 high energy kids. I had already decided to do a car rental for convenience and to save a bit on food so not have ME is fine.
It was really fun finding all the deals. Just before I booked the hotel through expedia, I googled 'expedia coupons' and found a $50 coupon! Add that to the $50 bonus on signing up for an expedia credit card gave us an additional $100 off our already cheap $79 rate at the Sheraton.
My husband is thrilled. He is much more of a miser than I am. Our kids will love the pool at Safari and really not notice the difference in the two hotels (poly vs. sheraton) and we were not planning on using the EMHs at the parks this time. So this is an easy compromise this year.
Just wanted to share an uber budget trip. Now we have almost $3,000 to do some home renovations or put more money toward our kids college fund.
I do the, "oh, it's just a little more" argument". But boy it adds up. I was shocked how cheap we could do this trip for!
