Is there any way of doing WDW on a budget?

[Holstar]

Hello!

I've just booked to take my nieces to Disneyland Paris in October, and already we're looking at taking them a little further afield, specifically WDW!

We're looking at 2012, either very early summer (May) or very late summer (September), but all of the prices we can find for a group of two adults (well, one 22 year old and one 13 year old! But for Disney purposes, apparently she's an adult!) and two children (By then, 11 and 9) are around £7,000.00-£8,000.00 for ten days, which even with two years to pay it off, is a lot! Virgin holidays even quoted us just under £11,000.00 when we called! That's pretty much my annual salary before you consider my student loan!

Has anyone done it for less? Any tips?

Hollie.xx

 

[london75]

Personally I think you should be able to do it cheaper than that, the 11k from Virgin is a joke, our 4 week mega trip in Premium for the whole of August with a cruise thrown in is less than 10k

My guess would be plan ahead, post your dates here and I don't see why you can't get flights for 2000
Villa for 2 weeks need not cost more than 800
Car would be a little unknown as under 25 is different prices but wouldn't be surprised if a car came to 600 or much less for two weeks.
Park tickets are the painful bit but a fortnight in Disney for all 4 should be 1000

It can definitely be done and there are loads of people to help on here.

 

[disneyholic family]

Personally I think you should be able to do it cheaper than that, the 11k from Virgin is a joke, our 4 week mega trip in Premium for the whole of August with a cruise thrown in is less than 10k

My guess would be plan ahead, post your dates here and I don't see why you can't get flights for 2000
Villa for 2 weeks need not cost more than 800
Car would be a little unknown as under 25 is different prices but wouldn't be surprised if a car came to 600 or much less for two weeks.
Park tickets are the painful bit but a fortnight in Disney for all 4 should be 1000

It can definitely be done and there are loads of people to help on here.

my understanding is the OP is 22 and taking her 3 nieces....for a group that young, i would only advise staying on property....i would never suggest driving anywhere in the US to a 22 year old on her own (essentially she's on her own - with a bunch of younger ones with her)..

and given that May and September are both free dining months (i think they are), it's going to be easiest for her to stay on property....if she stays in a moderate, that will give her free counter service dining...

the £11,000.00 sounds a bit pricey for 10 days of free dining at a moderate, especially since all 4 of them can stay in one room, making the free dining even better value..

ok...i have to go work the numbers on the disney.uk website and see what i come up with....of course, that won't include airfare, but let's just see what the hotel/food/tickets come to for the 4 of them...

 

[Holstar]

Thank you so much!

I'm literally at my wits end trying to figure this out!

xx

 

[disneyholic family]

ok...
so for 10 days in september 2012 - i just arbitrarily picked sept 7th to 17th, but all of sept qualifies for free dining..

for Port Orleans French Quarter - a moderate disney resort
for 10 days, the room/counter service food/tickets - the cost is £1,869.50

all you have to add to that is airfare for 4 people....

much cheaper than what virgin quoted you..

this is part of the 'free dining' deal.....you get free counter service meals for your entire stay..
in other words, that basically includes all of your food for the 10 days

 

[Holstar]

ok...
so for 10 days in september 2012 - i just arbitrarily picked sept 7th to 17th, but all of sept qualifies for free dining..

for Port Orleans French Quarter - a moderate disney resort
for 10 days, the room/counter service food/tickets - the cost is £1,869.50

all you have to add to that is airfare for 4 people....

much cheaper than what virgin quoted you..

this is part of the 'free dining' deal.....you get free counter service meals for your entire stay..
in other words, that basically includes all of your food for the 10 days

Thank you so much! Would park tickets then be on top one assumes?

xx

 

[disneyholic family]

Thank you so much! Would park tickets then be on top one assumes?

xx

that includes a 14 day ultimate WDW ticket for everyone

 

[Goofyish]

As well as getting free dining in September, Disney quite often offer 14 day park tickets for the price of 7 days

 

[disneyholic family]

that price quoted above includes the room for 10 days, the free dining plan for 10 days and the 14 day ultimate ticket (entrance to WDW)...

i'm now working on what it would cost with airfare...

 

[disneyholic family]

ok....so the disney.co.uk website doesn't quote airfare packages for sept 2012 yet, but i played with dates in may 2012 to see what came up..

i suggest you go into the website yourself to play and see what you come up with...
but what i'm seeing is a bit less than £5000 from manchester (i didn't know where you are, so i picked manchester as the airport - you can pick something else if that works better)..

anyway, the £5000 include airfare, hotel room, the free counter service dining plan and the 14 day ultimate ticket to WDW for all 4 of you.
That's the total cost when i priced it for 10 days in may (i picked may 3rd to the 13th)..

go to the disney.uk website and play with it...
clearly a much better price than what virgin offered you...

by the way, the package that the disney site came up with was for flights with Virgin...funny eh...

 

[Holstar]

Just found return flights (Gatwick to Orlando) on Expedia for £1700.00!

Quite scared now... I'm sat here doing the maths... My boyfriend will kill me when he comes home, when I tell him that although I know we've just finished off paying £1,800.00 to take them to Paris for a week, but now I want to book to go to Florida...!

xxx

 

[ariel_]

Just to agree with the comments above - staying onsite with Dining Plan is so so so worth it! It does mean possibly paying more initially, but it is so much more relaxing to be on a Dining Plan and not have to worry about food when you are there. We were in DLRP last summer and it was a bit of a drag constantly worrying about how much food was costing as we were on a budget. I compare this to a trip to WDW with Dining Plan the year before and it was amazing to be able to order whatever I wanted without thinking about the cost. We got free dining and were lucky enough to be able to upgrade to Deluxe Dining which meant we ate in some amazing restaurants and I got to try lots of gorgeous new foods

It's so nice that you are taking your nieces away, I look forward to hearing more about it

 

[orangetiggs]

virgin are most likely chargin under occupancy as there is only one adult for the room so thats why its so expensive

I would book like others have said with disney uk and then the flights as it will be so much cheaper

your neices will love it, its so much bigger and better than paris

 

[2Tiggies]

virgin are most likely chargin under occupancy as there is only one adult for the room so thats why its so expensive

This ^^^^

Exactly why I will no longer do packages. They slaughter you with hidden and not so hidden costs if you don't have a 'typical' family of 2 adults, 2 kids. op

That is a pretty good quote Beth got for you.

 

[Sapper383]

Are you trying to book for 2 adults and 3 children (age 13,11 and 9)?

Check out compleate Orlando, just had a quick look for you and the Beach club is comming up 1,960but you do need to add park tickets but this will also give you the free dinning plan which will include table service. The moderate resorts only give you the quick service dining plan free.

the dates I looked for was the 13th - 23rd Sept 2012

 

[Holstar]

Just had a good look on Expedia and Disney website and we're definitely going to do it!

Called Thomson, and they said that whatever price the Disney website is offering us, they'll match or beat, and all we have to do is pay a 10% deposit, the rest is to be paid by August next year (we gave approximate departure dates as mid September!). I can't seem to find any info on the disney site about paying a deposit, so if they can offer us a price as low as Disney can, it's certainly easier to pay off in instalments rather than in one big go!

They also said that they could give us return flights for just under £500.00 each!

So, in total, if Thomson stick to their word tomorrow when I pop in, we could go for £4,179.00 including everything (also upgrading to the deluxe meal option, including lunch, dinner and snack for an extra £350!).

However, the boyfriend has just thrown a spanner into the works, by saying he wants to come too... Of course I don't mind this, but it means that none of the 'moderate' hotels have rooms that will fit 5 So we have to go for Premium! Still includes the free food deal though...it just looks like the whole thing would be £2900.00 for the five of us, rather than £1900.00.

Oh well! He did say he doesn't mind paying his share! And, I suppose an extra pair of hands with the children would be helpful!

xxxxx

 

[disneyholic family]

Just had a good look on Expedia and Disney website and we're definitely going to do it!

Called Thomson, and they said that whatever price the Disney website is offering us, they'll match or beat, and all we have to do is pay a 10% deposit, the rest is to be paid by August next year (we gave approximate departure dates as mid September!). I can't seem to find any info on the disney site about paying a deposit, so if they can offer us a price as low as Disney can, it's certainly easier to pay off in instalments rather than in one big go!

They also said that they could give us return flights for just under £500.00 each!

So, in total, if Thomson stick to their word tomorrow when I pop in, we could go for £4,179.00 including everything (also upgrading to the deluxe meal option, including lunch, dinner and snack for an extra £350!).

However, the boyfriend has just thrown a spanner into the works, by saying he wants to come too... Of course I don't mind this, but it means that none of the 'moderate' hotels have rooms that will fit 5 So we have to go for Premium! Still includes the free food deal though...it just looks like the whole thing would be £2900.00 for the five of us, rather than £1900.00.

Oh well! He did say he doesn't mind paying his share! And, I suppose an extra pair of hands with the children would be helpful!

xxxxx

i just went to check the disney website on this and i see that for that £2900 (actually it's £2,855) you will get a 2 bedroom villa at Old Key West.
Since you've never been to WDW you have no idea what that means.

we've stayed in the 2 bedroom villa at Old Key West many times and it is FANTASTIC....it's 1,350 square feet big (which is HUGE).
It has 2 big bedrooms, a big living room, 2 large bathrooms (one with a tub/shower and the other with a shower and a seperate big round jacuzzi), a full kitchen, and a laundry room with full size washer and dryer. And also a balcony.
It is ENORMOUS!!!

and you'll get that 2 bedroom villa, plus the 14 day ultimate ticket for all 5 of you, plus the complete table service dining plan for all 5 of you - all that for £2,855...

that's pretty amazing....

but you'll have to add on air fare to that...

 

[Holstar]

Oh wow!

We were looking at the option where you pay an extra £700 or something silly to get breakfast included, but with our own kitchen, I guess we could just get something in!

Is there a shop close where you could buy bread, milk, cereal etc?

H.x

 

[orangetiggs]

Also disney deposit on room and tickets is 50 each and balance due eight weeks before u go

We are staying at old key west this year as it was cheaper than other hotels

The dining plan u get free is alot of food so I dont think u need to upgrade, last time we got it free me and my husband spent over$2000 on food and that was all free and had credits left when we flew home

 

[gemmybear83]

Did you phone a local thomson travel shop? Just wondering as I can't find any prices or brochures for summer 2012 from thomson?

Just had a good look on Expedia and Disney website and we're definitely going to do it!

Called Thomson, and they said that whatever price the Disney website is offering us, they'll match or beat, and all we have to do is pay a 10% deposit, the rest is to be paid by August next year (we gave approximate departure dates as mid September!). I can't seem to find any info on the disney site about paying a deposit, so if they can offer us a price as low as Disney can, it's certainly easier to pay off in instalments rather than in one big go!

They also said that they could give us return flights for just under £500.00 each!

So, in total, if Thomson stick to their word tomorrow when I pop in, we could go for £4,179.00 including everything (also upgrading to the deluxe meal option, including lunch, dinner and snack for an extra £350!).

However, the boyfriend has just thrown a spanner into the works, by saying he wants to come too... Of course I don't mind this, but it means that none of the 'moderate' hotels have rooms that will fit 5 So we have to go for Premium! Still includes the free food deal though...it just looks like the whole thing would be £2900.00 for the five of us, rather than £1900.00.

Oh well! He did say he doesn't mind paying his share! And, I suppose an extra pair of hands with the children would be helpful!

xxxxx