The strategy that we used for accommodation, touring and meals is this.
We stayed offsite at a hotel only 5 minutes from USF/IOA by car which cost about US$60 per night, booked through either Expedia or through the hotel website (the prices were the same, I forget which we finally used). It had *free* WiFi (Disney take note).
We rented a compact car from Budget after shopping around and I signed up for the Fastbreak program so that picking up the car in airport was fast and involved no upgrade hassles.
We bought 14-day 2-park tickets for Seaworld/Busch and 7-day 2-park tickets for Universal parks, which was cheaper than Disney and also allowed park hopping.
We toured each of the 4 parks the same way - get into the park right at opening and tour the "big" rides right away. For each park we were able to get on every major ride with almost no wait by approx. 11am-12pm depending on the park and the number of rides. If the park involved wet rides (Busch, IOA) we wore swimsuits and T-shirts and changed immediately after the last wet ride.
We bought one refillable cup for each park "family" (Universal and SW/BG) and shared from it. Since it ended up that we spent most of the time in USF/IOA and we were five people, a second cup would've been worth it. But by the time we figured that out, it was so late in the trip that buying the 2nd cup wouldn't have paid. They put so much ice in the drinks that after draining our lemonade or whatever we would fill it with water and have another cold drink to carry around and sip from.
We would either eat from counter service in the parks or else (to get cheaper and often better food), we left the parks and ate at one of the many places nearby. Either we went to a restaurant near the hotel, or one day we went to Millenia Mall and combined the food court with shopping.
The theme park meals are quite big so usually we bought 4 meals for 5 people and nearly always had more than enough food. That way everyone got to share the chicken, fries, salads, wraps, etc. The whole pizza at Louie's in USF is a particularly good value.
Every day we rested and swam in the afternoon and then returned to a theme park in the evening (again with the opportunity for a cheaper/better offsite supper before re-entering) and watched shows, re-rode our favorite rides and just hung out enjoying the atmosphere and the cooler temperatures. One day we visited BG in the morning/early afternoon and switched to USF in the evening when parking is only $3 (after 6pm).
Instead of doing a water park, which would involve getting up early (to get in rides before the crowd) and would cost more $$$, we drove to the coast and had a fun afternoon swimming and enjoying nature. It's only about 1 hour to Cape Canaveral and 2 hours to the Gulf Coast, which each have their strong points.
The only areas in which cost-cutting had a noticeable effect on our enjoyment was that the hotel didn't have premium cable (though the kids actually enjoyed the el-cheapo TV shows like America's Funniest Videos), and the housekeeping service was a bit spotty (we just asked for the towels we needed and slept in the 1-day old sheets). A local told me that many hotels have outsourced housekeeping and the contractors don't feel any particular need to do anything other than what is written in the contract, so if we asked them to clean our room during the hour we were at the pool they would say they would do it and then ignore us. DW complained a bit but it really didn't bother me.
An enjoyable and free thing to do on an off-day is to visit a luxury hotel or resort and visit the lobby, have coffee or a quick meal, check out the pool, suck up the atmosphere, etc. We have been to Animal Kingdom Lodge a few times with its African artwork and animals, but this time we enjoyed the 11am duck walk at the Peabody Hotel. It was like watching a soap opera to see the drake hitting on the ducks, then he bumped one of them off the fountain, who walked around visiting people for a while and finally started quacking until the bellhop returned with the steps to help her back into the fountain.
That's the Josh Hendy budget guide to Orlando. We had a ton'o'fun on our trip and we can't wait to go back.
Boulangerie too! sometimes i eat there twice in a visit.
and excellent housekeeping. It couldn't have been a nicer vacation.
