Money Savings Tips?? Our daughters' first Disney Experience!

jblaz17

Earning My Ears
Joined
May 8, 2009
Messages
2
Hello,

We are so excited to take our girls to DW for the first time! They will be 5 and 4 and are thrilled!!! We want to make this as special as we can for them, so any money savings tips you can pass along will be greatly appreciated!! The more we save, the more we can do!!

Thank you!
Jennifer
 
The first thing that comes to mind for cutting costs is all the meals out. While I would recommend Chef Mickey's for a character dinner that I think they would love, it is probably fine if you plan some meals in the room instead of eating out every day. Are you in a one bedroom so that you have a full kitchen? Then you can easily do breakfast, lunch and dinner in the room. If you are in a studio, you still have options with the microwave and stock up on breakfast and lunch stuff.
 
Another area to really cut costs in on souvenirs. I would suggest telling your girls that mommy/daddy will buy them one souvenir (or whatever you decide is acceptable) that they can choose. Then, have them just browse during the first half of your vacation. When our kids were little we always came back with way more stuff than they needed and always regretted it. By taking their focus off of buying things and putting it onto other areas we were able to save quite a bit.

As the previous poster suggested, we also save quite a bit on meals. We always have breakfast in our villa, except for one character breakfast. We eat sit-down meals for lunch, when it's cheaper, but we don't do sit-down every day. I'd also suggest having your kids share a meal if they aren't big eaters. You can always order more, but it really stinks to pay for food that ends up being uneaten.

We also bring our own snacks. We bring small packs of crackers, pretzels, Welch's fruit snacks, etc. Each of our kids picked their snack for the day each morning and could have it when he/she wanted it. On occasion we would buy a special park treat, but it wasn't every day. Now that our kids are older they carry their own snacks but we still bring our own. It really adds up to a big savings.

Have a great time!
 
We buy glow-sticks (that you can make rings from) from a dollar store (you get about a dozen for a dollar) that keeps low the urge to buy light-up things at night...

Also on souvineers, We usually spot what we like in the parks, but go to DTD near the end of the trip and use a 10% (but it might just be Disney Visa) discount at World of Disney..

In DVC (with at least mini-fridghes in studios) it's cheaper and easier to stock your fridge with your favorite beverages, instead of buying there and even the refilliable mugs.
If you carry a bag, you can clso bring in your own water bottles to the parks and have sleeves of kool-aid/crystal light for flavoring.
 

Another area to really cut costs in on souvenirs. I would suggest telling your girls that mommy/daddy will buy them one souvenir (or whatever you decide is acceptable) that they can choose. Then, have them just browse during the first half of your vacation. When our kids were little we always came back with way more stuff than they needed and always regretted it. By taking their focus off of buying things and putting it onto other areas we were able to save quite a bit.

As the previous poster suggested, we also save quite a bit on meals. We always have breakfast in our villa, except for one character breakfast. We eat sit-down meals for lunch, when it's cheaper, but we don't do sit-down every day. I'd also suggest having your kids share a meal if they aren't big eaters. You can always order more, but it really stinks to pay for food that ends up being uneaten.

We also bring our own snacks. We bring small packs of crackers, pretzels, Welch's fruit snacks, etc. Each of our kids picked their snack for the day each morning and could have it when he/she wanted it. On occasion we would buy a special park treat, but it wasn't every day. Now that our kids are older they carry their own snacks but we still bring our own. It really adds up to a big savings.

Have a great time!



I have an idea which worked for my guests in my travel agent years.

Print out a list of penny press machines and buy the girls little penny press books so they can collect and see their pressed penny collection.

Next - visit the bank and get 2 rolls of quarters and roll of pennies.

Help the girls hunt for the penny press machines.....costs less than that 8 foot tall stuffed Mickey they want!

Have a wonderful trip.
 



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