New here, need help planning a WDW trip for a large family

[jodim]

We have never taken a 'real' vacation as a family.. we had planned on going to WDW a couple years back, and our plans changed and I ended up going to the IL's (AGAIN!)

I have decided we ARE going this year.. and we all want to go to WDW.

We have 2 adults, and 5 children (ages 15b, 12b, 10g, 5g & 3b) that will be going.

We want to stay for roughly a week, and our times are fairly flexible.. although, I would like to keep the kids from missing a ton of school, and I don't want to be there when a hurricane is in town.

I need to do this as inexpensively as possible, without cutting out anything important.... so I could really use tips/ideas/pointers in that area.

Thanks!!!

 

[wilde_oscar]

well if ya leave the kids home, that would cut the cost way down

 

[disney54us]

Hi and welcome to the boards!!! You will find loads of info hear. There is a budget board and many have found great tips. Check through the threads that might have info you could use and ask away. Enjoy the party here.

 

[wilde_oscar]

dreamvillas are $99 a night in the off season and would sleep all of you comfortably... full kitchen near a grocery store so you could eat breakfast and dinner on the cheap, Orlando has the lowest rates on rental cars in the universe. There really is no way to get discount tickets for WDW, so there is cost there.

 

[jodim]

We're driving, so we wont need a rental car.

Is Dreamvillas onsite?

Don't tempt me on leaving the kids at home... it's been one of those weeks

 

[wilde_oscar]

dreamsvillas.com
nope they are not onsite... for a group that large staying onsite it is going to be very cost prohibitive vs. getting a rental unit off site. Dreamsvillas is close, very close, it is in fact on Seven Dwarfs Lane... if ya are driving, that knocks out the rental car cost and driving vs. disney transportation you'll end up getting back and forth faster. meals are the other thing that add up quick, if ya cook breakfast and dinner... well that cost is pretty much the same as if you were at home anyway. if I had a group that large and did not have grandparents that write a check to goto WDW at the drop of a hat... I'd go with dreamsvillas. ya will have to contend with the cost of parking at WDW but again, way cheaper than what on onsite resort is going to cost.

as for time of year... heck the first week or two of sept are less crowded, and it is just school, the smart kids will figure it out, the dumb kids are not really missing much and they get to goto WDW.

 

[Aliceacc]

I haven't been there since 1990, so take this for what it's worth:

Don't reallly stress about the hurricane thing. Buy insurance, but don't let it dictate the time of your trip.

Orlando is inland; most hurricanes aren't a huge issue for the parks as far as I understand it.

Every time I have traveled to Florida, it's been summertime. (I'm a teacher, as is my husband.) We have also gone to the Bahamas and Bermuda during hurricane season, and never had a problem.

We're going this year in mid August, just before school re-opens.

As far as accomodations go, others here can give you much better guidance. But take a look at the fact sheets here: http://www.allears.net/acc/faq_hot.htm They should help you narrow down your choices.

 

[maddi]

we are a family of 7 also, so I know it can be quite expensive!

Here is a few of the things I do to help get cut expenses:

*Book during free dining which in the past has been August and September. We have always opted for September(the kids miss 4 days of school). The crowds haven't been bad the past two years, the weather perfect(one hurricane but Disney is awesome about them-you couldn't ask for any better service plus it only affected the park till noon) Plus with free dining...you won't be hungry! Disney really knows how to feed you!!!

*Head over to the budget boards. You wouldn't believe all the free items you can recieve via mail. I didn't have to buy any shampoo, cream rinse, laundry soap, rec'ved several shirts, medicine, instant drink mixes, etc.. There is a thread of freebies of the week and will help cut down on those items you need to pack. I pulled out a suitcase and just started throwing everything I rec'ved in the mail into it. I didn't have to buy anything when it came time to pack. Including the ziploc bags to put the items in...all freebies.

*while at the budget board, sign up for a free fridge to use. Then head over to staples.com and order a case of water for under $6. The water will be delivered to your room and you will have to pick up the fridge at luggage. But it is well worth it! Bottles of water are around $3.00 each at the park. We froze most of ours and then had a couple just cool. All we had to do was add the drinkmixes(gatorade,propel, country time(all freebies)) and we were good to go.

*One of the best things I can share with you. Head over to the GPT sites and join. I started them last year at the encouragement of several Dis'ers and WOW I was impressed with the money I made to put towards our trip. I do three sites... and made almost $2,000 in Disney Gift cards from Jan.'07 to August '07. This paid for our room. LOL...tho I think the girl at Disney Reservation thought I was crazy when I paid out entire bill with Disney gift cards. Let me know if you are interested in joining any GPT sites, and I will help you get started and give you a free tricks of the trade(such as email accounts, setting up your pc, programs to help protect you pc, etc.)

*Never ever spend change! Another secret I learned from Dis'ers. If something comes up to $1.02 give the clerk $2.00 and put the change in your new Disney change jar. You wouldn't believe how much you can save by doing this. From Jan-Sept. '07, I saved over $900.00. The rules are simple...Don't touch it no matter what...and never count it until it is time for your trip(less likely to be tempted to spend it if you don't knopw what is in it...lol) I left my children help decorate the jar...which they had a blast doing. Since they knew it was for WDW, they even added to it. If they found a penny...they were rushing to put it in the "bank" What we did was made levels...souvineers(a stuffed Mickey), food (mickey shaped pancakes), Character meals(Liberty tavern characters) clear up to the castle at the top. They loved seeing us hit goals.

*Last, one other thing I did to help finance out trip was give up pizza for a year. The average cost for this family to order pizza and have it delivered was around $30. Sooooo, we gave that up, I buy several of the boxed pizzas and make them at home. Then I put $20.00 in a special savings account just for the vacation. Not much but it added up to $1000. Not a bad chunk of change, and we didn't miss while saving up for our trip.

I don't know if you are strickly doing WDW, nor if you will be interested in this or not. But I prefer the convinence of staying at the parks. Granted it is a tad bit more expensive but the benefits are great. Especially if you are flying into orlando with a family of 7. I personally like someone else having to mess with my luggage(we never touched it after we boarded the plane in Detroit until we were in our room at wdw). Magical express does all that. We didn't have to struggle getting all of us together, getting our luggage, renting a car or getting a taxi, struggle getting it into WDW through reservations or up to our rooms. We simple left the plane, meet the CM, boarded the bus and went to ressie. ME did everything else...same thing went when we returned to the airport. No parking issues-we took the buses to the park-and they aren't that bad, no parking expenses, no getting lost(hubby doesn't believe in asking for directions) and no tension with tired parents while trying to find this road or that road back to our hotel.

If I can be of any help, PM me, I'll be glad to share anything I have done to get this motley crew to wdw.

Maddi

 

[maddi]

one more thing...If you decide not to opt for the free dining and if you or your hubby works for anything automotive(makes part, cars, sells parts...anything related to automotive. I have a website that offers dicounted tickets. I can't list it here because it isn't allowed(via the other sites rules) but there is some decent prices.

My Dh works for a company- that occasionally make special parts for trucks. I'm not sure if there is other company beside automotive but all you have to do is call the number on the website, tell them who you work for, and if the company is a member of theirs, they will give you that company's password so you can use the site.

right now, on our corporates special offer, they have:

3 extra days of admission for FREE!
Purchase a 4-Day ticket and get 3 extra days for FREE... PLUS at the Corporate discount rate!
3 Days FREE SPECIAL WITH THESE TICKETS:
Park Hopper® Tickets
Park Hopper® AND Water Park, Fun & More Tickets!

YOUR CORPORATE PRICE: $248.65


they are 409.00 for the same tickets on WDW.com

 

[lovetoscrap]

It looks like you have gotten some great advice here!

And Maddi!!!!! Haven't seen you in awhile!

 

[PrincessTiffany]

one more thing...If you decide not to opt for the free dining and if you or your hubby works for anything automotive(makes part, cars, sells parts...anything related to automotive. I have a website that offers dicounted tickets. I can't list it here because it isn't allowed(via the other sites rules) but there is some decent prices.

My Dh works for a company- that occasionally make special parts for trucks. I'm not sure if there is other company beside automotive but all you have to do is call the number on the website, tell them who you work for, and if the company is a member of theirs, they will give you that company's password so you can use the site.

right now, on our corporates special offer, they have:

3 extra days of admission for FREE!
Purchase a 4-Day ticket and get 3 extra days for FREE... PLUS at the Corporate discount rate!
3 Days FREE SPECIAL WITH THESE TICKETS:
Park Hopper® Tickets
Park Hopper® AND Water Park, Fun & More Tickets!

YOUR CORPORATE PRICE: $248.65


they are 409.00 for the same tickets on WDW.com

To get Free Dining from Disney you have to book a package with them. Meaning your room, tickets and dining are all grouped together. You can't buy tickets from an outside source and get the Free Dining Package.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

To get Free Dining from Disney you have to book a package with them. Meaning your room, tickets and dining are all grouped together. You can't buy tickets from an outside source and get the Free Dining Package.

Sorry just re-read your post about NOT opting for the dining plan. You are right.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Sorry just re-read your post about NOT opting for the dining plan. You are right.

We also have a big family. We like to get two adjoining rooms at either Pop Century or All-Star Movies on Disney property - We never stay off property. That way you can qualifiy for the dining plan, extra magic hours, disney transportation and any other perks disney offers. We love, love, love the dining plan. It's convenient and it saves us money. We did go during Free Dining last year and it saved us about $1300 on our trip. (Explanation of Free Dining: Since 2005, Disney has been offereing Free Dining during the last part of August until the end of September, give or take a few days. It has already been offered to UK visitors for this September and to those of us who were there at WDW during Free Dining this past September for the dates of August 30 - September 27 2008. The free dining for this year should be announced during the first week of April. The first couple of days it will only be open to Disney Visa holders and then will open up to the general public.) I do want to say that the Free Dining secret is out and the crowds are not as low as they used to be during this time. You have to get to the parks early and use some sort of touring plan. Also, the heat was much worse than I thought it would be. It was sweltering. We were there from Sept. 14 - 22. If we ever chose to go back for Free Dining I would try to book the last day of the package being being offered and extend the trip into the first week of October. Our neighbors went down about a week after us this past Sept. and they booked on the bounceback that was offered. They will be there Sept. 27 - October 3 2008.

Our favorite time to go is early December. The crowds are good, the weather is great and the Christmas decorations are so beautiful.

 

[jodim]

Maddi, thanks for all the info. Can you pm the info?

Have you ever stayed offsite?

We were thinking about renting a house because it's much cheaper and then we will all have our own space... plus I could cook easy meals there. I'm driving down, so we'll have our own car for transportation.
I don't want the kids to miss out, but I also kind of think that since they've never been, they wont realize their missing out-kwim?

Our favorite time to go is early December. The crowds are good, the weather is great and the Christmas decorations are so beautiful.

We really think we'll drive down the day before Thanksgiving, stay the night halfway, and then get there on Friday morning. (although that means giving up BF shopping ) and staying until the following Saturday... that way dh isn't too tired before going to work on Monday.

Are the decorations usually up that early? (last few days of Nov, beginning of Dec)

 

[maddi]

Hey LTS!!!

...I'm still around...you can't get rid of me that easy. I keep losing our thread so I can't chatter with everyone.

I've learned alot from everyone here and love sharing it with other newbies.

Guess what(not trying to hijack) I met Sumrmist!!!!!!!!!! She is so like she is here!! We had a blast and actually trying to plan a joint wdw vacation right now.



And PrincessTiffany...It's early in the day yet so I won't hold it against you. Everyone is entitled to one blooper a day Have a great day and I was at WDW at the same time you were last year. I didn't think it was that bad heat wise but we get 100% humidity with 90 weather...probably why I didn't think it was that bad...lol

 

[wilde_oscar]

...

*One of the best things I can share with you. Head over to the GPT sites and join. I started them last year at the encouragement of several Dis'ers and WOW I was impressed with the money I made to put towards our trip. I do three sites... and made almost $2,000 in Disney Gift cards from Jan.'07 to August '07. This paid for our room. LOL...tho I think the girl at Disney Reservation thought I was crazy when I paid out entire bill with Disney gift cards. Let me know if you are interested in joining any GPT sites, and I will help you get started and give you a free tricks of the trade(such as email accounts, setting up your pc, programs to help protect you pc, etc.)

GPT?

 

[maddi]

Maddi, thanks for all the info. Can you pm the info?

Have you ever stayed offsite?

We were thinking about renting a house because it's much cheaper and then we will all have our own space... plus I could cook easy meals there. I'm driving down, so we'll have our own car for transportation.
I don't want the kids to miss out, but I also kind of think that since they've never been, they wont realize their missing out-kwim?



We really think we'll drive down the day before Thanksgiving, stay the night halfway, and then get there on Friday morning. (although that means giving up BF shopping ) and staying until the following Saturday... that way dh isn't too tired before going to work on Monday.

Are the decorations usually up that early? (last few days of Nov, beginning of Dec)

We stayed once at a hotel-man that was when the kids were really lil and there was less of them...lol. We did both WDW and Universal. We stayed at a hotel that was at the maingate of Universal. Never again...lol..I like the convenience of ME and buses. Plus as I said DH won't ask for direction and it was somehow my fault we were misplaced in Orlando(tho I wasn't the one driving...lol)

I'll pm you the site and I hope it will help you as much as it has us. There is also universal, sea world, rental properties,hotels, etc on the site.

 

[maddi]

GPT?

Get Paid to Click

It's sites that pays you to click links, take surveys, contests, shopping with a % back to you.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

We really think we'll drive down the day before Thanksgiving, stay the night halfway, and then get there on Friday morning. (although that means giving up BF shopping ) and staying until the following Saturday... that way dh isn't too tired before going to work on Monday.

Are the decorations usually up that early? (last few days of Nov, beginning of Dec)[/QUOTE]

Yes, they start putting up the decorations around Thanksgiving. Also Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party will be starting that week. We have been and it is great. But I do want to mention that you should be prepared for very, very crowded parks during the week of Thanksgiving. It is the third busiest week of the year, only behind Easter and Christmas week.

Hope ya'll have a great trip!

 

[jodim]

The actual week of thanksgiving, or the week following it?

We had planned on kind of unwinding the first day there, and probably hitting the beach day 2, then hitting the parks on Monday.