Please help me plan budget trip for me and DD!

[sandynd]

It looks like it will be only the two of us, and I am trying to plan a cheaper trip than last time (we spent about $4500 for a family of three - 7 days, regular season, rack rate preferred room at a mod, park hopper tix, deluxe dining, which is way more than my DD and I need on our own). I would like your help to make this as cheap as we can without taking the vacation flavour away!

Here's what I'm thinking so far, and since I've never gotten a PIN and Disney is doing away with good discounts, I'm not counting on too much that way:

7-days in January 2011, stay at POP during value, use CAA (AAA) discount of 10% for the room. Buy Homeschool Days parkhopper tix (and course, YAY!) Food: I can't decide whether to pay OOP or go for the QS dining plan, although the dining plan probably means we'd have to buy an extra park ticket to get the package, and we'd lose the CAA discount, right? Airfare or Autotrain is about $700 return. (driving down is out - I can't do it!)

Rough breakdown of costs:
Transportation: $700
Room: $600 - $650 (??)
Tix: $350
Food: about $500 (??)

We won't have a fridge in POP, so our food choices for bringing it with us are a bit limited.

Does this look about right? Can you give us suggestions for saving more? It seems pretty expensive for one adult and one kid still!

 

[disneysmiles]

My husband and I went for 5 nights 6 days in May. We spent a little under 1500. We didn't fly however. We stayed at AKL, ate at Yak and Yeti, and had a park hopper pass. We rented from DVC owners.

We broke down our costs on our blogspot report of our trip. You can definately do it cheap without sucking out the magic. We had a fantastic trip.

 

[nomolos]

My tip is to find a better discount on the room. We are usually able to do alot better than 10%. Check the Discount page here on the disboards or maybe mouse for less. I dont think we have had less then 25% off rooms the last several times we went to visit.
When are you planning to go in Jan? We were there one time right before local schools started back and all the parks were PACKED!!! Once school started back for the local students the crowds were cut in half though. Your vacation package (and available discounts) will probably be cheaper if you wait until late Jan instead of going during the last part of christmas break.

 

[sandynd]

Thanks for the tip about the parks being packed in early January. I'm actually planning for around the week of the 24th since that is when Homeschool Days are.

I hope I can get a better discount, but like I said, I don't want to count on it in case they decide to do away completely with discounts. I'll certainly be keeping my eyes open for one, though! Thanks for responding!

 

[Colinsmom]

I think that you can do better on your transportation costs. $700 for two of you is a LOT!! Where are you coming from? I would think that you could fly from most U.S. locations for $400-450 tops for two people.

 

[sandynd]

Colinsmom, we're coming from Canada. Actually $700 is a budget return flight for two from where we are. We never get any really good flight deals. And the nearest US airport to us is about 8 hours car ride away. Transportation is almost non-negotiable - I'm the only driver and I can't drive for three days straight to Orlando. Even the option of the Autotrain from Virginia (which would save us a car rental and give us the experience of a train excursion) is a full day's drive away. And it really doesn't save much money at all. But I'll keep looking for discounts there too!

Disneysmiles, I just got around to skimming your blog - you did a great job with budgeting! We can probably cut down on food expenses a little using some of your tips, but the best tip I found out about was Tour Guide Mike! I knew the name, of course, but I didn't realize it could provide that much value - I think I will signup! Thanks!

 

[Gigi22]

Sandynd--just a thought, have you checked the Canadian board here? It is a good place to find out about seat sales to Florida.
Do you collect either Air Miles or Aeroplan points? If so, I suggest you consider using the Aeroplan estore (not as familiar with the Air Miles estore, which I believe operates the same way) for online purchases--there are a number of retail websites available (for example The Shopping Channel, Chapters/Indigo, Sears.ca, Skype). If you use the Aeroplan estore portal and an Aeroplan-affiliated credit card, you can 'double dip' for points. You can often get a 'free' return economy class flight for 25,000 Aeroplan points plus the taxes and fees, you can pay cash for the second ticket--just book the 'reward' flight first.

 

[Aggiegrl]

How about cutting the trip down a day? We are doing 6 nights instead of 7 this fall to save a little money. It's not a whole lot, but its something when you add food and hotel into it.

Most importantly, it allows up more travel days on either side. We are leaving home on a Sunday and coming back on a Saturday. With your transportation issues...this might work for you and you might be able to use that extra day to drive to cheaper transportation. Besides, mom/daughter road trips can be fun!

 

[MomRN]

I get pin codes out my ears, and all I do is play around on the WDW site. Have you tried that?

My ds (4) and I are going in November for 4 nights. That's all he really needs. Our cost breakdown is:

Room (preffered at All Star Movies) for 4 nights: $320 (with 40% off pin)
Flights: $350 total, round trip, for both of us Indy to MCO with catching a good deal on Southwest and using the $25 coupon code. Paid for early bird check in, so that raised our total
Tickets:$420, 4 day base tickets through undercover tourist.

So we are at $1100 with doing the absolute cheapest, smartest options available. Did not have any kind of rewards of sorts.

No dining plan for us... ds is such a picky eater, and doesn't eat much, that we will be able to share CS meals, and because it's just us 2 for a small period of time we'll have plently of luggage room for snacks and breakfast items.

 

[sameyeyam]

I think food is one area you can really save a lot on. Pack a suitcase full of nothing but food. Even if you have to pay $25 to take an extra suitcase, it's far cheaper then anything you could possibly buy at the Disney parks.

I take a small 4 cup coffeemaker to heat water for instant oatmeal(breakfast) and Cup O' Noodles (great in between meals, or even ok for a lunch at the hotel). We have also packed boxes of cereal and used a Disney snack credit for milk in the mornings. Bring lots of snacks for the parks, bags of nuts, granola, yogurt covered raisins (things that are filling). Also, if you do stay at a hotel with a microwave you can bring microwave popcorn for snacks.

Also, share a counter service meal...buy 1 counter service meal, ask for an extra cup (to share soda) or a cup of FREE ice water (you can bring Crystal light to flavor it). Then beef up the meal with a piece of fruit or cookie. It's more then enough for two people.

You can also bring your own tea bags and ask for a cup of free hot water. Also, make your own refrigerator...we did it one year at Pop. Go to a Dollar store and get one of those plastic beach purse things. Go each morning and fill it up with ice from the icemaker on your floor. It will keep things cold all day. Just refill it with ice in the afternoon or evening when you get back to the room. Put it in the bathtub so it doesn't sweat water onto the carpet. You could also pack a softside cooler in your luggage by folding it up.

Dropping the park hopper option will normally save you a lot of money also. Make a plan, go to 1 park a day is a great way to save. Also plan a couple of "down days" at the hotel. Normally the kids like to swim, plenty of activities to do around the resorts, etc. Plus, it's free!

 

[JenniJ]

Have you loked at renting point from DVC owners? Check the DVC board. We were going to but can't find any better deal than we already have or for a place we would want to stay. Looks like DVC Dave is a good deal too. I looked at how much points at AKL that some DVC members were renting their points at some come out to around $750 for a studio. That would give you a kitchenette to save on food costs. But that was for our time period. Might be cheeper during your stay.

 

[nomolos]

how flexible are your days? Sometimes flying in the middle of the week can save a few hundred dollars off a flight. Also keep checking back for discounts even after you have made the reservation...sometimes it is cheaper to cancel a ressie and then make a total new one-even with the cancelation fee added in.

 

[sandynd]

I am so happy that I am on these boards! You guys are awesome!!

Gigi - thank you for pointing me to the Canadian board. There is a whole, very informative discussion about flights from Detroit and Buffalo for very good prices. I checked our dates and I could get flights for about $200 each. With the drive and the hotel and parking, it would still save me a couple of hundred dollars. Miss still wants to go on the Autotrain, but I'll see if I can talk her out of it - quicker access to the castle might turn the trick. And maybe I could bid for cheaper flights on Priceline - I had good luck there one time. I'll try with flights during the week too - hadn't thought about that!

DVC is actually more expensive than POP, and no mousekeeping It would be a good idea if we wanted to stay in luxury, but for just us two, we don't care.

Thanks for the tips on food - I thought about joining a fridge swap so we can do more. I hear POP has microwaves, so if we have a fridge, that would help us save.

Tickets are the big savings here for us - we're going during homeschool days and get a 7-day park hopper for about $175, which is totally amazing. And the fact that we get to go to a class at Animal Kingdom is even cooler.

I remember a few years ago Disney was promoting themselves as more affordable than people thought - a family of four could go for about $1600. They must have been just thinking about hotel and base tickets to the parks - I can't imagine that they were taking into account transportation and food too.

You guys rock! Keep the good ideas coming!

 

[lily28]

the microwave at Pop is at the food court, not at the room. I think only the dvc rooms has in room microwaves.

I suggest that you keep check for discount for january. Last year in January, I took my daughter to disney for the first time and I got the buy 4 get 3 free deal which costed me only about $850 for the room and tickets for 7 days for both of us. on top of it, I got a $200 gift card from disney for going during the slow season of January. But be warn, it can be cold in Jan/feb. the lowest temp for us was 29 f.

by the way, what is homeschool period? how do you daughter get to go to class at Animal Kingdom? How do you get the park hopping ticket for $175?

 

[torinsmom]

Are you totally set on staying onsite? We just got back from a week at an Emerald Isle townhouse for $450. 3 bedrooms/2.5 baths, full kitchen, washer/dryer, internet, gated community. Parks were 5-15 minutes away via a shortcut. You could save a lot of money on food as well by having access to a fridge, oven and microwave. It was HEAVEN to be able to spread out!

If given the choice, I would fly instead of doing the train. We did the regular Amtrak one year and it was crowded, loud and smelly. Amtraks have to give the right of way to freight trains, so we stopped numerous times and then on the way back, a freight train broke down in front of us and we had to sit for two hours! Look for deals on airfare and rental cars.

I think you now have to get a 2 day ticket to do the dining plan. That would be a waste of money if you ask me. Plan your meals out using the allears.net menus. I sometimes get the kids options myself, because the adult meals are a lot of food. We also get the free ice water and add flavor packets--saves money and calories.

 

[sandynd]

Hey Lily, Thanks for letting me know about the deals last year - hopefully they'll come out with another good one, but I don't want to count on it, so I'm still saving up my money to pay for what we have planned now. And we can handle the cold much better than we can handle the heat!! We're Canadian eh! I took Miss D down to Myrtle Beach one November, and we were in the water every day - I think the water temp was somewhere around 59 She's crazy that way!

BTW - Homeschool Days works much like the Disney Y.E.S. program - there are a bunch of threads on the boards here about it.

I think if we're not going to bring our car with us, onsite is what I would prefer. I hate driving in unfamiliar places and have a bad track record of panicking and cracking up my bumpers on curbs and such, so 7 days of someone else driving me around sounds like heaven to me!! You're right about the dining plan being a waste of money for us though. I'll have to see if I like any of the kids options - I seem to recall from last time that they were pretty limited!