probably no cheap way to do this: disney at christmas

[collegejunkie]

dbf and i have gone to wdw every christmas since we've been together, so for the last 3 years. normally, my mom gives us a good amount of $$ toward our trip as a present for finishing up the fall semester and for the holidays. this year, i'm going to europe to do research for a week weeks right after the holidays so she said she does not want to contribute (and understandably so). we normally go for 2 weeks, but because of my lack of time this year, we were going to go for one week. problem is.. it's so expensive! i guess i always underestimated just how pricey it is. we priced it out if we drive and stay off property or fly and stay on property for a week. both come out to about 1200-1500 per person. reducing the days to 5 only brings it down a little and we would not drive 22 hours from new york to stay for only 5 nights. is there any cheap way to do this or should we just give up? the only thing that bothers me is that we have no problem staying in a hotel that costs $25 a night (think super 8 or whatever), but it still comes out to a lot. dbf thinks food will be an issue. we average about $60 each per day but i still don't understand how it's totaling so much

 

[Darcy03231]

Do you need to be there for Christmas, or can you go earlier in the month?

We went the first week of December in 2009. WDW was offering free dining during our time frame. Flights were also a lot cheaper than they would have been during peak holiday season. All of the decorations were up, we went to MVMCP and saw the Christmas Parade. Crowds were light to moderate. I thougt it was a great time to go.

 

[Marionnette]

If you're flying and getting a rental car, that could be very expensive during the holidays. Especially if the driver is under the age of 25. Plus parking at the theme parks is going to run you $15 per day. You might be better off paying a bit more for a resort that has complimentary transportation to the parks or staying onsite in a value resort. (Don't forget to add the cost of ground transportation to/from the airport if you decide to stay offsite)

Where are you pricing out tickets and what kind of options are you getting on them? Dropping a day or two off of the tickets may not make much of a difference but getting rid of hopping or waterpark fun will save you $50+ each. Look at getting your tickets from undercovertourist or ticketmania or mapleleaftickets.

Food is probably the most flexible of all of your budget points. You can get by with picnic style lunches in a softsided cooler each park day if you really want to stretch your budget. There are some really affordable all-you-can-eat places outside of WDW property. Don't forget that a cup of ice water is free at counterservice places in the parks.

But the truth is that Christmas time is a very expensive time to go to Disney. The airfare is going to be pricey no matter what. If you're set on your dates then start to monitor the cost of flights and be ready to "pull the trigger" when the price is right.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Went last December from about the 17th to the 23rd. Stayed off site for about 27 per night. Even if you pay for parking, the net cost would be about 41 per night. We ate cereal and Pop Tarts in our room for breakfast.

You could easily do cold cuts/bagged salty snacks and canned drinks for lunch. For dinner you could do golden corral for about 10 bucks (+/-) if you skip getting a soda. Other dinners could include places located up and down 192 in Kissimmee. Many choices are available.

Let me be clear......the food portion of your trip will be somewhat boring, but the park memories will be great!

From a strict money standpoint, driving is cheapest. I know it is painful to have 4 days on the road and 5/6 days in the parks, but you have to ask yourself................"do I prefer to pay thousands more or skip it all together?"

 

[collegejunkie]

we're limited with our dates because of finals. the last day for finals is dec 16 and we're hoping we can get out by the 14. we were planning on getting MVMCP tickets and then 4 or 5 day base MYW tickets, no hoppers or water parks. we're considering setting a higher budget. we'll just have to play around with some numbers and see. thanks for the suggestions.

 

[disney*mom*82]

We went this past Christmas break, this was the first year they did the free dining close to Christmas. DH and I are both teachers, so our dates are limited too. We knew that it would be close to impossible to get a room discount, so sure we paid the rack rate and bought 2 tickets each and in return for the free DDP. We were able to check in on the last day of free DDP and we were there 10 days, so free dining over Christmas and New Years! (wish I could get a similar deal for the summer now though)

I would just book your dates room only and wait and see what happens.

 

[pal-mickey]

You might want to try condodirect.com. We are thinking of going over Christmas also so I was just looking at that site. There were off site hotels for about $500.00/week

 

[jls886]

I agree with Disney*mom. We went Christmas '07 and '08 and we had free dining in 2008 for our entire 10 night trip. We were there 12/17-12/27 (I think) and we had free dining for our entire trip because we checked in during the promotion. That saves A LOT of money!!

 

[windycitymom]

When is free dining for the rest of 2011?

 

[jls886]

When is free dining for the rest of 2011?

Those dates (if they do Free Dining at all again this year) have not been released yet. We're headed back over Christmas again this year, but we rented DVC points since that discount is much larger than the discount we would possibly get with FD. We wanted to stay Deluxe so when you factor in that we were planning to spend that cost regardless, we got a HUGE discount by renting points. If we were trying to go as cheap as possible, staying in a value and hoping for FD would be the way to go. I think the December free dining dates in the past have been released late summer/early fall?

 

[collegejunkie]

we're going to cross our fingers and wait for the summer/fall promotions for december to come out. we just realized that even if we go ahead and book with the dates we've been playing with (12/15-12/22) there's a chance that we might not be done with finals, and that would be a huge problem.

 

[HM]

You may want to start a new tradition of visiting at a more inexpesive time of year than Christmas. Something to think about.