Saving money while at WDW?

[swankybeth]

For our upcoming trip these are some of things we are doing to save a little money:
- Eating breakfasts in the villa (4 nights in a studio and 7 nights in a 1 br). We are bringing oatmeal and Cream of Wheat packets from home as well as coffee and coffee filters. We are going to food shop once we get to the 1 br so we can cook eggs and stuff and also buy other snacks.
- Bringing beers to the pool instead of buying at the pool bar.
- Bringing snacks to the park to tide us over (100 calorie packs, fruit, etc.)
- Bringing Crystal Light packets to use in (free!) cups of water from counter service instead of buying soda
- Signing up for off site restaurant's e clubs so we can get coupons in my email to print out and bring with us.
- Printed out Margaritaville coupons for the Universal part of the trip.
- Plan to use our AAA card for 10% off at Universal stores/restaurants.
- Purchasing TIW card for 20% off Disney restaurants.
- Taking advantage of the 10% discount on shopping with WDW Annual Pass.
- Shopping at the Disney outlet for some souvenirs. Last time we were there I was able to get Vinylmations for $4.95 which I used for trading to get better ones!

We also have $1000 between Disney Rewards Dollars and gift cards to use for spending money (and we haven't even cashed in our loose change yet!).

Any other ideas? I would love a coupon or discount idea for T-Rex or Yak & Yeti. The Safari Club doesn't seem to make sense for us since we're probably just going to have appetizers and drinks at those restaurants.

 

[Nissi]

Great ideas! Hi from Ronkonkoma!!

There is a great deal of WDW money-saving info on mousesavers.com in lots of different categories...food, souvies, etc.

That site has taught me so many ways to save and how to maximize my time.

Have a great trip!!

 

[Marionnette]

For our upcoming trip these are some of things we are doing to save a little money:
- Eating breakfasts in the villa (4 nights in a studio and 7 nights in a 1 br). We are bringing oatmeal and Cream of Wheat packets from home as well as coffee and coffee filters. We are going to food shop once we get to the 1 br so we can cook eggs and stuff and also buy other snacks.
- Bringing beers to the pool instead of buying at the pool bar.
- Bringing snacks to the park to tide us over (100 calorie packs, fruit, etc.)
- Bringing Crystal Light packets to use in (free!) cups of water from counter service instead of buying soda
- Signing up for off site restaurant's e clubs so we can get coupons in my email to print out and bring with us.
- Printed out Margaritaville coupons for the Universal part of the trip.
- Plan to use our AAA card for 10% off at Universal stores/restaurants.
- Purchasing TIW card for 20% off Disney restaurants.
- Taking advantage of the 10% discount on shopping with WDW Annual Pass.
- Shopping at the Disney outlet for some souvenirs. Last time we were there I was able to get Vinylmations for $4.95 which I used for trading to get better ones!

We also have $1000 between Disney Rewards Dollars and gift cards to use for spending money (and we haven't even cashed in our loose change yet!).

Any other ideas? I would love a coupon or discount idea for T-Rex or Yak & Yeti. The Safari Club doesn't seem to make sense for us since we're probably just going to have appetizers and drinks at those restaurants.

Nice planning! You should save a lot during your trip.

Consider joining Mypoints.com and doing any of your online holiday shopping thru them. You can exchange the points that you earn for a Landry's gift card, which can be used at Yak & Yeti or T-Rex. It's not exactly a discount coupon. But it is a free gift card just for reading emails, answering surveys and making online purchases that you would have made anyway.

 

[southern_redhead]

I second Mypoints. I use them and love them. I did last years Christmas shopping through them and ended up with $75 in Landry's cards that I used to cut my TRex bill in half (for six people.) I've then been able to build it back up with "here and there" shopping and the email click throughs to earn enough to give DH $35 in Barnes and Nobles giftcards for Christmas.

Bringing snacks to the park is a great idea. We did that this summer! I filled a pringles can with slim jims, fruit snacks, rice krispie treats, etc... and doled them out as people would mention being hungry. Many times we were in line for a ride and it saved us having to leave line to hunt down some food (especially for our youngest whose blood sugar can get low and cause headaches.) I also froze water bottles and took them with us. Huge $$ saver, $2.50 per water x 6 people = $$$

Also, make sure you buy plenty of sunscreen, pain relievers, and batteries beforehand. They add up at any vacation spot. Bringing some ponchos won't hurt either - they are fairly expensive in the park, and who really uses a poncho IRL...so do you need an expensive "Disney" one?

 

[squirrel]

Buy one souviener popcorn bucket at the parks and then refill with microwave popcorn that you brought from home.

Keep an eye out for good deals on Disney items at the $1 store. Also look for glow bracelets or light up toys-much cheaper at home than Disney.

I pack a box of Cheerios and buy/use CS drink for milk in our cereal. Saves some room in my luggage for Disney souvieners.

 

[swankybeth]

Nice planning! You should save a lot during your trip.

Consider joining Mypoints.com and doing any of your online holiday shopping thru them. You can exchange the points that you earn for a Landry's gift card, which can be used at Yak & Yeti or T-Rex. It's not exactly a discount coupon. But it is a free gift card just for reading emails, answering surveys and making online purchases that you would have made anyway.

I will definitely look into this! I started doing Quick Rewards but it was very frustrating because I never seemed to be "eligible" for their surveys and I wasted a lot of time for little to no benefit.

 

[DawnM]

Is it just the two of you? If you have kids there are .99 kids' meals coupons for T-Rex. But you would need to purchase an adult meal to get that. We have 3 kids and typically get 2 adult meals and 2 kids' meals and can get out of there for around $50 if we don't order drinks. They also allowed us to use our Safari Club for free appetizers.

Dawn

 

[DawnM]

I haven't heard of any discounts for Yak and Yetti, but I would just use your $1000 disney rewards for that.

The only time we have had even close to that amount was when we had some major work done on our CA house.

Here all the work we have hired gave us huge discounts for paying cash, so we haven't used our CC much at all.

Dawn

 

[RachelsMommie]

Go to the dollar store or Amazon.com and get glow bracelets. Last time we got a ton and handed them out to kids on Main Street and on the bus. My DD had a great time giving out a "happy-happy" to all the kids.

 

[Beckypooh1972]

I like the ideas! For the beer at the pool - have cups you can transfer it too so you aren't so conspicuous - I'm pretty sure glass bottles wouldn't be allowed - as far as cans, I'm not sure...

I would suggest you don't get too carried away bringing food and shopping once you get here. You'll find your regular meal patterns may vary with your vacation. (For example, you eat a big meal at a Table Service restaurant - portions are large and you can't even think about eating those snacks you brought).

If you buy too much you are going to end up throwing stuff away. We've left stuff behind or thrown away plenty of food we thought we'd "need".

Have a great trip!

 

[Beckypooh1972]

Buy one souviener popcorn bucket at the parks and then refill with microwave popcorn that you brought from home.

Love this idea - we have one of these buckets - I never thought about doing this!

 

[Bonniec]

I started doing Quick Rewards but it was very frustrating because I never seemed to be "eligible" for their surveys and I wasted a lot of time for little to no benefit.

Do you go back in and retry? Ive done well with them. Made $100 in just over a month

 

[amberdburke]

I agree with MyPoints - I cashed in for a $25 RC gift card before we left, and we also printed out the rewards chart for the .99 cent kid's meal.

Not sure if you are flying or driving, but I also do a lot on RewardTv.com. You answer questions about TV shows you watch (there are other surveys as well) and you can very quickly earn enough points for their $5 gift cards. I used the fast-food and gas station cards to pay for all of our food/snacks down to FL and back!

We saved a lot of money this trip by bringing snacks and water. The only snacks we bought the whole time was our Dole Whip and a Mickey Ice Cream Bar.

We pre-bought a lot of souviners for our daughter because she's only 2 and doesn't know the difference. We gave them to her each morning and told her that Tinker Bell left them for her. It was a huge hit - she even thanked Tink when we met her. I had budgeted $100 for souviners, and we only spent about $40.

 

[swankybeth]

I like the ideas! For the beer at the pool - have cups you can transfer it too so you aren't so conspicuous - I'm pretty sure glass bottles wouldn't be allowed - as far as cans, I'm not sure...

I would suggest you don't get too carried away bringing food and shopping once you get here. You'll find your regular meal patterns may vary with your vacation. (For example, you eat a big meal at a Table Service restaurant - portions are large and you can't even think about eating those snacks you brought).

If you buy too much you are going to end up throwing stuff away. We've left stuff behind or thrown away plenty of food we thought we'd "need".

Have a great trip!

You are allowed to bring beer to the pool as long as it's not glass so we'll either buy cans or the plastic bottles. We even got a bucket at the $1 store and decorated it with DVC stickers to carry to the pool!

It is just DH and I but we are driving and bringing a cooler so we can bring most leftovers back home with us if we buy too much food.

 

[pigletto]

Good Job!!

Our next trip is shaping up to be one where I really want to cut corners as well. There were quite a few things on our last trip that no longer made sense to me. Like souviniers. Do we really need them anymore after 5 trips? No.
We'll have a car on this trip and will check out the Disney Outlets for sure for the kids.

In your case, if you take afternoon breaks I'd plan on a few lunches or dinners in the villa as well. Our last trip was almost two weeks and there were days it was a chore to have to go to another TS meal when we would have been perfectly happy in villa with a lasagna or grill cheese sandwich.

 

[southern_redhead]

I will definitely look into this! I started doing Quick Rewards but it was very frustrating because I never seemed to be "eligible" for their surveys and I wasted a lot of time for little to no benefit.

Mypoints has surveys, I hardly ever do them. The qualification process is fairly simple, though, so you don't waste a bunch of time on a survey you can't use (and I think you get 5 or 10 pts even if you don't qualify?)

Not sure if you are flying or driving, but I also do a lot on RewardTv.com. You answer questions about TV shows you watch (there are other surveys as well) and you can very quickly earn enough points for their $5 gift cards. I used the fast-food and gas station cards to pay for all of our food/snacks down to FL and back!

I'm going to have to look into this - what TV shows do they do surveys on? And what are their GC choices? I love quick and easy GCs

 

[amberdburke]

It's run by Nielson, so they have most shows (they are really testing you on commercials during the shows). They have mostly gas/food gift cards, but sometimes stores as well. The one catch is you can only get them during "shopping sprees." This is set up twice a week during certain times, and you have to be on their site at the exact time it starts.

 

[dwonderz]

I've been a member of Mypoints for a while, and there a great company! I also just joined Rewards TV and am racking up points quickly!

Thanks for the tips - I always forget you can bring snacks into WDW!

 

[crazelion]

I know quickrewards.net can be frusting. I would give swagbucks a try. I love swagbucks because they give simple points without signing up for anything. I mostly do videos and I cash out every week either for 5 bucks in amazon or paypal.

The daily poll, NOSO is just bunch a skips and put code and get swagbucks. Go to the walls and make sure look for the video on the tabs. Those is easy just watch the videos. The games get up 10 points day playing games. Make sure download the toolbar so get swagtv and look at videos because you can get up 75 points a day just for watching tv.

Swagbucks is favortie rewerds site. Quickrewards is second.

 

[crisi]

Make sure the TiW card will save you money. We've done well with it, but we dine signature and drink, plus last time we used it there were ten in our party. If you are doing counter service meals, only a few of them take the TiW card. There is an automatic 18% gratuity when you use it, which is fine for people who were going to tip 18-20% anyway, but for those who tip less, it can make a difference in savings. You need an AP or a to be a Florida resident to buy it, and the price just went up on it. Last time we didn't bother - we didn't have APs and the additional cost of an AP+the TiW turned out to make it difficult to break even on the deal with just four of us.