Saving Tips!

[Dicksonparty]

Give me all your saving tips for a wdw trip!

 

[comicguy]

Either pick up or have delivered cases of water/other drinks to your room as well as some assorted snacks.

 

[lorimt]

Buy Disney gift cards at Target with a red card for the 5% discount.

 

[FigmentFans]

Get easy to keep breakfast foods (bananas, muffins, etc) and eat breakfast in your room - time and money saved!

 

[FreeTime]

Are you asking for tips on how to save money for a trip or how to save money when you get there?

 

[Lumpy1106]

Buy Disney gift cards at Target with a red card for the 5% discount.

Expanding on this;
We charge everything to the room using our Magic Bands. The night before we check out we go to the concierge and get a copy of our charges. We then go on the Target website and buy Disney gift cards to pay the balance, plus a little extra for breakfast the next morning. You'll need a physical gift card to take to the concierge, but worst case you can buy one in the resort gift shop ($15 min per card). You can transfer up to $1000 to each card using the Disney gift card web site. We also pay our DVC maintenance Fees the same way. We save 5% on everything Disney that way in fact.

You can pack a lunch in your popcorn bucket, then use the same bucket to get $2 popcorn refills. Maple corn at the Canada Pavillion FTW! Yes, we charge that to the room as well (so really only pay $1.90). I balked the first time we paid I think it's $15 for the bucket on day 1 of our trip, but it's worth every penny.

It's perfectly OK to pack a water bottle into the parks. Refill stations are easy to find.

If you go to DL/DCA;
There is a picnic area under the monorail beam just outside the ticket booths. Pack a lunch and leave it in the lockers (smaller, cheaper lockers by the bathrooms). It's a nice, quiet respite from all the activity in the park, plus it is almost always vacant - no fighting for seats!

 

[WingandPrayer]

This popcorn bucket advice (first I've heard of it) is golden.

 

[MrsPete]

Budget ideas:

- Travel in a less-busy month. It might not cost less, but you'll get more for your money; that is, you'll spend less time in lines.
- You can rent an off-site condo with multiple bedrooms and a kitchen for the cost of a plain room on-site.
- Buy your tickets ahead of time from a reputable online seller. If you're so inclined, you might get a couple tickets by listening to a time share presentation.
- Read ahead of time and understand how to use -- oh, the only phrase that comes to my mind is Fast Pass, and I know that's not right -- but understand the details of how to reserve rides and how to order food using the app, etc. Again, it's not cheaper, but you'll get more for your money.
- No need to carry water bottles. You can get free ice water from any counter service restaurant. Order it in the app, it'll be quick to pick up.
- Breakfast in your room is a great money saver.
- A sit-down meal in the air conditioning with lots of drinks is a big pick-me-up, and it allows you to "get back out there" refreshed in the afternoon.
- We tend to have snacks at dinner time, then have something more substantial back in the room -- maybe a pizza.
- Bring your own stroller. Decorate it with something unique -- bandana, battery-powered lights, homemade sign.

 

[MICKIMINI]

What we don't compromise on:
*DVC Villas usually 1 BR's
*Several nice ADR's and we tip well
*Long stays 10-21 nights (travel savings)
*Rental SUV (time is $$ and I shop until we depart AAA or AP discounts)
*Keep $5's and $10's for tips
*Non stop flights

How we save $$:
*SWA credit cards for $5.60 one way flights (modify flights to save $)
*Shop at landsend.com for pima cotton tees when $5-10 (we *shop our *closet*) and buy iron on transfers from Etsy for each unique trip
*Buy Dis GC's all year with any CC deals 5-10% and combine Rakuten, PayPal
*AP discounts
*Eat most breakfasts at villa and have water, light meals and snacks available. Buy bottled coffee (no waiting at SB's) to bring to parks
*Split QS meals or order kid's QS

At this point we really are on auto pilot when at WDW and all the above is now habit and though I don't know how much we save in a year it has to be at least 1K per trip, probably more 1.5-2K.

When our son was young we gave him spending money for the trip and he could pick out a tee shirt and hat. He saved his birthday money and any extra money all year and usually came home with a big Lego. It was a great lesson on budgeting and saved us a ton on impulsive spending.

Have a great trip!

 

[HuskyGal]

What we don't compromise on:
*DVC Villas usually 1 BR's
*Several nice ADR's and we tip well
*Long stays 10-21 nights (travel savings)
*Rental SUV (time is $$ and I shop until we depart AAA or AP discounts)
*Keep $5's and $10's for tips
*Non stop flights

How we save $$:
*SWA credit cards for $5.60 one way flights (modify flights to save $)
*Shop at landsend.com for pima cotton tees when $5-10 (we *shop our *closet*) and buy iron on transfers from Etsy for each unique trip
*Buy Dis GC's all year with any CC deals 5-10% and combine Rakuten, PayPal
*AP discounts
*Eat most breakfasts at villa and have water, light meals and snacks available. Buy bottled coffee (no waiting at SB's) to bring to parks
*Split QS meals or order kid's QS

At this point we really are on auto pilot when at WDW and all the above is now habit and though I don't know how much we save in a year it has to be at least 1K per trip, probably more 1.5-2K.

When our son was young we gave him spending money for the trip and he could pick out a tee shirt and hat. He saved his birthday money and any extra money all year and usually came home with a big Lego. It was a great lesson on budgeting and saved us a ton on impulsive spending.

Have a great trip!

Do you remember when the lands end t shirts go on sale and which cc do you use for 10% off? Thanks.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Land's End runs sales all the time with free no minimum shipping. September had really great deals. Get on their list for the best codes. I find coupon codes online to be unreliable. IMO when you order a tee from a company, you have no idea how it will fit or wash. I'd rather order a tee of my choosing and then iron a transfer on myself. We have a blanket chest full of new tees LOL!

Chase has some targeted 5% cash back for shopdisney. Paypal has a Chase combo for 5% up to $1500 buy ($75). Rakuten had 11% yesterday and the day before (wow!) I used up the entire paypal offer through Chase buying a total of $1500 GC's stacking Rakuten. We occasionally get a citibank sears with 10% on groceries up to $1200 buy in ($120 cash) but it takes months to get back.

Between 4-5 weeks a year at WDW, AP's and DVC MF's, every 5 or 10% cash back we get is worth the effort.

Good luck!

 

[HuskyGal]

Land's End runs sales all the time with free no minimum shipping. September had really great deals. Get on their list for the best codes. I find coupon codes online to be unreliable. IMO when you order a tee from a company, you have no idea how it will fit or wash. I'd rather order a tee of my choosing and then iron a transfer on myself. We have a blanket chest full of new tees LOL!

Chase has some targeted 5% cash back for shopdisney. Paypal has a Chase combo for 5% up to $1500 buy ($75). Rakuten had 11% yesterday and the day before (wow!) I used up the entire paypal offer through Chase buying a total of $1500 GC's stacking Rakuten. We occasionally get a citibank sears with 10% on groceries up to $1200 buy in ($120 cash) but it takes months to get back.

Between 4-5 weeks a year at WDW, AP's and DVC MF's, every 5 or 10% cash back we get is worth the effort.

Good luck!

Wow. Thanks so much for sharing your secrets!

 

[FigmentFans]

One other item I thought of: if you are planning to rent a car, and you work, check to see if your company has a discount with a rental car company that you can permitted to use for personal travel. I was able to use the company discount at my prior job, and I usually saved about 40% on the rental, even within the last year!

 

[Disney.Dad15]

This is a nice thread. Always looking for ways to save some extra $ to spend later on food at Epcot!

 

[barkley]

on saving to go on the trip probably one of the easiest things we did that surprisingly added up over time (we would plan a trip a minimum of 1-2 years ahead) was to keep a cleaned out snapple or tea bottle in the cup holder of each car-we changed our habits to use cash vs. the debit cards for odds and ends purchases-any change received back went into the bottles. at home we have one of those big plastic water cooler jugs which that change and any that popped up in the washing machine/dryer or elsewhere was put into. if we got a hankering for to-go food or an unplanned 'lets just go out to eat' popped up we would use the mantra 'to-go or to disney?, to a restaurant or to disney?' (most of the time the cash equivalent was put into the jug). a week or so before the trip we hauled it to our bank for their free change counting/conversion. we also got into the habit of using whichever cash back (or statement credit) credit card we had that offered the highest return to pay all the household bills (if they didn't charge an up charge for using it), groceries and such (we would pay it off monthly). did that from day one of planning a trip. let all those points rack up so we could have several hundreds over the course of the year in 'no pain savings'. (we would charge to the card on vacation-apply statement credit to wipe portions out).

on saving at wdw (or really anywhere we vacation)-if we will have a rental car i research to see what eating options are within a reasonable distance to where we will be lodging. so many of the chain restaurants we enjoy have either closed down in our region or are too far a drive so if i have the opportunity to be able to go to a cheesecake factory, chevys, fuddruckers, bj's...i enjoy it BUT i always check their website to see if they have loyalty programs i can sign up for. usually i end up with a free appetizer or dessert at minimum for joining but sometimes it's a bogo entree (i time out joining about a week before travel b/c they frequently wait a few days to a week to activate the free offer/make it expire within a couple weeks later). as far as souvenirs-with the kids we frequently took them to the closest to wdw walmart b/c they had the same toys for so much less. the disney outlet had a great selection of clothes and the added benefit was while we were at the outlets we could get some regular shopping done at great deals (love VANS-great outlet prices)-note, always pack one suitcase INSIDE another so you don't have to buy more for stuff you are schlepping back.

 

[toesmom]

pack sandwiches and snacks, that is huge money saver, eat breakfast in the room, bring energy bars, food iin the parks is expensive

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Give me all your saving tips for a wdw trip!

So when we were younger and our kids were little, to make our trips more affordable we did do a few of these things here and there. Some of the things we've done, some we've never done but have seen people do. Some are easy, some are definitely more involved/complex but just depends what you're up for and how much you want to save. We are not as cost conscious as we once were and our time is not as free as it once was with more work/kid obligations.

• Consider staying off site- usually disney hotels will be priced higher than comparable off property hotels and can include free parking, breakfast, park shuttle, etc. Check discount travel sites for deals.
• If you can, travel in value seasons for cheaper lodging/tix
• Bypass flying if you can drive, depending on distance, hotel/gas expense, driving will save you $$, just won't save you time. Also will save since you won't need to rent a car but you will have to pay to park if you stay on property.
• Don't eat breakfast out, eat in the room
• Pack snacks in the parks to keep yourself from spending extra $
• You can pack a cooler for all your food, we've never done that but it's an option for those who want to do it, just can't pack loose ice.
• Don't book expensive ADRs like character meals or all you care to enjoy places - they are not a good value especially if you have small kids.
• Share meals/skip meals. Especially if you have kids. Disney has really big portions and my kids, teenagers now, still don't finish all their food. We do this even now especially when we do Epcot festivals, we just can't eat that much and it's extremely wasteful for us to all eat 3 meals/day.
• Pack your own refillable water bottle/own water bottles if you can carry in a backpack. If you pack a refillable bottle, also pack some water flavoring since FL water is nasty. All QS restaurants will give you free water/ice
• Purchase disney gift cards using target red card discount of 5% or other sites. The target red card process is super time consuming but if you're up to entering all your disney GCs into the disney GC website, you can have some substantial tangible savings. It's just a little bit of fancy footwork finding large denomination $100 cards since those are not always readily available. Even if you purchase a few, for not much money and use them for souvenirs or meals, it's still some real money saved.
• Don't book really long trips---essentially, don't stay at disney longer than you really should. Disney gets a lot of guests to stay longer since the price of park tix is not that much more each incremental day after days 4/5/6 so you get sucked into staying longer, paying for lodging, eating out and buying more incidentals.
• Look for company provided discount programs. I have an HR site that offers employees pretty big discounts for lodging on disney property. Right now, I can book some disney moderates for under $200/nt for next April which is a peak season.
• Sam's, costco, and BJs also have travel discounts, as I'm sure other retailers.
• If you have small kids, give them a pre-determined budget for souvenirs so they know ahead of time what you'll spend and are not an unlimited money tree of toys. Give them spending parameters
• Also, if you have small kids, buy some disney items ahead of time to give them when they're tired, cranky, etc and they want you to buy them a $25 light up wand. FYI only works up to a certain age
• Don't buy Genie plus for Epcot and AK. These two parks do not have enough attractions to make Genie plus as beneficial as MK and DHS (more headliners, not so much more attractions), just not as much bang for your buck and we've been at extremely busy times and have never felt the need to purchase G+ for these two parks.

 

[LiDa]

Give me all your saving tips for a wdw trip!

Do what makes you happy & don't do what doesn't make you happy. All of my tips fall under that headline....

I like breakfast ... the 1st 2 days I'm there! lol So, I get a kid's meal & get my fix of someone else cooking me a nice breakfast. After that, I'm good with some toast & coffee.

I stay at a moderate because I insist on staying on-property & find the moderates much more civilized that the budget level hotels. It makes me happy.

I bring a Brita water bottle so I can filter as I go w/o buying bottles. I get terrible migraines if I get dehydrated but I can't pay $30 for bottled water every day.

I use a Disney Visa -- not because I get discounts, but I use the card to get discounts when they're available. For example, I don't even ask about discounts at a restaurant until after we've decided to eat there. And I use my Disney rewards for ... whatever.

Tell yourself "no": do you really need table service at every meal? Some people like it - it makes them happy. My group makes a res for maybe 2 sit-down meals, incl a character meal. After that, it's food courts & counter service & we're good. Do you really need ALL of those souvenirs? I always treat myself to a couple of things & then I stop. It helps that the prices are the same across WDW. Do you really need the light-up Belle rose? Probably not, but if it really makes you happy, have at it! I usually get a reusable/refillable souvenir mug to get my morning coffee & afternoon/evening soda at the resort.

PLAN! Use that Disney Visa to build up rewards, plan to bring a few snacks (like dried fruit or trail mix) for when you really need a snack but don't need to have a Disney treat (I get my Mickey bar & frozen bananas a few times every trip, though!), buy a Disney gift card at a wholesale club to get the extra money. Put aside some money every week leading up to your trip so you can treat yourself w/o guilt.

There are so many more tips, but mostly I always suggest you do what makes you happy, plan as much as possible & breathe in the magic!