Successful low budget trip? Anyone?

[teachermommy78]

Can someone point me in the direction of a thread or TR that gives lower budget tips for WDW? We do an all out extravaganza every 3 years (coming up in 2014) for 10 days that we budget and plan for. However, my dh and I would like to do a low budget trip NEXT summer for 5 days (surprising the kids). We have discussed staying off property at Best Western DTD (we have stayed there pre trip and liked it). We talked about doing breakfast in room, and bringing sandwiches to the park. Then doing quick service for dinner. I would really love to read a TR from someone who has been successful. Anyone know of any?

TIA!

 

[TnTWalter]

We did Windsor Hills for $450 for a week 3A and 2C; and Bonnet Creek $600 for 6 nights spring break 4A and 1C [based on disney age 10+].

Eating breakfast and Dinner at home is best way to save plus using restaurant.com and/or 'earning' free gift cards to restaurants [points systems].

If your kids are old enough to do the Yes classes you can check into that. Cheapest way to get tix.

Here are links to my trips. We are family of 5.
BUDGET MEAL PLANNING WINDSOR HILLS
http://tntwalter.blogspot.com/2009/06/budget-meal-planning.html
total cost for ONE WEEKk:

Windsor Hills $450 total.

Food budget $600. This included Crystal Palace Breakfast, many counter services at the parks and DTD, $196 in groceries bought at Target there for the condo [we also took some groceries to the beach following week]...
Tix $1000 for 7 day base pass for 3 adults 2 kids.
Parking Fees 7 parks 7 days $14 per day [you can enter and exit without having to re-pay]. $98.
We drove straight through from Noblesville [just north of Indy] with planned stops along the way. We slept at rest areas both ways for a little bit. Found nice parks, had a nice meal, etc. I think budget for food and gas was $250. If you want places, I'm happy to find info and post.

That's just about $2300 for family 3A 2C for a full week.

Forgot to add souveniers....we spent under $100 total for all 3 kids. They loved what they picked out and had fun. My oldest is thrifty and always enjoys a challenge.

bonnet creek total cost
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2698954
Total Cost 7 days 6 nights:
We went spring break so peak season $599 for Sat-Fri.
It's going to be really hard to get me back onsite!

We spent a whopping $468 on eating out in and around the parks!! Crazy! For 5 people for the week. We had snacks and CS meals at Parks and ate at Giordani's [had $25 restaurant cert. that I got for <$2 but still spent $45...we ate it for lunch and dinner though], Fuddruckers and Earl of Sandwich and the Pollo place for smoothies.

I also spent about $160 on groceries. We did breakfasts, snacks and 2 dinners at bonnet creek. Enjoyed adult beverages as well. 2 cases of water.

Spent most ever on souveniers $236. And pressed pennies...$33. LOL.

Parking $14 per day for 7 days. Loved the Diamond AAA pass. If you can get one, highly recommend. $98

$474 on traveling there and back....food, gas, 2 hotels.

$1272 7 day base ticketes.

Grand total $3300ish family of 5 with 4 of us over 10.

 

[hollypoast]

great info, thanks OP and replying Diser.

 

[Zhoen]

Our trips are always "budget". This past trip we did our "once in a lifetime" and didn't find the extras to be worth all the extra price.

#1 thing is, how old are the kids and how much stuff are you willing to schlep around? When you bring things in with you, you'll need to either carry them or pay for a locker. Disney does not allow wagons, but strollers are fine, and we used the heck out of ours. I've heard of people bringing strollers with no kids, just for their stuff! It's actually not that bizarre an idea, and a used umbrella stroller can be picked up for cheap at yard sales, if you don't have one. Of course, if your kids are still IN strollers you're all set!

We ate breakfast at our condo every day but one, when we did a character breakfast. It not only saved money, it meant we weren't spending TIME sitting somewhere waiting for our bill to arrive. You'll probably want a place with at least a kitchenette, if not a full kitchen.

We drove, so we saved a LOT of money by bringing much of our food from home. It saved us money on groceries, plus it meant the stuff wasn't back home rotting in the fridge. We're talking things like mustard, lunch meat, fruit, bread-- stuff we already had. If you're flying, you can pack some things in your suitcase, like individual mayo and mustard packets, there's threads on that, then buy the rest when you get there, but it helps to have a menu in mind.

For lunches we packed sandwiches and fruit and frozen bottles of water. Some days we did QS and got cups of water for free (Pecos bill gave me 5 huge cups of water without batting an eye... it tasted fine and saved me about $15 on other beverages.) We carried the packs of lemonade to add to water cups, but only needed to do that once, when a cart had a bad filter on their water--yeah, that was nasty...

Dinner was almost always in the parks, mostly QS, with one or two "nice" places. QS is better on hot days, because you don't have a server coming by every two seconds trying to speed you along to make room for the next family. You can relax a bit better in QS, IMHO. If you are in a place with a kitchen, there are threads here about dinners that can be done in a crock pot while you are away in the parks, but we didn't do that.

Remember your cooler needs to be soft-sided, you can find really great ones at grocery stores this time of year, and you may be able to find them on end-of-season clearance starting soon as the grocery chains clear out "summer" to make room for "back-to-school".

Because we had the stroller, I went all-out and actually just brought a 2-liter bottle of soda with us each day, then got cups of ice whenever I needed one. This would be a bad idea if you're just carrying everything, though. And my girls each had a little Mickey canteen thing that held a drink above and a small snack below... they didn't use the snack part much, but we kept their canteens full at all times, and that did a lot to keep them hydrated, which kept them calmer, which reduced the neediness, which reduced the "gimmies."

We pressed many pennies, and this was our first time pin-trading, which was fun and was no-cost after the initial set-up.

We generally did not order meals for DD5 (same thing at home), then she, DD8 and I shared my plate and DD8's plate... there was always enough and I didn't feel bad or have to deal with too many left-overs. An exception was TRex, which was a splurge for us, but we had two of the $.99 kids meal coupons, so they each got their own plate and we had TONS of leftovers to bring back to the condo for later-on meals.

TheLionQueen has a really good thread that started out as "organizing" and evolved into "all you best tricks for everything for the trip". It's huge, but it's full of great ideas.

Bottom line, yes, you can save a LOT of money by packing meals and drinking free cups of water with/without flavoring added. Be realistic, though. Some people can't live without their "full experience," others (like me) can't face ourselves in the mirror if we pay $25-50pp for BREAKFAST...

If you go budget and then you hate the experience... then it was a waste of money, so be certain you and DH are clear about what is/is not negotiable.

Oh, and Sorceror's of the Magic Kingdom is really fun and free!

 

[ADisneyQueen]

We just got back from a "budget" trip that didn't feel like budget at all. We had 7 nts. at POP in a 4th floor corner room overlooking the lake. It was a great view and the best location I've ever had at any hotel. We had the free QSDP and only paid about $20 out of pocket. I applied for the Southwest Visa card months ago and got 50,000 points free and used $48,000 pts. for airfare for all 4 of us.

My package total was $2300
Air extras (Sw card $70, air tax $30, early bird check in for return flight $40)
Food including a meal at airport and applebees $70
Tips $50
Gas to airport $20
Parking at airport $60
Total $2640

Kids had their own spending money

 

[HayGan]

There are lots of ways to save money on accomodations & food but one of the biggest expenses (if not the biggest) of any WDW trip are the cost of tickets.

Since you are planning a trip in 2013 & 2014, I would strongly suggest that you consider planning those trips within a year of each other so that you can purchase annual passes and use those instead of buying tickets for each year. You can actually make two really nice trips (and actually very budget minded trips) if you utilize the annual passes. You could even make your trips much longer by having the passes since you can find ways to stay off-site for longer periods for very reasonable amounts.

The other option is to travel when YES classes are made available. By doing this you can purchase tickets at a very discounted rate. The downside is that classes do fill up fast and are only offered at certain times of the year.

Our trips are typically "budget" trips meaning less than $2,500 for 10-14 days or less than $2,000 for 7-10 days. However, we don't count our DVC in those figures so you would have to add on for accomodations. As others have mentioned you can get off-site condos/timeshares really reasonably priced. Our food budget is typically $600 or less (depending on the length of time we are travelling.) That includes all meals (both eaten in the villa as well as outside meals), snacks and alcohol We don't typically spend more than $100 on souvineers. Our transportation budget is typically around $500 (we typically drive but will fly if there is a good deal.) We really try to be as smart about tickets as possible. The expense of thiose can really make or break a trip!

Good luck in your planning!

 

[DisneyEater]

Buy YES tickets!

 

[cheerky]

If you are a state/ federal employee, you can get a weekly condo rental from getravelop.com for $349 per week. Also, I suggest subscribing to vacationcentralflorida. com and condodirect.com for newsletters with great deals on condo rentals. We rented a two bedroom condo fo $202 for a week at Mystic Dunes last December using a coupon code I received from condo direct (no timeshare presentations).

If you are driving, you can prepare a few dinners ahead of time and freeze them. Then, just warm up in the oven when you get are ready to eat!

You can save on parking by using shuttle services provided at some resorts, however, offsite shuttles can be time consuming and inconvenient.

And, YES tickets are great and very affordable! My daughter did a YES class two years ago and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the price of the discounted tix!

When DD was little, I bought some souvenier stuff at the disney store on clearance (crown, cinderella flashlight, etc) and surprised her with those at parade time. It was nice paying $1 for the stuff instead of $18 in the parks.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Buy YES tickets!

Many ways to keep it cheap:
Yes tickets are the key here-3 of us have 5 day hoppers with 5 water park/disney quest visits for less than $600 in July. That's cheaper than a 2 day pass.

Skyauction for offsite condos-can get for around $300 right now.

Parking/tolls/gas from KY=about $250 in our small SUV. No flying for us, I want to take what I can and not get groped in the process.

Food=about $500. That is 1 quick service meal in the park($150 total), 1 sit down meal outside of the park(Logan's/Olive Garden/Cracker Barrel/etc)($225 total), and $125 for food in the condo and the drive down/back.

Misc=$100. After 13 visits, all souveneirs look the same.

Total cost in July=around $1700. Doing this allows us to visit each year.

 

[Daisy'sMama]

I like planning a budget trip! Last one we did, a friend decided he didn't like Southwest airlines anymore and gave us his FF miles = 3 roundtrip tickets $50 each. 7 nights in a two bedroom Condo @ Bonnet Creek from SkyAuction $497. 5 day Disney YES tickets $264. Rental car $188 for 7 days. Food, normal food budget at home. $200 in Disney Visa points to cover souvies, etc. Total Trip for 3 $1099. Not only that, my husband had business there, so we wrote almost the whole trip off!

 

[Marionnette]

Can someone point me in the direction of a thread or TR that gives lower budget tips for WDW? We do an all out extravaganza every 3 years (coming up in 2014) for 10 days that we budget and plan for. However, my dh and I would like to do a low budget trip NEXT summer for 5 days (surprising the kids). We have discussed staying off property at Best Western DTD (we have stayed there pre trip and liked it). We talked about doing breakfast in room, and bringing sandwiches to the park. Then doing quick service for dinner. I would really love to read a TR from someone who has been successful. Anyone know of any?

TIA!

There was a poster a few years back who has a very large family and she did a trip report that was phenomenal! I wish that I could remember her screen name because her plan worked out very well for her family, even though they spent very little time in the parks themselves. (I think they has GAD tickets?)

Does anyone remember her name? I think it included "tink" but the whole screen name escapes me and there are too many Tink-something-or-others on the disboards to even try to look her up with the search. They stayed in Orlando for 2 weeks and took advantage of a lot of free or cheap activities in the area.

 

[GoofyMomInOhio]

There was a poster a few years back who has a very large family and she did a trip report that was phenomenal! I wish that I could remember her screen name because her plan worked out very well for her family, even though they spent very little time in the parks themselves. (I think they has GAD tickets?)

Does anyone remember her name? I think it included "tink" but the whole screen name escapes me and there are too many Tink-something-or-others on the disboards to even try to look her up with the search. They stayed in Orlando for 2 weeks and took advantage of a lot of free or cheap activities in the area.

Are you talking about TNKBELL?

Here is one of her trip reports ~ http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1618376

 

[HayGan]

Are you talking about TNKBELL?

Here is one of her trip reports ~ http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1618376

Thanks for that! It was driving me nuts trying to think of her name as well!