Tell me HOW to make Disney affordable

[Ahrizel]

I'm going to second skyauction for a room. You can probably get a 2-3 bedroom condo for under 500 for the week. I and other family members have used them several times. With a kitchen you can breakfast and snacks easily and much cheaper.
Mary

 

[robinb]

I'm going to second skyauction for a room. You can probably get a 2-3 bedroom condo for under 500 for the week. I and other family members have used them several times. With a kitchen you can breakfast and snacks easily and much cheaper. Mary

sky auction resorts are not always available. It seems that every time I try to check availability for my dates (basically when school is out) there is none.

I've had my best luck when I waited until 4-8 weeks before my trip and booking through VRBO but I had backup plans in place in case I didn't get anything.

 

[moxiecola]

As a parent of a larger family myself, I get very weary of this suggestion for two reasons.

1. Disney will not guarantee conjoined rooms in writing. They will do their best to accommodate the need for them and the phone reservationists say that their system will makes sure reservation with only 2 adults and more than 2 kids will have conjoined rooms, but will not guarantee in writing. As most people with larger families can attest, a hotel reservation that doesn't guarantee conjoined rooms in writing means that there is a chance that mom and dad get to sleep in separate rooms for the trip. I'm not willing to take that chance.

2. Cost.

• The cost for a value room in the least expensive value season (January - mid February) is $85 plus 12% tax, total of $95.20, at All Star Movies. That gives a total of $190.40 for two rooms. That's $1332.80 for a week. If OP is willing to drive 2-5 miles, prices could be far less. Without even trying to find a bargain, I can use Sky Auction to get a 3 bedroom condo for $830 for two weeks from now.
• In July, the same two rooms would be $2448.28. I can book a 3 bedroom condo at Wyndham Bonnet Creek via Sky Auction right now for seven nights in July for $969 ($1071 including six days parking at the parks. I add this because so many people act like the $17 a day for parking somehow negates the off site savings). This is a savings of $1377 plus OP would have a kitchen and be able to save a bundle on dining. We've stayed at WBC. We spent no more than 15 minutes driving to any park. OP already stated they are driving, so they will have a car and DME is not needed.
• We personally have paid $333 for a 3 bedroom for Silver Lake in Sept. The cheapest Disney value resort for the exact same week would cost $1630.72 with tax for two rooms for seven nights. I can find a lot of Disney magic for the extra $1195 that I'm not spending on lodging and parking. Even if I could get free dining for that week, I'm saving money off site because our food budget is a LOT less than $1195.
• VRBO. I could check into one on Tuesday for $462 for the week. A little research can yield some great accommodation for significant savings over Disney value resorts.

I have never used Skye Auction. I just looked at it. Is that similar to ebay? How do you know if other people are bidding on an item? I see one right now for a 2 br suite @ the Sheraton Vistana for 7 nights for $450. I have never used this site before so I am a little leary.

 

[JMLBrats]

We are a family of 7. According to Disney's logic, 4 adults and 3 children. Tix to the park would cost over $2000. The cheapest hotel I can find (we would travel in July/Aug timeframe) which would uncomfortably fit 7 would be in the $1000 range (this is taking nothing into consideration, maybe proximity to the parks, just trying to fit 7 in 1 room). We would drive down from Boston as the airfare would be in the $2000 range as well. We haven't had a Disney vacation in over 10 years (when there were less mouths to feed). The kids ask DAILY when we are going and the last 2 kids have never been. My oldest will be heading to college this fall and we would really like to go to Disney before family vacations no longer appeal to him. BUT obviously the expense of a Disney vacation for a family of this size is HUGE. I am pretty frugal and always research my options well regarding pricing. That being said, I would still like to know if anyone has any suggestions on some serious penny pinching in regard to hotel/park tix which is the bulk of our expense here. Reading suggestions, websites, personal experience...whatever you can share, I will appreciate. I love having a large family but Disney vacations are affordable for a family of 4, not 7.

Well we are a family of five and as you know, once you go over 4 at Disney, it's still a challenge (although not quite what you've got!) Anyway, a few years ago, we found a rental on redweek at Bonnet Creek in a 2 bedroom that slept 8 for 6 nights for $459 including tax! Now that was kind of lucky but those deals are out there if you look. Must say that was one of the nicest places we've ever stayed including disney properties (DVC too) so I would highly recommend it. Good luck

 

[artemis4]

I have never used Skye Auction. I just looked at it. Is that similar to ebay? How do you know if other people are bidding on an item? I see one right now for a 2 br suite @ the Sheraton Vistana for 7 nights for $450. I have never used this site before so I am a little leary.

I have not bid on Sky Auction because I can get the 7 night vacation certificates they auction at a set rate corporate discount price, so I don't need to bid. We have used the certificates many times. I know that many people have used SkyAuction without problems, though. If I could no longer purchase certificates at set rates or if I couldn't get resorts I wanted with the certificates, I would bid without hesitation.

The biggest caveat that I know is Read All The Fine Print. Scroll to the bottom and read all the extra charges. There are always extra fees. Also, you also cannot change you book dates, so make sure your dates are set in stone.

Hopefully, someone who had personal experience bidding answer your questions as well.

 

[dimimi]

Can someone explain how Sky Auction saves money? Every time I look, buy the time you pay the 1 time fee and the nightly fee, it doesn't seem like a big savings? I'd like to make it work!

 

[DisneyDiana]

I have used Skyauction three or four times. I have paid as little as $300 for a week in a two bedroom condo. Just keep checking and be sure to read the fine print and add up all the fees. It isn't always a good deal but if you are careful you can, potentially, save a ton of money.

 

[monorailsilver]

I am another non reader of this thread. I have only had it open for about 3-4 days on the iPad....sigh...

Lodging-either outside for the cheapest option or 2 rooms at a value. Also I just got a TA email last week for certain hotels and they usually have great rates.

Don't do during school vacations, aka, christmas, February, April, long weekends due to holidays.

My favorite time to go is the tail end of August since it's cheaper. Dh and I went the week leading up to easter in 1999/we got engaged. I swore I'd never go holiday week ever again due to the crowds, the price was high but we were single, no kids, no mortgage, etc...

Food-we ship stuff so breakfast in our room while everyone is getting ready...we are a small family of 5, lol!

I send snacks in my box too. My girls had the Mac and cheese cups a few days, on our pool days since I plan those to give us all a break from the park.

The dining plan isn't worht it for us even though we do 2-3 sit downs. We still come out ahead.

No soda in the park! We have water bottles and just drink water with all our meals there, they can have all the soda they want on their pool days via their refillable mug.

I do splurge on park hoppers because we like epcot and the MK and only do AK and DHS for 1/2 of a morning each.

I do various rewards sites and get a good amount of 'free' money. By the time we go again I. 3 yrs I will have $100 for trex or the rainforest cafe, that may not be a a lot that's one meal paid for.

As far as driving, tolls will be about $60 or so RT but that was from NYC down and you probably have a few more coming from mass.

Plus gas, which is cheaper now then when we drove a few yrs ago and last ur drove to lorton for the train.

And hotels for along the way because I don't think I could drive non stop, heck I iniw I can't.

I would check airfare just to make sure. Check other airports too.

 

[Bete]

On the resort side I won't be much help. I think previous posters have given you good suggestions. Keep in mind some of the suggestions will not allow you to cancel with refund.

There are some resorts that offer not only a full, hot breakfast but some will offer an evening reception that is like an all you can eat counter service meal. We stay at Marriot Residence Inn in Lake Buena Vista. They offer three evening receptions per week which includes free wine and beer and sodas, as well as, food. Drury Inn will give you an evening reception each night. This will require you to leave the park for the evening reception and go back for the evening. Most have about a 90 to 120 minute for the evening meal. At Residence Inn you can get what is the equivalent to an apartment. You can get two bedrooms which each can have 2 beds and a sofa bed. That gives you 5 beds. Each bedroom has a bathroom and a TV. The sofabed is in the living room and that has a bigger TV. You get privacy in these two bedrooms. You could also get a king in one bedroom and two queens in another bedroom and the sofa bed in the living room. I believe you should be able to get this done for $150/night not including tax. You need to remember you get food included, here.

Keep in mind you may have to stay overnight at a resort on your trip back and forth when you don't fly. You may fit in one room if you get a larger room that has 2 queen beds and a sofabed. La Quinta has some of these kinds of rooms. I would bring a twin air mattress/sleeping bag if you can't fit all the kids in bed. You may fit everyone by the parents sleeping separately. Then, maybe two kids could each sleep with a parent and you may not need to have a sofabed room, but you will then need the air mattress or sleeping bag.

Since you have a car you certainly can get groceries or take out. Stay away from buying any drink or food at Disney.

Get up early and have a huge breakfast that can last all day. If you are late risers than have breakfast for lunch. Eggs and such will be the cheapest foods you can eat. Take some snacks with you to the parks. You can get free tap water at the parks.

You can always take a break in your day for a meal back at your resort if everyone is starving. Then, go back to the park for the night.

You can also do sandwiches and drinks and keep them in a cooler in the car and then go back to the parking lot at Disney to have a car picnic.

I'm not sure if you give allowance to your children, but if you do I would save some of the allowance each week for spending money at the park. Explain they will get less until the trip is done. You can also get Disney gift cards for holidays and birthdays and save them for each child as spending money for the parks. You can do this for yourself, too.

 

[mm1971]

We are a family of 7. According to Disney's logic, 4 adults and 3 children. Tix to the park would cost over $2000. The cheapest hotel I can find (we would travel in July/Aug timeframe) which would uncomfortably fit 7 would be in the $1000 range (this is taking nothing into consideration, maybe proximity to the parks, just trying to fit 7 in 1 room). We would drive down from Boston as the airfare would be in the $2000 range as well. We haven't had a Disney vacation in over 10 years (when there were less mouths to feed). The kids ask DAILY when we are going and the last 2 kids have never been. My oldest will be heading to college this fall and we would really like to go to Disney before family vacations no longer appeal to him. BUT obviously the expense of a Disney vacation for a family of this size is HUGE. I am pretty frugal and always research my options well regarding pricing. That being said, I would still like to know if anyone has any suggestions on some serious penny pinching in regard to hotel/park tix which is the bulk of our expense here. Reading suggestions, websites, personal experience...whatever you can share, I will appreciate. I love having a large family but Disney vacations are affordable for a family of 4, not 7.

I am from the Boston area as well. Here are some suggestions to help make it affordable or at least defer some costs:

1) Get the Disney Visa card (or some other card with better incentives) and use that for your daily expenses. Pay it off each month and you will have the 2% in points to use towards resort and tickets. I use the Disney card as it's easy to just get the points on a card and use it to pay off a portion of the expense. If not the Disney one, set aside the % back and save up for your vacation.

2) Rent a house/condo instead of a hotel. A few years ago, we rented a 4 BR home off property for under $800 for the week. We had 2 families split the cost so our lodging was under $400/family. This is probably the best suggestion I can make. You would end up paying $17/day for parking, but the savings would be HUGE compared to a hotel. You would have access to a kitchen so breakfast at the house before leaving (and packing a lunch if needed) can save big $$ off food. We stopped at the grocery and bought eggs, pancakes, cereal milk, etc... for breakfast. We had healthy, big breakfast every morning. Saved a ton of $$ and everyone had what they wanted. We took turns cooking and cleaning.

3) You would need 2 value rooms for a family of 7 if staying on property, but Freed Dining would more than offset that extra room with 7 people I would guess.

4) We have friends that drive to Virginia and then take the auto train the rest of the way. I'm not sure what the savings would be, but they have a family of 7 as well and said it was cheaper and everyone gets to rest up so the vacation starts off a little easier.

5) Have you looked into renting DVC points? Can be a lot less expensive, would have a villa option and be on property. Not sure if it is an option, but worth a try.

6) While I have never done it, there are many posts about purchasing discounted Disney gift cards (target was one). That would allow you to save up front as you save for the trip.

I'll ask our friends what tips they may have and post if I get a chance.

 

[DawnM]

sky auction resorts are not always available. It seems that every time I try to check availability for my dates (basically when school is out) there is none.

I've had my best luck when I waited until 4-8 weeks before my trip and booking through VRBO but I had backup plans in place in case I didn't get anything.

we use sky auction exclusively, but we go when school is in session.

OP, if your school has a week off anytime, winter break, etc....that would be your best bet.

The last couple of times we have gone, we have gotten a 4 bedroom condo at Regal Palms. We love the ability to spread out and not have to use the pull out sofa in the living room!

 

[DawnM]

Can someone explain how Sky Auction saves money? Every time I look, buy the time you pay the 1 time fee and the nightly fee, it doesn't seem like a big savings? I'd like to make it work!

I buy a voucher and book when I am ready. It is a 7 night voucher for around $250 with taxes and fees.

Looks like they are a bit higher right now, but not bad:


http://www.skyauction.com/doSearchAdv.do

You can go to ResortCerts.com to find availability, but availability changes daily, so just know that if you can't find what you want now, it may be available later.

 

[mom2my3kids]

lll

 

[DawnM]

We rented points, cost us 1087.00 for 8 nights at OKW..Now we use a awesome lady and she only charged us 9 per point and most people are charging 12-15 per point..She is just awesome and we are very lucky..But anyway we rent a van and its around 600.00 for the time we need, our tickets will run around 2000 and we plan on bringing 2000 with us plus we set aside 300 for gas and 100 for our room on the trip to Disney..So our budget is 6000 for everything..we probably will come home with some money and this includes all food..

How would this help the OP? She has a family of 7. They won't fit in a small hotel room.

 

[Marionnette]

How would this help the OP? She has a family of 7. They won't fit in a small hotel room.

Agreed! The DVC numbers offered by the PP amount to 121 points, which is enough to get a studio at OKW for 8 nights during Magic Season but not nearly enough for even an OKW 1-bedroom (which only has sleeping room for 5 people) at ANY time during the year.

I've said it many times before: renting DVC is a nice way to experience a Deluxe Resort for Moderate prices if you can stay in a studio and you can find someone who can secure that reservation for you. Otherwise, it can be very pricey.

 

[mom2my3kids]

I didn't notice it was a family of seven, my bad..

 

[Brewersprts]

We stayed in paradise cay in a 3 bedroom 3 bath townhome. Plenty of room for 7. Everyone isn't sharing a bathroom, it had a washer/dryer and kitchen. We stayed over 3 weeks and I paid $1560 after taxes, cleaning, everything. This including thanksgiving week, a slower time might have been even cheaper. It was very clean, nice, quiet. A lot of the vacation homes even have disney decorating. I found this place on vrbo.

From walking out of the door to passing under the big purple welcome to disney world sign was 5 minutes. It's not on site but if me and someone staying at one of the values or something left at the same time, I guarantee I would be home before them. Disney buses are not a fast way to get around.

We would eat breakfast at the condo. We would pack lunches and if a park closed early, we would eat dinner at home too. This saves a lot of money but for me it's mostly because disney food is terrible. Now at epcot, I spent thousands. Our $500 dinner at Tutto Italian was so worth it.

 

[theyoungs07]

I too look for ways to vacation for less with a large family. My family of 10 is splitting our stay since this'll be the last time we'd be able to fit in 2 value rooms (I have a 2.5 y/o and a 6 mo/o). My kids have never stayed onsite and this will be the 4th trip that we've taken them. We're only doing 4 nights onsite and will follow up with more offsite.

We stay offsite, houses in Terra Verde or Emerald Island...I'm guessing there are cheaper areas, but I like a gated community even if we don't use the other amenities.

Water and no pop with meals saves way too much, it's nuts what restaurants charge these days for pop.

We do character meals, but normally breakfasts so we can get into the parks early and they are slightly cheaper.

We bring our crockpot down so we can throw in a roast or something for an easy dinner by the pool.

We drive, flying would be insane price-wise. Our drive is 1200+ miles, so we stay at a hotel for a night each direction and usually look for something like a Comfort Inn that has a 2 BR suite and breakfast in the morning.

There are Walmarts close to the offsite resorts, use em...and they do have souvenir shirts...etc if you want to go that route.

 

[Northernlites]

on the car battery, it plugs into where the cigarette lighter was. I noticed that food especially meat is very expensive in Florida compared to Georgia. Since Georgia to Orlando is only a six hour drive right after we leave Cordelle Georgia we stop at a name brand grocery and stock up on our meat and chicken for the week. I have found that meat in Georgia can almost be half the price as Florida. Once we arrive at our rental (house/condo) we just unload into the fridge. The first year we went we spent a $100 on groceries for the week and ate out once.

 

[Candleshoe]

We are a family of 7. According to Disney's logic, 4 adults and 3 children. Tix to the park would cost over $2000. The cheapest hotel I can find (we would travel in July/Aug timeframe) which would uncomfortably fit 7 would be in the $1000 range (this is taking nothing into consideration, maybe proximity to the parks, just trying to fit 7 in 1 room). We would drive down from Boston as the airfare would be in the $2000 range as well. We haven't had a Disney vacation in over 10 years (when there were less mouths to feed). The kids ask DAILY when we are going and the last 2 kids have never been. My oldest will be heading to college this fall and we would really like to go to Disney before family vacations no longer appeal to him. BUT obviously the expense of a Disney vacation for a family of this size is HUGE. I am pretty frugal and always research my options well regarding pricing. That being said, I would still like to know if anyone has any suggestions on some serious penny pinching in regard to hotel/park tix which is the bulk of our expense here. Reading suggestions, websites, personal experience...whatever you can share, I will appreciate. I love having a large family but Disney vacations are affordable for a family of 4, not 7.

The biggest expense that you can do very little about is tickets. Your budget choices:
-- reseller
-- Y.E.S. (the best budget choice)

The next biggest is lodging. Budget choices:
-- Tenting at Ft. Wilderness (best budget, not for everyone). Food choices limited there. If you own an RV/Trailer it just got better for you!
-- offsite
--- The further away you stay the more you save
Options: House/Townhouse, Condo, Timeshare 'week' rented, Timeshare 'Deals' where you sit through a presentation , Deals through government-vacation websites, priceline hotel deal. With 7 of you, the best deals you're going to find on a space with a minimum of 2 bedrooms are going to be condos and timeshares. The less talked about condo subdivisions often have the best deals. Here's a resource for you: http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/villa-map.php Windsor Hills gets rave reviews but is higher priced than crestwynd bay. Windsor Hills is #1 on this map, and Crestwynd Bay is #7 and they're very close to each other.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=z43BYkOGV2MI.kwHIYo5uN3bM&ie=UTF8&t=h&hl=en&msa=0&ll=28.272032,-81.608849&spn=0.068335,0.11055&z=13

I went to VRBO and did a quick search for Crestwynd Bay and found this one for $69/ night http://www.vrbo.com/334281 THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION. I don't know anything about that rental.

Then you have food. That's easy enough in that you eat breakfast in the condo/home, go to the park, take lunches with you. count on the cost of a locker rental OR carry them with you. If you can wait to eat a later lunch leave the park about 1-2 and eat at home. Come back after supper.

etc. How you space your breaks is up to you.

Our SECOND trip was when DH had been laid off AND we owned annual passes. there's only 3 of us, so I used priceline and got a hotel room on 192 for ~$200/week. We drove. We brought a hot-pot and ate a LOT of cup a noodle meals and kept a cooler full with ice in our room to keep the jelly and pimento cheese cool. We took sandwiches to the parks and to keep from feeling deprived I cooked a bunch of brownies before we left. We enjoyed a sandwich and a brownie in the evenings while watching the fireworks.
We took a case a bottled water, too.
We bought no souveniers that trip.

It can be done but you have to look at all your choices.

it will NEVER be cheap (unless you already spent the money on tickets like we had).