Tell me HOW to make Disney affordable

[tlh0726]

We use plastic pencil boxes to pack snacks in for the parks. Each person has their own. Can be easily shoved back in a backpack and keeps things from getting squished.


Planning meals at the room/condo is great way to save but in reality it is difficult. To round everyone up, exit the park, drive back to the condo, cook, clean up, drive back to the park takes alot of time.

 

[artemis4]

We use plastic pencil boxes to pack snacks in for the parks. Each person has their own. Can be easily shoved back in a backpack and keeps things from getting squished. Planning meals at the room/condo is great way to save but in reality it is difficult. To round everyone up, exit the park, drive back to the condo, cook, clean up, drive back to the park takes alot of time.

If it is such a hassle to leave the park and return to accommodations, then why do so many people recommend mid-day breaks?

 

[theyoungs07]

We usually leave during the busy part of the day and then come back for the last few hours of the night for shows or to ride rides while everyone else is watching them. We stand in line less this way and can be more relaxed. This optimized the best times to be in the park (opening and closing)

 

[marylastiri]

My first post here, we are getting ready to purchase passes for our trip to WDW in March. I sign in for Mousesavers, but a few days too late to get this month's newsletter. Can someone please, forward the newsletter to me? Any savings would certainly add up.

 

[kbarrett]

Artemis that is fabulous advice and so true, it's not a family vacation if you have to be separated like that....we are a family of six and the biggest expense when I break it down is park tickets, yikes! How do is bring down that cost?

 

[My3Princez]

Artemis that is fabulous advice and so true, it's not a family vacation if you have to be separated like that....we are a family of six and the biggest expense when I break it down is park tickets, yikes! How do is bring down that cost?

Disney Homeschool Days or YES Program if your kids qualify. Small discount if you buy tickets from Mousesavers.
Edit: Looks like Homeschool Days are no more. Now Known as Disney Student Seminars https://www.studentguest.com/studentseminars/

 

[5kidsmommy]

We are a family of 7 and went last January as my son went off to college in the fall so I get where you are coming from.

I haven't read the entire thread so I don't know if this has been mentioned but we have found the best place at Disney for a large family on a budget is Fort Wilderness. If you do not have a camper you can rent one, do not rent the cabins, they are not big enough and they are pricey. You can rent a trailer from lots of places and you can book at full hook-up site, they are the least expensive of the sites that you can put a full size trailer on. When you rent they will set the trailer up, you will have to pay and reserve the site and then pay for the trailer. People will say you need a golf cart, you don't. We have never had one, they won't seat 7 so it wasn't worth it. You can cook in the trailer in the morning, pack lunches for the afternoon and snacks (bring in a couple small soft sided coolers and rent a locker) and then do quick service for dinner. Water is free, so you shouldn't need to buy beverages with you meals. If you drive down (cheapest way to travel with a large family) stop at Walmart and stock up on snacks, soda, lunch and breakfast foods.


You don't need park hoppers, it's too difficult to move around with a large family anyhow.

We did our last trip including a night in a hotel up and back for a little under $6000. We ate out more than we planned (two meals a day and snacks)and had one fancy date night. We could have easily kept it to right at $5000.

Not sure if this helps but I thought I'd let you know what this family of 7 did for our last Disney trip.

 

[HeatherC]

OP...we are a family of 5 with three teens. We have been lucky enough to have been able to come for many years....thanks in part to these boards. I NEVER thought we would be able to afford it, but now know how to search out the deals to make it doable for us.

We are here now and staying at Bonnet Creek Resort. We are in a 3 bedroom villa on property, just not Disney owned....and paying $125 a night including all taxes. We have a full kitchen, two bathrooms and laundry. the villa sleeps 10. Our total for 10 nights was $1249.

My point is that there are great hotel deals to be found in Orlando that can significantly slash your costs.

Ticket prices are outrageous and there is only so much you can do to save on them. I would suggest getting 4 day base tickets....allows you to visit all the parks. We like to be at rope drop and do a full day at each...but we build in pool days in between because kids can't all handle 14 hour park days on consecutive days.

If you have any extra in the budget, you could always do a water park or Disney Quest another day. But to be honest, you can spend a day or two doing free stuff that is just as much fun. Visit the resorts and get an ice cream....plus, there seems to always be something going on at the resorts to capture your interest. Visit Downtown Disney one day or night...also the Boardwalk area is fun at night. You are still immersed in Disney but not having to pay park tickets for those extra days.

A couple places to stay VERY affordably, but still feel like you are on vacation are...Regal Oaks, Regal Palms, Bonnet Creek (best deal around to me in gorgeous resort that kids and adults love). Renting through skyAuction is a great way to save...just watch fees...we have stayed at places that are beautiful for $249 a week.

Renting a house is another option....try homeaway and vrbo. Emerald Island is nice and usually less $$ than Windsor Hills...but not always. Owners are usually willing to negotiate.

We also hit up Walmart for food and enjoy grilling something at the resort on our pool days. this year I used the Walmart Savings Catcher App and had enough reward $$ on it that food was free for the villa!

Signing up for restaurant coupons are great too. Sweet Tomatoes is great for families and is healthy and fills everyone up. Meals are usually $8 a person there with a coupon.

Another way we saved was to get free airfare. Both Dh and I got the Southwest visa Card. That was 100,000 free points. We charge everything we can on it and were able to fly five of us free over a school vacation week. And we still have a ton of points left.

We rented a car using codes from the Transportation board for a minivan for $257 for 10 days. Was cheaper than driving!

With some good planning, Disney is still doable. Just wish those ticket prices would level out!

Hope some of these things will be helpful to you in giving you ideas on how to save and make it affordable.

Best of luck!!!

 

[eliza61]

If it is such a hassle to leave the park and return to accommodations, then why do so many people recommend mid-day breaks?

We've never found it to be a hassle. Now we are not "go, go, go " type of tourers. Also we go in August which is Africa hot so no way do I want to be in the parks with noonday sun beating down on me.

My family (forget the kids, the adults are worse. lol) get horribly grumpy when we are hot, sweaty and tired. So we much rather take a midday break, chill out at our resort for a few hours and then return in the early evening.

 

[abcboys]

Oh my I couldn't even imagine driving that far and tent camping! We tent camp only once a year about an hour away from home and it is way too much work and I only have a family of 5 plus one child's friend. 2 tents, chairs for everyone, coolers for food, air mattresses for all, blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, towels for showers, camp stove, dishes etc etc. I feel like I pack up the whole house. We have a utility trailer and we take 2 vehicles. Couldn't imagine packing all that all the way to disney....

I realize that doesn't really help just the thought came to me.....

 

[Plutofan]

Here is what I would suggest:

Accommodations - look at Dream Villas (owned by people who run this site). Cost for a week in a 4 bedroom villa about $1000. I have heard that accommodation are wonderful and they through in extra perks. If you want to stay on property look at renting two DVC studios from a member but this would cost you at least another $1K.

Meals - eat breakfast in the room. Freeze water over night and bring a small cooler with water. The frozen water will keep the other one's cold and then later the frozen one's will thaw out and you will have cold ones for later. Bring lunch into the park in a small cooler and in a back packs. We do this all the time. Then have a nice sit down dinner. We usually do an early dinner at around 3 - 4:30 so no one misses lunch. If still available buy discounted gift cards for target, use gift card along with Target discount if still available to get another discount, plus use a cash reward credit card this should net you around a 12% discount on the purchase of Disney gift cards that can be used for meals in the park.

Tickets - use the same process as above to buy discounted Disney gift cards to deposit into a Disney Vacation Account to get an additional 2% off to purchase tickets. This should get you 14% off tickets. Watch out for limitations on how long you need to have the account opened etc.

 

[Julylady]

Hey OP, you have received lots and lots of great suggestions. I hope you are able to make a trip work for you! I don't have anything new to add, but will underscore some things that have worked for us in the past with larger groups. Twice we have rented a vacation villa at Emerald Island with our own pool. We loved it and it was 10 minutes from Animal Kingdom. I also purchase a $50 Disney gift card every payday. That's $1300 per year that we use for eating out at Disney. I also realized that I was accumulating points at my Credit Union. One of the things I could purchase with those points was Disney gift cards. The first time I had points for $500 in cards. That was just plain found money!!! Since then, I earn about $100 per year.

We used to have a Disney Visa and tried to pay off everything with that card in order to earn points. One trip we had about $300 which was great. Then we switched to a Southwest Visa card since it came with 50,000 free miles. We paid for 3 out of our 4 tickets to Orlando with points last spring. For us, the airline miles equate to more money than the Disney Visa points.

We travel with older teens. I plan out how many meals we will eat in the park during the week. I also add one snack per day. I preload Visa cards (only $2 at my Credit Union) with $10 per meal plus $4 per snack. They are in charge of their own spending. If they want to eat more, they pay for it out of their own money. To supplement, I pack (we fly Southwest so 2 free bags per person) a lot of non-perishable single serving snack items. I buy these on sale in the 6 weeks prior to the trip out of my regular grocery budget. We all take 3-5 snacks per day with us into the parks.

We are now DVC owners and usually stay in a two bedroom unit which I will admit is a lot easier than staying off site. We still eat all breakfasts in the villa plus one additional meal per day on most days. We usually return to the unit in the afternoon to rest, swim and eat a meal and then return to the parks. Or, we say in the villa until noon and then go to the parks. Sometimes we stay until 5 or so and then spend the night relaxing. We followed that schedule when we rented the houses and still do as DVC members. Since we will be DVC points shy next year, I am considering a stay at Bonnet Creek. That resort looks amazing!

 

[aaarcher86]

OP...we are a family of 5 with three teens. We have been lucky enough to have been able to come for many years....thanks in part to these boards. I NEVER thought we would be able to afford it, but now know how to search out the deals to make it doable for us.

We are here now and staying at Bonnet Creek Resort. We are in a 3 bedroom villa on property, just not Disney owned....and paying $125 a night including all taxes. We have a full kitchen, two bathrooms and laundry. the villa sleeps 10. Our total for 10 nights was $1249.

My point is that there are great hotel deals to be found in Orlando that can significantly slash your costs.

Ticket prices are outrageous and there is only so much you can do to save on them. I would suggest getting 4 day base tickets....allows you to visit all the parks. We like to be at rope drop and do a full day at each...but we build in pool days in between because kids can't all handle 14 hour park days on consecutive days.

If you have any extra in the budget, you could always do a water park or Disney Quest another day. But to be honest, you can spend a day or two doing free stuff that is just as much fun. Visit the resorts and get an ice cream....plus, there seems to always be something going on at the resorts to capture your interest. Visit Downtown Disney one day or night...also the Boardwalk area is fun at night. You are still immersed in Disney but not having to pay park tickets for those extra days.

A couple places to stay VERY affordably, but still feel like you are on vacation are...Regal Oaks, Regal Palms, Bonnet Creek (best deal around to me in gorgeous resort that kids and adults love). Renting through skyAuction is a great way to save...just watch fees...we have stayed at places that are beautiful for $249 a week.

Renting a house is another option....try homeaway and vrbo. Emerald Island is nice and usually less $$ than Windsor Hills...but not always. Owners are usually willing to negotiate.

We also hit up Walmart for food and enjoy grilling something at the resort on our pool days. this year I used the Walmart Savings Catcher App and had enough reward $$ on it that food was free for the villa!

Signing up for restaurant coupons are great too. Sweet Tomatoes is great for families and is healthy and fills everyone up. Meals are usually $8 a person there with a coupon.

Another way we saved was to get free airfare. Both Dh and I got the Southwest visa Card. That was 100,000 free points. We charge everything we can on it and were able to fly five of us free over a school vacation week. And we still have a ton of points left.

We rented a car using codes from the Transportation board for a minivan for $257 for 10 days. Was cheaper than driving!

With some good planning, Disney is still doable. Just wish those ticket prices would level out!

Hope some of these things will be helpful to you in giving you ideas on how to save and make it affordable.

Best of luck!!!

Where did you end up getting this price for Bonnet Creek? I pull up $268 for a 2 bed in October.

 

[HeatherC]

I booked through an owner. We use myresortnetwork, redweek, skyauction and even EBAY to stay there really affordably. Hope this helps!

 

[Rosebud123]

Try a 2 or 3 bedroom at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. Although technically offsite, it's surrounded on 3 sides by WDW property. It's right next to the Caribbean Beach Resort. Expect to pay about $150 night during the summer for a 2-bedroom. It's gorgeous! You can cook the majority of your meals in the room which would save a ton.

Also, what if you only get 4 days tickets but make them WaterPark and more tix? You can go to each of the parks for one day, and mix in water park visits and Disney Quest visits.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Change. Save all of your change and have the whole family contribute to it and then use it for either small souvenirs or for doling out tips when needed. I start saving for my trip a year in advance, and at the same time I get out the change jar. I throw all of my spare change in it and by the time I cash it in a couple of days before leaving I usually have over a hundred dollars in silver and pennies. Every little bit helps, and with a large family you should be able to save way more than I ever could.

 

[3MFamily]

We are a DLR family heading to WDW for the first time in June, so I have no expertise on where to stay. I do suggest having the older kids get involved in earning money for their trip. DD17 and DD15 do garage sales and both know how to ebay (the app makes it easy to do off phones). DS10 saves change and does small chores around the grandparents house. Every little bit helps and being responsible for earning their spending money makes them all the wiser when in the parks debating if they really need that churro or not!

I do like the tip about getting a small gift card every week to go towards food expenses in the park. It sounds like a great way to 'prepay' for things and not incur debt for those special meals. I am definitely going to do that one!!

 

[cnetbuild]

An affordable Disney trip might sound like an oxymoron but there are some tricks you can do. If you have a vehicle, visit a site like Home Away and look for villas in the west gate/Famousa Gardens general area. You will be fifteen minutes from driveway to walking through the Animal Kingdom gates. Then, grab some groceries and eat at the villa and take water and snacks into the park. Park tickets are very expensive - there are many things to do at Disney that require no ticket: downtown Disney, ride the monorail, ride the transportation boats, Boardwalk, and visit the resorts - they are amazing. We love going to the Poly and standing on the beach to watch the MK fireworks.

 

[m86]

On our first Orlando vacation we stayed at a motel with free breakfast. We did not have much money, so we saved on eating a big breakfast that filled us until Dinner. Dinner we ate at counter service in the parks or at chain restaurants like TGIs etc. Also our motel had a free shuttle, so we got to Disney and Universal for free.

We did not have much money then, so we also saved a lot on not buying anything like souvenirs etc.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Several years ago my DSIL took her family to WDW with my DFIL who is retired military. She has a family of 5, but the youngest was under 3 at the time (free). They stayed at Shades of Green and had the super affordable Military Salute tickets. Now fast forward 3 years. She'd like to go again but DFIL doesn't want to go so no military price perks. Her DH has given her the same budget she had on the first trip. But now the youngest is no longer free and her older two are Disney adults.

YES tickets have been her saving grace! With all 3 kids in a class, the total price is almost the same as the Military Salute tickets would be (maybe $200 more total). She is looking at a Mousesaver's Hot Deal Downtown Disney suite style hotel with free hot breakfast and transportation. That way she is super close to the parks, has bus service and gets one free big meal a day. She is super excited about staying within budget!

YES tickets are the best way to majorly cut your ticket price.
http://www.disneyyouth.com/tickets-accommodations/purchase-tickets/?l=WDW&s=individual-enrollment