There have to be some Dave Ramsey fans on here!

[cwilc]

DH and I are taking our girls (ages 8 & 10) on a trip to Disney to celebrate 1 year of being completely debt free using Dave Ramsey's baby steps. We are trying to get the most for our money (isn't everyone?) while still staying within our budget.
I would like to hear from anyone who has "done Disney" this way. What are your best tips? What did you spend money on that you didn't expect? How much did you budget for your souvenirs? What did you splurge on? Every response is going to be helpful, so I hope I get lots!
Thanks!!

 

[Tink-aholic]

I'm on DR and I go to DW frequently...though not as often as I did before DR! I have DVC (which Dave wouldn't approve of, but I bought it with cash and pay the mf with cash, so it is in my budget). DVC units make Disney vacations easier to do on a budget because of the full kitchen and laundry facilities. I also prefer to stay in luxury resorts. You can also rent DVC points from members cheaper than you can get a rack-rate room direct from Disney. Do you homework, and you should be fine.

Good luck!

 

[Carlyzmom]

BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS Dave Fan here!!! We have been debt free for 5 years! It completely changed our lives. I have coordinated FPU twice at my church. I NEVER get tired of talking "Dave"

OK, we had a pretty big budget - it was our kids first trip - they were 5 and 8, so we wanted to do it right. I did get a good deal on AKL with the "pay 4 nights and get 3 free" deal at the time. That saved over $1000!! I suggest you work with a Disney travel agent. They can give you heads up on all the deals.

We budgeted and paid cash for all of our meals and snacks. My kids aren't huge eaters, so I never minded sharing with them. We had a fridge in our room, so we ate cereal in the morning. Also, I made PB&J for my picky son! We also brought our own bottled water.

Now, we DID splurge on souvenirs. Probably wouldn't do as much next time, but it was our kids first time and we wanted them to have lots of "memories". But, we did stay within our cash budget.

Bought our park hoppers through Undercover Tourist and saved money there.

I'm sure I'll think of more and I'll chime in later. HAPPY PLANNING!

 

[cglaura]

Some of my best budget tips:

Carry your own water bottle and refill at the fountains. If you find that you don't like the taste of FL water, add some Crystal Light type packets. They are easy to carry since they come in those pre-measured water bottle size packets now.

At meals, get ice water. Be sure to ask for a cup of ice water, if you just ask for water you may get a $$bottle$$.

The meals are huge, you can easily split one.

Or, if you like the offerings, you can buy a child size meal (at counter service places anyway).

If you aren't sure you want to parkhop, you can leave that option off. You can add it to your tickets at any point during your stay. Note though, that it is the same $$ whether you add it on the first day or the last. But, if it turns out you didn't want to or need to hop, then you didn't waste any money.

Congrats!!

 

[dizcrazee]

Thanks to Dave, we have been debt free except for our house for several years. We continue to follow his guidelines for educational savings, retirement, etc. and we are big fans!

However, the main thing that we do to save on our Disney trips is not a Dave principle. We use our Disney Visa to earn reward points. We use it for major purchases throughout the year and pay it off as soon as the statement comes. We usually have several hundred dollars in points and are able to pay for most of our meals and souvenirs this way. I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, however. We only do it because we pay the bill completely off when the statement comes without fail.

We also drive instead of fly, stay in less expensive hotels (value resorts, the Swan/Dolphin using my teacher discount, or offsite), and we buy a 10 day non-expiring ticket for each member of the family for Christmas every few years. With the swim parks and other benefits included, they last us for several trips. This saves us a lot of money in the long run.

Good luck with your planning and have fun!

 

[marcemc]

Another Dave fan here

Some of our tips:

We stay at Disney Value Resort (big fans of Pop), because we like the Disney feeling but we don't spend much time at the hotel.

I buy secret souvenirs at my local Disney Outlet Store & make gift bags for the boys, we hand them over the 1st day. I also buy glowing stics, necklaces & bracelets at the dollar store.

We bring our snacks & water.

We only purchase vacation packages that have a special offer (buy 3 nights get one free, etc)

We buy them through Costco because they always throw in a Disney gift card & Character Breakfast + some other stuff.

Good luck & enjoy planning a magical & responsible vacation

 

[Jeff_G]

DR fan as well and are debt free except the home and that will be gone in a few years. We saved up for several year for our Disney vacation and paid cash. It’s nice to not have to worry about the money side of things and just go and relax...

I can’t wait until the mortgage goes away, I am seeing a baby step 7 light at the end of a tunnel, and its not an oncoming train!

 

[mrsklamc]

Are you open to staying offsite?

 

[Jeff_G]

Duplicate post

 

[firsttimer03]

We eat breakfast in our room and pack our lunches and take with along with granola bars, fiber bars, own water bottles to the parks.
We eat out 1 meal a day and with an occasional popcorn/ice cream/beer.
Also, we have always made our son work for his own souviner $$$, that way he gains some sense of pride and learns to budget his own cash. Now, if we see that he is doing really well and needs a small loan, we will help him out.
Good luck to you!!!
Have fun and enjoy your trip!

 

[Smile4Me]

We haven't completely started the Dave Ramsey system, but do listen to him and adhere to a lot of the same principles. That being said, you need to sit down and figure out what kind of trip you want and what is important to you as far as where you want to stay and how you want to eat. I would not suggest park hoppers for your first trip. There is so much to see in each park that you can leave that off (its like an additional $52 per ticket). Plus you can go to one park per day, leave and go back to the same park later, so you can take a break if you need to.
If you don't want to carry around a water bottle all trip you can go to any counter service restaurant and ask for a cup of ice water and they will give you one. Its great!
Once you get what you want your trip to be like figured out then you can start figuring out how to make it budget friendly for your family! Enjoy!

 

[firsttimer03]

Oops!
Remembered another thing or two;
We buy our tickets from undercover tourist (they are awesome!!!) and get the no expire option. (We do that and they last 2-3 vacations)
Also, we use the AAA discount for room only on site stays.

 

[coastiewifern]

Oops!
Remembered another thing or two;
We buy our tickets from undercover tourist (they are awesome!!!) and get the no expire option. (We do that and they last 2-3 vacations)
Also, we use the AAA discount for room only on site stays.

Can you give me an example of what kind of ticket that is?

 

[firsttimer03]

We get a 10 day park hopper/water parks and more with no expire.
That means the tickets don't ever expire until you use them.
So, you have 10 days at the parks whenever you want.
Since this is your first trip I woudn't waste the money on a park hopper since you will probably want to take your time in each park and it will save you $$.
Go to thier website to get the current amounts, also if you go to mousesavers.com and sign up for thier newsletter you will get special additional discounts off at undercovertourist.com for your tickets.
They also offer that you if lose your tickets (make a copy of the back of your tickets) they will issue you new ones with no fees.

 

[cwilc]

Are you open to staying offsite?

We did a little looking, and got an offsite hotel for <$80/night. It has a small kitchen and they have a hot breakfast buffet every day. I plan on taking snacks and water bottles into each park. We have a budget in place already. We don't have tickets yet, so the advice on that was great.

 

[mrsklamc]

We did a little looking, and got an offsite hotel for <$80/night. It has a small kitchen and they have a hot breakfast buffet every day. I plan on taking snacks and water bottles into each park. We have a budget in place already. We don't have tickets yet, so the advice on that was great.

Be sure to check the thread (should be here on the first page probably) "Disney YES program open to non groups" - if they have dates when you are going, it's an even better ticket deal.

If not, be sure to go to mousesavers.com and sign up for their newsletter which will be sent out on the 15th. It will contain a link for a small discount from undercovertourist.

 

[gatormom2tots]

Dave has changed our life!

While we still are not completely debt free (but almost!!!!!!) for the first time we are paying for our family trip completely cash!

Now we didn't do it Ramsey's way ( we still have student loans and house payment) and we will be staying at BLT for a week using rented points. Dave would have had us staying at the cheapest possible place since we still have debt. But it is so refreshing to already have this trip payed for- makes it so much more for to anticipate!

 

[Tink-aholic]

We did a little looking, and got an offsite hotel for <$80/night. It has a small kitchen and they have a hot breakfast buffet every day. I plan on taking snacks and water bottles into each park. We have a budget in place already. We don't have tickets yet, so the advice on that was great.

This might not save you money if you have to rent a car and pay to park at the the parks. All of Disney's on-site transportation is free and you can get Disney's Magical Express bus service to take you for free to and from the airport to your onsite resort. Just something to think about when you plan out your costs for offsite vs. onsite...

 

[DisNeed]

We did FP at church some time ago. We got out of credit card debt... and let me tell you we easily had 20K of it.

Keep the great saving tips coming!

 

[Smile4Me]

We did a little looking, and got an offsite hotel for <$80/night. It has a small kitchen and they have a hot breakfast buffet every day. I plan on taking snacks and water bottles into each park. We have a budget in place already. We don't have tickets yet, so the advice on that was great.

Don't lug water in the park! keep some in your room and then ask for free ice water at any of the counter service locations!