Trip for Four Under 5k

[theworldneedscolor]

I'm looking for some help keeping our trip under 5000. We are a family of four flying from Oregon. Two teenagers and two adults. We will be traveling in the beginning of May 2014. We will go from a Saturday to a Saturday, with four days at WDW and two days at Universal.

These are the prices I have so far:
700- Hotel (Fairfield Inn Lake Buena Vista)
1500- Flights
500- Rental car
1200- WDW Tickets
600- Universal Tickets

All this adds up to 4500, which doesn't include food (I'm assuming about another 1000). I mean, preferably we would like to keep this as close to 4000 as possible, but we definitely need to keep it at a 5000 max.

Any ideas on how to make this possible?

 

[Angie789]

My first thought is to check out the transportation board on here to find better prices on rental cars. $500 is significantly higher than the deals people get over there.

 

[KELLY]

My family of 4 is going for under 5000.00 for 2 weeks. We are staying at pop for 14 nights free QSDP, 10 day myw with wp&f. Total is 3200.00. Air for us will probably be around 1000.00. If you can go when there is a discount stay on property and dump the rental car ?

 

[mommiepoppins]

i am having a very hard time finding a trip for 2 adults and a baby for under 2000

 

[pumpkinmomma]

My first thought is to check out the transportation board on here to find better prices on rental cars. $500 is significantly higher than the deals people get over there.

I agree. I think you can get a rental car for half that cost. Definitely look for a better deal there.

You can also consider doing just 4 day base tickets for Disney vs. park hoppers. If you cut out park hopping you can save about $60 pp.

For the hotel, maybe look into a condo, rental house, or time share. You will have access to a full kitchen then and that can help with food costs. There are some good deals to be had on places like VRBO.

Flights will be probably the toughest area to save money since you are flying from Oregon. Good luck!

 

[NHDisneyFan]

Skip Universal and the car amount can be cut in half. Buy your Disney tickets now, there are sure to be up to 2 increases by the time May 2014 rolls around.

 

[brymolmom]

I agree you could drop the hopping to save on $$.

I agree that you can shave at least $100 on that rental car price.

If budget is a huge concern - You can likely find a condo rental and shave perhaps $200 off that hotel cost.

I don't think you need to spend $1000 on food for a week - especially if you have a nice condo or hotel with frig and microwave.

I would do ALL BREAKFASTS in your room - Figure grocery stop for cereal, bagels and yogurt - breakfasts for 4 for a week maybe $40. I would plan CS meals in the parks - figure about $10 or so per meal - so $40 per lunch. Then for dinners I would alternate something like chinese or pizza takeout back to the hotel - figure $30 - $40 for dinner. Then on every other night - maybe a nicer sit down place.

So on the no sit-down dinner days - figure $5 per day approx for breakfast plus $40 for lunch plus $30 for dinner that equals $75 total.
On the sit-down dinner days - same for breakfast and lunch and let's say $120 for dinner for a total of $165.
$165 x 3 = $495
$75 x 4 = $300
Total $795 - and that likely could be cut way down a hundred or two also. Figure a place like Applebees or Olive Garden for one of your sit down nights and you'll be able to get out of there for less than $120 (unless you like to drink alchol with your meals).

Also could chop another hundred or so off your food bill by getting a few more groceries and eating a few sandwiches for meals in your room OR bring some in a cooler to the parks and have lunch like that a couple times.

 

[SaraJayne]

Skip Universal and the car amount can be cut in half. Buy your Disney tickets now, there are sure to be up to 2 increases by the time May 2014 rolls around.

Or just skip Disney and do Universal. Your teens would probably enjoy Universal better.

 

[shoney]

Or just skip Disney and do Universal. Your teens would probably enjoy Universal better.

I was thinking the same thing.

that knocks off the 1200.00 for disney

you can get the 3park pass for 179.00pp....us/ioa/wet n wild

i think you'll find a rental car cheaper than 500.00


Whenever you try to combine 2 parks (Disney and universal, for example) the price of tix gets expensive. It is cheaper to add days to one place than to go to both.

 

[theworldneedscolor]

If free dining was offered during our stay, or a great room rate deal, we would definitely consider staying on site at WDW. But I didn't think these were generally offered during the dates we are looking at. Hopefully we can get a free night or two from our Mariott rewards.

If we were to do a condo, what ones would you suggest?

We definitely can't skip Universal; WWoHP is a must! If we had to skip one, it would be Disney, but we really don't want to do that since this is probably the only trip we will ever make to Florida. Being a Disney and Harry Potter nut sure is expensive!

I like the eating in-room idea. We will for sure do that for breakfast, since none of us are big breakfast eaters. We will probably stick to mainly quick service dining, with one or two sit down meals. We could bring sandwiches for a few lunches, though.

That ticket calculation is with out park hopping abilities for Universal and Disney. I rounded both of them up to allow for price increase.

Good suggestions so far, keep 'em coming!

 

[crusoe2]

I agree with other folks that you could probably do a little better on your accommodations cost by renting a condo. One thing I don't see in your budget tho is the cost of parking at the parks. Disney charges about $14 or $15 a day and I think it's about the same at Universal. For 6 days, that adds up to nearly $100 so you need to count that in. Depending on how much time you want to spend in the parks, you can easily make up the cost difference by using the condo kitchen to make some inexpensive meals to eat in or take into the parks with you. We've taken a backpack cooler before and used that for packing in snacks and drinks. That alone was a big savings and it was really nice to be able to have a snack or cold drink without having to stand in line to get it. That was at Disney parks tho. We've never done Uni so I'm not sure what their policy is about bringing in food.

ETA: OP, I just saw where you added the info about Uni being a must-do so I deleted my suggestion for doing only Disney. Sounds like this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime kinda trip. So here's some suggestions for making it work on your budget. Check out the Orlando Hotels and Attractions section on the Dis. You should find lots of good suggestions for places to stay. Our only offsite stays have been at Windsor Hills and we rented thru vacationcentralflorida.com. They have good rates, the condos are pretty much exactly as they look on the website, and their rental contracts are very simple and straight forward. Not a lot of hidden fees or conditions. Windsor Hills is a nice, gated community in a good location for doing Disney. Some of the folks who do Uni might be able to suggest a better location tho.

That's all I can think to add for now. I'll post again if I think of anything else tho. Good luck.

 

[NHDisneyFan]

Or just skip Disney and do Universal. Your teens would probably enjoy Universal better.

Oregon to Orlando for Universal?

 

[SaraJayne]

Oregon to Orlando for Universal?

Yes. I know it is sacrilege to suggest, but Disney isn't the only game in town.

 

[theworldneedscolor]

Oregon to Orlando for Universal?

WWoHP is the main draw, although we are a big Jurassic park family, and my mom is really into thrill rides. But like I said, it's all about Harry Potter. I grew up on the books, and have read them over ten times each (I know, I'm crazy ), so seeing Hogwarts in real life will be like a dream come true!

 

[shoney]

We love Universal! My DH and ds's would go there over Disney any day!
I love both, but am sooo looking forward to our upcoming trip to Universal....we haven't been to Harry Potter yet!

 

[pumpkinmomma]

I agree with other folks that you could probably do a little better on your accommodations cost by renting a condo. One thing I don't see in your budget tho is the cost of parking at the parks. Disney charges about $14 or $15 a day and I think it's about the same at Universal. For 6 days, that adds up to nearly $100 so you need to count that in. Depending on how much time you want to spend in the parks, you can easily make up the cost difference by using the condo kitchen to make some inexpensive meals to eat in or take into the parks with you. We've taken a backpack cooler before and used that for packing in snacks and drinks. That alone was a big savings and it was really nice to be able to have a snack or cold drink without having to stand in line to get it. That was at Disney parks tho. We've never done Uni so I'm not sure what their policy is about bringing in food.

ETA: OP, I just saw where you added the info about Uni being a must-do so I deleted my suggestion for doing only Disney. Sounds like this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime kinda trip. So here's some suggestions for making it work on your budget. Check out the Orlando Hotels and Attractions section on the Dis. You should find lots of good suggestions for places to stay. Our only offsite stays have been at Windsor Hills and we rented thru vacationcentralflorida.com. They have good rates, the condos are pretty much exactly as they look on the website, and their rental contracts are very simple and straight forward. Not a lot of hidden fees or conditions. Windsor Hills is a nice, gated community in a good location for doing Disney. Some of the folks who do Uni might be able to suggest a better location tho.

That's all I can think to add for now. I'll post again if I think of anything else tho. Good luck.

I agree with heading to the orlando attractions board.

We are booking a 2 br through vacation strategy at Wyndham Bonnet Creek- it's $840 for a week, and that includes all taxes, fees, etc. That's higher than your accommodation cost but it has a full kitchen. You can probably find condos for cheaper if you are willing to do some legwork.

Since you will have a rental car, you can easily pick up food and snacks for breakfast, bottled water for the park, etc. that will save you a bunch on food costs. We like to do breakfast in the room anyway since it gets us to the parks faster. Cereal, yogurt, fruit is pretty inexpensive.

You might go over to the transportation board and see if anyone can advise you on ways to get a better deal on airfare from Oregon (maybe look into flying from a different airport).

 

[JessB320]

1. I agree pick either Disney or universal, not both
2. Look at undercover tourist fur discount tickets
3. If you pick universal I would look at orlando flex tickets, they are about $270 pp (adult) from undercover tourist . They include unlimited visits to universal/IOA/wet n wild /sea world/ and aquatica for up to 14 days . You can visit multiple parks in a day with them and it's a way to fill out a week with different parks at a decent price.
4. Look at wyndam bonnet creek to stay. Look up the we love bonnet creek thread on here for lots and lots of info on it.
5. Look into credit cards rewards for airline points. We use the Alaska airlines card through bank of america and flew 7 people last sept for $35 pp from Washington start to Orlando , it was great
5. We rented a minivan for 2 weeks last trip for $200 . Follow the transportation boards, all kinds of tips there!!!

 

[LeeLee'sMom]

Many of the ideas posted are very good, but $500 for the rental is way too high..look for promo codes etc. We have stayed at Windsor HIlls beautiful condos and so reasonable..5-7 min from Disney plus like other posters stated...have your own kitchen etc. so you can make some easy meals (sandwiches) to take with you to cut down the costs. Doing both WDW and Universal does add up...we did it last year and only thing that helps us is the military discounted park tickets Good luck plan accordingly..because it can be done

 

[SpecialK]

Looks like you've got the park hopper option on your WDW TICKETS. Do you think you'd hop that much over 4 days? If not, that would save you a coup,e hundred right there.

I wouldn't skip Disney just because your kids are teens. We did a split trip last time, and our two teens enjoyed both. After a couple of days at Universal, they were ready to leave and move on to the Disney atmosphere.

 

[theworldneedscolor]

I'm curious, do you think a travel agent would help us get better deals? Or is it easy to do a budget trip on our own? If any of you have experience using a travel agent, please do share. We have looked at Glass Slipper Concierge and Small World Vacations, so information specific to those would be awesome.