Wanting to be an annual visitor, best low-cost trip advice?

[Marionnette]

I think it really depends on the person and their vacation style to determine if dvc is worth it.

I bought a small resale contact for about $6000 about two years ago. Its 100 points which give me enough to do 2-3 trips with one annual pass depending on where I stay and the time of year. It does take some planning ahead but for me is worth it. Of course I also like to do shorter trips and don't stay over the weekend (more points).
It's a long drive for me so I fly. That means staying off site would involve a car rental. When I factor in a car rental and the time it would take to look up discounts, I feel the car rental and dvc dues cancel each other out.

Of course it was $6000 right off the bat which doesn't really seem budget and like you said resale contacts seem to be higher priced right now.

Getting annual passes and planning so you get more than one trip is probably the best way to go every year.

I didn't say that DVC ownership does not have its merits. The OP asked about low-cost annual visits. I don't care how you parse it, there are cheaper ways to stay than buying into DVC if you want to go to Orlando every year.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

You throw around that $400 like it's nothing. $400 is a lot of money, for instance it is 1/2 your food budget. If you go the AP route where you can leverage 2 trips within a 12 month calendar then your $2000+ dollars is a one time expense (I know this would go up if buying APs) and then you'd be 'saving' $400 towards food for your next trip. You'd only have to budget hotel and travel and food expenses.

This is how you get to be an annual visitor. By saving that $400 'upgrade' and using it for the next trip.

Great point - $400 here, $250 there, $75 here.......

Pretty soon, you're halfway to another trip

 

[Iowajes]

May be worth it for at least one ticket as you would get free parking too at the parks.

This is a really clever idea to do the math on.
Plan a July 2014 and a June 2015 trip, so two trips on the annual pass. BUT it might not be enough days to really save money on a family worth of annual passes; however, purchasing just one and being eligible for TIW and free parking, plus park discounts- that is very clever.

 

[sunshinehighway]

I didn't say that DVC ownership does not have its merits. The OP asked about low-cost annual visits. I don't care how you parse it, there are cheaper ways to stay than buying into DVC if you want to go to Orlando every year.

Staying offsite isn't always the best answer to low cost though.

Get a tent and stay at Fort Wilderness. That's low cost. Doesn't work for everyone though.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Staying offsite isn't always the best answer to low cost though.

Get a tent and stay at Fort Wilderness. That's low cost. Doesn't work for everyone though.

Apples to apples, offsite is almost always going to be cheaper IMO (especially for people like OP who will have their own car on hand). Even tent campers have much cheaper options than FW.

 

[rlu929s]

Thanks for all the good advice. Using Bonnet Creek and some trimming I was able to get the budget down quite a bit. We also cut our stay down to 7 days and 6 nights.

I think I'm losing the battle for low-cost this trip though.

The wife really wants to do the DDP as it's easier and she refuses to eat CS every day when on vacation. I must admit that those pizza's and uncrustables for the kid's get old, but I don't worry as much about food

We did decide after last trip to POP that we'd only always stay in a suite on a long trip to allow each kid to have their own bed, as they would not go to sleep! I had a great suite at Bonnet picked out.

Our kids will be 5/7 for this trip, so our thinking is this'll probably be the last trip where they see all the magic from being in a themed hotel/room, so we're opting for on-site and Art of Animation in one of their Finding Nemo suites.

I do really like the thought of only buying 1 annual pass to get the benefit of free parking and all the discounts. Although, probably won't be worth it if we get the DDP.

 

[Disneychix]

Here's another option for keeping costs down. You say you want to go to US and WDW and Legoland. Why not one trip WDW and one trip US next year? The more days you buy for Disney the less expensive per day it becomes. Why not max out your WDW trip since you'll be on-site and do US (with APs!) next year/trip?

And I would drop Legoland. I see you went last year, do you really need to go again?

 

[Rose23]

We love staying onsite. To us that is a big part of the vacation.

One tip that I read on this board is if you can plan your "annual" trip to use one annual pass. Say go in Sept. this and August next. The biggest cost of tickets is the first few days.

If you read the dining board you can get a lot of advice on getting the most bang for your buck foodwise.

Very good advice here and I'm another vote for on-site. You can stay at a hotel anytime, but staying at a Disney resort is "Magical."

We actually pay for our Disney reservation (room-only) over 11 months and mail in payments to WDW Travel so our room reservation is fully paid for by our arrival We also purchase (again over an 11-month period) Disney gift cards at our local Giant Eagle grocery store and get the fuel points which we use throughout the year. When we are ready to leave for WDW, we normally have enough Disney gift cards to pay for our food, souvenirs, etc.

We also purchase gift cards to restaurants we know we will be stopping at on the road, i.e. Cracker Barrel, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, BW3s. Another opportunity to save money is to do group meal items like pizza, BW3s, Chinese, and don't forget about the decent priced McDonalds on property.

Another Tip: Stop at a Walmart Supercenter in Orlando and stock up on bottled breakfast juices, Pepsi, water and iced tea, along with everyone's favorite snacks to keep in the room. In the morning when it's time for breakfast, we take our juices in a tote bag to the Food Court. My bottle of SimplyOrange Juice cost me $1.25 at Walmart but was being sold at Disney for nearly $4 in the Food Court. Last year we saved at least $75 on beverages. Purchasing the refillable cups from Disney is not for us since we don't drink Coke.

We drive from Ohio every year and are Starwood, Hilton and AAA members. We purchase theme park tickets through AAA at discounted price and we're able to spread out that purchase as well, i.e. buy a pass every few months.

Best Wishes on saving money so you can go every year. This year will mark our 29th year at going on a budget. We're pros now.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

If you shorten your park days even more, you don't have to buy an AP to save money on tickets. Disney has increased the price of adding non-expiration to the point where it's almost not worth it anymore, but the 10 day non-expiration park hopper/water park fun and more gets you 10 days of theme park admission and 10 days of water park admission that you can use anytime.

If you don't want to feel forced to take two trips 50/51 weeks apart, but maybe 75 or 80 weeks apart, this is a great option. If you do trips around the Halloween or Christmas party you can save a day's admission and hang around the resorts, and then at 4 PM go to the party. By doing this, I've made 10 day non-expiration tickets (without the water park option) last 3 trips. These were not 6 or 7 day trips, but if you can do two trips with 4 or 5 park days, you could go this route.

 

[rlu929s]

If you shorten your park days even more, you don't have to buy an AP to save money on tickets. Disney has increased the price of adding non-expiration to the point where it's almost not worth it anymore, but the 10 day non-expiration park hopper/water park fun and more gets you 10 days of theme park admission and 10 days of water park admission that you can use anytime.

If you don't want to feel forced to take two trips 50/51 weeks apart, but maybe 75 or 80 weeks apart, this is a great option. If you do trips around the Halloween or Christmas party you can save a day's admission and hang around the resorts, and then at 4 PM go to the party. By doing this, I've made 10 day non-expiration tickets (without the water park option) last 3 trips. These were not 6 or 7 day trips, but if you can do two trips with 4 or 5 park days, you could go this route.

Forgot to add that yes we are dropping Legoland.

I really like your suggestions about getting gift cards for those stops on the way there. We stop several times at Cracker Barrel. Sam's Club sells their gift cards a little cheaper than face value, so I might check there. We got our Disney Gift cards there as you save about $3 per $50.

 

[eliza61]

Very good advice here and I'm another vote for on-site. You can stay at a hotel anytime, but staying at a Disney resort is "Magical."

Best Wishes on saving money so you can go every year. This year will mark our 29th year at going on a budget. We're pros now.

exactly what's magical about it? not being snarky. I hear this all the time and can never figure it out. so I always ask about peoples experience.
Now I stay deluxe. The value are definitely not "magical" lol,

I think it really depends on the individual. Now I also purchased a dvc low point contract basically because no way would I ever pay the over inflated prices Disney charges for a 3 star hotel at best.
(just my opinion guys, I travel a lot and what I could get for 550 bucks a night blows Disney to smiteerens).

So I guess it just depends on what type of trip I want. If I'm watching my pennies there isn't much magical about paying 2X's the price.

My sons and I are contemplating a trip in May now that the 30% room discount is out. we would love to try the Polynesian as everyone talks about it, LOL. I just can't imagine enough magic to ever make me pay 574 bucks a night.

My apologies, I'm just on Disneyworld.com and the prices there are

 

[Gumbo4x4]

exactly what's magical about it? not being snarky. I hear this all the time and can never figure it out. so I always ask about peoples experience.
Now I stay deluxe. The value are definitely not "magical" lol,

I think it really depends on the individual. Now I also purchased a dvc low point contract basically because no way would I ever pay the over inflated prices Disney charges for a 3 star hotel at best.
(just my opinion guys, I travel a lot and what I could get for 550 bucks a night blows Disney to smiteerens).

So I guess it just depends on what type of trip I want. If I'm watching my pennies there isn't much magical about paying 2X's the price.

My sons and I are contemplating a trip in May now that the 30% room discount is out. we would love to try the Polynesian as everyone talks about it, LOL. I just can't imagine enough magic to ever make me pay 574 bucks a night.

My apologies, I'm just on Disneyworld.com and the prices there are

I know it's personal preference, but I happen to agree. For a Disney trip, especially with budget in mind, our room is utilized for eating, showering, and sleeping. When we roll in around midnight, it really doesn't matter to us if Mickey is painted on the wall or not

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Very good advice here and I'm another vote for on-site. You can stay at a hotel anytime, but staying at a Disney resort is "Magical."

We actually pay for our Disney reservation (room-only) over 11 months and mail in payments to WDW Travel so our room reservation is fully paid for by our arrival We also purchase (again over an 11-month period) Disney gift cards at our local Giant Eagle grocery store and get the fuel points which we use throughout the year. When we are ready to leave for WDW, we normally have enough Disney gift cards to pay for our food, souvenirs, etc.

We also purchase gift cards to restaurants we know we will be stopping at on the road, i.e. Cracker Barrel, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, BW3s. Another opportunity to save money is to do group meal items like pizza, BW3s, Chinese, and don't forget about the decent priced McDonalds on property.

Another Tip: Stop at a Walmart Supercenter in Orlando and stock up on bottled breakfast juices, Pepsi, water and iced tea, along with everyone's favorite snacks to keep in the room. In the morning when it's time for breakfast, we take our juices in a tote bag to the Food Court. My bottle of SimplyOrange Juice cost me $1.25 at Walmart but was being sold at Disney for nearly $4 in the Food Court. Last year we saved at least $75 on beverages. Purchasing the refillable cups from Disney is not for us since we don't drink Coke.

We drive from Ohio every year and are Starwood, Hilton and AAA members. We purchase theme park tickets through AAA at discounted price and we're able to spread out that purchase as well, i.e. buy a pass every few months.

Best Wishes on saving money so you can go every year. This year will mark our 29th year at going on a budget. We're pros now.

If you shorten your park days even more, you don't have to buy an AP to save money on tickets. Disney has increased the price of adding non-expiration to the point where it's almost not worth it anymore, but the 10 day non-expiration park hopper/water park fun and more gets you 10 days of theme park admission and 10 days of water park admission that you can use anytime.

If you don't want to feel forced to take two trips 50/51 weeks apart, but maybe 75 or 80 weeks apart, this is a great option. If you do trips around the Halloween or Christmas party you can save a day's admission and hang around the resorts, and then at 4 PM go to the party. By doing this, I've made 10 day non-expiration tickets (without the water park option) last 3 trips. These were not 6 or 7 day trips, but if you can do two trips with 4 or 5 park days, you could go this route.

We try to go every other year, usually 1.5 years in between trips. We do all the bolded stuff above:
- 10 no expire Hopper with WP Fun & more tickets (to use over 3 trips)
- drive to Florida
- use discount sites or AAA to book hotels along I 95 during travel to and from
- buy snacks and drinks at Target, Walmart or Publix when we get there
- buy Disney gift cards at our grocery store with 2x fuel points each month. Or we stock up 4 times a year when they offer 4x fuel points (which equals a 14% discount).

We have stayed off site at Wyndham Bonnet Creek and Vacation Village at Parkway through timeshare trades.

We have also stayed onsite during Free Dining.

The easiest way for us to swing it is an offsite timeshare trade though because the timeshare fees are already paid for (each January). With the 10 day no expire tickets and 1.5 years worth of Disney gift cards our tickets and food are already paid for too.

 

[Marionnette]

Thanks for all the good advice. Using Bonnet Creek and some trimming I was able to get the budget down quite a bit. We also cut our stay down to 7 days and 6 nights.

I think I'm losing the battle for low-cost this trip though.

The wife really wants to do the DDP as it's easier and she refuses to eat CS every day when on vacation. I must admit that those pizza's and uncrustables for the kid's get old, but I don't worry as much about food

We did decide after last trip to POP that we'd only always stay in a suite on a long trip to allow each kid to have their own bed, as they would not go to sleep! I had a great suite at Bonnet picked out.

Our kids will be 5/7 for this trip, so our thinking is this'll probably be the last trip where they see all the magic from being in a themed hotel/room, so we're opting for on-site and Art of Animation in one of their Finding Nemo suites.

I do really like the thought of only buying 1 annual pass to get the benefit of free parking and all the discounts. Although, probably won't be worth it if we get the DDP.

AP holders can often add the DDP to their room reservation without having to purchase additional tickets. I wouldn't dismiss the idea of getting APs because of the dining plan. You just cannot get "free dining" when you have an AP unless you're also willing to pay for 2-day tickets that will sit in a drawer until your APs expire and you return to Disney.

Another thing worth considering would be to upgrade your tickets to APs when you do your upcoming trip. You can then use those APs for your visit the following year and opt for an offsite vacation to save money, rent DVC points or snag an AP room discount.

 

[rlu929s]

I think the "magical" Disney experience is for the younger kids TBH. We stayed at both Deluxe (POR) and Value (POP) and the Disney theme was SO much better at the Value IMO. While POR was great and we did enjoy it, we just didn't feel the theme was there for our kids.

I would say this'll probably be the last trip where it'll matters and we'll transition to the off-site/more cost effective trips. I enjoy the theme while in the parks, but have a nice suite to come back to each night.

Let's just face it. In looking at bed's, room size etc. Value and Deluxe are not what I'd call comfortable.

 

[Marionnette]

I think the "magical" Disney experience is for the younger kids TBH. We stayed at both Deluxe (POR) and Value (POP) and the Disney theme was SO much better at the Value IMO. While POR was great and we did enjoy it, we just didn't feel the theme was there for our kids.

I would say this'll probably be the last trip where it'll matters and we'll transition to the off-site/more cost effective trips. I enjoy the theme while in the parks, but have a nice suite to come back to each night.

Let's just face it. In looking at bed's, room size etc. Value and Deluxe are not what I'd call comfortable.

POR is not a deluxe resort. It's a moderate resort. But I have stayed at the deluxe resorts and I have to agree that Disney's definition of "deluxe" falls short of the industry's definition. I do believe that there is a bigger leap in amenities and service when you go from moderate to the deluxe resorts, compared to going from value to moderate resorts. But you also pay dearly for that leap.