WDW w/$3000 budget, can it be done?

[mrsklamc]

YES tickets aren't available during spring break.

About souvies- I recommend getting park merchandise at prime or premium outlets, as well as saving souvie buying for World of Disney at Downtown Disney after you've been through the parks. They will have most things. Otherwise, my nephew would have blown his souvie budget 5 minutes after walking into the first park and wanting a huge stupid goofy hat. I told him I'd take his picture in it and if that was still what he wanted at the end of the trip we'd come back for it. He never mentioned it again.

 

[torinsmom]

Rent a house offsite--you can get a 4 bedroom for less than the $119/night you posted. Then you would have a kitchen, laundry facilities and separate bedrooms for the kiddos--maybe even a pool. The kitchen would be a big money saver, especially if you are dealing with food allergies.

Something like this.....
http://www.vrbo.com/46814

You could also save money on the tickets, if you are able to get in on the Give a Day, Get a Disney Day promotion. You could put the one day voucher you get towards a multiday ticket. For adult tickets, you will get a $79 credit for each ticket, I am not sure about kids prices.

Save money on food by sharing meals or buying kids meals for everyone, especially at lunch when you want to get back to rides anyway. Or go back to your hotel/house for lunch and a rest each day. You can get free ice water anywhere in the parks--just ask.

Souvenir money---give your kids each a set amount and when its gone its gone. Its amazing how careful they are when its THEIR money, LOL

You can do it for under $3000. I would do it now rather than later.

 

[MrsJones]

We are doing a budget trip this year too. It is myself, husband, kids aged 11, 8 and 1. We did the Give a day, get a day and Disney will allow you to use that towards and upgrade. We are upgrading to the 10 day pass for $177 an adult and I think it was $153 for the child tickets. Plus we got a pin for hotel and got Pop Century for $879 for the 10 nights. We are going June 3-13th. If you really compare your deals and do the give a day program I think you can do it. If you need more room, looks like the house renting is a good idea.

As for food, if you can go when they have the free dining, go !! We did one year and it was great. But if we added the dining to our trip it would be $1600 more. There is NO WAY we would eat that much on this trip. So, we are eating more frugally and doing more fast food. We let each person pick a sit down and are doing it that way.

I would always rather go than not go. I am sure your kids will understand that Disney is the big deal and lots of stuff to bring home isn't that big a deal if it's stuff or not going. Plus they have outlets there and if you have your car, you can check them out. There is soooo much to do that just going is the fun and sometimes you can throw in an extra and sometimes not.

Go, Enjoy and have a blast !!!!

Tamara

 

[brymolmom]

I would say you can do better than $119 per night. How about a condo rental? Spring break is tough to get great prices, but if you could swing it to go slightly different time - could do a week for $400 - $600 total.

OR if you need to stick to that timeframe and can't find good condo deals - I would stick to somewhere like the Comfort Inn LBV and just get 2 rooms. YOu can find this hotel for $35 - $40 per night and it is a GREAT location. There is also a place that can fit 6...I stayed there years ago - I THINK it's called The Palms now. Keep checking around - I think you can improve on that hotel price by maybe $50 per night. Try travelzoo.com.

Make sure to have a place with a frig - bring sandwiches, snacks, goodies, drinks to the parks with you. This can save a ton!

 

[delmar411]

This math is way off - 3000 - 1100 - 833 = 1067. Don't forget parking at the theme parks, too.

Thanks...I knew that seemed wrong. I must have fat fingered something on the calculator.

 

[StephMK]

I definitely think you can do it! And unless your 2 yr old has a bday before then, that child will be free. Your kids are at a great age to go & I think your budget can be done as long as you plan. Do you know anyone you could rent a timeshare week from? We rented from SIL/BIL because they don't use it much. We spent $250 on the transfer fees & had a 2 bd + loft condo - it was great! I think offsite is more comfortable with 5+ people and easier than renting two rooms.

There are some good inexpensive places to eat If you research around here, there are lots of deals. Spring break might be more of a pain w/crowds but just go with the right mindset. We had 3-4 must do things at each park then the rest we filled in as we could. That way we made sure we hit the stuff the kids really wanted to see at least.

My kids actually didn't even want to shop that much, they were too interested in the other stuff in the parks. I think we spent maybe $35 per kid. And you can order stuff later from merchandising for bday or holidays if they really want something out of budget. We got DD the castle playset for Christmas after we went & it was a big hit.

 

[tinkercat]

You can totally do it! We did it for under $3000 for a family of 5 in November 2008 and that included airfare, staying onsite, dining plan, etc. I think you've gotten some great tips already in the thread. I'd definitely look at rental houses though. I know I've seen some 4 bedrooms on VRBO for under $400 for the week.

Our next trip (whenever it may be) will have to be an offsite budget trip since we have 4 kids now...unless we do a family suite at ASMu...so I've been looking into pricing just to get an idea.

 

[Taweavmo4]

Wow...so many great ideas! Thank you all so much. Looks like I need to do more looking as far as places to stay, if I could find something cheaper, that would shave a little off. I feel more hopeful now that we can do this!

 

[crusoe2]

I say go but I'd wait and go in early June if you can. We've found that to be a good time - not too hot or crowded yet and possibly less expensive than spring break time. They will also be having Star Wars Weekends at DHS so if you have any Star Wars fans at your house that would be a big extra but it doesn't cost you anything extra.

I also second the recommendation to check into www.vacationcentralflorida.com or other options for offsite accommodations - I think you might do even better. We have rented condos at Windsor Hills from the site above twice and they are very nice. They decorate with very tasteful Disney touches throughout the condo or townhouse, have a full kitchen w/Disney plates and cups for the kids, full-size washer and dryer, and outfit all the rooms with flatscreen tvs, iPod docks, etc. Their prices and cancellation policy are very reasonable and they are great folks to deal with. Check out the Orlando Hotels and Attractions board here on the Dis if you want more information about Windsor Hills or offsite accommodations in general. One thing about staying in condos and pool homes, tho - you'll most likely end up doing more housework than if you'd stayed in a hotel suite. I've learned that, for me personally, I don't like having to do a lot of cooking and housework while we're at Disney. But if it was the only way we could comfortably go, I'd definitely do it again. It's just good to go in knowing, tho.

One thing we did last trip that was awesome - we filled a backpack cooler with bottled water, the single-serve pkgs of lemonade mix, and a variety of snacks - Pringles, slices of cheddar cheese, grapes and strawberries, and Flipz Pretzel crackers were our usual. It was so nice to be able to grab a bench and have a snack without standing in line. Plus it saved quite a bit of money. We refilled our water bottles at the water fountains around the parks so I don't think we ever bought water in the parks the whole week. We definitely plan to do this again next trip - it was certainly worth the hassle of carrying the backpack around.

ETA - If you want to do as some suggest and pre-purchase treats for the kids, both Dollar Tree and Target's Dollar Spot are good places to look. I also found some good deals on clearance stuff at Walmart a couple weeks ago. I got DD a Princess and the Frog stationary set w/stickers and such for $1.50 and a big tube of lip balm w/Disney princess stickers and gems to decorate it for $1. Last year, the Dollar Spot had color pencils, mechanical pencils, little notebooks, and zippered pencil cases w/Nemo, Ariel, Camp Rock, and Hannah Montana designs. There were probably some for boys too but my DS is way too old for that stuff now. This stuff is great for the drive too - gives DD a break from playing her DS.

 

[HunnyPots]

I totally agree that you should do it now while you can and stop just talking about it. We did that for years before we finally went. And you know what? Those expensive "extras" don't make the trip. Your best souvineer will be your pictures taken with your own camera.You can buy everyone a disney t-shirt at any of the local walmart or walgreen stores for a fraction of the wdw prices and they will be just as happy. As for food, the food at wdw isn't really anything special as far as I'm concerned. I'd much rather eat offsite or cook at our rental home like we did on our last trip. Speaking of rental homes, check out www.vrbo.com and look for homes or condos in Kissimmee. We stayed in a 4 br home with a private pool that was literally 10 minutes from the parks for $76 a night! Also, check out mousesavers.com for more money saving ideas and sign up for her newsletter to get extra discounts on park tickets from undercovertourist.
Have fun planning and come back here often!

 

[kellia]

That is around what our budget is for 5 of us, including airfare and car. We have stayed twice at Windsor Palms (windsor-palms-florida.net). A week in a 3 bed condo cost us $550, 10 days in a 3 bed townhouse was $800. Certainly beats a hotel!! Everyone had their own bedroom and bathrooms, so we still liked each other at the end of the week. We would make breakfast in the morning before we went, bring a lunch and eat out for dinner. Big money savers! Also, there was a washer/dryer so we did laundry every night, huge savings on what needed to be packed!

We did go in Jan/Feb, so prices were probably a little lower than they'd be towards summer.

 

[twooley2]

We are a family of 5 and do it for $1500. Now, most people do NOT want to do Disney the way we do.....but here is what we do.

$200/wk SkyAuction.com condo. 2 bedroom, sleeps 6.
$ 80- dog sitting for neighbor girl
$200- gas to get there and back and get around down there
$750- Y.E.S. 5 day hoppers with water parks and more
$200- food (we don't count our Disney rewards money as we use that
for park food if we have any.....otherwise we eat from the
grocery store and take a cooler into the parks.)
$ 70- parking for the 5 hopper days.....waterparks and disney quest have free parking

Where do you find 200.00 wk skyauction. I have looked and looked and do not find this anywhere. It seems all their auctions add on fees to the auction prices too but I still do not see any 200.00 deals

 

[Pembo]

never mind

 

[sarah4770]

Why not stay at the FW cabins?
I just priced 5 nights in April using the discount on the website.....comes to $1188.
You can easily spend a day or two just at fort wilderness with the kids and have a gret time, plus you have a full kitchen and no park parking fees.

 

[Chelley00]

$3000 would be our total budget for everything, it will be tight for sure. Having four kids also makes things a little harder...the world is designed for families of 4

No doubt.

We've had great luck staying offsite. You can get a house with lots of spread out room for less than $100/night. We stay at Sunset Lakes, but Windsor Hills is right there too. Both are very close drives to all the parks. We go back to the house to eat a sandwich, rest for awhile, then back to the parks. Or you can eat big breakfasts in the villa, pack and carry in a small lunch, then go back to the villa for dinner before returning for fireworks. We do make sure and budget a table service meal to eat with the characters at least once.

You can totally skip souveniers. My kids are perfectly happy with autographs as their souveniers. If you do the Kidcot masks in Epcot, those are free as well. Animal Kingdom also has animal activites where the kids get a booklet to get stamped.

We've done the budget trip, we've done the blow out, and we didn't have any more fun on one than we did the other

 

[eatatmidnight]

If you decide to go and stay offsite, I'd use Vacation by the Mouse.

We have used them twice. My next door neighbors have used them twice. Two of my husbands work friends have used them. My sister has used them for a rental near Destin. Every experience has been very positive.

Here is a link to a condo. I don't know your spring vacation dates so I can't tell you the exact cost. It would probably be $95/nt or $120/nt.
http://vacationbythemouse.com/index.php?com=properties&action=infopage&id=88&pid=

There are plenty of properties to choose from. I hope this vacation works out for you and your family.

 

[DawnM]

It used to be that all of their condos were $199/wk, but now they are typically $299/wk.

BUT, if you pre-purchase them during the BLOWOUT offers (you buy weeks and then book later) they are $179 plus a $20 service fee. The service fee is for the entire purchase, so if you purchase more than one week it is actually cheaper.

Dawn

We are a family of 5 and do it for $1500. Now, most people do NOT want to do Disney the way we do.....but here is what we do.

$200/wk SkyAuction.com condo. 2 bedroom, sleeps 6.
$ 80- dog sitting for neighbor girl
$200- gas to get there and back and get around down there
$750- Y.E.S. 5 day hoppers with water parks and more
$200- food (we don't count our Disney rewards money as we use that
for park food if we have any.....otherwise we eat from the
grocery store and take a cooler into the parks.)
$ 70- parking for the 5 hopper days.....waterparks and disney quest have free parking

Where do you find 200.00 wk skyauction. I have looked and looked and do not find this anywhere. It seems all their auctions add on fees to the auction prices too but I still do not see any 200.00 deals

 

[DawnM]

Sorry, I missed the Spring Break part.

AND, I don't think you can get a cheaper condo during Spring Break either. We don't go during peak times so I don't think about those things.

Dawn

YES tickets aren't available during spring break.

About souvies- I recommend getting park merchandise at prime or premium outlets, as well as saving souvie buying for World of Disney at Downtown Disney after you've been through the parks. They will have most things. Otherwise, my nephew would have blown his souvie budget 5 minutes after walking into the first park and wanting a huge stupid goofy hat. I told him I'd take his picture in it and if that was still what he wanted at the end of the trip we'd come back for it. He never mentioned it again.

 

[kellia]

It used to be that all of their condos were $199/wk, but now they are typically $299/wk.

BUT, if you pre-purchase them during the BLOWOUT offers (you buy weeks and then book later) they are $179 plus a $20 service fee. The service fee is for the entire purchase, so if you purchase more than one week it is actually cheaper.

Dawn


When do they have the Blowout offers? Are all of the condos in the same complex or are they different ones?

 

[sleepymomof4]

I totally agree with the offsite condo. Last year(spring break) we rented a 3 bedroom Townhouse with a private hot tub for a little over $500 with 4 kids it helped tremendously, especially getting ready in the mornings. The kids enjoyed it so much that when we took a short trip in the summer we got to the hotel and my 5yo says uh, where's my room? My kids have an Auntie who gave them dis cards for birthday and christmas so she pretty much paid for the souviniers, even so I don't think we could have done wo the mickey ears, it was the first time for the 7, 5, and 19month old. Before hand I went to Michael's and got 15 glow bracelets for $1 even shared with lots of little ones around us, it made my little ones happy to see other kids excited(all for $1)
Do it as soon as you can, we kept "waiting" for the youngest to be old enough, thing is, we kept having a "youngest" We can't wait to go back, in fact I have been digging for a few weeks but our place we stayed at is already rented and Iam having a hard time deciding what to do. Good luck and have fun!