What Disney expenses will you forgo next time?

[mi*vida*loca]

I will forgo eating at mediocre places just for the experience. Ohana, CRT, most character meals. Way too expensive for what you actually get in return.

This trip I will be doing BOG dinner since it's DD's one must do request and it's just us two. If our family of 4 was going it wouldn't be happening. Other than that we have Flying Fish, Yachtsman, Via Napoli and HDDR booked for our 9 night trip. The rest we will either do lounges, QS or same day ADRs. I'm going for quality over quantity. Signature places are pricey but the prices are in line for fancy places in my area. I don't mind paying for GOOD food. But putting out $50 a person for unlimited noddles and shrimp skewers gets pricey for a family of 4.

 

[Simba's Mom]

While not Disney dining, I'll eliminate soft drinks and just drink ice water. Four dollars for a soda? Also, planning to skip the parks more. Looking to take advantage of more of the "out of park" recreation.

 

[tvguy]

While not Disney dining, I'll eliminate soft drinks and just drink ice water. Four dollars for a soda? Also, planning to skip the parks more. Looking to take advantage of more of the "out of park" recreation.

Interesting. We used to do out of park stuff, but THAT was the stuff that was killing our budget.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

While not Disney dining, I'll eliminate soft drinks and just drink ice water. Four dollars for a soda? Also, planning to skip the parks more. Looking to take advantage of more of the "out of park" recreation.

If I'm doing more out of the park recreation I'm vacationing somewhere else entirely. Somewhere that you get way more bang for your buck in value.

 

[samsonjs]

1. Dining- I live in a urban area with great restaurants. I can get a better meal for less at home. We decided we don't go to Disney to eat and accept the mediocre food for what it is. Some vacations are dining heavy but for us Disney isn't. I can see why some enjoy the restaurants though, especially if they come from an area that doesn't have a lot of restaurant options. We pretty much eat counter service and I give into the kids having french fries every day on vacation. We also found we are so busy and just not as hungry so we eat less. I do save money for a frozen cocktail when we sit by the pool though. We eat a bagel or poptarts in the room for breakfast. I don't even know if I will do an ADR for our next trip...maybe at Disney Springs.

2. I'm not really a souvenir person. We ask grandparents for a gift card so that kids each have $50 they can spend as they please.

 

[disneyseniors]

WE are 2 adults, so no kids with us anymore. I think that makes a big difference. Also, we don't eat as much as we used to. We share a meal, or I get a kids meal. We eat 2 meals a day usually, and sometimes just one with some snacking! We used to do the DP, but found that it did not work for us, just too much food and planning. We do OOP and spend much less, are less stuffed and happier, and eat where and when we want. The Disney food is fine for us. We are not foodies and are not expecting something special at each meal. It is part of the Disney experience for us to eat at the various places and not expecting a gourmet meal. When I am on vacation I don't want to cook or do dishes, that's not a vacation for me. My husband doesn't want to drive, she he is happy with Disney transportation and DME.
We don't do extra's such Photo pass, any upcharge events such as dessert parties, Halloween or Christmas parties, EMH, etc. We do park hoppers and don't feel left out of anything extra. Plus I think the prices they charge for them are insane, to US. Everyone is different. We have done KTTK and loved it, worth every penny IMO.
We are happy with the No dining plan and no extra upcharges. I think Disney is now charging for things that used to be free and people are so upset with the crowding, etc, that they pay for these.
So, these are a few of the things we do to save money and economize. Oh, I do get souveniers and just started pin collecting, which is addicting. I'm not adverse to spending money on certain things, and spend what I want to while we are at Disney on the things that we like and make our trip a real vacation! It's different for everyone and no one is right or wrong.

 

[bpesch]

We were in Disney World Nov 2017. It was the first trip for my then 4 year old granddaughter. I have to admit I overdid it and learned a lot from the experience. So when I took my adult daughter back this month for the MNSSHP, we did things more on a budget. A few things I would do or not do again...

Dessert Parties--I really felt they were a waste. The desserts were not that great and I didn't feel we got our money's worth. Not likely to happen again anytime soon.

Dining Plan--No if I have to pay for it, oh yeah if it's free. We have a bounce back offer that we booked during this trip for Free Dining. I figured out the numbers and we're getting a good deal, which doesn't happen often. But not a chance if I actually had to pay for it.

Table Service Meals--Another situation of me not feeling like it was worth it. We did O'hana, which my family loves. I remembered it from years ago and just didn't feel like it was worth it this last time around. Imagine my surprise when my family wanted to do it again next year. So even though it's a no for me, we'll do it again. We did Sanaa for lunch and it was excellent, Kona Café for dinner and it was a total bomb (and not in a good way). We're still hoping for BOG, no luck with dinner reservations so far. So I'm stuck in the middle on table service meals. Absolutely no to buffets, the rest, we shall see.

Drinks--This last short trip with my daughter she carried an insulated bottle around all day and it was great. We refilled it from fountains or cups of ice water and it really cut down on buying beverages. Since we are not soda drinkers, we didn't miss out at all drinking water all day. I plan to do it again next year even though we'll have the resort mugs from free dining. I'll also make sure everyone in our party that is willing to carry an insulated bottle has one.

MNSSHP--We'll definitely be doing it again. I heard lots of criticism about the party but we really enjoyed it. We had realistic expectations and knew we would be going back next year because of a good bounce back offer, so it took the pressure off.

 

[bpesch]

Double post glitch

 

[powellrj]

We have already cut back.
We stay offsite usually in a pool house.
Drink water and bring some bottles with us and get free ice water the rest of the time.
Sign up for emails of non Disney owned restaurants.
If we get any souvenirs, we go to Character Wearhouse.
Eat more snacks instead of meals in the parks.
Get our tickets from places undercover tourist.

 

[bigbabyblues]

My list is similar to powellrj:

We have also cut back already by staying offsite in a condo, eat breakfast at the condo instead of Disney QS (when we stayed onsite, we ate breakfast in the food court until the last onsite trip).
I bought our tickets from UT since we didn't book a package.
Bringing in water bottles/getting ice water from QS places instead of buying bottles of water.
Eating some lunches or dinners at the condo during our afternoon break (no special trips back to eat)--brought chicken salad, pasta salad, from home, cut up veggies, one day I put chicken in the crockpot before we left in the morning and having it with a salad for dinner, etc.
We spent less time at the parks this trip because we had space to spread out and relax.
We didn't buy any souvenirs (11th trip, don't need that stuff).
No mini-golf or water parks this time

 

[kenthanson]

We run pretty lean to begin with, we get magic bands because we stay on resort and we book only when we can take advantage of the free dining plan. We dont rent a car and stay at a value for the most part. Zero souvenirs and only eat at counter service restaurants. We live in canada and especially the last couple of years the exchange has been so brutal and we go every other year so that helps us have to keep a tight leash on spending. The biggest splurge was three trips ago my wife did a big massage day and then the next day I spent $400 to drive a Ferrari on the now demolished race track.

 

[missbrooke06]

We cut back on souvenirs but more for the clutter than anything else. We only get things we'll use (Christmas ornaments, a shirt, a hat, socks, a new mug) and our youngest is restricted to one stuffed animal. My oldest wears his monorail socks the second they come out of the dryer, which is exactly what I wanted when I spent money on them!

 

[Miss Whimsy]

We tend to be pretty budget-conscious and don't want/need a lot of extras--we don't do PhotoPass for example, though we did buy one EXCELLENT ride picture from our last trip, our only real souvenir. But I would say after this last trip the only big thing I would cut out are table service meals. Every trip so far I've gotten at least one ADR for a "new-to-us" fancy TS, and it usually isn't worth it. We just generally find them disappointing or kind of ordinary, like I'd rather just eat at Cosmic Ray's again if I'm going to eat ordinary food, and it's cheaper.

Time. Time for planning. Time at the park. Time to maximize everything. Frankly, being in the park from 8 am till 10 pm is more hectic than work, esp with kids. I am DVC, so we can (kinda) afford to go more often. But we've been conscious about not putting too much effort into the park. It is expensive and draining in a way.

This is a good point. Related to my above, the time and energy in getting ADRs set up, the RIGHT ones on the RIGHT days--it's just unnecessary for the level or return. But in general--I feel like I've now been enough times I don't feel like I need to milk every waking moment out of the park, and it's very relaxing. I think when we go back (if we go back -- these constantly-increasing prices are rough) we'll sleep in except maybe one early day in Animal Kingdom and not try to ~maximize~ the time. Which isn't how a lot of people do Disney, but I think it'll work for us.

 

[disneysteve]

I live in a urban area with great restaurants. I can get a better meal for less at home.

Same here. We aren't forgoing TS at Disney, though, because we've never done it in the first place. We will hit one every few years but that's about it. My wife and I have an ADR at Tiffins in a couple of weeks. That will be the first TS we've done since we ate at BOG several years ago. We go to fine restaurants at home somewhat regularly. We don't need to do it at Disney, but I understand that for many people, that isn't the case and Disney is where they splurge and have those nice meals because they don't typically do that sort of thing at home.

 

[PlainJane]

Food and less days in the parks. We almost always eat breakfast in the room anyway. I’ve tried to cook on vacation, and for me, it doesn’t work well with a toddler. We already have more limited time, so I don’t want to further limit it with going back to the room and cooking. A change will be that I don’t know if we will eat any table service. There are some more budget friendly options, that I might consider, but it would be very hard to justify the amount of table service we previously ate on our Disney vacations.

I’m not a huge souvenir person anyway. I tend to choose useful things that I need anyway like a key chain, measuring cups, an apron, a luggage tag, a picture frame, etc.

 

[Hikergirl]

We really won't forgo anything. We book a WDW trip knowing it is a splurge and accept that we will pay a premium to enjoy it. Since our plan is to really just go for F&W fest from now on I can't cut out the food, and we prefer to stay at one of the Epcot resorts for convenience. I wouldn't give that up to go, if it got to the point where I wasn't willing to spend what it costs I just wouldn't go at all.
I guess if I had to pick something to forgo it would be the Dooney and Bourke handbags. I rarely use the ones I have gotten in the past so I definitely don't need more.

 

[Klayfish]

We actually already run things extraordinarily trim.

We stay off site only. This is actually a personal preference...we wouldn't stay onsite even if it cost far less than off.

We pack 95% of our own food. We save a fortune. We do buy some snacks in the parks, but even then it's often refills on popcorn or a $4 ice cream bar. On the rare occasion we purchase a full meal, it's almost always offsite. If we're thirsty, we take advantage of the free ice water.

We don't do MNSHPP, MVMCP, tours, etc...just can't see the value in them.

Souvenirs - even our kids aren't huge souvenir people, but even what we do buy is about 50/50 offsite vs onsite purchase...maybe more offsite.

We do like MagicBands, we all have several. For DW and I, they're just the plain colored ones we got when we purchased MBs (plus we bought one when they first came out). The kids have each purchased an extra one or two, so they have 4 or 5 each.

Last trip we did try to make a point to spend more, but even still we just are too budget minded. We couldn't bring ourselves to spend money on the night party at the water parks, we just couldn't make financial sense out of it. Same with the tours. We did buy a few more snacks, let the kids buy a more expensive souvenir or two, DW and I went on a carriage ride. We ate at QS at Cosmic Rays, but I nearly had a heart attack when it was $80 for just burgers and fries for the 5 of us. Definitely not something we're likely to do again. We had dessert at BoG, which I will say was money well spent...it was something like $20 for all of us, the desserts were good and the kids had a great time.

 

[slpeters]

It's interesting, but I'm sort of looking at scaling up next time. I guess we did a lot of the things people are talking about. I mean as far as souvenirs go, we bought three Christmas ornaments. We had the little bag of granola bars, beef jerky and flavor drops for the free ice water--which dh consistently made fun of but didn't really seem to mind.

As far as the dessert parties. Based on our experience with the HEA dessert party and trying to watch HEA on another night, I don't think I'd ever watch HEA without the dessert party. We thought it was money very well spent. We also loved the JBJB dessert party and thought it was great value, but it's sort of a been there, done that sort of thing, maybe we would look at replacing it with another party.
​

I'm actually looking at maybe doing the dining plan next time. It just sounds sort of fun. I agree that most of the restaurants weren't astonishing, and we could certainly have better meals cheaper here in Chicago, but, I mean we're on vacation and I thought a lot of them were quite fun. Several of our meals were really quite lovely and many of the times that stand out the most in retrospect were when we slowed down and just enjoyed each other's company over a meal for an hour or so. Plus, being sort of naturally frugal, I think there's something really intriguing about the prospect of looking at a menu and knowing that, all other things being equal, the responsible thing to do would be to order something more expensive. I was actually looking at downgrading from the Swan to one of the values to fund it, but dh seems really set at staying at the Swan again so we'll have to see...

 

[Marionnette]

It's interesting, but I'm sort of looking at scaling up next time. I guess we did a lot of the things people are talking about. I mean as far as souvenirs go, we bought three Christmas ornaments. We had the little bag of granola bars, beef jerky and flavor drops for the free ice water--which dh consistently made fun of but didn't really seem to mind.

As far as the dessert parties. Based on our experience with the HEA dessert party and trying to watch HEA on another night, I don't think I'd ever watch HEA without the dessert party. We thought it was money very well spent. We also loved the JBJB dessert party and thought it was great value, but it's sort of a been there, done that sort of thing, maybe we would look at replacing it with another party.
​

I'm actually looking at maybe doing the dining plan next time. It just sounds sort of fun. I agree that most of the restaurants weren't astonishing, and we could certainly have better meals cheaper here in Chicago, but, I mean we're on vacation and I thought a lot of them were quite fun. Several of our meals were really quite lovely and many of the times that stand out the most in retrospect were when we slowed down and just enjoyed each other's company over a meal for an hour or so. Plus, being sort of naturally frugal, I think there's something really intriguing about the prospect of looking at a menu and knowing that, all other things being equal, the responsible thing to do would be to order something more expensive. I was actually looking at downgrading from the Swan to one of the values to fund it, but dh seems really set at staying at the Swan again so we'll have to see...

You would not be able to purchase any of the Disney Dining Plans if you are staying at the Swan or Dolphin. You might want to consider doing a split stay- starting at a value resort with a dining plan and finishing your stay at the Swan. It would give you an opportunity to try a dining plan for yourself plus you would get to experience a different resort.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Wow I'm so surprised at all the people saying they don't like the food! I can only think of maybe two times that DH and I have had a bad meal experience at Disney. We LOVE the food! That being said, we have started splitting more meals just because it's SO MUCH food. Less waste and more cost effective.

We don't typically do Photopass, but we likely will for our next trip which will be a big family trip.

I doubt we'll ever do a dessert party based on the reviews I've heard for them.

Won't pay for EMM.

I can't foresee us ever paying for club level.