What is the LEAST you have spent on a WDW vacation

[Brina]

I remember a story on the mouse savers website where they did disney for under $1000. I was rereading it the other day, and then was reading the Most you spent thread, so I got to thinking.

What is the least you have spent to visit the WDW.

We have only gone once, and are in the process of planning our 2nd trip, so my Most and Least answers are currently the same.

 

[Bert]

Hi.
We did really good on our May trip. I have two daughters in college and money is tight. I kept track of all $. There are 4 of us and our week at WDW cost 1595 including air fare. I used LOTS of tips from this board, and also packed a suitcase full of food.

I had two free airline tickets (due to all the college tuition and R&B charges that I put on my visa). I only had to buy two. (480.00)

I had left over parker hoppers from our 2002 trip. We did three FULL park days taking advantage of am & pm EMH. We did TL.

We stayed at POR using a PIN code for 79.00 per night.
We used TTC limo service.
I tipped housekeeping 4.00 each day.
We used Ghiradelli B1G1 free coupons. YUM YUM.
I got free ice water at counter service and added crystal light.
DD & DH rented a boat at POR for one hour
Ate something from every country around the world, except Canada(we were too full).
Our splurge was dinner at Boma's.

We had a great time!

 

[stacy6552]

We took a spur of the moment, long weekend in Nov of 2001. With the super low air fares and a budget rate on the ASMo, we spent less than $1000 on the whole thing, food and all. Probably under $800.

 

[disneykid1961]

Here's my calculation of our May '05 trip.
Airfare for 4 from NY on Song Air $98 rt per person plus tax, total $452
Rental car for 1 week (full size) from National using emerald club discount with mousesaver discount on top $109
Hotel for 5 nights at Sheraton Safari (3 nights free with Starwood points) 2 nights at $49 per night, approximately $108 inc. tax
Food = here's where we really saved a bundle. Took rental car to Walmart supercenter and stocked up on cereal, milk, cereal bars, bottled water, wraps, lunch meat, fruit. Also bought all souvenirs at Walmart before-hand, such as autograph books, t-shirts, key chains and disney beanie babies, water fan also. We let the kids buy whatever they wanted in the souvenir section. Total walmart bill $100
Tickets were purchased off ebay from a seller with excellent feedback. They were park-hoppers that were going to expire on 8/30/05. Total ticket price for 4 parkhoppers, 2 adults and 1 kid, $380 (dd was just turning 3 and got into parks free but we always book her a seat on planes so she isn't on our laps during the entire flight).

Dinners were spent back at the hotel after our swim/nap break and were take-out pizzas or a visit to Steak and Shake or somewhere similar. Honestly, with the heat and activity, kids were not very hungry and never asked for food or drinks in the park because we had a great supply of their favorites purchased at Walmart and carried in. We started off the trip with a memorable character breakfast at Donalds Breakfastsouras in AK, which was $100 but a great way to kick off the trip. DH refers to this as the "$100 buffet meal" but agreed it was fun. Gas was probably $20.

So, here's my total
$1269 including airfare, park tickets, food and car. I thought we did pretty good. Most importantly, we had a terrific time. Someday we'll try to stay on-site, but the Sheraton was perfectly located, had a great pool and they brought a fridge to our room to keep food fresh. Having a car was great so we could come and go as we please, and the Walmart trip saved us so much in food and souvenir expenses.

It can be done...and the planning is so fun. Enjoy!

 

[madge]

I remember a story on the mouse savers website where they did disney for under $1000. I was rereading it the other day, and then was reading the Most you spent thread, so I got to thinking.

What is the least you have spent to visit the WDW.

We have only gone once, and are in the process of planning our 2nd trip, so my Most and Least answers are currently the same.

All of our "cheap" trips were last year....largely because we had Annual Passes, and did well with our travel expenses

DH & I went for 2 nights in May, for Memorial Day weekend.

Stayed at the Swan on points and a free night redemption--I think we paid $20 out of pocket for the resort fee (?)

Used flight credit for flight down--SWA was running a deal that $39 each way out of Nashville, I think I spent about $40 on the difference between what credit I had and the new tickets.

Rental car was cheap, less than $75 for the weekend.

It was a million degrees out, so neither of us felt like eating much. I had a couple of Q & C vouchers left over from another trip, and we used those. I remember eating at the Dolphin Fountain and drinking a couple of beers one night. We paid OOP for that. We stayed on the Club Level, so breakfast was free.

Our biggest expense was bottled water. We bought some at Publix, but it was so hot, we ended up buying more at the parks.

We had Annual Passes, but bought 2 tickets to E-ride night.

A lot of the trip expenses were covered by things that had been paid for to use on prior vacations, flight credits, or points redemptions. We probably spent $250 total for the weekend, though.

It was a great trip.

In July, DH had business in Orlando. A portion of our room & food were covered as part of the conference, as was our gas money. I got a great AP rate the Wilderness Lodge that we paid for ourselves to extend the stay 3 nights.

Last Fall, we stayed in a $264/week condo, went to the parks sparingly, and ate at the condo a lot. Our big splurge was MNSSHP. We drove, and stayed in a Hampton Inn on the way down & back on Hilton Honors points. We had a BLAST doing that! SO much so, that we planned the exact same trip for this fall.

Then, along came the free dining, LOL...and we decided to take advantage of that. We also are flying on SWA--I got a fantastic Ding! fare, and it made more sense to fly, given the cost of gas and the wear & tear on the van. (Our flight is roughly $400 RT for 5 of us).

 

[LaDonna]

Our 1st trip for 4 for 6 days and 6 nights offsite came to around $1200. We drove though, and this includes everything we spent including our little 2 days at the beach on the way home.
This trip in September same days and nights, staying onsite, with all food included is around the same price, of course I haven't added on gas and things we'll buy when we get there, but I'm not really planning on buying too much, I'm gonna guess grand total this time about $1500 I'm just so happy to be able to get basically whatever I want to eat and not have to worry about it