What is your BEST $$$ Saving tip at WDW?

[hygienejean]

Please share with me the best way to pinch a penny at the World... So far we are renting points from a DVCer and staying at the BWV's for less than half of what Disney would charge. That would be my best tip, rent points from a DVC member and stay at a fabulous resort for a reasonable price. Any one else?

Thanks!

 

[Debi]

Make lunch your main meal. Most WDW restaurants charge more at dinner than lunch for the same meal. If you eat a late lunch (3-4PM), you will have a large meal for lunch prices.

Also, don't be afraid to split meals. The portions in most WDW restaurants are huge, and can easily be split among 2 people.

Have a great trip!

 

[bobcat]

Do your homework before you go! I think planning and knowing what your costs will be saves more money than anything.

As far as daily money saving in the parks take your own water bottle. That $2.50 for a bottle of water adds up quick.

 

[nikitta28]

eat breakfast in the room (esp if your at a DVC resort) buy groceries OUTSIDE disney, bring your own water, drinks and snacks to the park. plan ahead. if you have young childern buy their souveniers well in advance (when the disney store has %75 off sales- trust me they'll never know- i sneak back into the room and leave items on their pillow "tinker bell must have stopped by while we were out") buy glow necklaces and light-up toys befor you go! youre kids will love them and not harass you to buy everything the see during the parades. princess dresses are $19.95 at wal-mart - not even on sale. (dont pay $50 in the park for one) try ebay disney items as well

 

[joshsmom]

Even though we fly, we bring bread and peanut butter from home. We eat breakfast in the room. We also buy the refillable cups at ASMo and that saves LOTS of money if we eat there.

 

[waughzee]

If you order a double-cheeseburger at a counter service restaurant, you can ask for a second bun. They will charge you for it (under .50 cents) and you can split the burger between two of you.

 

[joshsmom]

Originally posted by waughzee
If you order a double-cheeseburger at a counter service restaurant, you can ask for a second bun. They will charge you for it (under .50 cents) and you can split the burger between two of you.

WOW, I didn't know THAT!!! Great thread! Let's keep it going--I could use these in 3 weeks, 2 days!!!!!!

 

[dandave]

Buy your beer in the gift shops! You can get a six pack of Beck's Dark for under $10. (No I'm not a sot. I just like beer, and it's waayy cheaper in the gift shop.)

 

[beatnik]

How about 10 tips?

1. Go during off-season. There will generally be less competiton for the same resources-- means you can finder cheaper rates on some things (like hotels, car rentals, and flights) and you will be able to have a more lacksadasical attitude.
2. Eat "defensively." Assume you will be given more food than you usually eat and adjust your order accordingly. If you don't order enough and feel hungry later, I promise you will never be far from food (and if you go during off season, you won't be stuck in long lines waiting for your food). If not too hungry, split a meal with someone you love, order a single item rather than a combo meal, or get a kids meal (chicken fingers hit the spot from time to time!). if you're not hungry for dinner, don't eat-- this seems to especially happen to us when we're visiting the World, and we'll often just have a snack rather than a full meal.
3. Unless you are really heart set on a specific sit down restaurant, avoid the whole priority seating thing. I find that with PS, we sometimes just wind up eating a big meal at a time when we are not hungry. In the off-season, you can get PS without much notice, and can even get seated with a short (15-30 min) wait without a PS. (I am referring to resort restaurants here-- we rarely eat sit down at theme parks-- they close too early in the off season to take the time!).
4. Take advantage of every coupon, offer, etc you come across (as long as its for something that you would want anyway, of course), even if it will only save you $2 or 3 dollars. For a 2 week long trip, saving $2 or 3 once or twice day can add up to $50 or $60-- enough for dinner for 2 at Ohana (say), or puttputt for 4 at Fantasia Gardens.
5. Bring water and minimize the number of sodas you buy while in the themeparks. If you drive to the parks during hot weather, bring a smaller cooler with a few drinks-- that way when you return to the car, you can have a cool drink waiting for you. Especially nice if you are park hopping.
6. Bring a small cooler full of drinks when going to water parks.
7. Stay off-site. Try the Royal Plaza or Courtyard in the DTD area. Our goal is to pay about $50/night for a nice room in a good locale. We've been able to achive this at the afforementioned hotels on our most recent 3 visits. We don't believe in "magic," anyway (although we do appreciate nicely decorated and landscaped hotels with nice ambience and good service-- Disney does this exceptionally well, and we do appreciate it, but usually cannot justify the expense)!
8. Eat breakfast in your room. Eat one or two inexpensive dinners at places like Denny's, Steak and Shake or Jungle Jim's.
9. Consider the Disney Visa. It is our habit to charge every single thing we buy, and we accumulated $126 in rebate dollars to spend on our most recnt trip. This translated into 2 lunches at Typhoon Lagoon, dinner at Ohana, four rounds of mini golf, and a Christmas present for my sister-in-law that we picked up in the Italian pavillion at Epcot. All for "free" basically, since there is no annual fee and we are very careful to avoid interest charges by paying in full each month.
10. The Q and C Vouchers work like a charm for us. A lot of food for a good price, enough so that if we don't split a meal, we may well wind up skipping dinner. We eat like kings and this helps us to easily come in under our $50 a day food budget (for 2).

Don't forget to have fun and do what you want! Only skimp on things you really don't care about.

Beatnik

 

[TomM]

We camp in Ft Wilderness for 10 nights, eat breakfast at the camper and most suppers, counter service in the parks along with a few snacks. We only go to the parks for 4 days and spend the other days just browsing through Downtown Disney, go to the beach even if it's cool, read, go to a state park for a day and we go in the value season. It's a great trip for not a lot of money.
TomM

 

[pjlla]

Keep checking your prices right up until the last minute. I have, through checking and rechecking, brought our rental car down from an original $219.59 to $185.07 (for the same size car through the same agency). That saved the the cost of a counter service meal for 4! And I have gotten my hotel cost down from the originally quoted $129/night to $59 night. I will admit, these things cost me some time on the computer/phone, but saved me greatly in $$!

I also check, recheck, and re-rechecked before I bought any theme park tickets. I was able to find a discount code for SeaWorld that saved me about $10 per ticket (x four people). And I bought my Disney PHP tix at the local Disney store, as they offered the same discount as on-line purchasing, but without the s/h charges. But I have since seen them a bit cheaper at places like www.ticketmania.com so live and learn!!

Our hotel offers free bkfst buffet every morning. We have learned from past experience that this is a GREAT time/money saver. Sure, you are paying for it in the room rate, but for $59/night for a suite, it is well worth it! We really tried to eat our moneys worth and avoid morning snacking, whenever possible. Then we had an early lunch, mid-afternoon snack and then dinner back in our suite at night, which is pretty easy to do, since we go during value season and the parks usually close by 6pm. We also carry along a few small snacks for the kids, so we don't have to be in line for snacks all the time! (raisin boxes, granola bars, fruit chews, pb crackers, juice boxes)

DON'T FORGET, what you save in money you may pay for in time! Don't get the cheapest hotel possible if it is MILES away. You will pay for it in time! And we personally try to fit at least 6 park days in during a 7 day visit. We pay a lot to fly to FL from NH and figure we will get our moneys worth better if we see as much as we can (without exhausting the kids at least!). I would rather have 6 leisurely park days, than 4 rushed/stressed ones.

ANYHOW..... just my opinion. Hope it helps (letting my DS pick my smilies now!).....

 

[pogo123]

This would only work if you're fans of Rainforest Cafe (my dd favorite), but they have great discounts in their stores. On my recent trip I bought for $37 & change:

1 adult T
3 kid Ts (for an 11 y/o)
1 adult long sleeve hoodie T
1 15" stuffed frog
1 small stuffed cat (3" or so)
2 key chains
1 pin
1 necklace/choker
1 noise whapper thingy (which all of my savings will now go to therapy, as it is driving me CRAZY! What was I thinking when I said yes to that )

They have discounted stuff & then % discounts on top of that. Also AP will get you a 10 or 15% discount.

Also, at MK, although not as good as a Mickey bar, the Pinnochio Village Haus has a milkshake that is like soft serve, had to be eaten w/ a spoon, and came in a plastic souvie cup w/ mickies on it. Around $2.30 I think. Was a decent size too.

 

[disneysteve]

Best tips:

Stay offsite.
Even renting DVC points is FAR more expensive than staying at a nice place offsite.

Drink tap water.
I'm always amazed how much people will pay for water just because it comes in a bottle.

Share meals.
Many restaurants on or offsite serve huge portions that are easily shared.

Eat breakfast in your room.
We never go out for breakfast. It seems to us that breakfast is always very overpriced compared to lunch and dinner relative to what you get.

Steve

 

[SnowWitch]

Well we own at DVC, so I count that as a huge savings. Yes a rather large investment but I never worry about a room or getting discounts.

I still purchase water and soda before leaving home. (We drive). We carry them into the parks. Our first family trip I came home and added up what we spent on soda and water and the number was staggering. 4 people x 5 drinks per day x $2.50=$50.00 x 6 days= $300.00!!! Unreal. We freeze the water and through them in the backpack in the morning.

We never eat a big breakfast. Poptarts, granola bars, etc. Big lunch and fastfood dinner.

 

[Mom2Ben02]

I just got $600 worth of Disney Store gift cards on ebay for $530. I only buy gift cards (due to one bad experience!) if I can Paypal with a credit card, so I have some protection. I used them to buy my two advance purchase 5 day hoppers at the Disney Store, and the rest was converted into disney dollars. The disney dollars were the equivalent of $0.88 per dollar, and the tickets worked out to the equivalent of $191.68 each, a savings of 20% over the gate price of $239.

I was just going to buy the tickets on ebay, but...got scared reading some of these threads! Now I know my tickets are good!!

 

[tmli]

If you are like my ds and I and get sick of just water bring individual drink mixes such as kool aid or crystal light. They can be added to the free water disney will give you with your meal.

I just read somewhere else the extra bun is .70, I guess disney has caught on because they used to be .35. Still this is a better deal then purchasing a second burger.

I, too, rent a condo offsite for a fraction of what renting dvc points would cost me. I have stayed onsite and love that as well but if you are thinking saving money it's the way to go. Last January we stayed in a 3bdrm condo for only $64/nt. This way I can afford to buy more "disney magic" (snow globes and towels).