What's the least expensive WDW trip you've ever taken?

[twinmamaplusone]

My daughter is begging for another trip to WDW (we went last June and we're not budgeting or planning for another trip anytime soon). BUT she is making a convincing case for going back sooner and it doesn't hurt that my sons and I love it there too! I was just wondering what your cheapest trip to WDW you've ever taken - how did you stretch your money to make it work? I'm still not sure we can make it happen but maybe it's more possible than I think... (We'd go in the fall if it happens!)

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

My daughter is begging for another trip to WDW (we went last June and we're not budgeting or planning for another trip anytime soon). BUT she is making a convincing case for going back sooner and it doesn't hurt that my sons and I love it there too! I was just wondering what your cheapest trip to WDW you've ever taken - how did you stretch your money to make it work? I'm still not sure we can make it happen but maybe it's more possible than I think... (We'd go in the fall if it happens!)

Thanks for any suggestions!

Why not go during free dining then? If you're on a very tight budget, you could stay at a value resort and that would get you 2 meals + 1 snack per day.
Many years ago I would have suggested staying off site but the outrageous cost of car rental + gas + tolls make ME so much more attractive.

Driving if possible will save $ too.

 

[Lees3rwe]

Our trips usually average (for 3 of us) about $1800-$2200
We stay value and have had free dining each trip. We do pay for park hoppers, but I'm thinking that may change on our next trip (we have been 3 times and plan to go at a more relaxing pace next trip).

We usually have stayed between 5-7 days.

 

[Marionnette]

My daughter is begging for another trip to WDW (we went last June and we're not budgeting or planning for another trip anytime soon). BUT she is making a convincing case for going back sooner and it doesn't hurt that my sons and I love it there too! I was just wondering what your cheapest trip to WDW you've ever taken - how did you stretch your money to make it work? I'm still not sure we can make it happen but maybe it's more possible than I think... (We'd go in the fall if it happens!)

Thanks for any suggestions!

Long thread about this very same topic here:
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3253569

The subject comes up quite frequently. If you use the search function, you'll find a lot more, but that is the most recent one.

 

[crisi]

We did a really cheap trip in college - it was long ago so dollars don't translate.

There aren't great deals on tickets - YES tickets are possibly your best bet, but they aren't a great deal any more.

Stay offsite. You can stay offsite for far cheaper than a value. The Disney area is one of the worlds most overbuilt hotel areas in the world, there are almost always DEALS to be had offsite.

Go offseason, you are far more likely to get those deals - and you can get far more done in far fewer days.

Grocery shop and coupon your way offsite. Bring in your own sandwiches and soda. Get Restaurant.com certificates or eat at kids eat free places. Although Disney food is quite reasonable for the venue, you can still do much better offsite or at a grocery store.

Driving is almost always cheaper than flying unless you have a gas guzzling car, live a long way away, or have access to frequent flyer miles or employee flights. And it gives you a lot of flexibility in where you stay and eat. But staying offsite and driving will mean paying for parking, so add that into your calculations (unless you bus in - which is possible, but a hassle)

 

[3boymthr]

When my parent's paid

 

[cookie2120]

My husband and I always have to plan really far ahead to make it work. I've learned what works best for us to put aside Disney funds is when ever we go grocery shopping, we purchase one $25 giftcard (sometimes more if it's possible). But the Disney gift cards work great. They don't expire and there is no purchase fee or activation fee like you find on those Amex or Visa gift cards. It does how ever mean I have a stack of cards to take with me , but in our case it isn't not bothersome and worth it =)

 

[eliza61]

When my parent's paid

LOL, how true.

Op not sure if I'm qualified to answer this question. We're not the type of family that likes to cut back While on vacation so what we really do is tighten our belts before hand.
One year my kids wanted to go to Disney fir the holidays. We let them know that there would be no gifts AT ALL if we did.

Our biggest saver if we are doing a budget trip is to stay off-site.

But like I said we'd rather budget and scrimp before the trip to be able to go more comfortably.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

We have snagged a 2 star hotel room (Kissimmee) for between 25 and 35 dollars a night many times. In some cases that is less than a DTD resort charges for daily parking and resort fees! Hotels.com, Trivago, Kayak, and the sites that they bounce you to, have been the sources of the cheap prices. Look...........the places are a little past their prime, but if you are only showering and sleeping there.............who cares? And, BTW, we always felt safe.

 

[Crystal824]

The cheapest trips we did can't be done anymore....we used to get Southwest flights for like $49 each way, free dining, stay at a value resort, and park tickets were much cheaper. This was around 2006. Those days are long gone. Staying offsite does help or if you insist on onsite go during free dining at least you get "free" food.

 

[jojosam]

This year will likely be our cheapest trip. Camping at Ft. Wilderness, got my CM friend to apply her 40% discount, and military 4-day hoppers with water parks and more. Quite a few meals will be in the camper. Biggest splurge is the breakfast at CRT. Obviously our situation is different than most, but I'm happy to be going less expensively this year!

 

[dancin Disney style]

I agree that it used to be easier to do a cheap WDW trip but I still feel like I can get more for my money at WDW. I can stay 10-14 days at WDW for the same cost as a 7 day all inclusive. I do it in a few different ways.

1. I use reward points to get my park tickets. I then upgrade the tickets at WDW to get as much as possible out of them while only paying a minimal amount. We usually only visit the parks 3 days on a trip so if I have 10 day tickets they last through 3 trips. We add on the WP&M option to maximize the benefits.

2. Visit during a value season and stay at a value resort. We also set our dates to fit the free dining period.

3.If we can fly for the same amount of money as driving(or only slightly more) then we will. If not, it's either drive down or don't go. I live approx. 1300 miles north of WDW.

The most expensive onsite trip ever for us was $4000, 14 days, 4 people. We drove to WDW, stayed at POP and had no dining plan. We ate out only 1 meal per day(usually dinner) then made sandwiches/salads in our room for lunch....if we were out of lunch we made dinner in the room. We had breakfast in our room daily. We bought park tickets through a convention that we were attending at 50% off.

Last summer we went to Orlando to stay for 14 days but stayed off site. We rented a 1br timeshare approx. 15 minutes away from WDW. This trip was short notice and I really had no budget for it. I spent $2900 including approx. $700 on a trip to the mall. We used left over park tickets, bought a golfing package from Groupon, used MANY coupons from the entertainment book (worth approx. $150) and cooked about 70% of our meals in the condo.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

We have done less expensive trips a couple different ways:

1. a) Value Resort.
b) Free Dining.
c) Bought flights during a flight sale.
d) Used Disney Visa Rewards dollars for MVMCP tickets and a Candlelight Processional dining package.
We did this once and may try it again this way in the future.

2. a)Traded our timeshare for Wyndham Bonnet Creek or Vacation Village at Parkway.
b) Drove down to Florida and got cheap hotels through Hotwire for travel days.
c) Bought Disney Gift cards for 1.5 years using the best discounts we could find (many to choose from: Target Red card 5% off, Sams or Costco discount, Kroger 4xs Fuel Points works best for me at 15% off). The GCs paid for all our food,
d) Bought 10 day no expire hoppers with water parks & more several price increases ago to be used over 3 trips.
We have done trips this way several times. It works well for us because of the sunk costs for the timeshare (maintenance fee has to be paid each January so lodging is already covered) and for the no expire tickets.

 

[abmitch01]

we went with extended family and rented a Windsor Hills 5 BR home that was gorgeous for less than $800 for 9 night. got a great car deal. got our tix through undercover tourist. My dad got really cheap sea world tix trough his union. We had coupons for Sweet tomatoes where three adults ate for $20 and kids ate for $3. We ate there almost every night, lol. we ate breakfast and lunch at the house, swam in the private pool, then went back to the parks. My mom, dd and I shared meals. Our airfare was less than $100 each way. It was fantastic for my sickly parents to see the kids reactions to stuff.