What's the Worst Disney Budget Advice You Ever Got?

[BuzznBelle'smom]

doing laundry while on vacation doesn't sound very fun to me.

See, it doesn't bother me at all. it's not doing mountains of laundry, it's throwing in a load every day or so, and folding it when you get a chance. Thsi also allows us to pack much less.

Along the same lines, I don't mind cooking simple meals on vacation, either. Now, it's my vacation, too, so if my gang thinks they're getting a slaved-over meal, they're dead wrong. But frozen meatballs in jarred sauce over pasta, with heated up garlic bread and a bagged salad, and we're all happy. And DD15 always says, "I know it's vacation, because we have break and bake cookies!"

 

[mrodgers]

The refillable mugs wasn't a hassle for us, just a complete waste of money. Normally we wouldn't even drink that much fountain drinks.

They were $14 and held 2 sips of drink. I had no idea they were so small for such a large price before seeing them. Yes, we did get them, they are our keepsakes for our Disney trip. But they really aren't worth the cost, especially when the fountain drinks taste like you fill the cup 1/4 with drink and top the rest off with water. The fountains were so watered down it was pathetic.

Not budget related, but my worst advice that I followed from this board was, "be at the parks at rope drop." That was a horrid experience. We were there at Magic Kingdom half an hour before rope drop packed in like sardines shoulder to shoulder starting the day off with everyone I saw looking like they just stepped out of the shower from the heat. The rest of the week, we timed to be at the parks 5-10 minutes after rope drop and walked right in.

 

[book_junkie]

Just personal preference, but the worst one I got was just use the buses and don't worry about other transportation... SO did not work on our 2004 trip- my hubbie calculated we wasted a full day on waiting for buses, riding on buses, and everything else- and more fights because were were hot, exhausted, and just completely peopled out..

The next time we drove ourselves from TX, and tried out taking the car to the parks... Instant air, no queue, and privacy... Now I code hunt for rental deals if we fly and work it into the budget for every trip, even if we have to drop something else... I've even converted my mom when we went last year..

 

[Purseval]

Stay on site so you can experience Disney "Magic".

 

[ssawka]

Buying DVC. After 14 years of owning, I regret it.

Then sell it.

 

[grafxgirl]

I would love to see the math to justify that one. I have tried to do it before and the offsite always came out cheaper. Our trip coming up we are staying at a 2 bedroom condo in windsor hills. Cost is $535 for 7 nights. Staying offsite we also have car rental ($168) for the week and 7 days of parking in the parks at $14 a day ($98). Total cost for the week to stay off site will be $801. That is $114 per day. I would love for someone to show me how I can stay onsite with similar accomodations for less than $114 a day.

Keith

What about the cost of your meals, park tickets, and the cost in gas for the rental vehicle? I don't see those listed.

 

[branv]

All of my things are absolutely about personal preference -- what I and my husband consider important to a vacation is not what others need. But at least I can say I gave these budget savers a go!

1) Eating breakfast in the room. We eat a quick, boring breakfast at home every day b/c we're in a rush to get out the door, plus I do all the cooking the rest of the time. I also LOVE to try new foods/places, and a big breakfast is a rarity that actually makes DH happy as a lark. So we realized after our first attempt at this that we were killing part of the thing we really enjoy about vacations -- I get to eat out, someone else does all the work, and DH gets his ginormous hot breakfast. Not worth saving the money on for us.

2) Value resorts. Achem, always a touchy subject, but let me say again...this is personal preference and personal experience. Your mileage probably varies. We tried it and it is really, really not for us. Many people cite it working for them b/c it's only a place to sleep, but DH and I consider our time at the hotel part of our vacation. We love to come back to the hotel mid-day and relax, or have an early evening where we hang out at the pool, use the amenities, walk around the resort, etc. So we need a place to stay that offers attributes we're looking for, that make us feel happy and comfortable. We didn't find our experience to be remotely conducive for what we were looking for, and realized it was simply not worth saving money on.

Just personal preference, but the worst one I got was just use the buses and don't worry about other transportation... SO did not work on our 2004 trip- my hubbie calculated we wasted a full day on waiting for buses, riding on buses, and everything else- and more fights because were were hot, exhausted, and just completely peopled out..

And this is #3 We did the parks without a car, and we've done the parks with a car but occasionally utilizing the bus/boats/monorails and, except for a few occasions, we'd really take the car almost every time. Though there are MANY reasons why, the biggest is that while car rental costs money, my park tickets cost a lot more. So I'll spend the money to give myself more time doing what I want to do. Time is money after all And personal comfort is worth a bundle besides.

Edited to add #4 -- carrying water into the parks. I don't mind carrying one bottle each, but for even half a day I'd end up carrying a lot of water to suit how much I typically drink. I end up feeling like an overloaded pack mule, and frankly water is just heavy (and forget running back and forth to lockers!). As wasteful as it is, we now budget to buy bottled water while in the parks. I know we could do fountains, but I am weird about the taste of water and buying it from a vendor means it's always COLD. So worth splurging on.

 

[punkin]

I was told to do a timeshare presentation to get cheap accommodations. Nope, never took that advice.

 

[aprilfoolwed]

Not getting Park Hoppers - and I will fully admit that it was my own bad advice I was taking!

When we went in 2009, we didn't hop at all. But it was our first family trip, AND I had my parents along to help us out.

Fast forward two years and we're going by ourselves this year (meaning no grandma & papa this year - just our family of 5), and trying to juggle our park needs with my husband's convention schedule.

I bought basic YES tickets, and decided to save the money and not do Hoppers. I started regretting that decision before the tickets even arrived at my door!

As for onsite/offsite:

I want to stay onsite so badly! We've never done it, and I want to do it (with Free Dining!) at least one time, but I just can't justify it.

We are a family of 5. We'll be staying offsite in a 4BR Emerald Island pool home (which is MUCH bigger than what we need, but we like having the pool. We could do a 2BR condo for nearly half the price - but opted not to). We bought YES tickets. We drive our own car, so no rental costs. This is our budget for the trip:

Tickets - $850
House - $850
Parking - $100
Gas (while in Orlando) - $100
Meals - $1000

That's $2900 for our 7 day trip.

We got the Free Dining PIN, and I priced two different trips (No values available for our dates)

Port Orleans - $3197 + tax with QSDP
Poly - $5335 + tax with TSDP

There's just no comparison for us. We'd be cramped in a tiny hotel room and have to eat A LOT of food to make it worth it. So we'll stay offsite. But I do still want to try onsite at some point (maybe just DH & I - someday...).

 

[Jamie25UGA]

Agreed about the mugs, they're just a waste of money. Having never stayed on property and for years seeing tons of people carrying them around the parks all day I was under the impression you got free refills in the parks too (why would anyone want to be stuck carrying the mug all day if they didn't have a stroller to stash it in), but just getting free refills at the resort isn't worth it when you're just there in the morning and at night. After all day at the parks no one wanted to walk all the way over there to get Coke that would keep you up so we only used them once a day in the morning and left them in the rooms before we left.

 

[DaniB]

Worse? Bringing travel-sized games for the kids to play with; fabric size of a placemat to sit on for parades; a 3rd pair of shoes solely for use in the room; washclothes to carry around in the parks; and more. These never were used. Most were left behind and I really could have used the extra space instead of cramming the 3rd pair shoes back into our luggage for the trip home.

Best? An over-the-door organizer for all our bathroom items; a couple of cloth fold-flat boxes to store things in; 2 different shoes for park-time (1 waterproof & 1 sneakers); bring laptop to back-up daily photos (we came back with 8GB. I would have hated to lose those!); rope-drop information; ADRs before park opening; how to get into the 1st Jedi Training show; and so much more!

Eating breakfast in the room. We eat a quick, boring breakfast at home every day b/c we're in a rush to get out the door, plus I do all the cooking the rest of the time. I also LOVE to try new foods/places, and a big breakfast is a rarity that actually makes DH happy as a lark. So we realized after our first attempt at this that we were killing part of the thing we really enjoy about vacations -- I get to eat out, someone else does all the work, and DH gets his ginormous hot breakfast. Not worth saving the money on for us.

I agree with this. I cannot understand why people want to bring food to eat breakfast in their room. There's hardly any space, unless you're off-site or in suites with a kitchen. I don't want crumbs and food everywhere. And having to clean up stuff afterwards? Waste of time to me. And if I had a kitchen? I sure as heck don't want to COOK when I'm finally on vacation! I do it 3 times a day almost 7 days a week thank you.

Since our family hardly ever gets to eat out, eating all our meals at Disney restaurants was a huge treat! I don't count pizza or McD's as eating out Even that was cut down to once/twice a month so we could save it for Disney instead.

Our kids were so excited to see all the restaurants and choose. As for a TS meal wasting 2 hours or more of park time? Well, that's personal preference. To us, eating a TS meal every day at a beautiful themed restaurant was part of our vacation & Disney experience!

 

[Marionnette]

Another piece of bad advice was the one that said to use a TA because they were better able to get the good deals for you. Well, I don't know if it was just this particular TA or if most of them are this way but my TA was behind the curve on all of the discounts, was difficult to contact and slow to enact changes. She also put us on flights out of PHL with connections thru Dulles on prop planes instead of going on jets thru Atlanta or Charlotte. Never again!

 

[kmacht]

What about the cost of your meals, park tickets, and the cost in gas for the rental vehicle? I don't see those listed.

Park tickets are the same cost no matter if you stay on site or off. I was only listing the difference in prices for staying offsite, not the total cost of a vacation. For meals we never did the dining plan either staying onsite or off. We just don't eat enough food to justify the cost. When they do offer free dining plans the rate for the on-site places are usually close to the rack rate so it isn't really "free", you are just paying full price for the room with free dining instead of a discount on the room and paying for dining.

We find that the offsite condo usually saves us money on food. We make a stop at walmart on the way from the airport and pick up some breakfast and lunch items that we can cook or prepare in the condo's kitchen and bring with us into the parks. I can usually get a whole week of breakfast and lunch items from walmart for the cost of one sitdown breakfast for the family at the park. We also don't end up having to buy $3 bottles of water since we can pick up a whole case at walmart for only a few dollars more and just bring some with us in a backpack. Since we are offsite and have a car there are also alot more dinner options. We aren't stuck with the expensive disney owned resteraunts (although we usually splurge once or twice during the week). Rt 192 has just about any type of resteraunt you can think of.

I'll give you the gas. I didn't include that in my original post. Almost all the driving we do is short trips back and forth to the parks and up and down Rt 192 which is right next to Windsor Hills. It cost us about $40 in gas when we went last year.

I am still waiting for someone to show the math on how onsite is cheaper.

Keith

 

[gatormom2tots]

It apppears that much of this just boils down to YOUR family and YOUR situation. What works for one doesn't work for others!


Refillable mugs........spend most of time in parks so we wouldn't use them that much. PLus- staying at BLT its quite a walk to refill it.

And on that line of thought- DDP. We are a family of 4 with a 6 and 4 year old. They would NEVER eat their share of the costs. As it is now, the usually split a kids meal when we eat in the parks, I eat a kids meal, and DH eats a regular meal. But we usually only eat 1 meal a day int he park.

WE would rather eat breakfast in room so we can make it to rope drop (as a family with little kids, we need to do fantasy land and the infamous DUmbo!) Then we come back for naps so that's lunch in the room.

This might change in a few years when the kids are older...but for now DDP just wouldn't make sense for us!

On-site....with still taking naps for kids (and us!) makes more sense for us to stay on and monorail resort. Yes, it costs extra...but we are willing to pay extra (rent points) for the convience.

Good advice- renting points! Saved us about $2500 over paying cash at BLT for a 2 bdrm!

 

[WDWjen]

"I am still waiting for someone to show the math on how onsite is cheaper.

Keith"


In my opinion I think there is no doubt that offsite is cheaper...especially the more people in your group. We did it a few years ago and saved a ton of money - had more space, more privacy, & more options with dining. HOWEVER, (and I know this is the budget board) sometimes saving money is not the only thing that matters to some people with their vacations.

For some people knowing that they saved $1000 can make them enjoy their vacation more. But for others... saving time, not having to cook, or walking right to the parks matters more than the price paid. SO this thread can be helpful to see varying opinions/ideas but in the end it is what matters to each individual as to what is better.

Its so funny that just one aspect (dining, rooms, transportation) of a vacation can get such diverse answers!

For me the worst advice was that we had to see Fastasmic!. I did not enjoy it at all! It might have been the long lines to see it, the long wait for it to start, the massive crowds when it ended.... but I didnt think it was worth it - -and it took precious time away from riding TOT.. But like I said above, I know there are people who love it.. its just not for me.

 

[mnrose]

doing laundry while on vacation doesn't sound very fun to me.

To me, it is far easier to toss in a load before getting into the pool, then it is to wash load after load after load after load when I return from my vacation. Literally, it could be an all day affair!

Seriously, I never spent more than 10 minutes "doing" laundry. What does it take? You toss it in (2 minutes). You move it to the dryer (1 minute). You remove it from the dryer and fold (maybe 5 minutes?). Big deal.

And, we get to pack MUCH lighter, which saves bag fees and the hassle of hauling around large bags.

Each is own, I suppose, but it's not a chore to me to do laundry.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

don't upgrade to deluxe dining plan, take the basic plan for free. for us the upgrade was totally worth the money. we paid for no snacks or meals out of pocket. yes at times it felt like a lot of food, but for two adults going all day in the park two meals and one snack just does not cut it. also it goes by nights not days, so we do a full day on arrival day and stay until at least 3pm departure day. when you do the math its 10 meals for almost 6 full days, we would have spent more out of pocket to supplement the plan once we arrived.

See thats the opposite for us. For our family of 4 the regular dining plan was way more than enough food for us. We even went home with 3-4 counter services. We could never eat enough food to justify the deluxe. It would be a huge waste of money.

We would use our snack in the AM, eat lunch (TS) around 1-1:30pm , then get a CS before we left the park. Lots of time we would split them because we just were not hungry enough to use a whole CS for one person.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

[disneyjunkie]

First trip (before MYW tickets) -" don't buy tickets for your LOS. If you're there for a week, buy a 5 day pass." This was awful advice. Resting in the morning was fine, but by late afternoon, (or after spending the day at the water park or Disney Quest) we wanted to hit a park. But noooo, we had to enjoy our rest day and not waste a park day. I will never do WDW again without park admission for each day we're there.

Our next trip we purchased the 30 day Fun in the Sun passes. 30 days of unlimited admission to all 4 parks, both water parks, Disney Quest and I think WWOS for only $300 per person. Oh, each ticket came with a free
character breakfast voucher.

Second trip- "purchase an extra bun and split a double cheese burger" I did that one night at Pecos Bill's. My poor son looked at me like I had three heads when he saw what I was about to do. My BIL laughed so hard, he had tears rolling down his face. My sister set me straight. "You just spent $$$$ on this trip, now you're too cheap to buy your burger!! Please let my nephew eat his burger in piece" I did end up buying my own burger and fries. For the rest of the trip my son would only order chicken fingers at CS places. I hate chicken fingers.

 

[LIFERBABE]

Second trip- "purchase an extra bun and split a double cheese burger" I did that one night at Pecos Bill's. My poor son looked at me like I had three heads when he saw what I was about to do. My BIL laughed so hard, he had tears rolling down his face. My sister set me straight. "You just spent $$$$ on this trip, now you're too cheap to buy your burger!! Please let my nephew eat his burger in piece" I did end up buying my own burger and fries. For the rest of the trip my son would only order chicken fingers at CS places. I hate chicken fingers.

Im not laughing at you, Im laughing with you!! BTDT got the crazy look from my Ds's.
I think our early trips, we were scared of the budget for a trip. Things add up so quickly, but so is life.


For us, what did not work was pre-buying souvenirs and taking it all with us on the trip to prevent the gimme's. 1 my boys never had the gimme's so I was lugging around stuff they did not want anyway. 2, it was all dollar tree stuff and not the best quality, I remember waiting for the parade and proudly pulling out the glow sticks and 90% of them not working! 3, If my Ds's saw something they really wanted, they really wanted it and no substitute out of the bottom of the stroller was going to do. We were in Epcot, and my youngest saw this lighted spinning globe on the cart that he really wanted. It was $8 and he loved it! We still have it and I am instantly transported back to that day

Sometimes we can budget out the magic by trying to over anticipate expenses. I also spent tons of money on stuff we did not need. Now I dont shop for vacations except for essentials.

So now I keep a $ figure in mind and let them decide what they want or dont want. I usually come out ahead.

 

[disneyjunkie]

OH, one more tip that didn't work out for us.

Packing snacks/food for the room.

I've done it on all of our trips-even the one when we had the dining plan.

I start stocking up on snacks/food about a two months prior to the trip. I have a small bag and a carry on bag of junk. Once we check in, I unpack it all. Each morning before heading out, we grab a few snacks to take with us to the parks. Most of those snacks remain in our bags. Why? Because we don't want the crap from home, we want the crap in the parks!! So instead of saving money, I end up spending more.