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

[ChrisinNJ]

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

This is the key. I could probably stay onsite for a similar cost to offsite, but I like the accomodations I get offsite. I like having a master bedroom suite, and not having to share 1 bedroom & bathroom with 5 people. We will cram into 1 room for a weekend away, but for a week or longer vacation (we usually go for 10 days to 2 weeks when possible) I want my personal space. We have more than enough family togetherness in the parks, I do not want to sleep with my kids.

Staying onsite. I think onsite can work out cheaper if you're a commando park tour family, and have 4 or less in your party. That doesn't describe my gang. A lot of people think onsite is the be-all, end-all--and I used to be one of them, until I rented a house in Windsor Hills. Now, you couldn't pay my gang to squish into a couple hotel rooms for a "vacation".

This!

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

It takes me all of 10 mintues a day 3-4 days out of our trip, and means I can get by with 2 suitcases for my family of 5. It also means I come home with clean clothes and I am not doing laundry for weeks to catch up.

So, Windsor Hills was the BEST budget advice I've gotten here.

Me Too!

Also, as far as cooking on vacation, I really don't cook. We have a fast bowl of cereal or a bagel for breakfast, and eat the rest of our meals out. If we feel like having a big hearty breakfast, we go to a restaurant & have it.

As for meals at Disney, we use our Disney Visa Rewards dollars to pay for food in the parks. This is one of the ways we save money on our vacations.

 

[seals]

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

Agree. And we spend all of our time at the parks (otherwise we'd rent a house at the beach or in the mountains) so the extra room would just be wasted. The convenience of nearness to what we're there for works best for us. Same about the dining plan. If we wanted to eat good food we'd go to a city with nice restaurants. It's all about THE PARKS for us. For us. YMMV

 

[crisi]

4) not bringing ponchos as disney has their own. Well...I can get the exact same ponchos at my dollar store down the street for $1, and not have to spend $8 on one from Disney (or however much they are now). And, they are disposable...I just toss them at the end of the day if I use them.

Now this is one where we've had exactly the opposite response. We've had the dollar store ponchos - and they are crummy compared to the expensive ponchos you get a Disney (or the good ones from a place like REI). Not the exact same ones at all - and well beyond the logo - its the plastic they are made from, the existence of snaps. The dollar store ones really are disposable - we weren't able to make them last even an entire trip if it rained multiple times. The good ones from Disney we've had for going on ten years. Yeah, we spent a bunch on them up front, but they make each trip with us, sit in my Disney box, and I don't have to go to the dollar store to see if they currently have rain ponchos (my local dollar stores often involve running to multiple dollar stores to see if they are in stock).

For us, good ponchos or rain jackets all the way - no dollar store stuff - especially when we are now going during "rains nearly ever day" season.

 

[sydneysmom]

I can't say that I got any bad Disney budget advice for our trip at all. I think the only advice that I took, that did not work for us, was overpacking "stuff". and by stuff, I mean tylenol, moleskin, glow sticks, fans, etc. It was funny, I HAD to have the qater squirting fans. I was on a quest to find them before we left....I can't even tell you how many times we forgot them in the room. Or forgot about them hanging on the side of my backpack. Yeah.....what seemed SO important before the trip didn't turn out so important.

But, for next time I know what NOT to pack so that's a good thing. I think we can "lighten the load" alot. Bringing the ponchos is an excellent idea...again, if you actually keep them with you! Which, on the only day it rained....we did not. Ours were in the hotel room. ( can you tell, we were just running for the Mouse and left everything behind!!)

sometimes, the best laid plans can go awry.

 

[bluehen]

Then sell it.

Obviously you haven't tried to sell a timeshare lately. Your confusion would go away.

 

[ssawka]

Obviously you haven't tried to sell a timeshare lately. Your confusion would go away.

I don't know, my brother was able to sell his overnight through the timeshare store. That was in the fall. If anything, I would think it would be easier now, especially in the past couple months when everyone was trying to buy before the new rules went into affect. The question is not whether or not it would sell, but how much you are willing to accept for it.

 

[ssawka]

This is the key. I could probably stay onsite for a similar cost to offsite, but I like the accomodations I get offsite. I like having a master bedroom suite, and not having to share 1 bedroom & bathroom with 5 people. We will cram into 1 room for a weekend away, but for a week or longer vacation (we usually go for 10 days to 2 weeks when possible) I want my personal space. We have more than enough family togetherness in the parks, I do not want to sleep with my kids.

You know you could have the best of both worlds with a DVC villa, but I agree, that is not "budget"!

 

[bluehen]

I don't know, my brother was able to sell his overnight through the timeshare store. That was in the fall. If anything, I would think it would be easier now, especially in the past couple months when everyone was trying to buy before the new rules went into affect. The question is not whether or not it would sell, but how much you are willing to accept for it.

The price is the rub. I would assume even dvc (by far the best at retaining value) is not getting over 50% of original price. I'm assuming why the original post was unhappy with his purchase.

 

[ChrisinNJ]

You know you could have the best of both worlds with a DVC villa, but I agree, that is not "budget"!

The "Not Budget" part gets me everytime! I have priced villas over & over again, but I just cant justify the extra cost. My husband is not comfortable renting points. Even if he was it is still more $ than the townhouse we rented last trip (3bedroom, 3 baths & a private splash pool for under $700.00 for the week). It took a whole lot of research & convincing to get him to try Windsor Hills. Now he is sold! I know it is not for everyone, but it works for us!

 

[ssawka]

The price is the rub. I would assume even dvc (by far the best at retaining value) is not getting over 50% of original price. I'm assuming why the original post was unhappy with his purchase.

It depends on which resort and how long ago the owner bought. If it is an older resort and the person purchased a while ago or if they own BLT, they could break even or possibly make a small profit. In my case, if I were to sell now (BLT) I would make a profit.

 

[David Brent]

I have tons and tons of advice that I've tried and been a waste of my time:

1) bringing a bandana and putting it on your car so it makes it easier to find after a day in the parks....stupid idea....never did it and wasted money on a bandana that I will never use

i don't know what's worse. the bad advice or you actually trying it.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

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

No, but when you have 7 people, crammed into an 8-passenger Honda Pilot for an 18-hour drive to Disney, with luggage having to go on top of the vehicle with no room inside the vehicle, it's much easier to pack HALF the clothes needed for the week and do a load or two of laundry once during the week. We always take a break midday anyway... kids are told anytime they take off dirty clothes, throw them in the washer and then when it's full, we run it while we're back in the villa for our break. Really not a big deal. But we only do probably 2 loads for the whole week. We also like having the kitchen but I decided any sort of "cooking" is really OUT for the next trip. Frozen pizzas, frozen lasagnas, the ready-to-cook meals from Costco, etc, is what we'll be doing next time.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

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.



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.<<<

We always drive to WDW because there are 7 of us. But our trip in August 2009, we left the car 99% of the time and utilized the buses (stayed at Pop)... big mistake! Fast forward to March 2010, staying at Kidani (now DVC owners)... first day we were going to MK and went to the bus stop, waited a few minutes and decided to go get the car instead. Drove the rest of the trip. Now we are going back in June and staying at BWV. DH is concerned about the parking situation at BWV. (Parking at Kidani is AWESOME!) So we have decided to just do valet parking every day to save us the stress.

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.

There's no reason to carry water in the parks at all. You can get free ICE water from any counter service place. IF you don't like the taste of tap water (I'm picky about it, but it really didn't bother me at all), then take individual Crystal Light type drink mix packets. (We did this too, but most of the time didn't even use them.)

 

[jodifla]

The price is the rub. I would assume even dvc (by far the best at retaining value) is not getting over 50% of original price. I'm assuming why the original post was unhappy with his purchase.

The owner said they've had it 14 years. So it was selling about about half the price new ones go for now.

I could still sell my DVC for about what I paid for it, looking at current listings. I've owned 14 years.

 

[clanmcculloch]

There's no reason to carry water in the parks at all. You can get free ICE water from any counter service place. IF you don't like the taste of tap water (I'm picky about it, but it really didn't bother me at all), then take individual Crystal Light type drink mix packets. (We did this too, but most of the time didn't even use them.)

Crystal Light uses artificial sweeteners which are major GI triggers for me and my kids. Lots of people don't want to use artificial sweeteners. Yes there are some other types of individually packaged drink mixes but either we don't like them or they have something my kids are allergic to. My kids don't drink many sweet drinks. We're a house of water drinkers.

We have beautiful crystal clear spring water at home (our well is fed by a natural spring running through our property. The taste of FL water is VERY strong to us. Flavouring that water just makes it flavoured strong tasting water. Still undrinkable to us. This may work for some, but not for everybody. In our hotel I have to use bottled water to make coffee or else I can taste the local water. All of us even use bottled water to brush our teeth.

For some of us, the bottled water is a necessity. We each carry a bottle into the park in the morning and then we buy bottles in the parks if we need more than that.

 

[mom2faith]

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

Simply put a Value Resort in Value season is $82 per night and includes transportation and parking. Your original was $114 per night right? Well there you go, that is how it is cheaper.

Again, as others have pointed out, it does not work that way for large families, but for our family of three thre is more than enough room. And since we are not there to watch TV, who cares if there is only one.

You requested Simlar Accomodations - but that is relative. Similar to what? I have no idea what your rental looks like. But, I can tell you that what you described is too much room for our family so therefore we would be wasting money for those accomodations, but again, it is what works for you.

When I crunch the numbers staying onsite is always less, dining plan is always less (I have the receipts for 3 years in a row to prove that we would have saved money had we not had "free dining" and paid OOP for everything rather than being on the DDP) and rental car is always worthwhile. Oh, and so are the mugs and PH. These are the basics whenever I budget a future trip.

However, I do agree that making breakfast in the room is not for me!! And, I will never add the WP&M option again! Water Parks and Disney Quest are not a fit for our family.

 

[MamaJessie]

This thread was supposed to be about bad budget advice, not things your family can't live without on vacation.

I like reading all different types of budget advice because while some things don't apply to me, a lot do.

 

[tlbwriter]

You requested Simlar Accomodations - but that is relative. Similar to what? I have no idea what your rental looks like. But, I can tell you that what you described is too much room for our family so therefore we would be wasting money for those accomodations, but again, it is what works for you.

Also, similar cuts both ways. If you're going to include the perks of staying offsite (more room, laundry, kitchen, pool) you also have to include the perks on staying onsite in your comparison (ME, EMH, transportation to parks included, free delivery of packages to your resort, guaranteed entry to a park during the busiest times, etc.).

 

[pigletto]

PH are hit or miss for us. I can plan a perfectly fun vacation without them and when I need to budget I don't bother with them. We always travel in quiet times though. I am sure I would prefer to have them during very busy weeks just to have options. We've done trips with them and without them. It costs us apprx. 200 to add them. So if I am planning a trip where that 200 would be better spent somewhere else I don't use them.

WP&more are a good thing for my family. We always do DisneyQuest one evening at the very least. DD and I will go to a waterpark once every trip. Hubby and Son LOVE the water parks and will probably go a full day and 2 other half days next trip.

Breakfast in the room.
I love it. We aren't big eaters in the morning but we need something. I pack 4 small bowls and spoons and bring a box of cereal. Milk in the fridge and some fruit and there you go.. breakfast taken care of. I can guarantee you that it doesn't get messy or overly complicated for us. To each their own.. but I find it quick and painless.

 

[kmacht]

Simply put a Value Resort in Value season is $82 per night and includes transportation and parking. Your original was $114 per night right? Well there you go, that is how it is cheaper.

Nope. Sorry to tell you this but you are wrong. You are not including the additional tax that is charged on top of that $82 per night. I did include it in my calculations.

If you want to compare just the cost of lodging and leave off all the perks and requirements of either side then your rate of $82 per night doesn't include the 13% tax that is also charged. The brings it up to $92.66 per night. For 7 nights that is $648.62 for you onsite stay. The offsite condo we use for that same time period is $474 (with the cleaning fee) for the week or $57 per night. Add the same 13% tax plus and it works out to be $76.51 per night or $535.62 per week. My math seems to indicate that $76 per night is cheaper than $92 per night no matter how you slice it.

If you get into the non-value seasons the difference becomes even more drastic. Take easter for example. The condo is $761 for 7 days with all fees, and taxes. A value resort is $1218. That is a $457 difference. I can almost stay offsite during a non-value season with the savings.

This is of course all trivial as some people such as I think that an offsite condo offers way more than an onsite value resort while other people believe that the extra money spent staying onsite is well worth it for the extra perks. I probably won't change your mind and you probably won't change mine. I have stayed both onsite and offsite and love both. My original point was just that if you are on a budget and need more than just a single room then it is always cheaper to stay offsite.

Keith