Disneyworld on the cheap

[1yeartogo]

So...I have two kids almost 5 and 7. I just started thinking a quick long weekend trip to Disney this year may be the best time for our family to go (if we don't go this year we will go next year sometime I want to take them once during childhood). I began looking at prices and ouch...I feel like we could go to Europe for a week for what 3 days/4 nights in Disney would cost. Is my best bet booking cheap hotel/flights/car and then just spending the 1150 or so for three day one park passes for a family of four? Is there something I'm missing on how to plan this?

If we do have to stay in an outside hotel what happens with parking and getting to the parks? Sorry I'm clueless about this. My kids are very active so they would be most interested in rides, animals, fireworks, etc. they probably have zero interest in the people in costume/character breakfast type thing so we wouldn't do any of that, but any recommendations you have are appreciated!

[badgergrl]

one thing about Disney is the tickets are crazy cheaper the longer you go. We bought 7 day tickets at undercover tourist for the price of 4 days.

If you stay offsite you will have to pay to park and find your way from the airport. Those things are free if you stay onsite.

Food at Disney in my option is the thing I think is most unreasonable. It's not that good and it's stupid expensive. But you can carry in sandwiches etc in a cooler if your family is willing.

I would spend some time reading some Disney info at disboards or mouse for less or some other site and then price out staying at a value vs offsite. I wouldn't want to stay offsite but some people don't mind.

[L From The D]

Definitely stay on site, if you're financially able. You want to be in the Disney bubble, and you avoid a lot of add on charges like rental cars and resort fees.

Sign up for an account on Disney's website and order a planning DVD. This will get you on the mailing list and you may get an offer discount code.

[jeaniebueller]

I disagree and think it's better to stay off site if you are trying to save. If you rent a condo or timeshare you can buy your own food and aren't stuck eating on the Disney property, which is outrageously expensive. Driving to the parks is NBD and for us, we are not the types who leave during the day and want to come back later. Plus you will get far more bang for your buck offsite. The value resorts onsite have tiny rooms and are nothing to write home about. You can do better off property. Also, keep in mind that you may want a day to just lay around the pool because for our family, more then 2 or 3 straight days at parks is too much.

[beantrees]

The first trip I booked was super cheap. You could stack Orbitz and the Disney room discount. I got 5 nights at pop century for around $450. They have done away with that though!

The biggest expense tends to be tickets. You can buy from a reputable 3rd party seller (like Undercover Tourist or ParkSavers). Sign up for the MouseSavers newsetter for an additional few dollars off per ticket. I agree with PP... a 7 day trip is only a little more than a 4 day trip, relatively.

Another HUGE thing to help with the cost is the time of year you go. MouseSavers has a chart on their site that lists the "rack rates" for the entire year. Jan and Sept tend to be be the cheapest. The rooms are way cheaper and the meals often are too. The cost of tickets doesn't really change regardless.

We went last Jan for around $2,800 (including flights). That was for a 5 night trip, but we also had a free kid. We are going again in a couple weeKS and I'm thinking it will be around $3,700 (with flights). But we are having several nice meals, staying for 6 nights, and our youngest is no longer free. I also use CC rewards and deals on giftcards to make our trip "cheaper" in the sense it's not directly coming out of our pocket. Disney isn't cheap but definitely worth it!!

[lala]

There are lots of ways to save money and a lot of it has to do with the kind of trip you want & priorities. Yes, it's expensive, but a week there for us is comparable to our Europe trips when all is said &
Done.

But you have to plan. Like a pp said...longer park passes dramatically reduce the per day cost. We usually do 7 day hoppers and have a pool day to break it up. If a week + is out of the question, I'd consider the special 4 day 4 park tickets they have now.

I vastly prefer on site and have no interest in off site, kids or not. But that's my priorities. I don't want to drive, I want to be in the bubble.

Ways we save the most: fly southwest on southeast visa points, part of our trip on points at the swan (Starwood/Westin), renting a dvc studio for the rest, grocery delivery from we go shop, buying tickets through the special undercover tourist link, going at a non-peak time.

[Deleted]

There are seriously so many ways to do Disney but of my only two trips as a parent - one was offsite and one was onsite. I loved both but we spent a lot less offsite and had more room to stretch out. I would start researching your options and develop a budget and work from there.

[1yeartogo]

Thanks for all the replies so far. The reason I want to do a long weekend trip is I don't want my son to miss more than three days of school (also he probably wouldn't get approved for more). We cannot go in the summer, my ds does not do well in the extreme heat and that would really affect the quality of our trip. So spring or fall would be ideal. I'm going to check out these undercover sites, and also look at the chart for cheaper times of year. thanks!!

[L From The D]

1yeartogo - check your school year calendar and see if there's a Monday or Friday where the kids are off school (for end of the marking period or teacher professional development). Then you can take the kids out on a Thursday/til Tuesday, only miss one day, and still get a slightly extended trip.

[beantrees]

Jan 1, 2017 7:51:33 GMT -5 1yeartogo said:

Thanks for all the replies so far. The reason I want to do a long weekend trip is I don't want my son to miss more than three days of school (also he probably wouldn't get approved for more). We cannot go in the summer, my ds does not do well in the extreme heat and that would really affect the quality of our trip. So spring or fall would be ideal. I'm going to check out these undercover sites, and also look at the chart for cheaper times of year. thanks!!

If your school has a fall break that's usually a great time to go. Last year we tacked onto the end of his Christmas break (we went Jan 2-7) and he only missed a couple days. This year we are tacking onto MLK weekend. They often add a professional development day against a 3 day weekend so that really helps.

[huskymom]

We have stayed off site and rented a car and it's much cheaper (and we get a 2 bed villa typically). We hit publix for food and eat outside the park (where it's often better food and much cheaper) but still do many in park meals.

I like a mix of Disney/non Disney so it's perfect for us.

If you know anyone with an Interval timeshare, their Marriott getaways in Orlando are typically plentiful and cheap (like $500 for a week in a 2 bed). We've also stayed at Wyndham Bonnet Creek which was great and technically in the park.

We might try on site next time but we usually like to do every other day in the park so it hasn't been worth it yet.

[lala]

Check your school district's policies & ask the principal for clarification. Our district says you can have up to 5 unexcused absences, but our principal pretty much approves all vacation absences as excused. My kindergartner & 2nd grader missed 5.5 days of school last month to go to Disneyland & San Diego for 12 days and it wasn't a big deal. I generally am a fan of pulling kids out of school for family travel b/c it's the only way it can work sometimes.

But, definitely look at the calendar - we get 3 days off for the jewish holiday each fall and often put travel on there to bookend & maximize the days.

[origami]

Dec 31, 2016 19:22:06 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

I disagree and think it's better to stay off site if you are trying to save. If you rent a condo or timeshare you can buy your own food and aren't stuck eating on the Disney property, which is outrageously expensive. Driving to the parks is NBD and for us, we are not the types who leave during the day and want to come back later. Plus you will get far more bang for your buck offsite. The value resorts onsite have tiny rooms and are nothing to write home about. You can do better off property. Also, keep in mind that you may want a day to just lay around the pool because for our family, more then 2 or 3 straight days at parks is too much.

ditto this. Last time we went we stayed in a Marriott timeshare off-site that had a great pool for the kids and was a 2-bd condo. We ate breakfast there, packed some snacks, and saved a ton of $. We rented a car and did not park hop. Re:parking fees. The rental car's GPS led us to some kind of back entrance that I think wasn't for the public. But they let us in anyway and somehow we never had to pay for parking. I don't even know how much it is supposed to cost. If you want to leave the park to nap then staying on the property is best. But otherwise I thought being offsite was NBD at all and well worth the savings.

[prosecco]

If you stay offsite it is cheaper but you will need a car, and will have to pay to park every day. Parking is free if you stay onsite or you can use Disney transportation. We drive so staying offsite did save us and we went to Costco for groceries. We had a 5 bedroom house for like $600 for a week. That said, you can stay onsite and have groceries delivered, but you won't be able to cook.

[beeks]

You can stay onsite at a value hotel for around $100-$120 a night depending on when you go, and then you can save the $$$ on car rentals and parking. We used garden grocer and had some groceries delivered.

[momof2]

We always stay off site, because I want a condo/house with a full kitchen. Disney is magical if you don't stay on site, don't do a single character meal and don't buy a single souvenir. :-)

Here is how we do it cheap (get condo or house -- I got a great deal for May with Airbnb). We drive down so we have our car with our carseats. I make food in advance for a night or two that I pack in the cooler (like spaghetti sauce). I meal plan and have a grocery list already made up before we leave for the stuff I don't want to haul.

We eat breakfast at our place. Get to the park at opening. Go, go, go and grab something super fast/cheap for lunch (I also pack a lot of snacks). Go, go, go until we leave in time to get back to our place for a fast dinner.

That said, I have kids that are not going to be more than 8 or 9 hours in a park. Plus, some people love the character meals and I don't. I only did that once (and it was free, because my kid had a Make a Wish trip). Even free, I thought it was a waste of time. My kids see plenty of characters just walking around Disney.

[calmcosmo]

Have you considered Disneyland instead?

There are several off-site hotels that are walking distance to downtown Disney. Staying in a Disney hotel isn't as big of a deal at Disneyland from what I gather. Also, weather in summer is cooler in Anaheim than in Orlando (much less humid too) so a summer trip may be more feasible.

[arch01]

We did 5 days in December for $2500 when it was all said and done. ($2200 was room/tickets, $300 on food-mainly character meals). I saved about $1100 with various deals on GCs, most of which are now dead. The one that is still alive is the 5% off with a Target Red Card-it starts adding up. The other big one for me was getting a Disney CC-I got a referral from someone where you spent $500 and got a $200 GC. I put $500 in our Disney Vacation Account and got $200; plus that $500 helped me hit $2k in the account and I got a $40 GC for that.

We stayed at Art of Animation and enjoyed it. It was nice not having to drive anywhere, but dealing with the busses got exhausting. Parking is $20/day if you are off site. Most of our expense at the parks was in food-we did 2 character meals since it was DS' birthday; we did not like Tusker House at all and it was not worth the $$. We loved Crystal Palace. We packed a lot of snacks and lunches and ate breakfast in the room, even though we only had a mini fridge and a microwave.

Also, get creative. DH doesn't want to go again, but I'd like to. Scope out deals on hotels/booking with a particular CC; we have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, which has a bonus percentage when you book through their portal. At the end of the year we're getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which is a 50% bonus when booking through their portal.

[beantrees]

Dec 31, 2016 19:42:26 GMT -5 beantrees said:

The first trip I booked was super cheap. You could stack Orbitz and the Disney room discount. I got 5 nights at pop century for around $450. They have done away with that though!

I wanted to come back and say that I saw on Disboards that this deal is back for 2017. You can book through Orbitz and stack a Disney discount and the Orbitz site discount.

[teamhayes]

Jan 3, 2017 21:19:56 GMT -5 beantrees said:

Dec 31, 2016 19:42:26 GMT -5 beantrees said:

The first trip I booked was super cheap. You could stack Orbitz and the Disney room discount. I got 5 nights at pop century for around $450. They have done away with that though!

I wanted to come back and say that I saw on Disboards that this deal is back for 2017. You can book through Orbitz and stack a Disney discount and the Orbitz site discount.

Care to elaborate on how this works? How to stack etc?

Thanks

[beantrees]

Jan 3, 2017 22:04:59 GMT -5 teamhayes said:

Jan 3, 2017 21:19:56 GMT -5 beantrees said:

I wanted to come back and say that I saw on Disboards that this deal is back for 2017. You can book through Orbitz and stack a Disney discount and the Orbitz site discount.

Care to elaborate on how this works? How to stack etc?

Thanks

So, often times Disney will have a room discount in varying amounts. To make the math simple, 20% off a $100 room - $80. Orbitz also has promo codes, sometimes 15% - 20%. Disney releases a certain amount of rooms to Orbitz with the Disney discount. So the price showing on Orbitz is with the Disney discount, plus you add an additional 20% off when you check out. Or 20% off the $80 room - $64. PLUS, you can go through ebates and get additional cash back. PLUS you can sign up for Orbitz rewards and get points for other bookings.

The only "catches":

1. When you book your magicbands are set to ship to Orbitz in Chicago. You just have to go into MDE and change the address to your address.

2. You can't get the dining plan when you book with Orbitz.

3. Sometimes Orbitz charges $25 extra per kid in the room, which is a glitchy thing. So you just have to call/online chat to get that resolved. NBD.

Orbitz has value, moderates and deluxe resorts. There's several threads on the Dis about it too. Just Google "disboards:orbitz" for lots of information. This worked great for me and I saved a lot of $$$ doing it like that. I would have done it for our upcoming trip, but Orbitz didn't have any rooms available.

[Wines Not Whines]

Is driving an option? You'd save the cost of plane tickets, and you'd have your own car so you could stay off-site more easily, and wouldn't need to rent a car.

[1yeartogo]

Jan 5, 2017 13:25:24 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

Is driving an option? You'd save the cost of plane tickets, and you'd have your own car so you could stay off-site more easily, and wouldn't need to rent a car.

No, we are in the Northeast with limited days, there is no way we could drive it. At this point I'm leaning toward offsite with hotel deal from Expedia or orbitz. For our family it would probably be about 2.5-2.7k when all is said and done for a 4 night trip with three days in Disney in march.

DH still hasn't agreed to drop that much for such a short trip so we will see if we end up going at all.

[beantrees]

Jan 5, 2017 17:40:41 GMT -5 1yeartogo said:

Jan 5, 2017 13:25:24 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

Is driving an option? You'd save the cost of plane tickets, and you'd have your own car so you could stay off-site more easily, and wouldn't need to rent a car.

No, we are in the Northeast with limited days, there is no way we could drive it. At this point I'm leaning toward offsite with hotel deal from Expedia or orbitz. For our family it would probably be about 2.5-2.7k when all is said and done for a 4 night trip with three days in Disney in march.

DH still hasn't agreed to drop that much for such a short trip so we will see if we end up going at all.

If you are going this year I believe Disney is offering a 4 day park ticket at a really reduced rate that may help.

[was5]

Jan 5, 2017 18:48:22 GMT -5 beantrees said:

Jan 5, 2017 17:40:41 GMT -5 1yeartogo said:

No, we are in the Northeast with limited days, there is no way we could drive it. At this point I'm leaning toward offsite with hotel deal from Expedia or orbitz. For our family it would probably be about 2.5-2.7k when all is said and done for a 4 night trip with three days in Disney in march.

DH still hasn't agreed to drop that much for such a short trip so we will see if we end up going at all.

If you are going this year I believe Disney is offering a 4 day park ticket at a really reduced rate that may help.

1yeartogo, there is a Fun and Sun room offer this spring as well as getting a 5 day ticket for the price of a 4 day ticket. If you stay at the Pop from 4/7-4/13 (6 nights), you can get your room and 5 day tickets for 2 adults and 2 kids for $2456. It does not include food or transportation to FL. It is the same price range you have, but for a couple more days. Don't know if that makes a difference.

[wesleycrusher]

Jan 5, 2017 17:40:41 GMT -5 1yeartogo said:

Jan 5, 2017 13:25:24 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

Is driving an option? You'd save the cost of plane tickets, and you'd have your own car so you could stay off-site more easily, and wouldn't need to rent a car.

No, we are in the Northeast with limited days, there is no way we could drive it. At this point I'm leaning toward offsite with hotel deal from Expedia or orbitz. For our family it would probably be about 2.5-2.7k when all is said and done for a 4 night trip with three days in Disney in march.

DH still hasn't agreed to drop that much for such a short trip so we will see if we end up going at all.

Have you looked into getting a credit card with airline points?  DH got the southwest card (the one with the $65 yearly fee) and got the promotion for 50,000 free points- that was enough to get us 4 roundtrip tickets to Disney. We are going to cancel the card before the next yearly fee is due. Although there may not be time enough to do this, if you're planning to go in March- may be an idea for the future.

[bex]

Mousesavers was a great resource for me in terms of how much everything costs, where to save money, etc.

I think some Disney spring hotels offer transportation to the parks. They may be more expensive than something totally off property, but are still going to be cheaper (most likely) than staying on site.

[lala]

We fly everywhere on southwest points from credit cards deals. 2 Disney trips, 1 trip to California, etc. And British airways deals on their card have gotten us to Europe twice & California once.

I also just saw a deal on undercover tourist for 7 days for the price of 4 I think.