Disney on a budget

[Rod B]

My family and I have been coming down to Disney World once a year since 2016 so I'm still a rookie when it comes to the in's and out's of Disney. One thing I've learn throughout the years is how to budget more efficiently if you decide to vacation at the happiest place on earth.

We live in Long Island, NY so it's not easy to get down to Florida as much as we would like but when we do, we make our dollar go as far as we can. We use these methods to make our vacation more cost efficient and some may disagree or know other ways, and that is totally cool, but it's something that works for us.

Like everyone else, we use gift cards to pay for our park tickets and purchase them at BJ's or Target and use the discount system, But we also decide to use a rental car, even if we stay on resort. The reason for the car is that we don't really eat as much in the parks or resorts, but rather we would go outside Disney and eat at a outside restaurant which would cost significantly less than staying on resort. We may snack or have lunch or breakfast on property, but when we leave the parks, thats when we have our larger meals.

We also don't always stay on property all the time. We stayed at Allstar movies a few years ago and we loved it, but for almost the same price, we stay at an off property resort that offers full kitchens, pools and many amenities that Disney also offers. I don't know if we are allowed to recommend other properties on here so I won't list names, but I've found decent resorts that's 3 mins away from Disney world to the point we sometimes get to see the fireworks from our rooms. Which is why we prefer to have a vehicle on our stay.

Next tip is we prefer to go to walmart and load up on water bottles, powerade, snacks and park supplies (hand sanitizer, wipes, meds etc..) and the night before we go to a park, we freeze a water bottle per person so that during the day we will have cold water ready after we drunk our water we put in our reusable water bottles. Also, it's good when it's a hot day in the park and your kid is complaining about the heat so we wrap our face towels around the frozen bottle for extra coolness. We don't use water fountains or free tap water in the parks because we don't really care for the taste of Florida tap water no offense to the Florida community.

By doing these methods, the cost of our vacation for a family of three would come up to roughly $900 to $1000 per person for a 8 day vacation with 4 to 5 day park tickets including air fare minus park expenses, food and gas. If you know any other methods to save on vacationing at Disney please let me know.

 

[LAS2AMS]

There’s a couple active threads on this topic you may wish to read through:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/best-strategies-for-an-inexpensive-disney-family-trip.3791324/
https://www.disboards.com/threads/best-strategies-for-an-inexpensive-disney-family-trip.3791326/

 

[Marionnette]

My family and I have been coming down to Disney World once a year since 2016 so I'm still a rookie when it comes to the in's and out's of Disney. One thing I've learn throughout the years is how to budget more efficiently if you decide to vacation at the happiest place on earth.

We live in Long Island, NY so it's not easy to get down to Florida as much as we would like but when we do, we make our dollar go as far as we can. We use these methods to make our vacation more cost efficient and some may disagree or know other ways, and that is totally cool, but it's something that works for us.

Like everyone else, we use gift cards to pay for our park tickets and purchase them at BJ's or Target and use the discount system, But we also decide to use a rental car, even if we stay on resort. The reason for the car is that we don't really eat as much in the parks or resorts, but rather we would go outside Disney and eat at a outside restaurant which would cost significantly less than staying on resort. We may snack or have lunch or breakfast on property, but when we leave the parks, thats when we have our larger meals.

We also don't always stay on property all the time. We stayed at Allstar movies a few years ago and we loved it, but for almost the same price, we stay at an off property resort that offers full kitchens, pools and many amenities that Disney also offers. I don't know if we are allowed to recommend other properties on here so I won't list names, but I've found decent resorts that's 3 mins away from Disney world to the point we sometimes get to see the fireworks from our rooms. Which is why we prefer to have a vehicle on our stay.

Next tip is we prefer to go to walmart and load up on water bottles, powerade, snacks and park supplies (hand sanitizer, wipes, meds etc..) and the night before we go to a park, we freeze a water bottle per person so that during the day we will have cold water ready after we drunk our water we put in our reusable water bottles. Also, it's good when it's a hot day in the park and your kid is complaining about the heat so we wrap our face towels around the frozen bottle for extra coolness. We don't use water fountains or free tap water in the parks because we don't really care for the taste of Florida tap water no offense to the Florida community.

By doing these methods, the cost of our vacation for a family of three would come up to roughly $900 to $1000 per person for a 8 day vacation with 4 to 5 day park tickets including air fare minus park expenses, food and gas. If you know any other methods to save on vacationing at Disney please let me know.

Congratulations! You’ve reinvented the wheel! You really are not doing anything that hasn’t been talked about on this board in the past but sometimes it bears repeating.

• We don’t rent a car. We Uber or Lyft if we find it necessary. Otherwise, we use Disney transportation. We purchase gift cards at a discount to pay for those rides. No parking fees. No tolls. No seeking a gas station to fill the tank on the return trip to the airport.
• We order groceries and alcohol from Instacart rather than spend precious vacation time grocery shopping. Even when taking the inflated prices and tip into account, we still find it’s better than spending time out of our first day combing the aisles of an unfamiliar store in order to find the items on our list.
• We buy gallon jugs of water and refill our Yeti water bottles from that instead of purchasing cases of individual bottles. Cheaper and kinder to the environment.
• We put all household expenses on a rewards credit card and use the points for airfare and other travel expenses. We do the same with all overhead at our business.
• I do online rewards programs and apps for cash back and GCs.
• We buy annual passes and use them for two trips by taking the second trip a week or two earlier in the subsequent year. We don’t renew. We skip a full year once the APs expire and then purchase new ones the following visit. We save even more money on them by purchasing park passes at a discount and then upgrading them at the parks. Then we use discounted GCs to pay for the upgrade.

These measures work for us.

We also bought into DVC (resale) years ago when it actually made sense and cost us a fraction of what the same contracts would sell for today. We paid cash, no loans. We qualify for the Membership Extras which includes Moonlight Magic events, discounted APs, food and merchandise discounts, and discounts on tours and special events. I rent my extra points out every few years to cover my costs (purchase price, dues, taxes on rental income).

 

[Disneyfan754321]

The big expenses.
Hotel, park tickets, food, travel.
There is not a lot you can do about park tickets.
You will save some with giftcards, etc.

We save our money staying offsite, eating out one meal a day and driving. My DH asked what was important to me. He doesn't mind crashing at a cheap hotel.

 

[Rod B]

Congratulations! You’ve reinvented the wheel! You really are not doing anything that hasn’t been talked about on this board in the past but sometimes it bears repeating.

• We don’t rent a car. We Uber or Lyft if we find it necessary. Otherwise, we use Disney transportation. We purchase gift cards at a discount to pay for those rides. No parking fees. No tolls. No seeking a gas station to fill the tank on the return trip to the airport.
• We order groceries and alcohol from Instacart rather than spend precious vacation time grocery shopping. Even when taking the inflated prices and tip into account, we still find it’s better than spending time out of our first day combing the aisles of an unfamiliar store in order to find the items on our list.
• We buy gallon jugs of water and refill our Yeti water bottles from that instead of purchasing cases of individual bottles. Cheaper and kinder to the environment.
• We put all household expenses on a rewards credit card and use the points for airfare and other travel expenses. We do the same with all overhead at our business.
• I do online rewards programs and apps for cash back and GCs.
• We buy annual passes and use them for two trips by taking the second trip a week or two earlier in the subsequent year. We don’t renew. We skip a full year once the APs expire and then purchase new ones the following visit. We save even more money on them by purchasing park passes at a discount and then upgrading them at the parks. Then we use discounted GCs to pay for the upgrade.

These measures work for us.

We also bought into DVC (resale) years ago when it actually made sense and cost us a fraction of what the same contracts would sell for today. We paid cash, no loans. We qualify for the Membership Extras which includes Moonlight Magic events, discounted APs, food and merchandise discounts, and discounts on tours and special events. I rent my extra points out every few years to cover my costs (purchase price, dues, taxes on rental income).

I know there tons of topics like this. But I wanted to see if our methods are a good way to save. One trip I've brought gallon jugs and fill up before we head to the park, but found that after we drunk that water, we was stuck either buying more water or using the water fountain or the free tap water, which my family and I don't really care for the taste of Florida tap water.

As far as gas, the prices of gas down in Florida is generally cheaper than NY. But with us, we normally stay at a off site resort thats usually 5 minutes away from the park. So by the time its time to take the rental car back, we only have to put a half tank of gas which comes up to about 15-20 dollars. We also uses the disney gift cards to pay for parking at the park, so we save on that with the discount services.

 

[Marionnette]

I know there tons of topics like this. But I wanted to see if our methods are a good way to save. One trip I've brought gallon jugs and fill up before we head to the park, but found that after we drunk that water, we was stuck either buying more water or using the water fountain or the free tap water, which my family and I don't really care for the taste of Florida tap water.

As far as gas, the prices of gas down in Florida is generally cheaper than NY. But with us, we normally stay at a off site resort thats usually 5 minutes away from the park. So by the time its time to take the rental car back, we only have to put a half tank of gas which comes up to about 15-20 dollars. We also uses the disney gift cards to pay for parking at the park, so we save on that with the discount services.

There’s free ice water available at any QS location to refill our Yetis. The water and ice are filtered and don’t have the taste or smell that tap water has. Disney is also installing water bottle refill stations around the MK and may expand to other parks. I haven’t used one yet, so I’m not sure whether they’re any better that the traditional water fountains.

Gasoline, tolls and parking fees are what they are. You get a rental car, you gotta pay them. While I’m willing to pay the up charge for a Instacart and Uber, you’re willing to pay the added fees associated with a rental car. We each make choices that we feel are better for ourselves. Neither one of us is wrong. I’ve found that renting a car is more costly than ride sharing when I did comparisons.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I know there tons of topics like this. But I wanted to see if our methods are a good way to save. One trip I've brought gallon jugs and fill up before we head to the park, but found that after we drunk that water, we was stuck either buying more water or using the water fountain or the free tap water, which my family and I don't really care for the taste of Florida tap water.

As far as gas, the prices of gas down in Florida is generally cheaper than NY. But with us, we normally stay at a off site resort thats usually 5 minutes away from the park. So by the time its time to take the rental car back, we only have to put a half tank of gas which comes up to about 15-20 dollars. We also uses the disney gift cards to pay for parking at the park, so we save on that with the discount services.

My kids like the flavor crystal light sticks that you add to water, we bring disposable water bottles refill them with the free water from quick service, the water is filtered then we add what ever flavor we bought. The reason for the disposable is i was tired of the kids losing there water bottles.