Need ideas on a very tight budget trip! - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
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Posts: 36,592
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Re: Need ideas on a very tight budget trip!
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I'm probably in the minority here, but if your finances are very tight at this time, I might consider either not going in December, or planning the trip for next spring or early summer in order to save more money. I've done the routine of you only live once, play now-pay later, etc., and it's just a hole that you dig yourself into that's very hard to get out of. If you are determined to go, maybe instead of the 10 days you propose, you could whittle it down to 6 or 7, and that would save quite a bit in hotel and food costs. Just remember, whatever you think it will cost - it will cost more!! I truly don't mean to sound like a spoil-sport, but I've been there so I can understand.
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I agree with this totally. We cancelled our December trip in 2004 for just these reasons. We had a wonderful rate at a resort we wanted to stay at, but would have put ourselves into debt to pay for the entire trip. We opted to wait. We still don't have a trip planned, but I will tell you that I don't regret not taking that trip. I would have felt burdened this winter if we had.
Cutting back the trip to a shorter one might work for you guys, so I would suggest thinking about that as well.
We did cancell a trip last Spring Break.
However, my DD 15 had two friends loose parents over the spring/summer last year.
We were saving our money to get our bathroom remodeled, But, have decided to have a vacation instead.
I guess my point is a house is a house, but, memories last a lifetime, in our case.
Only you can decide, I didn't want this post to be a downer. But, it makes me sad......
But the dates of their trip fall into value season, don't they? So the room rates will have dipped between Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas week. (This stays true for off site and on site, right?)
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
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Posts: 36,592
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Re: Need ideas on a very tight budget trip!
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Ok everyone! I need your best tips on how to go to WDW on a very tight budget. Here are the constraints so any helpful hints or ideas would be wonderful!
1. There will be four of us. The big issue is a 6'5"in dad so don't know if a double will work? Two DD's 5 and 3 at time of travel.
2. Would like to go Dec 3-12.
3. Would like to spend on room, tickets, and food no more than 2500.
Is this doable? We really want to go but we are in a bind financially. I know the responsible thing would be to not go but I thought I would see what we could do.
Thanks everyone!
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OK, my previous reply above is about what I would do, but here's some help with what you might want to try.
Our first trip was during value season and we stayed for 8 nights at ASMu. This was over 5 years ago, so prices have gone up, but we did it for right around $2500. I think you need to look at doing a week-long no more than that.
Room: Stay at an Value resort, on a AAA rate discount (get AAA before you call if you aren't already a member). You'll get 20% off the rack rate. You should be looking at around $650 for the room for 7 nights, I think.
Tickets: buy 6 day park tickets without hoppers or extras to save money. That will be about $752 for the four of you.
Transportation: You'll have to drive unless you can come up with airfare of $500 or less for all of you. Driving, you need to figure your gas mileage and whether you are far enough away that you have to stay overnight on the road, which I think you are. Keep all that under $500.
This leaves you with $600 for food and extras. In your case, you need to forget about extras. You can do counter service restaurants for your 7 nights/6 days onsite and make it under that without problem. Do things like share meals (large servings), drink water with meals, and do "brunch" instead of breakfast and lunch to cut down. You may be able to fit in a character meal, but make the PS for it toward the end of your trip and cancel if you find your budget getting tight.
I think you can do it.....you just have to really watch what you do.
Oh, and my DH is 6'3" and he has the same problem with the bed. Here's what we do. Share with the kids. One parent and one kid per bed. They don't take up much room, and then the parent has more space than if they slept with their partner. Also keeps the kids from kicking and bugging each other at bedtime .
Hey you can do it...the package they are advertising now is value resort with 2 adults 2 kids for $1500. If you don't add any extras that would be great. I'm going the week of christmas with 3 adults and we upgraded the tickets for 10 days for $1900. If you can get there and back for say $400 in gas money...that still leaves you $600 for food and extras. If you budget well and take some snacks you can definitely do it.
You can also stay offsite for really cheap. We stayed at a Best Western offsite one year for $21.00 a day. It wasn't the best place but it was clean and we even had a refridgerator in our room. We had cereal and bottled water that I picked up at the grocery on the way and all I had to pay for was 2 little meals or 1 big meal in the park. We did wonderfully. If you go determined not to spend a lot of money you can still enjoy it. Kids that age would still like stuff like the cups and straws they get as souvenirs or the kidcot stuff from Epcot. Glo cups from other restuarants. It is very do-able! Just remember to budget yourself and say that you are only going to spend this much each day. Save a little extra for one splurge and you have something to look forward to, Disney done cheaply is still tons of fun and I have to tell you that the year we had such a tight budget and got to go made it even more special, we were forced to enjoy each other and not just the souvenirs!!!
If you are already driving, stay off site. Try www.rentalo.com. Tell them how much you want to spend and what you are looking for. They do a search and return 20-60 options. They have lots of condos for $75/night, but believe me you can talk them down. They have pictures of all the rentals. We always rent a 4-5 bedroom house with pool for $95 or less that usually rents for $110-130/night. Have always stayed in very nice places.
I would also suggest trying www.hotwire.com if you don't care where you end up staying. They give the star rating for the hotels, but not the names.. and you have multiple general areas to pick from. As long as you only look for ones in the Lake Buena Vista-Downtown Disney and Disney Maingate-Champion's Gate sections then you should still be pretty close to property.. We used Hotwire in 2002 and stayed at a fairly nice Ramada for $21 a night.
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I would also suggest trying www.hotwire.com if you don't care where you end up staying.
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I agree with this. We have a condo booked for 11/12-11/19/05 and i was looking to add another day or two on the beginning. As of 2 days ago I found 2.5 star hotels in the immediate area for $34 per night and this was for the Friday of Vet's weekend.!!
Another idea is to look for a condo that is offering a timeshare viewing in exchange for room and tickets. I haven't tried this, but I was doing a google seach for "cheap hotel, orlando" and a lot of these came up. You would have to spend some time listening to there selling pitch, but you could save some money.
Also go to the official orlando website and sign up for the orlando magic card. They offer discounts and hotels and meals. Eating meals off-site will certainly save money.
Good luck
Amy H
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