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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.
I hear ya about the "responsible thing", but the magic is worth it! DH could sleep by himself, you could bunk w/ 5yo and 3yo could sleep in the pack 'n' play.
Here's what I've come up with, assuming 8 park days:
Tickets (incl 1 adult AP) $980
Value resort w/ AP rate for 9 nights: $495
Meals: $600
Total: $2075
There is some play in the food amount, depending where you eat and if you get the DDE card that saves you 20%...$250 and you've paid for the card, Everything Pop is included, so that could be 20% off your dinners right there, and one thing I've noticed is that people with children tend to buy too much food! This last trip, I ordered a meal for me and one for 8yo and then we'd share with 6yo (just ask for an extra plate) 6yo doesn't eat as much as WDW would like to sell me! If she was still hungry, then I could go buy "seconds", but that only happened a few times and saved some $$$.
Staying onsite saves you $7 parking fees and the AP (if that rate is available) saves you about $220 over the rack rate (plus the DDE discount, so that makes up for the extra you pay for it) You'll also save 10% on souvenirs at DTD.
If you didn't want to go the AP route, you could always try a AAA discount which should be about $660 for 9 nights at a value resort, tickets to $775, and food at $600 would be $2035 total, but you lose your possibility of a food discount and souvenir discounts.
I would book at the AAA rate, then watch for the AP rates to come out. If they do, then you can switch over to that without having the actual AP yet. Then you'll know whether or not you need to buy one. If no AP rates come out, then you just get a MYW ticket instead.
Another option is to look into renting DVC points for a "home away from home" resort. A studio is roughly the same size as a resort room, and a one BR has a full size kitchen. It may be more in the lodging category in the long run, but you can then eat meals in (especially breakfast) and keep snacks and water in the room instead of buying them at the parks. We find that this is usually a big money saver!!
To make the trip as inexpensive as possible there are several things you could do. First of all, I would definitely stay off-site. While the Value Resorts are cheap, there are hundreds of less expensive hotels in the area, many of which are actually really nice. Some of them are even themed, although not at the same level as Disney hotels. When it comes to tickets I would go for the 7-day MYW tickets from ticketmania.com. You could spend your travel days relaxing, and an extra day just doing other things in the area, with 7 days in the parks. I would skip the No Expiry and Park Hopper options since the budget is tight. I would also stick to counter service meals. Make a grocery stop on the way to the hotel and pick up quick items for breakfast and snacks around the room, as well as some small things to bring to the parks (drinks, snacks, etc). It is definitely possible to go for 10-day and have it cost less tha $2500. I don't know about travel expenses, though - are you planning on flying? Good luck andlet us know what you decide!
I second graygables and rescuesk!!! Your children are young enough to fall under the childrens discounts so that is an advantage in its self. Also, a lot of counter service places have excellent food for a low price and better yet...their portions are HUGE! You can split adult meals between you and your husband or you and your DD's. I think even some of the kids meals are really big. When you are in line or whatever for food you can look around and see what other people have and that can give you a big clue as to whether the meal is sharable or not.
The AP is a great idea too. You are going at a non peak time. I looked at the price and rooms are $87 a night at the All Stars and Pop Century. With an AP there is a possibility that you could bring that total down way more. The amount you can save off your room could pay for the AP itself plus add that with the 20% discount on food and 20% off at World of Disney and others for souvenirs and you are set to go. Also, you can get refillable mugs at the resorts and share them. One for DD's and one for you and DH so that way if you spend time eating at the food court you can get as many drinks as you want. I think one mug is payed off in 6 drinks and there is more than just pop too.
I agree-we make so many meals and it saves SOO much money. It is also helpful as the kids are usually so tired after a day in the parks and we found often too tired to sit through a meal at dinner or even lunch! You can also do laundry!
Don't forget if you stay offsite (which I have yet to find a nice place for less than $50), that you'll have $7 per day in parking fees, so remember to add that to whatever quote you may get. Then there's the transportation issue.
BTW, in my food calculations, I was not including breakfast, since we always eat b-fast in the room, and definitely get a resort mug...well worth it!
I agree with Babieemelly that off site definately saves you money. We've stayed at very nice 2 bdrm villas for as little as $85./night. With making breakfast in the villa and a couple of quick easy meals in, you can save a a lot. You can also get Residence Inns and Homewood Suites with kitchens for very reasonable prices off season. Both offer free breakfasts which contain hot and cold items. Homewoods Suites also offer evening snacks, usually including at least one hot item. We also prefer more room if we all travel which we can get much more economically. Last year we split a stay betwen Wyndham Palms and the AKL. Our villa was around $140./night. Two pool view rooms, AP rate at AKL was $330./night.
I've stayed off site and on and would never go without a car, especially if you want to save money. I gives you the flexibility to leave Disney whenever you please. I also personally am not fond of Disney busses. Renting a second rental (an economy car) for four days for my husband last year was the cheapest wasy to get him to and from the airport when he flew separately. It was something like $14./day with taxes. It turned out that they were out of economy cars so he was upgraded to a premium car.
Being off site doesn't prohibit one member of the family from getting an annual pass and free parking, although I find the parking fees reasonable.
I also looked at the DDE discount before we went last week and found that if you eat a lot of counter service and usually eat in the parks, it may not be worth the $50. or more as at 3 of the 4 parks there are no counter service restaurants where you can use it. We also could not use it at Roaraing Forks in the WL.
And an annual pass allows you discounts only at limited numbers of stores in DTD, World of Disney and a few others. With children as young as yours, you might get away with bringing Disney "treats" from home. Or better yet, instead of giving in to the gimmees for them, think about letting them do some Christmas shopping for others for whom they would normally buy presents.
I also found that the refillable mug was good for me-I drink coffee and diet soda, but I still bought a lot of drinks for my DD (16) who prefers juice. She used hers primarily for soda in the afternoon. You might want to consider getting some juice boxes if you don't give your little ones a lot of sugar drinks. I also wish I had packed some hot chocolate packets and filled the mugs with hot water.
let's see..... we were at AS sports 1 night and AKL for 6 nights(54.00 and $1010.00= 1,064.00(ap rate) Tix 1 adult 4 day hopper and one child 4 day hopper and 1 ap my ds was only 2. about $700.00 Ps's $350.00 and we had $400.00 for other meals and souveniers. Let's add it up.
1064.00
700.00
350.00
400.00= 2514.00
I think you've gotten some great ideas - just thought I'd add the two things that came to mind re: off-site rentals.
1) Will you have to rent a car? (don't know if you're flying or not)
2) The operating hours will be shorter at that time of the year and not having the resort benefit of Extra Magic Hours may cut into your play time.
Oh, and as for the bed thing, we often bring an air mattress with us and have our son sleep on that. The first time, we didn't have one and, after two nights of kicking each other and getting no sleep, we just asked for two extra blankets (they're the "foamy" kind) from Mousekeeping. We made a pad on the floor for him and he was very comfy. In fact, the next year, he tried to nix the air mattress we'd brought. He wanted to sleep on the "pad"...
HI, Me and my family are also going Dec 21-Jan 1st. And we are paying like 140 a night we do have AAA is it that much cheeper to use them? Thanks Heather
I would stay off site and I would make sadwiches to take into the park every day and breakfest in the room and then go out and have a nice dinner every night that way you can save some money. to save more money I would drive that way you save money on renting a car.
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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