I recently wrote a post about our Happy Home’s passion for Disney World and one of my Happy Home Readers asked if I had any tips on doing Disney cheaply.
One disclaimer – I am certainly not an expert by any means! I’m not even sure that any of these tips will be helpful, they are simply just some of the things that we have found to help us in our effort to take our necessary trips to the happiest place on earth without forfeiting the Happy Buddy’s college fund and savor the magic at the same time!
Please leave a comment and let me know if this was helpful to you! My greatest mission is to help you build a Happy Home! And to me, a Happy Home enjoys a trip to Disney every once in awhile… 🙂
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1. One of your biggest financial obstacles is finding accommodations… Your best bet is to stay at a Disney Value Resort during the off season. Sometimes these hotels have rates as low as $69/night! And you get all the magic of staying on campus! Plus early entrance into parks, bus rides galore, and the Disney Hotel employees always put your towels in the shape of Mickey’s head on your bed when you walk in the hotel room. LOVE THAT!
2. Other ideas for accommodations – one thing that the Happy Hubby and I have done since the beginning of our marriage is look for Timeshare Promotion packages where they offer you 4 days/3 nights in a nice resort for a low, low price (some even include tickets to theme parks!!) if you just sit through their “90 minute” presentation. The only catch is that you have to be really good at saying no after the 90 minutes! They know how to push all your buttons and will do everything they can to melt your resolve!!! Trust me, we have done this like 4 or 5 times and if it weren’t for my solid-as-a-rock husband, we’d probably have 4 or 5 timeshares! Haha! But we figure 90 minutes is worth all the money we save having fun! Go HERE for some awesome Orlando Timeshare Promotions. If you have a time share, though, that is the way to go! Or looking into someone you know who has a time share that might let you use theirs is great too. Sometimes timeshares have special offers for friends of timeshare owners. We have done this several times. In fact, that is how we afforded our honeymoon! We used the Happy Hubby’s parents’ timeshare and had the best time!
3. Get a Disney Visa NOW!!!!! We have one and that’s the only credit card we use! I am not even kidding we used our points to pay for our nights in a Disney hotel on our last trip.
4. When we visit Disney, we don’t always visit the parks. You can go to Downtown Disney and have all kinds of fun with the food and shopping. You can visit some of the Disney hotels for cheap Disney magic too! The Animal Kingdom Resort is seriously like a zoo! You can see real animals up close and personal! And we always go to the Grand Floridian Hotel where if you walk out back by the dock you can watch the fireworks from Cinderella’s castle EVERY NIGHT for free. Then we love to visit the Beach Club Hotel for ice cream at an adorable place called Beaches and Cream and then play a couple of rounds of air hockey at the arcade next door. These are such super alternatives to forking over all that money for theme park tickets but yet still enjoying Disney magic.
Note – **I suggest just picking one park to visit and then do all the free stuff on the other days!**
5. Visit Celebration, Florida. We LOOOOOVE going to this cute little town that’s just outside Disney. Disney actually owns it and it’s soooo fun! Have you ever seen the Truman Show with Jim Carrey? That is what this town is like- absolutely perfect! We always eat at the Market Street Cafe and let the Happy Buddy run around in the fountain they have in the center of town that shoots water out of the ground. There are also lots and lots of cute shops (make sure your Happy Hubby brings a book!). Another great thing about this town is that there is always a party going on! They aren’t named Celebration for nothing! Check out their website for dates and times of all their parades, festivities, and special events.
6. Two fun un-money-related tips: If you want pictures with the characters… We once took the Happy Buddy to Animal Kingdom to get pictures with the characters and we literally just walked up to them – no wait! I think it was because that was the first thing we did upon arriving and it was at Animal Kingdom, which is great fun but doesn’t get as much traffic as the other parks. And you MUST stop by the Guest Services at any Disney location to pick up your special free souvenir buttons!! They have ones for Anniversaries, Birthdays, First Time Visits, etc.
7. When visiting parks, bring in your own drinks and food (PB&J’s all the way, my friends!!!) – saves a TON.
8. Check out this site for more budgeting ideas and to have all your questions answered!
9. To help with your kids not wanting to spend an arm and a leg on souvenirs, secretly buy a few Disney items from places like Target and Wal-Mart before going on your trip. Then you can pull them out back at the hotel for souvenir magic without having to spend the extra money in the parks.
10. Finally, I encourage you to really commit your trip to the Lord in prayer! I am a firm believer that God cares about these things! He will provide and will be with you in your quest to be frugal and experience lots of magic!
After writing this post, I am kind of thinking that we need to visit Disney ASAP!!!! I am going to go kiss my Blarney Stone and go work on the Happy Hubby!
How do you do Disney for less??? I’d LOOOOOOOOOOOVE to hear about it!!!
Happy Disney-ing! 🙂
my best suggestions are: waiting for a promo to get the FREE disney dining plan! we’ve done this 3 times now and it is totally worth it to us. you get a “counter serve” (fast food) meal, a “table serve” (sit-down restaurant) meal, and 2 snacks per day per person. you can exchange the table-serve credits for CHARACTER MEALS!! if you’ve ever priced these, they’re crazy-high. we have a character meal EVERY DAY with this promo! even the PRINCESS MEAL in the world showcase. this ends up being more than enough food – literally – and we cash in our credits when we leave at a gift shop for mickey mouse rice crispy treats to bring home! our other awesome money-saving tip is to reserve w/your disney visa (we keep it strictly for disney vacation purchases) because…(1) you get these awesome free dining plan promos earlier than the public (2) sometimes there are INCREDIBLE UPGRADES! 2 trips ago we booked the “all-star resort” (always – best deal and we’re never in our room except to sleep anyways) but the disney card emailed an offer to upgrade to the timeshare condos in old key west!!! we were totally spoiled w/FREE meals and a FREE upgrade! 🙂 oh -another cheap souvenir idea my kids love: squished pennies! take a bunch of shiny pennies and LOTS of quarters….you can buy a collectors book there to put them in – like a scavenger hunt and the machines are everywhere w/lots of diff designs! 😉
I love the tips! We are considering going to Disney in Oct. My son will be 12 months old. Do you have any tips on things he will enjoy at such a young age?
Another “cheaper” place to stay is at Fort Wilderness Campground. We’ve got a pop-up and have stayed there a few times. We really didn’t buy any “disney” food. Most meals were at the camper.
Also, along the lines of having souvenirs handy before hand. I’ve heard about buying the goodies before and while you’re at the park or seeing the sights, Micky comes and leaves a surprise in your room (ok, it’s really you mom, leaving it as dad takes the kids to the elevator).
My hubby and I stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (our 20th anniversary treat to ourselves) last year and had a blast. We had one of the rooms that over looked the savanna. We loved getting up in the mornings and looking outside to see who was out there. Very fun trip.
Thank you for all your great tips. I, too, feel a trip should be in the works!
Great tips from my Facebook Friends!
Debby Sutton Great post, Julie! Another cheap souvenir – pressed pennies. Of which Disney has over 275 machines! Give them handful of quarters and pennies. No more quarters, all done.
Janie Mehaffey
We love to do the fireworks offsight too. Polynesian beach is our fav so the boys can play in the sand while we wait. Other ways we keep it cheap to feed our Disney addiction :): 1. FL resident seasonal passes are great. If you’re going to …parks more than 2 or 3 days in a year, then check out these prices: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passholder-program/ 2. We bring our own snacks, even Mickey Mouse rice krispie treats. 3. If eating at a table restaurant, go before 3 because prices are cheaper than for dinner. 4. Take your kids as much as you can before they’re 3 – everything’s free!See More
Ashley Jominy Baur
We always priceline hotels. Always get great ones near disney! BTW sea world has a deal for teachers….bring pay stub, teaching certificate, & id you get im free all yr. Paul and i both have the free passes. Also the have the deal this… month for buying a one day pass and getting in free all yr.
Disney always has fl residence deals which we always take advantage of.
Kim Waddell Boland
Great ideas! We do these non-park Disney venues as well. The Disney hotels always have special events for Christmastime too. Since we have outgrown a regular hotel room, we opt for the timeshares. I use ebay and find “buy now” deals for… Wyndham Bonnet Creek (it’s on Disney property) – I can usually get a 2 br condo for about $80 per night and no high pressure sale to go through. The pools and activities are so much fun that we don’t need to go to the parks. Can see the fireworks from there too. You can usually find the best deals 2-4 weeks out from your travel dates. We’ve even shared a 2 or 3 bedroom unit with another family to multiply the fun and cut the costs!
Kim Waddell Boland Oh, one more travel tip we learned when we still did Disney with strollers. I got a really large beach type tote bag and placed it in the lower storage bin of the stroller. Everything goes into the bag, rather than the bin…when you need to fold the stroller quickly, just lift out the whole bag.
Disney is on our list of things to do in the next couple of years…..thanks so much for the tips…I had no idea there was so much you could do to make it less expensive!! I would love it if you would link this up to my Marvelous Mess party. Each party I pick one project to feature on my sidebar for a week!! Here is the link: http://bit.ly/i5BHt8
This is way past your post but the best tip we have other than already mentioned resort stay and dining plan – go to staples.com and have your water, snacks for your room, poptarts, wipes, hand sanitizer, etc. shipped to your room. After $50 its free shipping and the resort will have it delivered up to your room. Target.com will occasionally do free ship and we ordered diapers and wipes. That takes up so much room in the suit cases and with flights so expensive and having to pay for extra luggage – this is the way to go. Also, AAA has great discounts and will do free dining in the down season.