I’m on my drive home from Disney World and back to blogging reality. I am exhausted, stressed out and ready to go home. I need a vacation to follow up this vacation. Seriously!! Two girls and Disney World is A LOT of work.
I want to share our experience traveling to Orlando because I worked really hard to stay on budget and still get the full Disney experience. Now our budget was $1200 (not including hotel) for the week. We are lucky in that both of our children are under 3. So we don’t pay for tickets or some of the meals at the park. Here are my Disney World tips for an affordable vacation.
Tips To Save At Disney World
2. Go during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party or the Not So Scary Halloween party. This allows you to get another day for a discounted rate. The tickets are $64 (vs. $92) and allow you to enter the park at 4pm until 12am.
4. Stay off site at a hotel that has a fully equipped kitchen. That way you can eat in and make lunches to take with you.
5. Buy some souvenirs outside of Disney. Walmart has a great selection of Disney products for you to choose from. There are a ton of souvenir stores around Orlando but, Walmart seems to have the best selection.
6. Mickey Mail or Trinkets from Tinkerbell – Bring Disney stuff with you. Things like glow sticks, Disney Princess products from Dollar Tree and Michael’s. Then you can give your children a gift every day without spending a ton of money. Tinkerbell or Mickey Mouse can visit every night and bring your kiddos a gift if they were good. Chalkboards, coloring packs, tiaras, jewelry, glow sticks, stickers, tattoos, light wands, and wings.
7. Buy Disney costumes at Target or the Disney Store (during friends and family sale) and bring them with you. The costumes in the park are roughly $15-$20 more than the store. That alone is a savings and if you get them on sale or at Target you can save $40 per outfit.
10. Bring a good camera and take your own pictures at the meet and greets. That way you own the rights to the photos and can print them.
11. If you’re not a big eater the kids meals are also a great way to save.
Tips To Make The Trip Extra Special
1. Be Our Guest restaurant is awesome. Make reservations or go first thing when the park opens or right before they finish serving lunch. You will avoid the lines and get in and out fast. If you walk by at lunch it’s an hour to two hour wait. However, you can walk right in at 2:30.
2. If you have girls Cinderella’s Royal Table is a must, so be sure to make your reservations well in advance. Also, be sure to go at a peak time for this. It just seems to be more organized. The experience is magical and is well worth the $50-$60 per an adult.
4. Don’t be afraid of the rain. By a $1 poncho at WalMart and have fun.
5. Any dining reservations can be made 180 days prior to your visit. In order to get what you want you absolutely have to book this far in advance. Especially for Cinderella’s Royal Table.
Great ideas. We’re hoping to take our daughters in April. I will be coming back to the post when it s closer.
Angela @ Time with A & N
Awe yay! You will have a blast. My daughter keeps asking if we can go back.
Great share! Especially the buying Disney stuff outside of Disney park, when I took my daughter years ago we saved tons of money on that alone 🙂
Yes totally. I can’t believe how much more it is in the park. It’s crazy!!
Thanks for sharing! We’re planning our trip for next year in late August. Do you have any hotel recs? I’ve been on a few forums and Moms recommend staying at a disney resort where you can catch the monorail to the parks since it’s complimentary. We plan to go for 5 days but we’re doing 3 days at the parks.
We stayed offsite but, I would definitely recommend staying with Disney. There are a lot of perks, extended park hours, magic bands, special fast pass +, plus not having to get a rental car is huge. They have a shuttle and the monorail. If you decide to stay offsite I would recommend our hotel it was the Marriott Grande Vista. We were staying with our timeshare but it’s reasonably priced, has great ammentites and is about 15 minutes away.
Hi Megan, I´ve only just discovered your blog by chance – I love reading about disney world as long as we can´t afford to go there (not yet! but we will one day!). I´m a mother of two boys and we live in Germany, so the flight alone is a big expense. There is one thing I want to share that we did in a crazy moment: We purchased a guidebook about saving money in DW (found it on a website called http://www.disneyworldforless.com and compared to the cost of the trip it seemed at least affordable – and it´s getting updated all the time, so it will be valid whenever we are ready to go). It turned out to be really good, so that´s something that I can recommend. PS: Your girls are really really cute!
Thank you Katrin!! I will check it out.