Kristenc’s This And That

Do you love Disney? You are in for a treat since Jennifer at Snapshot is hosting a carnival called Destination Disney. This weeks theme is all about saving money on your Disney World vacation. While you can certainly save money leaving things out of your vacation, I am going to show you how to save money while still keeping the extras.

As soon as you start to think about going to Disney, request a free vacation planning DVD. The DVD is very helpful and your request enters you in Disney’s system which increases your odds of being issued a postcard with a vacation discount savings pin.

Airfare is my least favorite vacation expense to incur. I have difficultly justifying it, beyond the fact that it’s mandatory for us.  Because plane travel offers me no joy, I put extra effort into getting an acceptable deal for our family’s airfare. I receive email alerts from Travelocity and I downloaded the “Ding!” from Southwest Airlines. Sign up for a Disney Visa Card to gain Rewards Points on all your purchases.

We always choose to stay at a WDW Resort, this is a cost I have no problem justifying. Disney has set up an affordable vacation section of their website where they post exclusive deals for those staying at WDW resorts. Look for dining discounts and/or ticket upgrades. If you aren’t interested in purchasing a package, and want to purchase separately the components of your vacation, book a “room only” reservation. Even if you didn’t receive a discount postcard, ask if there is a discount attached to your name and address in the system when you call to book your room. For serious room savings, stay at Disney’s Pop Century or one of the three All Stars value resorts for under $100/night. These rooms are small but the Disney hospitality, convenience, and theming is big! You can’t beat this value. You will also find that all resorts are cheaper during the value season. To view the schedules for the Disney resort types, broken down by season, visit here. Try for a AAA discount if you have a AAA card. Also, consider purchasing an Annual Pass, especially if you see AP discounts offered on this site. This discount is greater if you can span it across multiple vacations. If you get an AP discount on your room rate during your first vacation, your second vacation value increases by default since you won’t need to purchase tickets if your next vacation is within a year from your AP activation date. When trying for any discount, be flexible if the discount isn’t available for your first choice.

When it comes to tickets, you save more money each day you extend your vacation. Magic Your Way tickets can be purchased with many options up to 10 days in length. You can save a little money purchasing your tickets from a broker. Mousesavers.com offers lots of ticket tips. The easiest savings on tickets is found by skipping the “hopper” option, as this saves you about $50 per person. I haven’t skipped this option yet, but it is nice to know I could save myself a quick $200 on my family of four’s vacation bill, if I wanted to do so. However, this is money I don’t mind spending because I love the flexibility it affords me.

I often purchase the dining plan for convenience and some savings. I don’t maximize my dollar value of savings here because I tend to use my table service credits at character meals. When we pay as we go, we still do some character meals, but I tend to stick with late breakfasts since breakfast is the least expensive option. We usually have a granola bar in the morning and then have a late character breakfast for our big meal of the day. Late breakfasts allow us to tour the parks when they first open when the lines are shortest. You can save at counter service dinners by splitting meals. One day, when we were leaving MGM, we decided to take a bus to Fort Wilderness to grab a pizza. We had a quiet and inexpensive dinner by the lake. When finished, we took the boat over to MK just in time to see Wishes. For more food savings visit here. Some people prefer ordering the most expensive items from the most expensive full service restaurants on the Dining Plan. For me, since my kids really enjoy seeing Mickey, Pooh, Cinderella and all of their friends I am looking for their enjoyment value.

Bringing some granola bars can also cut down on the need for purchasing some snacks in the parks. However, don’t miss out on buying your kids each a Mickey Bar ice cream at least once on every WDW vacation. Be sure to pack all of the essentials you know you will need as these are expensive at Disney. I always bring sunscreen, rain ponchos, some little light up toys, pain reliever, Band-Aids, Neosporin, extra batteries, sunglasses and film.

For saving money in the stores, I have used an idea from this book for years. When my children spot something they want, I write it down. Once I have acknowledged what it is they want, and have added it to their list, they are happy. Later, they will have the chance to look at their list and pick the thing they most want. Now that they are older and are earning an allowance, they understand money more. They shop during the trip and decide what they want to spend their money on. Pressing pennies can keep your kids on the lookout for these 51 cent souvenir machines. This last trip we bought them each a little pressed penny book - they sell them just about everywhere in Disney. The kids were excited to find machines as we toured, and were often so busy looking for machines, they overlooked all the miscellaneous merchandise opportunities. We let them take turns choosing a machine so as not to duplicate pennies. There are machines all over the parks and resorts. My favorite souvenir from my last trip was free. I printed a copy of the Semi Finalist certificicate for Disney’s Moms Panel I earned and brought it with me to our Cinderella Castle breakfast. I brought a matching Pink Sharpie and they all signed the certificate. It looks great!  Another nice souvenir is to bring an 8×10 picture of your children in front of Cinderella Castle from a previous trip. Let the characters sign it. It looks nice when hung! After our vacations I like to order free customizable maps from Disney to remind me of what we did with the kids on that particular vacation.

Save money on several special-ticketed party events (i.e. Pirate & Princess, Not-So-Scary Halloween, etc.) by purchasing the tickets in advance at a discount. Also, these special party tickets can be used to get a discount off your Photopass print order. Purchasing an Annual Pass can also sometimes help you score a discount on La Nouba tickets. There are so many ways to save money!  Listed here were a few of my favorites. If you love Disney, you can have almost as much fun planning your trip as the trip itself. But most of all, remember to have fun!

I hope you all have a very happy Mother’s Day tomorrow.  Click here for a sweet little Mother’s Day treat.