Many families dream of visiting the happiest place on earth. However, Disney World isn’t exactly the cheapest place on earth. If you long for a Disney vacation with Mickey Mouse, you’ll need to start saving STAT. But these tips might ease the pain and help you achieve your dreams sooner than you realize.
1. Book Off Season
If at all possible, plan your travel for an off-season week. Both costs and crowds increase during the busier seasons of the year for Disney. Believe it or not, the crowds have recently dropped during the summer months so if you can handle the heat, that may be an option for you.
Run some potential dates that work for your family through the Disney World site to see what potential discounts or offers might be available to you. We recently booked a vacation in October that priced at close to double the expense during our Spring Break.
2. Ask for Help
If you’re not a diehard Disney nut, it’s a good idea to find someone who is to help you plan your trip. I promise you have at least one friend who’s either an official Disney expert or even an Authorized Disney Travel Planner. My friend Kelsey at The Magic for Less helped us find our resort. And it didn’t cost us anything additional.
I spent quite a bit of time working over Disney’s reservation area. While Kelsey couldn’t find me a cheaper price, she found a nicer resort at the same price for me. And it was a great fit for our family, at no extra cost.
3. Pay with Disney Gift Cards
There really is no such thing as Disney on a dime because it costs a lot of dimes to visit. However, you can save money by purchasing gift cards under face value. For our last two trips, I bought gift cards at Sam’s Club where they cost less than face value. Note: the cards are sold in different denominations. And it’s a little like doing toilet paper math figuring out which deal is the best.
For our Sam’s at the time we purchased, the $50 packs were best coming in at $47.98. But the detonations flux all the way to $500 for $484.98. If you’re doing the math at home, buying 10 $50 Gift Card Packs nets you $20.20 in savings vs. $15.02 for the same amount bought in one gift card.
You can enter these gift cards on Disney’s site and consolidate them up to $1000. And then you can use them to pay your bill.
I also cashed in rewards points wherever I could to snag Disney Gift Cards for free. I used up all of my Disney Movie Rewards and Shopkicks. On Swagbucks, I picked up PayPal gift cards that I used to purchase gift cards under face value.
If you have a Target Red Card, you can get 5% off your gift card purchase. Or you can rack up Kroger Fuel Rewards by buying gift cards there. Also note, that some places put gift cards on sale for Black Friday. You may be able to score a deal then!
4. Buy Souvenirs in Advance or Bring What You Have
After you fork out all of the cash to get to Disney, prepare yourself for the onslaught of adorable products from every direction. If you’re planning in advance, you’d be better off by buying your own t-shirts, plush, and special souvenirs in advance and bringing them from home. I always find that Kohl’s, JCPenney, Target, and Walmart have excellent clearance to fit the bill. The Dollar Tree also has plenty of other fun goodies.
For our last trip, I focused on consumable Disney products instead of buying more clothes/toys/hats. You can pick up Disney body wash or fruit snacks or even Goldfish. These little extras are easy to pack and make the trip fun.
If you have access to a car, I’d highly recommend hitting a Walmart or Target in Orlando. Even drugstores sell Disney items at a much lower cost than in the park. We actually hit the Disney Character Outlet at a nearby outlet mall after our trip was over to pick up a couple of special gifts at a fraction of the price. There are a couple of them in the area.
If you already have Disney items, bring them from home. When the girls were little, I’d raid the stuffed animals and t-shirts they already had to bring along with us on the trip. We spent less and had fewer extras to manage after the trip was over.
5. Set Realistic Expectations
There are SO many extra experiences you can add on at Disney. Delectable treats, resort entertainment, special destinations like the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique – you’ll find a temptation to spend at every bend. Before you leave home, have an upfront conversation with your family about what you will and won’t be doing in addition to an already amazing vacation.
This one small step helps keep the gimmes at bay and set smart budget boundaries.
6. Skip the Dining Plan
This next one may be a little controversial, but in my opinion, 9 times out of 10, the dining plan isn’t worth the expense. We’ve done this once when it was “free.” Let’s be honest, nothing is ever free, friends. Ha. It’s a lot of food, more than we could eat.
This time, we opted to spend out of pocket instead and even with a sit down character meal one day and quick service the rest of the time, we came in hundreds of dollars under what it would have cost us to purchase the dining plan.
It might be advantageous if you want to splurge, but more than likely you’d be better off splitting meals (because again huge portions) or even buying kids’ meals (which you can’t do if you’re on the dining plan but no one asks if you’re not).
I also think it’s smart to bring food from home. One year, I even brought our crockpot and made chicken chili and salsa soup that we ate instead of buying a more expensive dinner in the evenings. You can bring in sandwiches, snacks, and water bottles to the park, too. Just be prepared to wait a little longer to have your bag checked.
On our latest trip, we drank water at every restaurant and they gave us a decent sized cup and water for free. It’s those little expenses that can add up!
7. Budget For the Unexpected
I think this goes for just about any trip to anywhere, but trust me as a mom of many years, something weird is going to happen on your vacation. One of my kids caught a cold and I had to run to the pharmacy. Another one of the kids accidentally ingested pecans and has a mild allergy so I had to go to another pharmacy.
From car sickness to forgotten belts (a necessity when you can’t keep your pants up), we always seem to encounter some sort of unexpected expense when vacationing at Disney or anywhere else. It’s smart to have a baby emergency fund for your vacation in case these expenses creep up. If at the end of the trip, you haven’t spent this cash, roll it into the next year’s vacation fund or blow it on one last fun experience.
I know you have a Disney tip you’re just dying to share, too! Hit me with your comments so we can become Disney money saving gurus together. And check out these posts on Queen of Free:
- Earn FREE Disney Vacation Gift Cards
- How We Saved Money By Booking A Disney Vacation with Gift Cards
- Debt Free Disney: Saving For Your Disney Vacation
Our new book Your Money, Your Marriage is now available! Be sure to check out videos on managing money together on Facebook.
My book is now available: Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After. You can also check out The Debt Free Devotional
This post contains an affiliate link. That means when you get a great deal, learn about a way to save, or maybe even something for free, I may end up making a small commission. All prices are subject to change.
