This is an updated list of money saving tips at Disney World and surrounding areas. Now if we are going to determine how to save money, first need to examine where we spendmoney! Typically resort guests spend money in the following five areas:
It really breaks down to these five areas. We have tried to gather a comprehensive list of tips and links in these five areas that can help you in your quest to bring down your overall Disney budget!
Before we get into the five main areas, here are a few hints on Disney packages that can help you bring the cost down in multiple categories at once!
Let’s dive deeper into one of these areas: Lodging.
Choosing where to stay at Disney World can have a significant impact on your Disney budget. However, there are a few things you need to know about all of the different choices you may make. Today we will discuss the three main ways you can stay at Disney, as well as the Pros and Cons of each choice. We’ll also discuss how you can find some good disney lodging deals in the three different categories. The three categories are onsite, offsite hotel and finally an offsite rental home.
Staying Onsite
Pros
Staying at a Disney resort has many advantages. First of all, you can get the dining plans. Many find that the
Dining Plan makes their stay much more enjoyable. Second, resort guests can book restaurants 1-10 days earlier than non-resort guests. Third, transportation around the resort is free, as is parking at all facilities. You also can get picked up at the airport free! Finally, Disney theming is remarkable! Each resort has its own “flavor”, and you feel you are on vacation the entire time. The Disney experience doesn’t end when you leave the parks and head to your hotel, it ends when you go home.
Cons
There are only two cons to staying onsite, and the first is money. Even if you get the best possible deals on these resorts, you can save money by staying in a local hotel or rental home. There are ways to bring the price down, but it still won’t be as inexpensive as some of the area hotels. The second con is the lack of space and quality in the lower end rooms. The value resorts (where most cost-conscious guests stay) have rooms that are small, and are certainly not packed with amenities. If you aren’t going to be in your rooms very often, this may not matter. But have realistic expectations about the quality of the rooms in the value resorts. They may remind you of a lower end motel chain.
Ways to Save Money at Onsite Resorts
The primary way to save money onsite is by going in the off-season. This will get you the best rates. If you try going in the summer of during crowded vacation periods, your rates will be much higher no matter where you stay. Once you’ve decided when to go, there are a few things you need to do:
The first thing is to familiarize yourself with the different plans and packages that Disney has. We have a number of good articles on this. Second, look over the different promotions that Disney runs on their website. Third, CALL Disney to try and get any additional promotions. If you are a member of AAA or are military or ex-military, you may qualify for additional discounts. When booking big packages, make sure and ask what the rates are for AAA. You may find it beneficial to join AAA just for a Disney trip!
Finally, just to be sure, get in touch with a Disney Travel Agent and give them all the information that you provided to Disney. They may be able to find additional deals and promotions that you weren’t able to, due to their vast experience booking vacations!
Staying at an Offsite Hotel
Pros
Staying off-site opens up a large number of choices. Orlando is a big town and there are hundreds of hotels to choose from. You can use reward points, discount websites and find endless ways to lower your overall bill.
Dollar for dollar, you will also have MUCH nicer rooms than you will if you are staying onsite. If you plan on spending a lot of time in the rooms, this might be a consideration.
Many hotels also offer free breakfasts, which can certainly save you significant money on food.
Cons
You will have to either rent a car or pay for shuttle transportation to Disney. This will include parking costs for each day at the Disney parks. Also, some local hotels have parking rates just to stay at the hotel! Before you choose a hotel, make sure and find out the following things, as you can easily spend much more money than you originally thought you would.
- Transportation costs to/from airport
- Parking rates at hotel
- Transportation costs to/from Disney
- Daily Disney parking costs
- Cost of breakfast
While this may seem like a lot of money, the key thing to remember is that even with these charges, you can still save money if you choose the right hotels. Just do your research. I highly recommend
Hotels.com to help you figure out the best hotels to stay in.
The other negatives have to do with the loss of atmosphere. My family typically feels like we are leaving Disney World each time you go off-grounds. Many other families have felt the same when staying off-site. You lose a little of the “Magic” when you stay off-site and is something to consider.
Ways to Save Money at Offsite Hotels
Everyone that travels has used travel sites, such as Expedia, Priceline and Travelocity. These sites can certainly help you find great hotel deals in the Disney area. Use memberships such as AAA to bring down hotel room and rental car rates.
Have you found a hotel that you want to stay at? Use google and type in the name of the hotel followed with “discount codes”. You can potentially save 10-15% more on hotels!
Eat big breakfasts and try and eat small lunches. Take advantage of the free food as much as possible.
Try and avoid the hotels that have steep parking fees. There are plenty of hotels with free parking that you can use.
Renting a House Offsite
Pros
Without a doubt, renting a house offsite is the cheapest way to go. You can get a very nice house that can sleep 12 people for unbelievably cheap prices. If you are going with another family, you can all share the home and spend 50% of what you would at a hotel.
Homes are nicer, have more room, have full kitchens, private pools, multiple TV’s, grills for cooking, game rooms and many other amenities that can make your vacation a blast.
Cons
You have to clean up after yourself, cook for yourself, and drive to Disney every day as there are no shuttles from private residences! Just as with offsite hotels, you lose a little of the Disney magic, although the conveniences may make up for it.
You also need to factor in the loss of privacy if you are sharing a house with another family. This may or may not be a “con” for you, but could be in the “pro” category, depending on who you are going with. Finally, figure out the distance to the parks from the home you are renting. Many of the homes are 5-10 miles away, and that can add time to your day.
Tips for Saving Money on Homes
First of all, once again, I’ll reiterate the importance of going in the off-season. Home owners know the peak seasons and adjust their prices accordingly.
ASK for discounts. Remember that when it comes to home owners you are dealing with small businesses or individuals. They may not have policies that they have to abide by, as major chains do. If things are slow or they aren’t competing, they may be more likely to cut deals.
Repeat business. Ask the owners if they give discounts to guests who have rented with them previously. Many owners do this, giving significant discounts. They do this because they like to find good renters that don’t damage the place! Find a home owner or business that you like, build a relationship, and you can save significant money on rental homes.
While Rental homes aren’t for everybody, many people wouldn’t do it any other way, as it’s much easier to relax in a luxurious home than in a cramped hotel room.
When planning a trip to Disney, you must consider all avenues of saving money. Whether you have a budget or not, finding discount disney world tickets can save you cash, especially if you have a large family.
Now before we look at the ways to cut corners on ticket prices, I do want you to understand one thing:
You will not be able to save a SIGNIFICANT amount of money from the base ticket prices. At times, the best deals you will find will be 5-10% off. So please understand that if you find a price that is “too good to be true”, it probably is. Do some research. This especially will be the case on 1 or 2 day park tickets. If you are just going for the day, just go to the front gate and don’t bother with buying online. You won’t save any money.
That being said, if you are staying for many days and have a large family, you could save a chunk of money, and you need to look at your options. Let’s investigate a few ways that you can cut the costs on Disney World tickets.
Using a Ticket Broker
This is without question the easiest and safest way to cut costs. Ticket brokers get unsold tickets from Disney at a discount and sell them back to the public for a small mark-up. Millions of people have purchased tickets from these authorized re-sellers, so there is no need to worry about the legitimacy of these businesses. Just go to the website, click on the ticket package you need, and buy the tickets. It’s a very simple and easy process.
There are two ticket brokers I highly recommend. Both of them have very similar pricing and are both well respected.
- Undercover Tourist is a very respected ticket broker and has sold millions of guests tickets at prices cheaper than what you’d find at the gate.
- Best of Orlando. The good thing about Best of Orlando is that if you are staying off-grounds and also want to go to some of the Universal parks, you can get those tickets there as well.
Again, don’t expect deep discounts in the neighborhood of 20-30%. That isn’t going to happen. But you can still shave some money off of your total expenses if you use these sites.
Online Auction Sites
There are many who do not recommend online auction sites, such as Ebay or Craigslist. Let’s look at these two websites and examine whether this is a route to take?
- Craigslist – It is possible to get HEAVILY discounted tickets on Craigslist. However, you have to get lucky. You could also get scammed pretty easily. If you can meet the person or pick them up at the individual’s house, you may feel ok with your decision. A person that allows you to pick up tickets from their house is unlikely to scam you. But please be careful. Although many have purchased from Craigslist and gotten great deals, many have also been scammed. I can’t recommend it for that reason.
- Ebay – Ebay is completely different than Craigslist. Ebay has developed very good Buyer Protection programs. If you buy from a respected Ebay seller, you should be ok. However, there still is an element of risk, and quite honestly, you usually will not get great deals on Ebay. Your best bet with Ebay is for a great seller to put a “Buy it Now” price that is much lower than they should, but that is pretty rare. If you happen to find a great deal with a respected seller, I can recommend Ebay, but the odds of finding this are pretty low as most people know what Disney tickets are worth.
The bottom line with online sites is that you are unlikely to get deals that are significantly better. If you have the time to hunt for weeks for an extra 20-50 dollars, feel free to try Ebay. But I think just going ahead and buying from a discount broker is the wise choice.
AAA
Triple A may have significant discounts, depending on the AAA office where you live. I’d highly recommend at least giving them a call and seeing what kind of deals they have. At times you can find hotel and ticket deals they may actually be significant enough to warrant signing up with AAA if you aren’t a member.
Many times, their ticket prices won’t be significantly different than those you can get from ticket brokers, but it is worth a call.
Other Discounts
There are other ways to get deals. If you work for a large corporation, you may have special ticket deals due to relationships between your company and Disney. Check with your HR dept for details.
If you live in Florida, you can get deals for being a Florida resident. You can get more info on these packages directly from Disney World or using a ticket broker.
Military veterans and families are also many times entitled to discount tickets. Again, check with Disney directly or from the above listed ticket brokers.
Ultimately, ticket prices are not where you will save the bulk of your money at Disney. I’d avoid spending too much time focusing on tickets, as it is the one area where discounts are usually the smallest.
If you want to save money, use a discounted ticket broker. This will allow you to move on to focus your attention on other areas of your vacation planning in which you can save significant amounts of money.
Do you know of any additional ways to save money on tickets? Let us know below!
We hope you enjoyed our section on Saving money. At this point in your journey, you’ve learned three things:
Next, we invite you to our section on Touring plans! We have a touring plan for each park and we think you will find it very handy to print these out and use them later on!
03-12-2013, 07:19 PM
I ended up really loving it this time and the ride had changed alot since I had been on it years ago! It was so funny because the ride takes a picture of you at the beginning and then at the end there is a "cartoon" with your face in it at the end of the ride. Well, my uncle was not paying attention when they were taking the picture so when it was time for the video... his picture looked like he was sleeping the whole time in every scene that he was in... it was definitely funny! 
