what is the best way to plan and save money on a trip to Disney World?

Answer 1

here are my tips

* eat outside the park whenever possible. don't skip breakfast but don't have it in the park (unless you are doing a character breakfast) because it wastes time and it will be more expensive. if you can have dinner outside the park, that will also be a plus.
*buy as much of what you need outside the park. if you can bring in your own bottles of water (not for the whole day but just one or two to save a couple of bucks.), snacks, etc. it will keep you from paying the parks high prices. this includes sunscreen, film and/or batteries for your camera) oh, and band aids in case of blisters.
*have a budget for purchases. you will want to buy a hat, or a shirt. give your self a budget and stick to it. that is where i see a lot of my friends loose most of their money.
*keep snacks to a minimum. they can add up.
*if your days are limited, make a list of your "must do" rides then "Want to do rides" and finaly, "i can skip" rides. go on them in order. that way if you miss something on you "can skip" list you won't be as upset as missing out on a "Must Do" rides.
*Be prepared. for the weather, check the weather reports and have what you need. you can get plastic ponchos at Wallmart and target for under $1 a piece. and they are small enough that you can carry a couple with you.
*figure out if staying on a Disney Hotel will save you money. you have to pay to park at the Disney park. the fee is $10 a day. if you are flying in, it may be worth staying on disney property. you won't have to pay for parking and if you are only going to go to disney parks, they provide free transporation between their hotels and all their parks, including downtown disney. also you can go into certain parks an hour early if you stay at a disney park.

hope that helps.

Answer 2

Buy the Unoffical Guide to Walt Disney World.
It helped me TONNNSS!!! Its $20 and probley saved around $300 dollars! The best time to go is to go Thanksgiving weekend, its not to hot, not to cold, perfect weather. When you get there, its decorated like Thanksgiving, and then the day after Thanksgiving, its decorated like Christmas!!
One other thing is to add the dining plan. It gives you at dinner, An Apatizer, A entree, and dessert, (you can get ANY of those, even the most expensive thing on the menu) a walk up lunch in the park, and a snack for a little more than $100 a day and the price of food is outragous and we saved about $150 with just that! Some major stops, Fantasmic is a wonderful show, Rockin Roller Coaster, and you need to spend a day in Epcot, Animal Kingdom, MGM, and two days at Magic Kingdom. The book gives you tons of tips from what to do, and it even has pictures of the rooms to find whats best for your group! And go here to plan; http://magicyourway.com
and also check out http://mousesavers.com hope i helped! Have fun at Disney!!

Answer 3

Tough question! Disney is just expensive! Tickets to the parks get cheaper if you buy more days. For example, a one-day pass is up over $75 now (with tax). But once you get up to multi-day passes, you might pay $20 more to add another day. You should definitely read up on how tickets work here: http://allearsnet.com/pl/ticket.htm

There's lots of options you can add, such as no expiration, park hopping, water parks. So first things first, find out which tickets you will need/want so you will know approximate price. Discount tickets are very hard to come by. If you are a member of AAA that is your best bet.

You can purchase ticket/hotel packages from Disney that may save you a little. Also, if you are flying down, you can take advantage of Disney's transportation system and avoid renting a car. On trips where I drive down, I always rent a house off-property and drive to the parks. The advantage is you can eat meals at your house! Park food is one of the biggest expenses. Plus there's lots more room, for about the same price as a Disney hotel (actually, it's cheaper!).

Answer 4

If you are staying in a Disney resort, get the dining plan, it really does save you alot. If staying outside the park, eat breakfast outside before you head in, stop at walmart or someplace and have chilled water from the night before that you can bring in with you (offical word is that no food from outside can be brought in, but we never had any trouble), I also packed some cheese and crackers snacks and some granola bars for snacks, and I always had those "crystal lite" drink mixes (individual sizes) and asked for ice water at any food counter were there serve fountian drinks (not just bottled) and the water was free. And then we usually ordered a meal for lunch ($7-8 per person) and maybe later a snack (ex: popcorn or pretzel - $4-6 each) and a soda ($2-3 each 20oz.) and then ate dinner before we headed out to the hotel. We stayed away from suviniers (what do you really need a Mickey doll for!?!?!?) and made sure we got a "photo Pass" and saved all our photos on it (with account later set online) and when we were home were able to order which ones we wanted.

Good luck!

Answer 5

To save money and by not staying an entire week in the parks just to see everything with the lines and crowdedness, I recommend going the week before Thanksgiving or some time in November. My family went then and the park was almost deserted, we walked on to most of the rides and at the end of our vacation, we were running out of all things to do!

I would also recommend making a schedule, and trying to see atleast two parks a day. Parks like MGM have only a few rides and the rest is shopping, but others like Epcot, you spend all day looking around and doing things. Disney World offers buses that take you from one park to another free of charge.

Answer 6

One direct tip is to eat you're biggest meal at lunch. Lunc menus offer just about the same as dinner, but at a much lower cost. Eating could end up being your biggest expense at Disney World.

Other cost savers can be found at allears.net. Get signed up for their weekly newsletters that are sent directly to your email.

Answer 7

It depends how long your going.
If your going for a day pack a picnic basket with lunch and a snack for every one.
If your going longer take a cooler with food for every day.

Answer 8

put away some money (like $20) every month...& buy ur tickets in advance