Top Ten Ways To Save Money On Your Disney World Vacation
Disney World is one of the few locations that people will save and save to visit. However, with the price of a Disney World vacation increasing, daily, people also want to find every possible way to save money on a Disney World vacation.
There are many ways to save money on a Disney vacation, but we’d like to offer our top ten. Some of these will not be the ways you would expect to save money on your Disney vacation!
- Stay on property at a value resort. Many people believe they will save more money by staying on an off-property resort or hotel, but by the time you add in gas for driving, parking costs, dining costs (provided you follow tip number two), transfers from the airport, and all the other costs associated with not staying on property, you will come out on the losing end, in the long run.
- Get the Disney Dining Plan. You cannot purchase food at the parks for less than the cost of the dining plan.
- Purchase sundries prior to entering the Disney World Resort. Batteries, sunscreen, ponchos, sunglasses, diapers, water, swimmies, snacks all cost a small fortune inside the Disney World complex and you can buy them for a fraction of the cost at any major retailer, located minutes from the parks.
- Buy the Disney resort re-fillable mug. This is by far the best deal Disney has going. Not only do you get a cool Disney souvenir, you get unlimited drinks at your resort. With the air conditioning blasting away in the Florida heat, you will drink much more than normal, so you need the free refills.
- Purchase souvenirs at the Character Warehouse. Character Warehouse has all the same stuff you will find in the parks (for the most part) at about half the cost. It’s located in the Festival Bay mall on International Drive. Just minutes from the Disney World Resort.
- Purchase Disney gift cards for each of the kids. This provides a way to limit spending by them and by you on their behalf.
- Book with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, also known as Earmarked agencies. These are the true Disney specialists that keep a look out for your best interests, including changing your reservation to a better rate, if it becomes available before your Disney vacation.
- Pre-order your tickets. You won’t save a ton of money, but you will save a few bucks per ticket if you pre-order and you will save a lot of hassle once you arrive at the Disney parks. Whatever you do, don’t go through a timeshare sales pitch to get cheap tickets, unless you plan waste an entire afternoon and buy a timeshare.
- Go in the off-season. Of course, this one’s difficult if you have children, because the off-season is in the middle of the school year. However, Disney drops their rates to the lowest levels of the year during the off-season.
- Take advantage of every discount available to you. AAA, military, airline points, hotel points, rental car loyalty programs, and so on.
Just use a couple of these tips and you could save hundreds on your Disney World vacation. Use all ten and you could save thousands!