Disney World has a reputation for being amazing, magical really, but also extremely expensive. Is it possible to go to Disney World on a budget and make it work? Our family set out to do just that in April this year.
This is post #2 in a series I’m writing about our trip to Florida this Spring. You can find my first post here.
My son had the opportunity to attend the VEX World Robotics Competition, and since it nearly coincided with the kids Spring Break and we have never been as a family we thought it would be the perfect time to visit Disney.
We spent 1 1/2 days driving on the way there (arriving at Disney World mid afternoon on day 2), and 2 days driving on the way back (I don’t recommend driving anywhere on Easter weekend for what it’s worth).
The plan was pretty simple-we were going to stay on the park for 6 days and 5 nights, and then move to a rental home not far from the parks for the last 5 nights.
We borrowed an awesome Suburban from Chevy to drive for our trip which helped with both getting robots safely from PA to Florida, and gave us ample room for all the little people and their gear. You can read more about our driving experience here.
Disney World and All Star Movies
Despite going to Disney World for an event, we did not get any kind of reduced rate or package deal. I was surprised about that, but given the timing (right during Spring Break) I guess Disney didn’t need to make a special rate for the robotics teams.
We opted to stay at All Star Movies both because there was a ‘sale’ on the value resorts when we booked, and it was close to ESPN Wide World of Sports where the event was being held. See Disney’s special offers page for more info on current deals.
The resort itself was great. The main building housed the ‘cafeteria’ which had a great variety of ‘quick service’ meals that ranged from pizza and burgers to salmon and roasted turkey. I was especially impressed when I spoke to the chef about the gluten-free options. They had everything from gluten free buns to gluten free pizza and most of the main dishes were made without allergens (chicken, fish, turkey, etc).
The main building also housed a check in area, arcade, gift shop, and a bar off the back that led to the pool area which was huge but manageable with 3 of my kids in tow. They also had music pumping, games you could participate in, and a blow up movie screen on some evenings with Disney movies of course.
The rooms themselves were very motel style-and as I expected about the same quality as a motel. It was a tidy room, but it was clear it needed updating, and repairs. for instance our bedspread had holes in it, the doors needed a coat of paint, and the shower was mildewed in spots. Overall it was serviceable with beds that were comfy (or maybe I was just exhausted?) and to my kids who have never been to Disney, and rarely stay in hotels (it was my 5 year old’s first time in a hotel!) it was magical. Really that was all that mattered.
The downside to staying at a value resort is that they are the furthest from Magic Kingdom, and the wait and long bus ride was probably our least favorite part of the trip. The bus line was literally the longest line we had to wait in for anything though!
Was staying in the park worth it? YES! considering the cost with the sale price it was the same as renting a home off park (more on that later). Of course the rooms were small, but the convenience of staying on the park is well worth it. You don’t have to be concerned about renting a car, driving, parking, and waiting in long lines to get into and out of the park.
You also get the benefit of extra magic hours where you can enter the park earlier than other guests and stay later (see the Disney calendar for details when you are planning your trip).
Disney Parks
I could go into great detail about the parks we loved, the rides that we favored, and the magic we felt at nearly every turn despite crowds and occasional grumpy kids (or parents), but it was magical.
I had my doubts going that I would be as wowed as I remember feeling as a little girl, but I think I turned into a little girl again riding Pirates of the Caribbean and seeing the fireworks show for the first time. And my kids? They were amazed at everything. Even our 13 year old thought it was spectacular.
Our family’s favorite rides were Pirates of the Caribbean, the new Winnie the Pooh ride, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, the African Safari, Splash Mountain, the Haunted House (they just added new interactive props in the line to get in and we loved it!) and of course Space Mountain.
We purchased ParkHopper tickets which were a bit more expensive (bundled in they were cheaper than purchasing them separately) but well worth it. It enabled us to do one park with the kids, and go out together in the evening to another park. This gave us an evening out that was beyond magical. Landing the last table at the Rose & Crown Pub in Epcot just before the fireworks started and enjoying one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time.
Tip: Rent a double stroller if you have two children or more. While my kids would normally never ride in a stroller it was wonderful to be able to keep track of them when the park was busy, and give them a place to take a rest. You can rent them for more than one day for extra savings as well
Dining at Disney
As part of our ‘package’ we also purchased a Disney Dining Plan. We chose the quick service dining plan, but on arrival (after check-in) saw that it was listed as 1 quick service meal, 1 casual dining meal and 1 snack per person/per day. Oops. We didn’t have reservations, and since it was Spring Break we had difficulty finding reservations for those meals. Since we had already checked in, we couldn’t change it according to the front desk, so we tried to do our best to use them up. I planned out our remaining meals (which took hours one day) as best as I could.
We were never told we couldn’t use it AFTER we checked out of our hotel (in fact we were told the opposite when we booked), so in the end Disney refunded us our unused portion and we ended having to pay out of pocket for a very expensive meal since the server didn’t check our card before we ordered. An expensive lesson for sure.
Spending hours dealing with this while on vacation was not a fun experience, and based on the serving sizes (huge!), and the confusion we had about the meal plan I wouldn’t recommend using a Disney Dining Plan.
My main issue is the ‘cost savings’ which Disney claims is 25-30% savings. The problem? If I have the option of one quick service meal and let’s say it breaks down to $7 from my plan. I want to know what the most expensive use of my meal is so I get the most bang for my bucks and savings. This was completely unclear though given the way the pricing is structured and the meals are set up (a meal is usually an entree, side, drink and dessert).
The other thing we realized was that one adult meal (and even some of the kids meals!) were such large portions they could have served 2 of us. By paying out of pocket we could have easily saved more than the 30% the Dining Plan ‘saves’ you.
Additionally when you buy a meal or snack you can only see the number of meals you have left for that type. So if you buy a snack you can see you have 13 snacks left for your room but not how many meals you have left. When you have multiple adults in your party and varied schedules like we did that made for a lot of confusion.
Given that 2 of our party was also not able to use their Dining Plan for 3 days while they attended their event it was also a waste.
Quick vs. Sit Down Meals
When we booked I assumed the quick service meals would be easier to manage with 4 kids and 4 adults, but after we had a sit down meal mid-day on one of our days I realized that sitting down for an hour in the shade or AC and hydrating and fueling up was actually just what we needed.
The Positives of Dining at Disney
I will say the meals at our resort I throughly enjoyed. The variety was good, but they always had a healthy and hearty option that was perfect for me.
Disney takes pride in making sure folks with allergies are taken care of. At every meal that I mentioned my gluten-free diet the chef would come out to speak to me about what options were available. It was a wonderful thing to feel like I could eat without having to guess. I’m sure anyone who has an allergy would greatly appreciate the care Disney takes with their meal planning and menus.
When we go back again in the future (I hope!) we will definitely plan on sit down meals for lunch every day and get a simple breakfast (or make or own) and a simple dinner instead. In the end I think this will save us 50% or more versus the dining plan.
The Stuff aka Souvenirs
We didn’t spend much on ‘stuff’. The kids have been saving up for months to go to Disney and they each had $100 to spend as they chose (our oldest had $200 but he is saving some of his still). This was the perfect amount for them to spend on the little things they wanted, and we feel like it gave them freedom to chose without being costly for us. My oldest daughter chose to spend the bulk of her money on a pin collection which we thought was a wise choice. The other kids each bought some toys and trinkets, most of which were pretty promptly ignored once we got home.
As for the adults the only souvenirs we needed were the smiles, hugs and thank you’s especially since we had to foot the bill. 😉
Did we stick to our budget?
By knowing and paying upfront for many of the costs, and padding our budget for miscellaneous expenses we were pretty prepared for the expense of the vacation. Having the kids spend their own funds also helped so we weren’t caught in the endless cycle of “I wants”.
For our family it was worth it to experience Disney with our children at what we all felt was a great age for them all. They will all remember it, there was no stopping for nursing breaks, diaper changes or potty breaks since they are all over the age of 5. To me it felt like the perfect age to introduce them to both the magic and the fun of the ‘big kid’ rides.
I hesitate to say this was a vacation that most families can afford easily though. It certainly took the right set of circumstances for us to afford it and a reason to be there to make it happen. The money we spent could have been used for many of the other things we have on our financial to do list including home improvements, beefing up savings, and paying off debt, but since we have very rarely taken any vacations (we usually keep it simple and cheap!) this was a real treat for all of us.
There are ‘affordable’ options at Disney. If you are on a very tight budget it will require saving money for your vacation, and a lot of careful planning but it can be done. I would highly recommend reading, researching and talking to friends who have been to Disney for their advice.
Have you been to Disney World with your family? Did you manage to stick to your budget?
Kelly
Disclosure: While I do link a lot to Disney in this post, I was in no way perked, compensated or VIPed at Disney.
Thanks for sharing your experiences/tips at Disney World! It’s one of my family’s favorite vacations to take (we buy the multi-day never-expiring Park Hoppers - one expensive purchase, but one that makes sense if you know you will go often) but as a current college student, I haven’t been able to go in a while. I agree that staying at the park resorts is really worth it - my favorite time at Disney World was being able to stay at the Swan Resort because my father had a business conference. The extra magic hours were really helpful to me and my sister who were determined to get through everything we could! I will say that usually, though, when just me and my sister go, we do save a lot of money by spending the night in nearby hotels, which end up being really inexpensive for the quality offered.
Also, I featured your blog post in a blog edition I posted up about Disney World at a website that I intern for. http://bleditor.com/bledit.php?bleditID=15810 Here’s the link if you would like to check it out!
Interesting! We definitely went into it with a big budget and some extra padding, but found it was less expensive in ways then we thought. I can’t see having unlimited funds there though-you could easily spend tens of thousands of dollars!
Deborah says
We actually went to Disney world super cheap, but not most people could do it. My husband is military, so we took advantage of the free 5 day pass and $99 5 day passes for us. We also used the Armed Forces Vacation Club that had a 5 star resort right off the property for a little over $300 for the week. It too us maybe 5 minutes to get right to whichever park we wanted to go to. We found it much more convenient then being stuffed into one of those rail cars. The resort apartment had a full kitchen in it, so we ate the majority of our meals in the room. We also let the kids save and buy their own “stuff.” I just thought I would put it out there, in case you have any military readers.
What a great tip! I’m glad Disney offers such an inexpensive option for our military families. Thank you for your family’s sacrifice, I have such great respect for the men and women in our armed forces.
The meal plan you were given was not the Quick service plan. The quick service plan does not have any table service meals in it. If the plan you were given had one snack, one quick service, and one table service meal per person per night you stayed then you received the regular Disney Dining plan. The Quick Service plan is two quick service meals, 2 snacks, and one refillable drink mug per person per night you stay.
We’re DVC members and I am still learning the tricks of the Disney trade. While in some ways the dining plan is great, there are other aspects of it that I can’t stand. Disney seriously needs to do something about it’s reservation system. It’s ridiculous to be forced to book dinner reservations six months in advance if you want to eat at the most popular restaurants. It rather takes the spontaneity out of the vacation. There’s nothing worse than forcing your family to stop doing something they were enjoying so you don’t miss your dinner reservations or risk not being able to find an alternate last minute reservation. I also think they need to give young children more meal options. By the third or fourth day my son is sick of chicken nuggets and pizza.
Exactly! It wasn’t what we wanted, so there must have been a mixup somewhere. In any case, it wasn’t a good option for us, and like you said the reservation system is not easy to use at all!
Being so service friendly you would think that it would be more intuitive than it is-like every other aspect of planning a Disney trip!
I couldn’t agree more about the kid menu options-my 9yo would love to eat a small plate of adult food but that was no where to be found. Of course that’s not uncommon in many restaurants, but I wish Disney would offer healthier options.
Christine says
Danielle, we stay on property most visits and prefer to take the WDW transportation system over our own vehicle BY FAR! I don’t find that it takes all that much longer (if at all when figuring in using parking trams) to take one of the buses. Rarely have we waited more than 15min for a bus…and most waits were less than 5 minutes!
That said, if I was staying at an All Star Resort during spring break I would probably use a car. The three All Star Resorts share their buses and during peak times can have longer wait times. If we ever stay at a Value resort, I would opt for Pop Century since they don’t share buses with any other resorts!
Good to know Christine! We tried to go early or late so we didn’t have a ton of waiting, but once or twice we had to wait for the next bus and I think it was at most 20 minutes. It just seemed like way longer. 😉
I find it interesting that you didn’t drive to the parks. I think that you would have found it less of an hassle then you imagine. But this could be because we have NEVER stayed at Disney and I have always heard how awful the waits for buses can be.
How did you find the space and cost of gas for the Suburban? We usually get a minivan but I’m wondering if this wouldn’t be a better/nicer option.
Ah I should explain. We had the car, but the boys used it to go back and forth for robotics. The wait for the buses were the longest when you would expect them to be, but I think my kids were way impatient too. I think the longest we waited was 20 minutes which in the long run is way less time then it would take us to get back and forth from the car.
The space in the Suburban was great-just right for our family but not too much wasted space. It was definitely roomier than the minivan and was more comfortable to drive that long. Gas wise it was better than our minivan though fillups were more expensive (due to the size of the tank).
Christine says
I’m thrilled you had such a great time!
I’m sending you a note about Disney Dining Plans!
We love the dining plan, but they take a bit of research & planning. I save HUNDREDS of dollars each trip using it!
Thanks Christine! I just couldn’t deal with planning when I had so much else going on leading up to the trip, maybe next time I’ll just hire you. 😉
We took our then-3yo in 2007 and had a ball, but I agree that it’s difficult to stick to a budget. Tickets into the park for the three of us for five days (with Park Hopper option - I agree - DO IT - it’s worth it) were nearly $1,000! We rented a house off property, but I agree that it’s worth it to stay on property. The rental car and the hassle of driving back and forth made for some challenging experiences (nap time was a joke). We didn’t purchase a meal plan and I agree that for young children the portions are insanely big. My daughter and I ended up sharing meals once we figured it out. We decided to wait until the last day to do trinkets, as we told the 3yo we wanted her to look at everything and decide what she really wanted. She agreed and decided on relatively few (and inexpensive) things that she still plays with/wears today! It was absolutely magical, and we’re already planning our trip back next year so our younger daughter can experience it as well.
Love the idea that you waited until the last day! Smart move. I hope you have a great return trip!