How can you make Disney more affordable?

meghans30

Wow! I'm dreaming of a Disney vacation, so I went and punched in some dates and got an estimate for $3800+ for a family of 4. The price included tickets, 7 nights @ one of their affordable resorts, and the dinning plan. I guess we'll be saving for a few years! Anyone stay outside the park?

AnnapolisLari

My initial reaction was 'don't go'! but I am not a fan of Disney.

There are entire boards dedicated to making Disney less prohibitive-- I think www.disboards.com or something is a big one.

meghans30

AnnapolisLari:

My initial reaction was 'don't go'! but I am not a fan of Disney.

There are entire boards dedicated to making Disney less prohibitive-- I think www.disboards.com or something is a big one.

For that price we may not! I'm not into spending that much on an amusement park. My boys aren't into Mickey, so it would be more  for me at this point. 

JOEBunny

You can stay outside of disney for about $800 a week in a 4 bedroom house with a pool (google Clermont, FL rentals).  You can eat breakfast and dinner at the house, so you only need to eat lunch there, about $25 a day).  You can take in snacks.  Honestly, 6 hours a day is plenty for me.  So if you go from 10-4 each day, you would be good.  Any more than that and I would be wiped.

LanaM

JOEBunny:

You can stay outside of disney for about $800 a week in a 4 bedroom house with a pool (google Clermont, FL rentals).  You can eat breakfast and dinner at the house, so you only need to eat lunch there, about $25 a day).  You can take in snacks.  Honestly, 6 hours a day is plenty for me.  So if you go from 10-4 each day, you would be good.  Any more than that and I would be wiped.

ditto, and we did not even eat lunches at the parks, we took our own food (sandwiches, fruits, apple sauce, water, juice, yogurts, etc).

we also stayed four nights in a hotel 10 minutes away from the parks for $35 a day (Best Western) and 4 nights in a 5 bedroom rental house in Kissimme  (with friends) - with a pool. We did first 4 days - full days and it was pretty exhausting, then we went to Miami to visit family and came back to Orlando to our house rental and did 4 days - 1/2 and 3/4 days... like 9 to 5.....  or 4 to 10pm (fireworks).

Not sure where you are, but we also drove from NJ to FL since the airfare was crazy expensive over Christmas/New years. So saved over 1K on that and did not need to rent a car.... 

kevschickee2

Go during free dining and stay at a value resort.  This is what we did and stayed the same amount of time with a family of 4 for $2100

littlemermaid

Try shortening the trip by a couple of days and see how much of a savings that'll give you.  We went last year for 7 days and I thought it was too long.  When and if we go again it will only be for 5 days.

ready2go

ditto pp - don't go for a week.  We did a 1/2 day our first day there, then 2 full days, then another 1/2 day on our last day.  with a 2 and 5 yo, that was more than enough for us!!

also, we used all credit card points to pay for the hotel.  that was "free" :-)