Heavens

Hi all. With DD going off to college in just over a year, thought it might be awesome to get the family to DW sometime in the next year. Was thinking for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I imagine this is high high season. Is there any way to do the trip nice and not have it cost a fortune? Would love to go for five or six days. Don't have to do everything. Don't need the Neiman Marcus trip, the Target trip, nice but not horrendous, would do fine.

I have never been, nor the kids. H has, but only in the summer for a conferance. So it would be a "new" experience.

Maybe a package is the way to go? But with who? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

placeu2

The short answer is no.

Of course it depends on what a "fortune" is to you. Plan on $50 per day each to get into the parks. If you eat there it will be expensive. There are no real discounts on this.

I find it money saving to stay outside of Disney. I believe Christmas is the busiest time of year, I imagine T-Day is close.

What the heck....go for it, daughter may never vacation with you again!

buckeyemom

Check out mousesavers.com. Tons of tips, hotel info, pass info etc. on saving $$$>

SEW

I think Disney World would be a fun trip. I would check out a package that included the park hopper pass. This allows you to jump between parks in the same day. We went about 5 years ago and I booked my trip through our Auto Club travel agency. Air/car/hotel made it easiest. We stayed at Coronado Springs, which suited our needs fine, as we were hardly in the room except to sleep.

Agree with Buckeyemom about using mousesavers.com for a reference tool. I wanted to stay in the Disney "World" because it was a one time trip for me. We got breakfast food and had a fridge (which disney charges for) but it was worth it. We also bought sodas and bottled water in the room with some light snacks.

Have fun.

BeachBoi

Heavens.....Actually, it can be done.But it waill take some planning.The "package" is probably the easy part.I was in my TA's office last week and he was consulting with a client actually booking for Thanksgiving week.A quad room for a week at the Pop Century Resort,including the ultimate park hopper passes was just under $83 per person per day, lodging only.If you stay away from any of the add-ons,you wont have a problem.Of course, if you want more luxury, the cost goes up accordingly.There are all kinds of websites none of which I am familiar with that show you how to shave off money....Like,where to eat for not much dough-rey-me...Each park has at leat one fruit stand..fruit is good and plentiful and cheap.Then you can get to know how to order in restaurants.....split a meal as portions tend to be generous, things like this.....I always think it is better for a total experience to stay onsite, just my HO....Good luck!!

poochie

Heavens-- What a wonderful family trip idea. You must take your family and go!!!! Before the "children" are too busy for us parents. Try www.disboards.com
You will get all the info you need and more.

bennnie

Here's my Target version of WDW (I love that analogy)...

Family of 4 - kids are 7 and 10 at the time.

First night we arrived around 6pm so no time to do parks. Didn't pay for room at WDW. Stayed at a hotel offsite for $50 which included breakfast.

Stayed at Coronado Springs (a WDW hotel) for $109 per night. Very nice hotel with great pool, bikes to rent etc. Found this discounted rate by monitoring www.mousesavers.com. Its what WDW calls a moderate hotel.

Bought 4 day Park Hopper tickets - not Park Hopper Plus and not the passes that WDW tries to sell that give you entrance to the park from the moment you check in until closing of the day you leave. Those passes are not a good value. Saving over buying the other pass was at least $150. Bought my passes in advance from AAA and saved a small amount (2 or 3%)over the price you would pay at the gate for the same pass.

Brought snacks, paper cups and bowls from home. Made instant oatmeal for breakfast using coffee maker in room to heat water. Supplemented with fresh fruit, milk, juice, coffee from food court.

Limited souveniers to $25 per person.

Ate 1 character breakfast only. Two sit down dinners. Rest of meals were from the counter service at park or food court. Food court at Coronado Springs was very good. Lots of choices, very fresh. Not limited to hamburgers and chicken fingers.

Skipped day at the park to enjoy the pool and the hotel.

The 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are actually the slowest time at WDW and usually there are great discounts available for the hotels.


Check out disboards.com and mousesavers.com for more suggestions on how to do WDW on a budget.

cmeyer54

I agree with the above on staying on-site if possible. We've done both and since you'll be there during a very busy time, being able to use Disney transportation is a benefit. I've also heard that the parking lots fill up during the holidays and cars are turned away...also - you may want to look at passes that don't necessarily include the water parks as it may be a bit cool for them. However, your teen daughter may want to try pleasure island for the clubs, etc. Do you have any hotel points with Starwood? If so, you might be able to book at either the Swan or Dolphin which have buses or are walking distance to Epcot. Also, if you are a teacher, they offer discounts at Swan/Dolphin. As for food, carry a water bottle, take in small snacks, share, eat a larger lunch since that tends to be less expensive than dinners in any park. Enjoy - Disney is one of our favorite places even tho our children are nearing college age as well.

GoTravel

Go to www.Mousesavers.com and read everything you can find.

Agree with above posters that you've picked a couple of the busiest weeks out of the year but planning will save you money.

Agree to stay on site. You could do your first couple of nights off site if you want to get a room at a resorty type place off priceline. You could hang out at the pool and then spend the next four or five nights on site at Disney.

Driving instead of flying will also save you money.

bardo

It may actually be cheaper to take your college kid (if she's not too young) to Europe for a week. DisneyWorld is DESIGNED to strip away your cash. While airfare may be $100-$200 more, the savings in accomodations, dining, and the fact that many activites will be either free or nominal entrance fee will more than compensate. Just a thought.

gail

We have always found better total deals off site - especially since we go for mini-kitchen, at least. Have breakfast in room/suite. Eat only one meal/day at WDW, eat the other at one of the hundreds of restaurants around area, or even get decent take-out for room (not just a cost-saving idea, by the end of the day you may be so exhausted that feet up, glass of wine, take-out rotisserie chicken is what you really want).

We are not much for souveniers - so that saves money. Biggest unplanned-for expense is beverages if it is hot - they really add up. If have above-mentioned kitchen, freeze water bottles and bring them in with you.

Jayne11159

If you can possibly go during their school break before Christmas it will be much less crowded then that week between Christmas and New Years. We're over there a lot and I second the Coronado for all the reasons stated, plus it's on a good transportation route since it's a convention center. They have different Park Hopper deals so if you get them, be sure they're valid for the dates you're going. Buy your tickets at AAA before you go--tickets lines can be long. They do a security check of your bags now before you go in the parks--and remember that they won't let you take food in. Have a great trip.

karenvk

Our WDW trip ended up being quite reasonable and here are my tips. We rented a house in Kissimmee (5 min from WDW) through www.vrbo.com. It had it's own pool/jacuzzi, laundry and of course full kitchen etc. We had breakfast there each morning, dinner there some nights and could pack snacks so dining wasn't too expensive. Does Jet Blue fly from where you're coming from? Their flights are reasonable. We used coupons we had thru United. I got a steal of a rental car but got it at a location about 20 minutes from the airport so we took a cab (which cost $20 - still saving us a bundle).
Got park hopper passes through AAA and saved about 5% on that. We went early in November when there were some teacher in-service work days scheduled so the kids only missed 3 days of school that week. Much less crowded than Thanksgiving or Xmas. Be sure to check out the message boards at www.disboards.com. There's a wealth of info on every subject regarding Orlando and WDW.

_Linda_

Hi:
I dont know where your flying from but I organized a Bachelorrtte in WDW last (late) October. The park was great enough people to make it fun but no long lines and weather was fine. I got a flight and hotel deal from swvactions.com. The hotel was by Universal Studios, which we did not have time to go, but very recommended by numerous people. The hotel included breakfast so that was money saved. We rented a car and bought the WDW tickets through ebay.com. I was thinking... if you are only gonna do WDW maybe you should stay at their hotels since you get free shuttle rides (?) and you save on car rental, gas, and parking.
I called the WDW vacations place on their website, and the extremely nice and informative operator told me what their busy seasons were and made recommendations. Maybe you can give then a try. As far as Ebay.com goes, we were all very nervous to see if the tickets were legit, luckly we had NO problems!- fiiiuuuuuuuuuu

LLindaC

We saved a bundle the first time by staying at a time share and taking the 2 hr tour. We now own down at Orange lake. There are many good ones in Orlando- they have pools, exercise facilities, etc. Plus, you can come back "home" and fix lunch, breakfasts,etc. We packed oatmeal and cereal, coffee, snacks, etc. Second suggestion is taking a cruise. Great way for the family to travel.

Heavens

Gosh, you guys are great. I will check out all the websites. Just wanted to know what is Coronado Springs and how far away is it?

If we were going to stay in the Park, what property? Any tips on making a selection.

We would be coming from CA, San Diego and maybe could use FF miles. Time share 5 minutes away sounds great.

What parks are the MUST SEE? Epcot, I know, and maybe Enchanted Kingdom. Any other recs?

Am thinking we might try for off times. Or maybe the weekend before Thanksgiving, since many schools do not have off that Monday, Tuesday and Wed.

Thanks you all, what a great help you are. Don't you just LOVE Fodors dot com???

Jayne11159

Coronado Springs is a hotel on the Disney property.

As for favorites--Epcot is our least! Magic Kingdom and MGM vie for favorite. We've never been to Animal Kingdom--I think we're too lazy to learn a new park!

If you really do plan to spend most of your time at Disney, I would definitely stay on the property for the sake of convenience.

The hands down favorite of my kids' is not a Disney Park--it's Universal Islands of Adventure.

ellen_griswold

Oh yes, make like Nike and just Do It

There are some things in life you can't afford NOT to do. Trust me, once they're in college (our oldest is now) it is never the same, regardless of how many trips you may still take. (and we still do)

Agree with many of the other posters - there are lots of ways to share but here is my one big tip.....

DO stay on WDW property. It is worth it in many ways. Look for deals on websites etc., save during the year, do all you have to do but DO stay on disney property. Sure, you can save by staying off site, but anybody can stay in a holiday inn. And you might even be able to make your way thru the traffic each morning.

But you won't get these advantages off site:

-Early entry into parks, usually an hour before opening to the public. (this changes every so often but i understand its back) Along with fast pass, it makes a HUGE difference in what you can do!

-You can go back to your resort in the middle of the day for a power nap, lunch, whatever.

-You can use their transportation anywhere. Its fast, easy and reliable. (yes, for the cynics, there ARE exceptions and we ALL have stories)!

-There is nothing quite like the MAGIC when you stay on disney property. Can't describe it but you'll feel it.

Many cynics blast disney but once you're there, you'll understand. We've done WDW for many many spring breaks, and we also go to disneyland (and calif adventure) when on our out west journeys.

Again, do what you have to do to get there, then go and have a blast!!!

salgal

I would go the PArk Hopper pass route. THat way, you can eneter and exit the parks as you wish. Go to them more than once, etc. THey are well worth the cost,. It is better than spending 50 bucks a hit each time to see a park. THis way, you can do Epcot in the am and then move on to MGM and head back to Epcot in the evening for fireworks, etc. It is very flexible.

GoTravel

You must stay on property. There is a difference between being on and off. It just feels different.

Also, agree to get the park hopper. You could do Animal Kingdom in the morning, Epcot in the afternoon (or World Showcase for dinner), and the fireworks at MGM.

The weekend before Thanksgiving WILL be crowded. So many kids now are homeschooled and there is year around schools.

I found a discount code on Mousesavers.com for a $49 per night rate at the Disney All Star Music which is on property.