Hi There,

My boyfriend and I will both be university graduates at the end of this school year, and plan on taking a trip to Disney World for one last true 'childhood' experience. The problem is accomodations.

Basically, we have two issues. 1) We really don't want to eat out every minute (seeing as we're there for a week!), so we were hoping to get something with a kitchenette, and 2) We will not have a car.

Probably the disney villas are most convenient, since we wish to spend a lot of time at Disney World, but they're very expensive. We can stay at nearby places, but I can't know, seeing as I've never been to the area, if the hotels/suites around Disney World are any good, ie. if they offer convenient shuttles to the parks, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions? We could always stay in a regular room for a week... Has anyone stayed in a regular hotel room at Disney World and found ways to eat regularly (ie. not always expensive fast food, or making reservations months in advance?)

At the same time, we'd also like to spend a day at Universal Studios and perhaps Sea World. Are we better to switch hotels/villas half way through the trip? Or are we better to stay near Disney and find some means of transportation (any ideas of what sort of transportation?)

If no one has answers, or has the time to answer all these complex questions, does anyone know a good place to find the answers? I don't really know many people who have gone to Disney World for a week, so I have no sources of insider information!

Thanks for any help you can provide!!

- K

I would recommend that you try this site: www.allearsnet.com

If you want to go to Disney and Sea World and Universal - and want to save money by cooking some meals - I wouldn't even consider staying at Disney.

It will be much less expensive to rent a car (dirt cheap in orlando) and stay at a budget hotel with kitchenette off property. (You'll not find it not that easy/inexpensive to get free shuttles to all these places - esp to go grocery shopping - and the "groceries" available at most of the hotels are very expensive - you really need to go to a local grocery store for real savings.

Why won't you have a car? I guess if you are both under 25, it can be hard to get a rental. I would at least look into though, because it will make the trip much more pleasant.

Yes, the big problem with car rental is that we're both under 25. I shall look into it though!

Thanks everyone for your opinions! Any other tips greatly appreciated. =)

Most of the car rental companies allow under-25s to rent, but they have to pay a "premium" (I guess to cover the [theoretical] higher risk of damage?)

I just did an Orbitz search, using next June for arguments sake. You can actually put in 21-24 for your age (or 25+). There's a Thrifty weekly rental for $200 total including taxes for a week.

Wow! Thanks for your help, everyone!

So, if we were to rent a car, how's parking at Disney? Second, any hotel recommendations if not at Disney, especially if we can drive?

We stayed in a condo at Windsor Hills and loved it. We rented from http://www.tonylopes.com/wh.htm who we found through www.windsorhillsrent.com. Very reasonable and very nice. It's really only an option if you have a car though.

Parking at Disney is $10+ a day. I think it just went up again.

Hey kaia739,

I think if you get a car, drive it to those places to which your hotel doesn't offer free shuttles (like grocery stores!), and leave it at the hotel (parking should be free at the hotel, right?) on other days. Paying $10 a day for parking at one of the theme parks would piss me off, even if it is faster to drive than to take a shuttle. When we were there last year around this time, we took free shuttles everywhere, and had a nice time. We stayed at the New Orleans Riverside, which wouldn't work for you, but it was fun to hop off at other hotels to see what they had to offer.

As my husband said yesterday as we crammed ourselves into a packed DC Metro, it's fun to be taken out of your comfort zone when you travel. For us, "comfort zone" usually equals our AC'd car.

And congrats on your pending graduation!

Few more things:

1) If you haven't already, please pick up a guidebook, whether from your library or a bookstore. There are a bunch that are devoted to the Orlando theme parks, and they're really invaluable. Try a few different ones to get different perspectives. There's even one (or more) that specifically cater to couples without kids.

2) Might not work for you, but Disney occasionally offers free dining plans to people who stay in their resorts. It has been in September the last two years, to my knowledge. Yeah, right now, but they make you book months in advance. This is the MOST AWESOME way to save money on food while at Disney, obviously. We "spent" more on food than we ever would have dreamed the last time we went, all because of the free dining plan. It's worth keeping your eyes on Disney's web site and www.allears.net for any cool offers like that. And if you DO take advantage of free dining, then you have to make dining reservations well in advance to get into the most popular sit-down restaurants. All of which would be explained in a good guidebook, of course.

Just a note, you won't have to pay to park at the Disney theme parks if you're staying at a Disney resort!

Have a great trip!

We just returned from Disney and, as faile indicated, we got the promotion that included the free Disney Dining Plan. This allowed us to save a lot of $$ on food. Essentially, all of our food was free (does not include alcoholic beverages) because the plan allows each adult one table-service meal (appetizer, entree, dessert), one counter-service meal (I think it includes dessert) and one snack (which could be a cappuccino or ice cream cone or could be a bagel).

However, to get this promotion you generally have to stay at a Disney resort and more of the deluxe resorts offer the promotion.

So, you will have to weigh whether it is cheaper for you to stay at a more expensive Disney property, but get the dining plan for free (Disney values the plan at about $40 a day for adults -- I'd say the meals are more expensive than that if you are paying out of pocket) or whether it is cheaper to stay at a less expensive property (say, an Embassy Suites or some other hotel with free breakfast) and rent a car and pay for your remaining meals.

But she's unlikely to be heading to Disney at a time when they're going to be offering free dining. That was just a tangent, really. I was just saying that she should keep her ears to the ground just in case Disney does, indeed, want to bring even more people to the parks around college graduation celebration time. Hardy har har.