You might think it is impossible to save money at the Disney Parks. It is not easy and it does take some work, but there are a couple of tricks to help you to spend less!
1. Stay on property. You can spend $100 or less a night at the lowest tier property, or you can spend $1000 a night. WDW offers all price ranges.
a. No matter what the cost of your hotel, from $100 to $1000, you are eligible for the Magical Express, free round-trip transportation to your hotel from the airport. That is a big savings that you cannot get at Disneyland!
b. You also get free bus service all day long to and from your hotel to the various parks and Downtown Disney. I would never rent a car to then have to pay for parking at the parks, which then leaves you further away from the entrance as well!
c. Free baggage check at your WDW hotel property. Check your bag in before you head to the park in the morning, leave your carry on with the bell boy, and pick up your luggage at your home airport! Disney makes it just that easy for you!
2. Plan to stay for a long time. A four day base adult ticket costs $294. Every day after that costs $10 more. No one I have spoken to seems to realize that, for example, a 10 day ticket costs $60 more than a 4 day ticket! At that point your average daily ticket cost drops from $73.50 to $35.40. Most of us see $99 for the first day and think this is an incredibly expensive proposition. Here is the graphic taken directly from the Walt Disney World ticket sheet, current as of January, 2015:
On the right, the bold number shows your average cost per day. It goes down from $99 on the first day to an average of $35.40 when you buy a 10 day ticket which is what we did in 2013. The total cost per day is under the bold number and you can see after four days it only increase your ticket cost by $10/day!
This is the best example I have found at “How to Save Money at Disney!”This info is straight from the ticketing website, just a small fact that very few people realize! Again, when you look at ticket pries this way, you see that they are not as scary as you thought!
3. Eat breakfast in your room. There is always a kitchenette. I pack ground coffee and coffee filters and save a few dollars a day that way. I will go to the store at the hotel and buy basics, which, while they cost more on property, still saves me from spending $40 in a theme park to eat breakfast. That also saves us time, we eat as we are getting ready!
4. Stay in the luxury of a DVC property for half price. It is no longer difficult to find travel agents that can do this for you. Sorry WDW, but if I can get a room at the Old Key West or Saratoga Springs for half price without buying the DVC membership, I am going to. Last year we had a full one bedroom at the Saratoga Springs for less that $250 a night. Full kitchen and laundry, two bathrooms and a Jacuzzi. This year we had a studio at the Old Key West for slightly less than $200 a night. Both of these were rooms that would normally cost double. This is our room budget for our big vacation.
This is just for the Disney Vacation Club properties. My friend paid $85 a night during the same period at the end of the Summer in 2014. They received all the amenities in #1 above that everyone on property gets, no matter what your room costs!
5. Kids meals. My son and I both had a kids meal in Epcot. We had a cup of macaroni and cheese, a yogurt, apples slices, and a drink. That was half of the cost of an adult meal without a drink! And it is plenty to eat. I did that again at the Animal Kingdom. It only took five trips to WDW to figure this one out!
These are my top 5! There are other folks who would add to this list. Last year we took car service from the airport to save time. The car also stopped at a supermarket for us to stock up on food and drink. That did not seem to be worth it to us, but for larger families, who might want to make sandwiches in the room to take to the park for lunches, this might be cost effective.
BUT WAIT! WE HAVE ONE EXTRA TRICK! We enjoyed free refills at all our sit down meals in Walt Disney World. We also stumbled upon the fact, thanks to some nice waiter, that we could get a “to go” cup when we left. So we all walked out, full of liquids, and with full containers of beverages in hand! For our August trip when the weather was 140 degrees, this was a huge hydration help and money savings!
If you have your own money saving tips on “How to Save Money at Disney,” please leave it in the comments!
These sound so good If only I had 10 days.I especially like the meal tip.
I love, love, love this post! I am planning for our trek to Disney in a few weeks and I can never have enough “real visitor” info. There is so much to take in, every tip helps! Thanks!
thanks for all the tips,,my daughter and her family are planning to go on spring break with their 4 kids
My hunny has never been to WDW or at least he says he can’t remember. How can you NOT remember WDW? We are so going soon and saving money is important since we’re trying to save for a wedding, a house and a baby!! I really appreciate these tips. Lawd knows you’re a seasoned Disney traveler! {repinned with love}