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.
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. Prices are ever changing at Disney, but you can see below, while one day can cost over $104, if you stay 10 days, the cost per day can average a little over $44 . Most folks do not realize this savings for longer visits to the Disney parks!
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. A few years back 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. Another 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 annual vacation.
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 tips help if your trip is several months off.
1- Look into applying for a Disney Visa, mine is through Chase but possibly other banks offer as well. After spending a certain amount you will be eligible for a $200 Disney Reward. I believe the offer is currently spend $500 over 3 months but could change.
2-Right around Black Friday, Target offers a 1 day sale of 10% off the purchase of Target gifts cards, with a maximum of $300. I buy the max, then with the Target GC I puchase Disney gift cards Every savings helps!
Totally agree with staying on property! By the time you would pay for car rental & parking, it would eat up any savings of staying at a less expensive hotel Some hotels do offer shuttle but the times are limited, not at the frequency of the Disney shuttles. The Art of Animation suites that sleep 6 are the best!
I like the idea of eating breakfast in the room. Great for people like me who do not mind making own breakfast as long as I do not have to get up
These are great tips! Staying on property is definitely the way to go. A lot of families don’t consider it because they believe it will cost more. Then, they wind up with a huge hassle trying to go back and forth. They also don’t have access to the on property perks like extra hours! Thanks for the great post!!!