How to do Disney world cheaply

[Rossigigi]

Posting for traffic- basically the above. Want to take dc in 2019 but obviously need to start saving now.
What tips do you lovely people have to keep costs down please? We are looking at 14 nights....

A new addiction- the dibb site!!!!!

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Ocean Florida are very competitive.

If you speak to them on the phone they are one of not many companies able to take bookings for 2019. I was able to book my holiday two years in advance which helped a lot due to 26 people on the booking - it allowed plenty of time to save and make payments.

I've been several times and each time stayed on the international drive.

Attraction tickets direct are competitive for park tickets and often throw in a free pass for somewhere fun!

Staying off site will keep costs down! We quite like I drive as it isn't far from Disney and has plenty for the kids to do. There are shuttles from most hotels to Disney.

Also if ypu get a hotel suite on idrive then you get a kitchen sitting area you can get take away for dinner saves a fortune and you stock up the fridge with drinks etc

I've been to both and I agree that DLP is a pile of wank. I go to Florida every year though.

If you aren't tied to dates and don't mind flying indirect then you can set up an alert on sky scanner for cheap flights around an approximate date - I've seen flights as cheap as £199pp indirect that way. The most I've paid for economy seats was £1,400pp for last minute in August. We usually pay less than that for premium economy so that was crazy expensive.

Also cost depends on your eating habits. You might as well stay in a Deluxe Disney hotel and get the free dining if you eat in restaurants every night. If not then a villa or value Disney hotel is the way to go - factor in the cost of $20 per day to park into the equation as you can use the free bus service if you stay on site. Buses run every 20 minutes or so.

The cheapest holiday I managed was £900pp including flights, accommodation at Pop Century for 14 nights, and park tickets included, but that was a few years back (4 of us). The most expensive is this years once in a lifetime blowout for six of us which was £20k in total (deluxe hotels at Disney and Universal, park tickets, dining plan and premium economy seats in August) so there's a MASSIVE difference depending on the type of holiday you want.

You need two weeks though. The main attractions:

Magic Kingdom (2 days)
Animal kingdom (1-2 days)
Hollywood Studios (1 day)
Epcot (2 days)
Blizzard beach (1 day)
Typhoon lagoon (1 day)
Disney Springs is good for evening entertainment and you can do mini golf too.

Then you have
Universal Studios (1 day)
Islands of Adventure (1 day)
Volcano Bay (1 day)
Sea world (1 day)
Discovery cove (1 day, bloody expensive but the best day ever)
Aquatica

And if you want to venture further out there's the Kennedy Space Center, Busch Gardens, Gatorland, Premium Outlets, Malls, etc.

So much to do and so little time!

Oh and I forgot Legoland too!

Ocean Florida are expensive. I've researched a lot of booking it all separately myself and had quoted from them and they are a lot more expensive. I got quotes from Charter Travel and they were good. Still not as cheap as doing it all separately though but depends how tight your budget is.

Oh and use the DIS forums, I like it better than DIBB!

Hostel family room in Orlando, hire car, make your own meals, buy day tickets to DW in advance.

Wrt insurance, I upgraded my bank account to include insurance, which saved having to shell out a big amount before the holiday.
I went to Disney in California. Don't think it's cheaper, but there was so much to do outside of Disney (that wasn't quite so pricey) if 14 days in the park would be too expensive.

We've booked for 3 weeks in Feb to March. Flying in half term with Norwegian, midweek so cheaper, direct, £1416 for 4 of us. 3 weeks at Blue Tree Resort in a 2 bedroom apartment, £1567. Transfers over there, return, £128.

Haven't booked park tickets yet. This year Disney had 25% off to the first time so I'm waiting to see if they do the same again. If we have to pay full price, combo tickets with 14 days Disney/Universal/Sea World will be £2900.

Not hiring a car, going to use shuttles and Uber. Will have a minimum of 2.5k (pounds not dollars) spending money, DCs will have some spending money of their own. Will do some cooking so am planning on taking some food and doing a Wal-Mart shop. Probably coming to 10k all in but that's insurance, passports etc too and that's for 3 weeks.

I would go for Universal over Disney every time! We stayed just outside the gates of Universal (you can walk to the park in 10 mins so saves the parking costs) in a Holiday Inn with a nice pool and easy access to I Drive. There's free parking at the hotel and Universal City Walk is an easy walk in the evening for food if you don't fancy driving. We got tickets in advance from Attractions Direct which is cheaper than buying them in resort and had a fab time! We did a dual centre (no kids and an OH who's not such a theme park freak as I am) and headed to the Keys for our second week ... it was amazing

"I would go for Universal over Disney every time!"

Especially with teenagers. We stayed at the Cabana Bay hotel and used the free shuttle bus to Universal/Islands of Adventure, even if it was just to do a couple of rides in the evening.

I would also revise CressidaTheHeathen's itinerary because you won't need two days at the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom or Epcot, especially if you are savvy with the fast passes (DD 16, and I went last year and found one day at each was easily enough). We didn't do any waterparks because they aren't our thing, and we had a lazy river as well as a couple of pools at the hotel.

I would just reiterate that Orlando is just not a cheap holiday and cutting corners to be cheap doesn't always make for a nice holiday. (warm packed lunches and water bottles filled from a not very cold water fountain - bleurgh).

Also, not hiring a car means that you will miss out on loads. We did an airboat ride to see alligators (who were all hiding away from the heat) and drove down to Cape Canaveral to the Kennedy Space Centre, which was definitely worth a visit. We also drove to some much cheaper places to eat that weren't walking distance from the hotel.

Another tip is to split up for rides. As there were only two of us we often got to queue jump because there were only two places left on a ride. Large parties who want to sit together have to wait the longest.

I think the days you allocate to each park depend entirely on your interests. Pandora has just opened in Animal Kingdom with 4-8 hour queues to get in and get on both rides, with FastPasses being booked up completely at the 60 day mark. This hype is likely to last until next year at the earliest. When the Star Wars attractions open in the Studios it may well become a 2 day park. If you want to go on literally every attraction in MK you would definitely need two days. I still haven't done everything there and I've probably spent about 20-30 days in MK over the years. If you want to see all of the countries pavilion on Epcot as well as ride Soarin', Test Track and Mission Space then you may well need two days. FastPasses are tiered and therefore not always possible to obtain, particularly at peak times.

Just keep doing as much research as possible like you currently are, particularly reading trip reports of families with a similar demographic to yours to see what you fancy.

How do some of you mange to enjoy going every year? Don't you suffer from theme park fatigue?

DD and I did 10 days last year, and that was enough for us. We were theme parked out.

I'm the same IAm! I've been to california Disney with an ex for a few days but in the context of a wider holiday doing other things. We enjoyed disneyland Paris but we also spent a day in art galleries in Paris and it was just a short trip. We're unlikely to do Orlando. If I had 10 grand to splurge I'd like to travel across Canada or something!!

If your kids are 14 and 19, wouldn't they rather do New York/ Chicago / Miami?? My teenagers loved Disney when they were 5 - 10 but wouldn't be seen dead there now (me neither).

Have to disagree re teens not wanting to do Disney. Not in my experience anyway.

Dd is 15y. She adores going to Disney and Universal. It's her favourite holiday. She does love cities like New York too but would choose a Florida theme park holiday every time tbh. We've been to Disney/Universal parks (Paris, Orlando and California) several times between the ages of 18 months and 14y and Dd is already planning an October Halloween visit next year (she will be 16y)

We took her friend with us in February when they were both 14y. Her friend loved every second.

We know people over there now with a 11y and 15y - both having a ball, as our their parents, on their first visit. And know others who've been as teens for first or subsequent visits, girls and boys, who've adored it.

Obviously if not into theme parks they won't get so much out of it, or don't like Disney theming - but I wouldn't discount it purely on age.

Iam astonished - we wouldn't don't do often if it was our only holiday as dh and I, and Dd to be fair, also went to have different types of holidays. But we do love theme parks and Disney/Universal, and we're in a fortunate position to be able to go there in addition to two or three other foreign holiday in a year, so hats why.

take water bottles frozen in your bag and make lunches/snacks. The food is very expensive in the parks and not even the quality of mcdonalds, it all becomes very boring if you are eating it everyday! my OH went saying we will buy drinks so we dont have to carry them but we spent $50 on water on the first day!

Depending on the age of your children you can get a kids eat free pass for $20 and it will last the entire time you are there for certain restaurants around international drive however the choice is limited.

I suggest going for a large breakfast at ponderosa then snacking in the day and picking up a pizza on the way home.

We went for 2 weeks disney and 1 week clearwater both at self catering apartments.

Just to add to the above comment, water is free from fountains and all counter service locations. Just ask for a cup of free iced water, no purchase necessary.

And just to repeat that although the food is expensive (though far cheaper than Paris and UK theme parks) it is not poor quality if you eat in the right places. There are at least 2 or 3 counter services in every park that serve options outside burgers and chips, you just have to look sometimes!

I'm another dibber. We go annually. I'd recommend deciding which parks first - with age of teens non Disney may be best. Universal/Seaworld/Busch gardens have biggest coasters. Onsite is convenient as teens can come and go using buses/monorail/boat (under 25s pay a fortune for hire cars so you will be driver) but offsite gets you space so a lovely villa or condo for a reasonable price.
Dibb has a dining reviews section with price info.
They are very strict on alcohol age only 21 or over can drink (they I'd every one) which may be odd if your eldest is used to drinking in Uk.

I think that snacking during the day might be a bit optimistic with teenagers. DD was horrified at the idea of not having a proper lunch.

Thank you so much everyone! You've all answered questions that I've been thinking! I appreciate it this much ((((((((hug)))))))))