How can we go to Disney World Florida, without spending a fortune?

[Easy]

I think DS is nearly ready for this experience. I've wanted to go all my life, and we NEED a holiday.

Trouble is, I'm used to 5* luxury travel in my past, but huge amounts of cash aren't available right now.

Are there any deals? Can we get really nice self-catering? Or should I just shut up and save more (impatient for the holiday really).

can you get flight plus car only and do a self catering condo/flat for the week? YOu would save a lot going to a grocery store and cooking your own food. Also, if you go to the big parks, bring your own drinks and sandwiches - you are allowed to go back to your car and collect things (or so I'm told!)

If you're not quite sure if he's ready or not, why don't you have a taster at eurodisney and go 5? That way you can see if he is* ready for the big whammy and you've not compromised your 'needs'.

of course you'll have saved yourself thousands if he would benefit from waiting a couple more years to have got the full benefit.

He's just 5, I hope old enough not to be scared sh*tless by the 6 -7 ft tall characters, or tired out by all the attractions

We got an apartment at Sheraton Vistana Villages for $120 per night. This is for a good 4* resort. You will be able to find a lot cheaper than that. We went to Publix nearby for shopping etc. However don't be fooled into thinking it is cheap - with the cost of entry tickets alone things soon rack up!

If you search for Orlando Discount Accomodation you will probably be able to find some good websites. I remember using one linked to the florida tourist board which was good.

Is he going to be big enough to go on all the rides?

I don't know about the rides. He is big for 5 (wears age 6 school clothes). Can anyone tell me if he's big enough.

Soapbox, I don't want to go on the "really" cheap tho' I'd be really disappointed if we ended up staying somewhere scummy.

Probably just need to save up more I guess.

Easy, why don't you see if you can do a houseswap with someone who lives near disneyworld? Or look on this website for people advertising houses for rent. I've rented to a lot of people through that website and had really good luck. You have to drive everywhere in florida and it's cheap to rent cars, so it doesn't really matter if you stay in a house that's a 30 min. drive from disneyworld.

He'll be able to go on a lot of the rides. My daughter just turned 5, and is tall for her age, and she LOVES Disneyworld. She's also young enough that she still likes going on the little kid rides, and she loves Princesses.
Definitely the best way to save money is to self-cater, and to take lunch and drinks with you to the park instead of buying them there.

Easy I think most of the scarier rides have a minimum height of 44 inches.

Easy - in that case I would look seriously at the Sheraton Visatna Villages. It was a lovely resort viallge with the most beautiful apartments and considering they sleep up to 8 it works out as a very good deal!

here it is!

The location is fantastic - an easy 10 min drive to Disney and good for Sae World and designer shopping mall

Easy - we went with Travel City Direct and it was all done on-line (by my dad). My parents have used the same company for all theeir travel to Florida for the past few years and have never had any problems with them. They fly into Sanford airport - the smaller and less busy of the airports. TBH the holiday wasn't that expensive (not counting the tickets for the parks) and that was school holidays.

Ignoring the teacher bit in me - I'd go out of school holidays if you can; much cheaper and not hurricane season either!

We stayed in a villa \here which is cheaper than the hotels. It was a beautiful villa with private pool. It was 2 miles from the Disney resorts.

We hired cars for the two weeks too. Definitely recommended if you fancy going anywhere other than just Disney (which you can get between using Disney transport).

Flew with Travel City Direct. Flights were good on the whole.

Park tickets are not cheap but there are deal to be had if you look around on the net. We sepnt £310 per adult. Luckily for us DD was free (as under 3). These tickets gave us (including special offers):

• 10 day world ticket for Disney; hopper tickets; included a fab character breakfast as Chef Mickey
• 14 days (scost us same as a 3 day pass) pass for the two Universal parks
• 1 day pass for Seaworld (given a second day's pass for free on entry - very common)
• 1 day ticket to Kennedy Space Centre

I can find actual costs for villa/flights/insurance later - have to take DD dancing now so have to dash.

But it was fantastic and he'd be tall enough for all the Disney rides I would think, as well as some of the Universal Ones.

The Disney sites have height limit info on the siote for each ride. Don't think Universal does though.

Easy - DD wasn't afraid of any of the characters at all and actively sort them out. And she adored all the rides, and was so happy to be just tall enough for the first stage roller coasters.

The parks say you can't take food and drink in with you, and they do bag searches on entry into every park, including the water parks. Water parks you can take food in though I think. However, despite bag searches some people were seen getting away with taking sandwiches and drinks in.

We didn't find the food inthe parks too badly priced for lunch and snacks. Not fab quality but on a par with any other theme park I have been too, and similar costs too. Big portions though.

Save your big meal to the eening and go out of the parks - some great value meals around and huge buffets!

Hula, are you sure they say you can't take your own food and drinks? I've never seen that anywhere. They certainly don't enforce that if it is a rule, because they search all bags but don't mind you taking stuff in. People take coolers in - it's not like they're trying to hide it. (Of course you can't take alcohol (unfortunately).) I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't let you take bottles of water into the park in August!

Easy, there are many sites which can help with planning a trip. These will often have tips or hotel discounts as well as other visitors own ideas. I used this one to plan for our trip. When I was looking at the hotels they were quite reasonable with the dollar rate being good. I couldn't get discounted tickets for the number of days we were there and for what we planned to do.

There are billions of places to stay around there which are great accomodation value compared to Europe, you just need to choose!

We stayed at The Grand Floridian on site on Disney and I'm sure it would be right up your street. One advantage was that it was one stop on the monorail and you were in the Magic Kingdom, and at night you simply walked onto the boat after the fireworks and you were at the hotel in 3 minutes. We were on the concierge level which meant there was always food and drinks available in the reception area and that saved us shelling out for them elsewhere. As Hula said the rates are seasonal so you could take advantage of them. Tbh the summer is not the best time to go to the parks anyway, tho' most of us are stuck with it.

I would like to always stay like this but we were treated to it by my lovely cousin.

That's what all our documentation told us and I am sure there were signs up at every park to remind you. Coolers were actually barred from all parks, even the water parks - although there no one seemed to stop anyone at all. As I said though although bags were searched we still saw people getting through with wrapped sandwiches, etc. so it wasn't necessarily enforced all the time.

Thanks for these ideas, will investigate further.

Wouldn't contemplate a house swap tho'. We live in continual chaos, and it would be a nightmare making the house liveable for anyone else. I am ashamed of my house really, but it works for us.

Will look into these and any other suggestions anyone cares to give.