Wow.. I am very impressed.. I am looking into going in November to WDW and would like to stay on property. I will not have a CM with me but if there are any tips that you could give me on how to save, what you did to save and where you went to save (ie where did you get the food for your room and stuff) that would be great. Thanks and it is awesome to go to WDW for under 500!!! WTG!!! :yahoo: :hurray:
When in November are you traveling? If you are definitely wanting to stay on property, the date you check in on will make a difference in your room rate for the rest of your stay. If you are going to be checking in before 11/25, your stay will fall under the regular season, and the value resorts such as the All Stars and Pop Century will cost about $99/night. If you check in between 11/26 and 12/19, a room will run you about $79/night because your stay now falls under the value season category.Quote:
Originally Posted by ChipNDale
Bring food with you into the parks. I bring a sandwich and some snacks in a soft collapsable lunch box with a ziplock bag full of ice to keep it cool. That way when I'm done eating it folds up nice and small in my backpack. I also bring my own bottled water in the parks with me and refill it at the drinking fountains. Of course, you can only drink so much water before feeling like a drowned goldfish, so I recommend looking into those little flavor packets that you can mix into your bottled water to add some flavor. I found some decent ones at WalMart for real cheap that turned my water into iced tea.
Eating in general at Disney, even a light breakfast at the resort will run up quite the bill. A bagel, cream cheese, and a juice for myself cost me $6 at Pop Century one morning, so for the most part I just had a bowl of cereal in the room. Those variety packs of little travel boxes of cereals give some variety so your group can eat something a little different every day rather than just one big box of cheerios or that kind of thing. There's a WalMart just a few miles outside of Disney on 535 where you can get all your little snacks and things that you don't want to travel with before hand. They also have nice cheap $2 styrofoam coolers that you can fill up with ice at the hotel to keep your stuff nice and cool in the room, and those you can just throw them away when you're done.
Unfortunately, seeing as you are from Iowa, I'm fairly certain that unless you are renting a car (something I know nothing about), you probably will have some difficulty getting off property to do some of this shopping. Sadly, I can't really offer much help on how to do that, as I had my car with me during my stay. Maybe there's someplace on property where you can buy those kinds of things? I'm really not sure. Maybe someone else can help you there.
If you do in fact have a rental (or you decide to drive your own all that way), getting off property will be no issue at all. However, just because you have a car available doesn't mean you should use it all the time. Why pay for gas and parking (it's $9 to park at the theme parks now... that's rediculous!!!) to go to and from the parks and resort each day? In most cases the buses and monorails are faster because they get you right to the front of the park rather than the back of the parking lot, not to mention they are free. I park for free, being an Annual Passholder, but even I take the bus in any instance I can in order to save on gas and keep the mileage down on my Mickey Mobile. The only downside to the buses and monorails is that you will probably end up doing some standing on overly crowded buses and trains at some point. But if you can accept that, you will save some time and money.
There's a couple other little tricks and such that I used to save a buck or two here and there, but most of those made use of Cast Member or Annual Passholder discounts, so I don't know how relevent (if at all) they would be to you, so I wont dwell on them.
Well... that's how I pulled off a $350 week-long stay. I hope some of this comes in handy for you! Have a great time planning your trip! http://www.disneyworldtrivia.com/for...ies/smile1.gif
Don't forget to amortize the cost of your annual pass out to the number of days you've used it. :)
Congrats, sometimes you just have to give in to glow merchandise. Especially when there's someone asking for it. ;)
Or when someone cool like Paul (Summer Sun) is selling it!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam I Am
Glad you're back, Don! Looks like you had a good time! Paul and I didn't get a chance to come over, but we <b>WILL</b> meet up before the year is through...you can quote me on that! (How bout the birthday bonanza??)
PINK TINK's BIRTHDAY BANANZA!!!!! :yahoo:
So glad you ahd a great trip Don!!!
I know this is an old thread, but ChipNDale's vacation hasn't come up yet (Nov.) so thought I might throw this in ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by ChipNDale
We are season passholders, and we tend to go to Disney around 4-5pm....so that cuts out breakfast and lunch (we tend to do that when it's hot....which is 90% of the time in FL) But if we make it an allday thing like you will be doing.... if you really want cheap, I would definitely recommend bringing snacks and meals along! I have to say, we probably spend about $15 each time we go to Disney...LESS, if we are going more than once per week, and I couldn't even say we always spend $15.....just fyi (unless it's a rare special treat that we can eat at a restaurant there), and that's basically just with snacks (popcorn, a turkey leg, etc) to hold us over. We are 6 people, by the way.....so that cost would be even less if it were just one of us. We like to pack our lunches (and then grab a bite OFF property late at night, or else pack supper too, or just be content with popcorn for supper) to save money. Also drinks and snacks we pack. The thing is... like someone mentioned already...your sandwiches may not be AS good as a fresh hot meal... *but* we have found that 1) we do not seem to eat as much when we spend a day at Disney as we would if we had been home all day (maybe the heat? excitement of rides/shows?) and 2) if you put off eating until you are starving, believe me~a sandwich and some cheetos that you brought with you will sound soooo yummy when you are hungry...even if you are smelling the food cooking and want some! LOL Actually, that's probably why we allow ourselves one 'indulgence' (turkey leg, popcorn, or fries maybe).....is so that we can eat our packed lunch and know that yes we will get something hot and fresh later. Just a snack, kwim? And we are able to come away from a day at Disney having barely spent any $. Now we do have one annual pass (for the free parking) so that helps our budget by not having to pay that $9.... ($9 can buy our whole evening's snack/drink!) HTH :D :minnie: