help me! planning a trip and i dnt know where to start!

k so im 18 n me n a few friends have decided to go to disney nxt summer.i thought tht was a great idea....until i saw the prices. i would normally go to my mother for this since she is a expert at planning trips but sadly she is no longer alive so i cant get too much help from my family since they are usually busy. so far its me and my other friend n im pretty sure it will be just us going. we plan to stay for only 2 days. we need help saving money and planning this right so im asking for the help of ppl who have done this before. its really appreciated thnx!:grin:

You came to the right place! You can correspond w/ Disney or calling a Disney certified travel agent like MEI mousefan travel. They can help you alot! Good luck and Have fun! Planning a vacation is almost as fun as the vacation itself!:mickeykid

so is it just cheaper to book everything with disney? cuz when i looked around my whole trip came to 1,022.22 including the flight. is that cheap?

I don't know if that is cheap, MEI / Mousefan Travel can certainly help you out with any discounts. Two other excellent resources I recommend to friends are the Unofficial Guide to WDW and Deb's allears.net website. Both can really help with your planning.

The best place to start is to look at prices at different times of the year and where you plan on staying. Are you trying to go during the summer and stay on site or off site? if on site, what type of hotel (Value, Moderate, Deluxe). If Money is an issue Pop Century is a great resort and if you decide to go in January you can get a pretty low rate on the hotel.

Next is ticket prices, this is where I usually spend the most money. Are you looking to do all 4 parks in just 2 days? or will you plan on going back and only do maybe 2 parks in 2 days? if you plan to visit all four then a park hopper ticket is the best option, but if you choose to do 1 park a day, you can get away with just a base ticket.

When planning my vacations, the next thing I look at is food. You can get away with eating cheap at counter services (Pecos Bill or Early of Sandwhich... YUM). If you can afford it, the dining plan is always a good option (but will need to stay on site).

The last thing I look at is air fare since it changes often. I find the best time to get air fare is 3 - 6 months before your trip. I found that I saved nearly $80 a ticket by waiting 3 months before the trip to buy the air fare (continental). Once at the airport you can save money by using Disney's free DME service to your resort (again, if staying on site).

For isntance, a stay at Pop Century (Standard Room) from Sept 12 - Sept 14 2011 with Quick Service Dining with a 2 day Base ticket is $679.00. This price can even be lowered if you take away the dining option and choose to pay out of pocket for food.

A good saving plan that I do, is I put all my spare change into a huge jug. Before the trip I take it to a TD Bank and change it in for cash to pay for any spending I do on my trip. To save for the trip itself I usually put money away till I get $200 and then call Disney and put my deposit down. Then I break down the cost of the trip by week and try to save that much per week (for example, if you were to go on the tirp with the dates i mentioned above and book today that would be about ~60 bucks a month after the deposit). I hope this helps somewhat, and lastly, have a good time.

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Originally Posted by kittywade823

so is it just cheaper to book everything with disney? cuz when i looked around my whole trip came to 1,022.22 including the flight. is that cheap?

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it depends on when you plan on going... i went the second week of august just as the season changed from peak to normal and i found it was much cheaper, and there were less people around...

Definitely go with a Disney Vacation specialist travel agent. A good one will continue to look for, and apply, any discounts for your vacation that are released the moment they are released.

I use my good friend Tracy at TravelOnADream.com. She has years of experience with this sort of thing.

Do you have any specific questions based on the type of trip you are planning? Since there are so many types of trips people take to Disney, it is hard to give general information. Would love to help in any way!

Natalie H.
Meet The Magic
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