16 Ways to Save Money on Your 2026 Disney World Vacation
Here’s how to save money on your 2026 Walt Disney World vacation, with tips & tricks for cutting costs on hotels, dining, souvenirs, and more. With these recommendations, you can trim the fat from your budget and get the most out of your travel dollars, with our 16 best tips to do WDW less expensively.
Fair warning: it won’t always be easy–and “less expensively” is not the same as “inexpensively.” To the contrary, Walt Disney World vacations are more expensive than ever. If you haven’t visited in a few years or ever, you might be in for sticker shock when pricing out a trip on DisneyWorld.com.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that “revenge travel” is over, and some costs are coming down. Discounts have improved at Walt Disney World, especially on resort hotels and vacation packages. Sometimes on tickets, too. With that in mind, here are other ways to save at Walt Disney World…
Regardless of your finances, it’s never a bad idea to consider ways to save more money. For some of you, cutting spending may be the only way you can afford a trip to Walt Disney World. For others, spending less might not be strictly necessary, but rather is a way to fund a slightly longer trip, a second Disney trip, or simply not waste money unnecessarily. (No one wants to do that!)
We’ve been in both positions. Although we’re able to splurge on trips now, I still vividly remember the days or ordering an extra bun so we could “split” a double cheeseburger at Cosmic Ray’s. These days, we pay careful attention to our spending and make every effort to get the most bang for our buck. After all, those wasted dollars could be the makings of another trip!
Here are some of our recommendations for saving money on your Walt Disney World vacation. Not all of these things will be for everyone. We each value different aspects of our trips differently, and what is unnecessary for some might be make or break for someone else. If you cut things that are important to you, don’t be surprised if the amount of fun you have is negatively impacted. Our goal with this list is cutting the fat from your budget without hitting the meat or bone…
16. Arrive Sunday, Leave Friday
Stated differently: skip weekends. Above is the room rate chart for Pop Century, and as you can see, the rates are least expensive on Sunday through Thursday nights. This hotel is not an outlier, nor are these months. In fact, holiday weekends and busier times are even worse–with a larger gap between Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays through Thursdays.
Guess what else more or less tracks with the above rate chart? Walt Disney World ticket prices, airfare costs, and even rental car prices. It’s not just this one (large) component of your trip that costs more–it’s pretty much everything! Of course, there’s a reason for this–weekends are often “free spaces” as you schedule around time off work and school.
Nevertheless, it’s worth sharing this for those who have more flexible schedules and don’t look at resort rate charts or comparison shop and just price out a vacation package. Even if you have to visit during a busier season (see #1), you can reduce the cost by simply choosing the right days of the week.
15. Eat Strategically
There are a few entries on this list dedicated to food, and the common theme is making small sacrifices that won’t hurt your experience much but will massively help your wallet. Our general philosophy is that dining is integral to the Walt Disney World experience, so we don’t recommend cutting too much. You shouldn’t be cooking all of your meals in your room or even eating off-site (at all).
However, you might want to consider other options. One common suggestion we’ve heard from readers is to order kids meals as opposed to adult options. This can work, but it’s really circumstantial. Portion sizes are smaller than they used to be at Walt Disney World, and some kids meals are very basic.
What we’d recommend instead is ordering more substantial adult meals and sharing, or even cheaper and nutrient-dense options, like certain salads (most counter service restaurants now have at least one good salad on the menu). To each their own, but there are usually tastier and more filling options than kids meals. You’re not saving money in the end if you end up having to eat an extra meal because you opted for the smaller and cheaper option.
Our biggest piece of advice is not to buy into the hype. When a restaurant at Walt Disney World becomes popular, its prices rise and quality generally falls. It’s a tale as old as time that can be witnessed in several restaurants, with Le Cellier being the most foremost example of this classic ‘dining downfall’ arc. The less you hear about a restaurant…the better it probably is.
That applies to both the cuisine quality and value for money. No offense to Be Our Guest Restaurant, ‘Ohana, Chef Mickey’s, or California Grill, but I’d take the restaurants on our List of Underrated Restaurants at Walt Disney World or Top 10 Best Value Table Service Restaurants at Walt Disney World over all of the highly-hyped restaurants.
You’ll also find that restaurants outside the parks are often more reasonably priced than those inside, so a quick trip to nearby resorts that are within walking, boat, Skyliner, or monorail distance from Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, or Disney’s Hollywood Studios can be a great option. Even though this takes time, it’s a great way to decompress and escape the midday crowds–and see the nicest hotels at Walt Disney World!
Finally, eating at lounges instead of table service restaurants is a great way to trade down on price…but not on quality. Splitting a few small plates (many of which are anything but small) at one of these venues can be much less expensive and more filling than a full table service menu. Families are often scared away from these spots, but every single “bar & grill” and all but maybe 3 lounges at Walt Disney World are family-friendly. See our list of the Best Bars & Lounges at Walt Disney World for recommendations.
14. Stay On-Site (Yes, On-Site.)
This is going to buck conventional wisdom, which is that it’s cheaper to stay off-site. When looking at hotel rates in a vacuum, that’s absolutely correct. Central Florida has a surplus of hotels, and you can score decent accommodations for $50 to $75 per night–far cheaper than comparable rooms at Walt Disney World. At the other end of the spectrum, luxury hotels in Orlando are a fraction of the price of on-site Deluxe Resorts.
Our most recent hotel stay was at All Star Sports and, honestly, it exceeded expectations. The rooms at the All Stars have recently been remodeled and the grounds are fun for kids. These are still very much budget motels that would not fetch rates this high if they were simply ‘real world’ hotels.
These are the cheapest hotels at Walt Disney World, with rates that are frequently $125 to $150 after discounts. That’s still at least $25 to $75 more expensive than their off-site counterparts. (This range varies widely, depending upon demand, season, and occupancy. Walt Disney World hotel prices do not spike with real-time demand, whereas other Central Florida hotels do.)
However, these are not apples to apples comparisons! Pretending like on-site hotels are the same as off-site ones, and rates should be set accordingly, overlooks the first three rules of real estate. More importantly, it overlooks the on-site perks and ancillary costs of staying off-site.
Specifically, if you stay off-site, you’ll pay for parking at the parks and transportation to them. This is a direct monetary cost, and one that closes the gap quickly. You will also pay indirectly in terms of time, both due to the commute and by not having access to on-site perks such as Early Entry. Don’t dismiss that as “only” 30 minutes–it can be a huge head-start, especially at EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
For our recent All Star stay, we paid ~$130/night during the holiday season after discount. That was only about $30 cheaper than other options. It would have easily cost ~$50/day for transportation and parking, were we to stay off-site and incur those costs–making the total cost for the cheapest off-site hotel more than the cheapest on-site hotel.
In short, spending a little more upfront on your hotel can potentially save a lot over the course of the trip–while also having a superior experience and getting more done in the parks, in a more efficient manner. This is not to say that staying on-site is always for everyone–it’s not. In fact, we frequently stay off-site and recommend others do as well. Rather, it’s to suggest that you take a holistic view of costs and benefits, rather than simply a cursory glance at sticker prices. You actually need to do the math and take everything into account.
Which brings us to #12 on the list, which is arguably the biggest and best piece of money-saving advice for Walt Disney World…
13. Never Pay Full Price for Hotels
For most people, hotels are the single most expensive component of a trip to Walt Disney World. If you plan on staying in a Deluxe Resort, your hotel could eat up more than half of your entire vacation budget. While we love the Deluxe Resorts, we hate their pricing, and (frankly) think they are not worth their rack rates. We have four alternatives to paying full price for Deluxe Resorts, with the best option last, so you have plenty of options if you “need” posh accommodations.
First, consider “downgrading” to a Moderate Resort. Two good options for this are the new Gran Destino and Caribbean Beach Resort. Both are essentially “Deluxe Minus” hotels, albeit for very different reasons. Gran Destino has upscale amenities, fine dining, and feels reminiscent of a Las Vegas tower.
By contrast, Caribbean Beach has beautiful grounds, a relaxed setting, and efficient transportation via the Skyliner gondolas. The rooms and dining aren’t on par with what you’ll find at Deluxes, but this is a distinctly Walt Disney World resort, and it shows. It’s now often overlooked, but perfect for anyone wanting a relaxed setting for their vacation and easy access to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
If you want an actual Deluxe resort at a Moderate price, your best option is renting Disney Vacation Club (or DVC) Points. Here’s our top recommendation for the best, safe, and least expensive option for DVC point rental. If you want to know more, we cover the exact steps for doing this, and why we recommend it, in our Tips for Renting Disney Vacation Club Points post, which offers a great way to stay in Deluxe-caliber on-property rooms for significant savings.
Perhaps the most straightforward way to save on accommodations is simply booking a stay at the third-party Swan & Dolphin, which is located on-site within walking distance of Epcot and Hollywood Studios and actually offers better perks than Disney’s Value and Moderate Resorts. As we discuss in our Swan & Dolphin Review, these hotels are incredibly nice, just lacking in “Disney” theme. Yes, they have a bunch of annoying fees, but the net price is still significantly less expensive than the nearby Boardwalk Inn or Yacht & Beach Clubs.
12. Skip Lightning Lanes (Sometimes)
Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass are Walt Disney World’s line-skipping options (and, I guess, Premier Pass, but that’s likely irrelevant to anyone reading a money-saving tips post). Everything you need to know is covered in our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World.
While Lightning Lanes can save you time and are worth purchasing at least some of the time at 2 parks, they are not always necessary. Be careful not to fall into the FOMO trap, and utilize these options strategically alongside itineraries, rope drop, early entry, etc.
One new wrinkle to this is not to rely on outdated recommendations when it comes to Lightning Lanes, as they’re not as useful or necessary as they once were. See Is Lightning Lane Multi Pass Still “Worth It” at Walt Disney World?, which analyzes standby vs. line-skipping.
Check out Best Time-Saving Strategies for Walt Disney World, which is the result of extensive ‘testing’ to determine the best and worst ways to beat the crowds. Especially if you’re staying on-site, there are other strategies for saving time waiting in line.
11. Avoid Upcharges
We love Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, and have attended these events every single year that they’ve been held since 2007. We wouldn’t miss either one of them, and that’s despite both parties roughly tripling in price during that time and getting more crowded.
Likewise, we think the After Hours events are good hassle-free ways to accomplish a lot. Just recently, we recommended the new-ish Jollywood Nights Christmas Party and After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios as the easiest way to beat the crowds there, better than Early Entry, Lightning Lanes, or staying late on a regular night. So, what gives?
None of these things, or any other upcharges, are necessary in order to have a great trip to Walt Disney World. There are always alternatives to beating the crowds or outsmarting the masses. When it comes to planning and social media, there’s a pervasive sense of FOMO that drives many people to spend large sums of money on unnecessary experiences at Walt Disney World. Planners see other fans rave about these things or how quickly the events/reservations sell out, and assume they’re must dos.
That is not true. While many upcharges will enhance your trip, they’re far from necessary to having an enjoyable vacation. To the contrary, most of them are (objectively) not worth the money. Sure, they’re a fun splurge–but if your vacation dollars are limited, you should absolutely put those towards the core experience (tickets, hotels, dining) rather than the extravagences.
Consider the demand for upcharge offerings at Walt Disney World a form of keeping up with the online Joneses (or Kardashians, these days). This is exacerbated by certain popular experiences booking up quickly, but that’s less a reflection of quality and demand than it is limited supply and the FOMO machine. Don’t buy into the hype–it’s almost always exaggerated.
10. Skip the Dining Plan (Disney Adults)
The Disney Dining Plan is just as divisive as ever. Some Walt Disney World fans love it and others hate it. This blog’s official position is that the Disney Dining Plan is neither good nor bad, but has the potential to be either depending upon your specific circumstances and how you use it.
We’ve already written a lengthy article about Is the Disney Dining Plan Worth It in 2026? That weighs the strengths & weaknesses, and helps you determine whether the Disney Dining Plan is right for you.
One thing we can tell you without knowing anything about your unique situation is that the Disney Dining Plan will not be the cheapest way for you to eat at Walt Disney World. If paying bottom dollar is your bottom line, look elsewhere. The Disney Dining Plan is a splurge that can save you money if you dine a certain way, but there is literally no one who won’t do better by using other money-saving strategy for meals.
Walt Disney World loves the Disney Dining Plan because it results in a minimum spend on food and locks guests into eating on-site (by extension, it makes DDP users less likely to venture off-site at all, meaning a lower likelihood of visiting Universal). It’s incredibly advantageous in creating a captive audience, which is why Disney is willing to offer up potential savings on meals via the DDP. In the most reductionist terms, it’s kind of like a discount for buying in bulk.
If you don’t lock yourself in via the Disney Dining Plan, you open the door to a variety of money-saving options, such as those suggested above and below. You could also do a couple of dinners off-site or in on-site third party hotels. The Orlando area has an excellent (and underrated) food scene, and our List of Great Restaurants Near Walt Disney World covers options that aren’t too far from the parks. This includes everything from spectacular steak to an Italian restaurant with old school EPCOT Center bloodlines.
9. Don’t Skip the Disney Dining Plan (Young Families)
The above advice to skip the DDP to save money normally applies pretty much across the board. However, that may not apply to young families this year, because Kids Eat FREE All Year in 2026 at Walt Disney World.
Throughout all of 2026, guests staying at one of Walt Disney World’s more than 25 on-site Disney-owned resort hotels will get a free Disney Dining Plan for their kids (ages 3 to 9 at the time of travel) when purchasing a Disney Dining Plan as part of their package for the other members of their party. Kids get the same tier of the DDP that adults purchase.
The Kids Free Dining Plan at Walt Disney World deal can be combined with other select special offers, meaning you may still be eligible to take advantage of other deals released for 2026. This is huge. Already, we’ve seen all 2026 room-only discounts eligible to stack with the Kids Free Dining Plan offer, from bouncebacks to general public discounts. Even DVC point rental is eligible for the Kids Free Dining Plan!
From our perspective, this makes the Disney Dining Plan a great option for young families with a 2:1 adult to child ratio or better. Meaning two parents with 1 or more children are winners here, whereas those with an adult (ages 10 and up) to child imbalance are not.
If you’re a young family, we highly recommend doing the fully-fledged Disney Dining Plan and using your credits on character dining experiences. No, it is absolutely not the cheapest, bottom-dollar way to dine at Walt Disney World. But a vacation is exactly that, and sometimes strategic splurges are in order. In this specific scenario, the 2026 Disney Dining Plan qualifies.
With that in mind, if you do skip the Disney Dining Plan, here’s another way to save money on food without sacrificing on vacation quality or wasting a ton of time…
8. Grocery Delivery
Thanks to big box retailers entering the market, grocery delivery is faster, cheaper and easier than ever. About the only thing that’s more simple and straightforward is buying groceries from gift shops at Walt Disney World, but holy cow, is that more expensive!
We cover all of the ways to get groceries in our Tips for Buying Groceries at Walt Disney World post, with our current favorite being Walmart Plus. If you don’t want to use a grocery delivery service or visit a store, and just need smaller snack, another option is mailing yourself an Amazon package (details here).
Many of you probably don’t want to cook on vacation, and that’s completely understandable. That is NOT our recommendation, anyway. Instead, it’s a good idea to order items for a cold and quick breakfast in your room. This kills multiple birds with one stone. It’s cheaper than eating in the parks or your hotel food court, it’s faster and more efficient, and offers the opportunity to eat a well-rounded meal with fruits, vegetables, and other healthy options you might not get at Walt Disney World restaurants.
Eating a good breakfast can be a gamechanger. There’s also the opportunity cost, or lack thereof. With a few exceptions, breakfast is the weakest meal at Walt Disney World. You aren’t missing much–unless you enjoy powdered eggs and rubber bacon–by eating breakfast in your room. Put that saved money towards better lunches and dinners!
The one-two punch of renting Disney Vacation Club points and doing grocery delivery can pretty easily cut the cost of your Walt Disney World vacation in half. (If not save you even more!)
7. Use Credit Cards
This one is not for everyone, and comes with an opportunity cost (if you use the points at Walt Disney World, you can’t use them elsewhere). Nevertheless, leveraging credit card rewards can be a great way of getting “free” airfare or hotel rooms…or just paying for some meals.
We’ve earned tens of thousands of dollars in rewards on credit cards, without ever paying a cent of interest (although we have paid annual fees on certain cards). We cover which credit cards we recommend using to save money on travel in our Best Credit Cards for Disney Travel post.
Beyond travel-specific credit cards, getting a good “everyday” credit card for daily purchases can be a great way to earn money that you can earmark for vacations. This gives a different meaning to “saving” money, but it’s an idea nonetheless. Rather than using the Disney Chase Visa credit cards that are popular with many Disney fans, we recommend cards like the Chase Freedom Rewards or Amex Blue Cash for everyday use. Also, you don’t necessarily want to avoid cards with annual fees–quite often, the added perks or superior cashback or other rewards more than offset the fee.
These cards have better reward rates, and you can allocate their cash back to your vacation account, or use the rewards for airfare or other components of a Walt Disney World vacation. Just because rewards aren’t in the form of a Disney gift card doesn’t mean that you can’t save them for Disney. Hate credit cards if you want, but there’s no arguing that paying your balance off in full each month and using credit cards responsibly can save you money.
6. Skip the Park Hopper
It pains me to say this since I love Park Hopping, but if you’re on a budget, it might be wise to skip it–depending upon what park ticket discounts are available when you book. It’s tempting to upgrade to the Park Hopper tickets because they usually aren’t that much more, but if you aren’t going to Park Hop much, it’s still a waste. Plus, for your family, the “small” cost of Park Hoppers does add up quickly, and you might be able to save $250 or more simply by skipping the Park Hopper option.
Determine whether this is something you need or can drop in our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. If we were not Annual Passholders, Park Hopping is not something we could live without, but your mileage may vary on that. We like to stay in the park that is open latest, and that usually means hopping to that park towards the end of the day. For us, it would unquestionably be worth the extra cost, even if on a budget, and even if that meant sacrificing something else.
Many guests, especially those with young kids, aren’t staying late at night anyway, and calling it an early night rather than park hopping to the one that’s open latest each night isn’t going to be a big deal to them. If you are on a tight budget, consider how important Park Hopping is to you, and whether you can do without it.
5. Gift Card Hacks
This is one we learned about a few years ago and we’ve been utilizing since. There are a few different methods for saving money on Disney gift cards, and we cover all of the methods in our Tips for Saving Money on Disney Gift Cards post.
It’s easy to save money just by making strategic Disney gift card purchases at Kroger, Sam’s Club, Best Buy, and other stores. We pair these gift card sales with credit cards that offer rotating 5% back categories and other time-limited incentives to sweeten the deals.
You can regularly save around 5%, and during sales and by stacking with cashback portals, that can increase to 10-15%. Not too shabby!
4. Plan a “Free” Day
There’s some duplicity of meaning in “free” day. Here it means both a day where you don’t have the theme parks on your schedule, and also a day when you focus on things that are free. The idea is that you do something that is actually free in practice, not just in theory.
Do a resort tour (we’re partial to this one around Christmas!), go swimming in your hotel’s pool, or go for a walk around the resort. If you want something fun that’ll offer transportation entertainment, consider our Disney Skyliner Sip & Snack Stroll. We also have 1-Day “No Parks” Walt Disney World Itinerary that provides a plan of how you can enjoy a great day outside of the parks.
If you can’t do an entire day, the upside to this is that it doesn’t need to be the entire day. You can have it be the morning before a hard ticket event (if you feel these events are worth doing in light of your budget) so you don’t have to use a park ticket.
Even if you do have to use a park ticket, if you can stay out of the park for more than half a day, chances are that you’re going to save some money by buying fewer snacks, cheaper meals, etc. On long vacations, we are fans of the free day for recharging your energy for the rest of the trip, so even though this might not be a source of great savings (and we’ll be frank–it’s probably not), we still recommend it.
3. Skip Souvenirs
“Collect moments, not things.” This has become a mantra we’ve adopted over the last few years as we’ve prioritized great experiences over stuff. Mind you, we still buy souvenirs and a fair amount of things, but we’ve gotten rid of a lot of our junk, and buy far fewer souvenirs these days.
If this is a tough sell with your family, look at it this way: how many extra experiences or days in the parks could that souvenir budget buy you? The memories will last a lifetime, that Mickey Mouse bobblehead someone just had to have will wind up in the garage sale or on eBay in a few years.
There are two alternatives to this if you’re not ready to give up souvenirs cold turkey. First, advance-purchasing souvenirs when they’re on sale on Amazon or at the DisneyStore. Pre-purchasing Disney Pins is also popular, albeit controversial (details here). Second, consider making a trip to the outlet near Disney Springs for deep-discounts on parks merchandise–read our Disney Character Warehouse Outlet Tips for info & details.
2. Say No to Soda & Snacks
Large drinks at Walt Disney World are over $5 a pop (no pun intended–used in the colloquial sense, as I don’t want to start a pop vs. soda vs. coke debate!). If you’re soda-addicted, you could be spending $20 or more per day on soda. I speak from first-hand experience, and I’ll be the first to admit I’m guilty of this.
In looking over receipts from a trip a few years ago, I was so shocked at how much I had wasted on soda that I swore it off at Walt Disney World from then on. Since then, I haven’t purchased Coke in the parks a single time! If you need the caffeine, get your fill of coffee in the morning from your hotel room or get your fix at a restaurant offering free refills.
We’re also big advocates for packing your own water bottle (filtered is a must), as there’s an ever-increasing number of refill stations in the parks. (See our Ultimate Packing Guide for Walt Disney World, which offers recommendations for water bottles, caffeine fixes, snacks, and more.)
Snacks are now similarly overpriced, having increased in price more than anything else in the last few years. Don’t get us wrong–we love Dole Whips and other tasty treats, but pretzels, popcorn, and even churros just aren’t worth the hefty prices these days. You don’t need to swear off snacks entirely, but we’d recommend cutting out the ones that aren’t unique to Walt Disney World. If you’re hungry between meals, Mobile Order an entree from a counter service restaurant and share that.
1. Visit During the “Right” Weeks
We highly recommend traveling during the off-season, or at least non-peak times, which we highlight in our 2026 Walt Disney World Crowd Calendars. The obvious upside to visiting during the off-season is lower crowds. Intuitive but less obvious is that prices are more reasonable. Pretty much everything–from airfare to park tickets to hotel rates to Lightning Lane prices–is cheaper during the off-season.
Walt Disney World has done a decent job of normalizing crowds throughout the year, so there’s no longer a “ghost town” off-season. However, this is accomplished in large part via aggressive discounting. On top of that, some off-season dates (like early November and December, January/February, and early May) are also among the best times to visit Florida in terms of weather. Lower crowds and prices…plus nicer weather–truly the best of all worlds!
In fact, if you cross-reference our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2026 & 2027 and the Cheapest Dates to Do Walt Disney World, you should spot a ton of overlap. Once you visit during those sets of the best dates, it’s hard to go any other times. Both because you’ll enjoy Walt Disney World so much more…and because you’ll have a hard time justifying paying a lot more to deal with worse crowds and longer lines!
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to save money on your Walt Disney World vacation, and what works for one party may not work for others. How much you can save all depends upon which compromises you’re willing to make, and what parts of the Disney experience are really important to you. Some people may be able to save a lot, others may find that none of these tips will work for them (others still might already be doing all of these things!). Hopefully, there’s at least an idea or two here that’s helpful to you!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Do you have any of your own “quick tips” for saving money on a Walt Disney World vacation…or saving for a Walt Disney World vacation? How do you cut the fat from your travel budget? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
The airlines usually allow one suitcase per person on flights. We combine the 2 children’s clothes into one suitcase, and fill the other with snacks, water, juice boxes, etc. (but don’t exceed weight limit). This saves money on snacks at the hotel and parks, and leaves us an empty suitcase to bring home souvenirs.
We’re planning our first family trip to Disney World in April. We’re staying at a resort and I plan on getting a refillable soda cup (I’m quite addicted to soda, unfortunately…) so my question is this – Where can I get refills, other than at the resorts? Thanks!
P.S. We haven’t been to Disney since 9/11, which has forever cemented (for me) the fact that Disney is incredible to its customers. We were scheduled to fly out that morning, and since flights were obviously out of the question, they comped our room for another two nights as well as tickets to the parks. This was for a party of 15! They brought characters to the pools, helped people with phone calls, car rentals, etc. AMAZING, simply amazing.
I was just doing research on refillable cups because we are going to WDW in two weeks. Disney has (or will be shortly) instituted a new RFID system for filling soda cups. In essence, you will purchase a soda cup at the resort where you will be staying, the cost is 17.99 plus tax, so about $22.00. This cup is good only for the length of your stay and is not transferable to other resorts or the parks (you’ll have to buy a separate cup in the park). The cup fills up based on ounces so if you include ice, the spigot will turn off once your cup hits a certain weight. Once you fill up you must wait 5 mins before filling up again. This will cut down on people sharing soda. The cup is good for soda and coffee but not for milk (i am not sure about hot chocolate). You can purchase a cup with limited fills and the machine keeps track of your fills. So if you pre buy 10 fills, it will count down each time you use your cup. I will be at WDW for 3 days, if I pay $22.00 for a cup, I would have to fill it 8 times to pay for itself. Since we will not be at the resort for lunch or dinner and plan on bringing breakfast food and a coffee maker for the room, it does not make economical sense for us.
If you buy the refillable cup at the resort (or have the Disney Dining Plan) you can refill at the resort (and resort pool bar). The water parks also have refillable cups that you can use at the water park. That’s it for refillable’s. Now I will say restaurant’s have been very kind refilling our drinks and even sending us out the door with full and disposable cups.
Kim,
My family took Britta Water Bottles which filters some of the weird taste out of the water (We are from Seattle so our water is what I have heard is the best in the country). We also brought Crystal light and Hawaiian Punch (for the kiddo’s) to put in ice water with our meals. Saved us so much money and the small packets were easy to carry. I believe this was a tip from Tom B. on his “What to pack” list!
Cheers!
Stacey
The Amazon delivery is a great idea, but how do you schedule your Amazon deliver? The free delivery option is a 5-8 day window, but usually arrives at our house in N. Ca in about 3 days. How far in advance of your check-in date will the Hotel hold a package?
The Coronado held our packages for about ten days, but I called in advance and explained I was ordering stuff to already be there. It may have helped that it was stuff from Disney.com haha. But seriously call your resort and ask.
We usually order from Walmart about 7-10 days in advance and it’s always been at our hotel in time for our arrival. As long as you have your arrival date and name on there, they’ll hold for you in Concierge. We’ve done this at several different resort. Then it magically appears in our room with our luggage 🙂
We called our resort Sheraton Vistana and they will accept packages, but charge you $10 for each delivery. If they accept your packages, make sure you ask if they will charge you to accept the packages.
Bring a popup stroller…regardless of the age of the children (or seniors) in your group. It is the only thing you can legally “roll” your backpack around in. Additionally, you can park it in a secure area while you ride a ride or stand on a long line. Your backpacks get very heavy after several hours… since they may be filled with water bottles, snacks, rain gear, etc. I also know that we have used it to push around a tired, sleepy child… even when they haven’t been in a stroller for several years!
Thanks for your comment. I’m traveling over in April from Australia and I’ve been debating whether to take mine or just hire one when needed. But like you said it carries more then a tired child. I’ll be packing my pram now. As my baby was only 8 weeks old on our last trip, I found by putting a colourful wrap over it, it was easier to find when getting off the rides, particularly if the attendant has moved the prams.
Our tips are water bottle + cold brew teabags (for the constant caffeine fix). Also, we’re packing a jar of peanut butter and a bag or two of bagels for breakfasts in our luggage — they travel well and give a solid-feeling breakfast that can be eaten on the go.
I need to pre-order ponchos – thanks for reminding me. I want to make sure I do NOT get whatever the current disney ones are (so if they’re clear, I want blue, or vice versa), so I don’t get lost.
Good call on getting a different color poncho from the Disney ones. We bring our own to avoid paying the $7+ Disney charges, but yours is a good reason, too.
What’s the best way to save money on accommodation.
Any suggestions ?
Depends on if you want to stay at a Disney resort or not. Tom has a great post on pros/cons of staying on site. I have two little kids, both under 3, so the convenience of on site makes it a no-brainer. I am sold on renting DVC points as the most economical way to stay on site. It requires advance planning, ideally 7-11 months in advance. Find Tom’s article on renting DVC points for more info.
The best bang for the buck, I’ve found, is to rent Disney Vacation Points from a DVC owner or website. There are several trustworthy sites. In the end, you get a larger, deluxe DVC room, with all of its perks for about the cost of a moderate, especially when you consider you don’t have to pay all the various taxes (FLA state tax, occupation tax, hotel tax, alligator tax, etc.) that seem to magically compound on your final bill. Plus you get all the Disney perks like transportation, extra magic hours, etc.
That’s interesting, Hugh. Our family is interested in renting DVC points some day. So if I wish to compare the price of booking a room with Disney to the price of renting points, I should add the 12.5% tax to the Disney room price, but not to the DVC rental price? I did not realize that.
for how many nights?
We are die hard Disney visitors – I have been going since 1972 and we are there at least every 2 years! So… here are some of our tips…
Parkhopper… we actually always get a park hopper. We like the flexibility of being able to leave one park, go have a rest and then go to another park for night or even dinner.
Use the re-usable cups for water. Bottled water costs a fortune there… bring your own reusable water bottle or the disney pop cups with lids and refill at drinking fountains. Saves TONS especially in the summer when it is so hot. we bring carabiners (metal loops used for climbing) to attach the empty bottle on our backpack when not in use.
Rain capes – we bring our raincapes back every trip. It always rains at one time or another… we bought the yellow ones way back about 10 years ago… keep them in a ziplock bag and bring them back each trip.
Mickey ears… our family has a tradition of a family photo each trip, all wearing ears. (really cute since our first pic the kids were 2 yrs and 3 months and now they are teenagers) – we bought the headbands rather than hat. This way, they are packable and we bring them back every year. This will be our 9th trip in December and we still use the same ears as 15 years ago.
Hope this helps… enjoy your trip!
In lieu of buying bottles of water or having to carry around travel cups all day, you can get free cups of ice water at any kiosk or quick service restaurant that serves fountain drinks. All you have to do is simply ask for a cup of ice water. Drink your water and dispose of the cup! Nothing to have to keep up with all day and no out of pocket expense — it’s a win-win situation!
I am a bit of a bottled water snob. I don’t drink tap water, ever. Unless it is to make a drink mix, like lemonade or coffee or something.
On past trips, I brought bottled water into the parks. Once the bottles were empty, I refilled them with the free cups of ice or ice water they provide at counter service locations, but I always added flavor powder packets. (Some locations will give you ice water, but some will only give you a cup of ice for some reason.)
Our last trip was mid May, and quite a bit hotter than usual. My young son and I spent most of our time in Hollywood Studios, for Star Wars Weekends. Well, I forgot the packets, and we refilled our water bottles many many times from the water fountains, and the water tasted just fine! I’ve read a bunch of times that the Walt Disney Water tastes horrible, but I did not find this to be the case at all, at least at DHS. On our next trip, I plan to sample the water all over the property, just to test this out ;-), but at least I know the water fountain water at DHS is delicious!
P.S. It’s nice that they give you the cup of water/ice, but you really need to finish it before you go into an attraction or show. You surely can’t bring in a paper cup with a flimsy lid onto a thrill ride, and you can’t very well store it somewhere to save it for later. That’s why I like to pour it into my used water bottle, because I can cap it and toss it into my bag if I need to!
One of the best tips I’ve found is to use an automatic savings plan in a high-yield savings account to help plan and save for your Disney trips. Use something like Capital One 360 to withdraw a certain amount from your checking account every month. This will go into a specific “travel” or “Disney” savings fund that is available for future trips. Plus, the savings earn interest (admittedly, not much these days). In any case, it’s great to have a fund to pull from that is mentally designated for “Disney.” Makes paying for trips a lot easier.
We always stay at the campground, Camp Wilderness. It saves money for “lodging” while still giving us all “on site” privileges, and it saves food money since we can cook and prepare any meals we want, including packing in lunches. We LOVE the campground!
Barb,
I have an odd question. Does the campground have showers? If so do they offer privacy?
Erica,
I stayed at the campground with my 10 y/o son in April 2012, and it was great. There are little buildings with toilets, showers, and laundry throughout the campground. I don’t have pictures to double check with, but I remember the showers being private and everything being very clean.
We stayed at Fort Wilderness in June 2014 and the bathrooms (in typical Disney fashion) were extremely clean and private. The walls in the shower were tiled nicely (like one would be in your home) and each one had a private dressing area – small but effective! The campground was a great but as mentioned in other blogs, it is very spread out. A bike or a golf cart is helpful if you plan on going to the pool, outdoor movie/smores, meet and greet with Chip n Dale, etc.
Another recommendation is to plan on two meals a day, with the mid-day meal being the bigger one of the two. Buffets are cheaper at breakfast and lunch (Boma is great btw). And the menus for lunch and dinner are somewhat the same, and usually cheaper at lunch. Sharing meals at dinner will also save some $$, as noted in other posts, the amount of food for one person is at times too much anyways.
As we’ve gotten older, we don’t eat as much. But what we’ve been doing on recent visits, is eating our main meal around lunch time, then a lighter meal later in the day (e.g. sharing plates, etc).
Great tip! Doing table service for lunch and counter service for dinner is generally a good plan. Counter service prices don’t fluctuate between lunch and dinner, whereas table service do!
Great tip! You can take your “midday break” right in the park, relaxing inside in shade & air conditioning, during the most crowded part of the day! I like it!
Going off of your combo meal tip…my last Disney trip was in 2012. We discovered that even 2 college-aged students (myself and my boyfriend) were able to split at least one meal a day between the two of us. I know this might not work for everyone, but with all of the walking, heat, and distractions of rides, we realized that we could share one of the combo meals because the portions are quite large.
I always bring my own breakfast foods and snacks to Disney. I’m not a big breakfast eater, so some sort of meal replacement bar (Luna, Kellogs Protein, etc) will suffice until an early lunch. I usually pack a box of these bars, some miniature boxes of cereal, fruit snacks, and 100 calorie snack packs to graze on throughout the morning/afternoon. It’s way cheaper than buying these things from the food court.
We take protein bars from time to time as snacks in lieu of breakfast. Perhaps if Disney had better breakfast options (especially in the parks!) we wouldn’t do this.
The Disney Store offers free shipping on purchases over $75 and has ornaments, tee shirts and other items similar to the park shops. You can even buy official park merchandise which isnt cheaper but still ships free. As crazy as it seems, we souvenir shopped online at Disney store.com while on vacation and boughtmore ffor less with free shipping.
Not only do they have free shipping, but they have a clearance section (unlike most park stores) and often have 20-30% off coupons. It’s much cheaper to buy there than in the parks!
We just came back in October and actually most of our souveniers we bought we found for way cheaper online. A coworker wanted the Steve Macqueen race driver suit for her nephew in Park we paid $52.00 for it. Online I found it on sale for $30.00 Plus the plush I boughtmmMike W from Monster’s Inc was $18.00 in Park and $5.00 online. the Talking 60 pahrases and interactive purple dud from Mosters U was $49.00 in Park I got him for $20.00 online!! HUGE difference !!
We are going in April and last month they had free shipping and 25% off all park merchandise so I bought the autograph books and shirts for the kiddos ahead of time!
On our free day we visit downtown Disney and then take a bus to the Contemporary. We then visit all the hotels via monorail and then bus on over to other Disney hotels like AKL. Taking the boat from Downtown Disney to Port Orleans Riverside is nice and free too!
Totally agree on both counts. For the monorail loop tour, you can take whichever bus comes first: Downtown Disney or the Magic Kingdom (assuming you don’t actually want to go to DtD).
We have only been to WDW twice (8/12 and 9/13) – the first time we bought park hoppers, which I ended up regretting because we never used them. DH, teen son and I could have had a blast with the park hoppers, but our two younger kiddos didn’t have the stamina for rope drop *and* late nights.
For us, ordering groceries has give us the ability to eat a quick breakfast in the room and get to the parks for rope drop – we have done one character breakfast each trip, however. Couldn’t agree more about using credit cards – our primary card puts 2% of every purchase into our teen’s college fund. As long as you pay off the card in full at the end of the month, it’s a great way to save money (even if it’s not going directly towards a WDW trip).
Our credit card rewards never go directly to Disney trips. It’s usually more efficient for us to use them in other ways. However, saving $200 elsewhere in your budget means $200 “free” dollars that you can allocate towards Disney. We think too many people get sucked into the allure of the Disney Visa because of the ability to use it to “save for Disney.” You can save for Disney with ANY credit card!
I’m glad you mentioned a vacation home. To me, the biggest way to keep costs from getting out of control in a WDW vacation is staying off-site. For families, a condo with more space and a kitchen is a huge bonus. Plus, you can find a nice one for like $100 a night! That’s a huge savings, and it also carries over to breakfast, which can be a lot of money at WDW resorts.
We always stay in a house in a gated community when we go to Disney. It’s nice to be able to grocery shop and have breakfast and dinner at the house and save on spending that money in the parks. We’re leaving to head that way soon and are staying in Davenport which is about 15 minutes from the parks.
I also buy their Disney lanyards and trader pins online before we go so they can trade in the park.
My boyfriend and I are going to WDW in end of April till early May. We are staying at the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham (Lake Buena Vista) for 2 weeks and the total is just under $1,300USD for the 2 weeks. It also includes free complementary breakfast and free disney shuttles. That is way cheaper than staying on-site at WDW.
We combined the Disney Gift Card idea for when the Chase Freedom card was offering 5% cash back on purchases at a grocery store. We ended up with 5% off the price of our vacation, plus $100-$150 in free gas!
I wish I didn’t read that. We definitely have to remember to do it next time.
Oh wow, I wish my grocery store carried Disney gift cards! That double dipping on 5% cash back and gas rewards would be awesome, especially when the gas rewards are multiplied.
My Target does count as a grocery store on the Disney Visa. I’m not sure if it counts on the Chase Freedom, but grocery is not a bonus category in 2014 :-(. Even if it were, though, it maxes at $1500 per quarter, which is way under what we spend in Disney purchases during a trip (just resort, dining, merchandise). The 2nd quarter category is restaurants, so that would work as well during the trip for the 5% cash back.
This may seem a little too time consuming for some, but I book a package through Disney (Our current trip is booked for October 2016 for $2,600) then when Target has a $5 Target gift card with purchase of $50 Disney gift card purchase I use my Red Card and buy all $2600 in Disney gift cards. This way I am saving my 5% from my Red Card ($130) plus get $260 in Target gift cards. I spend entirely too much money at Target in general so this makes me feel slightly better about my ‘stay at home mom Target is my life line’ guilt. I then call Disney and spend a long time reading all 26 gift card numbers over the phone to pay for the trip. Like I said, it is time consuming, but it saves almost $400!
Using the Target Redcard to save 5% intrigued me… so I was just reading online that you have to go down to the front desk every day or two to apply your giftcards to your room… and that takes up a lot of time… but the posts I found were a couple years old. Can anyone who has used the giftcards recently to pay for the room confirm or refute that how it works?
Also do you get charged tax when purchasing a Disney gift card at Target? Thanks!
Room charges will automatically charge to the credit card on file on the night of your last full day/morning of your check-out day. They will also charge to your card if you hit a certain amount, like $500 or $1000. That is why you should apply the gift cards to your room charge balance every few days, just to prevent it from charging to your credit card.
If you want to pay for the actual room using gift cards, that can be done in advance whether it’s a room only or a package.
There is no tax charged on gift card purchases.
Wouldn’t you be able to side-step this issue by just paying for the room with gift cards and NOT enabling room-charging on your KTTW (or now, Magic Bands) card? Pay for in-park purchases directly with gift cards? Then you don’t have to mess with the front desk.
Or am I missing something? Like I said, we haven’t done this (yet).
Exactly, Tom. People use Disney gift cards all over Disney resorts all the time. But maybe the actual room charge is what you might have to pay for in advance or as you go along.
You can still enable room charging, though. Just use the gift cards for purchases until they run out, and then convert over to your KTTW card/band.
I will let you know how it all goes after our April trip! I’ve got a stack of Disney gift cards at the ready! 🙂
Hi there. Having just returned from our trip last week, I can give some follow-up to this discussion.
We arrived to our resort our first night in the evening, and our entire stay was charged to our credit card on file. All I had paid previously was the $200 deposit when I booked the room. Upon discovering this, with my stack of gift cards in hand, the CM offered to refund my credit card the amount of all the cards, and simply apply the gift cards as payment for that portion instead.
So, we had a clean slate, $0 due on the first night. Sort of. If you look at the itemization they can provide at the end, they make you prepay for the whole stay on the first night, and you begin with a big credit; they don’t actually charge you for each night until it occurs.
Then, sometime during our stay, we hit the $500 threshold (by combination of each night’s stay + what we charged to the room), and our credit card was charged $577 at that point.
Then, on the last day, our credit card was charged again for whatever more charges since the $577.
Hope that makes sense!
You don’t HAVE to do this, but like Kayla said, sometimes they charge a certain amount to your room when you hit a “limit.” So ask the desk when you check in what that “limit” is and make sure you use gift cards when you get close to that. Otherwise, you don’t have to apply your gift card until the night before you check out (that’s when we did it) because they charge you overnight.
If you fill prescriptions at Target, then you can also stack a 5% pharmacy rewards certificate with your 5% red card savings for an even greater benefit!
When I used my extra 5% from the pharmacy. .it didnt take off of the gift cards just our travel stuff I got for our trip?!?!
I just purchased a stack of Disney gift cards at a Target in California today, August 30, 2014, for our upcoming trip. I don’t know if this varies with state regulations, but I was able to get the 5% off with my Red Card, but the Pharmacy Rewards card wouldn’t work.
I just read at another web page that it is Target that has discontinued the Pharmacy Rewards discount on Disney Gift cards. (But not the Red Card discount)
No tax charged if you buy gift cards through Target and if you have the 5% Pharmacy rewards, you save 10% total. And you don’t have to go down every day to add a gift card. We paid our entire balance off with gift cards before we even arrived and then paid $500 in room credits to our room before we even arrived. The credit card was only used at the end of the week if we didn’t have enough room credit on our account before we checked out (was only $56). If you booked through a TA, just have your TA call and do this for you to save yourself the few minutes it takes to read off 30 gift card #’s to the Disney rep 🙂
Comment
We used a Chase Ink card for 5% cash back at Staples. It took some compiling Disney gift cards, but we paid off our advance hotel reservation ($3900ish) with $25 gift cards. You have to book everything so far in advance that we had plenty of time to input the gift cards into the computer system at work, or during our free time or whatever. Sure you could look at it as a hassle but for almost $200 savings, why not?! While we are travelling, Chase Freedom has a 5% cash back on food & dining so we’ll use our Freedom card while we are there.
Credit card ‘cash back’ goes into points that we cashed out for our airfare (approx. $1,000 flying South West) and really only spent the equivalent of $550 with our chase points we had earned through the year. (Flying using points actually has a lower dollar value breakdown than if you paid outright in cash). Putting $10 out for processing fees when we booked our flight, and that’s all it cost….$10 for round trip from California to FL all because we bought everything this year with credit cards instead of bank/debit cards or cash 🙂
Target card gives 5% back on purchases, which will include your Disney Gift Card but they take it off right at the register & it doesn’t go into points like other credit cards.
If you can control your urges to over spend on a credit card they can be really a fun way to make extra money!
I don’t know if you can do this, but if you have several gift cards contact customer service to see if you can put all the balances on one card. Then you have all that money on one card.
The Delta Credit card is a great option, if you are a single traveler or a pair who can each sign up. I am taking my next trip using 30,000 Delta points that I got by spending 1k in the first 3 months. This cuts my trip cost down to just my tickets and my room.
Also, book your Disney hotel on Expedia. Expedia’s room rate for Pop Century for this March was $25 less than when I booked directly through Disney, saving me a total of $125 for a 5 night trip. The Disney hotels appear to all have free cancellation on Expedia up until a couple days out. You can also take your confirmation number and plug it into MDE to do fastpass reservations and such.
Also with the Delta AMEX you either get a $99 companion fare or free companion fare a year, depending on which card you have.
If you book with orbitz (with one of their perpetually available promo codes) you get 15% off disney’s best rates
If you have small children, grocery delivery can be a huge benefit, not just to save money, but to save time and put healthy food into children in the morning prior to the onslaught of the park. It is not easy to get my children to eat unfamiliar food in a highly sensory experience like a food court. Having breakfast in the room is efficient, both with time and money, and having a bowl of cereal or peanut butter toast as they eat at home ensures a good start to a day of touring.
This is why it’s great to have comments offering different views than mine–I had never thought about using meals as a healthy way to give kids energy. While Disney has healthy foods, they are definitely not easy to find at breakfast. Thanks for offering your perspective on this!