How much cheaper could I have made it?

[Emmafleur]

Ive been planning a WDW holiday for over a year and finally have all the costs added up (5 adults). We had a budget and have come out only £30 over that, so I’m really happy. However, I’m a bit sad because I’d love to do Disney more often but we can’t afford this price very often. So, can anyone please give me some tips on how to save money on a WDW holiday so we can go more often? Here’s what we’ve done this year:

Gatwick airport hotel
Gatwick airport parking
Return flights to Orlando (BA direct)
Visas
Hire car for 14 days
14 nights at Old Key West
Disney Dining Plan
Memory Maker
14 days tickets to Disney
$200 gift card
One night at Royal Pacific in Universal
14 days tickets to Universal parks and Volcano Bay
Tickets to SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Aquatica
= £2730.64 pp

Thank you. Oh, we have to go in the Summer holidays as I work in a school.

 

[wilma-bride]

You could have booked a value or moderate resort with no dining plan. The dining plan rarely saves you money unless you are a family of 4 'Disney adults' (over 9s). By not booking a package, you wouldn't be paying for accommodation at 2 places at once. That can't be economical.

SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Aquatica, to me, are not parks we do every trip. But if you are planning to spend a day at each, then you could have easily got away with buying MYW non-hoppers for a shorter number of days for Disney, and limited day tickets for Universal and Volcano Bay, which would have saved you money too. Essentially, you are going for 14 nights and you have tickets for 31 days. And, I don't know about you, but we rarely go into the parks every dingle day on a 2 week trip. You could have easily got away with less tickets.

We are going 19th August to 3rd September, doing a 3 night cruise and our price per person is nowhere near that. Now we are DVC members but, even so, adding accommodation into the mix wouldn't make it near that price either.

 

[verleniahall]

are you planning to do 1/2 days at both universal AND Disney - that seems like alot of going and coming - plus you haven't figured in parking at universal - i would pick one or the other for this trip, then take the money you are saving and put it toward a trip for next year

 

[Emmafleur]

Thanks. We got free dining and 14 days Disney park tickets for the price of 7. But doing that probably pushed up the room rate at OKW. We kept OKW and booked a night at Universal basically to get the free EP at Universal but didn’t want to lose out in the DDP. I suppose it’s choosing between lots of more specific holidays and trying to cram everything into one holiday

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Without a breakdown of each item I would say you could have flown indirect, booked to stay offsite ( but then you would need a car and have to pay parking fees at WDW), also if you go again as others have said you wouldn't need tickets for each park so you could also save on ticket prices.

 

[Emmafleur]

Without a breakdown of each item I would say you could have flown indirect, booked to stay offsite ( but then you would need a car and have to pay parking fees at WDW), also if you go again as others have said you wouldn't need tickets for each park so you could also save on ticket prices.

I’m beginning to see that I need to be more careful about ticket buying. We have bought a ticket bundle (like the old flexiticket) that cost us £312 each for tickets to the three Universal parks, SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens. We could probably get a better deal by buying one day tickets for those? I can’t remember how much the Disney parks tickets were as they came as part of the package from Disney U.K.

 

[pinklotusflower]

I agree with the comment you have far too many ticket days it makes it very expensive if your only getting a few days from 14 days. Also do you need the car hire for all 14 days if staying on site, we just use Lyft now for going off site as the car spent most of the time in the car park & Disney transport is easy. With the dining plan you need to be getting the most expensive items on the menu to be getting your money's worth, you also need to factor in the cost of tips which soon add up. Flying indirect would also save money.

 

[Emmafleur]

I agree with the comment you have far too many ticket days it makes it very expensive if your only getting a few days from 14 days. Also do you need the car hire for all 14 days if staying on site, we just use Lyft now for going off site as the car spent most of the time in the car park & Disney transport is easy. With the dining plan you need to be getting the most expensive items on the menu to be getting your money's worth, you also need to factor in the cost of tips which soon add up. Flying indirect would also save money.

Thanks. We ummed and aahhed about a hire car for ages but decided it was easier to get one as we’ve got some early ADRs and other hotel ADRs as well as going to Universal, SeaWorld etc. I’ll definitely look more carefully at tickets in future. We had free DDP so I’m classing that as a freebie

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks. We ummed and aahhed about a hire car for ages but decided it was easier to get one as we’ve got some early ADRs and other hotel ADRs as well as going to Universal, SeaWorld etc. I’ll definitely look more carefully at tickets in future. We had free DDP so I’m classing that as a freebie

It's not a freebie, sorry. Free dining is NOT free. You pay rack rate for the room to get it and you have to buy the 7 or 14 day tickets. You should definitely consider NOT booking a package if you are trying to save money in future

 

[Emmafleur]

Thanks. How would we get a resort room without a package and get any ongoing deals on rooms so we wouldn’t pay rack rate?

 

[pickers1982]

It's not a freebie, sorry. Free dining is NOT free. You pay rack rate for the room to get it and you have to buy the 7 or 14 day tickets. You should definitely consider NOT booking a package if you are trying to save money in future

So how do we get it cheaper? If I go on there website can I select the room without “free dining” and get it cheaper. I would be wanting the 14 day tickets anyway

 

[Woodview]

You have a car & a place to sleep & Tickets NOW think about Eating Off site

A short drive for Dinner would bring you to many eating places at prices from $ 15 to $ 30 per person

Manny's Chophouse ( on Hwy 192 west ) a 10 min drive from A.K. do Kidds eat free on Mondays ( ?) look it up

 

[Emmafleur]

You have a car & a place to sleep & Tickets NOW think about Eating Off site

A short drive for Dinner would bring you to many eating places at prices from $ 15 to $ 30 per person

Manny's Chophouse ( on Hwy 192 west ) a 10 min drive from A.K. do Kidds eat free on Mondays ( ?) look it up

We are all adults going but thanks anyway. I’ve heard good things about food offsite

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

As you're staying at Disney I wouldn't have paid for the car hire - just use Disney buses, magic express, and uber when going off site. But then I'm only going off site once (universal), whereas you have quite a lot of other places booked. Other than that your price isn't a million times more than what we pay per person - I like the free dining plan / deluxe resort combo... I've priced up moderates without the free dining in the past and not found it massively cheaper, plus you lose the kitchenette and being able to walk to DS which I love to do rather than wait for buses. Maybe I can learn some lessons from this thread too tho!
We booked our Universal night at the start of our trip, so we are not paying for two hotels on the same night BUT that did mean we had to pay for universal transfers as they're not free like ME.

 

[disneyholic family]

Ive been planning a WDW holiday for over a year and finally have all the costs added up (5 adults). We had a budget and have come out only £30 over that, so I’m really happy. However, I’m a bit sad because I’d love to do Disney more often but we can’t afford this price very often. So, can anyone please give me some tips on how to save money on a WDW holiday so we can go more often? Here’s what we’ve done this year:

Gatwick airport hotel
Gatwick airport parking
Return flights to Orlando (BA direct)
Visas
Hire car for 14 days
14 nights at Old Key West
Disney Dining Plan
Memory Maker
14 days tickets to Disney
$200 gift card
One night at Royal Pacific in Universal
14 days tickets to Universal parks and Volcano Bay
Tickets to SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Aquatica
= £2730.64 pp

Thank you. Oh, we have to go in the Summer holidays as I work in a school.

wow!! i think you did very very well!! Especially considering that's in the summer.
£2730.64 per person, all in, including flights? that's fantastic!!! you did really well!!! give yourself 3 pats on the back and next time i'm going to have you book our holiday for us!! well done you!!!!!!!!!!

.

 

[loves to dive]

I agree with others about the free dining not being free and not always being the best bet. I don't know about the discounts that are offered outside the US but I find buying my tickets from someone other than Disney saves me a little, not much sometimes only $30 per ticket but every little bit helps. I also agree that you might have found a better rate at a moderate unless you are needing more than one bedroom. I also wouldn't have rented a car, I realize you are going to Universal as well but doesn't Dreams do some sort of transfer thing where you get tickets and a ride between Disney and Universal? Not sure about the prices on that but thought I heard it on the Universal tickets show. Even going to both, Uber might be cheaper than renting a car.

 

[Tash87]

We had the "free" dining plan last trip and have booked it again for October this year, we love it! We worked out our next trip without "free" dining, staying offsite and paying out of pocket for meals and it made no difference ( or very minor ) as you have to pay for parking and other benefits that you wouldn't get with a onsite package.

We also find that we eat much better on the DP, whereas when paying oop we try to eat cheaply. We ate at CRT last trip and we would never of done that had we not been on the DP. As a family of 2 adults and 2 little ones it works well for us and cost effective ( even with tips ) I'm currently having fun planning our 14 table service credits

We only go to WDW and Universal these days as we have been to the other parks years ago.

 

[Emmafleur]

Thanks the car hire was the one thing we did really struggle to decide on but felt, because of going to Universal, SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and shopping trips etc the car was the cheapest option.
We have had a chat at home and I think we have to decide whether to do it like we have with dining and the Disney Bubble etc throughout, or to go more often and rent a villa, eat out of the parks etc. It’s deciding whether we can live doing it cheaper as we love being on resort. I was just wondering if there was a cheap way of doing it and stay on resort but, like someone has already mentioned, it seems that room only at Disney is hard to find at a cheap rate. Or am I looking in the wrong places?
We might give the cheap option a go one day, just to see whether we like it

 

[Emmafleur]

We are going 19th August to 3rd September, doing a 3 night cruise and our price per person is nowhere near that. Now we are DVC members but, even so, adding accommodation into the mix wouldn't make it near that price either.

Could you share some tips on how you manage to do it so cheaply please?

 

[disneyholic family]

regarding free dining - the UK free dining package at OKW and SSR includes a discounted rate for the hotel, so you really are getting free dining.
And if you eat at any of the character buffets, you will get tremendous bang for your buck.
We did several of the dining packages that included great seats at fantasmic and things like that.
Had we paid out of pocket, it would have been a fortune for the 8 of us.
but they were all only 1 dining credit each. What a bargain!

and in any case, even if i pay more for "free dining", i like the feeling of paying with credits rather than 'real' money.
somehow paying a credit for something that i think is very high priced doesn't feel as painful.

plus i know how much i'm paying up front.

also, note that now you can pre-order quick service lunch on your mobile even with the dining plan.
a friend of mine who just got back from WDW ordered all their quick service lunches on their mobile and said it was fantastic.
so much better than standing in those crazy long lines at the quick service.

.