How to make a non-so-expensive vacation at Disney world

[jlw2023]

Points below.

1. Do not make consecutive parks visit. For example, today MK, tomorrow Epcot. MK closed at 10 or 11 PM, Epcot early access at 8:30 am, virtual line check in at 7 am. So better to take a rest at the beautiful resort pool
2. Do not buy additional hop-in the park, hop-in starts at 2 pm, travel between parks around 1 hours. Better to explore more at one park
3. Do not buy night party and day ticket at the same day. Combine ticket per person could easily go to 300 +
4. Get food, fruit, and water from Instacart.
5. Research and get nice food from fast service using mobile orders

 

[TomorrowlandKD]

Huh?

 

[rmclain73]

Wow, I cannot believe I never thought of any of these or read about them before.

Thanks!

 

[DisneyFive]

Keep in mind there are a lot of Disney veterans on these boards so you are kind of "preaching to the choir" and may get some silly responses.

Just to throw in some of ours...

If you are going to eat TS meals, skip the buffet options and find locations where you can order entree's off the menu. Many times we will pair up in our family and share an entrees and an app for instance and are still plenty full for far less cost.

Cups of water are free at QS locations

I don't necessarily agree with skipping park days. By about day 6 or so your tickets are only about $20 per day. I'd rather be in the parks and take afternoon breaks at the resort than skip the parks altogether

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Seems like OPs planning a stay on-site, based on comments about early entry and resort pools. Would probably save a bundle driving there, staying at a cheaper off-site location, no need for rental car/Uber/Lyft, driving to parks..... "Not-so-expensive" and "staying-on-site" don't really go together, unless perhaps they're DVC.

 

[AquaDame]

DVC and retired perhaps...? I can't imagine paying for a night in a hotel to just.. not do anything and be better prepared for the next day? So take twice as much time..? Time is money...

 

[karen4546]

Points below.

1. Do not make consecutive parks visit. For example, today MK, tomorrow Epcot. MK closed at 10 or 11 PM, Epcot early access at 8:30 am, virtual line check in at 7 am. So better to take a rest at the beautiful resort pool
2. Do not buy additional hop-in the park, hop-in starts at 2 pm, travel between parks around 1 hours. Better to explore more at one park
3. Do not buy night party and day ticket at the same day. Combine ticket per person could easily go to 300 +
4. Get food, fruit, and water from Instacart.
5. Research and get nice food from fast service using mobile orders I see you are earning your ears and there are "budget" threads that are very useful.

I disagree on the party ticket. If you want to go to a party, you can go to the park ALL DAY and for the event - the price for a multiple day ticket goes up only a little when adding the 6th night.

Check out the budget thread.

 

[zavandor]

During party season (mid August to December), MK is very busy on non party days and way less crowded on party days, because people see shorter hours and decide to go when they have more time and can watch the fireworks.
So a good strategy is to go to MK on party days and park hop somewhere else at 4, when the party crowds can enter the park.
On no party days, start in another park (MK will siphon a lot of guests) and then park hop to MK just for the fireworks.
Park hop is not a huge expense, but you can have a much better experience during party season if you leverage it.

(Also, you can easily do everything in AK if you rope drop and then park hop or just arrive late, basically: just avoid the middle of the day).

 

[TomorrowlandKD]

Huh?

 

[ScottOKW2K]

Points below.

1. Do not make consecutive parks visit. For example, today MK, tomorrow Epcot. MK closed at 10 or 11 PM, Epcot early access at 8:30 am, virtual line check in at 7 am. So better to take a rest at the beautiful resort pool
2. Do not buy additional hop-in the park, hop-in starts at 2 pm, travel between parks around 1 hours. Better to explore more at one park
3. Do not buy night party and day ticket at the same day. Combine ticket per person could easily go to 300 +
4. Get food, fruit, and water from Instacart.
5. Research and get nice food from fast service using mobile orders

Disagree on the party day recommendation. On my last trip the only time I entered a park was on a special event day that I purchased a ticket for. I used this to try some new rides since the last time I visited. I used the rest of the trip for non-park experiences.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

Points below.

1. Do not make consecutive parks visit. For example, today MK, tomorrow Epcot. MK closed at 10 or 11 PM, Epcot early access at 8:30 am, virtual line check in at 7 am. So better to take a rest at the beautiful resort pool
2. Do not buy additional hop-in the park, hop-in starts at 2 pm, travel between parks around 1 hours. Better to explore more at one park
3. Do not buy night party and day ticket at the same day. Combine ticket per person could easily go to 300 +
4. Get food, fruit, and water from Instacart.
5. Research and get nice food from fast service using mobile orders

That would be the worst vacation ever….
I would literally rather stay home and work…

annual passes work out to about 3 dollars a day
hop -im know as park hopper are 100 dollars for the year or about 0.30 cents a day…
oh yea it vacation so I get up about 8:30 have a nice breakfast, then goto the park for a couple hours, then back to the pool to relax cause well it’s vacation

my night parties are also free…
never eat from quick service …. But when they bring all the dinning plans back the deluxe was the best value

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

DVC and retired perhaps...? I can't imagine paying for a night in a hotel to just.. not do anything and be better prepared for the next day? So take twice as much time..? Time is money...

Our next trip we are thinking about a non park day, BUT we are planning on going golfing. Just not sure if we should do a Disney golf course or off site one. We are staying at Beach Club so we would definitely spend the afternoon at the pool there.

 

[gottalovepluto]

My Points (reminds me I need to check on my MyPoints account lol)

1. Around here we tend to ask questions and have discussions. We don’t just post a topic that comes off like a know it all unless we actually do- and then be ready to defend it because plenty of folks will chime in to point out you don’t (Instacart? Food delivery?! Yikes. It’s called car rental, off-site & kitchen if you’re serious about saving.)

2. “hop-in” is not a thing. The option is “park hopper”. The active use of the word is “Bob hopped to EP”.

 

[wdwnut]

Having breakfast in the villa as well as drinks and snacks will save a lot of money.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We are dvc and rarely do parks. So no park ticket expense. Or if we do we go to 3 parks in a day and hit the highlights

We go to the top of bay lake for fireworks.

We eat breakfast in room. And I make lunch and take to pool. We get groceries from a reg grocery store not the gift shop at a resort.

Our splurge is dinner. Nice restaurant and bottle of wine. But we rarely get 4 entrees. The adult kids get apps and share a salad. My husband usually gets soup or salad and we share an entree.