9 ways to save money on your Disney World trip - PREP 415

Travel is expensive! But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to save money and still have a great Disney World Vacation. We highlight nine strategies you can use to save. Check the links below for details.

There are articles being spread about going into debt for a Disney World trip. This is a way to save money while having a great trip.

These are ways to save on your overall trip. While vacations are expensive no matter where you go, there are ways to save money on your next Disney World trip.

In this article

Purchasing the right park tickets

You do not necessarily need the most expensive park tickets. Many people go into getting the most expensive tickets, including park hoppers, water parks, and more. If you plan each day of your trip and then purchase the tickets, you will know what tickets you need.

We recommend buying the base tickets and then adding on if you’d like. You cannot get Park Hoppers for just one day of your trip and we recommend waiting to purchase until you know you will need it.

Rent Disney Vacation Club points to save on Deluxe Resorts

This is a great way to save bigger money on your trip. You can rent DVC points from a Disney Vacation Club owner and stay in a deluxe resort for less than deluxe pricing.

There are some risks associated with this including once you’ve paid money for the points, you are locked in. We recommend getting travel insurance because of this.

This does give you access to deluxe resort benefits including extended evening theme park hours.

Keep your eye out for Discounts

Disney is continuing to offer promotions including free dining. There are promotions out between now and the end of the year.

If you already have a trip booked, you can modify your current reservation to apply the promotion. If your trip is already paid off and it reduces your total, it will be refunded to your original method of payment.

If you are using a travel agent, this is something that they can do for you. Disney will not do this for you, but your travel agent can.

Be smart with food

Food prices at Disney World can be expensive but there are ways to save money. Have food delivered so that you have snacks and breakfast food in your room.

The portions at many restaurants are very large. If you are not eating at a fixed price restaurant, you can share meals in order to save money and not waste food. Checkout out list of the Best Disney World restaurants for sharing meals if you are interested in learning more.

If you are interested in character meals, having a breakfast there is the best way to do that. Breakfast is less expensive than lunch or dinner but you still get the character experience.

Rent Strollers and ECVs off-site

While you can rent an ECV or stroller in the park from Disney, we recommend renting from a 3rd party company. This will also give you the benefit of having the stroller or ECV outside of the park and for your entire trip at a reasonable cost.

If you only need the stroller or ECV while in the park and only for a short period of time, you may be better renting in the park only when you need it. Check this out to compare the best Disney world stroller options for your next Disney World trip.

Keep your travel dates flexible

This is especially true if you are flying because your flight prices will vary depending on what day you are flying. You can use kayak.com/explore to check for flight deals.

The idea behind this website is to keep your flight plans completely open, including destination. However, you can limit your search to just Orlando if you know you want to travel to Disney World.

Hotel costs can also be less expensive during the week as well if you can be flexible.

Shop Wisely

Set a specific budget for souvenir spending. Utilizing Disney gift cards to budget your souvenir spending is a good idea if you want to keep your shopping budget on track.

Skip Unnecessary Room Upgrades

We used to recommend preferred rooms at value resorts. However, we do not necessarily recommend this anymore because the preferred rooms may be close to the buses but not the skyliner.

Other Money-Saving Options

Skip the Rental Car: While it is nice to have a car, Disney World offers free transportation. If you are staying on-site, there aren’t parking fees either. You can utilize Disney Transportation or Ride-share to get around rather than renting a car. Ride share can be $10 or less per trip, which is much less than renting a car for your whole trip.
Staying off site or a Disney Springs Hotel: These options can be much less expensive but still have the onsite benefits.
Bring in your own food and drinks: You can bring in your own food and drinks into the parks. You do want to be sure that you do not bring in any glass, but you can bring food and drinks with you.
Bring your own refillable Water Bottle: Save on purchasing water bottles and utilize the refilling stations throughout Disney World. Bringing your own refillable water bottle is convenient and can save you money when you consider the high cost of purchasing bottled water.
Take Advantage of Free Activities: You can hop to different resorts, watch movies at the resort, catch the fireworks from outside the park, and more!
If you plan to purchase photos… – Be sure to check out Memory Maker. It is less expensive than purchasing photos individually. However, if you do not plan to purchase photos, skip Memory Maker.
Bring your own rain gear: rather than rushing to find it when it starts raining.

Use your Costco Membership to save money

You can use your Costco Membership to purchase Landry’s and Southwest gift cards at a discount. This is good if you plan to dine at a Landry’s restaurant or fly Southwest.

We also book our rental cars via Costco. We recommend Alamo because it is the most convenient.

You can also book an offsite hotel through Costco. There are some options that are included like tickets, room upgrades, and more.

Booking a Disney World package through Costco might save you some money but there are cons to this. There is a deposit that is higher than booking through Disney and the cancelation policy isn’t as friendly as Disney’s cancelation policy.

Costco can also provide you travel insurance. If you do not book your trip through Costco you can still purchase travel insurance through Costco, but it is more expensive.

Check out 5 ways to save on Disney trip with Costco for more information!

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