All About Saving for Disney World
Here is another Groupon deal that will save you money if you want to stay off site. Stay at the Cypress Pointe Grand Villas Resort in Orlando, Florida. According to the Groupon, they are located 6 miles from Disney World. See more about this Groupon here.
Here is another way to save money and go to Disney World at the same time. This awesome deal is from Living Social. For $297, you can get a 3 night stay for 2 adults at Calypso Cay Resort. PLEASE read the fine print. I don’t think you can buy this deal if you have stayed here before in the past year.
Here is another great way to save on hotel expenses when traveling to Disney World. This Groupon deal is pretty good I think if you don’t mind stay off site. You can see this specific deal here.
This deal is good for the Magical Memories Villas in Kissimmee, FL. Here is what you get:
One way to save for Disney World, is to not stay on location. However, sometimes it can be cheaper to stay at a Walt Disney property. It REALLY depends on a lot of factors such as how many people, kids, number of days, amenities, dining, etc. I like to report the hotel deals I see that are located in Orlando.
Right now on Living Social there is a deal at the Orlando Hotel & Suites. Here is what you get with this deal, which you can see here. Remember, you do NOT get Disney tickets. You can buy tickets here.
Right now there is a great Living Social deal to stay at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort in Orlando, Florida. The Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort is an official Walt Disney property, but it is off site, meaning it is not one of the value, moderate, or deluxe resorts you’ve probably heard of.
Here is what you can get with this deal from Living Social:
To keep Saving For Disney purely about “Disney”, I have decided to keep coupon posts on my coupon blog that you can find here. The blog focuses on couponing your way out of debt. You could also use the same strategy to save for a Disney fund, paying off a car, or anything else you can think of. I hope to see you there!
A lot of people don’t think they can afford a Walt Disney World vacation. Although that is true for many people unfortunately, it is not true for all the people who think that. The vacation packages that are advertised is generally a deal that includes staying at a Walt Disney World hotel. At first glance of the price, many people are turned off and think they can’t afford it. There are ways to go to Disney World. Have you considered staying off site?
In my previous post, I wrote about staying at a rental house instead of staying on site. Guess what? There are still lesser expensive options that some people probably don’t even think about! There are tons of nice, clean hotels and motels in the surrounding Disney World area. I’m not too familiar with Disneyland because I’ve never been there. However, the same rules apply. You don’t have to stay on site at Disneyland either.
When planning your budget, you need to go ahead and calculate your ticket prices. The ticket prices are the one thing that is hard to save on for a Disney vacation. Unless you find a special on ticket prices by booking some kind of vacation package, the ticket prices are always generally the same. Yes, there are some great deals through Undercover Tourist; however, hotels and food is really where you can save the money!
Below are a few options in the Orlando area for October 2011, and you can find a ton more at Expedia.com. You could also book through VRBO
and find condos for less than $80 a night! There are also motels near Disney for less than $30 a night. Yes, less than $30 a night! Read the traveler reviews and see what other people have to say. Yes, your stay will always be different than someone else’s stay. However, the reviews are great for a guide.
The above hotel rates are subject to change and depends on the month and day you selected. There are a few differences to remember when booking off site. You will have to pay for parking at Disney World. However, many hotels offer transportation to Disney via their shuttle bus. Many hotels, motels, and residential areas are 5-12 miles away. To me personally, the drive didn’t seem bad at all when we stayed offsite. If you are instant gratification type of person, then staying off site might not be for you (however, there is still a wait sometimes when you stay onsite to get on the bus!).
*Photo Credit, Quality Suites Lake Buena Vista on Expedia’ website
In step 1 to saving for Disney, I suggested buying a piggy bank or getting a jar for the kids to have fun with knowing that the money that goes into that bank is for Disney. I’m sure you can find tons of Disney coin banks at the Disney Store. My children own this piggy bank shown above that is suppose to count the amount of money that is inside the piggy bank. They have put stickers of Mickey on the pig. I just removed the coins from the bank, and we counted a whopping $24 for Disney World!
When I was a kid, I owned the Mickey and Minnie Mouse banks below. Did you own any Disney coin banks?
This past May we stayed in a rental house that I found on VRBO for our Disney vacation. We had never rented a house or condo before at Disney World so this was a new experience for us, although we have rented cabins in Tennessee. I did tons of research, I can say that renting the house was definitely less expensive than the hotel deals.
There are many factors to consider when renting a house versus staying at a hotel. It is possible that renting a house could be more expensive because you don’t get a discount on food like you would if you had the dining plan which requires staying at a Disney hotel. On the flip side it is possible staying at a hotel could be more expensive. For the point of this post I would like to cover the benefits of staying at a house versus a hotel.
So why stay at a rental house on a Disney vacation? Here are some reasons why we personally stayed at a Disney house:
As with any pros, there are some cons to renting a house.
Have you stayed in a rental house or condo before? What was your experience?
The second step on how to save for a Disney vacation is to search for the best deals and know how to do it. Here is a quick tutorial on how to save:
I will be writing an extensive tutorial soon on the best way to find prices on your own.
