How to Have a Great Trip to Disney World While Saving Tons of Money and Time

As many of you know, my family recently took a trip to Disney World. I thought I'd reinforce some of the money saving and time saving strategies we found helpful as well as some suggestions on what we'd do differently.

We'll start with the details of our trip:

• Monday, September 17 -- We drove to Detroit and stayed overnight at a hotel near the airport.
• Tuesday, September 18 -- Flew to Orlando and checked into our three bedroom condo.
• Wednesday, September 19 -- Visited the Magic Kingdom.
• Thursday, September 20 -- Visited Animal Kingdom.
• Friday, September 21 -- Visited Disney/MGM Studios.
• Saturday, September 22 -- Visited Epcot.
• Sunday, September 23 -- Met my wife's Aunt and Uncle for lunch, then spent the afternoon at DisneyQuest.
• Monday, September 24 -- Visited Blizzard Beach (one of Disney's two water parks.)
• Tuesday, September 25 -- Flew to Detroit and drove home.

For those of you who don't want to read a long post of Disney tips, here's the short version of how to save time and money on a Disney trip:

1. Read The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2007.

2. Do what it says.

For those of you who want a bit more detail, here are some of our tips:

1. Visit Disney during the off season and on off days. I detailed many of the reasons why this is a good idea in Disney Money Saving Tips: Avoid Crowds, Be Flexible, Shop Around but let me add another big one here -- you save a TON of time. We not only went to Disney in the off season, but we went on off days (during the week for all but Epcot). We also went early (at opening time each day.) The result, we virtually walked on almost every ride we wanted waiting maybe an average of five to ten minutes. I think we waited 20 minutes for one ride (if the wait was longer, we used the Disney Fast Pass if it was available) and on the couple occasions we waited 10 minutes to ride a ride our kids asked "what's taking so long?" Ha! We waited five minutes for one ride and the guy behind us told us he'd waited an hour and a half to ride it three months ago.

Keys to saving tons of time are: 1. Go in the off season. 2. Go on off days (during the week when the park does not have extra magic hours.) 3. Go early. (You not only beat the crowds, you get a GREAT parking spot.) 4. Use the touring plans in The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2007. They work.

2. Doing #1 will save you a ton of money as well (see Disney Money Saving Tips: Avoid Crowds, Be Flexible, Shop Around) for details. We stayed in a three bedroom condo for $79 a night (to see a picture of the exact place we stayed, click here). We paid a fraction of what one (small) room at Disney would have cost us, had our own kitchen (which saved a ton on meals), had separate bedrooms for everyone, had a Playstation 2, TVs in every bedroom and a flat screen TV in the living room, had high speed wi-fi, and had a great pool that we used almost every night after we got back home. The place was 10-15 minutes from our door to the parking lot of any Disney park. Yes, we had to rent a car, but we had to do that anyway since we were driving to see family.

3. We ate a huge breakfast every day at our place (we got supplies from a gorcery store three miles away) and took snacks and water to the park. One day we ate lunch in the Magic Kingdom and at Epcot, but the rest of the days we were done in the park before we were that hungry, so we just ate a huge lunch/dinner combo. And, of course, we washed it down with lots of ice cream. :-) Again, this helped us save tons of money (and eat better food) than if we'd stayed at Disney.

4. We could have gotten up early on the 18th, driven to Detroit and caught our plane, but instead, we used a website called ParkSleepFly.com. For the price of a hotel room ($90 including tax), we got a room for Monday night as well as parking for eight days (we put our car in a gated, locked lot.) It would have cost us this much or more (not to mention the hassle factor) to park at the Detroit airport for eight days plus we got to sleep in on Tuesday morning and fly out refreshed. As I mentioned in my previous post, flying out of Detroit saved us a TON of money versus flying out of Grand Rapids, so this was a great option to combine with the "fly an alternate airport" strategy.

5. We bought more tickets than we could really take advantage of. We had the ability to go to parks any five days plus do water parks and DisneyQuest up to five times as well -- simply too much for a one week trip.

Here's my advice on this issue: 1. Think about what you can realistically do. One park per day is really all most people can manage, especially with kids. Thus, I'd recommend avoiding the park-hopper option. It's a waste of money in my opinion. 2. One day in each park is really all you need to see the major things most people want to see. We were done by 2-3 pm every day except at Epcot, so we could have seen more, but we hit everything we wanted too (again The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2007 helped a ton in getting us to decide what we really wanted to see/do.) 3. DisneyQuest is "ok", but I'd skip it if I knew then what I know now. Some cool stuff, but mostly arcade games from the 80's and 90's. If you do go, you HAVE to do the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was great. 4. We should have bought our tickets earlier. We had everything else selected and had decided where to buy our tickets when Disney raised the price that very day! So, we scrambled again and eventually bought them at the Disney store in town since their price increase didn't take effect for a few days. Still, we probably cost ourselves $75 by waiting.

6. Fast Pass, Fast Pass, Fast Pass. Learn it, live it, love it. If you don't know what it is -- then learn. The book can help.

7. Shop for everything. Our car could have cost as much as $300 for the week -- we got ours for $133. I've already detailed the hotel, tickets, and airfare deals we got, but it bears repeating -- shop around.

8. Our one major disappointment was that the Rock an' Roller Coaster in MGM was down for servicing. Everything else we wanted to do was up and running. Our favorite rides: Magic Kingdom -- Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear; Animal Kingdom -- Expedition Everest; MGM -- Tower of Terror; Epcot -- Soarin', Mission Space, Test Track.

In conclusion, let me say this:

If you want to save time and money at Disney, get The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2007 and do what it says. It will save you time, money, frustration and much more as well as have a better time that you would have had otherwise no matter what time of the year you visit.

Comments

[JO]

I love Disney. I went there several times as a kid, teen, and in college. My mom would buy the Disney Guide and create special books for each of us with games and activities, and advice. My brothers and cousins on one trip, planned out their whole day using the tips on when to go to what ride etc. I think they ended up seeing everything they wanted to and in good time and that was during the busy season. So I definitely agree about getting the unofficial guide.

I am really bummed for you that the Rock-in Roller Coaster was out, that is one of the greatest!

Oh, now I want to go there :(

[Privatestock]

I live in Tampa, and I usually buy a Florida Resident's season ticket for me and my wife. If you get the park hopper tickets and can afford a decent dinner, here's what I suggest. Go to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom or MGM during the day, then go to Epcot at around 5:00 in the evening. If you want to save a few dollars, there is a free parking lot across the street from Disney Boardwalk and you can walk from the boardwalk to the rear entrance of Epcot. The restaurants in Epcot's World Showcase are very good, don't believe what anyone tells you until you try them. You'll spend more than you will at Friendly's, but it really is an outstanding experience. The ones I don't care for as much are in Mexico and China because you can get the same stuff anywhwere, and in Denmark because I'm not fond of herring. Japan is my favorite. Anyway, great food, try as many of the countries as you have time for, and then stay for the fireworks. The Epcot fireworks display is the best you'll see anywhere. My wife and I will once a month drive over to Epcot, get there at around 4:00 or 5:00, walk around the World Showcase until dinner time, eat a fantastic meal, watch the fireworks and be home by 11:00 pm. See the Magic Kingdom's fireworks one night, it's pretty good, but spend the rest of your evenings at Epcot. If you schedule dinner at the right time in the castle at Magic Kingdom, you can watch the fireworks through that big window from your table.

One more thing: when you're walking from the front of Epcot to the World Showcase there is a gift shop at the lake. Mexico is to your left and Canada is to your right. Behind this gift shop is the best place to see the fireworks. Trust me.

[billspaced]

Great tips! My family and I are going to Disneyland in December for my son's 3rd birthday. While I'm not sure it's off-peak, I have heard that it's pretty slow there at the beginning of December (before the xmas rush). So, we'll review your tips before we go. We're planning for it now.