My Best Saving Money Tips For Disney World
We all know that Disney World is a spendy place. People will save for YEARS to take that once in a lifetime trip and although some costs are unavoidable, there are still ways to save money and enjoy everything the parks have to offer without breaking the bank.
Create a Budget
Pricing for almost everything for your Disney vacation can be found on the Disney website. Everything from rooms to tickets, and even menu pricing for every food location on Disney Property. This means you can get a pretty good idea of exactly how much you’ll be spending before you go on vacation.
Although budgets aren’t always the most fun, they are your number one tool to saving money by planning out how much you want to spend.
When you stick to a budget, this means that you won’t have too many surprises on your trip and you won’t go overboard.
Disney Gift Cards
This is one of my FAVORITE ways to save money! There are loads of places that you can get discounts on Disney Gift Cards like Target or Costco. Sometimes those places may even be running extra bonuses and specials to save even more money.
Typically that discount will be around 5% and although that doesn’t sound like much, when you think about the THOUSANDS that you are spending on your vacation, that easily can add up to a few hundred dollars.
These can also be a great tool for budgeting. You can have up to $1000 on one card, so what I like to do is have everything I want to allot for spending for a day on one gift card and then I label the date (or park). Then I can keep track of my spending and I know that when the money is gone, I’m done spending for the day!
I’ll do this for each day of my trip and if you wish to teach your kiddos a little budgeting, this can be a great tool for them as well!
And remember, you can use Disney Gift Cards for souvenirs, food, park tickets, and even your hotel! However, I know that some people really like to use their perk of charging to their hotel room using their magicband and you can absolutely still do this!
Your card won’t be charged until the morning of your checkout day, so all you need to do is make sure you head to the front desk of your resort BEFORE midnight on your last full day and pay off your balance with your gift cards. If there are any charges left on your checkout day, they will be charged to your card on file, so make sure you don’t forget to pay the balance before then!
Deals & Discounts
Disney does offer room discounts, free dining, and other deals throughout the year! If you are staying at a Disney resort, you will absolutely want to keep an eye on these deals! However, that doesn’t mean you should wait to book.
The BEST rates are going to be the ones you do early. Room discounts typically don’t come out until around 3-4 months ahead of time and their purpose is to fill the remaining rooms which means that the best options may already be sold out.
When you book your vacation package early, you can actually apply a discount later when they are released. If you book with a Travel Agent, they’ll actually keep an eye out and automatically apply it for you so you don’t even have to think about it!
If you are looking on saving a little money on tickets, you may even want to check out Undercover Tourist! To get the best savings you’ll need to purchase multi-day ticket, but you can also usually save money on things like special ticketed events too!
Disney Visa
Now be warned! Credit cards can be very hairy if you don’t use them correctly, BUT if you are someone who visits Disney frequently (at least once a year) then a Disney Visa might be just the thing!
You can earn points that transfer to your rewards card (which is basically a Disney Gift Card) which can then be used for anything that you would use a Disney Gift Card for!
You can also get discounts at select dining and shopping locations and Disney even may come out with resort package discounts from time to time too!
Interested in learning more? Visit the website HERE.
Save on Dining
Besides your hotel and tickets, food is the next most expensive thing on your Disney Vacation. There are lots of great tips to help save!
Bring your own food
Obviously the best way to save is to bring your own food and snacks. You CAN bring them into the park, there are just a few rules:
No alcohol
Nothing that needs reheated
No glass containers
No loose ice in your cooler
Although this isn’t the most fun, it’s definitely a big money saver! Especially for breakfast as most Disney breakfast is honestly pretty overpriced and not always the most unique. (Although, you may still want to get Mickey waffles at least one time)
You can order groceries to your resort via instacart or other grocery delivery services. Just be aware that the ‘fridge’ in most rooms is just a drink cooler so maybe stay away from things like milk or sandwich meat.
Share EVERYTHING
There are SO many snacks and eats to try at Disney and it can be tempting to get it all. However, it can be a TON of food for one person, so I recommend sharing with your family. Most portions are pretty big and this means you can have a little more room to try a few more snacks while saving money by not buying double of everything.
But Kids Meals
YES, even as an adult you can purchase kids meals and at most quick service locations its usually a better deal because it comes with a side and drink for half the price. Obviously if you are someone who eats pretty big meals, this may not be enough food for you, but if you do eat smaller meals (or simply want more room for snacks) then these are a GREAT money saver!
Eat Snacks as Meals
Like I said, there are LOADS of things to try and many snacks can absolutely be made as meals. This is one of my favorite things to do as we can try several things and not take a ton of time out of our day for a full on sit down meal.
Want to learn more about how you can save money on dining? Check out THIS blog post!
