Our Short Notice Trip to Disney World
We recently had the opportunity (read: excuse) to go to Walt Disney World. We both LOVE Disney, but it’s hard to justify spending the money to go. But my dad had a work trip to Orlando and said he would stay an extra couple of days if we went with. So, we decided to go!
The thing about this trip was we only had about a half a year of notice. When planning a potentially expensive trip, this isn’t a lot of time. We decided that we needed to be very careful and thoughtful about this trip. We started gathering information as soon as we knew we were going and did a ton of research in the process. Disney changes constantly and this would be the first time we would be going as adults.
Our Disney World Trip Overview
By the time we finished planning the trip, it ended up being an 8 day, 7 night trip – which was actually a decent amount longer than we were initially planning. We initially planned on around 6 days, 5 nights; 7 days, 6 nights max. We were able to find some good deals that landed an extended trip within our budget.
My dad did not stay that whole time as his work scheduled affected his trip. He also stayed at a different hotel and just met up with us at various times at the parks.
We stayed off property – which was my first time doing so. Initially, I was a little hesitant as I loved having all of the extras included. However, during the time we went, even the value resorts were over $200 a night. That was not going to happen. So we looked into the off-property options. We settled on the Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista. The great thing about this hotel was that it was in the Disney Springs group of hotels. They partnered with Disney so that we had access to the Extra Magic Hours. Plus, they had a bus service to the hotels and was literally across the street from Disney Springs (formerly known as Downtown Disney).
We were able to visit all of the parks, some multiple times. We even got to go to both of the water parks. This was only possible because of the deal we got on tickets. Without this, our trip would’ve been shorter and we certainly would not have gone to the water parks.
Our Keys to Success
Using savings programs
We shopped around for our tickets and hotels hardcore. It was pretty obvious early on that it wasn’t financially feasible to stay on property. That actually freed us up to look elsewhere for hotels and tickets. I have savings programs through both my health insurance and job that allow me to purchase tickets, items, etc. at discounted prices. We were able to get our hotel at 30% off. Plus we got two free days of tickets when we bought five days of admission. To top it off it was $15 per person to add the Park Hopper Plus option (allowed us to visit multiple parks each day and go to the water parks.
Packing food
Disney is notoriously expensive for dining, as most theme parks are. You’re a captive audience, so they can charge as much as they want. We knew we were on a budget and knew food was something we could cut down on. So, we decided to pack food. We packed Poptarts and granola bars for breakfast so we could eat for free in the hotel. Then, we brought trail mix that was full of nuts and dried fruits. We brought this in a Tupperware container in a backpack to the parks along with some more granola bars.
On the first night we were there, we also ordered in pizza. It was a deal that included two pizzas, breadsticks, and soda for a pretty good price. This left us with additional options for snacks as well.
Because of this, we basically had breakfast and lunch covered. We were able to get a little bit nicer dinner without feeling bad. We intentionally postponed those meals so we could have at least one nice meal a day.
Changing days based on flights
We initially planned on flying in on Thursday, the same day my dad was coming down. When we checked the prices, it cost $200 more to fly in on Thursday compared to Wednesday. So, we decided to leave a day earlier than we were planning. We saw the same thing would happen if we left the following Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Even though we stayed longer, we ended up not spending an equivalent amount of money.
Analyzing $/time
Analyzing the effect of our time spend in Disney compared to what we would spend allowed us to realize that spending those two extra days was worth it. We knew we wouldn’t got to the park on the last day because of flying home. However, because of our buy 5 days of park tickets, get 2 days free, our only additional cost to stay would be the hotel and food. With the reduced flight costs and our finding a good priced hotel, we realized it was totally worth the tiny bit extra to stay.
Uber vs Taxi
This one was a little bit by accident/forgetfulness. We knew we had to get to the hotel from the airport and vice versa. On my previous trips, this was taken care of by the Magic Express due to staying on property. Well, this wasn’t really an option from our hotel. I decided I would look into it, but ended up forgetting until the day of the trip. (Note: I did email the hotel to see if they recommended any shuttle services. They did send me two options to look into.)
Cue walking around the lower level of MCO airport trying to figure out if we should take one of the shuttles the hotel had recommended. We realized we could also take an Uber/Lyft and checked out those prices. Turns out taking a ride share was about half the cost as the shuttle.
Our Disney trip was planned relatively fast and on a budget, but we were able to make it successful. Hope these tips help you plan your next trip. Let us know if you have any other ideas to make a Disney trip better!
