My Disney

Disney World Discounts

Disney isn't cheap. You don't expect to pay peanuts for a quality vacationing experience. However, that doesn't mean that a trip to Disney will run you a second mortgage. Going to Florida and enjoying Walt Disney World can be done cheaper than you think. You just have to know where the discounts are.

Park tickets? Disney doesn't discount their tickets much. You may be lucky to get 5% to 10% off if you are a member of AAA by buying them in advance but it's not as if you will find "buy one, get one free" coupons at a nearby burger joint the way you do at many regional parks. Sometimes you will see folks offer free Disney tickets, but that usually means having to site through a 2-hour timeshare presentation and even if the math looks favorable you don't want to slow down your Florida vacation with a hard-sell for a costly vacation interval that you don't really need. So accept that tickets aren't going to be cheap. They're up to roughly $60 a person these days for a daily ticket, even though Disney has plans where they drop dramatically the longer you choose to stay.

The real savings are in dining and lodging. Some of the Disney resorts will run you several hundreds of dollars a night. However, Disney also has it's value-priced resorts like All-Star Music, All Star Sports, All Star Movies and Decade, which will run you between $70 to $120 a night depending on the season. If you have your own car and want to save even more by driving directly to the Disney parks, many off-site resorts start for as little as $35 a night. Another option is to stay at an off-site condo or vacation home. For instance, you can stay at a 3-bedroom, poolside condo at Villas at Island Club for about $100 a night. That will give you five times the space of a traditional hotel room as well as a full kitchen so you can save on breakfast and other meals during the day.

As far as food goes, remember that Disney's sit-down restaurants have different lunch and dinner menus. The lunch menus are cheaper. Meanwhile, the fast food eateries have the same menu all day long. My tip is to have a sit-down lunch where the prices are cheaper and then have dinner at a counter service eatery. Also remember that you can always ask for ice water instead of soda to save some money too. Gifts? They can add up too. However, something like a pressed penny can run you all of $0.51. Bring an autograph book and your own camera and you can save on the costly autograph books and digital photographers in the park. The key is to come with a budget and stick to it, letting everyone in your party know the most that they can spend.