To start with I'd look into the moderate resorts instead of AoA, unless you need a suite it is way overpriced for a value resort. Second, I'd also think about not doing Dining plan. Unless you eat a lot of food it really isn't a huge savings and a lot of people find they pay less by paying out of pocket. If you decide to go that way, you can buy Disney gift cards in advance like others has done by going through Target with the red card and getting that discount or even Sam's Club if you belong to them. Personally, I use my cc to buy everything and pay it off every month, I get cash back and I use that to get pre-paid visa cards, you can use those a places other than Disney just in case you don't use the entire amount at Disney. I also rarely if ever book my rooms through Disney. I've found when Disney is offering a discount, usually third party places like Orbitz or travelocity will also be offering that discount as well as a discount of their own. I've booked with Orbitz with the Disney 20% discount and Orbitz 15% discount on top to get 35% off the room. I've even been lucky and gotten the Disney 25% discount and Orbitz was offering a 20% discount and got 45% off. You just have to watch the sites. The only disadvantage to that is you have pay up front and lately most of the resorts are charge a $25 cancellation fee for those. In the long run, even if I end up paying the $25 cancellation because I switch my days or find a better deal at another resort, I still end up saying money and I get Orbitz bucks, which I can then apply to my next trip. You can also get your tickets through discount sites like
Undercover Tourist or Parksavers, often they offer something like a 7 day park hopper for the price of a 4 day. I usually go through Ebates for most of my on-line shopping, including Orbitz and
Amazon and get cash back from them as well. I work so I have a certain amount of money automatically deducted from my check every month and direct deposited into a savings account. I can't miss what I don't have.