How can I do it? Budgeting this trip?

[danda22]

One of the things I did before settling on a resort was google and find out what restaurants were close by. I then started looking online for coupons. I then went to quibids and started bidding and buying gift cards. even if you paid full price for gift cards on there you are still getting them at 40% off. I am just collecting gift cards.... outback steakhouse, mcd, dunkin donuts, walmart, gas. I also went to ebay and bought a coupon book for orlando... tons of coupons and really really good ones too. Also, they have a kids eat free card. you will need one for each child and they are $20 each... but I paid $2.25 for one on ebay! we debated buying a go orlando card from smart destinations and it is a great deal but by the time we wrote down the things we wanted to do and then compared the cost it would really cost us after using a coupon and it was a huge savings to pay as we go. I intend on having an envelope budget type plan for when we go. I will have one for gatorland and have my coupons and money in it.... etc.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

our first trip to the World. We got suckered into a time share presentation deal. So for $99.00 we got 3 days, 4 nights in a cheap (but not bad hotel-off site) & 3 days worth of Disney tickets. We also had to endure a 3 plus hour presentation.....Now did we save money yes, was it worth it???

the deal came across my work's fax machine (not to outdate myself- it was about 10 years ago)

We did one of these deals once and got suck with the hotel bill about 6 months later. Avoid avoid avoid! Our offer too came through on the office fax machine.

 

[kohlby]

We have a credit card that gives us points towards Starwood Hotels. Though the Swan/Dolphin is on there, it's 10K points a night, so it's hard to save up for. We've done split stays due to that, some at the Dolphin and some off-site. (Dolphin will allow 5). For our next trip, we're staying for "free" off-site at Sheraton Lake Buena Vista. Free is in quotes since there's a parking fee and a resort fee so it's ending up costing us $20 a night. We're staying 8 nights for a total of $160! It takes a LOT less points that the Dolphin - I think it's only 3K points. Though you might not have enough time to rack up enough points for your entire trip, it would help with a split stay.

We eat breakfast in our room with food brought from home. We eat counter service for lunch. Dinner is all over the place - counter service, Sweet Tomatoes off-site, or something from Publix eaten in our room. It really depends how the kids are doing for how long we stay in the park. We take snacks into the park too as well as extra fruit for meals. We do buy 1-2 snacks a day though, it is vacation afterall! But that's 1-2 snacks total, not per person. Then we share. We do water for drinks, and/or take in a soda or two. All the counter services will give you ice water for free. (But it's a tiny little cup and I drink a lot so I always take some water in as well to start me off).

If you want on-site, then don't look for the free dining - instead look for a percent off. We stayed at AKL for 6 nights of our trip last time as a splurge- but it was 40% off due to an awesome PIN! We can save on how we eat, but it's much harder to save on hotel so we took that, figuring it was our only chance. (AKL had a max of 4 per room but our 5th person was under 3 so he didn't count towards it).