What Disney expenses will you forgo next time?

Wow I'm so surprised at all the people saying they don't like the food! I can only think of maybe two times that DH and I have had a bad meal experience at Disney. We LOVE the food! That being said, we have started splitting more meals just because it's SO MUCH food. Less waste and more cost effective.

I enjoy it too. I won't pay for fried everything at a place like Casey's Corner but a lunch at Satu'li Canteen is delicious.
 
Our first trip was last fall, and we're going back in less than 2 weeks (yeah!!!). It's just my son and I, so it's not overly expensive to begin with. But things I'm cutting to make this trip more cost efficient:
-Airfare: got a SW Visa this year and we are flying on points
-Food: Last time we did 2 character meals, this time I'm planning plenty of (free) character meets in the parks instead and eating QS
-Memory Maker: Got this last time and only ended up with about 10 pictures. Just going to bring my own camera, have them use it, and only buy the pictures I want after the fact (I doubt there will be more than 5).
-Resort: Staying value, I can't see paying 4-5 times more just for a room. I know it's time or money, but the time spent on the bus is worth saving thousands of dollars! Also, we get to stay longer with the savings.
-Souvenirs: I don't personally need any, I get cheap Disney stuff all the time from Disney Store sales (there's one 10 minutes from my house) and children's consignment sales. We were gifted a few gift cards earlier this year, so I plan to let my son pick out something for himself and something for my parents as gifts.

I do splurge on special events like the TSL EMM and Tony's Parade Package. I was also going to do MNSSHP, but the reports of big crowds changed my mind. Since it's just me and an almost 4 year old, anything I can do to reduce waits in line or standing around for an hour to get a good parade view is worth it to me!
 
You would not be able to purchase any of the Disney Dining Plans if you are staying at the Swan or Dolphin. You might want to consider doing a split stay- starting at a value resort with a dining plan and finishing your stay at the Swan. It would give you an opportunity to try a dining plan for yourself plus you would get to experience a different resort.
Yes, I've already let him know that we actually can't do the dining plan at the Swan, but I think his solution is to stay at one of the other Epcot resorts--I'm not sure he understands how much more expensive they would be than what we paid at the Swan. I think he would do one of the Values, but I honestly think he would be disappointed and then try and hide it and I just feel like there might be a lot of sort of free-floating disappointment. I guess we already scaled back (the Swan) in a way I just hadn't thought about...
 


I can't really scale back as we rarely ever utilize anything outside of discounted park tickets any how, so I'll list the things I couldn't imagine ever using.

-I can't see us ever utilizing the memory maker thing. But we live close and go often so that's not a real necessity.

-I'm having a hard time justifying the on-site resort costs as to me a hotel is a hotel so long as it is clean, just about every hotel around Orlando has transportation to and from the parks even if spotty at some, I really have no interest in extra magic hours as of now (that may change), I have a few wrist bands already, and I don't buy enough junk in the park to really utilize sending it back to my room. Maybe when my daughter gets older we will try it out for the full on Disney ($$$$) experience, but for now, meh.

-Meal plans seem strange to me. But again, this will be my first visit with a child so I may change my mind on that one some day. But we aren't sit down meal people anyways. I LOVE the preorder function at the walk up restaurants though!!
 
Staying on-site
Eating all meals on-site
Character meals
Special event tickets
Souvenirs
Memory Maker

Depending on whose going and how long the trip is for we've also been known to skip park hoppers.
 
Wow I'm so surprised at all the people saying they don't like the food! I can only think of maybe two times that DH and I have had a bad meal experience at Disney. We LOVE the food! That being said, we have started splitting more meals just because it's SO MUCH food. Less waste and more cost effective.

We don't typically do Photopass, but we likely will for our next trip which will be a big family trip.

I doubt we'll ever do a dessert party based on the reviews I've heard for them.

Won't pay for EMM.

I can't foresee us ever paying for club level.

We like the food but it's for most places it's not worth the price. I live in the Philadelphia area and we have great food here. I don't mind paying for a GREAT meal but paying $200 for Ohana??? Yeah so not worth it. Most WDW TS places are Applebee's quality at triple the price.

You can actually find some great QS places and I don't mind paying those prices. Most are just a few bucks more than a meal at Chic Fil A which I don't mind paying that since it is a theme park.
 


I will add if I have to scale back more than just not eating as many TS meals I would rather just vacation elsewhere. And that is what we do since we only do WDW every 3 years or so.
 
We have never bought park hoppers. I simply don't see the value in that -- so we will likely forever forgo the park hoppers and save ourselves moola!

It really depends on your style of vacationing at Disney. For us hoppers are a must. It allows us flexibility in where we dine and finish the night. For instance, we may spend the day at Animal Kingdom, then head to Poly and dine at Ohana. After dinner we go the Magic Kingdom thats open late and enjoy fireworks and other night time activities. Other times we'll visit one park but head to Epcot for dinner as there are so many great restaurants at Epcot but we don't want to spend so many days there.
 
As costs rise we probably will be forced to stay offsite. Disney removing free parking at resorts is just another onsight perk thats been removed.
 
One thing I don't yet see listed is 'go to Disney less often'. There are many places we enjoy going on vacation, but the value for Disney vs. the cost means it isn't something we do that often.

We only go every 3 years or so and after this years trip (just DD and myself) I don't know if and when we will ever go back. You can get way more bang for your buck elsewhere.
 
We did our first family trip last year and did it fairly trim, so I don't know that I'd cut down on much.

*Brought refillable water bottles with belt loop clips, other than sharing the occasional specialty drink we didn't pay to stay hydrated
*Had $100 grocery delivery (for an 8 day stay) to the hotel. Breakfast in the room was cereal/oatmeal, packed lunches and snacks to bring to the parks. I did spring for one refillable mug for coffee at the resort as I'm a BIG coffee drinker. We cut down in-park eating to one meal and sharing something special as a snack if it caught our eye - which it rarely did.
*Souvenirs were limited to pins. anything beyond that, the kids had to use their own saved spending money which made them VERY careful about considering their purchases.
*MNSSHP - we are halloween people through and through, and even with higher crowd levels it's just an awesome night for us.

*I'd forego at least one character experience. We got a lot out of the Chef Mickey's breakfast, and it was a great way to enjoy Disney on a non-park day. Hoop Dee Doo was (and will ever be) a must-do. Another where I felt our family really got our money's worth. Didn't feel that way about Minnie's Dine at H&V, would have rather saved money and grabbed something quick elsewhere.
*Staying off-site next time. We aren't huge resort people and spent most of the days in the parks or exploring. The only day we used EMH was the last day, when we were trying to hit 3 parks in the day. Other than that, I didn't see a huge benefit to staying onsite other than being able to charge things in the park to the magic bands. We are value level resort people too, so I might feel differently if we were in a higher level resort. The free transport from the hotel doesn't sell me either - we took an adult only trip last month and used Uber/Lyft to get to and from the parks, it was ridiculously easy.
 
It really depends on your style of vacationing at Disney. For us hoppers are a must. It allows us flexibility in where we dine and finish the night. For instance, we may spend the day at Animal Kingdom, then head to Poly and dine at Ohana. After dinner we go the Magic Kingdom thats open late and enjoy fireworks and other night time activities. Other times we'll visit one park but head to Epcot for dinner as there are so many great restaurants at Epcot but we don't want to spend so many days there.
I agree for a slightly different reason. I don't want to ride the same rides a couple times on the same day. I would rather spend part of the day in one park then go back to the resort or to visit another resort. Then head out later to a different park. In fact the evenings are my favorite times. We allow ourselves to be more spontaneous.
 
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One thing I don't yet see listed is 'go to Disney less often'. There are many places we enjoy going on vacation, but the value for Disney vs. the cost means it isn't something we do that often.

That is an interesting topic to discuss! How often is "less often"?
 

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