#THE COST OF DISNEY WORLD FOR TWO ADULTS FREE#
We decided to go with the other free option - pick them up at Will Call - but the line took 30 minutes to get through - ugh! By the time I bought our tickets, it was too late to get them mailed to our house for free. Don’t Pick Up Tickets at Will Callĭisney theme parks don’t sell out as far as I know, but don’t let that lull you into thinking you can wait until the last minute to buy tickets. You’ll need to lengthen your trip by a day, since the 17-hour train ride involves an overnight sleeper car portion, but you won’t be paying for flights or rental cars (or sitting strapped into a car seat). If you live near the east coast, another fun idea is to drive to Washington, D.C. By the time we found out about this lesser-known company, all their family cars were booked, so check it out early. According to the Disney Tourist Blog, which I found to be an incredible source of knowledge, Firefly rentals cost a fraction of what big name companies charge. Try Non-Traditional Car TransportĪnother way to potentially shave hundreds of dollars off your trip is to find a low-cost rental car. It was as if we were all just so happy to be there. Yes, the Magic Kingdom was jam-packed at spring break, but despite the cramped conditions, there was not one rude word muttered. But I wouldn’t worry if school and work schedules are not permitting. I can’t claim to know the secrets of price fluctuation, but I know that after the New Year, people start thinking about the next travel break and prices probably rise to reflect that demand.Īnother way to save, of course, is traveling at off-peak times, like when there is no major holiday and school is in session. We bought our Spring Break air tickets before Christmas, and the rates were great. One key to our making our trip affordable was booking our air travel way in advance - two holidays ahead of time. When Booking Flights, Don’t Follow the Crowds To help make your decision, you might want to do a search on and, and then compare rates with the Disney hotels. I’ve talked to people who have both stayed on- and off-site and there are pros and cons of both. That said, the consensus is that it’s cheaper to stay in a regular hotel. Sure you’ll have to leave the perfect happy (albeit expensive) world of Disney, but if you are only doing one park like we did, then that bubble will be burst soon enough anyway. Disney World also has several “value resort hotels” and campgrounds, which could be just as affordable as regular hotels. Staying on-site could also mean being able to go back to the hotel for naps and even home-made meals.
There are also some financial advantages of staying in a Disney resort, such as free transportation to and from the airport, which could save you the cost of renting a car. Some of the perks of staying in a Disney World resort hotel are being able to stay in the parks longer, and enjoying a feeling of escape from the real world, as if you were living in a magic bubble. Heck, just being away from house chores and school and work routines was special for all of us. The rest of the time we just enjoyed the Florida sun at the hotel pool and mini-golf course. We chose the Magic Kingdom as being the most epic, and 12 hours there was enough to do our FastPass rides, see parades, have leisurely meals, and catch the impressive fireworks display over Cinderella castle. We figured that one blockbuster day at a theme park would be enough, and it was.
#THE COST OF DISNEY WORLD FOR TWO ADULTS FULL#
Plus time and money were a consideration: Disney entrance tickets are about $100 per person, and we only had two full days in Orlando (in addition to travel days). With a baby and a toddler (in addition to our 6-, 10-, and 12-year-olds), we knew that we would have to pedal slowly if we wanted to enjoy the ride.
Here is what I would and wouldn’t do the next time we make the pilgrimmage. In fact, we made some mistakes on other aspects that ended up costing us more money. Our trip was inspired by an offer to stay in a Holiday Inn resort in exchange for touring their new facilities (which turned out to be a timeshare sales pitch), but a free stay is not at all necessary for a low-budget Disney vacation. Visiting Orlando doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing trip, and it can be done without pilfering the college savings account. We only stayed in Orlando for three nights, and we visited just one theme park, yet the trip felt totally satisfying. It had been so long since I had been there as a child that I had forgotten that the clichés are actually true: it was like a magical world, we did bond as a family, and we really felt that elusive emotion: joy. I confess that I was thinking of the trip as a once-in-a-lifetime experience: you go there, your kids get to tell their friends they did it, and then you cross it off your list. This spring we took the kids to Disney World for the first time.