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I have had some request to share what we have planned for our Disney trip, so today I will be sharing the things we have accomplished in planning our trip to Disneyworld. ย ย The anticipation and planning the trip are all part of the fun. ย I think my son Austin is more excited than anyone, he created the Disney countdown out of Lego’s (above) to track how many more days until we leave on our vacation. ย He changes it everyday. ย Fun stuff!
Here are the things we have accomplished:
Lodging – When I started the Disney on a Budget series, I mentioned that staying off property would save you money. I didn’t know that there would be so many people ย passionate about staying on property. I will admit that staying on site would be lots of fun and probably easier to get around, but it isn’t something that worked out for our family at this time. ย It just didn’t make sense with a family of 7 (3 of which are teenagers) to pay so much to barely fit into a Disney hotel.
We are thrilled with the 5 bedroom home we are renting, in the community of Windor Hills. The community has a pool with a water slide, but the home we rented has it’s very own pool too. The kids will love it! We used VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner) to find the home, thanks so much to some suggestions from some of you. ย By renting the home directly from the owners we are saving more money than using a service. We ended up paying less than half what it would cost us to stay at a Disney hotel that would have fit our family of 7 (just barely fitting – it requires 2 kids to sleep on the pull out couch). ย I figured the savings on the Disney sale rate of 30-40% off the rooms. ย ย The home has been booked and paid for!
Travel – Our flights have been booked using miles that my husband had earned (for a very long time) with his Visa card. We were short a few miles, so we did have to pay a small amount out of pocket. Airline tickets are bought and paid for!
Rental Car – Thanks to tips from lots of you, I checked out betterbidding.com, before I bid on a rental car (minivan) at Priceline. I got a great deal! I would have never have thought to use Priceline (or betterbidding.com) for the rental car, so a BIG THANKS to those that suggested it. ย Rental car is booked and paid for!
Dining – I have made advance reservations for 3 Disney meals at Chef Mickey’s, Whispering Canyon Cafe & 50’s Prime Time cafe. We will be paying for these with the $100 gift card I got for signing up for the Disney visa card, Disney Visa Rewards, and Disney cards that I earned through swagbucks. We are also plan to eat at other restaurants with restaurtant.com gift certificates and TGIFriday’s with gift cards that I got for FREE from MyPoints. ย Lots of meal plans have been taken care of and will be paid for with FREE gift cards and such.
Planning – We’ve narrowed down where we will go each day and some of the activities we will do.
Still need to do:
Disneyworld Tickets – I am just waiting until I have all the money I need to pay for the admisssion tickets into the park. I have half of the money saved, so I just need to save a little more and then I will purchase the tickets.
Universal Tickets – We plan on heading to Universal Studios one day, so we can see the Harry Potter theme park and other attractions. Still saving the money for these.
Now that I have most of the travel plans done, I need to know what are some of the must see items at Disneyworld. ย I would love to hear some of your families favorite things to do, see and eat at Disneyworld. Please share!!
Hey Christy,
We just got back from a weekend trip to Disney and I have to highly recommend TREX Restaurant in Downtown Disney. The food was awesome, it has the same owners as Rainforest Cafe, but TREX is themed in dinosaurs (in case you didn’t know). We have a family of six and everyone was able to find something to eat (which is sometimes very difficult).
I also loved the Main Street Bakery in Magic Kingdom, the desserts in there were huge and I felt the prices were good too! I love to eat so you can see I started with food ๐
I don’t know if you have little kids but we like Hollywood Studios (used to be MGM). My son and daughter got to participate in a Star Wars show and were trained as Padawans and fought Darth Vader with Light Sabers – super cool! The new Indiana Jones show at Hollywood is also really good.
I hope you have a great time!
Kitty
I used Tour Guide Mike when I planned our trip in 2007 and I can’t recommend him enough. Many people will say that you can get the same info for free, but I think his information and being able to customize it to my family was totally worth the $20 I spent. Let me know if you want more info, I could go on for days…
Favorite things:
Star Wars Jedi Training at Disney Studios
Lego store at Downtown Disney
Behind the Seeds Tour at Epcot – signup by Soarin’ (has a charge but lots of potential discounts!)
Favorite food:
Sweet Tomatoes – bogo coupons from email list – LOTS of fresh veggies!!!
Cici’s Pizza – bogo coupons at hotels and visitor center
El Pirata y el Perico at MK – Tacos with topping bar – 2 ppl can share!
Kringla in Epcot – LEFSE!!!
Tangierine Cafe in Epcot – Hummus, couscous, tabouli – nice variety
Biergarten – German buffet with show – go for late lunch
Rose & Crown – STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING!!!
Also loved Raglan Road, Hollywood & Vine, Restaurant Marrakesh, the place by the water outside of Mexico in Epcot, the restaurant on the 2nd (?) floor of the Contemporary! Those are some of my favorites!
Check with the people you get the Orlando Magicard from for tickets. That was the best price we found for ours this winter!
Now I’m off to finish planning our trip to Disneyland this weekend!!!
Hi there!
We just got back from a week long trip to Disney World, and I agree with Kitty – the TREX restaurant is awesome. It’s in Downtown Disney, right near the LEGO and DISNEY stores. The food was amazing, too! We were all quite impressed. They even have a “dig” where kids can uncover dinosaur bones. A little on the expensive side, but the portions were huge and you just can’t beat the atmosphere. I think my son will always remember that place. Check it out: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/t-rex/
If your kids are into meeting the Disney characters (like my 5 year old son), I would suggest the Character Spot at Epcot. You can meet 5 of them at once, all inside a nice air-conditioned room. Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald were there when we visited. That was son’s favorite part of the trip! He got autographs and photos from all of them.
By the way – I’m not sure where you’re from, but the humidity in Florida is a whopper! Heat + tired kids = miserable mom! LOL Anyway, I packed some squirt bottles of water with us everyday and it made such a difference. Just a tip!
Have a great time!!
Danielle
I love reading all of you comments! I am getting even more excited for our trip now.
Thanks for the recommendation on the TREX restaurant, that is one that I was trying to decide on. I think I may have to add it to our itinerary. That restaurant chain has gift cards available from Mypoints, so that will be great!
Amy – I keep hearing about tour guide Mike, and how wonderful it is. Everybody says it is worth the money. I am still on the fence if I should get this or not.
Danielle – The heat & humidity is one thing I am NOT looking forward too. I am a wimp when it comes to heat. My kids will probably be tougher than I will about the heat. Thanks for the tip on the squirt bottles, I will definitely be packing some of those.
Jaime – How exciting you are heading to Disneyland!!
The LEGO store is a must! Our 5 kids are crazy about Lego’s (so is there Mom – I love helping my kids put their Lego’s together.)
Keep ’em coming!
Just curious as to when you’ll be going and how many day’s Disney pass you’re going to buy. We went last June (holy hot!) and spent five days, which we found exhausting, but now everyone we talk to seems to go for ten days, which I find amazing!
Sarah,
We will be going during one of the hottest/most humid times (end of Aug/1st part of Sept). Our main goal was to go when it is less crowded (we didn’t want BOTH crowds and heat). We hear it rains like crazy in the afternoon, but rain doesn’t bother us – we’re from Washington! Taking our kids out of school was not an option this time, since we have kids in high school. We did that the last 2 years, and it is too hard for a couple of our kids to stay on top of school work.
We will be going for 10 days, and we are buying a 7 day Disney pass. We find it works best for our family if we do 2-3 days of Disney, take a day off, 2 more days of Disney, take a day off, etc. It’s much more enjoyable that way.
Christy,
We live in Central Florida and Disney World is one of our favorite places to visit.
While you are at Downtown Disney for the Lego store and T-Rex, make sure you stop by the Ghiradelli Chocolate Soda Fountain for dessert…They offer free chocolate samples in their store. ๐ Also, on Friday and Saturday nights Downtown Disney Marketplace offers a free outdoor “dance party” with a DJ. It’s lots of fun to join in or just people watch.
Also, since you plan on dining at several Disney restaurants…you may want to look into purchasing a Tables in Wonderland dining card. We get special rates for being FL residents, so I’m not sure of your cost. However, you recieve 20% off at all Disney “table service” restaurants and even a few of the counter service dining at the parks and food courts in the resorts, ie. T Rex, Chef Mickey’s, Pizzafari @ Animal Kingdom, Food Court at Pop Century Resort, etc. They do add gratuity to your bill if you use the card in a table service restaurant, but if you already have a large party dining, they usually will do that anyway. It’s worth a try.
For food “off property,” I definately agree with Jaime on Sweet Tomatoes and Cici’s. Sweet Tomatoes is a nice alternative to the usual theme park fare…It’s a salad/soup buffet, very fresh, very tasty. Our favorite location is in the “Crossroads Plaza” on 535. Cici’s is a pizza buffet, cheap meal…decent food for the price. There are several locations along 192, near where you’ll be staying.
Make sure you familiarize yourself with Fast Pass while at Disney…You use your admission ticket and instead of waiting in line for a ride, it gives you a time to come back and bypass the “stand-by” line. Then you can go enjoy other rides while waiting for your Fast Pass return time. It’s a great time saver…even on days when the parks aren’t crowded. It’s nice to just walk right on to a ride. Universal offers a similar idea, although you have to pay for it unless you are staying at a Universal Hotel.
If you have any little ones utilize “Baby Swap” (rules for baby swap seem to depend on the cast member you speak with and what ride you would like to go on…So don’t forget to ask about it if there is a ride that your little ones can’t get on, but you’d like to try) and make sure you check out the Baby Care Centers…there’s one at every Disney Park. They have changing tables, restrooms, high chairs, and tvs, usually playing Disney movies. It’s a nice way to get out of the heat and cool down for a bit.
Hope you have a wonderful time at the “Most Magical Place on Earth!” ๐
We are just starting to plan our trip for next year. We have been before and are a fam of 6. One place off Disney the kids LOVE is Wonderworks. It is so much fun and there are coupons for admission all the time usually B1G1. We had just as much fun as them with bed of nails, hurricane tunnel, music and lights – and the building is upside down check it out on line. I will be folliowing your planning for tips – thanks!
We just returned from a frugal 9-night stay at Disney World. The 4 of us stayed for 4 nights at Disney’s Pop Century Resort (cost a little more than $300 after Florida-resident discount). Then when the in-laws joined us, we stayed for 5 nights in a 2 bedroom savannah-view villa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. Since we are members of the Disney Vacation Club, we didn’t pay anything out of pocket (other than our regular payments on the club membership) for that. (We never could have afforded that without DVC; the value of that stay was a little over $5,900!) Some of our favorite rides are Pirates of the Caribbean (our 5-year-old’s fave) and Living with the Land (my favorite; yes, I’m a dork). Our #1 favorite place to eat is Boulangerie Patisserie at the France pavilion in Epcot. It’s tiny, but the food is delicious, and the $3.25 ham and cheese croissants help to make it one of the most affordable meals in the World.
I’ve only just found your blog, but I look forward to reading about (and trying to copy) your great deals!