How to Budget for Disney When the Parks Get Pricier
I know just as well as anyone how expensive it can be to visit Walt Disney World. Yet, despite the cost of everything from park tickets to hotels, I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather go with my three beautiful girls, Ava, Ella, and Rose. Disney World really does have everything you could possibly want from a vacation – from constant entertainment to keep the kids happy, to fun and excitement for the adults too!
However, Disney recently announced that they’d be upping their prices for tickets at certain times of the year, which means that you might need to be more cautious than ever when it comes to budgeting for your vacation. Here are a few tips that could help.
1. Choose the Right Time
When your kids are young, like mine, and the chances are that they’re not going to miss anything too important at school, you have the perfect opportunity to choose the date you want to take your Disney vacation according to work commitments, and budget. Since it’s only certain tickets at certain times of the year that are seeing the price boost, your best bet is to choose your trip times around the cheapest tickets. There are plenty of charts online that can help you to pick a non-peak time to visit.
2. Go for More than Just a Day
It might sound counterproductive, but every extra day that you spend at a Disney park adds up to a bigger saving. Week-long tickets are far less expensive, and let’s face it, it’s practically impossible to do everything that you and your family wants to do in a single day anyway.
3. Bundle your Vacation
When it comes to booking trips for me, my partner Daniel, and the kids – I’m all about bundling. While sometimes, the most cost-effective approach to building a vacation will be to “do it yourself” and pick and choose different aspects of your trip from different providers, some travel agents offer incredible deals if you’re willing to buy your plane tickets, park tickets, and accommodation all in one.
4. Avoid the Upsells
If you’re on your first trip to Disney, the chances are that you’ll want to buy everything you come across. Trust me, I’ve been there. Let me reassure you, however, that me and my family found Disney on a budget to be just as magical as Disney fully-loaded. You don’t need to buy a photo pass unless you really want plenty of photos, plan what you want to do in advance and stick to your budget!
5. Get a Character Lunch
If you want to make your trip extra special with a character meal, the best advice I can give you is to book a lunch – not a breakfast. Afternoons are far less expensive than mornings, and they’re usually less crowded too. Since most people are already off to the parks by lunch time, you’ll have plenty of space to enjoy your time with the characters uninterrupted.
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Thanks so much for this great resource. Disney is SO MUCH fun, but man, you will bust the bank if you aren’t careful.
Character lunches & dinners are a good way to go, but check the menus. They vary A LOT depending on some of the restaurants.
Disney can definitely be a cost-prohibitive vacation spot. These are great tips for affording that Disney vacation everyone wants to go on.
The prices are going up but there are ways around it. Another way to save is to buy DIsney gift cards through retailers such as Sam’s club and use those to pay for your trip. They are generally a little less than full price so you save some money.
This is really awesome. It’s good to have guides like this especially for people who are going for the first time. It would be nice to save money on your trip.
My kids love Disney (obviously) but the price does get in the way of going as often as they would like. These are some great tips to keep the costs lower.
We stopped by the grocery store and loaded up on snacks that we could take into the park with us. We would eat breakfast at the hotel, snack on our brought in snacks for lunch, then ate dinner either in the park as a treat or waited until we left the park and grabbed fast food. That helped keep our dining budget way down.
I wouldn’t love to take my kids burn 7 of them and 2 of us I was oiled have to budget for a very long time. This is helpful!
I have never been there so thanks on the advice about the upsell, I didn’t even know that a photo pass had to be purchased separately! Does that mean if you see a character you just can’t take a picture?
Thanks for these great tips. We are saving up to go to Disney next year. The kids are so excited.
These are great tips! Disney is our favorite place to vacation. You are so right about going for longer. We extended our trip from 6 days to 8 and it saved us like $300!
The Disney parks can definitely get pretty expensive if you don’t plan. Planning where to eat and how much you want to spend can help a lot.
There are so many ways to save money on Disney. You just have to take the time to search for them and be willing to sit down and make a budget.
We are hoping to take our kids to Disney next year. I am going to use some of your tips to start saving.
These are such excellent tips! We are a family of five and travel to Disney can be quite expensive!
I took my daughter many years ago, now I have a
12 year old.I actually purchased the tickets a few years ago, however my husband was in an accident so we couldn’t use them. We are finally able to go, I booked the flight and hotel last month. I save cash to spend. We’re all set all set now.I’m very excited. I think I’m more excited than my son.
Our family started years ago to only give each other Disney gift cards for all occasions you will be surprised how much you will have for your next trip they come in very handy.