We did Disney World on a dime! 2 families, 5 days, $200pp

1. Airfare.
   

We traveled with our frugal, savvy friends who churn credit cards. They were able to buy 7 tickets on Southwest from our Northeast U.S. location to Orlando with a Chase Southwest credit card that had a signing bonus of 50,000 points for $3000 in spend in 3 months. There is $99 annual fee for this card. For 7 tickets bought in February, the points+$50 were enough. Total for airfare for 7 people was $159.00

1. Accommodations- 2 bedroom villa at Orange Lake Resort, Kissimmee, FL.
   

I have an IHG card which qualified me to receive a promotional call for the IHG/Holiday Inn timeshare folks. $199.00 for a 3 night stay in a 2 bedroom timeshare unit in exchange for allowing them 2 hours of my vacation- at which point I could receive $199.00 back.
They will try to put you in a budget hotel nearby. This is where you flex your frugal negotiating skills. Tell them that you are very interested in joining a vacation club, but you would only think of buying if you could stay in the actual property for which you will be touring.
I paid $60 extra dollars for an additional nights stay and was charged $49.00 at check-in for taxes and cleaning. I can't really speak highly enough of the property with which we stayed. It was GORGEOUS. We stayed in a 2 bedroom villa in the area called River Island. Beautiful pool, hot tubs, a lake with watersports, SUPERLUXE!! The sales seminar was a breeze. We had an incredibly personable sales person that was enjoyable to chat with. I also negotiated 2 adult tickets to Disney World and left without buying a timeshare but really loving the property and staff. Cost for 2 bedroom villa that sleeps 8 people in a superluxe resort for 5 days and 4 nights: $109.00 3. Speaking of 2 free Disney Tickets: DisneyWorld Tickets In addition to the 2 we received from the timeshare folks, our friends (being military personnel) bought Disney's (6) 4-day park hoppers using their military discount. The cost per pass was $221. One person had to purchase an additional day's pass to the parks at $97.00. Total tickets for parks for 7 people: $1,423.00

1. Food and drinks.
   Since the villa at the Orange Lake Resort comes equipped with a full kitchen and stove and was 2 minutes drive to a whole shopping center (SuperTarget and Publix), we went to the grocery store and bought food for 7 people to cover both breakfasts and lunches for the 5 days. Disney lets you go into the parks with a backpack and even ride their rides with the backpacks! So we carried all our water, sandwiches and snacks with us. We carried high calorie/healthy foods like trail mix, PB&J, meats and cheeses, crackers and carrots. This saved us a ton of cash. We also bought beers, wine, cigars, etc. to make our evenings pleasant after the kids went to bed. Finally, we bought easy-to-grill steak and chicken that were already seasoned from the SuperTarget to grill with the resort's amenities for dinners at night, and went ALL-OUT one evening for dinner at the park in Cinderella's castle for a birthday. This was one of the LEAST frugal purchases of our entire lives. It cost $450.00 for a party 7. I would STRONGLY recommend you NOT do this. It was average food and terrible experience. We are showing the total for our food without this purchase, because we would BEG you to not include this lavish (and largely pointless) expense. Total for breakfast, lunch, dinners, alcohol, cigars, snacks for 7: $420.00
   1. Transportation while there. We rented a minivan from Thrifty for $230.00 dollars for the 5 days. We picked the van up from the airport and dropped it back before departure. While parking at the resort was included, we had to pay for parking at Disney, which was $20.00 dollars a day. We paid for parking for 3 days. One day a couple didn't go to the parks and was able to drop everyone else of in front of the parks and pick them up that evening without paying. Gas was $22.00 dollars for the trip and we were driving everywhere we wanted to go. Travel time to and from the resort to the parks was ~15 minutes. Total cost of transportation $312.00
   2. To control the kids' spending, we loaded a certain amount of dollars on Disney bucks cards and the kids had to earn it by being good. When a kid would begin to beg for a souvenir they liked, we would remind them that they were getting $20.00 on the second to the last night and we could come back to the souvenir if that is what they chose to spend it on. We gave each child $20.00, but this amount could be as little as $10 up to $40.00+. Teaching 3 kids deferred gratification+souvenirs: $60.00
   3. To park the cars at our home airport, we got a Groupon for $12 dollars less than we would have paid full-price. 5-day parking was 42.00 dollars per vehicle. This may seem pricey, but it was the best case scenario for our 2 families. If you have family/friends that can drop you off/pick you up, you can save this expense EZPZlemonsqueezey. Cost for transportation to/from home airport: $82.00 Grand total for a super lavish 5 day vacation for 7 people. Complete with airfare, resort stay, tickets to DisneyWorld parks and delicious food for 7 humans: $2,565.00 (+$450 if you're a sucker that wants to see what its like dining in the Disney castle.)

February 04, 2017 at 06:13PM