Thinking about a trip to Disney World? It’s expensive, no doubt, but there are decisions you can make to lower your costs. Your hotel will have beds, food courts, and a telephone; what you may not get is tropical landscaping, wifi, and amazing architectural detailing. But if these factors are not important to you and saving money is, well, you’ve come to the right place.

Plan Ahead

I am not a huge fan of all the planing that goes into traveling to Disney these days, but planning ahead on your travel dates can save you money. Unless Grandma is fitting the bill for the entire trip (don’t we all wish!) then a spur of the moment trip can cost you big time compared to traveling other times of year.

Use an Authorized Disney Travel Agent

Travel Off Season

January 4th – the weekend before President’s day in February, the week after Labor Day through the week before Thanksgiving and the week after Thanksgiving through the week before Christmas.

Stay on Property

Disney offers a huge money aging perk if you stay in their on-site resorts. Magical Express is a free bus service that picks you up at the Orlando airport and drops you off at your Disney resort.

Disney World transportation services transportation are free. Use their monorails, busses, and boats to get from your resorts to the parks.

Choose This Resort Level

Unless you have several free days planned with no tickets, and we do love free days, then you will not spend a lot of hours at your resort except for sleeping. If you are paying for a place to sleep, choose the least expensive resort level, which is the Value Resorts.

• All-Star Resorts
• Art of Animation
• Pop Century

The Value Resorts have free wifi, pools, laundry rooms, food courts, free bus transportation, TV, mini-fridges, beds, showers, and a telephone. You get all that at far less of a price than the upper level resorts, which you might want to save for another trip.

Bring Food and Snacks

There is no rule that prevents you from bringing your own food into Disney theme parks. When they check your bags, they are searching for illegal weapons rather than illegal chocolates. The same things goes for drinks. 

Bring in your own snacks. For recommendations on the best snacking foods, use this link.

Drinks are heavy. If you bring in several of your own bottles, you can re-fill them with this.

Keep the Spovenirs to a Minimum

I love a cute Disney tee just as much as the next gal, but paying Disney retail will take a huge bite out of your vacation apple.

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