Our recent family trip to Disney World in Orlando Florida was an “epic vacation” according to my 10 year old. All of the awesomeness did not come without a price, of course, and Disney can be a pricey proposition to the budget conscious. When planning a visit, it is wise to look for opportunities for savings wherever you can. The easiest way to do make this happen, is to start by trying to save money on your hotel. Let’s dive into a great strategy for finding cheap rooms at Disney World.
Many of the legions of Disney-obsessed around the internet will tell you that it is essential to stay at one of the Disney owned resorts. While we decided not to go this route (I will explain why), you can’t ignore that there are some nice perks. First and foremost, you can partake in the Disney Magical Express program, which picks you up at the Orlando airport, buses you to your hotel, and automatically has all of your luggage carried to your room.
Secondly, you also get some nice perks at the parks for staying on a Disney-Owned resort. Everyone in your party will get a microchipped wristband that can be used for entry to their room, purchasing items at any of the parks, and even to hold their chosen fast passes for rides in the parks. People staying at Disney resorts also can use the transportation system to get to and from the parks each day, which will save them the daily $17 parking fee.
Disney does offer three different classes of hotels: Value, Moderates, & Deluxe. The Value resorts are pretty much Disney-themed motels (with exterior entry) with small rooms, fairly generic pools, and mainly food-court like options for food. The Moderates offer a small step up with nicer rooms and generally better restaurants and pools. The deluxe resorts are much pricier but offer large and luxurious rooms and high-end restaurants.
The main reason we decided to look at non-Disney properties was because we were traveling with six people (my family of five, plus my mom). Nearly all of the Disney properties have only two beds per room, and this meant that we were looking at getting multiple rooms. In addition, I tend to look at nicer hotels whenever I travel. I am certainly not above spending the night in a Red Roof Inn in a pinch, but if I am doing the booking- we are probably going to end up in a Holiday Inn Express at a minimum. Since we were planning on spending seven nights in Orlando, the Budget Hotels at Disney didn’t seem all that appealing.
As I started to look into the other options immediately in and around Disney’s property, I quickly noticed that Orlando is a bit of a “timeshare mecca”. This got my attention not because I have any interest in purchasing a timeshare, but because I reasoned that many people who had purchased timeshares, were probably willing to rent them out a major discount. The more that I looked, I started to realize that many of these places were actually full blown-resorts with many of the same amenities as the Disney locations, except they included rooms with a full kitchen and a washer and dryer! This mean that we could cook some of our meals in the room, wash our clothes after a beach day, and save a boatload of money in the process.
We ended up purchasing a seven night rental at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort, which was just minutes from all of the Disney parks. The rooms were nearly 1000 square ft., and featured two separate bedrooms and bathrooms. The hotel had multiple pools (with slides and lazy rivers), playgrounds, a mini-golf course, game rooms, multiple restaurants, and more. Instead of purchasing the room directly from the resort, we went through an owner on the timeshare resell site VRBO.com. Our cost for the room was $1500 for seven nights. If we had instead booked at a Disney Hotel, we wouldn’t even have been able to stay at a budget resort for this price (and those wouldn’t have even been big enough for our family!). When you factor in the savings in food costs on top of this, the savings continued to add up.
The one downside of using a timeshare resort is that they will make an effort to get you to sign up for a sales presentation. Bonnet Creek dangles a $150 gift card or a “free” vacation for listening to the 2+ hour sales pitch. However, you are under no obligation at all to actually attend a presentation, and we simply skipped our assigned time and unplugged the phone.
All and all, our trip really was magical and we will absolutely be using VRBO in the future. If you are planning a Disney vacation (or any vacation really), we can’t recommend this approach enough!
Click here to read our full review of Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort.
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Note: If you are planning a trip to Disney, be sure to check out See Debt Run in the next few weeks. We will be featuring a number of articles on how to get the most out of a Disney Vacation without totally breaking the bank.
The authors featured on this site are not financial experts, but are instead normal folks just figuring out how to make ends meet. The opinions and advice featured on See Debt Run have worked well for our families, but may not work for yours. If you choose to incorporate any ideas included on this site into your own financial planning, you do so at your own risk. We do NOT take any responsibility for the decisions you may make, even if they were based on something you read on this site.
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Nice! Sounds like you saved a lot of money! You probably already know about airbnb.com, esp if you want to stay in a house, be able to cook your own food, and do your own laundry.
I have heard a lot about airbnb and we may end up using it on a future vacation! Great tip!
Sweet. I’ve been looking into vacation swaps recently. Haven’t tried one yet, but they look pretty fab!
Heck yeah.. Vacation swapping is awesome.
I don’t have kids so I haven’t been to Disney World since I was a kid myself, but I know many who have taken family vacations there and the price tag can be a bit shocking! I can’t imagine spending $90 per person per ticket.
As far as onsite versus off-site, when I was a kid and went I really liked being onsite because it never felt like we “left” Disney World. Our hotel had a fun theme and we easily bused to the parks each day.
I don’t think that we ever felt like we “left” as well.. As the hotel was really amazing.
The price per ticket seems large up front, but you can really lower the impact by staying multiple days.
I went to Disney when I was about 5 so it’s been a really long time since I’ve thought about it haha. Nevertheless, this seems awesome for people with kids!
You should go back some day! It hasn’t lost any of its charm!
I went to Disney when I was about 11 so it’s been a really lengthy time since I’ve believed about it. Nevertheless, this seems amazing for individuals with kids!
I think it’s a magical place for kids of all ages.