Disney World Budget Planning Tips 2016

Summer 2016, is now in the books, wrapped with a bow, topped with mouse ears and a trip to Disney World.

Snellings family tradition, we've taken each of our children to a Disney park at age four and this year was our youngest daughter's trip. When our oldest daughter was four we took her to Disneyland. Then, our second child came along, and big sister told little bro he too would experience Disney's magic at age four. We obliged, but after that trip, the two oldest children announced that they loved Disney World so much, they would save up all their money to take the family back one day. Fast forward a couple years, the three-year-old looks up at us with her big bright eyes and basically said, she knows her rights..."I go to Disney too," she said. The children actually did a great job saving, but mom and dad had the pleasure of paying for this trip, since, after all we were ultimately responsible for starting this accidental family tradition.

 

Considering the fact that we've now paid for a couple Disney vacations, we knew what to expect and began putting a plan in place to save a buck, while also planning an awesome trip for our family of five. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing tips, reviews, deals  and all the shenanigans from our Disney vacation.

How We Made Our Disney Trip Happen On a Budget:

I did my research and found a deal for a Disney World Resort package including 4 nights, free dining, transportation from airport (Magic Express) and park tickets for about $3,800, but of course I felt I could do better, with creativity, planning, hotel points and airline miles.

We Used Airline Miles:

We had been saving our Delta Sky Miles for a vacation for awhile and decided to use them for this trip. We used 50,000 miles total, 10,000 miles per person for one-way flights from Detroit, MI to Orlando, Fl. We paid $5 per person for airline taxes and fees, but you can't beat $25 for five flights.

We Used Hotel Rewards Points:

We have been Hilton Honors members for a few years, but in the last year, we've been actively saving points for a family vacation. We decided to use our Hilton Honors points to booked a room at DoubleTree Suites by Hilton for 138,000 points for six nights. The hotel was located within walking distance of the Disney Springs area (formerly known as Downtown Disney) and offered shuttle service to the Walt Disney World Resort.

The hotel is nice, but not fancy in any way. For my family it worked fine, because all we needed was a clean room large enough for the five of us to lay our heads down after long days at the parks. The beds were indeed comfortable, and we all slept well.  

 

 

We booked a two-room, two-queen pool-view suite with sofa bed and  kitchenette. We chose this hotel because it was an all suite hotel, which gave our family plenty of room to stretch out and not be on top of one another. 

 

 

 

We all loved the DoubleTree cookies and they were quite generous at the front desk about giving them out, sometimes even twice a day. Don't judge. The hotel had just about everything we could need, including a pool, laundry room, car rental desk and restaurant. There were also two stores, including one that sold just about anything you could need from snacks to sundries. The other store sold all kinds of Disney souvenirs, cheaper than at the parks.  Unfortunately, it was too rainy the week we visited to make it to their outdoor pool. 

We saved more than $1,300 on flight and hotel, with no out of pocket cost for our hotel; which was amazing for my wallet and allowed us to splurge elsewhere.

We Purchased Discount Disney Tickets:

 

During our first trip to Disneyland in 2010, we only had to purchase a ticket for our then 4-year-old daughter because my husband and I received free tickets through Disney's Give A Day Get A Day promotion. For the last two trips with no free ticket options, we had to find a way to save on tickets. After much research we decided to purchased tickets through www.undercovertourist.com. We chose 4-day Magic Your Way, plus free extra day tickets; $348.59 adults and $327.53 children. We saved around $70 off the gate prices and paid $1,696 with expedited shipping.

We Saved Gift Cards Leading Up To Our Trip:

 

 We shared with family our plans to take the kids to Disney, and throughout the year family members would give us gift cards that we would save. I'm a Disneymovierewards.com member; which allowed me to earn points from Disney movie ticket purchases and redeem those points for Disney gift cards. We ended up saving around $800 in different gift cards that we used on food and souvenirs.

 

How We Got Around Town:

Since we didn't choose the Disney vacation package, we had to decide how we would get from the airport to our hotel. We chose to use a car service. I visited Mousesavers.com, which is where someone suggested Murray Hill transportation, transportation2disney.com. We paid $75 for a one-way trip that included a 20 minute stop at the grocery store to stock up on snacks before heading to our hotel. Honestly, this was one of the best decisions for our family because, we didn't have to wait at the airport. John Murray, owner, texted me and said he was at the airport awaiting our arrival. This was great, because we saw a long line for the Disney transportation and I was happy we didn't have to wait in that line. Tip is not included, but we were happy to tip, because John was very nice and I will definitely use MH Transportation again.

This is a roundup of how we made our Disney World trip possible. Come back next week to hear more about our trip. What we saw, where we ate and what we liked most. Can't wait to share all the fun details!

This is not a sponsored post, just my thoughts!