How to save money booking your Disney trip

     First thing you need to do is figure out how you’re going to get to Disney. I have driven twice, it’s an extremely long drive from Houston to Florida but it can be done if you are really trying to save money. I fully admit both times we drove I was still married, and I did zero of the driving. I give credit to my ex-husband, because there is no way I was going to drive that far. 

I now fly every time I go to Disney, it’s a quick flight from Houston so I am not picky about the airline at all. I have flown just about every airline between Houston and Orlando. I honestly just book whatever is the cheapest or whatever I have points in miles for to get us there. 

  Next, you have to decide where to stay when you visit Disney. I have stayed on property, meaning at a Disney owned hotel, as well as off property, in a condo or other non-Disney owned hotel.  There are perks and drawbacks to both so let’s discuss them.

For many years, there were a lot of perks for staying on Disney property: magical express, early and late extra magic hours, free meal plans, however, in recent years, all of those have been slowly taken away. I don’t feel like there’s a lot of perks left to staying on property at Disney.  For our next trip, we are going to stay off property (sort of) 

Perks to staying in a Disney hotel:

1. 30 minutes early entrance to all parks every day

2. If you stay at a deluxe resort, you get extended evening park hours.

3. Use of Disney’s transportation that picks you up right at your hotel.

4. Early access to Genie lightning Lane individual attractions- 7am for Disney guests, park opening time for non-Disney guests (this can make a big difference in getting to some of the big rides) 

The two biggest drawbacks of staying on Disney property for me are usually the price and being stuck to Disney for everything (meals, transportation.) You are at the mercy of Disney for everything during your vacation if you stay within the “Disney bubble.” If you stay off property, you can usually get a significant savings on your accommodations for your trip. 

There are lots of condo resorts around the Disney World area that are very close to the entrances of the parks.  These are true resorts with large pools and lots to do at the resort itself. We’ve stayed in a few over the years and they are very nice and usually will include a kitchen, a couple of bedrooms and some even have washers and dryers so it makes it very convenient if you’re traveling with small children or a bigger party. We booked those when my daughter was young, thinking that we would come back in the middle of the day and take a break, eat lunch at the condo, but it never really happened. Driving into Disney, parking and taking the tram from the parking lot to the park and back is very time consuming so it never actually happened and it didn’t really work out the way we thought it would. We tried the condos twice but it is just not for us.

     We have stayed on property at Disney numerous times. We have stayed in all of the All-Star resorts. The All-Stars are the entry level Disney rooms so they are lower priced and more budget travel friendly. When we go to Disney, we are at the parks a lot of the time so we don’t splurge on the higher end hotels. The All-Star resorts are comfortable, clean and we enjoy them. Plus if your kids are smaller, they are very Disney themed and I feel younger children really enjoy that. My daughter went through an obsession with the little mermaid, so we also stayed in the Art of Animation numerous times when she was smaller because that was her favorite hotel. We have also stayed in All Star sports, music, movies and Pop Century and enjoyed all of them. (One of the perks of Art of Animation and Pop Century is the Skyliner feature, we really liked that transportation option.)

     Another option is to stay at a hotel off property, but very close to Disney. That’s what we are going to do when we go in December (we actually did this when we went to Universal last year and it worked out perfectly.) 

There are actually several hotels located in the Disney Springs area that Disney world has deemed as “official Disney World hotels” even though they are technically off property. The good thing with these hotels is you get the perks of staying on property at Disney hotels without the large Disney price tag. Best of both worlds in my opinion. 

Check out the list of hotels at this website: https://disneyspringshotels.com/our-hotels/?gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2qKmBhCfARIsAFy8buLS0WGh5X7uCkBhdscHGJp2npJ4wjot5qG9CvZ4MAaNMYV6hMY8JS8aAicZEALw_wcB 

By far the biggest perk of booking these hotels independently is that you can use points and miles to really save money on your vacation!!!

     Now let’s talk about tickets, this tends to be one of the largest expenses whenever going to Disney. You can either book directly with Disney or with a third-party booking site. I have done both,  I price out both and book whatever is cheapest when I’m ready to book. I have used the website undercover tourist numerous times, and they tend to be a bit cheaper than Disney directly. https://www.undercovertourist.com 

I just booked our tickets for December, and I saved about $100 booking with undercover tourist versus directly with Disney. They often have promos that will save you some money, so I recommend signing up for their email list, so you are aware of discounts that they offer. 

     Pricing for Disney tickets changes based on the date you will first use the tickets. Going at the peak times will definitely increase the ticket prices. Sometimes you can save a few dollars by moving the day to one or two days.

     When booking with undercover tourist, they will send electronic tickets that are delivered to your email. You can upload those into the My Disney experience in the Disney World app. That way your tickets are ready to go and you don’t have to wait in long lines at the gate.

I highly recommend you download the Disney World app as it will be the key to everything Disney, even before you get to the park. You will use it as your entrance to the park, to make reservations, check wait times for rides and to mobile order food. 

     As soon as you get your tickets, you have to make park reservations. Disney is currently still requiring park reservations for each day. This will go away in January 2024 however for the rest of 2023, it is still required. They have a Calendar, which shows the availability of each park daily. You really do need to make reservations as soon as you get your tickets, especially if you are traveling during peak times, like we are in December. You can also change your park reservations within the app if your plans change. You must start each day at the park that you have a reservation for. You can park hop after 2 PM each day but you must start in the original park that you have a reservation for.

     Since I mentioned Park hopper, let’s talk about what park hopper is. For an additional fee, it allows you to visit more than one park per day. Personally, we love the park hopper option. We will park hop to multiple parks each day. We used to love when you could park hop early in the morning but now you have to wait until 2 PM to go to a different park. But I still feel like it is worth the extra money for us. If one park is too busy, we simply leave and go to another one where the crowds are lighter. We’ve actually done all four parks in one day this way (not intentional but just did one or two rides at each park and then moved on to another one.)