Disney World Without Breaking The Bank.

Disney World is the dream vacation for families all across the world, but the most magical place on earth comes with a price tag, the price of this vacation is the largest factor in deciding whether it is a practical trip for a family to take. The Disney website will give you a general estimate of how much your family vacation is going to cost, but there are a few corners that can be cut to help decrease the cost of your family vacation without taking away from the Disney experience.

Book your hotel from a site that compares prices. My favorite is hotel choice. It is simple to use and has a relatively fast booking process. Not every hotel is available for a discount, so if your family wants to stay at a specific resort may be better off booking directly from the Disney site. If you create a choice hotels account they can notify you when new hotels are on their site. If this is your first time booking a trip to Disney I would recommend that you look into a travel agency that specializes in Disney world. Some travel agencies have special offers that are only for their Clients. If you  only feel safe booking directly in that case, I would check into the Special offers page directly on the Disney site. These sales are not as good as you would get on other sites but there better than no discount at all. (I have always used choice hotels and have never had a problem.)

The Date you go to Disney can greatly affect the total cost. Hotel and dinning are always more expensive during the summer months than they are during the winter. For more about Disney peak and off peak season I would suggest you check out allears.net

Even though Disney hotels are more expensive than staying off site they come with free perks that really add up if you were to pay for them separately. All of the Disney resorts come with the use of Disney busses, extra park hours, and themed pools. When staying at the hotel you do not have to pay for parking which will have you $30 a day in its self.

Once you have booked your vacation the costs still add up. Disney souvenirs can become the highest cost of your vacation. There are plenty of online retailers that sell discounted Disney merchandise at a fraction of the cost. My family always stops at the Wal-Mart in Orlando to pick up Disney apparel. As you can imagine the Disney selection at the Wal-Mart there is quite extensive as you can imagine.

Quick Links:
Hotels Combined 
allears.net
Official Disney Website

Where to get the cheapest hotel in Disney

Hotels on Disney Property can be quite expensive and it can be very hard to get a good deal on them. There are a few options I would recommend if you are looking to save money on your hotel.

Disney Value resorts are the cheapest hotels that Disney offers, keep in mind that these are just glorified motels so they are not the nicest. I have stayed at The All Stars Resort and it was not a bad experience at all. If your family is only in the room to sleep and shower these resorts work just fine.

Personally I always book my room from Hotel Combined, if you do not care which Disney hotel you stay at this would be the best option. Usually they have both the Dolphin and Swan, as well as a few of the nicer resorts. After staying at the deluxe resorts I find it a little harder to go back to the value ones.

The most affordable option would be to stay off property. I have never done this but I know there are hotels close by that offer transportation to and from the parks. If you're not planning on using the dinning plan and don't feel that you will be missing any of the Disney experience staying off property this would be the way to go.

Some travel agencies say they specialize in Disney vacation discounts. The only site I have used is Destination Florida, so I will include there link as well.

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Disney Q&A: Which Disney Park Should I Go To?

I was reading about the latest WDW information, when I saw someone ask this questions. I figured it was a situation lots of other people where in so I decided to make a blog post about it. The question read something similar to this

"I am only going to be in Disney for two full days and I am wondering what parks I should go visit, and which ones to skip out on?"

The parks you go to in WDW are very particular to your family, buts lets just say that you have never been to any parks before. I would recommend Magic Kingdom first, I think it really sets the Disney vibe.

The second park is a toss up between Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios or MGM to all of those who have been Disney Fans for awhile depending on the age of your party. If your going with young children I would say Animal Kingdom is not to miss, the safari ride is amazing and really makes your feel as if your in South Africa. Hollywood Studios has great shows and rides that are great if you are more focused on rides for teen and adults. Now I know lots of people love Epcot but personally its not my favorite park. If you are going with an older party this might be the park to try.

Disney World: Staying Away From The Crowds

If you are going to the Disney Parks be sure and not miss Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom, the largest out of the four Disney Parks is usually the most crowded. After years of visiting the parks I have created my own system to avoid the mass amounts of people.

Getting To The Park:
Everyone at Disney is one vacation, and generally when people are on vacation they like to sleep in. Take advantage of this! I like to make sure my family and I are at the parks at least 30 minutes before the parks are even scheduled to open. I bring a map of that particular park so we can decide what attractions are a must do for that day. About a 15 minutes before park openings Disney does a welcome show, these are supper cute and I would recommend going to see them, especially if you have small children who are in love with the Disney characters.

Once Your Inside:
Don't let the crowds on main street scare you, people usually fan out once you they spread out across the park. I always am sure to do the larger rides first since they have to longest wait times. Save the smaller rides for mid day, since they most often have the smallest wait times. Rides like Small World can almost always have a shorter wait time than Splash Mountain.

Mid Moring:
I always find this to be the busiest time. Once 10:30 am comes along people start coming out of no where, and things get crowded fast! Early breakfast means early lunch, and since we have been at the parks for a couple hours now I like to take this time to stop and get something to eat.

Naptime:
Disney parks are full of families with children who are still at naptime age, which is awesome since those families go back to their hotel room and free up a little space in the park. Now be prepared there will also be families who are going to try and make the most out of there time at the parks and keep their exhausted three year old all day, so bring your patience (and maybe some ear plugs) there will be lots of kids having temper tantrums.

Afternoon:
By this time my family and I are done at the parks for that day and are ready to go to a water park or back to the hotels pool. Florida's heat can tire you out and a Disney vacation is no fun if your to tired to enjoy it. Don't over schedule yourself by trying to do everything in Disney, (its not possible). I promise if you enjoy a few activities you will have much more fun than trying to do them all.

Evening:
Disney does some amazing shows at the end of there day. No matter what the ages of your party are everyone enjoys a good parade or fireworks show. And I have to say, I'm not sure of anything more magical than fireworks in Magic Kingdom!

Walt Disney World Dolphin Review

This trip we were planning a shorter vacation so my family and I thought it would a good opportunity to try out a new hotel. Now we usually choose to stay at a moderate resort (mostly because of the price decrease.) however, since we got a great deal (more on that later) at The Walt Disney World Dolphin we choose to stay there. Even though we did not pay any more than we would have paid at a moderate resort my expectations were much greater.

I book my hotels from Hotel’s Combined I always do my research before booking my room and this site has always giving me the lowest quote. I would be willing to do a review on Hotels combined if anyone is interested. We stayed a total of four nights and my total was a little over $1000, which I didn’t think was too bad for a Disney hotel.

Upon check in I was very pleased with the hotels exterior. The property was clean and seemed to be well taken care of. One of the things I was worried about when booking this hotel was that it was not going to have the Disney vibe but after talking to some of the cast members I was quickly convinced otherwise. Check in when very smoothly and I was into my room in under a half hour.

Now take into consideration that we didn’t get to the resort until after 9pm so it could be a much different story during peak check in times. We checked out at 7am which also went very smoothly, but again it was before the checkout rush. Staff was all very friendly and willing to answer any questions that I had.

Upon arrival into the room was as a little disappointed in the décor, it seemed very outdated. The room we stayed in was very basic, two queen sized beds, a little table, and basic bathroom. Our mini fridge was also not working but after a day of traveling we were too tired to care. I have read reviews saying that the room have strange odor to them. I didn’t notice that so much in my own room, however, I would recommend that the cleaning crew go a little easier on the Windex. Everyday our room was supplied with new towels as well as shampoo and soap. The second night we called housekeeping to get some extra shampoo in conditioner. After an hour we still had not received it, so I called down again and it came right up. This was the only time we had to ask for extra so I cannot say if this usual for the hotel.

The dolphin is defiantly geared towards adults more so than the Disney Value Resort which you see mainly families with young children. If you are looking for a quiet hotel that is still on Disney property I would recommend the Dolphin, however if you have small children who are more interested in the parks I would say save your money and stay at a value resort. They are not as nice but the décor is very character themed and exciting for children.

Positives:
Fast check in
Quiet adult
Adult friendly
Clean
Negatives:
Slow Housekeeping
Outdated
Not overly Disney


Quick Links:
Hotels Combined
More Reviews for Disney Hotels
Discounted Disney Hotel Rooms
Disney’s Official Website
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