Doing Disney Without Breaking The Bank
Oh the age old question, How do you do you bring your kids to Disney World without filing Chapter 11? With a little planning and budgeting you can make lasting memories without having to pay 22% APR.
Our daughter is turning 3 and this will be the last vacation as an only child. Her sister is expected in the next few weeks and we wanted to do something special for our little angel. We have taken her to Disney before but she was a little young to remember. This experience was quite different as she recognized many of the characters and was excited for the rides.
We are a single income family and I think its important to mention this in our posts. It takes careful planning, budgeting and saving for us to take the trips we take.
We also walk away from our trips without debt as we do not put any of our expenses on credit. The important points of this article are not about making you aware to the rides and attractions that Disney has to offer, instead how to take advantage of some of the free attractions and how to plan to make this as enjoyable for you as it is for your children. Here are a few things to consider when starting to plan your trip to Disney.
Deals Deals Deals.......
Keep your eye out for deals, some of the sites that I pay attention to are Travel Zoo, Airfare Watchdog and Book It. We stayed at the Wyndham Grand Bonnet Creek on this trip and received an amazing deal as you can see here. This property is located inside of Disney World and has a shuttle running to all of the main attractions as well as Downtown Disney. If you are driving in you can park your car without worrying about getting around. If you are flying in this could save you from having to rent a car if your trip is designed around Disney attractions. This property is very kid friendly with a few restaurants on the grounds as well as the Barista to get your Starbuck's fix and some late night ice cream, for the kids of course. There is also a nice beach style swimming pool and a lazy river to float around and relax on in your down time.
Look for deals where tickets are included. Many times you will find package deals that are worth looking into. If you are undecided on how many days you will spend in the parks, just know that by the second day your legs and butt will be on fire. It is not worth the exhaustion and fatigue just to say you did it. It is vacation after all and screaming kids don't spell relaxation.
Convenience Is Key......
Disney World offers Fast Pass for quickly bypassing long lines and entering the rides through a dedicated lane for those using FastPass. Before going into the park my wife begged me that we opted for the Fast Pass. She was 32 weeks pregnant at the time of our visit and had very little interest in a 60 minute long line to get on Peter Pan. While purchasing our tickets at the counter I caved and asked to add the Fast Pass option to our tickets. To my amazement we were told that it was free. Yes Disney gives something for free. They Have an app for smartphones called My Disney Experience. Once the app is loaded you will need to set up a quick account using your email address, then you will scan the QR code on the back of the tickets and assign them to the people in your party. They give you 3 free Fast Passes to select the rides you want to bypass the lines for. The great thing about this app is that it shows your realtime wait times and provides several options for times to get on your most desired rides. We found this to be extremely helpful, anyone traveling with a 2 year old and a pregnant wife knows that the line between happiness and chaos is drawn by convenience.
Downtown Disney.....
Make sure to take a visit over to Downtown Disney, travel by shuttle or you can park for free in the garage. At night time there is live music and DJ's playing dance music all over the grounds. Restaurants like the Fulton Crab House provide a unique dining experience, sitting on what appears to be an old river boat, with fresh seafood being served. Or there is the T-Rex restaurant that is similar in set up to the Rainforest Cafe' with the exception that there is a meteor shower every 10 minutes.
Disney really is special, our last night at Magic Kingdom and having Faith on my shoulders watching Cinderella's castle light up and fireworks go off was an experience that every parent should have. She will never truly know how much I enjoyed that. It is moments like this, that add value to the whole experience. This isn't just another theme park somehow Disney has managed to embed itself in the child in all of us.