You Can Visit Walt Disney World For Less

Everybody knows most of the tricks to saving money on your Walt Disney World vacation. Stay in motels off site or stay at Disney's value resorts, don't buy too many snacks and souvenirs, and find less upscale dining choices.

Is Walt Disney World more expensive to visit during holidays? Yes and no. We have proven we can get almost the same discounts during holiday periods, but only a small number of people can do so because of the limited number of discount airplane seats and resort rooms during peak travel times.

Get a Room, Not a Package
Even Lower Room Rate After Booking
What If They Can't Give You Your Room
Should I Stay At A Disney Resort
Choosing a Disney Resort

Our unofficial Walt Disney World page
More travel tips
Go to articles on completely different subjects.

Lower Resort Room Rates

So you booked your Disney resort and then some discount rates are advertised?

Try the following hints if you can cancel or change your original reservation without fees or penalties.

1. You could make a second reservation with a different travel agent. Sometimes the discount is not available for your entire stay because the allotment for discount rooms has been exhausted for some of the nights. Try making the second reservation for just a few nights at the start of your stay or for just a few nights at the end of your stay. Get written confirmation for this. Then shorten your first reservation to eliminate the nights you booked for the second reservation. Wait for written confirmation. Now try to extend the second reservation to cover more days or make a third reservation to cover a few more days of the first. Since other guests are continually booking and cancelling, the allotment of discount rooms keeps changing. If you are lucky, you can book more and more discount nights and delete them from your first reservation.

You will have to keep calling every week or even every few days to see if and when discount rooms become available.

When modifying one reservation, don't talk about the other reservation at all. That just adds confusion.

If some nights remain on the original reservation when you arrive at Disney, you will have to come down to the desk and check out  and then check in again on the day when one reservation changes to another.

2. If your travel agent is willing, let him/her keep modifying your original reservation to get some or all nights at the discounted rate. Since lots of telephoning is needed, few travel agencies want to do this. You can do the telephoning and just let your travel agency know each time a new promotion or discount comes up.

Example:

Had November 18 - 24 (2001) reserved at $77. per night with one travel agent. Later a discount of $49. was announced which covered the entire period. Tried to reserve Nov. 18 - 21 with another travel agent but request was rejected. Tried again for just Nov. 18 - 20 and it succeeded, apparently just the night of Nov. 20 was not available at a discount.. Deleted first two nights from first reservation leaving 4 nights at $77. per night (Nov. 20 - 24). Made another request to extend the Nov. 18 - 20 reservation but no discounted rooms were available. By this time it was too late to make any more changes and get them confirmed. At Disney they were able to give me the same room for both (consecutive) reservations but this is not guaranteed.

A La Carte Is Usually Better

Be sure you know what you are booking when you inquire about Disney or Universal Studios resorts. The booking agents try to push packages that include such things as park admission, meals, and options like golf or horseback riding.

You should ask specifically for a "room only" reservation if that is what you want.

In most cases there is no price saving compared with booking the room all by itself and purchasing or attending the activities you want separately.

Packages also tend to have stricter advance payment requirements and stiffer penalty fees for modifying or cancelling your reservation. Ask what these are before completing your booking. At one time Walt Disney World threw in a "free" admission to its sports complex in order to make what looked like a room-only reservation into a package with the aforementioned stricter requirements.

Sometimes your written confirmation shows "package" when the payment terms also printed on it are for a room only reservation. In this case the payment terms printed are still valid.

Packages that include park admission are of limited or dubious value if you have an annual pass. Possible exception: In early 2003 Disney offered its Fairy Tale Package that gave seven days and six nights for the price of four days and three nights. You received unlimited park admission and a choice of resort. As with all promotions, only a limited number of rooms and therefore only a limited number of these packages were available with some holiday dates blacked out.

Overbooked, Shut Down, or Not Open Yet

If you already made, confirmed, and put down a deposit on your Disney resort reservation, you should ,if you wish, insist that Disney honor the room rate at another equal or more upscale resort, although the resort choice is theirs.

Disney will attempt to "upsell" you by offering more upscale resorts with big discounts but still totalling more than your original rate. They hope that enough people will choose the more expensive resorts so the resorts in your original price range don't get overbooked.

You will likely be offered discounts on pricier resorts only once, close to the time you are notified your original reservation was cancelled. You may take the chance that they will eventually find the same price resorts overbooked and upgrade you free of charge, by simply asking for an alternate offering at your original price.

In 1997 I had a reservation for All Star Sports. The resort was not completed at the time and I got a free upgrade to Port Orleans Riverside (then called Dixie Landings) without asking.

Some folks would have wanted to stay in a more upscale resort anyway, and seized the chance to get an upgrade for just a little more money.

If you do accept an upgrade at a higher price, be sure to get a written confirmation of the per night rate. You don't want to be expecting to pay $200. more for a four night stay and arrive to find it is $200. more per night for a total of $800. more.

Choosing a Disney Resort

The All Star resorts, in addition to being the least expensive within the Disney complex, have the advantage of better bus service during off hours due to the bigger population. Phase 3 (with a "movies" theme) opened in early 1999 bringing the total number of budget rooms to nearly 5800 and the peak population to about 15000. The three resort bus stops are very close together so the ride to the destination is more direct. Reserve well in advance, internal sources tell me the occupancy rate so far tends to be above 90% most of the time with many sold out nights. Rates per night are approximately (1998, in USD) $80. fall, $90. summer, $100. Christmas. The Pop Century resort will also have upwards of 5000 budget rooms and is scheduled to open in mid-Decmeber of 2003.

For the next step up in resort luxury, Port Orleans also has a critical mass to receive good bus service. Rates are (for 1998) approximately $115. fall, $135. summer, $150. Christmas. (Dixie Landings is now called Port Orleans Riverside.)

The most cost effective use of Walt Disney World means spending very little time in the room. Therefore further step ups are probably not worthwhile for the average family. Do you really want to pay "a $200. per night surcharge" just to have monorail transportation to the Magic Kingdom?

Even if you don't have a length of stay (unlimited magic) pass, Disney doesn't mind if you stay in their resorts and go off to other places like Universal Studios or Sea World. In fact, shuttle buses (extra cost) run regularly to Universal Studios and a few other selected locations.

If you have a car, some hotels and motels outside the Disney complex, even some on U.S. 192 within a mile of the Disney freeway entrance (World Drive), can be had for half the All Star resort rate. Shop around.

A Tale Of Two Trips To Walt Disney World  (1998)

(For budget conscious travelers)

Although the actual trips were taken solo, we have estimated two sets of figures, the first is the cost for a couple, and the second is for a family of four. Theme park admission is not included; it would be the same regardless of whether you stayed at a Disney resort.

Trip #1 -- Staying at a Disney Resort

(Trip used for comparison was taken over Thanksgiving 1998)

Airplane fare: $300. per person, ($600. for two / $1200. for four).

Thanksgiving is a peak travel time. The fare shown here is near but not at the low end of the scale  for Boston or New York to Orlando but can be obtained then with some advance planning and booking.

Hotel: $85./$95. per night $510./$570. total, including taxes.

Six nights at Disney All Star Resort. This is the least expensive resort group inside Walt Disney World. We are using the off season rate for both trips. With advance planning and reservation, that rate is usually available from a week before Labor Day to a few days before Christmas, and also for much of January and February.

Airport Shuttle: $25. per person round trip, $50./$100. total

For the family of four the cost of the shuttle comes close to the cost of renting a car for a week even if you leave the car in the parking lot and take the Disney buses everywhere.

Meals: Total cost 490./$840. for the week.

Plan on at least $35. per adult, $25. per child per day including the day you arrive and the day you leave.

Fancy meals such as the luau at the Polynesian resort, and mid day snacks, will add to this cost. We do not recommend any of the Disney meal plans. These plans do not include between meal snacks, it is difficult to eat your money's worth without danger of excessive weight gain, and if someone gets indigestion, the best therapy is fasting which will waste money spent on the plan.

Total basic budget for trip #1: $1650. for couple, $2710. for family of four excluding choice of theme park admissions.

Trip #2 -- Renting a car and staying outside of Walt Disney World

(Trip used for comparison was taken two weeks before Christmas 1998)

Airplane fare: $200. per person, $400./$800. total

This was the least cost  fare from Boston to Orlando.

Hotel: $50./60. per night, $300./360. for the week.

Six nights at budget motel on Rte. 192, within two miles of the "main gate entrance" to Walt Disney World.

Rental Car: $130./$180. per week.

We are assuming you decline all the optional insurance coverages for the rental car. However this should be done only you have a credit card with the appropriate benefits, or collision coverage on your own car.

If the kids don't mind holding suitcases on their laps to and from the airport, the $130. economy car will do. After all, once everyone gets to the motel, the suitcases are unloaded and rides to Disney, restaurants, etc. are more spacious.

Meals: We estimate you can budget: $320/$550.

With a rental car you can go out to dinner at restaurants outside Walt Disney World, and also go to the grocery store and bring food into the motel rooms. With concerted but not extreme economizing we estimate a meal cost of a little over $20. per day per adult and a little under $20. per day per child including one hot meal per day but not counting mid day snacks. We did find very economical meals (dinner just over $10.) at the All Star resorts which you may drive to when patronizing the restaurants and gift shops.

Total basic budget for trip #2: $1150. for couple, $1890 for family of four, excluding admission to Disney theme parks.

Things we estimate will be the same for both trips:

Theme park admission tickets

If you had leftover days on a pass from a previous trip to Walt Disney World, or if you have an annual pass, the cost of admission would be less on this trip.

Souvenirs.

Mid-day snacks.

A special meal, once or maybe twice during the trip.

We were able to get similar prices during a trip in early 2003.

Holidays On A Budget  (11/03)

This is a rundown of trip costs for Thanksgiving week of 2003. This trip was made to demonstrate that even peak holiday periods can still be enjoyed on a budget. But we must warn you that very few rooms and airplane seats are offered at deep discount rates during peak travel times and it also takes patience, timing and luck.For example you would have to be the first to get through on the phone or internet when an airline first offers any bookings for a given date, which may be something like the afternoon on the 332'nd day in advance.

Airfare Boston to Orlando: Paid $220. round trip which was the lowest fare ever offered for those dates. Prevailing fare for those dates by that airline was $550. to 600. for most of the year. Deepest discount by that airline for nearby dates was $160.

Room including taxes: $34. for Motel 6, $55. for Disney resort (All Star) using annual passholder rate, $69. for same Disney resort using AAA rate, $86. normal rate for that Disney resort. We actually used all of these rates since the annual passholder rate was blacked out for some of the nights.

Rental car for two including taxes and fees: $176. for eight days (would have been $150. for seven days). It took a lot of shopping on different dates to find this rate offered, $250. for eight days was a more typical discounted rate.

Meals: We could average $30. per person per day, about $5. for a quick breakfast, $10. or less for lunch in the parks, and $15. or less for dinner outside the parks.

Park admission: This would be the same no matter what time of the year you go, unless a promotion was in effect. We were using the annual pass.

With the increasing use of the internet, the lowest price airplane seats are gone within hours or even minutes of the first availability for really popular dates of travel. Discounted resort rooms also go fast. It takes a long time to get through on the phone when promostions such as annual pass rates are first announced and not all callers on the first day get these rates.

Go to top of this page

Go to our main Disney page

The official Disney web site: (http://www.disney.com)

An unofficial site full of Disney information and tips
   (www.wdwinfo.com)

More travel tips

Go to this web site table of contents.

All parts (c) copyright 2001-3, Allan W. Jayne, Jr. unless otherwise noted or other origin stated.

P.O. Box 762, Nashua, NH  03061
603-889-1111 --  ajaynejr @ aol.com
If you would like to contribute an idea for our web page, please send us an e-mail. Sorry, but due to the volume of e-mail we cannot reply personally to all inquiries.