Best Disney World Money Saving Tips

Looking for some great money saving tips on your upcoming Disney World trip? Check out these best Disney World money saving tips and save yourself a small fortune. We recently saved more than one thousand dollars on our trip to Disney World by following these tips!

The Cheapest Way to Get to Disney World

We will start out this best Disney World money saving tips post with travel. This may go without saying, but you can easily spend several hundred dollars getting you and your crew down to Disney World. The best way to give your wallet a break here is to avoid costlier transportation options. If you live less than 10 hours away from Disney World and you are traveling with a group, then taking a vehicle is the only way to go.

Let’s say you live right around 10 hours (600 miles) away from Disney World. If you are in a family of four, you can take you vehicle and get to Disney World and back for ~$600. This price includes gas and general wear and tear on your vehicle. In comparison, four a family of four it would cost nearly $2,000 for us all to fly there!

Look at that – I just saved you $1,400 right off the bat with the first Disney World money saving tip!

Where to Stay at Disney World

One of the biggest control knobs on how much you Disney World vacation will run is your choice of where to stay. This is one of the most important best Disney World money saving tips. We all know that Disney World makes an absolute killing (more like a slaughter) with the prices they charge for overnight accommodations. You have a couple options here to get your costs down:

Do NOT stay on Disney World park property – If you stay at a non-property hotel, you can shave hundreds off of your week visit.
Stay at Disney’s Fort Wilderness – If you fell you must stay at a Disney World property and you are the camping type (and who isn’t :-)), you can get a spot that can accommodate a camper or motor home PLUS a tent! This is basically dividing your nightly rate in half!! This is what we recently did when we stayed at the park with my In-laws. The wife and I stayed in the tent and the kids and Grandparents stayed in their motor home. We were able to save more than $750 using this method vs. staying in a hotel!!!
Check out AirBnb or HomeAway – There are tons of housing options around the Disney World parks. Why not use AirBnb or HomeAway to rent a full size house for a fraction of the price of an on-park hotel room? You will have more space, less noise, and overall a more relaxing experience for much less! What’s not to love? For example, here is a condo on HomeAway.com with pool, kitchen, washer & dryer, and fitness center that sleeps 6 and is close to Disney World for only $103 a night – talk about killing it!

Best Ways to Save on Food at Disney World

One facet of a Disney World vacation that is often overlooked when it comes to money saving is food. For this reason, this is my favorite section of this best Disney World money saving tips post. Call me cheap, but I have a hard time spending $12 for a microwave hamburger and french fry basket. It’s OK every now and then to splurge on the restaurants they have at Disney, but high prices like that for everyday type meals will melt your credit cards in no time. Here are a couple money savings food tips for your Disney stay:

Bring Your Own Food – Seriously…. Disney World allows you to bring in your own food and snacks. Salad, sandwiches, just about anything that is not stored in a glass container is fair game. If you plan ahead, you can easily save more than $500 over a vacation by using this method. If you are not willing to go into full money-saving-mode, at least bring in some snacks for yourself and family in a backpack!
Do NOT Get the Pre-Paid Meal Plan – I repeat, DO NOT GET THE PRE-PAID MEAL PLAN! This is a complete waste of money. I have every belief that this idea was spawned by Satan himself. This is a extra-special rip-off if you are visiting the park with younger guests that cannot eat their weight in food. Seriously, we saw hundreds of people on the dinning plan that would get their dessert and only eat one bite of it. We experienced an entire table of eight people literally take one bite out of their $8 chocolate cake and ice-cream dessert. That’s $64 of waste right there! Our running joke was that we wouldn’t need to ever order dessert while we were at Disney. We could simply walk over to a table that had folks enrolled in the plan and cut out the small part that they didn’t eat. The only way I can see that you would at least break even here is if you routinely eat 20 pounds meals until you are close to the verge of vomiting…

Best Ways to Save on Drinks at Disney World

This section of the best Disney World money saving tips may not be for everyone, but you can score some pretty easy savings with a couple of these small decisions:

Never Pay for Soda – Soft drinks are bad for you, do not properly hydrate your body, and are expensive. Let’s say you are visiting Disney World for a 5 day drip as a family of four. If you order soda for lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner, that’s 12 sodas a day for the family. At $3 per soda, you would be spending over $180 just on soda! Simply ask for free ice water. It keeps you hydrated, is healthy, and will pay for a night or two of extra accommodations!
Bring You Own Drinks – As mentioned under the food section of this best Disney World money saving tips post, the bag checkers at the front of the park allow you to bring in your own food and drinks. For us, I brought in EAS Protein drinks to make a quick morning or afternoon snack that was also hydrating. I easily saved myself $20 a day using this method! These are also a meal/drink in one, so I was less tempted to spend extra cash on food.

Best Way to Save on Gifts at Disney World

This section of the best Disney World money saving tips may cause your kids to hate me. I’m OK with that 🙂 The simplest answer here is to set a budget ahead of time for how much you will spend on each kid. For us, we told our kids they could buy ONE thing that was less than $40. This made the discussion pretty easy and minimized any whining, nagging, or temper tantrums.

I would say that if we did not set a budget before the trip, we could easily have spent and extra $100+ on Disney World knick-knacks!

Best Disney World Ideas – Plan Ahead

Now it’s time for the best Disney World money saving tips lightning round! Here’s a grab bag of small ideas that really add up to a ton of savings!

Bring Your Own Glow Stick Bracelets – Why pay $8-$10 for a glow stick bracelet like this when you get get them from the Dollar Tree or Amazon for ten cents a piece?
Bring Your Own Dollar Tree Ponchos – It rained while we were at Disney World and every store there brought out their $12 ponchos. Why not buy a pack of 10 rain ponchos like these ahead of time for only $15 from Amazon. That’s only $1.50 a piece!!!
Stroller – This one is a no brainer. If you are driving to Disney World, then bring your own stroller and avoid paying $10 a day rental fee!
Make Your Own Autograph Pad – There’s no reason to pay $15 for a Disney World character autograph pad. You can simply make your own out of construction paper. Take a look at this Pinterest board for great DIY Disney World autograph book ideas.
Make you own T-shirt – Why pay $20 for a Disney World t-shirt when you can make your own matching family shirts ahead of time with simple Disney World iron ons? Save yourself at least $50 if you feel the urge to deck yourself out in Disney World splendor.