The Ultimate Disney World Adventure: Insider Tips for a Magical Vacation on a Budget!

When my children requested they wanted to go to Disney World, my first reaction was how fun! I’ve never been there. My husband had when he was a child but that was a long time ago. Who knows what might have changed since his last visit. Then I was thinking I wonder how much this will all cost. We wanted to be able to create a family adventure on a budget-friendly affordable as can be trip.

Luckily, we found a resort that was a little over $400 for the entire week. We checked hotels.com, but for that same resort, it would be been $100 per day so we figured this was the best price for Orlando Florida. For those that are interested in off-campus stay, check out where we got these awesome deals, click here. It’s our vacation club that we belong to and because we are members, we are able to pass along some discounts to you at no extra cost to you!

Then I had to figure out tickets. I soon realized that there were tons of options. They have certain deals for instate folks, but since we do not live in Florida, we were not privileged to those deals. During the off-season they do have deals on their website too, so keep an eye out for them. For example, the one deal I saw was $99 per day for 4 four days, which is an amazing price for Disney in general.

However, if you are from out of state and you have children in school, you may find yourself out of the time frame for some of these deals. So make sure you read the fine print. We ended up purchasing tickets from the website. When we got there, I was curious to see if tickets were cheaper at the gate, and they were not. After you purchase your tickets until Jan.1, 2024, you will need to check to see if you also need to make a reservation to enter the park. After Jan. 1, 2024, the rules will relax a bit and some tickets will not require a park reservation.

You will receive an email regarding your park reservation. You simply log in to My Experience Disney and start reserving the date and park you would like to visit. I suggest doing this before you go on your trip so it's out of the way and it would also ensure they have availability for you at the park. It basically reserves your spot to enter the park.

There are four worlds at Disney World. You have Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. It’s important to know if any of these islands have special events because that will play a role in how long the amusement park will be open. For example, we went in the month of October and they had an international food and wine festival at Epcot as well as a Halloween after-hours event at Magic Kingdom. The Epcot hours stayed the same for the festival but Magic Kingdom’s hours were cut short compared to other days in the week because of the after hours event. So we knew on those days, not to book Magic Kingdom. So the first thing I did was figure out the hours of each park and then pick the day we were going to Magic Kingdom. Then for the rest of the week depends on when I wanted our active rest day to be. Since Epcot had the food and wine festival and I love food, I wanted that to be the first day so if I tasted too much, we had the rest of the week to walk off what I ate. Then since Animal Kingdom was the smallest world we used that as our active rest day because it wouldn’t be as much walking as the other worlds. Finally, Hollywood Studios just fell into our week as the last day.

Next, we had to figure out our rental car since we were staying off campus. If you decide to get one of those deals where a hotel is included, then no worries. Since we were not, we were in the search of a rental car. We found that Avis had some decent prices. Just as a note, when we landed, the budget line was insane at the airport rental car area. Hertz had no line and Avis had a small to medium-sized line.

A nice surprise was where we stayed which was Summer Bay Resort, it is super close to a Walmart and a few different local type grocery stores. So we went shopping for the week and stocked up at our condo. It’s great to not have to worry about breakfast. We chose to eat lunch and dinner out, but Disney allows you to bring food in so if you wanted to make your own food, you totally can.

In our next post, we dive into the nitty-gritty details of our Disney World adventure. From essential packing tips for unpredictable Florida weather to insider insights on parking, food policies, and mastering the Disney World app, we've got the keys to a seamless and magical experience.

Join our community and subscribe to our newsletter for more fun-filled tips!