Don't go to parks every day! You can spend 1/2 days at the hotel and do character meals at locations that don't require park tickets and go spend some time at Disney Springs (no entrance fee).

Generally I think people go hyper focused on getting the best bang for their buck out of Disney and want to get as much done as possible and that results in people going nuts and getting totally exhausted and very frustrated because their expectations are sky high.

So my best advice to enjoy disney and to save money is to accept up front that there is no way to do everything, and having fun is the most important thing. So if your kids are hitting the wall at 3pm, go back to the hotel pool. Do park/hotel/park/hotel alternating days so people have time to recover. Look at all the awesome things you can do outside of parks but on Disney property that you can get reservations for (Hoop De Doo Review! Tons of character meals etc!). Have a good plan for the parks themselves that include not just the big rides you want to hit but also what other things you can do that might be a bit less popular that you can be somewhat confident you won't have to wait in line for.

And don't plan your days out to the minute. Truthfully, getting 7 hours you really enjoyed out of a park followed by a nice dinner, veg session in your hotel or dip in the pool is better than getting 15 hours of grinding through a to do list and collapsing into a bed. IMO at least.

Anonymous wrote:My favorite money saving tip is to order groceries through Garden Grocers and make sure I have a hotel room with a fridge and microwave. It saves so much money to have water bottles (Orlando water is gross), snacks, and breakfast food available.

Except don't use Garden Grocer, they're expensive. Amazon Fresh, Walmart, Publix, ect will deliver to hotels too.

Anonymous wrote:Save money: Pack lunch/snacks & water. Refill water at stations.

At just eat easy breakfasts in your hotel room before you leave.

Save money: Pack lunch/snacks & water. Refill water at stations.

-For universal, we brought our own lanyards with plastic card holders to hold our tix instead of paying $15/each for laynards there
-I do generally agree with grocery delivery to hotel. We did not do that, this past trip though. I brought some snacks from home & then we had one big bottle of water that we re-filled around the hotel (for free) and I got a 5 pack of silicone cups on Amazon.

-At disney some of the desserts are gigantic and you could probably share some to save money
-it generally is significantly less expensive to stay offsite, but there are some benefits to staying onsite. You have to decide what is important to you.

If you don't mind staying up late - I like the after hours events - you could do that as your only park ticket that day and have reduced crowds.

Agree with having a resort day.

Anonymous wrote:Time savers:

*buy Genie plus every day, even when you think you could do without it. Even if you only use it for 2 rides, you could save hours. Time IS money at Disney.
*Likewise, spring for the ILL for the rides you want to ride. These rides are truly time sucks if you don't.
*reserve at least one character meal in lieu of waiting in line at the in-park meet and greets.
*stay at an onsite resort to get the 30 minutes early opening
*stay at a deluxe resort to get the extra hours at to
*stay where you can walk to at least 1 or 2 parks or take the Skyliner. Avoid the buses when you can: Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Contemporary, Polynesian, or Grand Floridian. PopCentury, Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach, etc.
*Stay in a
*If you plan to watch the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom: do a Fireworks Dessert Party or Fireworks Cruise
*VIP tour ($$$)

Money savings:
none of the above; stay offsite and drive in to the parks each day.

I totally agree with you on everything but what is the rest of the sentence there?? LOL

Anonymous wrote:My favorite money saving tip is to order groceries through Garden Grocers and make sure I have a hotel room with a fridge and microwave. It saves so much money to have water bottles (Orlando water is gross), snacks, and breakfast food available.

How do you order this as delivery?

Plan a resort day. You will want the downtime.

Yeah…Genie Plus is crucial. It was a stretch for us, but I can’t imagine trying to go to Disney without it. The lines are insane.

Take a screen shot of every Genie Plus and Lightning Lane reservation as soon as you've made it. The times on reservations are known to shift. I had one reservation disappear entirely and spent too much time talking to the Guest Services people.

Anonymous wrote:My favorite money saving tip is to order groceries through Garden Grocers and make sure I have a hotel room with a fridge and microwave. It saves so much money to have water bottles (Orlando water is gross), snacks, and breakfast food available.

This is what we did. Groceries were waiting for us when we got off the plane. Snacks, breakfasts, etc, taken care of. So easy.

My favorite money saving tip is to order groceries through Garden Grocers and make sure I have a hotel room with a fridge and microwave. It saves so much money to have water bottles (Orlando water is gross), snacks, and breakfast food available.

Just stay at the cheaper Disney hotels. They are fine and better to stay longer vs. fancier.

Eat at the McDonalds for breakfast. Much cheaper.

Skip most of the stuff the PP stated as timesavers.

Rent a car as its easier and then you can go off property to a much cheaper restaurant.

Time savers:

*buy Genie plus every day, even when you think you could do without it. Even if you only use it for 2 rides, you could save hours. Time IS money at Disney.
*Likewise, spring for the ILL for the rides you want to ride. These rides are truly time sucks if you don't.
*reserve at least one character meal in lieu of waiting in line at the in-park meet and greets.
*stay at an onsite resort to get the 30 minutes early opening
*stay at a deluxe resort to get the extra hours at to
*stay where you can walk to at least 1 or 2 parks or take the Skyliner. Avoid the buses when you can: Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Contemporary, Polynesian, or Grand Floridian. PopCentury, Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach, etc.
*Stay in a
*If you plan to watch the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom: do a Fireworks Dessert Party or Fireworks Cruise
*VIP tour ($$$)

Money savings:
none of the above; stay offsite and drive in to the parks each day.

Many people seem to be heading to Disney and Universal this month so I thought I'd start a helpful thread!