Op find a time share presentation in FL that gives out Disney tickets. Drive to Florida (yes it's about 12 hours one way) stay at a cheap motel or through a time share presentation deal. I will try finding one and posting it.

Op here again,

Thank you all for your suggestions. We are going to Hershey park this weekend and will stay the night and stop at some of the museums in PA that you have suggested. I loved the campsite idea but not sure the weather will cooperate. I showed this thread to some friends and we are going to do some of the other things on this list. Disney is not on the cards this year but hopefully it will be next year or the year after.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic budget, rather save for a few years and have a normal vacation. Rather than this penny pinching crap.

OP, ignore this kind of stuff. You sound like you are a doing a great job, and as you said about your vacation last year, just getting to go someplace new and staying in a hotel (or cabin, or tent etc) is exciting for a child.

OP here!!! I'm sorry you think my budget is pathetic. I don't earn a lot but I do have a retirement fund, a college fund for my child and I have savings. I pay a mortgage, I'm putting myself though college paying out of pocket and I do donate (a small sum ) to charity every month. While I can easily put a Disney vacation on my credit card, I choose to be debt free. In two years I will be in a position to take my child on vacations but right now a $500 vacation is very normal to us. There have been some great suggestions on this board and I appreciate every single person taking the time out to help my child have a vacation. He is 6 and when he goes back to school and everyone is talking about their vacations, he too will have memories to share and we will have memories to look back on. I know that he wont think of these as cheap $500 memories but special times we had together. I don't have a single relative here in the US and I do everything on my own since I am a single mom. Please don't make me feel bad about my pathetic budget! That $500 means so much more to me.

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic budget, rather save for a few years and have a normal vacation. Rather than this penny pinching crap.

OP, ignore this kind of stuff. You sound like you are a doing a great job, and as you said about your vacation last year, just getting to go someplace new and staying in a hotel (or cabin, or tent etc) is exciting for a child.

Pathetic budget, rather save for a few years and have a normal vacation. Rather than this penny pinching crap.

Pp...jellystone is pretty redneck......but decidely friendly

Jellystone park in hagerstown, MD. Lots of stuff for kids to do. My fickle 5 year old loved it

Was just going to chime in for the Luray option. Look on Groupon for cheap hotels. Could also probably pay for tubing on the Shenandoah river or canoeing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not rule out Disney. You could fly really cheap on Frontier Airlines out of IAD. Get a really cheap hotel in Orlando on Hotwire and get discount tickets to Disney.

No way. A one day ticket is $101 dollars. You can maybe scrounge a discounted ticket for maybe $100. That's $200 each, plus flights, food, and hotel. And that is being EXTREMELY optimistic. It's probably going to be more like $165 for a one day ticket for an adult and $125 for the kid's ticket. There's just no way to do it for less than $1000.

Wow! Am I reading this right? One day tickets for one adult and one child could be $290?!! I thought tickets were always $100 each daily. I haven't taken my kids and maybe I won't at these prices.

1 day for an adult/child is $200-$240 depending on the time of year and park (MK costs more): https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/ticket-calculator

Anonymous wrote:What about that drive thru safari park in Virginia and lurray caverns?

We just did the Safari Park today and it was awesome. Our kids were laughing their heads off feeding the llamas, emus, ostrich and deer out the car windows. OP, this activity would cost you and your son under $50, including buckets of feed (get several as kids do drop them!)

Hotels with heated indoor pools and breakfast included can be got for around $100 per night in that area. Luray is a good suggestion too - there's several caves down there that may even be less expensive. Then there's some hiking in the Shenandoah Valley...lots to do in this pretty area in VA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not rule out Disney. You could fly really cheap on Frontier Airlines out of IAD. Get a really cheap hotel in Orlando on Hotwire and get discount tickets to Disney.

No way. A one day ticket is $101 dollars. You can maybe scrounge a discounted ticket for maybe $100. That's $200 each, plus flights, food, and hotel. And that is being EXTREMELY optimistic. It's probably going to be more like $165 for a one day ticket for an adult and $125 for the kid's ticket. There's just no way to do it for less than $1000.

Wow! Am I reading this right? One day tickets for one adult and one child could be $290?!! I thought tickets were always $100 each daily. I haven't taken my kids and maybe I won't at these prices.

What about that drive thru safari park in Virginia and lurray caverns?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes way! I've done it. I'm super cheap and I scour every deal out there. If you ask -- you get. If you assume...you know what ...you make an __ out of you and me!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not rule out Disney. You could fly really cheap on Frontier Airlines out of IAD. Get a really cheap hotel in Orlando on Hotwire and get discount tickets to Disney.

No way. A one day ticket is $101 dollars. You can maybe scrounge a discounted ticket for maybe $100. That's $200 each, plus flights, food, and hotel. And that is being EXTREMELY optimistic. It's probably going to be more like $165 for a one day ticket for an adult and $125 for the kid's ticket. There's just no way to do it for less than $1000.

Well of course there may be a way to do it IF you CAN get special deals, and the stars all align, etc.--but those circumstances may not be available to OP, and especially not right now.

Several years ago, I was able to take my family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids) to Disney for a week only spending about $700 out of pocket. The circumstances that allowed me to do that:

--My sister in law was a high level executive for a company that had a strong relationship with Disney. Her contact was able to get us an additional one day park hopper pass, water park pass, pass for that big arcade at Disney Springs (forget the name of it!) for each member of our family. She also gifted us tickets for the Christmas party one night.
--We had a lot of Marriott points saved up--enough to rent a 2 bedroom time share off property. Our unit had a full kitchen so we ate breakfast in the room, and packed lunches and snacks for our days in the park.

So sure it CAN be done---but I'm not arrogant enough to assume that EVERYONE has the exact same situations/circumstances that allowed me to do it.
--I had a Disney Visa Rewards card with nearly $1000 in points saved up. We were able to use those points to pay for all of our food (that we didn't bring in and "picnic" and other incidentals at the park)

Somebody who has spent the last year saving up $500 for a vacation is unlikely to have high-level executive relatives or Marriott points or $1000 in points from a Visa Rewards card.

PP you quoted here--exactly my point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes way! I've done it. I'm super cheap and I scour every deal out there. If you ask -- you get. If you assume...you know what ...you make an __ out of you and me!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not rule out Disney. You could fly really cheap on Frontier Airlines out of IAD. Get a really cheap hotel in Orlando on Hotwire and get discount tickets to Disney.

No way. A one day ticket is $101 dollars. You can maybe scrounge a discounted ticket for maybe $100. That's $200 each, plus flights, food, and hotel. And that is being EXTREMELY optimistic. It's probably going to be more like $165 for a one day ticket for an adult and $125 for the kid's ticket. There's just no way to do it for less than $1000.

Well of course there may be a way to do it IF you CAN get special deals, and the stars all align, etc.--but those circumstances may not be available to OP, and especially not right now.

Several years ago, I was able to take my family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids) to Disney for a week only spending about $700 out of pocket. The circumstances that allowed me to do that:

--My sister in law was a high level executive for a company that had a strong relationship with Disney. Her contact was able to get us an additional one day park hopper pass, water park pass, pass for that big arcade at Disney Springs (forget the name of it!) for each member of our family. She also gifted us tickets for the Christmas party one night.
--We had a lot of Marriott points saved up--enough to rent a 2 bedroom time share off property. Our unit had a full kitchen so we ate breakfast in the room, and packed lunches and snacks for our days in the park.

So sure it CAN be done---but I'm not arrogant enough to assume that EVERYONE has the exact same situations/circumstances that allowed me to do it.
--I had a Disney Visa Rewards card with nearly $1000 in points saved up. We were able to use those points to pay for all of our food (that we didn't bring in and "picnic" and other incidentals at the park)

Somebody who has spent the last year saving up $500 for a vacation is unlikely to have high-level executive relatives or Marriott points or $1000 in points from a Visa Rewards card.

Anonymous wrote:
Yes way! I've done it. I'm super cheap and I scour every deal out there. If you ask -- you get. If you assume...you know what ...you make an __ out of you and me!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not rule out Disney. You could fly really cheap on Frontier Airlines out of IAD. Get a really cheap hotel in Orlando on Hotwire and get discount tickets to Disney.

No way. A one day ticket is $101 dollars. You can maybe scrounge a discounted ticket for maybe $100. That's $200 each, plus flights, food, and hotel. And that is being EXTREMELY optimistic. It's probably going to be more like $165 for a one day ticket for an adult and $125 for the kid's ticket. There's just no way to do it for less than $1000.

Well of course there may be a way to do it IF you CAN get special deals, and the stars all align, etc.--but those circumstances may not be available to OP, and especially not right now.

Several years ago, I was able to take my family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids) to Disney for a week only spending about $700 out of pocket. The circumstances that allowed me to do that:

--My spouse was active duty military, and at the the time they were running a special deal that the military member got a 4 day park hopper for free, and family members could pay just $100 each (so that was about $500 of our "out of pocket" expense)
--My sister in law was a high level executive for a company that had a strong relationship with Disney. Her contact was able to get us an additional one day park hopper pass, water park pass, pass for that big arcade at Disney Springs (forget the name of it!) for each member of our family. She also gifted us tickets for the Christmas party one night.
--We had a lot of Marriott points saved up--enough to rent a 2 bedroom time share off property. Our unit had a full kitchen so we ate breakfast in the room, and packed lunches and snacks for our days in the park.
--We didn't buy many souvenirs, or extra "treats" and snacks.
--We drove instead of flying, so our transportation cost was about $200 in gas (the remaining of our "out of pocket" expense)

So sure it CAN be done---but I'm not arrogant enough to assume that EVERYONE has the exact same situations/circumstances that allowed me to do it.
--I had a Disney Visa Rewards card with nearly $1000 in points saved up. We were able to use those points to pay for all of our food (that we didn't bring in and "picnic" and other incidentals at the park)