How we did Disney on a Budget

We have taken splurge trips to Disney World, budget trips, and everywhere in between. All have been equally as magical.

Here is how we planned a last minute, budget trip to WDW for our family of five.

Purchase Disney Gift Cards with Target Red Card for 5% off

We always know (or hope) we’ll be going back to Disney World or Disneyland at some point in the future. One way that we save up for those future trips, is by buying Disney gift cards from Target in advance over time. Did you know that when you use your Target RedCard, you save 5% on those gift cards? That adds up, especially if you spend $100’s, $1,000 or more in gift cards. It’s not often you get a deal on gift cards so take advantage! There is another exception however. Usually in December, Target runs a one-day sale on all of their gift cards for 10% off! It is a smart and easy way to stock pile those Disney gift cards for your upcoming trip. What can you use all those gift cards for you ask? Pretty much anything at the Disney resorts. We use them to pay for our Disney resort accommodations, park tickets, food anywhere on Disney property, and souvenirs.

Be Flexible with Accommodations

Another way we saved big this trip is that we booked the cheapest Disney resort room we could find for our family of five. We always stay on property at Disney World, and probably always will. Disney makes it way too easy to justify renting a car and staying off property, and for how much we are back and forth at the parks, it just makes sense for our family. For this budget trip, I found a room deal at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. The resort was going through some major renovations at the time, and is most likely why it was so cheap. None the less, we knew that with the length of our stay being a little shorter than a week this time, that we weren’t really going to be spending any time at our resort because all our time was going to be spent at the parks. The deal we found for the popular, large moderate resort was around $130/night (plus taxes and fees). Whaaaat? That is pretty much unheard of so we jumped at the chance. That price fit in our budget perfectly for our 5-night stay.

Getting Ready for bed after a long day at the parks

The pool at our resort was huge and had awesome water slides

One of the biggest ways we save money during every Disney trip no matter what our budget it, is on food. Our best tip that we give friends heading to WDW for the first time, is to send a box of snacks, food, drinks, etc. to the resort about a week before your arrival. We have even had necessities from Amazon like diapers and sunscreen delivered to the resort for us. Once you arrive at your Disney resort, make sure to mention of it when checking in. This is not unusual for the resorts and they most likely have it safely stored in the back for you. Another tip is to take a refillable filtered water bottle and refill it for free with ice water or drinking fountains while in the parks. We love eating at our favorite Disney restaurants, but for this trip, we decided to pick one favorite restaurant to have a special table dinner at one evening. Every other meal was eaten at a quick service restaurant (minus breakfast, which was our own oatmeal that we had packed and brought in our suitcase).

Our view from the table…watching all the animals outside the big window!

Use Airline Points to Book Flights and be Flexible

Another way we were able to cut down on costs was with our flights. We used our Southwest rapid reward points to book all of our flights which saved us a ton, and we have done this on previous trips as well. If you don’t have a Southwest card or an airline card, just look periodically for flights, and in order to get the best prices be flexible with your travel dates. We tend to find that the cheapest days of the week to purchase plane tickets are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We ended up going to Disney World at the beginning of January when everyone was going back to school because once again it was cheaper as it’s not a very popular time. The weather is cooler, holiday decorations are coming down, and the park crowds are thinning out. It was however the perfect time for us because we weren’t interested in going at the perfect time or when weather would be warmer. Our main concern was to do this trip as inexpensively as possible and we definitely accomplished our mission. Till next time Mickey!!

There you have it, all our tips and tricks on making our Disney World budget dreams come true. We hope we gave you some good tips and new ideas on how to plan a last-minute budget friendly vacation to Walt Disney World. Do you have any secrets on how to save money that you would like to share? We’d love to hear them.

XOXO,

The Joneses ( Mike and Kristin)

February 2, 2019 2

Our YouTube Channel

We have a family YouTube channel! It’s mostly a way for our family and friends that live far away to keep up with us, as I am terrible about sending pictures! We have some fun things coming up so if you would like to keep up with these Jonesys you can clink on the link and subscribe to our channel as well. The kids are so excited about this and are already making plans for videos to include. Here’s our latest video. We hope you’ll watch and subscribe. Let us know what you think and leave us a comment 🙂

https://youtu.be/AZ51hsbx-wY

March 14, 2017 0

Roadtrip Stops to The Black Hills, South Dakota (Driving from Eastern Nebraska)

Now that we have visited the beautiful Black Hills in South Dakota, I cannot believe we have never been before. To have that gorgeous landscape, so different than what we are used to where we live in Nebraska so close to us is astounding. Driving to the Black Hills from Omaha is about 8- 8 ½ hour drive straight through. What makes this roadtrip fun is that there are unique places to stop along the way that breaks up the drive and makes it not seem so long. We actually made a day of it. Taking our time and exploring all the stops along the way. Since we live in Eastern Nebraska we actually drove straight north our first night. We were lucky enough to have our first overnight night stop be at our friends’ place in Sioux Falls which is about 2 ½ hours north of us. It was a quick drive and one there it left us with about a 6 hour drive to the west side of South Dakota that we tackled the next morning.

Corn Palace:

Once on highway 90, we drove for about an hour before we stopped in Mitchell, SD. I had heard about the corn palace before but have never even seen a picture of it. Our kids were so excited to see what this so-called palace made out of corn was all about. It is definitely a must see. I won’t go into too much detail (so as not to spoil the experience), but I will say, it is really cool, and we spent a good hour there just walking in and around it.

Al’s Oasis:

After we left the corn palace it was getting close to lunch and the kids were starting to get hungry. We had another quick hour drive up the road before making our next pit stop on the other side of the river in Oacoma, at the famous Al’s Oasis. This cute little strip mall of shops is dressed up like an old western town. Al’s Oasis had the best pie, which in my book is reason to go back again. If you have a big appetite, try their buffalo burger. Don’t forget to stop in the souvenir shop on you way out the door.

Wall Drug:

I have to laugh when I think of Wall Drug. People would try to explain it to me but once again, it’s something that needs to be experienced. It is such a tourist trap, but again, they have a little sprinkler/water area in the back on the stores and a places for kids to run around and get all their energy out. They also have ice cream…and homemade donuts. It’s one of those places where when our kids grow up they will remember trying to pick out their souvenirs at Wall Drug. It’s really just a strip mall of souvenir shop, upon souvenir shop made out to resemble an old western town.

I’m sure there are more hidden gem stops along the way, but these are just the ones that our family stopped at on our trip out. It made the day relaxed and fun. Even after driving and stopping at our slower pace, we still had time to fit in a trip to Mount Rushmore once we got to Keystone, have some pizza and call it a night. We did hit the Badlands on the way home, but it was more of a pit stop than a visit. We would love to go explore it more. Have you done this road trip? What are your family’s favorite stops/ things to do? I’d love to hear your suggestions for the next time we head out to the Black Hills.

March 1, 2017 0

Our Top 5 Places to Eat at Disney World

Disclaimer: We have yet to try all the places that Disney World has to offer. That being said, we’ve tried a number of them and based on two family trips to Disney World, these were our overall favorites. These places include table service restaurants and counter service restaurants. Our favorites are not based on just price or food alone, but the overall experience as a whole.

On our first trip to Disney, we tried to make it a very budget friendly trip. We rarely ate at any table service restaurants or character meals. We ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that we made in the morning for lunch, and just tried to keep things as cheap as possible. For our second time around we were determined to try as many new restaurants as possible. We had so much fun trying all the different food options, and even after all of new tries, I still have not tried a dole whip! Here is our list of favorite places to eat at Disney World.

Yak and Yeti (counter service): For a quick lunch while at Animal Kingdom we headed over to Yak and Yeti counter service for some Asian cuisine. Along with the Asian flare offered, they also serve hamburgers and hot dogs. Our favorite items of the menu were the egg rolls and the chicken fried rice of all things, in which our kids happily devoured.

That’s a baby sleeping on dad

‘Ohana (The Polynesian Resort): For a change of pace we took the monorail over to the Polynesian on our last night in Disney World, to eat at their family style restaurant, ‘Ohana. Before dinner they have the kids come up and participate in a couple of games. One of them is coconut races using little brooms. My kids had so much fun doing this and it was great for them to burn some extra energy before dinner while we waited for our food to come out. We really ate ourselves silly at ‘Ohana as it is an all-you-can eat style dinner consisting of pineapple-coconut bread, meat skewers, stir-fried vegetables and their famous bread pudding for dessert. I will go back to Ohana for the bread pudding alone it is that good! There is something for everyone here and I promise nobody is going to leave hungry.

Coconut races and bread pudding!

Cinderella Castle (Lunch): This one is a pretty obvious one. They could have served us cold mush for lunch and we would have loved it (just kidding). The whole experience at the castle is in our opinion worth the hefty price tag at least once. Here’s why… Before heading upstairs to the main dining area, guests get to have a meet and greet with Cinderella first and get their picture taken with her. You also get a framed photo of you with Cinderella, which is included in the overall dining price. They do a couple of special things for the kids once in the dining all, and the whole place is surrounded by beautiful stain glass windows. The food is good, but we were there for the princesses. Even our 7 year old boy at the time loved it.

Biergarten (Epcot): Adults go to Biergarten for the gigantic steins of beer that you get. Kids go for the all you can eat dessert buffet and the dancing. While you are feasting on the all you can eat buffet, the live German band plays upbeat music while guests can dance along to the beat. I have to admit that when we booked our dining reservation at Biergarten is was for the experience but we quickly discovered that the food was exceptionally good. There were a lot of different options and I didn’t eat one thing that I didn’t really enjoy. We all agreed as a family that Biergarten was one of our favorites and a must do again.

Sanaa (Animal Kingdom Lodge): Ahhhh, Sanaa…When I think of Sanaa, I get all dreamy eyed and it’s probably because it was a meal experience unlike anything we have every had before. Once again, I booked this dinner based more on experience but had heard the food was amazing. We just weren’t sure what to expect once we got there. We were greeted with a taken care of by the friendliest of staff. We asked for a table by the window so our kids were able to get up and stand near the window where every so often the curious animals and birds would come over to say hello. We got to watch zebras, giraffes, gazelles and ostriches play outside while we munched on the most delicious naan bread platter consisting of 9 different dipping sauces. My kids gobbled up the bread and their dinner and the plates were huge. If you don’t have very adventurous eaters in your group, please don’t let the initial menu scare you away from not eating at Sanaa. The whole atmosphere was so authentic and memorable as was the food. Sanaa is a must do again every time because we love it so much. It’s our new Disney dining tradition.

Naan bread platter, meeting animal friends and enjoying dinner

We can’t wait to go back to Disney World and have been planning our next trip for quite a while. In the meantime, I’d love to hear where your favorite places to eat at Disney are! Did I persuade you to try one our our favorites? I’d love to hear what you thought of it.

February 20, 2017 0

Febrile Seizure

I write this in hopes that if there ever is a next time that this situation arises my heart and my mind will be a little more prepared for the situation at hand. And also, that maybe someone reading this will remember our situation and know what to do if it happens to their child.

A few days ago our 3-year old woke up with a fever. I knew because he was just shivering and had little goosebumps all over him. His eyes soon became glassy and watery with a steady stream of tears running down his flushed little face. He had all the typical fever symptoms, but nothing out of the norm where I was concerned. I tend to not get overly panicked about fevers. Around 8am his temp was around 100. I took it again around 10:45 and it was around 102. That was the last time I checked it. Our older 2 kids were home from school and since Landry was with a fever we were all just lounging around watching cartoons. He was snuggled under a blanket shared by his sister for quite a while, and then me for a few minutes as well. This may not have helped his rising body temperature. I was watching him carefully to make sure his temp didn’t go up anymore. I had not given him any Motrin yet, as I was watching the fever and seeing if it would break on its’ own. He wasn’t complaining, just being very quiet.

Around 11:30, I got up to go to the bathroom. I left him for 2 minutes. I asked him if I could get up and he quietly said no, but I told him I would be right back, and got up anyway. When my 5 year old was meeting me on my way back to tell me something was wrong with him, she didn’t even have to finish her sentence. My mother’s intuiton felt something was wrong with him and I ran down the stairs to find him laying face up on the couch, eyes open, blank stare. His breathing was rough making gasping sounds, I don’t even know how to explain. He was not coherent. He could not look at me. He was not convulsing, and he was not stiff and rigid either. His body was limp. When I picked him up to try and snap him out of whatever was happening (because I was panicked), I noticed a small amount of drool on the couch under his head but not necessarily around his mouth. His eyes rolled back and for a few seconds he stopped breathing. At this point I decided to call 911. After only a few seconds he did start to breathe again, but was falling asleep. Not able to cry nor talk. He could barely keep his eyes open even with me running outside with his half naked little body in my arms. I didn’t know what was wrong with him and thought maybe the cold would shock him awake. My oldest ran across the street and grabbed our sweet friend (and nurse), and she was running over as the 911 operator came on the line. It was the operator who suggested to me that he probably had a febrile seizure. I have known of them, but have never experienced one with either of my other kids. I felt a sense of relief as he said those words. I never even thought for a second that he could have had a seizure with 102 temp because I didn’t know enough about them. I always assumed it would be with a very high fever. If I would have known from the beginning what was going on I would have waited a few minutes more before picking him up. I’ve seen plenty of seizures in my life to know that you roll the person on their side and wait for the seizure to pass.

When the ambulance got here the first responder assured me that it was totally normal that he was completely asleep on me and snoring, amidst me asking over and over if he was sure. I didn’t want to see my baby’s eyes closed for one more second but once he checked his pulse and oxygen and they were perfect, I felt better about letting his exhausted little body sleep. He explained it to me like his fever got to a point where his body basically needed to reset itself. Those words and his calm demeanor helped put me at ease. Landry was taken to the hospital to get checked out. He threw up once while we were there and had a 20 min nap before they sent us home. He took a long nap at home, ate a big dinner and danced the Whip Nae Nae before bed. Of course I slept in his room for every nap and night for the first few days, and still can’t help to check on him 100x during the night, but that’s just how it’s going to be for me for a while.

Here are some things we learned that day about febrile seizures:

The doctors at the ER told us that as scary as febrile seizures can be for us parents, it is a good thing to come in for in the grand scheme of things, and nothing that should cause worry. He will not have brain damage from it, and it is pretty common in babies and young kids to experience this. Because he’s had one, he is at risk for having another one. That doesn’t mean he will and he could very well go through life never having another one again.

It tends to happen to kids who have a family member who has had one as a child. My mom informed me that day, that I had one when I was a baby. I never knew that. Good. To. Know.

It doesn’t necessarily matter how high the temperature is but also how quickly it spikes. It could happen with any fever though anytime. I also read somewhere that the seizure can come before a fever so there’s really no way to prevent one from happening.

They told us that 1 in 20 children will experience a febrile seizure, and that 1 out of 3 of those kids will have another one. Usually outgrow by around age 5.

Here are some websites I found if you would like more information on febrile seizures:

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/febrile_seizures/detail_febrile_seizures.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/febrile-seizure/basics/definition/con-20021016

These are the steps I would take if there were a next time for this situation. The first one not being to remain calm because I know myself, and I don’t care who you are, when there’s something very wrong with your child, there’s a sense of urgency and panic. Whenever Landry starts to get a fever from now on, we will administer him a fever reducer, but being fully aware that this may not prevent a seizure from still happening.

Place him on his side so he doesn’t choke on his saliva or throw up (I would have done this if the thought even crossed my mind that he was in fact having a seizure).
Do NOT pick him up until the seizure has passed
Time it. Seconds seem like an eternity during these, but it’s important to time the seizure.
Remove any tight clothing he may be wearing.

Febrile seizures can be scary, especially the first one. Landry is now his normal goofy, moody self and we’re so thankful for that. If you need information regarding febrile seizures, please contact your Pediatrician. I am not a Dr. but a mom who wanted to share our experience with others. And thank you to all of our friends and family for your well wishes for Lan. He’s doing great!

Here’s a pic I took about 30 minutes prior to the seizure…

Dad just walked into the hospital room, a little shaken no doubt getting a frantic call from our 9 year old. Sorry about that. Landry’s not feeling well obviously. This was a few minutes before he threw up on dad.

Getting a much need cat nap…

February 29, 2016 0

Pumpkin carving

Darlings,

This year we waited a little too long (story of my life) to set out on our quest to find the perfectly imperfect pumpkins to carve. In past years we’ve usually stuck to painting the pumpkins to keep things less messy and little fingers away from carving knives. This year, you really wanted to carve out faces and pictures in them. I hesitantly agreed to it, and dad and I may have helped a little bit. I couldn’t decide if I was a little sad or exhilarated that none of you have actually stuck your hands in the pumpkin goo. I loved seeing your reactions to the slimy insides.

I think this is our first attempt at pumpkin seeds as well in a few years at least. I’m not sure you enjoyed them quite as much as your dad though. Next year we might try adding different flavors to them. Maybe a cinnamon sugar or a spicy one just to kick it up a notch. Here are some of my most favorite memories from our pumpkin carving madness.

Here you are picking out your pumpkins:)

I know it’s asking too much to get you all to smile and behave for me for a picture…

Do you remember what happened in this moment? It’s kind of hard to tell from the photo, but if you zoom in you can see that Sam’s pumpkin exploded in her hands.

Next comes the fun part…

Pumpkin carving was messy fun and you kids did such a great job on each of your pumpkins.

February 1, 2016 0

Christmas 2014

Even though I thought that I had a head start when I started wrapping presents as I would buy them this year, it seems we will always be up till 11pm wrapping and watching It’s A Wonderful Life. Every Christmas Eve we watch it while we get everything ready. It’s another of our traditions.

The kids were so excited when they woke up on Christmas morning and couldn’t wait to run downstairs to see the loot Santa brought them.

Landry found his roller coaster right away 🙂

Breakfast at the cousins’ house:)

Even with the pain and unsettling heartache on this day, we are so thankful for the blessings that we are able to hold each and every day. This is definitely a Christmas to remember. Some for the not so good, but mostly for the great memories. Some day I will be ready to share, but for right now concentrating on these gems right here are what I’m focused on. This post is a few months late in the making, but we’ve been going through some stuff, and sometimes you just gotta go through the stuff.

Hope ya’ll had a great Christmas as well!

Love,

These Jonesy’s

April 6, 2015 0

Preschool with my Girl {12.13.14}

She’s been begging all semester to come to preschool with her. I finally did, and the memories came flooding back of when I would go spend a day with big brother at preschool a few years back. Any day is a great day to go to preschool with my girl, but man, I really picked a fun one by accident this time. First up, the pledge of allegiance of course. For a 4 year old, I’m in awe that she knows the whole thing after only weeks of starting school. With eyes of wonder, her teacher read them the story of The Little Gingerbread Man. It was felt character magic for their little eyes. I wonder if she thinks the Gingerbread man is real, as I did when I was her age. It was a class effort to put together all the ingredients to make our gingerbread man cookies. They held their hands behind their backs and were so patient waiting for their individual turns to stir the cookie batter. It was then cookie cutting time. Complete with candy eyes and buttons. And then into the oven they went. While we waiting for our Gingerbread men to finish baking, the kids had some center time. It was so fun to see what Sam gravitated towards. Of course she chose the little dress up spagetti people, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. And then it was off to do some art, followed by playing in the class kitchen. The kids were so excited to finally get too eat their gingerbread cookies that they worked so hard on. They were delicious! Spending this morning with my girl has been all sorts of fun. Can’t wait to go back.

January 23, 2015 0

Santa Surprise {12.23.14}

I was feeling bad that our kids didn’t get to go visit Santa this year. Our holiday season has been hijacked by influenza and other things. I called out a favor a couple days before Xmas from the big guy himself (well Grandpa actually), we rented a suit and I arranged to take my kids out for what was supposed to be a “snowy” photo shoot. It actually ended up being yucky rain slush which didn’t help that it was cold as well. As I was trying to get the kids together for a couple pictures, we heard a “HO, HO, HO!” From around the corner. The look on the kids’ faces were perfection.

January 14, 2015 1

Halloween 2014

Every year it’s the same. I never really realize how into Halloween I’m going to get until it’s actually here. By the time it rolls around, I’m usually having ‘non-buyers’ remorse from not buying Mike and I costumes and doing a family theme. This year was the same however the only difference in my non-preparedness was the fact that I took the kids A DAY EARLY to the lake for a fun costume photo shoot. I prepared all day. Charged my camera, gathered costume accessories, bought balloons, ran around all morning getting odds and ends, doing Sam’s princess Anna hair, etc etc. Once we picked up T from school it was a quick change and snack before we headed out. With daylight fading fast, I quickly picked a location and hurried everyone out of the car. The only thing I wasn’t prepared for was T’s epic meltdown because he thought a bobcat was going to jump out of the woods and eat us. “Honey, there are NO bobcats here!” My patience was wearing and I felt like I was half lying to him because I wasn’t so sure there weren’t. It didn’t help that granted it was very warm out, it was also very windy and there was nobody else around, which made him feel even more secluded and vulnerable. I got a few ok pics of Landry before my camera flat out broke. Yup, broke. Right as I was click, click, clicking, my camera decided it was DONE…forever. Ugh, luckily I have nice friends who let me borrow their camera for a few photos right before trick-or-treat, but I can’t say how lost I felt without my right hand girl by my side through all the Halloween day school parades and parties. It was very sad, but I did have my phone camera so it wasn’t a compete loss.

Take 2 of Halloween costume photo shoot. Got a new camera. Brought the husband with. Things went a little more smoothly and relaxed. Letting the kids play in their costumes and run around during the shoot helped capture their true personality. Everyone cooperated at least for a little bit. I got a few more pics so it was worth the week wait. Without further ado, I introduce to you, Ash Ketchum (Pokemon trainer), Princess Anna (Frozen) and Carl Fredricksen (Up movie)

Halloween Night: