Tag: Disney world

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).

Sanaa Restaurant…Our favorite!
Our view from the table…watching all the animals outside the big window!
The naan bread platter is a must!
ZEBRA!!

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)

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Why January is the Perfect Time to Visit Walt Disney World

We just got back from our 3rd trip to Disney World (2nd for Landry) and I’m already dreaming of our next trip back. This time around our choice of travel time was based mainly on price. I scored a major deal on accommodations. Of course, because we based where we stayed on price alone, we had one option really. We ended up at the Caribbean Beach Resort which is part of Disney’s moderate resorts. We have never stayed at the Caribbean Beach, and were stoked to check it out. I can’t tell you much about the resort itself, for one because we were literally at the parks from sun up to sun down every single day of our 5 day trip so we were only in our rooms to sleep at night. Secondly, because the resort is currently undergoing major renovations, so not everything is open right now. This post isn’t about a review of Caribbean Beach Resort (stay tuned for a post on that to come). I’m going to get right down to business and lay out for you my 4 reasons why you should consider a trip to Walt Disney World in January.

4 Reasons to head to Disney in January:

  1. Low Season: If you want to save some cash on your Disney vacation or maybe you have a strict budget, low season is something to highly consider. Room rates at resorts are down to entice vacationers after the holidays and when kids are back in school. Here’s a tip for you, and something I always do (except for this trip because we actually bought a Room+Park Ticket package because the price was too good to pass up), book your room as early as possible. As long as you don’t buy a package you can stalk the Walt Disney World website or call up to a week before your arrival to see if there is a lower price on the room you booked or on one at another resort. You can modify your accommodations as many times as you want without a penalty up to as far as a week before your trip. This is one of the biggest ways we save money. I have in the past switched resorts multiple times to get a better deal leading up to even a week before our trip and have saved hundreds of dollars.

    2.  Low Crowds:   Of course with it being January and with kids back in school, Disney World is going feel somewhat like a ghost town. Well, if it’s your first visit, probably not, but to those who have visited during busy times (over the holidays, summer, spring break, etc.) like us, it’s going to feel like you have the parks all to yourself. Just keep in mind, that January is a month where Disney plans more ride closures and refurbishments because of this very reason, so if there are attractions that are not to miss on your list, you’ll want to check the Disney website to see if they will be up and running so you don’t have any disappointments when you arrive.

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* Disclaimer: The weekend we arrived was Disney marathon weekend. The parks were busier and the buses were unreliable for pick up times. In the mornings, the buses from our resort had to take a different route to the parks. After the weekend of marathon weekend things settled down and were less hectic. You can find the schedule for future Disney Marathons here.

 

  1. It’s still Christmas for the first week of January:     Walking into Magic Kingdom on January 6th, we were not expecting it to be Christmas. From the holiday music, to the decorations on Main Street, even the castle was draped in lights. It was the best-unexpected surprise. We got just a tiny little taste of what it would be like to visit during the holiday season, and it was magical.

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  1. 2018-01-06 20.56.12Mild Temps:      Of course, a visit to Disney World in January usually requires packing in layers, if you’re from a colder climate like we are, anything feels warmer than what we would be experiencing here at home. For the first couple of days on our trip we had coats on, mainly at night when the temps would drop after the sun goes down. It did warm up for us each day we were there and by our last day the kids were actually swimming. All resort pools are heated year round. You just never know what kind of weather you are going to get in January, but just pack accordingly and I promise you’ll be riding so many rides you won’t care what the weather is doing.2018-01-06 16.14.07 HDR

I have to be honest, we had never really considered a Disney trip in January before, but our schedule, budget and circumstances all aligned so we bit the bullet. We took our much-anticipated Disney trip in January and we didn’t regret it.

Did I convince you to visit Disney World in January? What is your favorite month of year to go?

 

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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.

 

  1. 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.

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That’s a baby sleeping on dad

  1. ‘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!

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

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  1. 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.

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Disney Day 3- Animal Kingdom

Our 3rd day at Disney was a little slower paced than the previous couple  days.  We let the kids wake up slowly in the morning and took our time heading out the door to Animal Kingdom.  We love the music that comes on in the bus when you pull into the gates at Animal Kingdom.  It makes us feel like we’re on a safari in Africa.  For some reason, it always feels like we’re walking on top of people at that park.  The walkways are narrow and both times we’ve gone we’ve gotten there later in the morning hours so the crowd has picked up a bit.  Plus, we always have our double stroller so it’s a little wider than most.  Since nobody would go on Expedition Everest with me, I went by myself, and I’m glad I did.  It was so fun.  Tanner would have liked it I think.  Next time for sure I’ll get the kids on it.  We then headed over to DinoLand for awhile.

After that we watched the Flights of Wonder Bird show…obviously I took this pic before any birds came out.

 

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The kids were getting hungry and antsy and the show got over just in time for us to find some lunch.We ate at Yak and Yeti, and thankful we have some adventurous eaters we found something for everyone…

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That’s Landry taking a nap in the Bjorn on Mike 🙂

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After lunch we wondered around a little bit more.

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Since we missed our Fast pass for the Safari (still haven’t been on that), we decided to go back to the resort for a little R&R.

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We didn’t have dinner plans so we decided to head to Epcot to walk around and snack..

Our first stop was Germany, and we grabbed a pretzel to share.  Mike and I had a grapefruit beer..oh my, delicious!

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We then moseyed on down to America and grabbed  a turkey leg for us all to share.  Who would have thought that 1 giant turkey leg would feed all 4 1/2 of us.  I think the kids liked the fact that they could run and around and eat at the same time.

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And that’s a wrap for day 3 at Disney World.  So far we’re 3 for 3 on days in the parks without a meltdown.  WINNING!

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Bringing a Baby to Disney

When we visited Disney World for the first time as a family, it was beyond overwhelming. I didn’t even know where to begin when starting to plan. Luckily for us, our first trip was piggy backed on my husbands’ work trip, so we didn’t have to figure out where to stay. Fast forward 3 years later, and we just got back from our 2nd Disney World trip. I will say, for me, part of the fun in going to Disney is the planning. I LOVE IT! This was a big trip for us, and if you’re following my Trip Recap posts you’ll see in all the photos how much we actually packed into our 1 week trip. I have quite a few friends who are in the middle of planning their first Disney vacations with their families so I though I’d offer some unsolicited advice from a mom who’s done it twice with little kids and both times having a 1 yr. old in tow. For a lot of parents who often wonder if they should take their babies along on a Disney trip, I will say, this one is a personal choice. While we wouldn’t have it any other way than to bring the baby, some folks may not so much. Yes, babies are on their own schedules, and if not planned accordingly can surmount to a magnificent meltdown. Yes, babies travel with lots of stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. If you’re on the fence about bringing the baby along, here are a few of my personal reasons of why you should consider it too…

 

  1. Babies are pretty much free for everything. Flight (if they’re sitting on your lap and don’t have their own seat), Food, entry to the parks, etc. Kids are free into the Disney Parks until the age of 3 so why not?
  2. Family photo in front of Cinderella’s Castle + Baby= Happy happy memories, and family photos with everyone IN them. We don’t get a family photo with all of us in it too often. I didn’t want to look back at all the photos and always feel like we were missing one of us. Once again, that was our choice. Some people feel leaving the baby at home gives them more flexibility and freedom with their day.
  3. Babies can go on almost every ride at Magic Kingdom. Yup, almost every one. This of course with the exception of Big Thunder Railroad, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Barnstormer, Stiches great escape, Tomorrowland Speedway, and the soon to be Dwarfs Mine Train. There are a couple dark rides such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion that may spook little ones, but both of our 1 year olds did fine on them. You as the parent know your baby well enough to make the judgment call about which rides may scare your little one. Oh, and I’m sorry, but who doesn’t love a good baby on the carrousel photo?
  4. First haircut at Magic Kingdom. Baby boys (and girls) can get their first haircut at the Harmony Barbershop on Main Street. What a sweet memory that would be.
  5. Kisses from the Princesses. If we didn’t bring our sweet little boy, how would he have ever gotten a kiss from Snow White??

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  1. 1st Mickey Ears! Every baby needs a set of Mickey ears, right?? Ok, ok. If you choose to leave your young one at home, you could always buy a pair and bring it back with you. It’s not like he/she will remember it anyway (wink).

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Like I said, bringing a baby to WDW can mean a little more packing, a little more planning, a little more patience. But it can also make for some unforgettable family time and very special moments that you will likely treasure forever.

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Disney Surprise is Almost Here!

Well, the day is almost here.  I’ve been planning our Disney vacation for about a year now and have had an official countdown since day 222.  The best part is, the kids have absolutely no idea.  I refrained from telling people really early on, just to make sure the surprise stayed a surprise.  Now that the trip is nearing, more people know, and hoping we can keep this a surprise for 19 more days!! When we decided that we were going to go to Disney this time around, we knew we wanted it to be a surprise.  This trip almost didn’t happen, so I’m really glad the kids don’t know.  Of course, it would also be fun if they knew and we had a countdown going, and could talk about what all we wanted to do when we got down there, but hopefully we’ll have other trips that we can save that for.  I will say, for all the friends that know to keep this hush hush, our cover was almost blown by non other than the UPS guy!  Of course, I had been expecting our magic bands in the mail and had been very careful about watching for the UPS guy in the late afternoon/early evenings when he normally shows up, but when a different guy showed up one morning as I was loading kids in the car and exclaimed for all to hear, “Are you going to Walt Disney World?” I think the look on my face pretty much said it all.    I gently shushed him and he got the idea.  Sorry to be rude Mr. UPS guy, but you threw me off my game a little.  Luckily, the kids didn’t hear him (which I was sure they did) and the situation was quickly diverted.  We’ve been working on a way to surprise the kids and I think we finally have that planned out, so now we wait…

On our last trip to Disney World, Tanner was a few months shy of being 5. Sam was almost 1.  Although, Tanner knew who all the characters were, when we popped the surprise on him the morning we were leaving, he was in a little bit of shock.  And while he was excited, he couldn’t really wrap his mind around “where” he was actually going.  This time is going to be so different I think.  I’m going to go out on a limb and make a pretty confident prediction, that the kids are going to be out of their minds excited.  Tanner has been there, he remembers some stuff, but understands what it is.  Our little Sami knows that all the princesses live where our girl, Cindys’ castle is, and although she doesn’t remember her last trip, I think she will be equally excited as Tanner! Although, it is a pretty overwhelming thing to tell kids, and I have seen surprise videos of kids that cry, but I don’t think that is what they’re going to do.  We’ll find out soon!  While we wait, I was looking through photos from our last trip and wanted to post some up.

First Day at Magic Kingdom!
Sam was Keeping a very close eye on these 2 characters…
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