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

A Couple’s Getaway Week in Puerto Rico

When our oldest was 5 and our 2^nd born was 18 months, and before baby number 3 was born, Mike and I were lucky enough to travel to Puerto Rico without kids. The weather was beautiful at the end of November early December, and the people were the friendliest we have found anywhere we have traveled thus far. Even though Mike was technically there for a work convention, we had some time to explore in and around San Juan when he wasn’t working. We stayed at a beautiful resort on the beach that sat along side what was then Trump International Golf Club. I can’t find the name of the resort and Trump International has since gone bankrupt. Had I had known I would be writing a blog post about Puerto Rico in the years following our trip, I would have done a better job documenting our week. Regardless, there are so many options for resorts or hotels in Puerto Rico. Here’s a short breakdown of what we did during our week in Puerto Rico.

Golf in Puerto Rico

We golfed the beautiful golf course near our resort that sat right on the ocean. It tempted me of course to hit golf balls into the ocean, because who doesn’t want to do that a time or two? I also met Chi Chi Rodríguez there as well. If you don’t know who Chi Chi is, he was a very popular PGA player who walked the fairways with the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino to name a few. He was also the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. We stalked him for a hole or two before getting up the courage to interrupt his game for a quick picture. He was beyond gracious and so funny. I think he told me at least a handful of jokes (as they are his specialty) before I let him finish the rest of his round, half hoping he would ask us to join him (kidding).

Chi Chi Rodrígues and I

The prettiest hole with the best view

Old San Juan

We mostly relaxed during the days at the pool or beach, but there was one day that we took a shuttle to Old San Juan. On the way there our bus driver was so enthusiastic about showing us around his hometown, stopping at food trucks along the back roads near the beach, and telling us what to try. Our next stop was Old San Juan where we walked around the San Juan Old Historal Site andCastillo de El Morro, an old Spanish fort. I definitely want to bring our 10 year old here some day. He loves history and would find everything about this place fascinating.

After our walking tour of Castillo de El Morro, we hit up the streets of Old San Juan. It really was the prettiest little town I have ever been in and a couple hours here just didn’t cut it. I don’t have any photos of our time spent walking Old San Juan, and I’m not sure why. Maybe my phone or camera died, but take my word for it, it was so inviting and so relaxing, we could have spent all day exploring the old cobblestone streets Old San Juan.

Vieques Bioluminescent Bay

One of the most unique experiences we had while in Puerto Rico was kayaking out to Vieques Bioluminescent Bay. We arrived in the evening at dark and proceeded to kayak for 30 minutes through a tunnel of mangroves until we reached a clearing. The organisms in the water react when something moves through it. Every time we would paddle the water would glow. It was so magical. We had a clear sky that night and the stars were so bright, I didn’t know whether to look down into the glowing water or up into the twinkling sky. We would definitely do it again. It was just such a peaceful relaxing activity.

We highly enjoyed our time in Puerto Rico but feel we barely scratched the surface on what Puerto Rico has to offer. We can’t wait to go back and bring the kids next time.

So there you have it, a very brief recap of our time in Puerto Rico. Next time we visit I’ll write a bit more of an informative post for those who haven’t been and not sure what to do or where to stay. This was an impromptu trip that I had no input with the planning so I didn’t research much before leaving. What are your favorite things to see and do in Puerto Rico? Favorite family friendly places to stay? We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below as we hope to take our kids back with us someday.

Also, stay in touch with us on our adventures by clicking the follow button below:)

May 16, 2017 2

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

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.

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…

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

After lunch we wondered around a little bit more.

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.

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!

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.

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!

July 1, 2014 0

Disney World 2014- Day 2 All Things Princesses and Pirates

I have been waiting for this particular day for soooooo long. I made reservations at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for Sam to get made up like a princess. We also had plans for Tanner to get made up like a pirate at The Pirates’ League. From there we were going to eat lunch with all our favorite princesses in Cinderella’s castle. Since going to all three of these things is such a big deal, I made invitations for the kids to open that morning when they woke up. I only have a photo of one invitation and it’s the one inviting Sam to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. I also made one for Tanner from Jack Sparrow, inviting him to the Pirates League, and one for all 3 kids inviting them for a royal feast (aka, Cindy’s castle). I got the idea for the invites from wdwprepschool.com. Click here to see them or download her version. The kids had no idea when they woke up that they had some special surprises in store, which made the morning that much more exciting. We were able to get into the Magic Kingdom before the rest of the public because we had early reservations. I would have taken more pictures of the castle except that they were doing major work on it so they’re were some very large cranes intruding on all my pictures. I have not one great photo of all of us in front of Cinderella’s castle. Oh well, I should have taken some anyways just to have, but I didn’t.. I guess we’ll just have to go back again (sigh)…soon 🙂

My beautiful castle picture…

The Bibbity Bobbity Boutique:

Sam wasn’t quite sure what she was in for but was being treated like royalty from the moment we walked in. They had her change into her Belle dress that I brought from home and sat her in a chair at her very own vanity. She waited very patiently for her fairy Godmother to do her hair and makeup.

Her fairy Godmother putting her hair up in a tiara just like a real princess 🙂

Putting on some lipstick.

Her reaction to seeing herself for the 1st time is priceless 🙂

Dad told her to give us some sass. I don’t think she knows what that is, but she pulled it off quite nicely.

Waiting patiently for rope drop. The calm before the craziness.

We got to see Peter Pan and Wendy fly by. I love this photo because they are ~~running~~ flying in perfect unison.

Pirate’s League: Tanner’s turn 🙂

As if he didn’t already took mischievous, those eyebrows killed me.

Aye aye Capt’n Hook!!

We battled it out a little.

The boys on Dumbo

That’s one way to get us all in the picture:)

Tanner got shy around Ariel and Sam came alive. Her first princess meet and greet and I think she could have talked to her all day!

Cinderella’s castle for lunch with all the princesses…

Where’s my girlfriend?

This reaction was for Miss Snow White herself 🙂

Well there you are 🙂

No captions needed…

Time for some rides 😉

Found a cast member whose name was also Sam. Because our Sam was wearing a “Happy Birthday” pin she gave the kids pixie dust in their hands. Told them to close their eyes and make a wish and then throw it up in the air! Love witnessing moments like these through their eyes 🙂