Family Fun,  Travel

How I Planned Our Perfect 7 night Disney Vacation for Under $4K!

February 20, 2020 / 51 Comments
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Have you been dreaming about going to Walt Disney World but just can’t figure a way to justify it in your budget? Or maybe the thought of planning a Disney trip is so stressful and overwhelming based on what you have heard?

This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

Well if this is you, no worries, it was me too! I honestly had no desire to go for the longest. I thought people who wanted to go were nuts since it was so expensive and took so much planning. Like what is the appeal here folks?!?

Here is the thing though, if you find the right amazing resources, to help you plan, you may just end up loving the planning process and enjoying an amazing trip for your family on a budget you can love with like I did. Let me tell you more about it!

You see, I had no real interest in going to Disney. Being a person that had never been, I didn’t miss what I didn’t know. Plus the thought of crowds and tons of kids and the money it would cost. Ugh…I could go on and on. There really was not much of an appeal for me.

None the less, I knew I would probably want to take our children SOME day so that they could experience the Disney hype!

The more movies we watched and friends that we had the went, I started getting the itch but was still leery.

Magic Kingdom

When should we go?

I was becoming more and more concerned with the ages of my kids and their experience. As the years passed, I began to ask my husband, are they ready yet??? Every year, I was told not yet.

We decided we wanted to go while our daughter was still enamored with the characters and our son old enough to remember it. This left a small window as in our minds this would be a once in a lifetime experience.

After some research, I decided 2019 was go time since my daughter would be 8 and my son 6. We knew Star Wars was going to open that fall but we were not sure when so to be on the safe side we decided to go earlier in the year.

I used several sites and tools to help plan the best time to go. Here was our criteria:

  • not too busy
  • decent weather & temperatures
  • not the most expensive time of year

AND SO THE PLANNING PROCESS BEGAN! I truly feel like having the right resources and doing the correct research makes all the difference.

MY RESOURCES:

Knowledgeable People

During my planning process I was very fortunate to have 2 people that were instrumental in keeping me from having a mental breakdown.

One friend works at Disney World seasonally so she is a wealth of knowledge as to all things Disney. She was even wonderful enough to help with a hotel rate.

The other had recently got the Disney bug and was vacationing there several times a year. She actually became a awesome Travel Agent since that I highly recommend. She was made for this type of thing!

You may not know these types of people, but the point is, you know people that have went. And probably more than once. People LOVE to share their tips, tricks, advice and experience. So just ask! Your friends and family know you best so they would likely keep that in mind when helping you.

What About a Travel Agent?

Many of the aspects of a trip of this magnitude would be taken care of for you by your travel agent, if you have one.

The only reason that I did not use one is because of the discount type I was receiving in the first place. My friend that works there booked for me with her discount so I was not able to use an agent.

As I mentioned, my friends were amazing and basically served as my agents. But I HIGHLY recommend using a Disney certified agent. It does not cost you anything.

An agent can keep an eye on rates and other items that you at need. They will help with reservations and fastpasses. Agents are a wealth of information that could and should be tapped into to help your trip go off without a hitch! If you would like to read about detailing more of what an agent can offer for Disney, check out this post.

If you are in need of a Disney Travel Agent that will work with you and help to make you have the most magical trip, I recommend Nikki Brunello at Royal Treatment Travel. You can contact her here.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the planning process. BUT as I mentioned, I had insanely informed people to help me through the process. Besides the 2 people I mentioned before, I used several other resources to help plan our trip and make it more affordable.

Let me tell you all about our Planning Resources resources first:

Chewbacca and the Fam

Disney Food Blog

I became obsessed with these videos on YouTube and watched them almost every day! I really like the way they are done. They taught me a lot and gave me several ideas. Even though it focuses primarily on the yumtastic food, there were so many other tips and tricks that I used. Plus they made me super hyped up. Looking at all the mouth watering foods made me think I was going to have to plan a second trip JUST to eat. They were a great wealth of information for all aspects of my planning.

Touring Plans

This was a planning favorite! I used all of their available resources and often! There is a book, app, website and newsletter that are all affiliated.

I bought the book Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World as a recommendation from my cousin. She told me you can get an app that helps plan Fast Passes perfectly. And she was right!

I read this whole book to help get me familiar with the park, the planning process and anything else I might want to know. This was a nice starting point.

I found out that you can use some of the resources from Touring Plans for free and they have a very informative Newsletter. All of this is very nice and useful.

I then decided to purchase the subscription for the year. This opened up more tools to be used on the website including a Lines App which was one of THE best tools I used for the entire trip!

Not only were there several different plans for using your fast pass already preloaded but I was able to also have different plans generated based on my own preferences. Different parks, different scenarios like ages of kids, etc.

I used the app in conjunction with the Walt Diney World app and did not wait longer than 15 minutes for any ride that we went on. Plus, we experienced about 85% of all park rides and attractions.

Mousedining.com

My traverl agent friend got me hip to this site. It helped me locate reservations for the restaurants that I could not get reservations to initially like Artist Point and the Polynesian. You put in the restaurant and date you are looking for and it alerts you if it becomes available but you HAVE to jump on it right away.

Artist Point Dopey
Artist Point Evil Queen

MyDisney Website and App

I used these to book all of my restaurants and fast passes ahead of time. I also added the Memory Maker to my plans with a discount. Plus I did various research through the site.

While on vacation, we used the app to book new fast passes after the first 3 were up. We also benefited from the walking directions to different attractions and mobile orders. This was a huge time saver.

Now let’s talk about what we used to help us save!

What helped us save:

  1. Chase Disney Credit Card – A few years after our darling daughter was born, we opened this card. I saw it advertised with several advantages but the two that interested me were (1.) earning points to spend on a Disney trip and (2.) Using the card to pay off the trip at 0% interest. Once I started to see the points building up, we started using it more and more. We were able to build up approximately $1400 in rewards. If we would have paid the extra $50 for the premium card, that number would have almost doubled. If you are interested in finding out how you can get this card AND receive a $150 gift card, click here.
  2. Mousekeeping – we opted out and received a $60 gift certificate which we turned in to pay for towards the resort.
  3. We choose a value resort in April. I wanted the kids to have somewhere very Disney to stay. These resorts were perfectly themed and reasonably priced.
  4. I kept an eye out on the app for deals! We were able to purchase the Memory Maker at a discount from this. (I highly recommend purchasing this for so many reasons) We also were able to change to a better rate by keeping an eye on the deals!
  5. Undercover Tourist – checked the website and watched my emails for deals on tickets and purchased them when they were running a promotion. I purchased my park tickets here at a discounted rate. It ended up being just a couple hundred cheaper but a savings is a savings!
This face makes it all worth it!

Breakdown for Family if 4

  • $2316.30 – lodging and dining at Disney’s All‑Star Movies Resort for 7 nights
  • $106 Stroller
  • $139 Memory Maker – saved $30
  • $1960.22 Park Tickets 6 day hopper
  • $600 Airfare. We used hopper to help us find a good deal on airfare
  • $5122 total trip cost before our points and gift cards
  • – $1400 Disney Rewards points, taken off the price of our dining and lodging package
  • – $60 Gift card for Mousekeeping added to our the package price
  • $3662 – TOTAL AFTER ADDITIONAL SAVINGS

To sum it up…..

Here is what I can say about my trip based on the various tools and resources I used to plan our perfect DISNEY vacation:

  • We went to a character meal every day and I was able to get every restaurant reservation I wanted.
  • We were able to experience 85% of the rides and attractions that were open and my kids were able to go in or to on a 6 day hopper pass!
  • Practically everything was paid for ahead of time. We spent less than $500 in extras for a 7 night trip!
  • We did not have to wait longer than 15 minutes for all but one ride!
  • Our entire trip cost less than $4, 000 for air, hotel and dining for a family of 4 for 7 nights!

It was the perfect trip of a lifetime thanks to everyone that offered some excellent advice, a couple wonderful tools and resources and putting in a little extra work ahead of time!

I would love to hear in the comments what your best planning tips or resources you used.

HAPPY PLANNING!!!

1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian
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