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Ten Small Ways to Save Big for your Walt Disney World Vacation

July 4, 2010 by guest blogging Leave a Comment

You’ve done all the planning, made your reservations, and taken advantage of every discount you could find. Now there’s the not so small matter of paying for it all!

Here are ten small ideas that can add up to saving big for your Disney trip.

Vacation Club. This is a twist on the traditional Christmas Club. Save a little bit each month for your Disney vacation by depositing a portion of your paycheck directly into your Disney vacation fund. It’s easier for me to save the money if it’s not available in my general checking account waiting to be spent on those cool new shoes.
Reward Yourself. You clip coupons, scour the weekend paper for the best sales, and fill out those annoying rebate forms. Reward your efforts by putting your savings into your Disney vacation fund. I routinely save over a hundred dollars a month using this technique. Couponing to Disney is a great resource for finding some great deals.
Earn Rewards. If you’re spending money, you should be earning rewards, right? Sign up for a rewards credit card, the Disney Rewards Visa Card is my favorite. If debit cards are more your speed, debit reward cards are gaining in popularity although their rewards are usually less than their credit counterparts. Disney also has a Rewards debit card.
Massage and Mani/Pedi Clinics. We all like a little pampering but the price of beauty can add up. Try a massage or a manicure/pedicure at a local massage or beauty school clinic for the fraction of the cost. You’ll also feel good helping students gain experience.
Designer Savings. Saving for a Disney trip shouldn’t have to mean depriving yourself the rest of the year. If you’re a fashion lover, check out member only sites such as Zulily, for your baby needs, and Gilt Groupe, for fashion and luxury brands, that offer savings up to 70% on designer items.
Adjust the Thermostat. Energy websites show that increasing the temperature just one degree in the summer can save approximately 10% on your cooling costs. Likewise, setting the programmable thermostat one degree cooler in the winter will save on average 5%. Once you’ve adjusted to the temperature change, try adjusting the thermostat just one more degree for even bigger savings.
Go Green. Bottled water seems to be everywhere these days; go green and save money by filtering tap water and investing in a couple of stainless steel, reusable water bottles for when you’re on the go.
After Christmas Sales. We have relatives that we never see until after the Christmas holidays and we don’t exchange presents until we get together later in the year. I get some amazing deals on their Christmas presents in the days following Christmas. The same goes for stocking up on Christmas cards, wrapping paper, bows, and decorations during after Christmas sales. Throughout the year, I keep my eye out for bargains on stocking stuffers and teacher gifts to try to keep our Christmas expenditures in check.
Bag It. With tax and tip, a casual lunch with co-workers adds up; this is lunch money that can buy more than a couple of Mickey bars at Disney World. Keeping that in mind makes it a little easier to bring lunch at least once a week. By doing a little prep the night before, I save hundreds of dollars a year and eat healthier too. Talk your spouse into taking the challenge or pack a lunch twice a week and you’ll be meeting your Disney goals before you know it.
Make Coffee. You’ll be able to pay for a couple of nice table-service meals at Walt Disney World if you channel your inner barista and brew your own coffee instead of making a daily stop at Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks. If your mornings are a blur trying to get yourself and kids out the door on time, look into a coffeepot that allows you to program it to automatically brew at the specified time.

Our own Chris and Chip have more tips for saving for your Disney vacation.
Please share your best tips for saving for your Disney trip in the comments section below.
Lisa M. Battista is the author of Beyond the Attractions: A Guide to Walt Disney World with Preschoolers When she’s not chasing after her little ones, you can most likely find her at the beach or in the kitchen trying her hand at a new recipe.

You call follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DisneyExplorer.

Filed Under: Deals, Original Articles, Planning, Savings, Tips, Tips &Tricks, Tips and Tricks, Travel Tagged With: disney planning, Disney Savings, Disney Vacation, Tips and Tricks

The Pros and Cons of Longer vs. Shorter Trips.

July 4, 2010 by guest blogging 9 Comments

Before I had children, I was a huge fan of shorter trips to Disney World. I’d usually go for three nights, sometimes as little as two, going from morning until night. Happily, because my visit was so short, I never went home feeling exhausted. What I found when I had children however, was that this type of trip doesn’t work very well, at least with the under-five crowd. The biggest issue is that kids take a while to adjust to their surroundings; in our case, the first night or two they tend not to sleep very well, which makes for a very grumpy day for all of us in the parks. And if anything goes wrong–and if you’re a parent, you know how high the potential for that is–your whole trip is pretty much doomed.

Having said that, probably the biggest reason people don’t take shorter, more frequent trips is a big one: Cost. Go for just two long weekends a year and you’re better off buying an annual pass because ticket prices are more expensive on the front end (the first three days, as opposed to just a few dollars a day after day four). Plus, if you’re not close enough that you can drive, airfare can really add up. From a financial standpoint then, longer trips are ideal.

Still, I love taking shorter trips. I love the excitement of always being in “planning mode” even if it’s just for a short weekend trip. When I come back from a trip and don’t have another one planned or when I have one planned so far out that it seems like it’s never going to happen, I really start to miss Disney World, which is how I’m starting to feel right now as I hit the six month mark from my last trip. This got me thinking about the pros and cons of longer vs. shorter trips. Here are a few:

Benefits of a longer trip:

1. Opportunity to relax and really immerse yourself in the experience.

2. If something goes wrong (sickness, lost luggage, weird weather) you still have time to make up for it.

3. Paying airfare once.

Cons of a longer trip:

1. Can be difficult to get time off of work and school.

2. Burn out. No matter how much you love Disney, at some point you have to slow down. You may even get tired of being there.

3. If you’ve been going like a true theme park commando for a week or more, it’s hard not to feel like you need a vacation from your vacation when you get home.

Benefits of a shorter trip:

1. You stay in planning mode, so it’s less likely you’ll experience the post-Disney blahs when you get home.

2. You get to enjoy different times of the year: Food and Wine, Flower and Garden, Christmas. You don’t just have to pick just one. You can do all of them.

3. It’s easier to take a long weekend off rather than an entire week or more. This is especially true with kids who are in school, which allows you to go during slower times of the year.

4. It’s more okay to splurge. Two nights at the Grand Floridian look a lot more affordable than an entire week.

Cons of a shorter trip:

1. You have to try hard to see everything you want to see.

2. Little flexibility for minor disasters. If something goes wrong, you’re out of luck.

3. The cost of park admission and airfare. There are ways around this. You can buy an annual pass, which confers other benefits like resort discounts, and you can drive. But the bottom line is you will be paying more by taking more trips, even if number of nights you stay remains the same.

So what about you? Do you prefer longer or shorter stays? Given a choice, would you rather go on three short trips or one long trip every year?

Photo copyright UndercoverTourist.com.

Filed Under: Original Articles, Planning, Tips, Tips &Tricks, Travel Tagged With: costs, disney travel, trip planning

What is the Best Time of Year to Visit Walt Disney World?

July 4, 2010 by guest blogging 3 Comments

Planning a vacation to Walt Disney World starts with deciding when you are going to visit. Figuring this out can be challenging though, as there are so many things to consider: work and school schedules, weather, and even special Disney events that may be occurring all play a part in your decision. And if you are trying to make your Disney vacation as affordable as possible, then that is another consideration to throw into the mix, as the time of year will radically affect your costs. Here are a few things that you will want to carefully think about as you try to decide when you are visiting Disney World.

Certain Times of the Year at Disney are Just More Expensive

Deciding on the time of year for your visit affects everything else about your Disney vacation, including cost. Certain seasons are just more expensive than others. And if you have school-age children, like the majority of families that visit Walt Disney World, then traveling during school vacations is often a necessity. Not surprisingly, summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Years, and spring/Easter breaks are the busiest times to visit, and accordingly the most expensive. If you simply must travel during those peak times, then you must also be prepared for resort accommodations to be more expensive than they would during other non-peak times of the year. And while there are always lots of options for affordable lodging in the Orlando area, you may find that your choices may be limited if you do not plan ahead.

How do You Feel About Crowds?

Crowd levels are important to consider as well, as they can dramatically affect the enjoyment of a Disney World vacation. If you hate crowds, and don’t like standing in line, do not plan a visit during peak times! It is a surefire recipe for a miserable, rather than magical vacation!

What’s the Weather Going to be Like?

Don’t overlook the weather factor. Most people are well aware of how hot and humid Florida can be in the summer: if you are visiting Disney World during this time of year, be prepared to go early, take mid-day breaks, and relax in the pool in the afternoon. And if you just can’t handle heat and humidity at all, then choose another season to go. Winter months, on the other hand, can be very unpredictable: a glorious and sunny day in the 70s one day, and 30s at night the next. Visiting during the winter requires a different kind of pre-planning, with special attention paid to packing wisely before you leave home!

The very best way to plan a Disney vacation starts with a realistic appraisal of your family’s schedule, considering how everyone in your family feels about things like crowds and weather, and then scheduling your vacation accordingly. Disney World is magical all year long…but will be far more magical for your family if it is the RIGHT time of year for your family.

Filed Under: Disney Deals and Discounts, Tips &Tricks, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: Disney Deals and Discounts, planning a disney world vacation, Walt Disney World

Ask a Disney Question: Eating Gluten-Free at Disney World.

July 4, 2010 by guest blogging 5 Comments

This question comes from Arnold, who asks: “What Walt Disney World restaurants are best for gluten free diets?

Arnold, thanks for your question and for reading Chip and Co. I also want to apologize for taking so long to answer this question, but I wanted to give it the time it deserves. The good news is that with a little planning, it’s very easy to follow a gluten-free diet at Disney World. In fact, Disney World is a very accommodating place for anyone on a special diet. Table service restaurants should give you no problem at all, but counter service locations can be a bit more problematic. Let’s start with table service first.

You can look at menus ahead of time to determine whether or not something on the menu fits your needs; two sites we like with frequently updated menus are WDWInfo and AllEars. Don’t worry if you don’t see anything on the menu; even on short notice, the chef can whip up a gluten-free dish, but for added comfort, make note of food allergies when you make your advanced dining reservation (ADR). You can also call Disney’s hotline for special diets at 407-824-5967 or email at WDW.Special.Diets@disney.com and request a special diet worksheet. Fill it out and fax or email it back. Call again 72 hours before your ADR. Almost all restaurants can substitute gluten-free pasta for wheat pasta in a dish that’s already on the menu or the chef can prepare something especially for you. At buffets, the chef or a cast member will personally take you around the buffet and let you know what is safe for you to eat. Whether you go through the above steps or simply try to “wing it”, make sure you tell your server about your needs so that she can alert the kitchen to avoid contamination of your food.

I know that cross-contamination can be a big issue when eating in restaurants, but I haven’t heard any reports of people getting sick from ingesting gluten at Disney. When I called Disney to discuss how they handle the issue of cross-contamination, they assured me that Disney chefs are trained to avoid contamination of knives, cutting boards, etc., with wheat. Disney takes steps to avoid cross contamination beyond the kitchen: Your meal will be brought out separate from the other guests at your table to further reduce the risk.

Almost all counter service restaurants have gluten-free options. Most often a gluten-free bun can be substituted for a wheat bun. Veggie burgers and hot dogs are gluten free. You can even get gluten-free chicken nuggets at Backlot Express in Hollywood Studios. I won’t tell you that the bun you get with your sandwich is going to be just like a wheat bun or that the gluten-free brownie or cookie is going to the stuff of your dreams, but it’s all very acceptable. Check out this post on The Mouse for Less for lots of great information and recommendations on counter-service and table-service options.

You can find gluten-free packaged cookies and snacks in resort gift shops, but the variety is limited. If you’re worried about finding what you like and particularly if you’ll be staying somewhere with a refrigerator or full-kitchen, you may want to do some shopping off site. Super Target has a limited but very well-priced supply of gluten-free items. There’s a Whole Foods near Universal that has just about everything you could want. I generally find the prices comparable to Publix. If you don’t have a vehicle, consider using a grocery delivery service. We Go Shop will shop where you ask them for a small fee and they are a very reliable company.

Good luck. I hope this helps.

Have a Disney question? We have answers. Write us at Chip and Co! We answer every question.

This post is part of the Disney Blog Carnival. Head over there to see more great posts like this.

Filed Under: Food, Questions, Special Dietary Requests, Tips &Tricks Tagged With: Ask a Disney Question, Disney Food, Gluten Free

Childproofing on Vacation.

July 3, 2010 by guest blogging 2 Comments

Bad parenting confession: Despite the fact that I was then living in the kind of suburban DC neighborhood where you would occasionally see a van pulling up to a neighbor’s house with some catchy name like “If You Don’t Childproof with Us Your Baby Will Not Get into Harvard!” I was blissfully unaware of the business of childproofing until my oldest child started to crawl. I mean, why would you have to childproof a house for a baby? They’re so cute and . . . immobile. After he stopped being such a delightful little lump however, I discovered that my house was no longer a small, innocuous-looking little house but rather a seething pit of chemicals and cords and light sockets that attract little fingers, to say the least of the stairs, which were clearly put there to drive me insane. Obvioulsy it was time to be a grown-up. It was time to childproof.

Still, I approached childproofing quite sanely, if I don’t mind saying so myself, trying to stay one step ahead of this rambunctious little person. Besides, I was too cheap to hire a professional childproofing service. And I think we did quite well, my husband and I. That is, until we attempted to go on vacation. At the time our son had just turned two-years old. Old enough to understand the word “no” but not old enough to care. In a split-second he’d figured out how to open the hotel room door and run out of our room which, incidentally, was on the 7th floor overlooking an atrium. It was at that point, cue ominous music, when I realized that childproofing doesn’t take a vacation. If anything, it’s actually more important to childproof away from home, when the kids are excited, the environment is unfamiliar and fun to explore, and the adults might be distracted.

I’m basically telling you all this so you don’t think I’m a crazy helicopter parent (shhh, I kind of am).

If you’ve ever walked into a hotel room or rental house with a child or two, you know what a dangerous place it can be: Light sockets, exposed! Lamps sitting on top of glass tabletops for goodness sakes! Cords hanging from the blinds! Even in the most kid-friendly hotels are designed with adults in mind or at least with children in mind who are well past the stage of putting everything in their mouths. Nothing is ever babyproofed in a rental, so you better think fast when you walk in the door. The good news is it won’t take but a few minutes to babyproof your room and you can probably carry everything you need to do it in a gallon-sized Zip-loc bag.

A couple of points, first. Most of this advice applies to rental houses; it’s not entirely realistic to babyproof a hotel room, but there are some steps you can take to make sure your room is safer, one of which is being aware of less obvious dangers, like how easily doors open to the outside hallways. Keep in mind that you want products that won’t harm the room, are portable, easy to install, and inexpensive. Everything I mention here fits that criteria. They’re also easy to find at Target or Babies-R-Us.

When you first go into your rental, you may want to remove any delicate knick-knacks within reach of small children. This is less for safety reasons than for financial reasons, as you don’t want to have to pay for it at the end of your stay if it gets broken. Put anything you don’t want broken into a closet if there’s room. Last vacation, I actually moved a glass topped coffee table into the next room after one of my two-year olds decided it made a nice platform from which to continuously spout her personal manifesto. Next, check to see what’s in the lower kitchen cabinets. We once rented a beach house with cabinets that couldn’t be secured. A glance in the lower cabinets revealed a couple of large pots. No worries there, but right next to the pots was a knife block with 8 very sharp knives. Put dangerous items in the upper cabinets. Don’t forget to look under the sink for cleaning products that might be harmful to kids. I like these locks for cabinets with knobs.

You’ll find this type of cabinet in most Disney Vacation Club (DVC) kitchens, so they’re easy to lock.

If you want to block off access to a room altogether, these doorknobcovers are great; the childfree adults in our group especially liked them, as they kept little ones from waking them up at 5:00 in the morning. They’re cheap, take about two seconds to pop on or off, and don’t harm the doorknob, which makes them perfect for childproofing someone else’s house.

Most hotel rooms and all DVC units have lever-style handles rather than knobs, particularly on the outside door. Try this lock from One Step Ahead for those types of doors. You can also purchase this lock at Babies R Us.

We used these locks last month on the bathroom doors at Kidani Village. I really don’t enjoy spending my vacation time saying “Get out of the toilet, Junior” over and over so this saved us a lot of trouble. It sticks onto the door, but didn’t take off any paint.

Many rental houses in Orlando have screened-in pools, some just a few steps from the family room. If possible, check with the rental agent or owner prior to your trip to find out what kind of safety measures are in place. Ideally, the door leading out to the pool should not only have a deadbolt (preferably one that requires a key which can be put in a safe place) but it should also have a lock on the upper part of the door that children can’t reach. Make sure all the adults in your party are mindful about keeping the door locked. If there’s a alarm system on that door, make sure everyone knows to keep it armed.

One of the biggest dangers in hotels rooms is the balcony. Obviously the biggest issue is a child falling off the balcony, but also be aware that some balconies, particularly those at Disney resorts, have low walls or partitions that aren’t completely closed, allowing children to squeeze through to your next door neighbor. Ideally, a sliding glass door leading out to the balcony will have two locks, one of which is high enough so that your smaller children can’t reach it. I found the sliding glass doors in Kidani Village to be difficult to open, even for an adult; they have two locks and although they are low, I didn’t feel the need for any more security. If you want added security, you can buy a small lock that attaches with adhesive to the windows of sliding glass doors. Keep in mind that some condos and most DVC units have two balconies, so you’ll need two sets of these locks.

Childproofing your rental should take only a few minutes but it’s an excellent investment in your vacation: It takes almost no effort to pack a small bag with a few outlet covers and even less effort to install them. Think about it this way: You might spend hours debating advanced dining reservations or deciding which park to visit on a given day. This takes almost no time and is probably most like how you live at home. Obviously, childproofing your room doesn’t take the place of keeping a watchful eye on your child, but it can make your vacation go a lot more smoothly and give you peace of mind.

This is something I wrote at my own blog, Everything WDW, a few months ago. I apologize to those of you who have already read it and I hope it helps those who haven’t. Happy 4th, everyone! Be safe.