The Secrets to Huge Savings on a Disney Vacation

Disney World is one of the happiest places on the planet. It's fun for people of all ages and provides memories which last a lifetime.

The only issue is that it can cost a ton.

Typically if you book through Disney and follow all of their pricing of a package for a family of four, you can end up paying upwards of $5,000. But by following these simple tips, we're going to tell you how to slash that price by about 70%.

We'll split it up into different parts to easily show you how to save on each individual aspect of your next Disney World vacation.

Hotels

A great way to save on your hotel stay at Disney is to rent DVC (Disney Vacation Club) points. There are individuals who rent them to people, but that runs you the risk of being scammed. We recommend dealing with brokers who remove your chances of being scammed and end up saving you money in the long run. Two good brokers are DVC Rental Store and David’s DVC Rental.

So how does this save you money?

Say you were planning on staying at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas, which are listed as a deluxe resort. By renting DVC points, you would be paying around $800 for six nights, as opposed to booking directly through Disney where you would be paying $4,000 for the same thing.

Tickets

There are a few ways to save money on your Disney park tickets. The best discount we can find is the military discount. The military discount can give you both hotel and park ticket discounts. Using this discount a four-day park hopper ticket is $156 each. You can buy up to six, but there must be at least one person in your party who is an eligible service member.

AAA also offers a percentage off to members, which varies by region on Disney tickets.

One more option to use for discounted tickets would be to use Undercover Tourist which is a reputable discount ticket broker. Both AAA and Undercover Tourist have additional tickets to other attractions in the Orlando area as well.

Universal Studios

When staying in Disney, a visit to Universal Studios Orlando will probably be on your wish list. Because it only takes 1-2 days to get through all of their attractions, it is a perfect day-trip outside of Disney. There are certain travel agents that have offers which include not only the park tickets, but transportation to and from the park back to your Disney resort as well!  A regular 2-day park ticket to Universal Studios Orlando is $140. If you buy the park ticket with transportation, the ticket costs about $160-$175, depending on your travel agent. That equals only about $10 extra a day for transportation on top of the ticket when you could be paying upwards of $100 extra dollars for a cab or car rental. That is a pretty big difference. You will have to call around to different travel agencies to make sure they offer this kind of package but a good one we have found is called Magical Mouse Plans.

Food/Dining

One of the most talked and blogged about things in Disney is the food. It is obvious you will want to stop at a few of their many restaurants, but in order to keep the cost down, you will want to limit how many times you eat out. We recommend eating breakfast at your hotel and packing your own lunch. Thankfully, Disney lets you bring coolers with food and drinks into the parks. All of the restaurants at Disney will also provide you with cups of water for free if you ask. Since you will be staying at a resort where transportation within the parks is provided, in order to get groceries to pack the lunches without renting a car, Garden Grocery is a great service that will deliver your groceries to you at your resort. Their minimum order is $40 with a delivery fee of $12. If you order over $200 worth of groceries, delivery is free. This allows you to save money because you will not spend it on drinks, snacks, and lunch within the park which can become pretty pricey for a family of four each day. With the money you save each day on the little forgettable things like that, you will have extra to spend on a great enjoyable dinner.