Category — e. What to Budget for Walt Disney World

This page is part of the series The Tightwad’s Guide to Walt Disney World

OVERVIEW: WHEN TIGHTWADS SHOULD GO TO WALT DISNEY WORLD

This site provides precise instructions elsewhere on when to go to Walt Disney World, the next best dates, and what to budget for such a trip. These instructions are designed for typical first time family visitors who are not sure whether or not they will ever return.

This page addresses when to go to Walt Disney World for a subset of first time visitors: tightwads.

MORE ON WHEN TIGHTWADS SHOULD GO TO WALT DISNEY WORLD

Tightwads should go to Walt Disney World the first or second weeks of September.

These weeks have a number of great things going for them…and a couple of lousy ones.

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW

I have published two related series of articles on this site—titled The Tightwad’s Guide to Walt Disney World, and The Comfortable Guide to Walt Disney World.

As a step related to each, I bring together here budgeting advice from various parts of this site into one place, to set the stage.

This site notes that while you can have a great trip for $3,000 or less (before transportation costs), for the best first family trip to Walt Disney World, you should budget if you can between $5,300 and $8,400, plus transportation.

What I want to reiterate here is that when you go and where you stay have more of an impact on your budget than how long you stay.

MORE DETAILS ON PLANNING YOUR DISNEY BUDGET

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Disney’s latest discount plan is out.

It is another buy some nights and tickets and get some more free deal, but a little more complicated than such offers in the past, because the deal varies depending on where you stay.

If you are staying in anything other than a Value resort, if you buy 4 nights and 4 days worth of tickets, you get three more nights, and three more days of tickets, free.

If you are staying in a Value resort, you have to buy 5 nights and 5 days worth of tickets, and get for that two nights and two days of tickets free.

[Read more →]

BOOK NOW TO SAVE HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS 

Those looking to take advantage of Disney’s current dining promotion should book soon, as it is currently available only to those who book by September 26th. 

The promotion, if booked by then, applies to most dates from September 27th through December 17th. (The days around Thanksgiving—Wednesday November 25th through Saturday November 28th —are excluded.)

TWO TYPES OF FREE DINING PLANS

The promotion provides one of two dining plan variants for free for those who book an otherwise undiscounted trip of at least 3 nights in a Disney World Resort.  (See Where to Stay.)

Those who stay in anything other than a value resort get the basic dining plan, which provides, per night of your reservation, and for every person three and older on your reservation, a snack, “counter service” meal (think cafeteria), and a “table service” meal.  (Think waiters.)

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW

While doing so will not provide you with the best possible first family visit, of course you can design your trip around a target budget.

For example, if the recommended trip at Pop Century for $4,300 plus transportation is too much, you could follow the steps below instead to design a trip you can afford.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

FAMILIES GOING TO WALT DISNEY WORLD ON A TIGHT BUDGET

This site has two sets of guidance for families going to Walt Disney World on a tight budget.

• One set is designed for families aiming at the recommended December itinerary, and can be found here.
• Guidance for other families can be found in the links below.

WHAT TO BUDGET LINKS

For the basic December trip recommended by this site

• See this for what to budget during the basic December trip
• See this if you are on particularly tight budget, for (difficult) ideas to reduce the December trip budget by more than $1,000

If you can’t go the week this site recommends, see Estimating Budgets for Different Trips

For help getting to much lower budget numbers,

• See this for links to current Walt Disney World deals and discounts
• For basic Disney World budgeting concepts, see Planning Your Walt Disney World Budget
• To design a trip around a specific budget target–e.g., what you can do for $2,500–see this
• For reducing your lodging costs,
  • See The Tightwad’s Guide to Where to Stay at Walt Disney World
  • See this for links to current Walt Disney World deals and discounts
• For reducing your dining costs,
  • For ideas on cutting your dining costs compared to what this site recommends, see this
  • For a period during which dining is sometimes free, see The Tightwad’s Guide to When to Go to Walt Disney World
• For reducing your transportation costs, see this

For Walt Disney World price seasons,

• See this for resort price seasons
• See this for Disney Dining Plan price seasons
• See this for Walt Disney World theme park admission tickets

For the Tightwad’s Guide to Walt Disney World, see this

For the Comfortable Guide to Walt Disney World, see this

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