Money Money Money!

MONEY MONEY MONEY!

I've been quite surprised at how many times I've been messaged privately on facebook or elsewhere, to be asked for tips on how to get to Disney World on a budget, if it's even possible - because so many parents are desperate to live the dream with their children too.  I have posted a lot of pictures of our trip I guess, and we got a LOT done while we were there so I suppose people wanting to know how isn't so strange.
I don't mind at all - I *love* sharing the Disney bug!  And I fully believe that if you dream of going to the happiest place on Earth, then so you should go!  I'm writing this blog entry today because I thought it would save me retyping in future, but also because anyone can stumble across it this way.

Now firstly, any way you get to Disney from the UK, it's going to cost.  I'll break it to you first and fast - it's not going to be cheap.  It's just not possible - but it will be totally worth it.

<And here's where I try to avoid going off on a tangent about how wonderful WDW is>

Wonderful!

                                           

Wonderful...

  

Wonderful!

                                         
Ahem.
Well, I tried!  (and did well I might add)


So, how to do Disney on a budget.  As with all things Disney, it's all in the planning.  Research, plan, research, plan and research some more if you can.

Start with the http://disneypackages.co.uk/ website and expect to come back to it.  Expect to come back A. Lot.
You see, although there are ways of tweaking what you get for your budget, there's no way around paying for it and this is the site you will need.

Time of visit.
This is a biggie, and you want to think about it!  Fortunately, the quieter times of year cost less, and Disney will often give more incentives for you to go at non-peak times.  I say fortunately, because although it can be inconvenient with school terms, etc, if you're only going to the World once, you're probably better off aiming for a time when it's not so packed that you spend all day in lines.
The two times we found to be best were the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, or some time in spring.  We chose to go in May.  It's less expensive, less busy and not too hot and humid - but still WAY hotter than the UK.  We're talking UK summer highs really.
Yes, it did mean taking time out of school, but it was our once in a lifetime thing.  Our children had otherwise perfect attendance, so we were given permission.  This time around I know the rules have changed.  We will no longer apply to the school for holiday time, and then my Drummerboy is at secondary too so even less likely...  Still worth it!

This is the crazy dance I do in my head - Lala I'm not listening, it's woorrrrth it!                   

The first time I went to WDW, we assumed that a family room in one of the budget resorts was the most cost effective way of staying onsite.  I was wrong, but it was amazing and I raved about it here once.  We stayed onsite which meant that we had free transportation and extra magic hours in the parks.  We chose to pay for a Quick Service Meal Plan (QSDP), which meant that we had a refillable cup each, which gave us unlimited drinks at our resort.  In terms of food it gave us two counter service meals and two snacks a day.  Doing our research we realised that it probably wasn't cost effective and that we may have spent less if paying out of pocket, but the piece of mind it gave us in knowing that all our food was paid for was worth it!

This time we are doing it differently.
I found out that if I booked a Moderate hotel instead of budget, we could get the quick service meal plan included for free.  It would mean no family room - but get this:  Two rooms at a moderate costs less!  Yep, so we have upgraded our stay, requested connecting rooms and we have the meal plan, my children are older and cost more and there's one more of them - but this costs us less than before?  Mind.  Blown.

                                  Would you look at this beauty!  Coronado Springs.  It will become our new home.

I do feel the need to include that the QSDP no longer includes two snacks per day, but even so, this works out good.

I'm so excited at the idea of staying at Coronado Springs Resort.  It's central to all the parks and from what I've read, it's the highest end mod that Disney has to offer.  Yippeeeeee!!!

Through the Disney packages site we also included our park tickets.  I think the standard offer is 14 days for the price of 7 park hoppers - which means that you can go to as many parks as you like each day.  This gave us a lot more freedom compared with being stuck with tickets limiting to one park a day.  The park hoppers cover the Magic Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, the two water parks Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, plus the golfing course (which we never went near and probably never will!)

Lastly, the package gave us a $200 giftcard.  But as we are booking two rooms this time we get $400 - bonus!

Flights.

Well this is the big one.  It's not pretty.  We found it cost less if we didn't include it in our Disney package, but still...

We fly direct.  The prospect of taking five children through any more airports than is strictly necessary is more than our nerves can take!  Of course taking connecting flights will reduce the cost considerably, so if you're used to flying, have less children than us, or are just much braver, that's the way to go.

We flew with Virgin and hope to again.  

At the moment flights for all of us will be a whopping £3323!

Jumping jellyfish!  That's a lotta money.

Things to consider:

Once a child hits the age of twelve, they fly as an adult.

A baby below the age of two can sit on a lap and fly for free.

^Can you see why I'm feeling some sense of urgency?!

Regarding ages - The Disney Dining Plan and park tickets also change in cost with age; Up until the age of 10, children are children.  Hit those double digits and they're paying as adults.  But a child under the age of three is a freebie!  They can eat off the plate of an adult (or you can buy your own food off the dining plan for them) and are not charged to enter the parks.

So yeah, the sooner the cheaper, for us anyway.

Now if you look around online you're sure to find lots of tips from frugal mamas suggesting that you buy a whole load of Disney tat to give to your children while there, to prevent them asking for you to shell out on expensive souvenirs.

1)  It wont work.  If my kids see something in the park then THAT is what they want.  Not a pound shop toy.

2)  Do I really want to pack out my luggage with that?  Nope.

3)  I'm the one that wants to buy most stuff anyway!

4)  The Disney Parks Shops have a website where you can buy things from when you get home!!

5)  Believe me, do this right and you will actually have so much fun that you wont need to be buying stuff.  We had so much to do that we only really went in gift shops for the air conditioning!

However, making an autograph book is a souvenir that I do recommend taking - this is something that can be done cheaply, personalised as much as you like, and will provide years of memories.  We still love ours.

That's my tips as I found them.  Links to help though...

http://www.disboards.com/ - Can tell you just about *anything* to do with Walt Disney World

The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World - This book is *amazing* and became my WDW bible last time.

Both of the above will give you a good idea of what to do and where to look.  The Unofficial Guide will give you ultimate touring plans that will maximise your trip, as I'm sure you will want to do if it's a once in a lifetime stay.  There are so many other helpful places online, though I don't know many that will help you to budget from the UK.  If I find any I will be back to link them, be sure of that!

I do hope this has been of some help to someone.  I just want to say here that we all deserve to follow our dreams, we all deserve to be unbelievably, overwhelmingly happy at some point in our lives.  Yes this might be a massive expenditure, but isn't it worth it for memories that will last forever?  I can honestly say that our whole family has never got along so well, been so happy and had so much fun as we did for those two weeks.  The amount my children *still* talk about it, years later, tells me how amazing they found it.

Walt Disney said "If you can dream it, you can do it" - I say if you can dream it, go for it!

"Be... Our... Guest"

"...be our guest!
Put our service to the test,
Tie your napkin 'round your neck, Cherie
and we provide the rest."

Could I really call this post anything else?  Yep, I'm gonna cover the accommodation.
Now in the grand scheme of things - that is, if you're anything like me - you could be excused for thinking that the hotels and resorts aren't much to consider when you compare it to the ENORMITY that is the AWESOMENESS of the Disney Parks.
However, I've got to say that Disney, as usual, goes above and beyond when it comes to accommodation.

What I'm going to start with is the resort I have experience in: All Star Music.

I left my heart at ASMu...

Often known as ASMu on forums such as the Disboards (which is a fab site for finding out multitudes of WDW related stuff), All Star Music is one of Disney's budget resorts.  It has less of the luxuries, but is perfect if all you want is a place to lay your head and crash after a day at the parks.  We chose it because we thought we didn't have much option - we needed a room that would fit all of us in, and the All Star Music resort had recently started offering family rooms, when we went.

A family room is ace.  Well, we thought so!  It's actually two rooms knocked in to one.  You'll have one entrance door, but two bathrooms (with toilet, bath, shower, sink and hair dryer in each).  One main bedroom with desk, drawers and bedside tables, etc, and one living room, with a big TV, sofabed, chair-bed and an ottoman that can convert in to a bed.  When we stayed we never even opened the ottoman, as two of our children shared the sofabed while the other took the folded out chair.  They all found it very comfortable and huge fun!  The only downside really is that the space is very limited when the beds are out - I know this from trying to lay out the clothes for the next day while my children slept!
Also in the family suite is a kitchenette.  It's a small space, but has everything needed, considering we would be mostly eating out.  Sink, kettle, fridge and cupboards with basic disposable (but Disney - check out the Mickey heads!) plates, bowls and cutlery.

Mousekeeping still comes around as usual.  They even make the little animals out of face cloths that you'll find in the moderate and luxury hotels.  What I wish I knew was that it's OK to keep your cloth animals!  I didn't even want my children to touch ours - in case they messed them up!  I've found out since that they are usually made from cloths ready for retirement anyway, so when I go back I really do hope I get another to bring home!

I digress.  I do that.
So at a budget resort you might expect to miss out on some of the luxuries.  You wont find a gym or spa at ASMu - but you will find a gorgeous fun swimming pool.

Ay ay ay!   I miss you guys! 

The pool is themed!  It's in the shape of a guitar, with the top end of it a small pool for younger children.  The three Caballeros will squirt you as you swim past, there are lots of seats around the pool and plenty of towels.  You can even borrow a life jacket for non-swimmers, so they can bob about independently.
There's another pool - and it's piano shaped!!  How cool is that?  It's bigger too, but we were so happy with our guitar pool (right on our doorstep!) that we never even went to tinkle the ivories of the other resort pool.

Man I just felt like a superstar every time I stepped out of our room!

Much of all the All Star resorts are themed.  This is probably the main thing I loved about them, as you just don't get fun quite like it at the other resorts.  At All Star Movies you'll be able to pose with some of your favourite characters from various Disney films, like 101 Dalmations, Herbie, Donald and Daisy.  All Star Sports is the place to go if you're the active type - quite often Cheerleading teams will meet up there for local competitions.
All Star Music is of course, music themed.  We stayed at the Jazz Inn.  At the end of our building there were huge instruments for decoration.  My children are quite musical and loved this - many photo opportunites without even leaving the resort!  I also loved the stars everywhere - so bright, so fun and so happy.



You wont find a 5 star full service restaurant at the All Stars, but what we did get was a lively and friendly environment and quick service menu at the Intermission Food Court.  Each day I would dash down to fill my cup with a Diet Coke to wake me up, and grab some breakfast that was easy to eat on the go - as we would probably be eating while waiting for an early bus to the parks!
We only ate a full meal at the Intermission a few times and while breakfast was just lovely, I can't say that dinner was the best ever.  But neither was it bad - it was just fine, I guess!  The pizza isn't great but the other foods are pretty yummy.  Not out of this world, but will fill you up and taste good.  Better foods are to be found in park restaurants if you are on a quick service meal plan, or full service restaurants if your budget stretches that way.  We did have a giggle when Liam was offered bacon to go with his sweet waffles and strawberry sauce!  That's so American - and one of our first examples of how British we are that it seemed so odd.

If you need it, there's a laundry room at ASMu.  While some people like that so they don't have a mountain of dirty clothes when they get home, I can tell you that the LAST thing I want to do while away is household chores!  And of course a general gift shop.  Loads of souvenirs to buy here, plus more useful things like sun screen (an *amazing* spray on sun protection!), headache tablets and similar.

I wish I had taken more photos of All Star Music, as it's such a lovely place and I don't think my words can do it justice.  I'm quite sad to think we wont be going there again as I've found a way of making it cheaper, but a different resort (more on that next time), but at the same time rather excited at the thought of trying something new.  If I learned anything from our first stay at WDW, it's that Disney really does want you to be their guest, and they really will look after you as well as they can!