NYmetsfan111

Hi everyone. I'm trying to plan a 5 night trip to Florida next April for my girlfriend and I. So far I have redeemed SW flights from NYC to MCO. I'm stuck after that. I've been searching through Kayak and other sites, and this board for tips but seem to find more premium level hotels which I don't think I can afford. I am a graduate student and my gf really wants to go here. I had no idea how expensive everything can get (magic your way tickets, hotels, airport transportation, etc). Most of the hotels I found were closer to Universal Studios and offered free shuttles there instead of the Magic Kingdom area. I'm having a hard time finding a decent and cheap (sub $90/per day) hotel that will provide free or affordable airport transportation, free shuttles to the Disney area, a swimming pool, and complimentary breakfast if possible. It seems like the only ones with all the amenities are outrageously expensive or too far away from Disney. Can you guys offer some suggestions for hotels and Magic Your Way Tickets. I tried mousesaver but its still expensive.

We are planning to go to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney area and not Universal Studios. I am thinking about going for 3 days and staying at the hotel the other days.

I just started accumulating points/miles from cc signups.
I have:
160,000 AA miles (hoping for another 50,000 from the business card)
40,000 US airways miles which won't really help I think.
13,222 SW Rapid Rewards points left over
35,000 Hawaiian Miles which I can transfer to 70,000 HH points (waiting for another 35,000 BOA Hawaiian Air card application so maybe another 70,000 HH points)

I was planning to pay for both hotel and Disney tickets but they're too much for me to pay. Goals left are to find free or cheap airport to hotel/and return to airport shuttle, free shuttles to WDW area, a hotel with a swimming pool and also complimentary breakfast.

I know it is a lot but any tips will help me tremendously. Thanks again!!!

Orlando Vic

For reasonably priced hotels, check TravelZoo http://www.travelzoo.com/hotels/orlando/ regularly. Better yet, sign up for their weekly newsletter.

For general information, allow me to suggest some reading:

Theme Park Insider
http://www.themeparkinsider.com/

AllEars.net
http://allears.net/index.html

DISboards.com
http://www.disboards.com/

Mousesavers.com
http://www.mousesavers.com/

toomanybooks

If you pick a hotel near Downtown Disney, you can get over there easily and take the free shuttle bus to parks. Tons of hotels around there.

Hotels near Disney, as far as I know, do not as a rule give free transfers to/from the airport, except for Disney which does if you stay in their hotels.

Rental cars can be really cheap at MCO. And often there is no one-way drop charge.

Few discounts for theme park tickets. You are looking at $50 a day per person roughly. If you think you will go back to Disney in less than a year, you can get an annual pass which gives discounts on Disney rooms up to 45% and you can buy a pass (TIW) to save 20% on food/drink. And free parking at the theme parks.

But Disney is not a cheap destination.

If I were you, I'd rent a car and stay on/near 1-192 (the "dreaded Irlo Bronson."), and drive and park at the parks. Yes, that costs $15 a day, but you will save a TON of time. I have stayed there under $30 (Econolodge, HoJo, etc.). Maybe 20-30 minutes to a theme park. Sometimes you can get ~$45 Hamptons with a decent breakfast, but unlikely in April. You can also go to cheaper restaurants that way and go to supermarkets for food, Wal-Mart for supplies, etc. I always rent a car.

NYmetsfan111

Thanks! I looked into some of those boards. Disboard is huge and confusing for me so far. But I'll continue to read up.

I would love to stay at a Disney resort but it's too expensive since I am still in school. I've been searching for hotels and used Orlando as the location. I guess I will try using Downtown Disney instead.

I am not planning on coming back to Disney so the annual pass won't work for me. Are there 2 day or 3 day passes cheaper than the official disney site? I currently see 2 Day Tickets as $84 a day and 3 Day Tickets for $77.33 a day.

What do you think avg cost would be to rent a car for 6 days in April? I've never rented a car before and barely ever drive even though I have a license.

Thanks!!

DJ_Iceman

The Disney value resorts (e.g. All-Star, Pop Century) are in your price range, include the free Disney's Magical Express service to and from the airport, allow you to add on a meal plan and theme park tickets if you want, and mean you don't have to rent a car. Keep in mind that April is spring break time, so prices will be higher across the board than if you went in February or May (for example).

MoreMilesPlease

I have the latest Mouesavers newsletter. PM me your email and I forward it to you. That way you can see if anything there helps and also sign up yourself. There is always good info in the newletter.

Just a quick look showed a downtown disney hotel with breakfast included that averaged around $90-95 a night but you have to book by mid November. There is a shutle to the parks and you get the extra early hour to one pf the parks each day. They have free self parking if you rent a car.

This is just one of the deals that I checked.

MoreMilesPlease

I just check and you can use your AA miles to pay for a hotel in the Disney area. So all you would need to apy for is a car or some type of transport to and from MCO. The airport is a long way from Disney, think a $60 or more cab ride one way.

toomanybooks

1-4 day Disney passes are very expensive per day, then it drops off dramatically. That's just the way it is and you won't save more than a few percent through mapleleaftickets.com or the like. You will see ads for resellers for much less, but they are almost always peddling partly-used multi-day tickets which are not valid under the rules. Might work, might not.

If you are ever going back to WDW (which you will if you have kids), you can add a "no-expiration" option to a longer multi-day ticket. Get a 10-day, use 4, keep 6 for five years from now. Not cheap, though. Check all the combos.

Call the Costco and Sam's Club down in Orlando closest to the parks. Sometimes they have special deals, often only for FL residents, though. Check a travel agent. I once got an unbelievable deal on a Disney cruise that way.

Find a DVC owner whose points are expiring and rent them cheap. You will have to wait until about March for this, and the availability may be nil. April is extremely popular. If at all possible, pick a slower time of year.

If you want to absolutely maximize your return on spending, you are in for a long bit of research. Start with mousesavers.com and branch out from there.

I have rented cars at MCO as cheap as $12 a day and as much as $60.

Mary2e

When in April? That may effect the discounts you can get at Disney hotels.

The value resorts can often be had in your budget range, but you will have to keep watching for availability.

I would also suggest signing up for emails on www.disneyworld.com, they often send out emails with specials that are attached to your name.

A trip to Disney is expensive - very expensive. If you're going during Easter it's almost as expensive as Christmas week.

As noted above, there's not much you can do about the price of admissions. If you sign up for mousesavers.com newsletter each month they have a special link that gets you a little extra off on the tickets sold by undercovertourist.com

If you have a pile of Hilton points you can get park hopper tickets from them.

I often say that it's cheaper to spend nearly two weeks in Hawaii than a week in Disney. Perhaps you can convince your girlfried to hold off on the Disney trip until you're done with school and go to Hawaii instead.

MoreMilesPlease

Of course now you can do a Disney vacation in Hawaii...lol Just to make expensive even more so!

http://resorts.disney.go.com/aulani-hawaii-resort/

Mary2e

It is definitely not the same

bagpuss

You could try Trip Advisor.com, booking.com, ebookers.com, Priceline, Hotwire. Going Easter time is always going to put the price up plus it is Spring Break.

anaggie

I just did DisneyWorld in May 2011 and it was EXPENSIVE !!

This is what we did:

1) Do not buy a meal plan as that restricts your eating. We like variety in our eating so we just ate our dinners outside the park at Thai, Indian, Seafood and New York style pizza restaurants.

2) There are very few discounts on theme park tickets so you just to pay this no matter what.

3) In the park meals are expensive but they give you a LOT of food, so usually buying ONE meal can fill up two people. Same with ice creams and so forth. When we were there, we only bought ONE meal for the wife and I, and a kiddie meal for the kid which she would not finish and I would eat the rest which would fill me up.

4) Renting a car is very cheap -- we rented a full size with NAV for approx $360 for 6 days.

5) Stay farther away and the cheaper it gets.

Good luck ....

NYmetsfan111

You guys are amazing!! thanks for all the responses. I'm going to reply back to your comments tomorrow night. I have a grad school paper due tom =[

Ancien Maestro

We're heading to Oahu this next spring break.. arriving March 22nd for probably 10 days, before zipping over the Maui..

There was a 25% off room only accomodations as an introduction.. Nothing AFAIK when checking for spring break..

We're leaning towards Ko olina Villas which is a couple doors down.. so our kids would enjoy the hotel..

But if a deal is to be had with the Aulani Villas, we may make reservations at the new Disney hotel..

Onsite Disney World, Orlando..

A recommended site to buy tickets is www.undercovertourist.com.. but we have used in the past.. www.orlandoattractions.com .. So there are discounted tickets to be had.. We booked onto the 21 day UK ticket.. and used 20 days of it at the park.. Just $8 more than the 10 day parkhopper, waterpark fun and more ticket.. It says UK in its marketing, but I have been advised by multiple sources including Disney itself that anyone can buy the UK passes.. and the tickets range from $10 to $40.. so does add up with a 2 or more people..

Fort Wilderness Cabins can sleep six and I think one of the best values staying onsite at WDW.. High season back in 09, we paid $240 per night.. and included meals for 4 at the parks