You can find tons of advice about going to Disney all over the web. I know this because I had an entire board on Pinterest devoted to it as I planned our first trip to "the most wonderful place on earth". So my disclaimer here is that I don't claim to have the secret tips that no one else knows about or hidden gem of advice that no one has ever thought of. I'm sure the things we found to be lifesavers are old news to veteran Disney goers. This is simply a few things we did and how our family of six was able to visit Disney without paying a royal fortune! It's always been my dream to take my kids to Disney World while they were still young enough to enjoy it but I never thought we could do it. We are a family of six living on one very modest income so most of our vacations are closer to home (Orlando is 12 hours away) When our oldest two became teenagers we started noticing how quickly the years do go by, so we decided that for the next few years we wanted to invest in more vacation memories rather than home improvements. Around the beginning of the year my husband and I started discussing where we would go on vacation this year. Disney World was brought up and when I started looking at the cost for six people to spend a week visiting the parks I quickly gave up my dream of going. Then after some more discussion we came up with the plan of going to Florida as our vacation and visiting Disney for only one day. We had several people tell us this wasn't possible, that you simply can not do all there is to do in only one day and you definitely can't just go to one park, it wouldn't be enough fun for the kids. For us the option was to either go only one day or we couldn't go at all so we opted to go and guess what, we had a blast. We made wonderful memories, the kids were so thrilled at the opportunity and we weren't worn out by the end of our week from trying to cram in going to parks all day everyday. So my unofficial tip is that if you've always wanted to take your children to Disney but can't afford the full experience, one day really can be a lot of fun. Again, definitely not some "new idea" here but it saved us a ton of money. I bought plain white and grey shirts from Wal-Mart and adorable personalized iron-ons from Etsy. (If you have your own Cricut or Silhouette you'd be one step ahead of me and save even more money) The result for us was a cost of around $35 total for all six of us to have matching shirts....well almost all of us. The cute thing we did was that we all had matching 2014 shirts except Case who had a shirt with Grumpy on it that said "I don't do matching shirts". This fit his funny personality so well and he got tons of laughs and comments all day over it. Seriously, all day! Everyone we passed read his shirt and started laughing! It was a riot and such a fun way to celebrate our first trip to Magic Kingdom. Everyone knows that the big thing about going to Disney is getting an autograph from your favorite characters. Autograph books in the park can run about $20-$25 each. My teens were not interested in them but the littles were and even at that we were still looking at a cost of $50! Enter Wal-Mart. We found these adorable and ridiculously affordable autograph books at the nearby Wal-Mart for $1.97 each!! We quickly snatched them up. (A really interesting idea we saw at the park was one family brought their favorite Disney book with them and had the characters sign it. How creative is that! Definitely something we plan to do next time.) I was thrilled to find out that we could pack our lunch into the park with us. What a great way to save! We took an insulated backpack and filled it with our lunch (lunchables, sandwiches, chips), as well as snacks (beef jerky, granola bars) and one water bottle for each of us and voila....no need to spend $100 (or more) for a six person lunch. We were all quite hot by lunchtime so we decided to eat inside a quick serve restaurant...in the air conditioning...and even found a seat in the back with an incredible view of the castle. I will admit the smell of burgers in the restaruant was very mouthwatering but at this point we were all hot and hungry so we honestly didn't mind our sandwiches. This saved us a TON of money. Six people at Magic Kingdom for 11 hours on a 90 degree day makes for a very thirsty bunch. Our teens can guzzle down a bottle of Gatorade in five minutes flat and be thirsty again ten minutes later. The drinks at Disney run between $4-$5 each. Multiply that by six people drinking at least every hour and you get a high bill for drinks alone. We knew we couldn't carry enough drinks in our backpack because it would be too heavy and cumbersome for such a long day. Single serve drink mixes were the perfect solution. We took one bottle of water for each person and TONS of different drink mixes in a variety of flavors, which are practically weightless. When we ran out we simply found a nearby water fountain and refilled. All day. This was the #1 thing that saved us money during our day at the park. If we had bought drinks all day it would've easily cost us well over $100 for just those drinks alone. Seriously...do this! After all the hype about how expensive it is go to Disney (granted it's not cheap), I was pleasantly thrilled that as "newbies" we discovered little tricks to make it affordable for an average family like ourselves. We didn't fall into the propaganda that we "must" visit ALL the parks and stay on Disney World grounds in an overpriced hotel to have fun. We had an amazing 11 hours inside the Magic Kingdom, we snacked and ate and drank (virtually for pennies..because we took time and effort to plan and pack ahead), we met favorite characters and got autographs and photos, we had a full day of laughs and amazing family fun. Not once in 11 hours did one of our four kids pout, whine or complain about waiting in lines or wanting some overpriced toy in a gift shop. They were simply happy to be there. They didn't have a single moment of selfishness, not when the boys had to sit and wait for 30 minutes while the girls stood in line to see the princesses, not when even when the littles had to wait 45 minutes for the teens to ride Splash Mountain. They were all sincerely happy for one another and patiently allowed each other to have fun. The teens were excited to see the littles meet their favorite characters and at the end of 11 hours in the heat we came away tired, with aching feet and sunkissed shoulders, happy and smiling at the memories we made. Bottom line...Disney is most definitely worth visiting, but it doesn't have to cost a king's ransom to go.
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About MeI'm Becca, a former chocolate junkie, herbal enthusiast, curriculum writer, homeschool mom to four active kids, wife to my jack of all trades hubby, blessed child of God. Archives
November 2018
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The Essential Blog
Essential homeschooling is not about trying to mimic a classroom setting at home, expensive curriculum and stressful learning. It's setting our eyes on Christ and offering up our lives for His service. It's finding simplicity in daily living and loving each other, embracing the challenges and cherishing the moment because we know these years won't last and what we instill in our children today will determine who they will be tomorrow.