Saving for a Disney Family Vacation With These 6 Secrets

Want to know the secrets to saving on your Disney family vacation? After documenting our Walt Disney World vacation via Instagram Stories, hands down one of the most popular questions that I received was how much did this vacation cost.

So here it goes…

A Lot!

Planning and saving money for a Disney World vacation is not always easy.  Especially for a large family of 6 like us. But I will tell you this…the key is to plan ahead! With a little planning and patience, you can definitely make it work and have a fabulous time while you’re at it.

We like the amenities and conveniences that come with luxury travel, (full disclosure) so I don’t consider us to be budget travel experts. However, I’m excited to share with you a few things that we did to save money and make this dream vacation to the Happiest Place on Earth possible.

Here are 6 things that can help make a Disney Vacation more affordable:

1. Kids Under 3 Are Free at Disney

We booked our 1st Disney family vacation while our girls were still young because kids under 3 are free at Disney! Woo Hoo! There’s no charge for their hotel, no charge for their park tickets, and there is no charge at table-service restaurants either. (As long as they eat off an adult’s plate). Major savings! Yasss!

EXTRA TIP: This doesn’t apply for our family, but military personnel (active duty, National Guard, Reserve, retired military and spouses) can get discounted tickets to Disney theme parks through Disney’s Armed Forces Salute program.

2. Put Your Disney Vacation on Layaway

This makes saving for a Disney Family vacation very attainable. Disney World has a flexible and interest fee payment plan for all packages purchased directly through the Disney World website and reservation line. You can plan & book your vacation package with only a $200 deposit. Think of it as a layaway plan. Then after that, you can make payments in any amount and whenever you want. The only requirement is that your total vacation package be paid in full 30 days before your trip.

However…..

We went through a Disney Travel Agent to book our trip. Planning a Walt Disney World vacation can be overwhelming. There are SO many details and deadlines to be aware of. So I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss a beat and were able to get the inside scoop from a trusted resource that knew WAY more about Disney than we initially did.

So, we went with Your Disney Home Girl to book our vacation for us. She knew all of the ins and outs of Disney. She booked our dining reservations, transportation, lodging, everything! Her passion for all things Disney really made us not only excited about the trip, but most of all prepared. She answered every question I had and made us feel comfortable about the decisions we made.

If you’re looking for a Disney travel agent, give her a shout and tell her One Fly Mama sent you. She can be reached at korliss@disneyhomegirl.com. Oh and yes, we were still able to put only $200 down (no interest, no extra fees) to reserve our vacation package, and then the rest was magical history.  

3. Order Groceries at Disney to Save on Your Vacation

Major! You can bring your own snacks and drinks to the parks! And with a full day at multiple parks with multiple children, snacks and drinks are a whole bill by itself. Whew! Add in theme park pricing and its next level.

On the first day of our trip when we arrived to the hotel, I made a grocery order with Amazon Prime/Whole Foods. We had groceries delivered directly to our resort and they lasted the entire stay. I purchased snacks and drinks for the room and light breakfast foods like muffins, granola bars, fruit & yogurt that we could have on-the-go every morning on the way to the park. The only food we had to purchase was lunch & dinner every day.

And since we stayed on property at a Disney Resort, we had free transportation to and from the parks. No driving, no parking, and no parking fees.

EXTRA SAVINGS TIP: Have your kids pack their own reusable water bottles for the parks. Complimentary cups of ice water are available at any Disney dining location that offers fountain soda including indoor restaurants or walk-up snack shops. Just ask for enough cups to fill their bottles. You can even pack a few flavor packets or water enhancers if you want some extra flavor other than water all day.

Here is the collapsible water bottles we ordered which is so easy for packing. The girls had their Disney canteen bottles.

4. Collect Disney Gift Cards to Save for your Vacation

If you’re headed to Disney to celebrate a milestone like a birthday or anniversary, ask your family and friends to give gifts in the form of Disney Gift Cards instead of traditional presents. They can help you pay for almost everything at Disney…theme park tickets, your resort, the Disney store and souvenir shops, your dining and more!

EXTRA TIP: You can even buy gift cards for yourself in advance to help with saving for a Disney family vacation. If you have a Target RedCard, you can save 5% on your Disney gift card purchase. If you have a Sam’s Club membership, you can buy them for less than face value there too. We also have a Chase Disney Checking Account Debit Card which helped us save money at the parks.

Every little bit counts, right?

5. Buy Disney Souvenirs Before You Arrive

Speaking of avoiding impromptu purchases at the parks, buy Disney items in advance if you can like mouse ears, cooling towels, misting fans and the infamous light up bubble wands that all the kids at the park have. We purchased these wands on Amazon. They sell very similar ones for $29.99 at the parks. Ouch!

For a complete list of must-have travel items, visit my One Fly Mama Amazon Storefront for the goods.

6. Disney Photography Hack

Here’s my last tip for saving for a Disney family vacation. We all take photos, right? And everyone stands in the Memory Maker lines to have Disney’s photographers take their pictures throughout the parks. If you want to save money and still get those iconic shots, just stand in the same line and simply hand your camera/phone to the photographer and have them take the photo with your own device….and BOOM, it’s free!

Another way to get family shots with everyone in the camera is to use a bendable tripod and wrap it around your stroller’s handle or any other item like a gate, pole or bench. Use the bluetooth remote that comes with it (we forgot ours at home) or set the timer on your phone for :10 seconds and then run to hop in the photo like I did. Lol.

Well, I hope that you were able to find some value in the tips that I’ve shared and it helps you in saving for your own Disney family vacation. It truly is a magical place and somewhere that every family should experience together at least once.

Need more inspo? Check out 4 Airport Services That Make Traveling With Kids Less Stressful and 5 Things to Make Your Disney Family Vacation More Magical…and Manageable.

Let me know in the comments, which of these tips did you like the most? Or are there any of your own that you would add? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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