Disneyworld 2016 or bust!

Hello everyone! A few people have asked what and how I got our Disney World trip planned/booked, so I figured one blog post would do it.

Let me also say this is for Disney World NOT Land, which are very different trips. I can post on Disneyland later as we have taken the boys there twice. But really in my option it's way more worth it to go to Disney World for not as much money and you can get tons more bang for your buck! Like staying on property (way more options at all budget levels, than Disney Land, Free dinning and other promotions, More to do for almost the same cost, etc.

First step, PLAN! We've been planning since last September and really even before that. I like to pay cash for all of our trips, so budget and saving has been a big part for years. Since there are 10 of us going this time, we really didn't have all the funds, so my wonderful mother in law and father in law are putting in some money as well. I will be totally transparent and share our whole budget with you for this trip, so you can see for a family of 10 for a 10 night/6 day park hopper with water parks and more trip, how much it costs.

Side note, Shawn and I have been to Disney World with just the two of us, twice, so we know a lot of the places to eat, ride lines at this time of year, cost for two, on property vs. off property. Not that we know everything, but since we've been twice it gives us a good idea how it will work with all the kids too.

Ok I guess the basics first, best time of year to go. We always go in September, it's less busy, is cheaper and they have great incentives like free dinning. Yes this way you do have to take the kids out of school, but that means everyone's in school and most people won't pull their kids for a trip like this. This I think is a huge time and money saver. Plus it's still plenty warm to do the water parks, but not so horribly hot at the same time.

Second, always look for the incentives, biggest one free dinning. You will find much info on this online, reasons to do it and reasons to avoid. My simplest suggestion, if you are a large party, with large/growing kids, or two adults only wanting to splurge on your trip, then get the free dinning promotion. We didn't get any discounts on our hotel or tickets, but were able to add this, knowing how our boys eat and wanting to really spoil them with the great food/treats at Disney World this was a no brainier for us. I did all the math, a room discount and then us paying for food, would not have worked in our favor, forgoing the room discount and getting 2 meals, 1 snack, and a refillable mug for each person, each day, we knew that was much more worth our while. My only concern and something I've had to let go of, is that there most likely will be food we throw away, as Disney's potions can be pretty big and with a few picky eaters, we may waste a little. But even with that concern it was way more in our budget than paying out of pocket for all of the food.

Other incentives are the room discount you can get, and/or staying off property, also discounted tickets. Do your math for your family, your eating habits and the benefits you want to figure what discount is best for you.

Read others info, I follow two sites pretty closely when planning our trips, well ok really I read their sites multiple times a day, plus I check out every book at the library and read it cover to cover. I'm a major planner and I want to know as much as I can! This can be bad, don't over plan, but be prepared.

Tom Bricker has the most fantastic site called disneytouristblog.com. 
I have to say I LOVE this guy and all that he posts, follow him if nothing else, he has such great info!!!
Also https://touringplans.com/


Ok our trip:

We plan to fly out end of Aug., come home Sep. 11 night trip

We are doing a 7 day park hopper with water park and more option added for each person (this means that we get 7 days in the 4 parks able to move from park to park in the same day, plus we get 7 fun passes that can be used at their two water parks, mini golf, sports center, and arcade in Disney Springs). It was less to add this bonus than it would be to pay for only one day at the water park, so again more bang for your buck!! We did build some rest time in our trip, because Shawn loves to have a no schedule day.

We are staying on property at a moderate resort (Disney Caribbean Beach Resort) I excited for this, Disney World has some different tiers for on property (value, moderate and deluxe), I've read reviews on each. Value is the cheapest, we stayed away from this mostly because I feel like it's the super 8 option and reviews say it's a bit loud because that's where all of your families stay. We too are a family, but we have such great boys and 4 adults who don't want to hear screaming kids all day everyday for our vacation, so we picked moderate. Also this resort offered 5 people per room, so that's perfect for our 10 people vacation only 2 rooms, which saves a bunch of money.

I lave a lot to say on this topic, so bare with me. Shawn and I have stayed off property and on property and will now hands down always stay on property, the benefits out weight the bit of the price difference in our opinion. I will lay out the pros and cons or options here for you.

On our first trip about 4 years ago we stayed off property, got a great deal at costco travel and didn't spend too much money. It was nice because again it's a cheaper option, plus we were able to stay in a super nice hotel, away from disney hustle and bustle. They had shuttles that took us to the park which was nice, we didn't need a car. We did have to pay for an airport taxi to get us to our hotel which was $120 round trip, not great in my option, plus we were on their schedule on when they picked us up and took us back.

The second time, last year, we decided to stay on property, and frankly we just fell in love! Pros: You drop your luggage off at the departing airport and don't see it again until it's in your room waiting for you, awesome! So as soon as you arrive in FL, you head to Disney's transportation center and they load you up on a bus to take you to your resort. Once there you are greeted by name (which I just loved) and shown to your room and they answer any questions and welcome you home. I felt rich and famous, it was pretty cool. :) Then you have your magic band loaded with everything you need, so you don't really have to carry anything with you to the parks ever, nice since it's so hot, we do take a fanny pack but that's it. Then their shuttle schedule runs so regularly you barely have to wait to get anywhere. It can at times be a bit tricky to figure out when you are trying to get to other resorts, but other than that it's awesome. Then when you leave, you give your luggage to the front desk and don't see it again until you arrive back home at baggage claim. When it's time to leave you just load up on the bus and head back to the airport. We loved this for just Shawn and I, but with 6 boys this will be a dream to not lug our stuff everywhere!

You also get extra park hours by staying on property, it's an hour here or there, but I like that I can get in a few rides before the official opening.

I can do a whole separate post on our trip last year later, the cost, resort, etc. so I'm not going to go much into detail on that.

Ok I guess that's all the general basics, I can answer any questions you have if I didn't touch on it above. Below I will post our specific trip details.

Budget:
(I always over budget, so you will see that here if you do the math, ie. flight actual cost $2000, budget $1500). Went over a bit here because I couldn't get the super cheap rate I was hoping for.

Flights $1500 (9 trip southwest hopefully at $73 each person, each way, my father in law will not be flying with us, as he's a pilot and go from work straight to us). Southwest has the best prices and no cost for luggage which I love. We do have a voucher that we hope will bring the price down on these, but didn't calculate that in yet to give me a buffer in case our flights are more.

Hotel/Tickets: Caribbean Beach Resort, 7 day park hopper and  more ticket
Room 1: Mom, Dad, 3 boys 4632.19
Room 2: Grandma, Grandpa, 3 boys 4632.19
Let me also so we are doing all adult prices, no kid prices, because of the ages of our boys when we go. So if you have younger kids, this cost would be less.

Food is included: with the free dinning promotion, we get the reg. disney dinning plan which is: 1 quick service meal, 1 table service meal, and 1 snack per person, per day,  and one refillable mug per person. Since we won't get three meals a day, I am packing oatmeal, poptarts, granola bars, a case of water, throw away supplies like bowls and spoons and apples with peanut butter to give us plenty of food with out paying crazy prices for those things at disneyworld. Yes it adds weight to our luggage, but since we are flying southwest we can do 2 bags each for free, so that offsets the weight problem. I spent about $50 on the items I bought here that I'm bringing.

Memory Maker $149 (this is their photo taking, purchasing option). So basically anytime you ride a ride and it takes your picture or anyone of their photo people take your picture, you get it. You don't have to pay for each pic, you get everything to share with whom ever for this price. Since my in laws are going with us and also want copies of all the pictures, plus ride pictures are always so fun, we decided to add this to our trip.

Gifts/Souvenirs $1000, we will never spend this much, but I like to have again a buffer for anything. The boys each receive $25 for a souvenir from us, and Gabe and his wife Melissa gave them each $25 Disney gift card for Christmas (best gift ever, we were so blessed/surprised by this) so they have $50 total for anything they want to buy. I also will be taking a $100 in cash from this expense to pay for hotel maid tips, and other tips as needed.

Tipping for food and any other misc. food times needed/wanted $1500, tipping is not included in free dining so you have to be ready to pay this expense that you might not have thought of, plus if we want an extra snack or special treat this will cover that. We do plan on eating the kitchen sink ice cream treat, so that will come from this budget.

Total cost: $13913.38 not bad for 10 people, 12 day vacation. About $1391 per person or $116 per person per day. Plus if you get the disney visa card you can earn statement credit and also bonus money on your purchases so that can off set the expense just a bit.

Another savings tip, is to bring tons of meds with you. Our first year I did not do this and had to pay $5 for two advil and I was so upset! So now I bring any and all meds that I can think of for any problem we might have so I don't have to pay my vacation money for something like that.

I do have our daily schedule planned out and reservations for the restaurants we knew we wanted to hit, plus what food credits we will use as each meal, if you want that info as well, just let me know.

Happy Planning and Vacationing, I know we are so excited and can't wait to have this huge memory with the boys!

Just a little more than 20 days till we leave!