I am very frugal when it comes to everything, but vacations. On my Disney vacation, I may have saved more money than all my shopping tripscombined. If you want to know how to do Disney, and how to do it cheap, read this!

The absolute best way to save money in Walt Disney World is to go when they offer the Meal Plan for free. Right now they are running the special from August thru September. The weather is hot, but not unbearable. I took a family of four, stayed at the All-Sports Resort, had all of our food included, 6 days of park hopper tickets, and round trip air fare for $1800. Disney World was actually the cheapest and most convenient trip I have ever taken.

We got to the airport with our luggage piled high, falling all over the place, my two year old son was screaming, and my 7 year old was so hyped up he was running around in circles. I thought for sure I had made the worst decision by booking this vacation. To my surprise, Disney's Magical Express took our luggage, and I didn't see it again until we got to the hotel. I identified it as ours, and then it showed up at our room. This alone I would pay for, but it's free! The room was nothing to write home about, just a standard room, but if you are at Disney and you are in your room looking for entertainment, something is wrong. Our hotel had a great pool, with a bar. Included in our meal plan was 1 sit down dinner, 1 counter service and 2 snacks per person per day. This may not sound like much, but it was plenty. We actually had some left over and got a bunch of food our last day. A typical dinner would have cost us between $150-$250. We were at the park 6 days. The total cost of the dinner bills put together was actually more than my whole vacation!

Do not get caught up in spending money on a Park Hopper ticket if you will be there for 4 days or more. There are 4 parks. There is enough in each park to spend one day there. You will not feel like park hopping. You might think you will, but I can pretty much guarantee you won't. At least not all 4 days. By changing your ticket, this will save you approximately another $300.

The final money saver, that you may not realize is Disney's transportation. I have done Florida to do Universal's parks, and rented a car. With the price of gas, and the cost of renting a car, parking, etc. Disney's buses end up saving a family of 4 at least $500 for a week.

Learn more about this author, Laura Clements.
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