Disney On A Dime : Creative Ways To Save On Your � World Vacation
september / october 2022
26
By Kitty Collins
It ’ s no secret a family vacation to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida has always been a crazy expensive luxury . Despite the rising costs influenced by inflation , the perfect storm - created by increased attendance from “ revenge vacationing ” ( pent up demand from cancelled and postponed vacations during the pandemic ) along with the 18 month-long 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Walt Disney World resort - is driving guests through the sparkly gates at rates that continue to exceed park reservation availability . Prior to the pandemic , at any given time there were multiple offers or packages available to help make a family WDW vacation a little more palatable but current demand has given Disney little incentive to extend such savings . If a WDW vacation is something you are planning or would like to , the good news is that there still are ways to keep the cost manageable .
I am a bargain babe at heart whose goal is to extract every possible ounce of value from our vacationing dollars , so it may shock you to hear that my three boys and I were able to make seven ( yes , SEVEN ) trips to WDW for around what one typical seven-day magical vacation would cost the average family . I know ; you are wondering how in the world we did that ? I am more than happy to share some of the tips , tricks , secrets , and resources we have discovered .
Being from the Orlando area with family still living there , I grew up going to Walt Disney World and so have my boys . A couple of years ago , I decided to save up for WDW annual passes with plans to have them for just one year . I figured if we made 2 or 3 trips , it would be a good value and allow us to get our fill to last us a while . The deal I made with my Disneyloving boys was that Christmas gifts and birthday parties would be replaced with moments and memories at WDW , which was a trade they were more than happy to make . Our annual pass journey began in December 2019 with a trip just before Christmas and plans for spring break 2020 plus a couple of short visits over the summer of 2020 however the parks ’ unprecedented 4 month closure due to Covid-19 meant those didn ’ t happen . Disney offered partial refunds on annual passes for the closure which I put toward new ones that we activated with a trip in December 2020 . While many families prefer to drive , I hate driving long distances and would rather have more time in the parks so part of my calculated plan was signing up for both the Southwest Airlines business and personal credit cards ( more on this later ). By using those for expenses I already had , I received huge points bonuses that also allowed me to earn their Companion Pass ( which allows one person to