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We will be heading to Disneyworld in a little more than a month and a half. I am sharing a few tips that I have learned that will save you some money once you are inside the parks.
BRING YOUR OWN FOOD
You can bring in your own food into the parks. If you eat your own lunch at the park it will save you some money for goodies like Dole Whip and Mickey Mouse Ice Cream bars (my son’s favorite!). There are a few rules when it comes to bringing items into the parks. You are allowed to bring snacks and food items that do not require heating into the parks. You cannot bring a hard sided cooler or a cooler that is on wheels. Just bring whatever items you want in a soft sided cooler, and you are set to save some money.
HAVE THE PHOTOPASS PHOTOGRAPHERS USE YOUR CAMERA
When you have a PhotoPass Photographer take your photo with their camera, you can also have them take a photo with your own camera. I found this out for the first time last year when one of the photographers offered to take one with my camera too. What a guy! He was very familiar with my camera and even taught me a tip for taking photos in bright sun. It’s not easy getting a photo of the entire family, so I was thrilled that he offered. We had the same experience with every other Photopass photographer, they had no problem taking a photo with our camera as well. The Disney Photopass is a great option that Disney offers, but it can get expensive to order all the photos you want.
FREE ICE WATER
You can get FREE ice water at any counter service restaurant within the Disney Parks. If you aren’t a fan of tap water, you can bring some Crystal Light packets to flavor the water.
WATCH YOUR RECEIPTS FOR COUPONS
The last time my husband and I were at California Adventure, we bought some ice cream and found a coupon at the bottom of our receipt. The coupon was for a 20% discount (on a $50 purchase) for one of the souvenir shops within the park. So, watch your receipts, you might just find a discount.
BRING ALL THE ESSENTIALS
The cost of items are more expensive inside the parks. Make sure you bring everything you need so you don’t have to buy them once you are inside. You will want to bring, batteries, sunscreen, misting fans, rain ponchos, sunglasses and more.
Danielle H. says
We are going back to Disneyworld either the end of August or the end of September to take advantage of the free dining plan offered. This was such a great deal for my family of three last year. We stayed at the value resorts and got to enjoy some wonderful dining experiences! Thanks for your tips as well. I love to be frugal!
Danielle H. says
I forgot to tell you this as well. My daughter always likes to bring back souvenirs for her little friends. That can get VERY costly in Disneyworld. I bought princess and mickey playing cards at the dollar store. They had two packs of cheaper cards with games like old maid and go fish. They had decks of playing cards as well with princesses and tinkerbell. As we had character breakfasts and went to see these characters, I had the packs of cards signed by the specific character on each deck. The kids LOVED these when we got home and it was a very inexpensive gift! Plus it was easy to carry them in our bag to the parks and small to put in the suitcase on the way home.
Christy says
Danielle, Having the characters sign the cards is one of the cutest ideas EVER!! What a great idea. I love it! Thanks so much for sharing.
Sarah says
free ice water?! i would love to have known this. the water at disney world fountains is AWFUL…i’m assuming it’s better in the snack bars? we hauled our frozen water bottles from the hotel but couldn’t refill them with the terrible fountain water.
Tina says
We take advantage of a lot of those ideas… But getting on the meal plan (ESPECIALLY FREE) Is a great idea it SEEMS like a lot, but when you add up what you could pay in food, knowing that you can take advantage of the PRICEY resteraunts as speacial vacation only perks is a great thing. We eat moroccan food every trip, try things we wouldn’t normally try because of the price and if we do Teppanyaki in Japan (World Showcase) Filet and Lobster is inlcluded like everything else. I LOVE the dining plan. And since we are not breakfast eaters we bring breakfast bars and pay for NO meals what so ever.
The ice water is a BIG thing, we learned that when we went with Kyla the first time when she was 2. BIG TIP: The Ice Water tastes GREAT and REFRESHING as long as the ice does not melt…. So drink it pretty quick don’t let it sit, we thought about the Chrystal Light thing to but it doesn’t quench that thirst like plain old water does.
If you get to Disneyworld and do the photopass load it up with EVERY picture you can AS well as taking your own camera pics. (That part is all free) If you get home and have 75 great shots (Like we did after a week) go online and do the editor add signatures and borders and edit the pictures 10 different times if you want (And save them) We bought the CD which is $75 (I KNOW THATS A LOT) but we ended up with 130-150 pictures on it and you then OWN all the rights to those picters… so we used them for christmas cards and calendars and gifts, all those little add ons really make your shots special.
Laura Facenda says
Thanks for all the good tips… without you and mouse savers.com I would be broke by the time I get off the plane in Orlando! I love the Disney’s photos pass and it is a huge chunk of money… so we try to make good use of the pictures by adding those little extra design bits on the photos, especially the character signatures! My son is still young enough to believe they are real, so throughout the year “Mickey” or “Goofy” will send my son a signed picture from our past trip. He loves it that he is getting mail & its mail from Disney!
@ Tina I LOVE THE FREE MEAL PLAN! As long as its free… it’s a good deal… otherwise you’d have to sell your left arm just to pay for a meal for 3 people there! However, I have never had a meal that was bad and I always had left overs! Most dinners I would split with my husband or son. The Alfredo and chicken actually fed all three of us! We were always carting extras back to our room to store in our mini fridge – which was well worth the extra money since we were able to graze from it as we pleased (since the kitchen at pop century closes at 11!!!).
I love the Free mugs you get from the hotels! There isn’t a day I don’t use and abuse my mug! I always get cute complements on it too! <3
Robin Kerr says
We went to disney world with our daughter and her family in March 2011. Our 9 yr. old grand-daughter wanted to do the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, but was heart broken becasue of the cost (she had saved up $300. but it would have taken almost all of that for what she wanted). After many tears, I took her aside and suggested that she buy one of the princess dresses and accessories (she chose Belle – $100.00) and we went to the dollar tree and bought make up and glitter for her hair. I bought the little tiara and mickey sparkle barrett to fix her hair. After watching the girls in the boutique…I figured we could get up early and fix her up. The next morning we got up early fixed her hair and face and put on her outfit…she took her tennis shoes for later in the day & shorts to change into after she had met the princesses. Everyone thought she had been to the boutique…she got lots of wonderful comments from the cast members and Belle and the prince. She had a fabulous day at half the cost. When we first got there one of the cast members commented that she must have gone to BBB and she said “no, my meena did it!” The cast member said – “she needs to work for BBB, she did a great job”. That made my trip and hers!!!!!
Christy says
@Robin That is so sweet!! I love that idea, it probably meant more to her having her Grandma do it anyway. Thanks for sharing!