I don’t think my opinion here is driven towards saving money. It’s meant in the way of investing into something that will give you more memories and the opportunity to go to multiple places that you might not otherwise. Disney is the same thing, I get that. There are some who would rather go camping with their family instead of going to Disney and vise versa.
I have gone to Disney and Universal the last three years. I have young children so my experience is way different than yours. We have family down there so I do not stay at the hotel but I have eaten at numerous of the restaurants and they have always been great. I can not speak to the hotels personally, but my uncle lived in the Villages and he enjoyed staying at the Grand Floridian (has gone downhill) as well as the Animal Kingdom Villas. He had $$ to burn though.
I think that the biggest trick to Disney is to make very good plans ahead of time but be willing to flex from them as needed. Also we have never needed more than two days there to see the young kid stuff, maybe 3 days when they are older and we will be set. In the same area are some other really cool things to do. #1 being Universal, that place is really awesome and has great rides. #2 is Sea world, specifically discovery cove. I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to go to discovery cove as that is a pretty awesome experience.
oh yeah, you can bring items in. I took a book bag with bottles of water, capri suns and snacks. We would eat lunch at the hotel and then head to the park all day. Eat dinner in the park and stay til after the fireworks show. We didnt get back to the hotel til 12 sometimes 1am every night. Everyone is exhausted. We sleep and repeat
Nothing says “yay a vacation!” like dad getting a new toy… And paying to maintain that toy, and store it, and insure it…
When I was a kid we always had a cabin cruiser boat and took tons of boat trips in the same way that people take RV trips. We STILL went to Disney because it’s that awesome.
@Gus is right and probably the way that I would plan my trip. You’ll still have a great time and you won’t spend $15k (obviously exaggerating) in the process.
Do both??
Sidenote: A car forum has rapid and multiple responses to a post about Walt Disney Theme Parks but most automotive related threads yield less response.
butt hurt that nobody cares about your two tone pick up truck? sorry
momma always said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all”.
Well yeah, both is the obvious solution here. Hell, Andy might hate camping, who knows!
I was just sharing my input on other side of the fence as I dealt with a lot of customers who told me they were deciding between a trip and a camper. I would 7/10 went with the camper. If the storage is available at your house, most people would let the kids use it right in the backyard. Throw the kids in it when they have their weekend sleepovers with friends.
Had a fight with the wife? Make her sleep in the camper! Well, you might be sleeping the camper, but I guess that’s a solution right?!
Also, I’d like to think that an RV requires ALOT less maintenance than a boat, especially if it’s taken care of properly.
Also… I HIGHLY recommend eating here once: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/animal-kingdom-lodge/dining/
My ex and I would also manage to sneak into every concierge that were in these hotels haha… The AKL has a gate you can open by reaching through the other side.
Oh, another important point. WEATHER. You really need to plan based on temperature and humidity. I was down there in August a couple years ago and the wife wanted to go to Universal just us. If we had brought a kid, they may have died. It was 98* and so humid that i spent more money on water than food.
7/10 of your customers probably had extremely disappointed children on the other side of that deal.
It has nothing to do about my kick as truck.
It has to do with the irony of all of you that get all excited to post/argue about Disney World and how to vacation.
The first time we took our daughter to Disney she refused to leave the hotel because it had a pool. All I could think is, we could have saved thousands of dollars. lol
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Last time we arrived at Disney we were all very hungry so we went to the dinosaur place for lunch. I spent $84 in the first half hour. You can definitely spend a ton o money pretty easily.
hire a disabled person!
Like they knew the difference? You’re assuming every kid has their heart set on Disney. Maybe some parents prefer to take their kids to the Adirondacks and take them fishing or hike a mountain or ride their bikes on a bike path. Maybe they want to go to Nascar race with them. Not every kid or parent has interest in taking their kid to Disney. Hell, most kids these days don’t even want to leave their video games. I had customers who made me upgrade the TV’s in their kids “rooms” of the camper so that they could bring their video games along to keep the kids occupied on the trip.
I think it’s up to the parents. If the OP wants to take his kid to Disney, cool I respect that, it’s good parenting.
How many nights was this for?
We are planning a trip to Disney this November (sons will be 5 and 3), not blowing 5-7k though. My 5 yr old loves Nickelodeon so we are staying at the Nick Hotel which is right outside the park with free shuttles to Disney. We are renting an Class C RV for the ride down and then staying at my parents house in Port St Lucie after a few days at Disney/Epcot/etc. That hotel is only ~200/night for a two bedroom suite with full kitchen and there is a full water park, acrcade, Nick sliming, etc. right on site for free. Plus I will be walking in the Disney gates for free since the company I work for does all the Disney food service/grounds work.
I haven’t gone in 6-7 years but I do remember lines were so long, not sure if they had that FastPass thing back then…maybe I just wasn’t aware of it.
@BOBBYGRV, or anyone else know of any good places for RV rentals? I know there is CruiseAmerica.com which has a station right in East Aurora but they charge ~.40c per mile which would be $1200 without including RV rental, gas, etc. Looking for a 26+ foot for 10 days, or 3-4 days if it can be a one-way drop in FL.
You could check Camping World, I think they still do rentals. The option to drive down and fly back might be available too if they have a location down there, not sure if you would even want to do that though.
There really are no cheap options for renting RV’s. The insurance and maintenance costs blow most budgets quickly for the rental companies. I used to find cheap, good used deals for people. They would buy it, we would prep it through the dealer to ensure they were ready to go for their trip and then they could sell it afterwards, recouping most of their money. It’s not the ideal way, but it can be done properly and you can keep more money in your pocket in the long run. There’s always the scare of breaking down, but there’s still that with rentals too. I have heard horror stories on both fronts.
5 days 4 nights
My 7 year old niece would absolutely know the difference… She is obsessed with Disney movies and characters.
So we planned on renting one to see how our family would enjoy it. My wife has always had one in her family (currently a 42’ Class A) and I went with them on one trip years back when we were first dating. I loved it but I was just a passenger and enjoying vacation. If all goes well with the trip, which I’m sure will we plan on buying a used Class C next year. We just got back from driving roundtrip from Buff to Port St Lucie, Fl in my wifes '14 Explorer with a 2 and 4 yr. old…hence the RV purchase…lol.
Any suggestions for $30-40k sub 30’ RV?
Wow that seems like a great deal. Do you have a contact person you worked with or just standard AAA deal?