Yesterday my great friend Valeria over at Affording the Mouse alerted me to a special offer for Disney Visa card holders. The offer is when you purchase a 4-night 5-day Magic Your Way vacation package that includes room, Theme Park tickets and a Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan, a child 3-9 can stay, get 5-day Theme Park tickets and the Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan, FREE. (Details here!)
Our current vacation cost was for approximately $2050. That included 11 nights at Pop Century and10 day park hopper tickets for 2 adults and 2 children. It did not include any of our dining costs……
Our new deal is 11 nights at Pop Century, 10 day park hopper tickets and the Quick Service dining plan for the 4 of us for $2700! So for $650 we get 10 days worth of dining in the form of 2 counter service and 2 snacks per person a day!
So each snack at Disney is worth about $4. You get 2 snacks a day, so that’s $8 a person. That’s $320 worth of snacks!
Each counter service meal at Disney is about $12 for an adult (you get entree, desert and drink) and $5 for kids. You get 2 of those a day, so over 10 days that is $580 for meals!
Plus each person gets a refillable mug which costs $12.99 a person. So that is $51.96!
So the total out of pocket cost would of been $951.96 and I got it for $650! Not too bad at all! If I had eaten as inexpensively as possible over 10 days, that was my budget! Now we can ‘eat like a king’ for the same amount!
So now I want to break down how much exactly I need for this trip:
$2700 for room, tickets and meals
$85 for Chef Mickey’s breakfast
$150 for gas to and from Florida (1,000 miles round trip)
$150 for souvenirs and unforeseen expenses
$3085 total needed!
Now the question is……..can I save it all by “Couponing to Disney”? Stay tuned!
(Remember I have tracked every deposit I have made so far. You can see them all here!)
Why did I decide to get a dining plan after telling you that I wasn’t here? Well that is because the cost of the Quick Service plan is $83.96 a day! That was $839.60 over the course of our trip. That was way too much for my tastes. I can eat less than that out of pocket. I essentially got the plan for $650. I’m all for the dining plan if you come out cheaper in the end! That is why I advocate that everyone do their research before they just automatically decide to go one way or the other!
Kim says
The Kids Stay,Play & Dine Free sounds like a good deal. If I’ve already booked and paid for the whole package including dining, is it too late to do this? I’ve never rebooked before, so I really don’t know what I’m doing. Thanks!
Bruce says
We plan to go the week of Labor day every other year, when the dining plan is free. This year, they’ve downgraded the offer to quick service dining if you stay in a value resort, but that’s OK with me – I don’t like spending all the time involved in setting up reservations and being stuck with a dining schedule.
Went Last Year says
On the dining plan, make sure you keep up with the meals and snack credits that have been used. We had enough leftover at the end of the week, we were able to use the rest all up at the hotel market, pack the cooler, and enjoy a picnic on the ride home!
Kel says
What a great deal! We are part of DVC, so we can never take part of those great deals, but so far we have been really lucky with our referrals. This year we are staying for 7 days at the Beach club for only $150. I am so excited.
crystal says
I just opened our disney savings account for a trip june 2011 super excited!!! I was just wondering where everyone is booking from to get these awesome deals?
Melissa S. says
This is such a great idea. I always stress we need to save but never keep up with how much we actualy do. Time to start counting. I wish I was as good at budgeting a trip. We always fly and I love to shop (always a little too much).
heather phillips says
I just booked my Disney trip for 3 adults and 1 child the week of June 27th through July 3rd. I received a flyer in the mail that contain a pin code on the bottom that gave everyone in my party free counter service dining. We are staying at Pop Century for 6 nights and have 2 day tickets with the water park and more option(we have been several times but never visited waterparks), and we each have 12 counter service credits and 12 snacks credits plus a refillable mug. The total cost of my vacation was $1412.00 If you were lucky enough to receive this flyer (it has Ratatouille on the front) this is a great deal.
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Dani Needham says
My family of 6 is planning a trip to WDW this summer. Does anyone know any deals or $ saving ideas around park tickets? We are going for a week and would like to make sure we aren’t blowing $ on tickets by not doing our research. I thougth we were going to be able to do the give one get one but they have stopped that program.
Trish says
Hi Dani –
Try mousesavers.com and/or allears.net and check out the ticket brokers they recommend. Or, see if your travel dates qualify for any specials such as free dining if you opt to buy a package direct from Disney. Good luck!
Dani Needham says
Thanks! I will check it out.
theresa says
i love this site. It is so much fun watching you save.
i am at a little of an advantage this year towards our trip to disney. Because we were able to volunteer through the disney give a day get a day. Because of that and the fact that we live in fl, we are able to buy season weekday passes for only $90 extra per person. We are so excited we are planning a big trip later this year and now we won’t have to worry about tickets.
Cathy says
Theresa,
Thanks for sharing the info. I hadn’t heard about the Season weekday passes for Florida residents.
I am going to call Disney in the am. Hope its right that I cand get a weekday FL pass for only $169.00.
Thanks so much for posting this information!!!
Cathy in Central FL
Trish says
I’m a single mom and my daughter and I go to WDW frequently. A huge $$ saver for us is splitting meals, or as Missy above said – ordering kids meals. We are not big eaters so it works for us. Or, order ala carte – You don’t have to get the side with that sandwich – just ask for the sandwich! You can split one order of fries or whatever among your party.
And my favorite tip is the free water. At any counter service place, just say “Can I just get a small cup of ice water, please?” and it is totally free! It kills me when I see a family of four all ordering bottled waters and paying a total of $10 a pop! If you don’t like the taste of Disney water, bring individual lemonade or Crystal Light packets to add to it for flavor. We saved over $75 on our last trip JUST by drinking their free water!!!
Missy says
For further meal planning, Disney lets you order as many kids’ meals as you want. You can order yourself a kids’ meal and save even more $$$ if you don’t get the dining plan. The refillable mugs are a bargain if your are staying for a few days.(good at the quick service hotel restaurants)
Lori S says
booked our 7 night trip today and paid 1700 for myself, DH, and seven year old. Much better $ because for $200 more I got food :) Thanks for posting.
Lora says
OMGosh. My head is spinning reading all this. How do you find all this information? Ho do you keep track of all of it? It sounds like a full time job.
We’ve been trying to save for Disney World for at least the last 2-3 yrs and keep falling short. Would love to coordinate it w/ a launch. Not sure where to even begin.
Laurie says
We just came back from a week at WDW and thought I would share another ‘coupon’ that was helpful. Every time you make a purchase at WDW gift shop, the paper receipt contains a 20% off coupon at gift shops (several are listed) when you make a purchase between 9 a.m. and noon. I waited to buy all my large purchases at Epcot in the Disney Gear shop (largest selection all in one location) and got over $20 off my total purchase. Well work the wait. It was our last day so had time to look around and see what we wanted and bought them right before we left.
Kay says
When planning your trip keep in mind you can bring food into the park. We packed lunch and snacks and then ate dinner in the park. I was surprised to see many other families doing the same thing.
Laurie says
How does the Disney Visa card deal work if you are staying more than 4 nights/5 days? Also, do you know if this deal can be combined with other disney deals. There are a couple of offers that coincide with this Disney Visa one. I know there is one disney special where you get 25%-40% off rooms rates and another deal where you get a disney gift card valued at $250 and up depending on where you stay.
Kristin says
Laurie – I believe it’s still free. You can’t combine offers at Disney though. It’s either one or the other. :(
keisha davis says
hey My husband and I just booked ours too.. so excited .. we got for 2528.58 and We have 4 members in our family total with the tickets, room, and meal plan also .. so I just wanted to let you know in case you could even save a lil more.. It may be our children’s age difference though????
Kellye says
Thank you so much for posting the promotion for Disney Visa card holders! I called today and rebooked our vacation and saved $700 dollars! Absolutely nothing about our reservations changed except that we save $700!!!
Melissa says
i saw this special flying around allearsnet.com fan page on Facebook yesterday. I saw your breakdown and was wondering if you thought about using your mypoints account for gift cards for the gas stations? Thats what we did when we drove down last February!
shanon says
we are going the 3rd to the 13th of may at the movies resort. we are paying 2843.50 and it includes preffered room,tickets,and magic your way package plus dining for 2 adults and 2 kids. it seems like that their isnt much of a price difference and i didnt put it on a disney rewards card. how are you getting the deal for your kids to eat and stay for free if its around the same price as mine?
Jaime says
Congrats on finding such a great deal!!! That’s awesome! Nice to not have to worry about the individual food expenses now!
Dana says
We did the dining plan with our trip last summer. I liked having the cost of food included and not having to make sure I had enough money on hand for that day. The only drawback was the sit down meals and having to get reservations. The 2 quick serve and 2 snacks would have been a better plan for us. The portions were huge!
Jen says
Kristin – Is there a fee from Disney when you change the reservation? Just curious. Thanks!
Kristin says
Jen – It depends. If you do room only there is only a fee if you are like 6 days out. If you are doing a package, you have a fee if you change it 45 days out.
Ann Marie says
Awesome. I sent you an email about this today! If you get a chance and want to do some exploring while you are there. I can vouch that the quick-service meals at Port-Orleans are outstanding. My husband and I both especially enjoyed the meals at Port-Orleans/French Quarter. They had a neat dining area for the kids at both Port Orleans resorts with a large table for the kiddos to play with legos and coloring pages.
We were able to get rooms for the kids Spring Break, they lifted the black out restriction. We will be staying at Pop Century for the first time. I think the kiddos will really enjoy it! Two weeks and a couple of days and we are headed that way! Whohoo!
Mari says
Make sure you really look at some of the resturaunts for the quick service meals. We were able to eat at Wolf Gang Pucks (DTD) many times on our last trip with our QS credits. I dream of the pizza often. You can also stretch them further buy using the kids credits for pizza there. It is the same size as an adults. I loved the dining plan and not having to worry about bringing money for food. We were there for free dining in September. We did not use all of our credits. We had one TS, one QS and one Snack per person per day for 5 days and there was only 3 of us. Good luck and have a super fun trip.
Sandy says
AAA and the news say for spring break $3+ a gal. I am the one going to Disney in Cal and noticed AAA had the gas on the trip tic and some places are showing $3+ already.
Tabatha says
Wow $150 in gas, I guess I’m going to have to save double because its a 2100 mile round trip. Roughly 1040 down and 1050 miles back. I was figuring about $150 for gas because we get decent gas mileage but I see that I’m off and need to save at least double that! Thanks!!
Kristin says
We get 400 miles to a tank and each tank costs us $50 (we have a truck)…. for now. I expect gas to go up between now and then.
Jaime says
Leave some extra too. Last time we drove down, it was 15 hours but 21 hours on the way back because of bad traffic. :(
Amanda B says
I live near Jacksonville, FL (about 3.5 hours from WDW) – regular unleaded gas is currently 2.90 – just an FYI – seems to raise daily :-(
Dana says
Does anyone know of an expert on these packages that can help us figure out the actual cost and if we’re saving any $$$ in the long run?
Thanks!
Shannon says
Dana – I am a travel agent and a Disney “expert” – plus I have been there quite a few times on my own. If you want any assistance, I would be more then happy to help. We don’t charge any extra fees and get the same prices Disney will give you. My email address is [email protected]
Janna says
I am so glad that you are using this! It didn’t help me much for our short April trip because only one of my kids (out of 2) is in the free age range and I had only planned on one day of Disney tickets. Had we planned more days, it would definitely have been worth it for us.
Now, if something happens and the shuttle launch is postponed again, I may look into using the code.
YAY for saving money!
sherry says
Which shuttle launch are you planning on attending? We are basing our trip around the final launch in September. We figured that with it being the final one, they aren’t likely to change dates too much. So during our 2 weeks there, we will probably see it.
Janna says
Sherry, we are going to the April 5 launch which was originally scheduled for March 18.
I hope you get tickets! I finalized our purchase at 9:10 and everything was sold out by 9:18. I was a nervous wreck!
Jaime says
Just be aware that the launch date isn’t going to be at all set in stone whether it’s the last one or not. There are so many factors that go into the “go, no go” decision from weather in Florida, Spain, and several other emergency landing sites to the basic mechanical factors. Unfortunately the majority of launches do not occur on their original date. :( That said, I hope it does go up while you’re there! I’ve heard it’s amazing to see!
Erin says
I saw a launch from the swimming pool at the hotel at Disney World. It looked like a little match going up into the sky. I would love to get up close and personal!
Kim says
OmG congrats girl. That is wonderful. I was counting down to your $2600 now I need to count down again. You can do it!