As my mom and I were discussing Disney trips this morning, she brought up a great point about the "it's too expensive" debate. The biggest reason most people have for not going is money. Yes, it can be expensive...CAN, but doesn't have to be. I've noticed many people save and save their money and go on one big, luxurious trip. That's great and all, but if you only go once or twice in your life, then you are missing out on so much. Disney is not meant to be experienced that way. It changes CONSTANTLY.
Let me start this off by saying that my family and I do not have money to burn. We have financial struggles just like everyone else. Yes, we visit the Disney parks often (usually at least once every 1-2 years), but our Disney trips are NOT luxurious. We would not be able to go as often as we do if we didn't pinch pennies on every single trip. Instead of spending a ridiculous amount of money on a single visit, why not spend less money on smaller trips and be able to go multiple times? Does that mean you will have to give up certain things like your desired deluxe hotel, dining in certain expensive restaurants, or buying out the souvenir shops? Most likely. But it doesn't mean you won't ever get to do those things. It doesn't have to be "go big or go home." I'd take frequent/multiple visits over my dream vacation any day. I still get to experience all the things on my "dream Disney vacation" list, just not all at once.
We choose one element of each vacation to splurge on. Sometimes it's the hotel, or an expensive restaurant, or other experience like a photo session or tour. For example, we usually choose one new sit down restaurant to try each time (we don't do dining plans to save money). On our most recent trip (we just got back yesterday. Boo!), we chose to splurge for an early character breakfast at Crystal Palace. I've always wanted to be the first into the Magic Kingdom in the morning, so this was my birthday present to myself. So worth getting up early and spending the extra cash on a buffet! For the rest of the trip, we ate two quick service meals per day (we brought cereal bars from home as our breakfast). My husband and I often split one meal, which saved us even more money (many plates are large enough for two people). I brought food for our 1-year old, or he nibbled off our plates. Throughout the day we got FREE water from the quick service restaurants. Yes, I said FREE. All you have to do is ask for a cup (make sure you say cup and not bottle) of water and they'll provide you one at no charge. You can get a cup of ice for free as well.
The hotel is often the most expensive part of a trip (aside from tickets of course). We usually stay in a value resort (they're the cheapest on property). The All-Star resorts are the cheapest. While I really wanted to stay in the Grand Floridian for my birthday, we chose the All-Star Music instead, since the Crystal Palace was our big splurge this time. If you have a little extra cash, the moderate resorts are a great option. We LOVE Port Orleans Riverside! Next time, we are hoping to make the hotel our splurge item and stay at the Polynesian. If you really want to save a ton, you can stay off-property at one of the Disney Good Neighbor hotels (I highly recommend the Clarion at Lake Buena Vista). Although you will have to pay for parking if you drive your personal vehicle to the parks ($17 per car, per park!). Most of the Good Neighbor hotels do offer a shuttle to Disney if you'd like to save the parking fee as well. Once on property, you can use Disney transportation to get everywhere you need to go.
Other things you can pinch or splurge on are your ticket options and length of stay. I would love to be able to stay a full week every time, but you don't have to. We typically stay 3-4 days in the parks, plus two days driving time. We also always include a weekend in our trip. This means that my husband doesn't use up as many vacation days, but we still have one full day for each park. Will you get to do everything in 3 days? Probably not. But that's why you're coming back, right? :) You can also save money by not purchasing ticket options like the water parks (we've only visited the water parks once in 8 years. No real need to go every time unless you're a big water nut), or no expiration (trust me, you'll likely not ever need this one). The one ticket option I can't live without is park hopper, although you can save over $50 per person by not getting it. It's worth every penny of that for us though, especially with a little one.
My favorite splurge item that isn't hotel or food is a Disney photo session. We did a mini session for our maternity photos last year and it was absolutely WONDERFUL (I did a blog post all about it). When our son gets a little older, we'll do another family session as our splurge. These sessions are different from Memory Maker, which is another item you can save money on. We have never purchased Memory Maker because honestly, I don't see a need to. We still use Photo Pass and have all the same photos you get with Memory Maker. I just go through and only purchase the ones I want (I have never wanted all of them). But really, you don't even have to do that. Cast members are more than happy to take a photo with your camera, for FREE. Just have your camera set and ready to go before you hand it off. Photo Pass photographers always take some with my camera, as well as with theirs, so I have plenty of options to choose from.
It's a myth that a Disney vacation is a once in a lifetime trip. Disney vacations are lots in a lifetime trips. Please, PLEASE go more than once. If you don't, you're missing out on a big part of the Disney experience. Go at different times of the year (you'll be amazed at the difference in seasons and crowds), try new things. The parks are always changing and evolving. There's always a new attraction, or show, or maybe even an entirely new park. It's a myth that Disney is unaffordable, or that you can't afford to go often. YOU choose how much you spend. You don't have to go all out to have an amazing time. I have only spent a few hours at Disney before (after a lot of begging on our way to board our non-Disney cruise lol). We spent very little money on that visit, and it was still absolutely AMAZING. Expense doesn't make a trip memorable. It's how you spend your time that counts.
