Sunday, October 21, 2018

Walt Disney World Planning Series: The Beginning Stages

My next scheduled trip to Disneyland isn't until November of next year and while I have several other interesting California-based trips scheduled in the coming year, I felt like I need to focus on my Disney addiction a little bit.  So, with that in mind, I'm starting a new series on planning and prep for Walt Disney World (WDW).  As a Disneyland native, I've only been to WDW once and that was in 2000, when I was still a teenager.  I have a few vague memories of fine dining and unique attractions, but so much has changed since the last time I went.

My ultimate goal is to save enough money to take a trip in 2021.  So, I'm giving myself a little over 2 years to plan and budget.  Many popular planning sites say to start at least a year in advance, but given the cost of getting a family of 6 from the west coast to Florida, I want to start early.  My brilliant (or maybe not so much depending on how this goes) plan is to take you guys along for the planning ride.

So this week, I started by looking at different places we could stay while in the area.  I quickly determined that we would need to stay on property as the cost of parking and renting a car offsets any savings we would have from renting a vacation home, condo, or offsite hotel.  The onsite hotels have the perk of extra hours in the parks, transportation via bus, boat, or monorail to all 4 parks, and options to pre-pay for meals if booked through Disney.  It's also appealing to be able to slowly pay for the trip over the course of the time between initial booking and final trip.  If I book 9 months-1 year in advance, that gives me the opportunity to pay off any discrepancy in money between what I've saved and what I need.

As for hotels, so far, I've compared several ideas.  For a family of 6, options are relatively limited to either a suite or 2 rooms with few exceptions.  Prices for a single room during peak times of year (i.e. the only times a teacher with school-aged children can visit) range from about $170 for a basic value room all the way up to around $2500 for a top of the line villa suite.  I'm a teacher and the other adults in my family aren't exactly rolling in money, so the high end villas are out for us.  Likewise, most of the rooms at the deluxe hotels are a minimum of $400 per night (minimum of $800 per night for a suite), so again, we'll have to pass unless we win the lottery or something.  The adults in my family do not appreciate double beds, preferring queens, so value resorts are out as well.  I also looked at the cabins at Fort Wilderness, but reviews indicate even getting around the campgrounds takes forever and that this is not the best sleeping arrangement if you want to get to the parks by rope drop every day. 

In the end, it looks like two rooms at a moderate resort will be the best bet for us.  There are some options for junior suites and similar at moderate resorts, but with a need for some space once in a while, two rooms just seems to make sense.  And at about $200-$250 per room, it seems reasonable without everyone having to share a small space.  So, the question now is, which one?  Not counting the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, there are 4 options.  When I was younger, I stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort, which was lovely from what I remember, but at the same time, it might be nice to try something new.  In future posts in this series, I will undoubtedly agonize over which hotel would be best.

For now though, I'll leave you with my budget goals.  A week-long trip to WDW at a moderate resort with 2 rooms, park hopper tickets for 6 days, a pre-purchased Disney dining plan, and air fair for 6 during peak times (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Spring Break--I refuse to do summer since I can't stand the dry heat of California, let alone the insane humidity of Florida), would come to about $12,000 today, so in a couple of years, that cost will probably look more like $15,000.  I currently have about $3,000 saved specifically in funds for this trip.  So, where do I get the other $12,000 from?  Hard work and budgeting hopefully.  In upcoming installments to this series, I will look at suggestions to save money including discounts, Disney reward points, and ways of putting away more money by carefully watching spending habits. 


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