Eterno Dia PhotographyDoing Disney On Dime
What can I say; I love Disney. I love how everything seems so magical. When I’m at a Disney park I forget all my troubles. I’m overcome with a feeling that magic is real and even just for a day, I forget about my worries and problems. Even though I know it’s a beautifully orchestrated illusion, Disney makes me feel like everything is right with the world.
Cinderella’s Castle
I’ve been to Disneyland 3 times; Once as a child with my family, once on a high school band trip and for my honeymoon 9 years ago (my husband is also a fan). I’d been itching to finally see Disney World in Florida, to compare parks, but also to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, so last year I put my foot down and we booked the trip. We had a pretty small budget and my husband was skeptical that we could make it work, but we did. And here’s how:
We started out by looking at flight and hotel packages. We found a good deal through Westjet that included a motel (the Clarion Inn in Vista). The motel itself actually included free shuttles to and from the various parks. Score! It’s often cheaper to fly with transfers but we opted for a direct flight this time. We booked a red eye flight because we only had five vacation days to do six parks (which is actually madness, but we’ll return to that). We decided that we could sleep on the plane and hit our first park on the morning we landed. I always forget I can’t sleep on planes and due to the lack of sleep and food, I had a brief moment where I nearly tarnished Disney’s magic and had to will myself not to throw up in an Epcot garbage can (I was fine after I finally got something to eat). Red eye flights are often cheaper than daytime flights during business hours, so even with the lack of sleep, it was a good choice to keep the vacation in our budget.
Mexican Pavilion in Epcot
Epcot at night
Market in Morocco at Epcot
Mission: Space at Epcot. I highly recommend this insane ride.
While we were booking flights and hotel, Westjet offered an add-on to purchase Disney park passes through them for approximately $80 Canadian dollars. A quick check online showed us that if we bought park passes at the Disney gates they would have cost us $100 USD. At that time (2016) the Canadian dollar was nothing to brag about, so we snapped those up right away. You can also save money by buying Disney passes in bulk. The more consecutive days you buy, the cheaper they are.
Why’s the rum all gone?!
I got to be a ride timer a few times throughout the trip
One of my favorites- Pirates of the Caribbean
The motel we booked wasn’t close enough to walk to any parks and we certainly didn’t want to spend extra money on taxi’s or ubers, so having a motel that provided free shuttles was a huge perk. Many of the nearby motels also had complimentary shuttles. Not all shuttles were equal though, some departed later in the day than we were hoping to get to the park by or came back much earlier than we wanted to leave, so it did required a bit of mapping on our part of which park to go to on which day based on shuttle times. We got a bit creative and would take a shuttle to one park and then hop on another shuttle to get to the one we were actually trying to go to. A bit of extra work, but still worth it to save some coin. Shuttle times change seasonally as well, depending on peak and non-peak seasons so be sure to check with the hotel how it works.
As much as I’d love to stay in a Disney Parks resort, I can’t afford it. A motel was a great choice, as believe me, you won’t be spending much time in your room. We try to book motels with kitchenettes, or at least mini-fridges. This ends up saving us a ton of money on food. I have a few food intolerances, and while Disney has done a great job recently of catering to allergies and intolerances, it’s still a risk, not to mention pricey. The Clarion we booked had a mini-fridge, tea and coffee station and a microwave. For this vacation, (and our honeymoon trip to California) in my luggage I brought granola bars, instant oatmeal packages and mini cereal boxes (make sure you check your customs regulations for what type for dry food goods you can take into the U.S. if you’re coming from another country). We then hit a nearby convenience store where I bought some fruit, yogurt and milk to keep in the fridge. Pack along a few plastic or disposable bowls and some cutlery. The oatmeal packets are lightweight and don’t take a ton of room in your luggage and all you need is the hot water from your tea or coffee maker. Having a quick breakfast in the room will save you a ton of money compared to eating out, and time saved waiting in the restaurant (that’s valuable park time!). Bringing along a few granola bars and snacks in your bag for the day will tide you over until you want an actual meal. Walking around the parks and riding roller coasters burns a lot of calories, so you’ll likely need some snacks. *Disclaimer- Disney and most theme parks have a “No Outside Food Or Drink” policy, so do so at your own risk. However, I never got any trouble munching on a granola bar or piece of fruit while waiting in line for a ride. Just dispose of your garbage properly. You weren’t born in a barn…
A rainy start at Animal Kingdom
Heading to Nepal: Expedition Everest
African market in Animal Kindom
Souvenirs are always a big expense; Something by which to remember your epic vacation, something to thank the house sitter or a gift for a co-worker. Of course the mark up at the parks is pretty high. I try not to think about the cost of my Harry Potter wand with the value of the Canadian dollar at the time. I did discover after a few days of checking prices at the parks, that our gift shop had merchandise that was a bit cheaper. A lot of shops in the Disney Springs district in Florida or Downtown Disney district in California have slightly cheaper merchandise than what’s available at the parks. If you go too far from the resort to other gift shops around Orlando or Anaheim, you may be getting knock-offs, so just be aware of what you’re buying. We bought chocolate frogs in the hotel gift shop that were still official licensed Harry Potter merchandise, just a different brand than sold at the park. They were significantly cheaper than at the park, and the same is true for shirts, mugs and sunglasses. Check around and compare prices to save money any way you can.
Whether you’re visiting Disneyland or Disney World, it would be a shame to miss Universal Studios. Universal was actually our primary reason for this trip, specifically, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! We’d been to Universal Studios on previous trips to California. It was do-able in a day (for two young adults with no kids). Universal in Florida is split into two parks; Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. They are attached to each other (via the Hogwarts Express ride) and require a “park hopper pass” in order to go to both parks in the same day. With only five days in Florida, this was our itinerary: Day 1: Epcot, day 2: Magic Kingdom, day 3: Hollywood Studios, Day 4: Both Universal parks, day 5: Animal Kingdom. We decided we had to condense Universal into one day. Crazy, but it was all time allowed for. We decided that we would make The Wizarding World of Harry Potter the priority, and if we managed that in the day, we would then see anything extra, or the “repeats” from California’s Universal Studios. Ideally, a day per park (or more) would have been great, but we were trying to save money and had very limited time. We started at the Wizarding World at about 9:30 am and by about 2 pm I was satisfied I’d seen everything I needed to see, which left us with time to explore other parts of both parks. Most people I spoke to before heading to Florida suggested that we would need 10-12 days to see everything we wanted to. That would have made for a very expensive trip. While I wouldn’t recommend five days for anyone with children (or anyone sane for that matter) it is do-able in a week or less. Five days, in hindsight, was a whirlwind. On our last day at Animal Kingdom, towards the end of the day, my husband mentioned that I looked “a bit off”. I explained that I felt weird because the floor we were standing on was bouncy and it was making me dizzy. He looked at me, mouth agape, and explained that we were standing on a concrete floor.
The Hogwarts Express engineer!
Hogwarts Castle
The Owlry in Diagon Alley
For all your Firebolt needs
Beware of Dragons!
So maybe five solid days of extreme roller coasters and hundreds of kilometers of walking after a red eye flight with no sleep was a bit much (I’m sure I scrambled my brain a bit), but at the end of the day we kept the trip affordable. And I have no regrets. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal was one of the best days of my life. We both had so much fun. Disney World is a magical, joyous place. Epcot and Animal Kingdom was like a going on a mini world tour. It was a phenomenal trip and I’m counting down for the next Disney trip to California after Star Wars land is up and running. Go be a kid again, but save your grown-up money doing it.
Seriously?!
A quick drink at Moe’s Tavern
#Truth
Don’t we make a cute couple?
As usual, feel free to contact me with comments or questions. What are your money saving tips? What was your favorite ride (Mission: SPACE at Epcot is EPIC!)? Happy traveling!
When you wish upon a star…
Eterno Dia Photography 
Awesome memories an really cool pics