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Disney World Park Tickets

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One of the most expensive parts of a Disney vacation is the Disney World park tickets.  Disney also over the last several years have moved to peak and off-peak pricing.

Disney World Park Tickets

The new pricing will cause the cost of your Disney world park tickets to fluctuate $20 per ticket, per day possibly.  This money difference will add up real quick when you take into consideration the number of days at the park and the size of your family.  This has added the additional planning part of looking at the cost of tickets, along with flight and hotel costs when trying to do Disney on a budget.

Purchase from Online Sources

There are websites such as Undercover Tourist and Mousesavers that you can get discounts getting tickets through them.  These two sites have been around for several years and were very helpful when we first started to plan trips to Orlando.

Target

The other way we have found to reduce the cost of our Disney World park tickets is Target.  With using the Target Red Card, we get 5% off Disney gift cards.  We can then purchase the tickets right from Disney as part of our hotel package with these cards.
Within the last year, they also have direct gift cards where you can purchase 2-3 day park ticket packages for Disneyland right from the gift card section.  I am hoping they will release these for Disney World also.

Other Money Savings Considerations

One of the other Disney expenses that you have to consider is your hotel costs. Disney World Hotels is an article that was written previously to help you with these costs. We love staying on Disney properties when we visit, but you could use off-site deals to help you as well.
Disney World: Cheap Airfare is hard to find. However, it is not impossible. Take advantage of all the offers you can find to make your Disney adventures amazing!

Hotel Chains – Hyatt, MLIFE and IHG

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For us and many others, vacation and travel include more than just the plane tickets.  Some things you have to consider when planning your vacation is what hotel chains to use, the car rentals, the food. All of these things help us in making memories.  Between Cheyenne’s taekwondo tournaments, training trips for work and all my travels I spent over 60 nights in hotels in 2017.  When you travel that much, you start to have preferences with specific hotel chains.  Using one or two hotel chains to book the majority of your stays helps with building up those point balances instead of spreading them thin at tons of locations leaving you too short to do any redemptions.  Below are my three favorites.

MLIFE/MGM Grand Group

MLIFE/MGM is my favorite of all the hotel chains when traveling to Las Vegas.  They have multiple resorts in Las Vegas such as Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Vdara, Aria, and others.  Some people do prefer the Caesars program, but I have found that I prefer to stay with MLIFE due to the overall feel and experience at these hotels.  The Caesars group has recently gone through bankruptcy so, some of the resorts are showing more wear and tear than the MLIFE casinos.  The MLIFE hotel chain has a partnership with Southwest and Hyatt.  You can provide your Southwest Airlines account number at check-in, and you will receive bonus points if you booked through them. Besides, you can submit your Hyatt account number, and you get points and stay credits towards their program on all purchases and your hotel rooms.
*** Pro Tip: When I eat at a handful of the resort restaurants or get show tickets, I make sure to bill them to the room to get the double bonus of Hyatt points along of MLIFE points.

Hyatt

Hyatt is one out of all the hotel chains I prefer for all my other travel.  I love their rooms, and they have smaller point redemptions available.  We have enjoyed many stays in Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis areas from this great program and take advantage of their park and fly options.  Sometimes the site will even allow you to use points to reserve the hotel but pay a small amount for parking before flying out.  The only downside is it is a smaller hotel chain than some others, and there are not many Hyatt’s in Wisconsin which is where the next program comes in.

IHG

IHG is my secondary program.  Most people will not recognize IHG, but they will know Holiday Inn.  IHG owns multiple hotel groups including Holiday Inn which seem to be all around us. IHG almost always has some kind of program available for extra points.  Sometimes it’s just as simple as 5,000 bonus points for your first stay, take advantage of these if you can.
Pro Tip: You always need to check your account before checking in as these programs do not have automatic enrollment and you have to sign up before checking in.

Other Hotel Chains Tips

We do use other hotel chains at times depending on the trip or vacation but prefer to stay with these three if possible.  We do like the Disney resorts or some of the specific Cancun resorts that do not fit into a ‘rewards program’ when visiting those locations.  Mostly due to location and proximity to what we are doing. For us, the reward points aren’t worth the extra travel time to and from places and free transportation/parking benefits we get at the other hotel chains.
My recommendation is to focus on a small handful of hotels when you start out, and always try booking there. But don’t get so caught up in using that hotel chain that you don’t take advantage of other factors including convenience, location and other hotel chain deals.
Hotel chains a closer look at Mlife, Hyatt and IHG. Maximize those reward points! #travel #travelhacking #traveltips #hotels #hotelpoints #hotelgroups #hotelchains

Disney World Hotels

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I do prefer to stay at the Disney World hotels on our trips down to Florida.  They may cost a little more, but the benefits easily cover the costs. Come and read some of our favorite Disney World Hotel benefits and check out how to get cheaper airfare: Disney World: Cheap Airfare.

Disney World Hotels Benefits

Magical Express Bus

What we consider our most significant benefit to the Disney World hotels is they provide transportation to/from the Orlando International airport for a lot of different airlines.  Using Disney’s Magical Express means no long taxi ride, shuttle bus fees, or car rental worries.
The Disney Bus services also provide transportation to all the parks, and you can even get to all the other Disney World Hotels. If you do decide to travel away from Disney properties, you can always catch a bus from Disney Springs, or they will even take you to the Disney Car Rental service to rent a car for a day or two.

Luggage Delivery

Luggage Delivery is one of my favorite little perks. When you use the Disney Magical Express Service, you get your luggage delivered to your Disney hotels room at no charge. A few weeks before your trip you get special luggage tags to attach to your bags if you are flying into the Orlando International Airport.

The special tags, allows Disney to grab your bags and deliver them straight to your room, completely free. Luggage delivery frees you and your family up to explore your resort, and you don’t need to cart heavy bags around.

Free Parking

There is no need to pay another parking fee for going in and out of the resorts or parks. Disney hotels guests get free standard parking at theme parks, water parks and in the Disney Springs area.

Extra Magic Hours Disney hotels

If you are staying at the Disney hotels and visiting one of the Disney theme parks you can take advantage of Extra Magic Hours. These are hours the theme park is only open to resort guests. The Extra Magic Hours are either before the park opens for the day or they stay open later after the park closes to normal guests. We try to take advantage of these Extra Magic Hours at Magical Kingdom when they stay open late.

Travel Points

Since we love travel hacking, we are always looking for good travel programs to take advantage of. Disney does not have a real active rewards program and push more of a timeshare approach; it is hard to work towards a free trip using points.  Instead of a Disney Reward Program, this is where a cash back card that gets at least 2% builds up those balances or Ultimate Rewards points through Chase.
You can book Disney hotels through Chase using their travel portal using your points.  You will get 1.25 cents per point for all cards except if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve which receives 1.5 centers per point.  Watch the Disney website for deals also.  They do offer deals at times where you can get better pricing.

Other Hotel Options

Another option is through Hotels.com.  Amazon and eBay love to post sales on gift cards for hotels.com.  If you can pick up these cards at the 10-20% sale discount over time, it makes a big dent on the hotel stay. Even if you don’t find one of those deals take advantage of getting Disney gift cards at Target to save a few dollars. If you use your Red Card to make those purchases, you will save yourself some money before you even get to Disney World.
With Disney, you have to be creative to beat the costs, but you can get an affordable family vacation. For additional Money Savings tips sign up for our free ebook and money savings guides.