Hi! WDW vet planning my first trip as an adult!

AlVan · Feb 21, 2017

Hello! I had been to Disney World probably 10 or 11 times growing up, but now I'm preparing my first trip as an adult. I've been watching the DIS Unplugged videos on youtube for a few weeks now, and it hit me that I had a week off from March 13-17, which contains my anniversary with my girlfriend as well as my mom's birthday.

So I'm planning a one (maybe two) day trip somewhere in the March 13-15 range, and as a college student am hoping to keep the budget around five hundred dollars. Any tips? Would my price range be more feasible staying one night in one of the value resorts on property or trying an off-site hotel? If I should be inquiring in a separate section of the forum, I do apologize. I'm a moderator on another forum so I know how that goes.

AMusicLifeForMe · Feb 22, 2017

Welcome to Disboards! Is your $500 budget for the entire trip? Does your $500 budget include the two+ people going? If that is the case, your $500 budget will mostly be taken up with the price of the tickets. Also, a value resort usually runs around the $150 range a night depending on the time of year with my experience. Another problem is you are planning a vacation to WDW when a lot of the country will be on Spring Break. My part of the country will be on Spring Break that week. When I was looking into a trip a couple days ago, I was looking into that week, and I could not find any availability. When I called and talked to a CM, they couldn't find any availability. I would recommend calling tomorrow to see what you can get since things always change. When I looked into off-site hotels, I was finding prices to be more or about the same as the value resorts. However, I'm picky at what type of hotels I like to stay in, so that could factor into the price. If you are flying in, you would also have to budget a rental car if staying off-site. If you stay on Disney property, you can just take the Magical Express to your resort and back if you are flying in and out of MCO. Then after all of that planning, you need to have some money for food/souvenirs. There's a lot of factors into making a trip to WDW, but I don't see how you could go on a budget of $500 for the entire trip.

AlVan · Feb 22, 2017

AMusicLifeForMe said:
Welcome to Disboards! Is your $500 budget for the entire trip? Does your $500 budget include the two+ people going? If that is the case, your $500 budget will mostly be taken up with the price of the tickets. Also, a value resort usually runs around the $150 range a night depending on the time of year with my experience. Another problem is you are planning a vacation to WDW when a lot of the country will be on Spring Break. My part of the country will be on Spring Break that week. When I was looking into a trip a couple days ago, I was looking into that week, and I could not find any availability. When I called and talked to a CM, they couldn't find any availability. I would recommend calling tomorrow to see what you can get since things always change. When I looked into off-site hotels, I was finding prices to be more or about the same as the value resorts. However, I'm picky at what type of hotels I like to stay in, so that could factor into the price. If you are flying in, you would also have to budget a rental car if staying off-site. If you stay on Disney property, you can just take the Magical Express to your resort and back if you are flying in and out of MCO. Then after all of that planning, you need to have some money for food/souvenirs. There's a lot of factors into making a trip to WDW, but I don't see how you could go on a budget of $500 for the entire trip.

Thank you for the response! We're driving there and it will take approximately a tank of gas to get there (and another back). We talked about it more today and with two one-day tickets (as in one for each of us) and a max of two nights at a cheap off-site hotel will actually put us in that $500 range. Even the value resorts were just not worth the competitive prices they're running right now, so we think off-site is our best bet for this one-day trip.

AMusicLifeForMe · Feb 22, 2017

AlVan said:
Thank you for the response! We're driving there and it will take approximately a tank of gas to get there (and another back). We talked about it more today and with two one-day tickets (as in one for each of us) and a max of two nights at a cheap off-site hotel will actually put us in that $500 range. Even the value resorts were just not worth the competitive prices they're running right now, so we think off-site is our best bet for this one-day trip.

You're welcome. Driving definitely helps since you are within one tank of gas there. Off-site is usually always the cheaper option. I always try to stay at Hilton hotels when i stay off-site, but I always like to get hotels closer to WDW. You just don't get the on-site benefits that Disney includes when staying off-site. I hope you have a great time!

Shellyred8 · Mar 1, 2017

One thing to watch for in the off-site hotels is any extra "resort fees" or "parking fees". The hotels usually try to hide these until the very end when you are booking. You will also want to make sure you factor in the parking fee at WDW. I believe it's at $20 a day. If you stay on-site, you don't have to pay for parking at the parks. So, after all of that, it might be cheaper to stay at a value resort on site. Just some additional things to factor into your decision.

Have a great trip!

Hi! WDW vet planning my first trip as an adult!

AlVan

Earning My Ears

AMusicLifeForMe

DIS Veteran

AlVan

Earning My Ears

AMusicLifeForMe

DIS Veteran

Shellyred8

I'd rather be at Disney

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