Do you have any tips for getting a good price/package for a Disney World vacation?

If you know anyone in Florida, have them buy the tickets. A person with a Florida driver’s license gets incredibly good rates – like ¼ of what you will find.

Go to your HR department or credit union. Also a hotel and ticket package that includes early entry is good. The February time frame is HIGH season ( because of President Day ) with prices the same.

Well, I live northeast of Orlando at this time, but spent many a family vacation when I was young in Orlando. I guess that I’ve been there enough times that to say that I’m jaded would be an understatement. Overpriced tourist trap, along with all the other “Cheap Attraction Tickets Here!” stores and/or random people accosting you on the street trying to sell you discounted Disney tickets. Ends up costing a fortune for mom and dad; but at least the kids have fun.

My ex-husband actually wanted to go to Disney for our honeymoon. <sigh> Should’ve known right then we weren’t meant for each other. I said no and we went to Antigua. I think his current wife shares his love of all things Disney.

@jca That won’t work. You have to present FL ID at the time you use the tickets, at least from all the offers I’ve seen.

Any advice will be appreciated.

When you have a local friend buy your tickets, that local friend must be present at the time they are used.

Our best price was through my husband’s employer. It beat all the other deals.

I am not sure where you live, but you should check kayak.com for a summary of most of the airplane companies’s rates from your airport to Orlando (airport code: ORL). Southwest Airlines is not included in this list, so you’ll have to go directly to their website, too.

If you are a bit obsessed with getting a good deal (like me), I’ve found that you can find a better rate sometimes by booking the trip in legs using kayak.com. For example, if you are from Minneapolis (MSP), you could search a flight to chicago (ORD) and then search a flight from ORD to ORL. I’ve successfully booked flights by doing this, but the caveats are:
—If you take multiple airlines, you will be responsible for another airline’s delays.
—It may take longer based on layovers and the total distance traveled.

Some airports that are really cheap to fly to and fro are: ORD (Chicago), DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth), JFK (New York), WAS (D.C. airports Dulles (IAD), Reagan (DCA) Baltimore-Washington (BWI)). Good Luck.

Buy a share of Disney stock. Doesn’t have to be a thousand shares.

I’m not sure if they still do this but any stockholder, even one share, would get all kinds of special offers from the company every year. A friend of mine used to go regularly on discount offered to shareholders.

Postings on The forum at Mouseplanet:Everything Disney say shareholders used to get discounts long ago, but not in the last decade.

@YARNLADY: Right. I just googled it and found out that discounts for stockholders have been discontinued.

I am looking at hotels now – I see tons of them all over, outside of Disney. Some people recommend staying at a Disney resort, which has the advantages of the monorail into Disney, which is obviously convenient, but those resorts are a lot more than the typical Doubletree or Wyndham or Hilton or whatever.

When we were there, we stayed at a Travellodge that was on the free busline that went to all the parks. The trip was over an hour long, and the wait for the bus was also about an hour, so that had to be figured in the time we had at the parks. If you will have your own car, the parking is very expensive, and at least a 30 to 45 minute wait for the tram, but still more convenient than the bus.

Go before Presidents weekend. That weekend is a huge FL vacation weekend, and the beginning of the big second seasonal influx to FL from up north. If you do go over that weekend, return home on Tuesday, it should save a lot of money on your flight. It also should save on hotel costs.

The inexpensive hotels like Disney All Stars Resorts at Disney are basically the same inside the room as many of the moderate hotels. But the trip into the park takes longer as they are farther away from the parks. I often stay in those hotels because I tend to stay in a park all day. But, with a young child you might prefer to go back for a nap or do shorter days in the parks and take time swimming in the pool at the hotel.

The tickets that don’t let you change parks during the day I recommend, because they are cheaper and it is unlikely you will change parks in one day with a young child. However if you are staying 3 or more days, most ticket packages include being able to change parks anyway.

I assume you have been to the Disney vacation website

Also, FYI, if you do stay outside of Disney, the parking is very very easy for the parks. I recommend just stay at the parks if you won’t have to rent a car. The car will cost you money anyway. Check into purchasing the hotel separate from the ticket package.

The monorail is only accessible from some of the Disney hotels. The inexpensive ones it is bus only, like the all star I mentioned. But, you will be able to use monorail and boats in other parts of the park. They do check ID for FL ticket holders, at least they used to.