When I need to finance vacation time with my family, it can be quite a challenge, which is why we don’t often take them. And it happens at least once a year, usually right after March Break, that my kids ask me “mom, can we go to Disneyland?” Each time I tell them “not this year.” My response doesn’t come easy and it actually leaves me with a bit of guilt as a parent, especially as my kids hear all about their friend’s parents who took them to the most epic of child playgrounds, be it Disneyland or Disney World.
If you’re a fan of the MapleMouseMama blog, you’re likely a Disney fan yourself as well and with good reason. All of the fun characters that your child has grown up with “live” in Disneyland or Disney World and the entire experience is set up for kids to make memories that will last a lifetime. It’s a parent’s dream because everything is thought of there even down to child-specific allergy cards!
I finally made the decision that 2016 is going to be the year that Bianca, Brody and I hit the road towards that magical and enchanted land found in California; Disneyland!! Well actually we’re planning to fly.
Research, Research, Research
I went online to the Disney owned website to plan, research and see how much I would need to finance vacation time. Wanting to maximize the Disneyland experience, I planned to stay on the park grounds. I opted to stay for a 5-day week at the cheapest of the onsite hotels, Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel at $259 per night USD. These rates actually go up in March during the break and the rooms are already unavailable for Christmas, so I opted to rethink going in peak season to be able to get the cheapest onsite room rate. I’m planning to go in February. I also chose the 3 Day 1-Park-Per-Day Ticket with Morning Magic (not sure what that means yet) to get in a good amount of park time, but not be there all day every day and save a few bucks. I unchecked the automatic “Park Hopper” selection that allows you to switch between parks, to keep us on schedule and save $240. Finally, while the Orange County airport is actually closer to the park, I decided in my selection online to fly with the kids direct to LAX since there are more flights between Toronto and LA and more often means cheaper. Grand total just for a week in Disneyland with one adult, a 6 year old and an 8 year old? $3,492.78….which with the exchange comes out to $4,572.84 CAD.
So I actually didn’t follow through to the checkout page because I now had to think about how I was going to raise about $5000 for this family vacation, without letting my kids in on it. I want them to be surprised when I tell them and for the trip to be booked by that point.
I decided that in the age of internet, selloffvacations, travelzoo etc., there had to be a cheaper way to make my kids’ dreams come true. So I did a quick search and came across this post on a website appropriately called “Mouse Savers.” The site has a whole page dedicated to Disney Visa’s that offer various rewards, exclusive options and interesting ways to finance vacation time. I did consider applying to these but was hesitant about taking out more credit for the vacation. At the same time, my options are limited. I went back to searching Google.
I found a travel company, Get Away Today, that specializes in Disney Vacations at a discount. Their site gives you hotel selections not on site. So I chose one within walking distance to the park that also looks like a castle, which I knew the kids would love. This selection already saved me a few hundred dollars.
Screenshot from Get Away Vacations
Notice the “Tickets & Taxes Included!” beside the price?! Me too 😀 I clicked through with my selection of 3 days worth of park tickets and the “Park Hopper” pass was included as a bonus! My new total for hotel, and 3 days at the park came to $1225 USD even, about $1600 CAD. Then I went to FlightHub. I found round-trip flights in my time frame with all taxes and fees included for me and the kids at 1,256.19 CAD. My new total for this trip? $1600 + 1256.19 = $2856.19 Total savings of $1716.65!!!
Screenshot from Flight Hub
Getting Creative
Now feeling like this trip was a little more attainable financially I decided to get savvy. I cut out sweets in our grocery shopping and blamed it on healthy living with the kids (they are still whining that we don’t even have any Captain Crunch in the house). I also started walking dogs on the weekend for some spare cash. The kids loved dog walking with me. So between no sweets and dog walking, we’ve actually eaten healthier, been more active and spent more time together as a family with our new furry neighbourhood friends.
Total cash saved/raised in just two months = $1,200!!! And the best part is that the kids have no idea that this is all to fund their dream vacation.
For the rest, well I was obviously going to put some on the credit card, but still wanted to find ways to save a bit more cash. My friend suggested selling stuff online, like kids’ clothes, toys, housewares and even my old car! It’s crazy, but there are many online groups that are created purely for buying and selling your used goods. Not only did my friend save enough to finance vacation time with her family, she also managed to save enough for the next trip!
So, after moving a few accounts around I’m getting ready to book our family vacation this weekend and I’m not only proud of myself and ecstatic to tell the kids, I’m also now pretty excited to be going myself, even as an adult. I know that I’ll be paying off half the vacation slowly, but every effort is well worth it. I’m actually going to keep up our savvy-saving habits until February to help offset the credit costs and continue dog walking also because it was just such a positive bonding experience for our family. Disneyland here we come!!!
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Thank you to blogger, Beth Blair, for her terrific guest post and tips on how to finance vacation.
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What are some ways your family saves money to help finance a special vacation or purchase?
FT&PD
Suz
I love that you found a way to save that much money on your Disney trip! I want to bring my boys to Disney one day but when they are a little older. My youngest son is two years old and we want to wait until he is at least 5 years old before going. We haven’t taken a vacation since we had our boys and we have been saving money since then for a Disney trip. 🙂
Very expensive and probably the reason I never ever went, but it would have been awesome to take the girls, I hope you can save the money and surprise the kids!!
That is awesome news! YAY, I’m so *excited* for you and your fam to be able to get to Disney in February, woot! And WOW, talk about savings for the trip, WTG. I found out on Twitter today that in 2017, an airline company is going to offer $69 flights from NY to Scotland, so am thinking that might be the year I finally go on my dream trip to the country that half my ancestors lived in, lol. There are so many places I want to visit and keep saying, “Maybe next year.” You’ve inspired me to get my butt in gear and figure out how much I actually do need to save for a much needed trip or two. <3
Reading through the comments here and I can’t wait to see that Scotland trip deal materialize too Aeryne!! Anyways Disney is always a lot of fun. There are a lot of ways to save but be careful how you do so. We have done this trip a few times and our most meliorable trip was when we stayed on the resort itself there. Great service. But for sure if that’s not in the cards you can easily stay somewhere less expensive and then save like mad and make it happen. Fly off season or drive is another way to save a lot of money. I would not recommend taking out a loan to do a trip. That’s hard to pay back but shopping around and the other tips make sense.
I can’t believe how much it all adds up to but it is the happiest place on earth after all 🙂 I really enjoyed your story of how you started and came to a total and shaved it down to make it possible. Great tips!!
Going to Disney has always been a dream of mine, ever since I was a little girl. I’m glad to see that with some research and hard work it can be attainable.
Wow, that’s quite the difference. Love how you were able to make your trip more affordable!
You are so resourceful! I’m sure the trip will be a blast for you all!
Very informative!!!! One day we’ll get there 🙂
Love the great tips and yes you can take a Disney vacation for less if you put effort into your research!
I know I certainly can’t afford to go there. I wish I could but not much you can do unless they have poverty day. LOL
I loved reading this. I have been twice but we drove (from MB) and it is a very long long road trip. As a single driver I wouldn’t attempt it at all. I’m not even sure it would be worth it with gas, hotels and food prices these days taken into account. Marvellous how much you can save when you research it well. I know when we went we cut costs by participating in a time share talk (where there was also food and coffee) we got cheaper tickets this way so that’s perhaps an option too.
Your tips sure beat my penny jar! I am bookmarking FlightHub and Get Away Today- thank you!
Thanks for the tips,i love how you make your trip my affordable
I never ever went, and honestly i dont have a lot of interesdt in travelling maybe because i have a disability…………..and its so much work
Thanks for the advice. Went to Disney last May but it’s on our list to see again!
Thanks for reading. Disney is the kind of place you just want to keep returning to…sigh…
It does come a bit pricy for me !
It all looks so inviting but it does come with a big price
I live in the state of Florida and Disney World is about 4 hours away from us in Orlando so we always drive there. We have stayed both on site and off. I have been considering an annual pass so that we could go more often and then only need to save for souviners, food and hotel.
If I lived that close Patricia, I would definitely get the annual pass, but I hear they can be pretty pricey too. I guess you have to calculate how often you do go and see if the math works for you. 🙂
I would love to be able to take my family to Disney
If you can dream it, you can do it!!
Would have loved this info when mine were young! So much more access to discounts now!
Wow thanks for the info, it’s amazing the savings you can find if you take the time to look and search online.
I would love to be able to visit Disney sometime !
Ahhh! We’re hoping to make Disney World in FLorida happen for our family this year! It’s expensive and crazy, but we really know it’s time. I grew up in Florida, so our trips to Disney were super easy- just a drive away. Maybe one night in a hotel. Now, it’s actually going to take planning and thought!
Thank you for this post! I always find it super hard to finance for Disney, given how expensive it is!
Thanks for all the great tips!
Love hearing about all your strategies to make that dream happen!!! Its nice to know I’m not the only one out there balancing it all to figure out how to have our cake and eat it too! Thanks for the tips! 🙂
I hope to got to Disney World in the next year. Any help for financing is useful!
Thanks for all the tips! I would love to get there one day
Love all the tips! Going to Disney has been a dream of mine since I was little and now my kids want to go so this article was very helpful on planning a trip there!
These are some great tips…. I think we’ll start saving for a trip there too!
Great tips. Amazing how the price can escalate when everything is added up.
I would love to take my kids again. It’s been so long. It’s nice to know there are ways to save on expensive trips like this. Love the tips
In our family it is a long term plan to get to Disney and it started about 5 years ago
We try to set aside a certain amount every month and then it is not so onerous at the end of the year.
Disney is expensive, this post will help
Thank you for sharing how you were able to save on your disney vacation, I love your excitement!
We are trying to put away a few dollars and take a trip in 2018
Great tips – a Disney holiday can be pretty expensive.
Thanks for sharing your findings. It’s crazy how expensive things can get!
Those are amazing savings! I will definitely be checking out that site when I am reading to start planning our Disney vacation. Thanks for the great info!
I loved reading this and think it was great that you managed to save so much. I know that when I went to Disney World over 20 yrs ago I was flabbergasted at the price of tickets
Wow you were able to save so much money while visiting Disney. What a great article to help others save when visiting here
Wow, thanks for sharing, I would love the one day go on a trip there and its a really good deal.
Great tips,fingers crossed you never know someday we might get there !
Great ideas – and so many can be transferred to save on other vacays too! Thanks for the tips!
I’ve been looking into DisneyLand trips lately, trying to convince my hubby we should do this for a change up.. We’ve done Disney World 2x now. Just not sure I can handle the longer flights. Thanks for sharing this, will have to look into off site prices.
Canadian citizen discount tickets and budget Disney hotel made it affordable to us.
Great way to cut back on sweets and to save money at the same time. Years ago, I figured out how much I needed to save to take our kids to Disney and told them when they were age 9 and age 7 we are going to Disney. Poor babysitter as she heard my kids tell her each time, that when they are 7 and 9 they are going to Disney. We had a blast
I would love to take my grandchildren to Disneyland some day. I am sure we would all love it.
Thank you for sharing! We are hoping to take our kids in May. Thank you for the advice!
I have two kids and plan on taking them to Disneyland in the near future! These are some really great tips on saving on the costs! My husband and I actually just recently purchased two timeshares through bluegreen vacations. I think people who want to travel and Vacation alot should really look into them! It is totally worth it. We were hesitant at first, but now we love it! They let you do payment plans. And you get all kinds of benefits. So far we have been given, $175 in bassproshop shop gift cards, $100 tangeroutlet giftcards, $100 visa giftcard, a free 4 day 5 night cruise, and $1000 airfare just for doing tours. We get so many points each year we can use to pay for our resorts. We also got 6 bonus weeks, which means we can stay almost anywhere for a whole week and only pay about $300. And we also get flat rates at all of bluegreen resorts and hotels. It’s amazing. I’m planning on using one of the bonus weeks to take my kids to Disneyland.
I have never been to Disney land but it does look like a fun place to go. My kids are grown now with kids of their own but you never know, the day may come when we will be able to go.
I loved reading this. Makes me smile !
thanks for these great tips