Florida Deals

So I have had a few friends ask how we went on our trip while on a budget....I did lots of shopping around! So I wanted to share some of the deals I found.... some I used, some I didn't. Today I am going to cover a little on Disney World.

Disney World Tickets-
Disney world consists of 4 major parks: Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Each park can really take 1 full day each so we got 5 day tickets so we could have a day at each park and 1 flex day to go back to our favorite park ! There are also the water parks to consider (depending on the time of year)! There are lots of ways to get your tickets to the park

• buy direct from http://www.disneyworld.com/
• buy from a broker. There are a lot of different ones out there. Just google Disney world tickets. I used one my brother Rod (a Disney expert) suggested http://www.orlandofuntickets.com/ they had discount tickets and we were able to buy the 4 day tickets with a free upgrade to 5 days!
• wait till you get there...there are booths everywhere!
• This year Disney has a promotion that if you go on your birthday you get in FREE! If you already have tickets (like we did) you can choose from 3 other options like a $75 gift card to be used in the parks (this cannot be used for food) For more info. go to http://disneyparks.disney.go.com
• This is Florida.....there are timeshare resorts every where! Many of them offer tickets as an incentive to sit through a presentation. Remember this will take at least 2 hours of you vacation time, not to mention a high pressure sales pitch, so think seriously about this before you do it!

Disney World Resorts-

Right now Disney has a pretty good deal if you want a package deal. It is buy 4 night package and get 3 nights FREE! Plus, when you travel between 3/1 - 3/9 and 3/17- 3/29, you'll also get a $200 Disney Gift Card. For more info go to http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/

There are different levels of resorts to fit you budget or vacationing style and there are a few advantages to going with a Disney resort as well:

• When you stay at a Disney resort you wont have to worry about waiting for your luggage at the airport, they will pick it up and deliver it to your room for you!
• You can save money on a car rental because they have a shuttle that will pick you up from the airport and take you to your resort and it runs 24 / 7!
• You will save money on Disney parking (which is $12 per day)! Disney are masters of transportation! They have complimentary transportation to all the parks.
• You will also get more time to play during extended theme park hours. Each day one of the parks will open early or stay open late so you get more out of each day!

Planning-

I found the whole planning part to be really over whelming. The parks are huge and I didn't want to miss anything! Again my brother Rod saved me by directing me to some great websites! Here are just a few of them, again google is always your friend to get more info!

• www.mousesavers.com
• www.miceage.com
• www.mouseplanet.com
• www.DisneyWorld.com/moms

Miscellaneous-

• Wear good walking shoes, you will be doing a lot of walking! If you are wearing new shoes or just got new insoles break them in first!
• Having a poncho for some of the rides is a good idea so that you arent stuck in wet clothes all day plus you will be glad you have it if it starts to rain!
• The great thing about all the parks is they will let you take in your own food! Take advantage of this to save some money! We always had fruit leather, granola bars and a water bottle, this way if we were hungry we could grab one of those! We also tried to limit our in park eating to one meal and maybe a snack a day, we would eat breakfast before we went and then had a late dinner after the park was closed!
• Disney also offers a meal plan option when you are booking with them so look into that as well.
• Take dramamine or some other motion sickness remedy before you get there and again during the day if you need it!
• Take advantage of the Guest relations if you have any problems! When my hubby got so sick on a ride we had to leave I went to guest relations to see if we could get a parking refund or something so we wouldnt have to pay it again the next day. They ended up giving me 2 - one day park hopper tickets! That is worth over $150...well over the $12 I went in for!
• Take advantage of the Photo Pass card! As soon as you enter the park look for a photographer in a kacki jacket, ask for a photo pass card. What this does is that every time you see a photographer in any of the parks you give them the card, they take your pictures (I always have them take it with my camera too) and then the pictures are available to view, download and purchase on the website!
• The Fast Pass is great! There are certain rides in every park that have a fast pass machine. You put in your park ticket and it gives you a fast pass that gives you a specific time period to return for the ride. Your wait time will be cut down significantly becasue you are in a seperate line! You can only have 1 fast pass at a time so we liked to check the boards to see what the average waiting time was and when the fast pass return was. Sometimes it wasnt worth burning your fast pass if it was 11:00, your return time wasnt until 4:30 and wait in the line was only 30 min. Go get a fast pass for a different ride and then wait in line!

Well that is all I can think of for today! If you have any questions let me know I and I will do my best at getting an answer for you! Stay tuned for more tips on Hotels, car rentals and more!