-
John posing at Pop Century with Goofy during our 20th anniversary trip. 
Confession: I am one of those people. I am obsessed with planning Disney Trips. Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise. I love it all. Fun fact: when I am stressed or have insomnia, I plan make-believe trips to various destinations. If you see me pretend-booking a last minute Disney Cruise, it’s time to come at me with the good chocolate and offers of shoulder rubs.
In addition to planning, I love actually going on Disney vacations. Go figure! I have a few things however that prevent me from going as much as I’d like.
First issue is in a nutshell: my people, particularly those of a male persuasion. Fun fact: I have frequented both WDW and Disneyland during business trips and would you believe no one cares? Seriously. All these people who say, “Oh, I could never do Disney without my kids!” do not live my life. They are 100% ok being left behind. Maybe it’s only 97%. You get my drift.
First off, my husband. He would rather be backpacking. Or camping. Or reading at home on our bed. He’s really not that into the whole Disney thing. Let me say that it was indeed a sign of his undying love when he agreed to a trip to WDW (just the two of us) to celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2016! It’s not that he hates it. He hates crowds, so there’s that. He hates lines. Ok, so there’s that too. But he loves me, so he does it and I find ways to make it better for him (see future post about appeasing the non-Disney peeps in your life).
The second obstacle is my boys (aka “Thing 2” and “Thing 3”). Historically they could care less, especially Thing 2. Personally I think Thing 3 is just supporting his brother in a pact of solidarity. With the introduction of Star Wars Land and their increasing appetites for festival food, we appear to be turning a corner. Fingers crossed.
The other more pressing issue is cost! If money were no object and I didn’t have other things like, say, food and shelter to worry about, I would do a lot more Disney, with or without the family.
Recently I have become more aware of ways to save at WDW. Historically, my way has included staying off site, driving to Orlando, packing in food every day and returning to a crock pot of food every night. I still stand by these strategies. Some of my kids actually prefer parking it on a bench and eating a sandwich to waiting 30 minutes for a table. My kids love road trips and they love downtime in a condo, complete with a movie and an ice cream bar stash I bought at Sam’s Club. If I get them the occasional Mickey bar in the park, they are happy as little clams.
In spite of this, I chose to do things differently for our anniversary and it truly rocked my world! We flew to Orlando, stayed on site in a Disney Resort and enjoyed the Dining Plan. It was amazing! Planning where to eat and when became a major part of anticipating our trip! Wearing a magic band and using it for everything from a room key to a park pass, fast pass and even payment was so darn handy! I realized during this trip that I wanted my kids to experience Disney this way too! With the hubs, we actually spent exactly the same amount as we would have off site (thank you free dining plan). With my entire family however, I needed to get savvy on how to afford such a trip.
This leads me to literally the easiest way to save on your Disney Trip. Ready for it? Pay with discounted Disney Gift Cards! This is Disney Savings at it’s most basic 101 level.
What, you may ask, are the perks of a Disney Gift Card? Well, first they are accepted as payment for virtually everything Disney has to offer. From restaurants, to park tickets, to hotels to souvenirs, the Disney gift card is accepted everywhere Disney! You can link your magic band to one! For reals! Yeehaw!
Secondly, you can load up to $1000 onto one card via http://www.disneygiftcard.com . What this means is you don’t have to shuffle a ton of cards around trying to remember which one you have money on.
How do you save $ on these gift cards? Well, I’m going to tell you the 3 most easy ways out there. There’s definitely more methods, but let’s just start with these two.
- Use your Target Red Card. Do you have one of these? this comes in the form of a debit or credit card. Anytime you shop at Target, you get 5% off your purchases. This INCLUDES Disney Gift Cards. Honestly, this is so dang easy. there are other ways to shave off more, but if you want a no-brainer way to spend less, this is it! I also like the fact that you don’t have to be a credit card user to make this one work for you. The debit card links directly to your bank like your normal debit card.
2. Purchase your discounted gift cards at Sam’s Club or BJ’s. Ok, if I’m being honest, this the strategy I use the most. At Sam’s Club, you save 4.04%, when you purchase a $50 gift card for $47.98 (note: the smaller the card at Sam’s, the better the savings). If you buy this in the store (not online), you will also get 2% cashback with a Sam’s club executive membership. Additionally, if you have a credit card that gives you 2% cashback, you’ll save even more. Some credit cards may yield you as much as 5% cashback!!!!
With the conservative estimate of 2% cashback, your savings is 6.4%.
So, now on a $3000 trip, you are spending 2798!! Not bad!
3. The third strategy is to use a discount gift card website to purchase gift cards. The one I use is Raise. With my referral link, you will be given $5 to use on your first purchase AND 10% off your first order (max of $20). Here’s the link: https://geta.raise.com/JCREER2095
Raise sells you discounted online cards for various retailers. Today Disney Gift Cards have a 3% discount. That could change at any point. If you find a better deal on a Walmart Gift Cards, you could turn around and use that at Sam’s to buy a Disney gift card.
Let’s use the $3000 vacation example again. Say today you went onto Raise and you found that Disney gift cards were running 5% off. You had your $5 as a new member and your 10% off your first purchase (max of $20). Your cost is now down to $2825. Assume you used a credit card that gave you 2% cashback. That takes another $56.50 off your costs. Now the cost for a $3000 gift card is $2768.50. With this strategy, using these numbers, you have shaved off 7.72%!!!
Now, take this savings and book a package on Disney’s website or with a Disney Travel Agent. Often there are packages that can save you 20-25% off your trip. When you do this, you may be actually saving MORE money booking onsite than off! Crazy to consider, right? More Disney with less cost!
There’s other Disney Gift Card strategies that we could talk about, but we are going to keep this article at a 101 level and save the 201 level discounts for later. It is worth noting that timing, resort choice and special offers all play a role in your overall savings. We can talk about that later though. No rush. Disney isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Which easy idea will you try first?