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Originally Posted by sweeps
I'm sure DisneySteve will have some suggestions.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hedy
DisneySteve's the uber authority here-PM him if he doesn't see this thread.
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I see my reputation preceeds me.
There are certainly worse things I could be known for.
Of all the costs associated with visiting Disney, tickets are the one that is hardest to save any significant amount on. Disney has pretty tight control over ticket prices and there are not any tremendous discounts out there. That said, you can save a few bucks at ticketmania.com.
Take some time there or at disney.com to familiarize yourself with how the Magic Your Way ticketing system works. It is actually the first time in 35 years that Disney actually lowered the ticket cost, but only if you do it right.
Basically, the longer your stay, the cheaper your tickets get per day. For example, a 1 day pass is $76. But a 3-day is $200, or $66/day and a 10-day is just $221, or $22/day. Of course, they do that to encourage people to stay longer. HOWEVER, you can pay extra and make the ticket never expire. A 10-day would then be $370, still only $37/day. What we do is buy a 10-day and use 5 days one trip and save the other 5 days for the next trip.
To really save money, though, forget about the tickets. Focus on accomodations and food.
Here's what we do:
We drive to Disney from NJ. That saves us about $1,000 between airfare, parking and rental car.
We stay offsite, usually in a rented condo or house. Using a site like vrbo.com or skyauction.com, you can find a 2-bedroom condo for $40/nite or less.
We eat breakfast in our room. We stick mostly to the nicer counter service restaurants onsite which have very good food and are much cheaper than the table service places. We also have some meals offsite to trim costs (and escape the hustle and bustle for a while). We mainly drink tap water rather than paying for bottled water or soda. We sometimes share meals or parts of meals (like one order of fries for the 3 of us). We also carry in some snacks like granola bars to lessen buying overpriced snacks in the parks.
Those are the biggies when it comes to saving. Happy to answer any other questions that arise.