Follow5 Disney World Travel Hacks Everyone Should Know
When you are spending as much money as you do on tickets to Disney World you want to make sure you get the most for your money. Easy hacks are a great way to save cash and time, make your life easier and just leave you feeling smarter in the end. When it comes to using hacks though, you don’t want to spend any additional money in order to save time and money.
These five hacks are things everyone should be doing in order to make their time in the parks smoother, more enjoyable and filled with Disney moments that you want to remember.
1. Buy Disney Gift Cards
Not only are pre-purchased Disney gift cards easy to manage and distribute between family members, but they are a great way to save money. Most folks do not realize that you can use the cards in the parks to pay for just about everything. The best part is, all you need is the one card to keep you on budget and wallet free while playing in the park, and you can actually get more per dollar when you shop for the cards. While they require an upfront purchase, the cards often go on sale or come with rewards or shopping bonuses that you would not get if you were to just spend cash to pay for your purchases.
2. 3. Snag Some Free Apps to Manage Time
Disney, and other app makers create easy to use apps that help you schedule, keep track of appointments and get crowd and line times. Every park has peak times of the year and day during which the crowds can be determined based on past history. In addition to crowd calendars that let you know the busiest times in the park, you should be using a wait time app to help you decide which rides you have time to squeeze in before the next show. Most of these handy apps are free and provided by Disney World, but there are some crowd calendars that are non-Disney, but also helpful.
3. Make Member Discounts Count
Everyone thinks that there are no discounts offered at Disney World, when in fact there are several that are there for the taking if you know where to look and just ask. Member discounts are offered to AAA members, as well as free parking if you decide to drive a car. Other common discounts that most folks aren’t aware of include active military discounts and discounts for groups of more than ten people. Ask if any of the member organizations that you belong to work with Disney to offer discounts on parking, hotel stays or even parking.
4. Eat and Drink for Free
Did you know that you can eat at Disney World for free? At certain times of the year your hotel and ticket comes with the free dining plan, which would otherwise be several hundreds of dollars worth- per person. Doing this means that you might need to return to the hotels to dine in the restaurants that they provide to you, and schedule one meal a day at the parks, per day in order to get the most time out of your day. Shop for the off season and bag a ton of savings that make your trip affordable.
5. Rent On-Site Instead
So many folks rent their cars directly from the airports in Orlando, where they end up paying two to three times as much as it would cost to rent outside of the airport. Disney offers free shuttles to its guests that you can take to the hotel, and then use the on-site rental car companies to save up to 50% of what you would be paying elsewhere. The best part is that returning the car when you are ready to leave is easy and some of the car companies will either drive you to the airport or offer a free shuttle.
