This year for Spring Break, we are going on the trip of a lifetime. It will be our first vacation as a family of four. 
Actually, this will be our first real vacation since before we got married. We have been on a few little excursions here and there (we did Disney on the SUPER cheap when my son was about to turn 3 and we went to St. Augustine for a
couple days around Thanksgiving a couple of years ago) but we always had to hold back and not go into full out vacation mode.
The last vacation my husband and I went on was a 7 day cruise to St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, Grand Turk, and the Bahamas. We had always had one theme for our vacations: “No mon, no fun”. Meaning we had worked our butts off to save for this trip and we were not going to hold 
back. After that cruise we got married, got pregnant, had baby number 1, Lex quit his job to take care of Dru during the day and play music with a band at night, I was just starting out teaching and was making scraps…basically, we had no money. During this time was when I learned to coupon so we could maximize our budget. There was NO
room for leaving town other than to visit family.
When Lex went back to work full time in the apartment maintenance field two years ago and I had finally started making decent money (although, still teacher pay) we decided to start saving for two things. A house, and a vacation. We originally started saving to go on a cruise which was booked and supposed to happen in November of 2015, but I got pregnant two weeks too soon and would have been too far along to cruise then. That was why we went to St. Augustine, to make us feel better about not being on a cruise ship. (It didn’t.)
After the baby was born we started thinking about what we can do with the money we had saved and would be continuing saving. That’s when this idea of an all out throw down of an Orlando trip came about. I immediately started to plan for times and what we could do to still go all out but to try and save money doing so. Behold – the list of all lists. How we were able to save HUNDREDS on our Orlando vacation!
1) START SAVING! NOW!!
To save for our vacation, we started doing the following plan:
We started January 1st, 2015 and both myself and Lex followed it. Except once we got to week 30, we just finished out the year with $30 each per week. By the end of the year we had $2,190. Well, not really, because we spent money to go to St. Augustine (which we are still kicking ourselves about…we could have had more for Orlando!), but we had quite a bit. Then when January came back around, we started over again from $1. We also do a change jar where we put all of our change from spending any cash in. Lex literally picks up any coin he sees on the ground. I usually do too. We end up with an extra $250+ per year from cashing in the change jar at the bank. We deposit this all periodically into Lex’s money market account and gain interest (LOL) on what is in there. Even if it’s pennies, it would still be more than if it was sitting under our mattress at home. Start. Saving. Now.
2) Start Planning Early!
It was about April or May when we decided what we were going to do with the vacation fund money. In June, I found myself a travel agent that specialized in Orlando vacations. I had seen posts from Anne-Marie Martinez in a local mom’s group and she seemed knowledgeable, friendly, and interactive, so I sent her a message. She was quick to respond and since then it has been the best decision I have made in a long time. She not only books Disney (she is a former cast member so she knows her stuff) but she booked our entire stay! We decided to do both Universal AND Disney, get annual passes for Universal, and stay on property at Universal while we went there and then switch to Disney property for our Disney days to reap the most rewards.
Right after I had started talking to her I had #LIFE basically blow up in my face. I got a new job, had to put my daughter in daycare which meant looking for places to do that, got into a car accident where my car ended up being totaled and I had to get a new car, AND my landlord decided that she wanted to sell the house that we were renting so we had to start looking for houses, and everything that comes with that. She was SO incredibly helpful during that time. She was able to find the best deals and packages for us and knew when expiration dates for awesome prices were. She also booked our dining reservations for our meal plan for us and our Fast Passes when our windows opened up because she knew I just did NOT have the time. She saved us $450 by having us switch hotels (from Port Orleans Riverside to French Quarter) because she was watching the Florida resident deals for us. She also saved us money on our tickets to the parks! We wanted the 4 day single park tickets that didn’t expire for 6 months so that we could go again later on in the year. She knew when the deadline was for that special ending and had us buy our tickets before that happened. I could not sing her praises enough! A true LIFEsaver. Email her at anne-marie@mickeyworldtravel.com. Trust me.
3) Purchase Disney Gift Cards at Sam’s Club or Target With Your Red Card!
Did ya know? Sam’s Club sells Disney gift cards for 5% off! You heard me. And so does Target if you use your Red
Card. That’s right. You can pay for your whole trip with these bad boys, and then use what is left while you are in the parks for some souvinEARS. Get it? LOL! For every $500 card, you only pay $475. If you get $2,000 in cards to pay for your trip, like we did, you save $100. Boom. Free money back in your pocket.
4) Stay on Site at Universal and Get Free Fast Pass!
Universal has three hotels that are on site that you can get free Fast Pass if you stay there. Hard Rock and Portofino are the fancier joints, but if you stay at Royal Pacific, it is a better deal. Fast Pass was a must for this trip since we were going during Spring Break and also, if you remember, we are throwing DOWN. It is $89 PER PERSON for Fast 
Pass at Universal, per day. That is $270 per day of extra cost just for Fast Pass. We are staying at Universal for two nights, a Saturday and a Sunday. But we are going to Universal for three days since we are going that afternoon when we get to Orlando. So that would be $810 extra for Fast Pass. To stay our two nights at Royal Pacific the cost is $875.25. A room at Sapphire Falls for those same days would be $610.88. A family suite room at Cabana Bay would be $610.88…$509.63 for a poolside room. We paid $375 more for our hotel room than the cheapest example here, but are SAVING $435 on Fast Passes by staying at Royal Pacific. It was a no brainer for us. Oh, and we get to get into the park an hour early to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which is where we will be having breakfast. #winning
5) Get a Disney Chase Visa Card!
A friend of mine had mentioned that she had a Disney Rewards card and that sometimes they have deals where you get free gift cards after you sign up once you spend a certain amount. When that deal came around again, I jumped 
on it. I am a credit card user but only for rewards. I always pay my card off at the end of the month and just use it like I would use my debit card so that I never have to pay interest. I signed up for the Disney Rewards card and got a FREE $200 gift card just for spending like I normally do. Once you hit the $500 required, they just mail it right to you. And you also earn 1% back for normal purchases in Disney Dollars. There are other perks too like special meet and greets at Disney and even discounts in the parks and at Disney stores. And you get to pick from a bunch of different styles! I let my son pick out mine and I get comments on how cool it is all the time! I can forward the savings on to you as well. Just shoot me an email or visit the Contact page and hit me with your email address!
6) ANNUAL PASSES!!!!!!!
Told you we were going all out. We decided that we were going to get Universal annual passes for the year. With Dru finally being old enough (and tall enough) for most of the rides, we wanted to cater to him. Once the baby gets old enough, we will probably go with some Disney passes. But for now, it’s going to be all about Universal!
A two day park to park ticket to Universal (and YES, you HAVE to get park to park – because Hogwart’s Express!) is $190 per adult and $181 per child for Florida residents. The one park per day ticket is $150 so might as well get the park hopper! BUT…a preferred annual pass with no block out dates, free parking (including valet), and other bonuses like concerts and discounts at restaurants and on merchandise is only $385 per person. (It was actually only $350 when we bought ours. They increased the prices, and we started planning early enough to avoid it!) AND you can make monthly payments, with no interest, so you aren’t paying for the whole thing at once. If you use that pass only two times for the entire year and go for two days each time, you already made your money back.
Disney has an entire slew of different options when it comes to passes. They do payment plans too! You need to find the pass that is right for you and your needs and then see if it is doable. We are sticking with our 4 day single park tickets for the time being.
Now is the time to book a vacation and get to having those experiences and moments that will last a lifetime. Skip the coffee runs, pick up that change, sell clothes and old toys and things around the house that are just sitting collecting dust. Do whatever you have to do to make memories with the people you love the most. There is no better feeling than seeing the look on your child’s face when they get to experience the magic of a theme park. I can’t wait to hold a wand in Dru’s hand and make spells come to life in Diagon Alley. I can’t wait to see how Cadence is going to react to meeting Mickey in person, or Elena of Avalor! Is this trip going to be expensive? Yes. Are we coming out of pocket for any of it? NO! Did I save money anyways? DUH!!! Now, it’s your turn!
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