Where to Stay, What to Do, and Where to Dine on a Tight Budget at Disney World

What to Do

Obviously, you must go to the parks themselves, and this means purchasing park tickets. These tickets are costly, and that means anything else you choose to do should be as inexpensive as possible. Fortunately, you have plenty of options.

Resort Day

If you will be staying in a Disney hotel or in Fort Wilderness, a scheduled resort day is highly recommended. What we mean by this is setting aside a day purely for enjoying the resort you’re staying in, by checking out the pool and other activities offered.

This will extend your vacation by a day without requiring you to spend extra money on a park ticket, making it a great money saver and a wonderful way to make your vacation more relaxing.

Disney Springs and BoardWalk

Another cheap way to fill a day is by visiting Disney Springs or the BoardWalk. As long as you’re willing to stick to window shopping and people-watching, you can have a blast at these two shopping and dining districts without spending much at all.

Water Parks and Sports Add-on

There is also the option of getting the Water Parks and Sports add-on when purchasing your park tickets. This is cool because it gives you a certain number of visits to the water parks, mini golf courses, regular golf course, and the new NBA Experience.

The cost of the add-on is $70—no matter how many days you purchase—and you get one visit for every park day you purchase. This means that if you purchase a 3-day park ticket with the add-on, you can visit the NBA Experience and both water parks for just $70 per person.

Freebies

Believe it or not, Disney does offer a few freebies that can enhance your vacation without making it any more expensive. For instance, the various resorts have activities available to all Disney World guests. One of our favorites is the Chip and Dale Sing Along Campfire at Fort Wilderness. The outdoor movies shown nightly are really fun as well.

Other awesome freebies include “magic pixie dust” (hair glitter) at Castle Couture in Magic Kingdom, flowery leis in the Polynesian Resort Lobby, special occasion buttons available at all park guest service locations, and Wilderness Explorer books and stickers at Animal Kingdom.