Disney World tips

[joshmamabear]

Originally Posted by mars1990 We are going to Disney! I'm looking into PhotoPass and the review range seems to be either loveit or hate it. So, for my frugal friends, worth it or not? Would you care to share any deals or what you paid for what you got if you have tried it? Pros: I thinking about doing it becuase we will be a party of two and I would love to have pics w/ both if us in them. Cons: On the down side, many complain about the photographers being hard to find and very few at EPCOT (our fav park) I'd love your

the main disadvantage for me is photopass charges way too much!!!! We did that so I can compare later and also relied on the kindness of strangers to take our family photos and our pics turned out better than the photopass pics IMO, not worth paying that much and you're better off asking kind strangers to take your pics.

We had no problems finding photographers, they were all over the place. at AK, they were near the Tree of Life.

[Ticone4]

Originally Posted by mars1990 We are going to Disney! I'm looking into PhotoPass and the review range seems to be either loveit or hate it. So, for my frugal friends, worth it or not? Would you care to share any deals or what you paid for what you got if you have tried it? Pros: I thinking about doing it becuase we will be a party of two and I would love to have pics w/ both if us in them. Cons: On the down side, many complain about the photographers being hard to find and very few at EPCOT (our fav park) I'd love your

We always get a photopass just to have as a backup in case our camera card gets accidentally erased or something like that but actual ordered prints in my opinion are way too expensive. Also, the photopass photographers will take pictures of you with your camera as well. They just do theirs first and then you can give them yours. That's how we always get our family pics in front of the tree of life, with Mickey and Minnie at Toon Town Fair, etc. If it is a character greet then there is usually a photopass photographer and a cast member there so you can also ask the cast member to take pics while the photopass photographer takes their picture.

[434Teresa]

it is very costly and yes they are hard to find....

[couponfanatic]

Photopass prints are expensive. But depends on how long you go. We went for 10 days, and got the CD, which was like unlimited pics or something (if there was a limit we never hit it). It was about $100 I think. Flat fee for the CD. So for a long stay it's not so bad, but for a short stay, way too much.
We can print all we want from the CD, at home that is. Never tried having them printed.
And I think the pass itself is free, and the pics are available online til X days after your vacation, so why not go for it, have them also take pics w/ your camera, and if there's a shot or two from the pass you can't live without you can make the decision after you get home.

[ericderek]

WE are going Dec. 5-10. I am choking on the ticket prices (3 adults and 2 kids in the $1200-1400 range depending on hopper, etc). Is that right? It's from a discount ticket site.

We're staying at Orbit One Vacation VIllas in Kissimmee. Seems like they are 15 minutes away or so.

Any help on car rental (I need to drop it off in Palm Beach), tickets, and whether the kids can swim at the hotel pool would be appreciated.

[jwahlton]

If you go to Epcot, look for a roving photographer named Seth. That's my son and he takes AWESOME photos. He was just assigned to Bobby Flay a week or so ago to go all over the park with him and take his photo. Bobby invited Seth to eat with him and everything! He has black hair, good looking, and a great smile. Tell him his Momma told you to find him

[taylordvd]

It looks like we are going in May. It seems like it is almost cheaper to stay on the property for 6 days than to stay off the property and only go for a couple of days. Why is that?

[pwetypweas]

Originally Posted by taylordvd It looks like we are going in May. It seems like it is almost cheaper to stay on the property for 6 days than to stay off the property and only go for a couple of days. Why is that?

If you stay on property there are a couple of advantages:
1) you get more park time
2) if you fly (and fly into Orlando, not Sanford) they will give you transportation to and from the airport - eliminating the need for a shuttle or rental car IF you only plan on going to Disney
3) for $6 a park employee will go to the Grocery store for you if needed (although they don't use coupons or shop sales or anything - but still - if you want a Disney experience and don't want to hassle with it, it's great)
4) you can go back to your room if you get tired and then it's easy to get back to the park (no parking, no going to and fro, etc).

That being said, me and my hubby go for short trips all the time - we do Priceline if we need a hotel (usually about $25 a night), we use the Orlando Magic Card to get a rental car (from either Dollar or Thrifty) - it comes to about $30/day (+ taxes and fees of course), and we buy all our own food to take into the park (sandwiches, drinks, etc) - so for about $60/day we can do Disney -- the plane tickets vary but we use Alleigent Air so we always go when it's cheap (for example - we're going down Sunday and coming back Tuesday and for BOTH of us (all taxes and fees included) our plane tickets were $166 --- so if you go for a longer stay that makes it even more reasonable). We have annual passes so we don't have to figure those into our daily costs - it's just our entertainment budget for the year (plus it connects to my husband's home business so we recoup some of that).

Anyway - staying on property is FUN but you can stay off property cheaply.

[couponfanatic]

Originally Posted by taylordvd It looks like we are going in May. It seems like it is almost cheaper to stay on the property for 6 days than to stay off the property and only go for a couple of days. Why is that?

It can be with the right pkg.
They are basically offering a discount to keep you there.
If you stay on property you will most likely not rent a car- because of their free transportation on property.
You will now not leave the Disney property and all those meals, snacks, evening activities, souvenirs etc. will be bought at Disney as opposed to someplace else around town.
This is not necessrily a bad thing though. We got an amazing deal and overall spent way less than if we'd stayed off property.
Kind of depends, if you're visting "florida" or "disney"

[taylordvd]

Originally Posted by couponfanatic It can be with the right pkg. They are basically offering a discount to keep you there. If you stay on property you will most likely not rent a car- because of their free transportation on property. You will now not leave the Disney property and all those meals, snacks, evening activities, souvenirs etc. will be bought at Disney as opposed to someplace else around town. This is not necessrily a bad thing though. We got an amazing deal and overall spent way less than if we'd stayed off property. Kind of depends, if you're visting "florida" or "disney"

Well, my husband has a conference to go to which is right down the street from Disney, so his company will reimburse up to $190/night for a hotel the nights of the conference. They will also pay for the rental car for him to go back and forth from the conference. So, it will mostly be me and kids aged 3 & 5. So, with the hotel covered, Disney seems to be the cheaper thing. Sea World might be nice, but I'm thinking with my kids that the convenience of having everything right there and dh being gone alot will be worth the $. What do you think?