 Re: Disney World tips
Here's some recommendations:
-Buy "The Unofficial Guide To Walt Disney World" book. It has great tips for all the parks and where to save money. **It's priceless** (I don't have one, I borrowed from a friend)
-We've booked our last 3 trips thru Small World Vacations. They continually will check for free upgrades, or anything else they can add to your package until the day you go. Their price was the same as I could get by doing the reserving myself, however, they keep checking for the free upgrades so it was worth it to me to go thru them.
-Stay on site in the cheapest hotel they have as you won't be there enough to know it is smaller than any others. The only difference we found with staying at the Moderate versus the cheap ones were a little less wait time for shuttles--not that big a deal. Sometimes you can get a moderate hotel for the price of a cheapo--just depends on the specials Disney is running.
-Use their meal plan. Some will disagree, so this is my opinion. We flew down so we didn't have a cooler and no fridge in our room (it's $10 a day to have a room with a fridge in the cheapo hotel, they are in the moderate class hotels) For us, by having this card we were able to eat in restaurants that we normally would not have. My husband would have made us eat and sharing burgers & fries every meal --which isn't cheap either! I just really recommend this. When we went in January tips were not included in the meal plan, that may have changed now, I just don't know for sure. We had a character meal every day--highly recommend that. Awesome pictures and great memories for the kids.
--Pictures. THere are photographers all over at every park. THey will take w/your camara and theirs. For $120 you can purchase a CD and get every copy you want. I know this because my daughter hit Delete All on my camara that had 5 of 7 days of our vacation on it. I was sick about it, so my husband (not a picture fan) said just buy the CD so I wouldn't start crying over lost pictures.
--You can go to the Disney World website and get times for the days as every day a park will open early and another stay open late, this way you can plan your day to get the most enjoyment. You must be in a disney property though to take advantage of this. We start early and stay late--I get every pennies worth out of my disney vacations! Take comfy shoes, and treatment for sores.
--We didn't take a stroller on our last trip, but you can always rent one there. You can sign up and pay a flat fee and have one at every park every day of your trip. I personally recommend doing this, it can make the difference between cranky/happy kids/parents.
--Also go during an "off season" time. We go in January and have basically no wait in lines. We are a family that can handle the heat OR the crowds, but not heat AND crowds. Sometimes you can actually just sit on the rides and keep going as there isn't anyone waiting. This is especially true in the early morning when the parks just open.
Sorry this is so long. We love Disney World and try to go every year. Please PM me if you have other questions. These are just recommendations that have worked well from our family's experience. There's lots of ways to cut costs. For me, I wanted to enjoy my vacation, NO cooking and packing lunches, etc. for me. I have enough of that at home! I refused to do an ounce of cooking while I was there.
Have a Disney Day! | 
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