As soon as you say the word "Disney" you can already feel your pockets draining. Even though the lands are the happiest places on earth, do they have to rob you of your heard earned cash? To help you travel without breaking the bank, here are tips and tricks I've used on my visits to Disney.

1. Keep an eye out for 25% off promotions that usually come up twice a year. Tickets are normally valid for 1 year from purchase date (double check) so if you see them and will use them, grab them.
2. If there are promotions on multi-day passes these sometimes work out to be cheaper than just buying a 1 or 2 day pass so check the prices before buying. Also, if you are planning on being at the park 2 days but score a 3 day pass, remember that a "day" pass is not a 24 hour period so you could show up late on the first night and only catch the fireworks show, then spend the next 2 full days. Voila! You've used your three day pass.
   
3. eBay is an option but you take the risk of the tickets being partially used, fully used, or expired so buyer beware! For Disneyworld, tickets are connected to a person via photograph and finger print so you can't use them.
   
4. There might be BCAA or AAA travel discounts so call and ask. Military member? Normally that will get you a discount.
   
5. Are you a Travel Agent? Complete the online academy and score discounted passes, free day passes, and cheap resort options. No food packages though....
   
6. Not sure if you want a hopper or one park per day pass? If you buy the park per day pass you can upgrade your ticket to a hopper as long as your ticket is still valid. Just visit guest services or the ticket booths. If your ticket is partially used then you will just be charged the hopper price difference for the remaining days. You cannot remove the hopper from a pass. Once a ticket is bought, it is non-refundable.
   

1. Brita Water Bottle - the water doesn't taste all that great everywhere but you need to drink it. We always back a brita water bottle with a fresh filter that we fill up at water fountains when we don't want to wait in lines for the restaurants to fill them. Add a clip and you can attach it to your purse or belt for hands free access.
2. Epcot: Club Cool - found in Epcot will let you samples pop from around the world (as of Spring 2020, it has been closed - hopefully it will reopen!)
3. Counter-Service Water - This not so secret, secret is handy if you don't want to drink fountain water. Most of these stops will give you a cup of ice water if you ask.
4. Large Water Bottle for cheap - In the back corner of the Magic Kingdom there is a circus themed area, enter the big top souvenir shop and they sell 1.5L bottles of water for 0.50 cents more than the 591mL bottles.
5. Snacks - you can bring food into the park so make use of this.
6. Dinner - most restaurants carry their lunch menu until 3/4pm so have an early dinner and snack later in the evening if you get hungry.
   1. Dinning Plan - A dinning plan does save money if you always plan to eat at least 2 full meals and a snack per day. If you are a vegan, vegetarian, or a light eater do not get the dining plan. Eating at Disney is expensive and when you are in Disney World it's hard to get out to just grab a bite to eat off site so keep that in mind. You can get things delivered to your room and most rooms have a mini fridge so you could have a grocery service (or Amazon) drop you off some food (ex. oatmeal, bread, yogurt, fruits, etc) that you can snack on or use for breakfast.
   2. Free Dining Program - during hurricane season in the fall, Disneyworld usually has a free dining promotion with certain ticket packages so ask when booking to see if there is one and what you need to do to qualify for one. However, as mentioned above, if you are vegan, vegetarian, or a light eater then it might actually be cheaper for you to book a package that does not include a free dining program; make sure to check!

1. Check out the Disney shop website to see what they have on sale and then have it shipped to your hotel. If you are staying at a Disney Resort, call your travel agent or the Disney hot line directly to get the address of where to ship your stuff (*hint* the address is not the resort address. The address you are given will be for an off site, out of state security office where it will be checked and then forwarded onto your resort.) This is what I did during our first stay, I went on Disney.com and ordered a bunch of clearance items 45 days before our trip. We were there a little over a week and they arrived on the second to last day so it is a bit of a risk.
2. See if there are discount shops in the area that sell official Disney merchandise for heavily discounted prices. There are lots of these on international boulevard in Orlando however they are not close to Disneyworld so you'd have to plan to make a trip out to them.
   
3. Staying for a fireworks show? Pick up glow sticks and other light up items at the dollar store.
   
4. If you want to buy stuff in the parks, check things out the first day and then go back later in the trip to see if you really want it or if you really wanted it at that moment in time.
   

1. Visit in the off season: the hotels will be cheaper and in late 2019, Disney introduced scaling prices so slow / off season dates will be cheaper
2. Check their website for specials: disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers
3. staying on site might be cheaper than staying off site; compare the items included (ex. extra magic hour, transportation around the resorts / parks, being in the Disney bubble) to items that your hotel may have (ex. might be cheaper but could have limited shuttle hours or if you rent a car then paying for parking at the park, if you have little ones how long is it back to the hotel for nap time?)
4. Bring your own costumes if your kids want to dress up and then swing by Harmony Barber Shop on the Town Square in the Magic Kingdom for glitter or paint in their hair for U$ 5.
5. Photo packages: Going for the week or two weeks? For U$ 150 you get unlimited photos for your entire stay. These photo's are taken by professionals around the park, roaming photographers at restaurants, and all the ones that are taken during your rides. These are then uploaded onto your Disney account and you have 30 days to download them. Great for families or couples that never get photo's with the full group together. (Interested in showing you kids some magic? The video from the Seven Dwarfs magically uploaded without having to tap your wrist band.)
6. When you are in the parks, there are first aid stations where you can get free Band-Aids and ice plus (depending on your symptoms) you may get free aspirin, power-aide, and gravol. Certainly cheaper than buying at the hotel gift shop.
   
7. All the parks have free Wi-Fi available, it is not the fastest (just think about all the thousands of other people using it) but if you turn on your Wi-Fi calling or use an app like WhatsApp to make calls it might work well enough for you to make some free calls
   

-- speaking about cell phones -- if you are not planning on receiving any calls but want to use it for videos & photo's then make sure to put it onto airplane mode. This will help save the battery