My family went on a week long vacation to Florida in January, which was a great get away. Of course, when we got back we had to deal with February record snow falls. Who would have guessed?
January is a the best time to go because there are no lines and the hotels are very cheap.
I mentioned in some earlier posts that we went to Disney on a vacation but with a toddler we knew she wouldn’t be up to going to parks and we didn’t want to spend that much. We went on a fairly frugal vacation.
A couple things we did:
1. FREE – Downtown Disney – Downtown Disney is free for everyone. It is like an out door mall. There are a lot of shops and even a couple paid activities. The fun part is just walking around and seeing the sites. For the little ones there is a Lego Store, and Mr. Potatohead store. We went there a couple times during the week to walk around. If you go to the Mr. Potatohead store it costs about $20+ to fit as many items in a box. Not bad.
2. FREE water taxi rides between Boardwalk hotel, Swan hotel, Hollywood Studies, and Epcot – If you stay at one of the hotels or park at one of the hotels like we did you can catch a taxi ride to each of the parks listed and back again. We just rode on them a couple times before my daughter wanted to run around.
3. FREE – Monorail – The main entrance to Walt Disney World includes the monorail entrance which is free to take you to Magic Kingdom and Epcot and back again.
After having a great time at Downtown Disney, my daughter seemed to be interested in the animals so we decided to go to Animal Kingdom.
Where to find discounted Disney tickets? Thanks to a dear friend we were able to find some discounted tickets. Check out The Official Ticket Center – The Best Deal on Disney Tickets! The best way to buy tickets is in a bundle so we picked non-expiring tickets and paid with a debt card! It cost about $50 per adult per day. We got 6 days non-expiring non-hopping passes. Prices do change but this is a great place to check out for the best prices. The toddler is free for now.
Any other suggestions? What have you done with your kids on vacation that was frugal?
Another great time to visit Disney World is November and the first couple weeks of December. Crowds are almost as low as in January. The Christmas decorations and festivities make a Christmastime visit something unique and very special.
Everyone should try Christmas at Disney World at least once.