Booking Disney-Free Dining Plan

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028There are a million ways to save while booking a Walt Disney World trip. I mentioned previously how to save money in flights and how to save your self the trouble with a travel agent. Well let’s move onto the dining plan.

WDW offers several dining packages when booking your trip. The most common is the simply named dining plan. It offers one quick service meal-a grab and sit down, one table service meal-a sit and be served meal, and one snack daily.

Up until last year we NEVER used the dining plans. We totally saved money by not using them….bahahah but it was all a lie. We budgeted 100.00 a day per person for dining on our trip and we almost always came close to using it. We also only ate at one sit down table service meal the whole trip.

I learned that the dining plan really did save us money-about 40.00 a day per person-verses our budget. Also we ate a million times better. We also didn’t stress out or crunch numbers when ordering at table service restaurants. See you can order one meal,one dessert, and one non alcoholic drink-refillable for each person. So I was able to get an entree for 50.00, a dessert for 10.00 and a drink. In one meal.

The great thing about the dining plans? Disney offers free dining throughout the year. WDW just announced their free dining for the Fall 2015.

I already booked our trip but I guesstimated based on previous years dates when free dining would fall and guess what-it worked. Our trip was already book but our travel agent adjusted and credit our bill!.

Since we have the meal plan I have already booked all our meals. Oh and character meals are included! Not all but almost all!

Not only is the free dining a great savings but it helps make our trip more enjoyable and stress free. Where are we eating? Coming soon!!!

And while I don’t get paid anything by Disney to promote them I do so because my wish is for everyone to get to travel and enjoy this amazing place.

Booking Disney-Saving Money on Flights

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082As you saw earlier I booked our family trip to Walt Disney World WDW for October. I have been saving for this trip since September through garage sales, couponing, etc. First of all I can’t believe how much stuff I have in my house. It seems to have only gotten worse since we had Row. Through my organizing adventures I have purged and sold and saved.

Disney is not cheap….but it’s worth it. There are many ways you can save money when booking your WDW trip. Let’s start with airfare.

I first heard about this tactic from my cousin Mariah. I did a bit of research and the skeptic in me was on board.

Southwest Airlines goes to Orlando. They also have a credit card that earns you miles with purchases. Every now and again they run a special where if you sign up for the card and spend $3,000 in three months you will earn 50,000 points. Now I don’t get reimbursed or paid for this post-so you know I actually used it!

These points can be redeemed for flights. Like I said I’m a skeptic. There is a $100 annual fee. However, if the flights are covered it’s worth it. So we got a card and my mother got a card and we basically paid all of our bills using the card and racked up all the bonus points in a month.

Now we got these cards way before I could even book my flight for WDW so I held my breath.

You can generally book flights 6 months in advance. I logged into the site and easily got our two tickets. I paid the fees which were $11 a piece-wahoo-oh and they don’t charge baggage fees on Southwest-oh and you get two checked bags per person!

Then I jumped back on the computer and booked Grandma and Row’s tickets on our flight. Since Southwest does not have assigned seating it was awesome.

We all got our tickets for a whopping $44 total. One round trip flight was just under 25,ooo points.

Well that just saved us a bunch of money! I do recommend watching their site and when they run the 50,000 bonus points sign on promotion to sign up then. Each adult in your family can get a separate card if needed.

Stayed tuned for more booking Disney tips and tricks! I’m so excited!