Some of my favorite vacations are trips to Walt Disney World. But the price of a trip to Disney World can make your eyes water! When I figured out that trips to Orlando would be a regular part of my life, I found every way possible to save money on Disney. Here are my four best hacks to save a buck or two on your next trip to the magic.
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Buy Discounted Disney Gift Cards
Did you know that you can buy Disney gift cards at a discount? There are several methods to do this, and some are quite easy! And a Disney gift card can be used to pay for a lot of your vacation expenses, like park tickets, food, souvenirs and on-property hotels. It’s the best hack to save money on Disney!
Wholesale Clubs
You can often buy Disney gifts cards at a discount at wholesale clubs like Sam’s Club or Costco. The discount is usually in the 3-5% range. There are sometimes sales around Black Friday with better discounts, so watch for that. The downside is that you have to pay for a membership, too. So this method is really only for people who already have Sam’s or Costco memberships. The percent discount isn’t great, but 3% off a $5,000 vacation is $150 – that’s enough to cover a few meals or a special souvenir!
Target Red Card
One way to always get 5% off your Disney gift cards (and everything else Target sells) is to get a Target Red Card. There are three options: debit, credit or reloadable. Because I hope all of you are travel hacking with me, you should choose either the debit or reloadable card so that you don’t add to your 5/24 status. Plus there’s no inquiry into your credit history with a debit or reloadable card. There’s often a $40 Target coupon available for opening the debit or credit card version, so they are actually paying you to do it!
Stacking Deals
This actually needs to be it’s own post that is updated frequently because there are a myriad of other ways that change daily to get more lucrative discounts on Disney gift cards. It involves stacking deals, so your savings might come through as shopping rewards or points on other platforms. For now, I’ll just list a few so you get the idea. You can also read more about stacking deals in my post Spending to Maximize Points for Free Travel.
Credit Card Points
Make sure to buy your discounted Disney gift cards with a credit card that earns points. I have two favorite cards for this. My Capital One Venture X card will give me 2% back on cards bought from any stores that sells them. Then I can later use those points to “erase” travel purchases related to my Disney trip charged to the card. Read more about that in my post on why I love the Venture X card! Or I can use my Chase Freedom Flex card when it’s 5% back on rotating categories includes wholesale clubs. This gives me Chase Ultimate Reward points that I can use in all sorts of ways!
Shopping Portals
When you buy your discounted Disney gift card online, you should always click through a shopping portal that will give you cash or points or miles back. There are dozens of shopping portals available so check Cashback Monitor for the best option. This website will tell you the best shopping portal and credit card to use at each store. One note – not all shopping portals will give you cashback when buying gift cards, but it’s always worth a shot!
One super easy way to get cash back on all of your purchases, including gift cards, is by using Dosh. With Dosh, you simply add your credit cards to the app and you will automatically get a discount if the place you purchase something is offering one. The beauty of Dosh is that you can set it up and then forget about it. I just logged into my Dosh account and saw I have $125.51 of rewards I can transfer to my bank account.
Get Discounted Disney Tickets
One of the hardest ways to save money on Disney trips is on tickets. They are super expensive and there aren’t many lucrative discounted options that are easy. But there are three ways to get discounts:
Authorized Ticket Reseller
Authorized ticket resellers offer discounted tickets to Disney. Most of the time you will only save a few dollars per day per ticket, but that can add up depending on how many days you are visiting and how many tickets you are buying! You can’t use a Disney gift card on these purchases, so make sure you are getting a better discount with a reseller than you would using one of the gift card methods described above.
Just make sure you are buying from a legitimate vendor. If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is! I’ve personally used Undercover Tourist, Get Away Today, and Park Savers to buy Disney tickets. Undercover Tourist and Get Away Today both code as travel, so I use my Chase Sapphire Preferred travel card to get 3 points per dollar back on the purchase. Or I use my Capital One Venture X card, earn 2 points per dollar back, and then use my points to erase the charge. Don’t forget to click through a shopping portal, too, to get more rewards back!
Conference Tickets
Another way to save a ton of money on Disney tickets is to attend a conference in Orlando. Most conferences there will offer discounted tickets. But here’s the real secret – you don’t have to ACTUALLY register or attend the conference to get the discounted tickets!
This is a little in the gray ethical zone, so it won’t be for everyone. But I’ve done it a few times and never had any issues. And the discounts can be amazing! And you can pay for the tickets with a Disney gift card since you are buying them through Disney. The last time I did this, I saved 23% on tickets!
Instructions
To find a conference Google “mydisneygroup [month of trip] [year of trip]” (for example “mydisney group June 2024”). Various conference websites pop up. You can hunt around and find a conference that matches your dates (or comes close to them), but you don’t really have to. The tickets you will be issued are non-dated tickets. They will have an expiration date. This is usually December 31 the year after you purchased the tickets. You can always apply the tickets to a booking beyond the expiration date, and Disney will apply what you paid for these tickets and charge you the difference in price if any.
On the conference website, click on the ticket link and you will be directed to a Disney website to purchase the tickets. Aside from the discount, these tickets also include a free ticket to one of Disney’s water parks or miniature golf courses. For example, you can buy a 5 day ticket and use the free water park/miniature golf ticket on one of those days or on an entirely different day. But all tickets must be used in within specific time period after the first use.
Adjust Ticket Dates
If you want to buy direct from Disney but can’t find or don’t want to buy conference tickets, there’s still a way to save. Disney’s tickets have variable pricing, so you should officially start your visit on the cheapest day within the timeframe you are planning to travel. This does not mean that you have to actually enter a park on that day! You could still be slogging away at the office planning to start your vacation in a few days!
Confused? Yes – it’s difficult to understand without an example. Let’s say you plan to visit Disney for four days the last week in June. You plan to enter a park for the first time on June 26 and for the last time on June 29. Four day tickets expire seven days after their first use. So you could purchase tickets starting on June 23 and the tickets will still be valid through June 29. As you can see from the screenshot above, starting tickets on June 23 costs less than starting them on June 26. Doing this will save you 2.83% on the ticket price. Pay for it with a discounted Disney gift card for more savings!
Just make sure you understand how long tickets are valid for after their first use. Visit this website for the current rules.
Save on Memory Maker
I love Memory Maker at Walt Disney World. For the low low price of $185 (if you purchase in advance), you can get all of the photos that strategically placed photographers take of you during your vacation. You can also get your ride photos, which are awesome! And in some photos, they add a little magic, such as the one above. But here’s another way you can save money on Disney!
Sharing with Friends
I actually paid FULL PRICE for this on our first two trips to Disney! But then I got wise. I learned that you can share Memory Maker with others. If you know someone (or multiple someones!) who are going to Disney World around the same time as you, one of you can buy Memory Maker for the group and everyone can split the cost. Then you can “friend” each other in the Disney World app so photos show up in the person who purchased Memory Maker’s account. That person will download and distribute all photos for the group. This works with groups who are traveling together, but it also works if you aren’t even going on the same date. As long as trips are within 30 days of each other, this still works!
Sharing with Strangers
And if you don’t know people in real life who are going to Disney around the same time as you, you can join a Memory Maker share group on Facebook to find strangers who are. Some people might consider this to be in an ethical gray zone, but technically this does not violate Disney’s terms of service. Now you have to have some faith in humanity here as it’s possible that you might join a group, send off your money, and never get your pictures. But when 3-4 groups share Memory Maker, the cost is pretty low, so you aren’t risking too much money. And you can take the lead and collect the money yourself to guarantee you get your photos.
If you are like me and REALLY lazy, you can just pay $26.40 to the guy who runs this Facebook group. You only interact with one person. Your cost is the same no matter how many people are sharing the month with you. I’ve used this service several times, and it’s very smooth and totally the easiest option.
Stay Off-Property On-Property
There’s a ton of ways to save money on your Disney area hotel. Disney has incredibly themed on-property hotels, but their prices are equally incredible! Disney’s deluxe hotels will often run $600+ a night. Instead, I highly recommend staying in the “off-property but still on-property” Walt Disney World Swan, Swan Reserve, or Dolphin hotels. You will save $200+ more a night by staying in one of these hotels instead of a Disney branded hotel.
These are Marriott hotels on Disney property and are within walking distance to both EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. They share most of the amenities that are offered at the deluxe Disney properties. Guests get both early entry and extended evening hours. Transportation is provided to all parks as well. If you have a stash of Marriott points (or Chase Ultimate Rewards points), you can stay there for free!
If prices for these hotels (often referred to affectionately as the “Swolphin”) are too high, you could also consider a Disney Good Neighbor hotel located in Disney Springs. These are also “off property but still on-property” hotels. I’ve not personally stayed in any of these, but they are often a fraction of what you will pay for a Disney hotel. Many also are available to book with hotel points and transferrable points currencies, so travel hackers may want to take note!
What are your hacks for saving money on Disney?
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