Save money on your trip to Florida – spending money

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Cheap Orlando Holidays - spending money

Knowing how much money to take to Florida can be a minefield, and I don’t think that there is one set answer for this. I set aside £1,500 (about $2,300) when I went in 2012 but I did buy myself an iPhone and had about £300 left over. I go absolutely mad with shopping when I’m over there – I literally wait for my trip to Florida to stock up on my favourite make up (MAC at the outlets), Converse (which I always end up selling despite trying to convince myself that I am a Converse kinda girl), Wilton baking supplies, random crap from Dollar Tree, so many sweets and much (much, much, much more). I bring two suitcases home. When I went with Tony last year, we both brought two suitcases home as we’d been buying a lot of wedding things.

Parking at the theme parks runs at $14-$15 per day (around £10). If you visit two theme parks from the same company on the same day (two Disney parks, two Universal parks, etc) then your parking is transferable. Some of the theme parks let you park for free from around 5pm, although this really is hit and miss and won’t apply to Magic Kingdom. If you’re staying at that resort then you get free parking for your stay.

Eating out can be done for as little or as much as you want. A great money saving tip is to fill up at a breakfast buffet in the mornings, and these generally keep you going until dinner (dinner being the evening meal in this case), with perhaps an ice cream or something to tide you over. You can also take snacks with you into the parks, and if you’re very prepared, you can even pack a full on picnic to leave in a cooler box in your car. You can also sign up to restaurant’s mailing lists (here’s a handy list for you to sign up to) before your departure and they will come with money off coupons. And there’s free coupons in the weekly paper (Orlando Sentinel).

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Save money on your trip to Florida – accommodation

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Cheap Orlando Holidays - accomodation

Now that you’ve booked your flights, you’re going to want to look for somewhere to stay. On my previous trips to Orlando, I’ve always opted to stay in a villa – mostly because I went for over 20 days each time. This year we’re branching out and staying in a hotel, as we want to be closer to the theme parks, and it’s only a week, so a hotel works out cheaper.

You can choose to stay “on site”, which is a theme park’s hotel, or stay off site. Being on site costs a lot more, but you can enjoy perks such as longer park hours and free parking within the parks. Staying off site will save a lot of money and you can still get just as nice accommodation.

Villa pros:

  • Great for larger parties.
  • Private swimming pool.
  • Kitchen facilities mean you can save on eating out.
  • There are villas to fit every budget – you can find a villa from £350 upwards.

Villa cons/things to consider

  • If you’re traveling between September and April you’ll want to add pool heating, which often comes with a surcharge.
  • You will need a hire car.
  • You may be slightly further away from the parks. This hasn’t been an issue for us before, as we’ve driven, and it takes 30 minutes from leaving the villa to pulling into a Disney car park, but we’re looking forward to being closer this year.
  • Lack of housekeeping – you’re in charge of clearing up after yourself.

Hotel pros:

  • More facilities.
  • You can get away without hiring a car, especially if your hotel offers shuttle buses to the theme parks.
  • Daily housekeeping.

Hotel cons/things to consider:

  • Most, if not all, hotels in Orlando add a daily resort fee per room. This can be anything from $2-$30. This will be listed when you book the hotel, in the fine print, or you can Google the name of the hotel and “resort fee” to find out what it is.
  • You will need to tip housekeeping daily (typically $1-$2)

 Saving money on villas

  • Book with the villa owner direct. My favourite place to look for villas is DIBB. You can either post your villa requirements, search for villas or even search through special offers for villa owners with particular dates to fill.

Saving money on hotels

If you’re looking to book a hotel then I can strongly recommend booking through Hotels.com. Firstly, there’s currently 8% cash back on hotel bookings – so for every £100 you spend on a hotel booking you’ll receive £8 back through Quidco. In additional, Hotels.com run a loyalty scheme where for every 10 nights you rack up (not just 10 nights in a row) then you get a night for free! This is in addition to the great prices – I’ve always found Hotels.com to be the cheapest.

You can also book a “secret hotel” for a cheaper rate. A secret hotel is where a company like Expedia offer you a “secret” hotel for a cheaper rate. You can find out the location of the so called secret hotel by finding out whatever information you can from the website (such as amenities and trip advisor reviews) and with a little detective work (otherwise known as copying and pasting into Google), you can find out the name of the hotel before you book.

Another great way to get a bargain on a hotel is to “name your price”. Priceline offers you just that – you can bid each day to see if your lowest offer is accepted. It is important to remember that your bid is binding, and if it is accepted then you’ve booked that hotel. Priceline doesn’t tell you the names of the hotels, but you can make a fairly good estimate on which hotel(s) they are, by narrowing down the location and the amenities on offer.

There’s always plenty of accommodation in Orlando, so don’t stress yourself out too much worrying about hotels selling out. A lot of the hotels and villas are mirror images of each other, so if your perfect accommodation is not available to you then you’re sure to find something else.

Save money on your trip to Orlando – flights

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Cheap Orlando Holidays - Flights

It’s no secret that I love Orlando, Florida. It’s where Tony proposed, it’s where I’ve been on holiday for the past 3 years and it’s where we definitely want our honeymoon (with a few upgrades!). I knew that realistically, we couldn’t afford to go to Florida again this year, and we’d have to wait for our honeymoon next year. This upset me more than I am willing to admit, so I’m really excited that we’ve managed to grab an absolute bargain for a week away in Florida later this year. I thought this would be the perfect time to bring you a series of blog posts talking about how to save money on a trip to Florida.

People often think that going to Orlando is expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. You can do Orlando on almost any budget, and during this series I’ll be providing you information on how to get the best value and decide whether you can afford a holiday there.

Before you do anything, make sure that you’ve signed up to a cash back website – where you’re paid for purchasing something through a link they provide. I’d recommend signing up to Quidco, Topcashback and Fat Cheese.

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