So many options for transportation, food, accommodations, and more are offered at Disney World, which makes it hard to decide what is the best for your group. This post will cover every base on saving money and time: food, transportation, tickets, and more. So buckle up and prepare to learn how to get the most out of your Disney vacation!
Food Planning
Staying hydrated and well fed is an important aspect of vacationing, especially at Disney World, where each day is spent walking under the hot, central Florida sun. Disney, however, likes to take advantage of the unprepared and famished with their endless quick service locations and sky-high prices. One of the easiest ways to save money while on vacation in Walt Disney World is to plan meals: what meals your group will eat in the parks, at the hotel, and what meals you will pack for yourselves.
Eating at the Parks:
When eating at the parks, you can either choose to eat at a full service restaurant (family style or buffet), or order from a quick-service location. In order to save the most time, it is imperative to order from a quick-service location; this way groups can avoid the hours it takes to sit through a family-style dinner service to make the most out of the money spent on park tickets that day. To make things even quicker, don’t forget to mobile order through the My Disney Experience App.
My best advice for those who want to enjoy a few sit-down meals while still getting the most out of their days is to plan a few sit-down meals spread out throughout your group’s vacation. For example, when I went on a full week trip, I planned for two lunches (to take breaks from the heat, and because my family likes to take a mid-day break before staying out late in the parks) and one dinner. Disney restaurants do have a policy that allows guests to cancel their reservations 24 hours beforehand without charge, meaning that if you and your group change your mind, you don’t have to worry about cancelling your reservation days or weeks in advance.
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Ordering Groceries:
One thing that has helped my family get through every Disney World vacation is ordering groceries. This way we don’t have to worry about packing snacks; in addition, we use this opportunity to pack lunches for a couple days to save money, and so we don’t have to worry about finding food for lunch in the parks. This doesn’t mean that we don’t try the Disney World treats, it is vacation after all, but limiting the amount of money spent on food in the parks will definitely pay off in the future.
My best recommendation for groceries is to either:
- If you have a rental car, drive to whichever nearby supermarket that is best suited for your group, or
- Online order groceries through either Garden Grocer or Amazon Prime/Whole Foods
My family has always ordered online through Amazon Prime/Whole Foods and Garden Grocer, and has had great experiences with both services. There is a fee to deliver the items, but no fee to store them in bell services while you wait. Although Amazon Prime/Whole Foods groceries have always been convenient as Amazon Prime members, if you want something that is easy and guaranteed to be delivered to your hotel chose Garden Grocer; they have been delivering to the Walt Disney World resorts for many years (and solely deliver to the resorts of central Florida), and have lots of experience in handling and delivering groceries, as well as great communication to customers about the status of their order. Amazon Prime/Whole Foods is the more flexible option, as you are even able to order groceries the day you want them delivered; however, with Garden Grocer, be sure to place your order at least a couple days in advance (over a week in advance during the busy seasons) to guarantee that there is a delivery time slot for you. Also be on the eye out for early bird deals; Garden Grocer is famous for giving customers discounts for ordering multiple weeks in advance!
Transportation
Bus:
Buses are the primary mode of transportation throughout Walt Disney World. They run on a schedule which is regularly updated in the “My Resort” section of the My Disney Experience App (very helpful to download for your future vacation!), and are able to transport guests from their resort to each park, as well as Disney Springs. Although they are not able to transport guests to and from different resorts directly, it is easy to travel to different resorts: just take your resort’s bus to Disney Springs or a park, then transfer to the bus of the resort you wish to visit. The bus schedules are not always the most accurate, but the largest delay I have ever experienced was 10 minutes after the scheduled arrival time. Like all other methods of Disney transportation, busses are free for all guests!
Skyliner:
The Disney Skyliner is the newest form of Disney World transportation, having opened in September 2019, and it is a gondola system that is able to transport guests between certain resorts and theme parks in Walt Disney World. It has stations at Disney’s Riviera Resort (which is also the station to travel to Epcot), Disney’s Pop Century Resort, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, and a hub at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. All of the lines connect to the hub at the Caribbean Beach Resort, where guests can either choose to travel to Disney’s Riviera Resort/Epcot (both stops are on the same line), Disney’s Pop Century/Art of Animation Resort (both stops are on the same line), or Disney’s H0llywood Studios. Skyliner transportation allows guests to travel between resorts and parks within minutes; however, the only downside is that it suffers from frequent closures due to weather. Like all other methods of Disney transportation, the Skyliner is free of charge!
Boat:
The boats at Disney are a fun, but also very limited, method of transportation. In the Magic Kingdom Resort Area, the Polynesian Resort, Wilderness Lodge, and Grand Floridian Resort use a ferry as one of their transportation methods to and from the Magic Kingdom. Ferryboats also are able to bring guests to and from Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTA), where guests park their cars to visit Magic Kingdom for the day.
There is also a ferryboat in the Epcot and Hollywood Studios area that offers transportation in between Disney’s Beach Club and Boardwalk resorts, and the Walt Disney World Dolphin and Swan Hotels. Lastly, ferryboats offer transportation between Disney Springs and the resorts in that area, including: Disney’s Old Key West Resort, Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, and Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter and Riverside Resorts.
Uber/Lyft:
Ride-share services such as Uber and Lyft are not affiliated with Disney, but are a great method of transportation as well. If your group is staying on Disney property and wants to visit somewhere that Disney transportation is unable to bring you (such as Universal Studios Florida), then these services are great options. The price is dependent on the length of the trip and the size of your group, but can be well worth it on days when Disney transportation is slow or just not working out for you, or when you want to explore somewhere new!
My Disney Experience and Genie+
As mentioned before, My Disney Experience is a must when traveling to Disney World. This app allows guests to buy, store, and scan their mobile tickets (for park entry), make park pass reservations (due to Covid-19, guests must reserve which park they want to visit first), see the wait times in all of the parks, mobile order food from the majority of Disney World quick service restaurants, view guests’ Photopass pictures, and so much more. This is the app that allows guests to join virtual queues when they open up for new and popular rides every morning (right now it is required to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind).
Disney Genie is a free tool that allows guests to be able to plan out their day, located inside the My Disney Experience App. Based on which park guests are visiting each day (and whatever preferences for rides and shows that guests enter into the app beforehand), Disney Genie puts together an itinerary which shows what activity/ride/show is best to do for your group and when, all depending on the wait times of the moment, and the trends of when each event is the busiest. It is a reliable and helpful tool if you want to be able to experience the most with the shortest waits.
The add-on feature for Disney Genie is called Genie+, and for those who are familiar with the recently retired Disney Fastpasses, it is the upgraded version of that service. This service costs $15 per day (per ticket), and allows guests to make an unlimited number of “Lightening Lane” reservations: meaning that you get to bypass the regular line for these attractions. The rules of the Lightening Lane are: you can only make one reservation at a time, and you can only make a new reservation either 1- after you have scanned your current Lightening Lane pass and entered the queue for that attraction or 2- after two hours have passed since you made your first Lightening Lane reservation. The two-hour rule is not heavily advertised, but it is what allowed my sister and I to reserve upwards of 7 Lightening Lane reservations each day (Disney has announced that the Genie+ system should give guests about 3 reservations each day). The availability for the more popular attractions runs out quicker, so be strategic about what attractions you pick first, and don’t forget to set two hour alarms to reserve your next pass! In my experience, the $15 is completely worth it if you are smart about the way you use Genie+; during my last vacation with my sister we were able to reserve so many Lightening Lane passes that we only had to wait in five or less standby lines the entire trip!
Watch out! There are several “high ticket” attractions that require you to reserve and pay for the Lightening Lane pass separately then just buying Genie+. The most popular attractions in each park require you to pay between $9-$15 depending on how busy the season is. Disney, however, changed the rules for the summer months (and has extended this rule to the fall as well) to allow Genie+ users to reserve the majority of these “pay-per-ride” attractions, meaning that if you want to skip the line on all the high-ticket rides, there are only a bare few that you will have to pay separately for.
Resorts
I know that I already wrote two posts dedicated to describing all of the Disney Resorts, but many people prefer to stay off of Disney Property in order to save the extra dime. Based on my experience, there are so many perks to staying at a Disney resort of any level that it does not seem worth it to stay off property.
Firstly, Disney Resort guests are all permitted to enter any park on any given day 30 minutes before the park officially opens, giving resort guests the opportunity to wake up early and skip the lines before the rest of the crowd can enjoy. Secondly, Disney resort guests are allowed to join any and all virtual queues at 7 am, while non-resort guests have to wait until they have scanned their ticket into the park each morning; this gives resort guests the advantage in riding the newest and most exciting rides in each park before everyone else (virtual queues are also free!). Lastly, if resort guests buy too many souvenirs (or one big one), Disney World offers a free service that ships merchandise back to your resort by the end of the day!
Miscellaneous
Club Cool
This newly reopened Epcot attraction features different brands and flavors of soda from around the world! It is a free taste-testing experience sponsored by Coca-Cola that allows guests to sample as many flavors as they would like. One word of advice – be careful of the Beverly!
Water
Many people waste $3 or even more buying water bottles at various Disney locations. A secret that not many are aware of is that you can actually get water for free at Disney World! The majority of quick-service locations will gladly hand out free glasses of water, as long as you aren’t afraid to ask.
Celebration Buttons
Celebration buttons are a fun, free way to celebrate different events in your life and occasions for visiting Disney World! They include buttons to celebrate marriage, your first visit, birthdays, and an “I’m Celebrating…” pin that can be customized to whatever it is that you’re happy for (when I last visited, I wrote that I was celebrating my graduation). Be sure to ask the front desk at your Disney World Resort, any merchandise store in Walt Disney World, or Guest Services in the park for buttons for yourself and your group!
As someone who’s never been to Disney World/Land before, this post will definitely come in handy if my family ever decides to go. My dad is definitely a cheapskate when it comes to vacations, so your points about avoiding sit-down restaurants and using public transportation will definitely resonate with him. I knew Disney was a huge money trap already, but not to this extent. Your research and knowledge will definitely come in handy if I ever go.
oh my god, you’ve made me so hungry. i can’t even imagine how good the food is at disney. i absolutely love to eat out, so i appreciated that you made sure to mention ways to bypass the probably-expensive food expenditures by use of ordering groceries or packing your own snacks or lunch. i’ve seen so many other disney blogs that definitely try to appeal to every single thing disney has to offer. and while that’s great, i love that you also made sure to keep an eye on the fact that the majority of families at disney aren’t trying to spend a mortgage worth on food or transportation.
I am definitely saving this page for future reference if I decide to go to Disney World with friends or family. I’ve only gone once and it was when I was really little, so I don’t remember much from it. It’s so easy to waste time in line in amusement parks and I hate having to pay ridiculously high prices for cheap food. It’s nice having someone who knows how to optimize your experience while minimizing costs.
Being somebody who hasn’t been to Disney since 2017, but has always had an appreciation for the magical experience at the parks, this specific blog post interested me. I would love to go back soon, but money is tight with the many fees that obtaining a college education requires. Therefore, making a financial itinerary of sorts is something that I would like to do, and some of the information you provided here are things that only a frequent Disney traveler would think of (which is great, because I honestly have never heard of Genie+ until reading your entry). In terms of How to Write with Flair, you definitely have a personal voice that shines through your analysis, and I think that it adds an additional element to your commentary as a whole. Additionally, the rhythm throughout this post is consistent – I never felt disinterested at any point, as you separated these aspects into a logical order that made the information easy to digest for your audience.
Your blog is so rich with lived experience! Thank you for taking the time to write all of this out in such detail– you really run it through a fine-toothed comb, from transportation to fast-pass idiosyncrasies. It may sound strange, but you build up a real sense of Disney know-how that contributes to the ethos of your blog. You’ve really done your research!
As someone who has been to Disney many times, it is comforting to know my family aren’t the only ones who try to actual plan things while on our trip. It’s become a habit to go to the giant Walmart and collect everything we think we may need, and then get it all ready for each day in the parks. I do have to say though, where are the monorails? Although I have not taken the boat, I think the monorails are definitely up there on the list of non-convention transportation Disney has. I enjoyed the post and the overall theme, it really takes me out of the cold weather we have here right now.