Author: Nancy

Where to Stay on Your Disney Vacation? Why You Should Consider One of the Hotels Near Walt Disney World

Nancy Saving Money on Accommodations 0 Comment

There are a number of ways to save money on a Walt Disney World vacation, and one of the best is to forget staying on Disney property, and check out one of the many great hotels near Walt Disney World. You may very well be impressed by what you find. I know, as I researched, this, I certainly was! In fact, I found that there are a number of benefits to staying off-property.

To start with, you will likely find larger, and perhaps nicer accommodations. This surprised me, as I am a big fan of the Disney resorts. But the fact remains that, for the same or even less money, you will get a lot more value staying off-site. And for families that find one hotel room is too small…and so they need two rooms… having the potential for larger accommodations, may mean only one room. Saving money already!!

Another thing to consider: The Disney properties can be difficult to book at certain times of the year (holidays, summer, school vacations), and so if you are trying to reserve at the last minute, or really need a lower price range, you will find the most options off-property.

Now if you are trying to plan an affordable Disney family vacation, being able to save money on things like meals, shopping, and even other attractions is important. Here, the best option is often to stay in one of the hotels near Disney World. Many provide free breakfast. Many also provide discounts and coupons to other theme parks, restaurants, and shopping. (And to be frank, having non-Disney options for any of these will allow you to save money.)

Many properties have pool areas that are the envy of anything on Disney property, as well as offering suites with mini-kitchens, fitness and recreation opportunities and a boatload of family and children’s activities.

Now what do you lose by staying in one of the hotels near Walt Disney World? Well, you will not have a 24/7 all-Disney-all-the-time experience…but you may be one who finds that to be a good thing! There are many who find they just need a break from all that pixie dust…and staying off Disney property can give you a much needed reality-check

However there is a compromise if you want to have your cake and eat it too!

Many folks do not realize that there are several “non-Disney” hotels that are actually on Disney property. There are a few in Downtown Disney, and then there is the fantastic Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin resort , located a short walk or boat ride of both Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Here you will get many Disney resort guest benefits, but without the corresponding price tag. If you want to save money, but still have your “Disney”, these properties can be a good option.

Now I will say, that transportation can be an issue if you don’t carefully look at the details.Some hotels use a shared shuttle system with other properties, which can add travel time. Some charge for their shuttle. If you are planning afternoon visits back to your hotel, you will want to consider all your alternatives. A rental car can be a good solution, but realize that you will have a parking fee at the parks, and on peak holidays, the parking lots may actually close to non-Disney guests. Still, do your research, and you will find many great properties where transportation will not be a problem.

If you need more information, as always, check out my resource site, The Affordable Mouse. =)

Have a magical day!

Great Free Tools for Planning Affordable Disney Family Vacations

Nancy Disney Vacation Planning 0 Comment

I have been talking about the need to do advance planning to help make your Disney vacation a successful and happy time for everyone in your family. I have typically used a number of resources that are my favorites for the best way to plan a Disney vacation, and I wanted to talk about a couple today that are absolutely FREE to use!

But first, let’s talk about the anticipation factor. If there was ever a vacation that has HUGE expectations from a family…especially the children…it would be trip to Walt Disney World. Probably the best example of this is that wonderful commercial that Walt Disney World was running a couple of years ago, where the kids…and the parents…are talking the night before they leave for their Disney vacation…the “I’m too excited to sleep” commercial. If you have seen it, you know which one I am talking about: guaranteed to bring a smile every time! =)

My point in this is that, anticipating….knowing what to expect, and visualizing it all…is certainly half the fun of planning a trip! It makes the time spent waiting for the vacation to arrive, go a bit faster too! (You know: the “When to we go?” questions.)

This anticipation is helped then by learning about the destination…learning what things will be like, and what to expect. This “learning” part is kind of important, because it helps channel all that excitement into becoming aware and prepared. Which of course leads to happy vacations!

So, in addition to the reading you are doing =), I have a couple of really FUN suggestions. First, hop over to disneyworld.com and order your FREE Vacation Planning dvd. It will arrive in your mailbox in no time, and you and your family will have a blast watching and learning. Many of us, especially children, learn visually, so SEEING everything will help everyone get a great feel for what to expect. Plus, as the excitement builds, everyone gets to watch the darn thing over and over and over…..

Now in addition to this, just the other day, I received an email from Disney with another really cool FREE tool. You can now plan your own, personalized Disney vacation video. You can choose the events, activities, and locations that interest YOUR family the most. It’s a blast to create, and even more fun to watch. Create your online video and then enjoy the anticipation and excitement of waiting for…and learning about…your Disney vacation!

And don’t forget, I have more ideas, tips, suggestions, or resources for planning affordable Disney family vacations as well.

Have a magical day!

The Best Way to See Disney World…and Have Fun While Doing It!

Nancy Disney Vacation Planning 0 Comment


When friends and family have asked me about my advice for the best way to plan a Disney vacation, I usually start by asking them if they have discussed as a family, what exactly they want to see while in Disney World. In my opinion, this is absolutely where everyone needs to start!
Why? Because the success of a family trip to Walt Disney World, perhaps more than any other kind of vacation, is related to how much fun people are having, especially little ones! This is an on-the-go vacation, without a lot of rest or downtime (unless you specifically plan for it, but more on that later).

People get hot, people get tired, people get cranky. And by “people” I don’t just mean children, ‘cause adults get hot, tired, and cranky too!

And this is just not the way the “happiest place on Earth” was meant to be!
So if ya wanna have fun, you’re gonna have to work at it a bit before you go. Believe me when I say this: deciding to just “wing it” when you get there is more than likely to result in some crankiness along the way! And over our past 10 or so family trips to Disney, we have certainly witnessed many situations where folks could have used a little extra pixie dust to get them through the day!
We planned our first family trip when our daughter was seven. It was a great age for a first Disney World trip: she was old enough to deal with the rigors of touring 4 parks without needing a stroller, but young enough to still believe in the “magic” of it all. And she was also at a great age to help me plan! Which, I realized very quickly as I started to do my research into this trip, was going to be an important key to the overall success.

Why? Well because….

We were traveling in July, which is the hottest, most humid time of the year in Florida, and I knew it would be crowded. I could see that there was NO way that we would last at the parks every day, from early morning till close at night…. with a cold-weather-loving-husband and a seven-year-old… without a break…
And because of this, I realized that there would be rides or attractions that we might not get to see….and choices that we were going to have to make. And the person that would probably care most about those choices was….you guessed it….our daughter. Because nothing guarantees crankiness (or for that matter, a downright meltdown right in the middle of the Magic Kingdom) than a 7 year old who is heartbroken because we were not going to be able to see the ONE THING that she just HAD to see.
So rather than me trying to guess what I thought would be important to her, I got a great Walt Disney World vacation planner that was geared towards a kid’s point of view, and then we read it together. Again and again. In fact, it became one of her favorite books. She highlighted what she liked, read the other kids’ points of view, and made her own lists. Then we got together as a family and went over everything. We prioritized: what was most important to each of us in each park, and what could we live without? With this list in hand, I was able to put together a touring plan of sorts, specifically geared towards what our family wanted to do. And then figure out how to do it all and still remain un-cranky.
Did it work? You bet it did. Lots of fun and magical moments, and we pretty much got to see everything on our “Must Do” list.

And nobody got cranky!

Having a Walt Disney World Vacation Planner: True Confessions of a Disney Addict

Nancy Disney Travel Guide, Disney Vacation Planning , 0 Comment

I can so clearly remember planning our first vacation to Walt Disney World with my own family. Having been once, 25 years before as a girl, I only vaguely knew that Disney World was BIG. And it would be CROWDED. And we were going in July, so it was going to be HOT. And since we just knew that we were probably not ever going to visit again, it was important to SEE IT ALL.

This trip was A BIG DEAL.

Oh dear.

As I began to think it all through, I pretty quickly became overwhelmed. After all, having a successful vacation with all of that in mind, is a tall order. My Mommy reputation was clearly on the line. And so was my Planner-in-Chief reputation. So, like any good general, I prepared for battle. This was serious business!

I poured over the Walt Disney World website. I ordered the free vacation video that Disney World offered (which they still do by the way, only now it’s a DVD). I read every newspaper and magazine article I saw, cut them out and put them in my expanding file, and then read them again. I went to the library, where I found, oh joy of joys, books on Disney World!! Checked out the ones that appeared to offer valuable information, and then went out and bought the ones that I liked the best. I actually bought one for our daughter as well, so that she could also get an idea of what to expect. Had to start training the next generation of vacation planners early. =)

(You might wonder why I didn’t just surf the net. Well, this was 1998, and doing a Google search was just not an integral part of our life at that point, as it is now. I was still doing things the “old fashioned way”, lol…I read books.)

In any event, two interesting things occurred from all of this research:

  1. I realized that the more I knew, the more I needed to know.
  2. And I also realized that we needed a PLAN.

It was evident from reading the advice of those wise souls who had been there before me, that a Disney World vacation was like no other. There was not going to be any relaxing on this trip! We could not just “go with the flow” (well we could, but were likely to end up frustrated, hot, and cranky if we did). I realized that truly the best way to plan a Disney vacation absolutely involved knowing waaaaayyy before we walked onto Main Street USA, what we wanted to see, when we wanted to see it, and how much we were going to pay for it.

So, I became Disney obsessed. I admit it. My family really thought I had taken leave of my senses. It was all I talked about for months. Looking back, I am amazed that they didn’t say, “Hey, never mind, we don’t really need to go to Disney World”. I am sure that they thought I was over the edge.

Until we got there. And I whipped out the daily planner I had created for us, showing what rides and attractions everyone wanted to see. I knew when the parks opened, when we could go early or stay late, where to go for some peaceful, air-conditioned moments, where to eat, where NOT to eat, etc. etc. etc.

The trip was a success. We all had an absolute blast, and the Planner-in-Chief was thanked time and time again. And we began to think about going back again. Which we have done, more than 10 times since. Yup, we’re all Disney fanatics now.

The moral of this story? Well, I would have to say, do your research, and have a plan. You will NOT regret having a plan.

Now some folks are like me and looove to do hours and hours of reading and researching. And the internet can be a big help to folks like me, since there is always something new to learn!

But not everyone has that kind of time, and I get that. Which is one reason why I started The Affordable Mouse, to help folks plan affordable Disney vacations, by having the very best money-saving tips and ideas in one place. If you don’t have the time to scour the internet, staying up until 3 a.m. reading message boards, and drilling down through Disney vacation planning websites that have hundreds of pages, that’s ok. I am doing that part for you.

And don’t worry, I love doing it. As my husband says, I am happiest planning a Disney trip. If not mine, then others. =)

The Best Way to Plan a Disney Vacation?

Nancy Disney Vacation Planning 1 Comment

Oh I get this question alllll the time! I am talking to friends or co-workers and they are planning their first vacation to Disney World: “What is the BEST way to plan a Disney vacation?” they ask me….

Well, it depends… After all, Walt Disney World is enormous, with 4 major theme parks, several “minor” theme park attractions, dozens of resort hotels, restaurants and various eateries, etc. etc. etc. You need to consider so many variables:

  • what time of year are you planning to visit?
  • age(s) of children?
  • first visit?
  • transportation plans(will you have a car with you?)
  • budget?

And so forth. As I said, lots to consider when discussing the best way to plan a Disney vacation. Because, as with so many things in life, there is just not one easy answer.

Or, then again, maybe there is =)

Because, really the best way to plan a Disney vacation is to have a plan!

Yes, that’ right: PLAN to plan. Sounds crazy, but it actually makes a lot of sense. And that’s because, with Disney World being sooo big, with soooo many people visiting at the same time you are, and with the costs involved, you are doing yourself…and your family…a major favor when you take the time to plan ahead where you want to go, how you want to visit, discuss where you want to eat, and a whole host of other things.

Of course, if you have never visited Walt Disney World before, then you need some help. The Affordable Mouse website and The Affordable Mouse Blog are great starters. But you also owe it to the success of your Disney vacation, and the sanity of you and your family, to invest in a good guidebook or two.

Now I know that, if you are like me, there is just not a lot of time left in the day for reading, but I do have several favorites that will be helpful for you. The great thing is that, while being filled with great information, they are not the size of a major city’s phone book, and are simple, fun, and easy reads. I will share details about each one in the coming days, but if you want to check them out now, you can click here.

There’s a lot of Disney planning information out there. My goal with The Affordable Mouse and The Affordable Mouse Blog, is to gather the best information in one place, to help as you discover the best way to plan a Disney vacation.

Have a magical day!