Disney on a budget, off property stays.

One of the best trips we had to WDW was done with little money. It was a tight year but we really wanted to go back. I started number crunching to find out what our options would be. On property, off property, dining plan, no dining plan, etc. What we ended up with was off property, no dining plan (since you can't get the dining plan unless you stay on property anyway), Tickets with no hopper.

There are so many hotels, condos, and homes to rent in the area.
For hotel stays, there are plenty of deals. I search all the sites (expedia, hotels.com, booking.com, bookit, kayak). I then read reviews on trip advisor for whatever hotel I'm looking at. Yes, I am a bit obsessive about staying in a nice place with a good price.

A little side story, one year I decided to surprise Bradley with a trip to the Tabasco factory in Louisiana. I didn't plan it out other than to find a fairly cheap hotel and write down the address for the tabasco factory. What we ended up with was a 10 min tour of the factory and a stay in a fairly gross hotel. We made the best of it and still had a great time together but from then on, I research....a lot.

Back to Disney....we've stayed at a couple of the downtown Disney resort. They're nice, close to the park, reasonably priced. For my family, I wouldn't stay in them for a week long trip. We need more room.  So I spread out my search to homes and condos. I searched places like VRBO.com. There are some amazing homes to rent if you are a big family.
I ended up renting from www.vacationcentralflorida.com . We stayed in 204B. The pictures are exactly what the condo looks like. It was beautiful with just the right amount of Disney Décor.

Warning: these pictures are not good....they are circa 2009. You know, back in the days when I wasn't a halfway decent photographer.  :-)

Living room

 

Master bed with King bed and full bathroom

 

 This is the middle bedroom (used for my Mother in law)

 Kids room.

 

 

This unit was also equipped with a high chair and pack n play.

The rental process was a breeze and the price is fantastic! There was plenty of room for my family, and a big plus for me was having a washer and dryer! They also had a great pool area with a water slide!

When we got into the area we stopped at the grocery store and loaded up for the week. We ended up having breakfast every morning in the condo. Disney does allow small coolers (no coolers with or without wheels that are larger than 24" long by 15" wide) in to the park so we packed lunches for everyone using frozen water bottles to keep it all cool, put it in the bottom of the stroller and went to the parks. (If you don't have a stroller, Disney does have lockers in each park).  We did have dinner in restaurants but I've heard of families also having dinner in the condo or home. (If you plan to have dinner in the condo, bring a crock pot, throw everything in before you leave for the day that way when you get back, everything is ready for you to eat.)

Ally with one of the frozen water bottles. This trip was in September, you can tell by the pic, we were HOT!

As for our tickets, the year before this trip, we had hopper passes. This particular year, we opted for no hoppers. We actually haven't gotten a hopper pass since. We found that for us, we slowed down and enjoyed each park more since we didn't worry about using that hopper. I will say, as my kids get older, or if Bradley and I go alone, I will consider a hopper so we can plan on Magic Kingdom in the morning and dinner at Epcot.