I know every time I say we are going on a Disney Vacation, my friends say “how can you afford to go to Disney?” The answer is simple the boys are 2 and 5, I figured instead of them getting toys that they were going to end playing with once. Why not give them something that they would enjoy, and we could do as a family. So we told our families that they only thing that we wanted for Christmas were Disney passes. So we were able to pay the $362 down payment for the 3 of us, you do not have to get a pass for kids 3 and younger. We decided to get weekday passes, they were a bit cheaper at $40, and since my husband is free on Fridays it worked out best for us.
Now because we decided to be pass holders, that means we get some nice perks that come out monthly. We get discounts on our food, merchandise, and the best part hotel stays, which is great because I used our pass holder discount to book a hotel the first part of Aug. I mean most decent hotels in Orlando on average range from $80 to $150, so when I saw my pass holder email saying we could stay certain dates at $93 a night I booked it right away. So with tax, our hotel was $106, for the night, we stayed at Disney’s All Stars Sports Resort. This was our first time staying at a Disney hotel so the kids were super excited.
Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort is a value resort, meaning it doesn’t have all of the mouth dropping views like Polynesian or the amazing rooms that The Grand Floridian has. However if you are traveling on a budget, value resorts are a great way to save money, and still, have that Disney Vacation feel to it. Check in at the hotel was great; I did my check in online using the My Disney Experience App a week in advance. That way I could bypass standing in line, it is very easy and quick to register on the app. There are two pools on the property, and they have a lot of activities going on every day. We arrived on a Thursday night and the kids got to watch Moana while swimming in the pool at night, I thought that was pretty cool. We ate dinner at the food court, and to save us money I got a large family Pizza for $15 and some chicken wings for $10 with tax the total was about $30.
On our second day we checked out of the resort and decided to head out to the Polynesian resort. A lot of people go to Ohana’s to eat with Lilo and Stitch; however, I did not want to spend an extra $33 a person. I also did not want to go to Kona Café because I would be looking at like $50. So after doing my research, I found that Capt. Cooks also located in the Polynesian has some of the same food that Kona offered, but at a better price. So I got my 5-year-old Mickey waffles with bacon and chocolate milk, I ordered the Tonga toast with bacon, my husband got the Mickey waffles and a cappuccino, and my 2 year old well he ate off of my plate. I do not like buying him food because it using goes to waste, most of you parents know what I am talking about! I used my passholder discount of 20% and our grand total came to $22.35 for breakfast at the Polynesian.
After that we hoped on the Monorail and started our day at the Magic Kingdom, luckily I planned out our fast passes because there were a lot of people there Friday. By noon time the kids wanted a snack, mind you I also pack snacks when I go to Disney. My kids feel the need to snack at every moment of the day #todderlife, so while I had some juices, fruit, and chips for them. After my 5 year old complained that he would die from heat (wink wink), I decided to buy them each a Popsicle, if you have not tried Olaf’s lemonade one you are missing out.
Anyways the popsicles ended up being $12 with tax, and if that was not enough for their sugar tooth, my husband decided he wanted a Pineapple Dole Whip Float, and my oldest wanted Pinapple Ice Cream. The float was $5.99 and the ice cream was $4.99 so with tax it came out to another $12.
My original plan for dinner was to go back to The Grand Floridian and eat there, however, while my husband and my oldest were riding a ride I decided to just hop back onto the My Disney Experience App to see if there were any good openings for dinner. I really wanted to end our day with a bam, so when I saw that a reservation had opened up for Be Our Guest. I have to admit I screamed and jumped up and down like a child, I had been trying to get reservations for this restaurant for months.
The kids were super stoked that they were having dinner in a castle, and well so was I! The place is amazing there are 3 different dining areas, from the west wing to the main ballroom. We were seated in the main ballroom; the prices on the menu are a bit higher than the regular restaurants. I will tell you though that the food is amazing, I had the Pan-seared Chicken with Potatoes and Arugula salad, my 5-year-old had Steak and Fries lucky for him his meal came with a dessert, and my husband tried the Lamb Chops with Couscous.
We could not finish out the night without dessert, and of course, they have to wheel out the dessert to you in a dessert cart! I had The Grey Stuff, my oldest had the Strawberry Cupcake, and my husband had what I called death by Chocolate because of it 3 layers of Chocolate in a cupcake. My 2-year-old ate of off everyone’s plate, and ate most of the Grey Stuff our waiter was great and for the night it was $85 which included our drinks, food, and desserts, it did not include gratuity. With the pass holder discount of 10% it came out to $75 plus gratuity it was $80, and at the end of dinner before we leave the best treat was, that we got to take our pictures with The Beast.
For more information on all of the pass holder discounts you get when you become an annual pass holder and to start planning your Disney Vacation visit: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passholder-program/passholder-benefits-and-discounts/
To make reservations for dining visit https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/
For special offers on hotels and tickets visit https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/
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