Disney on a Dime (if you're a miltary family) Part 1

I'm going to start posting my tips here, as I come across them. We're planning a trip to Disney in Orlando in September. It might just be the cheapest Disney vacation ever.
Tickets: www.disneyworld.com/military The nutshell is that the service member gets a free 5 day pass good at the 4 WDW parks - Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. You can add on a Park Hopper and/or a Water Park option if you want (I can't remember if there is a charge for that, since we're not planning to add those on). The service member can purchase up to 5 additional passes for $99 per person. That's $99 for a 5 day pass, which is just $19.80 per day! The Hopper/Water upgrades are available for $25 each. Children 2 and under are free. We are going before Xander's birthday, in order to save ourselves a tiny bit of cash. This means that for our family, our 5 days in Disney parks will cost us $297.

Parks owned by Anheuser-Busch - www.herosalute.com Print out the form, and you get into Sea World for free. This is for the service member and up to 3 dependents. Kids 2 and under are free here, too, which means we don't have to pay anything for the whole family.

Lodging: If you insist on staying on the property, the disney military link above has info about 40% off your room. You can also stay at Shades of Green which is well priced for the caliber resort that it is. If you're as cheap as I am, though, that isn't good enough. Go to www.afvclub.com . Space-A resorts are $329/week, regardless of location and size. The other benefit is that if you cancel for military - related reasons, you'll get a full refund. resorts I've looked at are 2-10 miles from Disney World. and have 1-3 bedrooms.

This brings my total so far up to $626, for 7 nights/8 days with 6 of those days spent in parks, and the other two are travel. Even if you ignore Xander and Gabriel since they're free, that's $156.50/person, or $89.40/day.

There seems to be little you can do to save on food, other than packing lunches and cooking dinner. We plan to cook dinner a night or two, pack lunches most days, and splurge a little and have at least one nice meal in the parks and a few other counter service meals in the parks. Breakfast will be eggs and cereal and other such things we can do in our room. There are lots of tips on saving money at www.mousesavers.com though. Like, order a double cheeseburger and an extra bun, and you've got 2 burgers and can feed 2 kids. Order the parts of a kids meal without ordering the official kids meal and you'll save a couple bucks on the toy or box or whatever.

Parking: No savings here, but I searched all over the disney website for parking lot rates, and couldn't find them. Finally found them at www.wdwinfo.com (also has lots of message boards for planning). Parking is $12 a day at the WDW parks and Sea World.
I do plan to drive even if there is a shuttle. That way, we can pack our lunch in a cooler in the van (The parks do allow small coolers, but it's hard to pack a lunch for 5, plus drinks, in a "small cooler." Plus, we'll be carrying a baby and a diaper bag as it is!), and I don't have to freak out about riding a shuttle with no carseats.

This brings my total to $698 (plus tax on the lodging), plus food, gas, and the inevitable but limited souvenirs. For a family of 6 (granted, 2 are free, but do require us to get larger living quarters, and 1 will only be a few days away from his birthday and fully able to enjoy the experience).

So, go get your free/greatly discounted tickets, and book your cheap lodging. If I come across any other good discounts, I'll post them.