For my daughter’s 5th birthday, we took her to Dutch Wonderland in Pennsylvania and she loved it! So for her 6th birthday, we wanted to plan a trip to another theme park and we picked the Magic Kingdom in Florida. My goal was to keep the Disney trip as affordable as possible, while not missing out on the magic. I detail below how much we paid for each part including how and when we booked.
Overview
This trip took place from Thursday, October 3, 2024 through Sunday, October 6, 2024 to coincide with my daughter’s birthday, slightly cooler Florida weather and a school off day (October 3rd was a planned school holiday, so she only missed one day of school). Early access to Magic Kingdom park was 7:30 am and it closed early, at 6 pm due to the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween event. We did not leave the park until almost 7:30 pm and the crowds were definitely less during the day because of closing early for the separate ticketed event.
- Thursday, October 3 – Arrived by plane, picked up rental car, Wal-Mart for snacks, Disney Springs, resort pool
- Friday, October 4 – Magic Kingdom (open 8 am – 6 pm) and resort pool in the evening
- Saturday, October 5 – Checked out of resort, Skyliner scavenger hunt (6 resorts) plus Port Orleans for Mickey beignets
- Sunday, October 6 – Orlando Science Center, returned rental car and left by plane (This was a free day thanks to our Maryland Science Center membership. Read more about why Your Family Needs the ASTC Passport in a separate post.)
Flights
First, we had to find flights from the DC area to Orlando (MCO airport). Fortunately, the DC area has three airports and from BWI we found round-trip flights on Frontier. I booked our tickets on August 12th for $157.96 each ($473.88 total). We do not pay for seats, we bring “personal item” sized bags only and I download the Frontier app to put tickets in my Apple wallet so there’s no additional cost. Given we have a stroller (a Disney necessity, even with a 6 year old), we are usually able to board around the same time as Group 1, so we’ve never had a problem putting our personal item sized roller boards in the overhead bins and our backpack underneath a seat. (As an aside, I love that all three DC area airports have play areas – check out my blog post.)
Since it was a short trip, we booked a spot at the Parking Spot-West in advance (on October 2nd). They had a coupon code they had emailed for 20% off, so we paid $37.60 to park our car there and used their free shuttle to get to and from the airport.
Accommodations
I did a lot of research on whether to stay on property (meaning in a Walt Disney World Resort) or off property (meaning a non-Disney owned property, but one in the nearby area). Ultimately, when factoring in the cost of parking of staying off property and needing to park at Magic Kingdom (which has a cost) and lack of early access (if you stay on property you can get into the park 30 minutes early), it became a no brainer. On August 12th, I booked a preferred room at Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort, one of the budget friendly properties on Super.com for Thursday, October 3rd and Friday, October 4th because I knew we were going to Magic Kingdom on Friday, October 4th and I didn’t want to worry about checking out the morning we were trying to go to the park. We paid $208.96 per night ($417.92 total). The rooms were fully refundable before September 25th, which also offered a peace of mind in case I had found a better price. Parking is free at the resort and transportation is provided to and from the parks. And while we didn’t use it, it looked like you could also get to the airport with included transportation.
As a quick point of comparison, I was considering Holiday Inn Resort Orlando, which had a complimentary shuttle for around $140 and Wyndham Lake Buena Vista, which also included a shuttle for around $97 + $40 resort fee. In hindsight, I still feel I made the right decision with staying on property because early access meant we were able to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan, It’s a Small World and the Haunted Mansion all within the first 60 minutes of Magic Kingdom opening (rode between 7:30 am – 8:30 am).
I am very fortunate that one of my dearest friends lives in the Orlando area. We were able to stay with her and her family the third night. While we had to rent a car (which I’ll share in the next section), the rental car was very affordable and this saved us from a third night’s hotel stay. Although, if we did have to book a hotel for the third night, I would have looked for an off property deal.
Transportation
On September 16th, two weeks before our trip, I booked a basic four door car on CarRentals.com with Ace Rent a Car for $74.53. While there were actually cheaper cars, after a bad experience with “Mex Rent a Car” in Miami, I went for a company where I at least recognized the name. This was an off-airport car place, so we had to take the free shuttle. Fortunately, we did not wait long on either end of our trip. The biggest thing with rental cars is to avoid the extras. We brought our own car seat, we avoided the toll roads (which use Sunpass), have car insurance and filled the tank at the end of the trip.
Besides wanting to visit our friends, we also wanted a car in order to stop at Wal-Mart on the way to the resort to pick up food to bring with us into the park and have at the resort. We spent $12.16 at the end of the trip to bring the car back to a full tank of gas. We did not spend any money at our resort on food or drinks. For Magic Kingdom, you’re allowed to bring full water bottles, food/snacks, etc. Of course, always double check the official rules! We used a backpack and had no problems.
In front of All-Star Sports, there were various lines labeled by location (e.g., Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Disney Springs, etc.) and a television showing how long the wait was going to be for the next bus. This worked out perfect for us and we didn’t move our rental car after arrival until we left late on Saturday night.
Park Tickets
My friend Jen is the co-owner of Out the Door Travel and I called her on September 25th to book our Magic Kingdom tickets. As an annual passholder for Magic Kingdom and mom to two boys, she was so helpful in answering my questions and giving me real advice. The single day adult tickets were $169 each and the child ticket (ages 3-9) was $164 for a total of $534.64 (includes tax). We did not pay for lightning lane or any extras. I did not want to spend my whole day on the phone or hustling from one thing to the next. I wanted more of an authentic park experience of my own childhood. The My Disney Experience app is great for being able to see the wait times. Again, early entrance was the true key to the day. We rode every ride, except Tom Sawyer’s Island and saw various shows and met characters.
Miscellaneous and Variable Costs
Shout out to my Buy Nothing group! Another local mom hooked us up before our trip with a refillable popcorn bucket ($2.25 for refills, which we did twice in the park), Disney pins for trading (which was a huge hit with my new 6-year old) and a stroller sign (it was very helpful for quickly spotting our stroller after rides). Separately, from another mom I got unopened Pez dispensers with two candies each that were great surprises at the park. Before the trip, I bought my daughter and I Halloween Disney themed shirts at Five and Below ($5.55 each) and a caribiner for the stroller ($2.96 at Strosnider’s). I also bought Addy and her friends a few surprises that I wrapped in tissue paper for ride lines such as silly putty, a deck of animal joke cards and a fidget fruit roll up type toy. My daughter’s aunt bought her Minnie ears and an autograph book that were huge hits for our park day and my in-laws gave her a Disney giftcard to spend. My daughter’s friends surprised her with a bubble wand with batteries, which was a big hit! Inside the park we got a crème brûlée croissant (around $5 and perfect to split) and at Port Orleans French Quarter Resort we got mickey beignets ($8.30 for three).
While we did not buy “real food” in the park, if we had decided to, I had my eyes set on the kids chicken meal at Pecos Bill Cafe in Frontierland or the kids flat bread pizza at Pinocchio Village House (near it’s a Small World and Peter Pan). Both had meal offerings for under $10. I got these ideas from a great Instagram account called MyDisneyAdventure2.
At Disney Springs, we played in the Legos (free, backside of Lego facing the water) and then built characters inside. For 3 characters its $9.99 and we built 6 so we spent $21.28.
Total Cost
In total, for a 3.5 day trip to Orlando that included one day at Magic Kingdom, it cost our family of three people $1,538.57. This covered: $473.88 for flights; $37.60 for parking at the airport; $417.92 for two nights in a WDW Resort; $74.53 for a rental car; and $534.64 for one-day Magic Kingdom tickets. I listed some of the other miscellaneous and variable costs in the previous section. My personal goal was to keep this trip under $2,000 which I successfully did. Did the total cost surprise you? Let me know in the comments.
Our various and miscellaneous trip costs totaled $123.94. This included $12.16 for gas; $21.26 Lego people; $8.30 Mickey beignets; $5.63 fancy croissant; $4.50 for two popcorn refills; $72.09 at Wal-Mart for food and a small sunscreen. So in sum, we spent $1,662.51. There were those few other expenses before the trip like the caribiner and Disney shirts and small toys from Five and Below, but this is less than an additional $25.
We are already planning a return trip for next year to visit Animal Kingdom! Did anything I share surprise you? Let me know in the comments.
About the Author
Lydia Garry and her family, TeamTravelsBaby, live in Silver Spring, Maryland, and are working to achieve “vagabond status”. Much of their affordable family travel experiences include U.S. travel, national parks and Europe. Adventure with them here, subscribe to their newsletter and follow along on Instagram!
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