Author: Budget Diva
After a long 12 hour drive, we are back home and already missing Disney World!! Our family of 5 opted to drive to Disney to save money but let me tell you, next time we are flying! I learned many things (both good and bad) after the vacation that I would love to share with reader’s so that you too can learn from my mistakes.
Mistake number 1: Driving straight (12 hours) with 3 kids under the age of 5. We had been given advice from many friends and family to drive straight-through and some people advised us to stop and spend the night somewhere half way. The kids were entertained with their road trip goody bags for about an hour or two and the snacks were exciting until about half way into the trip. Luckily the movie’s helped pass a few hours and the kids finally fell asleep about 7 hours into the trip. But by hour 9, the kids had had enough and were tired of being in the van. They started arguing, screaming, crying, etc You get the picture! Let me tell you, the last three hours of the trip were not fun for anyone! I would advise breaking up the trip.
Mistake number 2: Staying off property. We chose to stay off property for several reasons, the main reason – to save money. We stayed 6 nights at the Embassy Suites Lake Buena Vista. The hotel is wonderful, but with traffic in the evenings, it took us almost 45 minutes to get back to the hotel. Every minute counts when you’re on vacation and by 8 o’clock the kids were extremely tired and ready to crawl into their beds instead of sitting in traffic in the van. We also chose to stay off property because we wanted a ‘suite’ to sleep our large family of 5. Next time we will either stay in the Value Resorts to be closer to Disney World or save up for several years and stay at the Bay Lake Tower Villa’s at the Contemporary to be within walking distance to Disney. Staying on a monorail loop resort is definitely the closet you can get to Magic Kingdom and I think it is definitely worth the extra money and this is the BUDGET Diva talking!
We had a wonderful time at Disney World and can not wait to return! The parks were all so clean, well kept and the staff was amazingly friendly and helpful.
We were able to save a lot of money by bringing food into the park, by packing our lunches everyday in our cooler.
It was extremely hot for late April/early May so we did end up splurging and purchasing a cute Disney stroller fan for our baby to keep cool, I guess we should have read Disney Diva’s Buy Before you Go to the Park articles.
The week flew by, but we were able to ride almost every single ride except for Space Mountain (our kids were too little for this) and Splash Mountain (lines were really long).
Between the Chef Mickey’s breakfast, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for my 5 year old, dinner at 1900 Park Fare and Spirit of Aloha dinner show, we were pretty tired by the end of the week!
The highlight of our week was the Spirit of Aloha dinner show, it was the best money we spent all 
week! Such a fun, festive and authentic dinner show. Be sure to check out my upcoming reviews. Aloha!
We just got back two weeks ago. Stayed at Art of Animation. Got the dining plan and did hoopdee doo revue and ate at the royal castle. The room was perfect and dining plan paid paid for its self twice over. We also drove from Indiana and movies ,handheld games and a lot of talking about and planning our days out with must do’s filled the time. My children are 6 & 8 so that I am sure played a part plus we have made the trip to Florida every year so they are used to the car ride. But the value family suites are well worth the money as is the dining plan.
Loyal Disney fan and Diva reader
Kelly White
Newburgh, IN
At first we were going to make the 18 hour drive from Maryland to Disney. But after a recent trip to North Carolina (a 9 hour drive) my husband promptly decided.. we were FLYING! LOL
The new Art of Animation now has family suites too. They are amazing and sleep 6 people. So you don’t have to save years for Contempo. Just go to Art of Animation, which is a Value Resort;)
Staying on property can still take 45 minutes to get back to your resort. It easily took a half hour during a really non busy season for us and we stayed at All Star Movies. You wait in line for the bus then you wait while the bus makes all the stops, often times my kids would fall asleep while we were on the bus which was kind of a nightmare trying to wake them up to get off the bus. I do prefer staying on property, though.
I thin driving straight through depends on your ids. We went on a month long road trip when my youngest was two no problems at all. We drive from Maryland to Tampa or Orlando at least twice a year to visit family. We drive straight through roughly 13 hours and my ids do fine. As for staying off site I have never had a problem with the traffic and we go at all different times of the year. We stay at the Bonnet Creek resort which is minutes away from many of the parks they also have a shuttle service if you don’t want to drive.