Disney is the kind of theme-park destination with a very mature, well-developed ecosystem, which also makes it pretty hard to save money. First, tickets are almost never discounted. Second, because the parks are packed year-round, hotel prices both around the resort and on Disney property are correspondingly high. And for a theme park this large, you usually need to spend the entire day there, so it’s basically unrealistic to leave the park for a meal and then come back in. Even so, Disney fans have still come up with a number of ways to cut costs. In this post, I’ll share some tips based on my own recent Disney trip, with a particular focus on people who already live in the U.S. This article mainly covers money-saving strategies for transportation, hotels, tickets, dining and shopping, and downloading ride photos.

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[11/3 Update] Use an AMEX Offer strategically to stack savings when buying Disney tickets. See details here: How to get about 10% off tickets

Transportation

Flights: book with points using TYP, BA, or low-cost carriers

Airfare from major cities to Orlando is usually not too expensive, so if you have the Citi Prestige card, using TYP to book can be a very good option (1.6c). Of course, if your route falls within BA’s 7,500-point distance band from ORD, then using BA (British Airways) points—transferable from UR or MR—to book an AA partner award can also be a great choice. One reason is that BA does not charge an extra close-in booking fee for awards booked within 21 days, and if you cancel, the miles can be fully refunded. If you’re flying from a smaller city, it’s also worth checking Google Flights for fares from your city to all Orlando-area airports, especially SFB. You may well find a cheap fare on a low-cost airline. For more on award bookings and budget-airline considerations, see these two articles: Flights Part 1, Flights Part 2.

Ground transportation: free shuttles and Uber

Most hotels offer free shuttle service to the major theme parks, but be sure to pay attention to the first and last departure times. Also, some shuttle routes serve a whole cluster of hotels plus all four Disney parks, so be prepared for a lot of looping around before you get there. For transportation between your hotel and the airport, you can use Uber or a shuttle service. For ways to save money, see this article: Ground Transportation

Of course, renting a car is also an option. That gives you the freedom to drive to and from the parks whenever you want. However, you’ll also have to pay for the rental itself, plus parking at the hotel and at the parks. If you’ll be spending most of your time at Disney or other theme parks, that extra freedom can come at a pretty steep price.

Hotels

Hotels around Disney are generally expensive if you’re paying cash. If you’re good at bidding, then using Priceline or Hotwire to “guess” hotels can be a very cost-effective option. Hotel points can also often deliver excellent value here, so depending on which hotel points you have, refer to this article: Hotels. Disney on-property hotels can be bundled with park tickets and on-site dining. If you want something more convenient, that may be the way to go; the official website also offers some vacation packages worth looking at.

Tickets

Disney World tickets in Orlando are generally more expensive than Disneyland tickets in California, and tickets bought on the official site are also subject to tax, so the total cost over several days can be very high for one person (official ticket prices). Based on this trip, excluding airfare and hotels, about two-thirds of my spending went to tickets. So the question most people care about is how to buy Disney tickets cheaply and safely. For Florida residents, an annual pass is of course often the best choice, so I won’t discuss that here. Below are several ways to save money on tickets, with notes on both discount size and safety.

Buy from the official site: combine credit cards and gift cards

Buying directly from Disney is obviously the safest option, though ticket prices go up year after year. Right now, the best ticket-buying strategy I can think of is as follows:

  • Buy discounted Target gift cards (about 6%-8% off)
    • For example, you can buy them from Raise at 6% off (if you don’t have an account, register here; new accounts get $5 after completing their first purchase)
    • Or buy from staples.com and pay with Ink (5X UR) or Citi AT&T More (3X TYP)
  • Use the Target website to buy Disney gift cards in amounts less than or equal to the ticket price (5% off + 2% back)
    • Pay with a RedCard together with the Target gift cards you bought earlier, and you can get 5% off the total
  • Buy tickets on the official Disney site, paying partly with Disney gift cards and partly with Citi Premier/Chase CSP (the credit-card-paid portion earns 2X points)

Overall, this should work out to roughly 12% off, which is quite good. Of course, if you don’t want to go through all that or don’t have time to complete the entire process, you can simply use a Target RedCard or discounted Target gift cards to buy Disney gift cards directly in a Target store. And if you really, really don’t have time, then just buy directly on Disney’s website with Citi Premier/ThankYou Preferred/Chase CSP and at least earn 2X TYP/UR points.

AMEX Offer + Undercover Tourist

Undercover Tourist is an authorized Disney ticket seller. Its prices are slightly lower than Disney’s direct prices. In addition to Disney World tickets, it also sells ticket bundles for other Orlando attractions.

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Right now there is an AMEX Offer on some AMEX cards: spend $100 at Undercover Tourist and get $20 back. By using this offer, you can take an additional $20 off Undercover Tourist’s already-discounted ticket prices.

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I checked the prices, and here is the comparison:

  • One-day Magic Kingdom during peak season (tax included): Undercover Tourist costs $117 (originally $137, minus the $20 offer), while Disney’s official site charges $132
  • 5-day multi-park ticket (tax included): Undercover Tourist costs $329 (originally $349, minus the $20 offer), while Disney’s official site charges $362

So you can still save around 10%. Savings are even better on bundles for other Orlando attractions. If you’re interested or have questions, check the links below:

Buying through resellers (discounts vary)

There are many third-party sellers online that can issue tickets for you, including discounted tickets from various websites, student-discount tickets, and tickets sold on secondary marketplaces such as craigslist and eBay.

For secondary marketplaces, be extremely careful about scams and ticket restrictions. For example, some well-known deeply discounted tickets require you to attend sales presentations before you can get them, which is a huge waste of time. As for discounted tickets from other websites, I haven’t researched them carefully, but they are probably more expensive than secondary-market tickets while also being safer. Student discount tickets are only sold to students at certain Florida universities, but those students can help others buy them. So if you know someone at one of those schools, they may be able to buy for you. A four-day ticket costs $244 per person, versus $325 including tax on Disney’s official site—a savings of 25%. And if you pay with Citi Premier/ThankYou Preferred/Chase CSP, you can also earn 2X TYP/UR points.

Vacation Package

These usually include hotel, tickets, and dining. You can compare for yourself, especially if you don’t have much time to plan. In that case, buying a package can save both effort and money.

Dining and Shopping

Other in-park expenses are usually just dining and shopping. The best approach I could come up with is to make smart use of the MagicBand, but this only works for guests staying on Disney property. The idea is that you can use the MagicBand to pay at all stores inside the resort, then have those charges billed as a charge to room, meaning they show up on your room folio. When it’s time to settle the bill, you can pay the entire amount with a credit card that earns a high bonus rate on that hotel brand (such as Premier 3X). In addition, the hotel program (such as SPG) may count these charges as a qualified purchase, letting you earn another 2X-3X points. Of course, if you do not have that option, then just pay directly with a credit card that earns well on dining. On this trip, I used the AMEX PRG card to earn 2X MR points, which works out to roughly a 4% return.

Downloading your ride photos

If you have been to Disney before, you probably know that Disney usually installs cameras at certain thrill rides, such as roller coasters and drop towers. At the exit screen, you can find your photo and then swipe your admission ticket underneath to link it to your account. There are also many photographers around the park offering photo services, in which case you will need a Photo card. At character meet-and-greets, such as with Mickey Mouse, someone will often take photos for you as well and give you a Photo card. You can find all of these photos in your account on Disney’s official website. Viewing them is free, but downloading or printing them costs extra, and the photos expire after a certain period of time. Here I want to share a way to download these photos for free. They are not the highest-resolution versions, but they are perfectly fine for keepsakes or printing. This method is based on this video; you can refer to it here.

  • Open or download the Firefox browser
  • Open your Disney PhotoPass account and find the photos for a specific park
  • Clear your browser cache
  • Click slide view so the photos display one by one
  • Then open a new window and enter about:cache? device=disk in the browser address bar
  • Look for some of the larger links there, click each one, and you should be able to see the images
  • Download each image, then repeat the process to download the photos from every park

Conclusion

These are the main ways to save money at Disney. If you are traveling with kids and the whole family, the most important thing is to have fun, so you do not need to optimize every single detail for maximum savings. Still, students and other budget travelers may find this article helpful. You are also welcome to leave a comment with your own money-saving tips, and I will update the article accordingly.

Please check out the rest of my Orlando Disney series: