A Great and Affordable Vacation

Late last August we were planning a trip to Disney World. We were going all out. We were staying onsite, doing multiple days in the parks, had a dining plan and were good to go. My husband called the travel agent and had all the information, but for some reason we didn't end up booking the trip right there. About a week later our air conditioning went out and we had to pay $1300 to have it fixed. Most of our Disney money went out the window so we weren't able to go. I had two very upset kids on my hands. Luckily they quickly forgot about the trip, but I continued to feel bad about it.

So late January or early February I decided we were going to take a family vacation to Florida. I was hoping we'd get enough tax money to cover the trip, but darn it we were going no matter what! Of course once the tax check came we had to put a new floor in our family room, have work done on the suv and my son had a bit of dental work done that cost a lot. So here we were in pretty much the same predicament, but I was not going to take no for an answer this time!

I started searching for hotels and I can't tell you how long I searched. I spent hours and finally found one I thought would be ok. We ended up with a two bedroom, two bath condo. We had a full kitchen, flat screened tvs in all the rooms, a screened in porch and were right in the middle of all the fun. You can ask for much more then that. Especially since I only paid $355 for five nights there. We were sure to bring a cooler full of drinks and lunch meat and various other snacks so having a kitchen for all that was great.

So here we are a few days away from leaving and I decided that I was going to take out a certain amount of cash and hope we made it on that. I was pretty brave in what I took out or at least in my opinion I was. I took out $800. Now we knew we'd use the debit card for gas, but the rest was for food, Disney World, and whatever else came along. I know there was a time or two when we used the debit card while in Florida, but mostly we just used the cash and I think we came home with $20. I couldn't believe it!

We got in late Friday and ended up going to Disney World Saturday morning. There went $300 right off the bat for tickets. I was amazed that we didn't spend a ton at Disney. I was so afraid we'd come back with nothing after spending 12 hours there. We packed a backpack with frozen capri suns and various snacks. We bought lunch, which was only about $12 because only my son and husband were hungry and dinner which was $20. That $20 fed all four of us! I wanted pizza so we ended up going to Pinocchio Village Haus for dinner. We ordered two kids meals and an adult meal and were able to split them between the four of us with food leftover. I was amazed at that. With the kids meals came prepackaged carrots and grapes and we left with the grapes and a package of carrots. Made a great snack for later on. Now we did have to purchase a meal for my daughter later in the night because she got hungry, but food wise we made it out of there cheap. For drinks we bought a bottle of water because we forgot to bring one and just continued to fill it. The water at Disney isn't great by any means, but it was hot and it was free. We also did rootbeer floats and ice cream and popsicles, but like I said for the money we did well.

Now getting off on not buying souvenirs just wasn't going to happen and I knew that going in. I knew the kids were going to want anything and everything they saw. Luckily most of the time I was able to persuade them to wait just in case they saw something later they wanted. Trying to remind a four and six year old that you still have four days of shopping just doesn't really work! I did let them get a few toys and also let them get those light up things at the end of the night that they had everywhere. We also had them purchase the pressed pennies every time we came across them. They loved those and it only cost us $1.02 for both kids each time they did it. Just so you all don't think I'm a mean mom and didn't allow my children to buy any of the Disney souvenirs I did. We went to one of those tourist shops one evening near our hotel and spent less than half what we would have at Disney World.

One of the things I did splurge on and I'll write a review on that later was the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. I really wanted my daughter to have this experience and I'm glad that we did it. I also let my son get his hair done. it cost all of about eight bucks and he was beyond thrilled. So worth the money! I knew the full package ran about $200 and while I wanted my daughter to have the full experience I wasn't thrilled with the price that came along with it. So before we ever went over I had her change into her Cinderella dress that we had brought along from home. She didn't even realize that all the other girls were getting the full treatment and she wasn't. She wanted the matching Cinderella crown and that was about $17 so I had no problem buying that as well. I got out of there spending a relatively low amount of money and had to kids grinning from ear to ear. Definitely worth it!

Now I quickly realized that if I didn't want to run out of money on day two or three I needed to plan things well. Our condo was right across the street from a place called Old Town. They had games and rides and little shops and other fun little things for kids to do. On Sunday we headed over there for a bit and I had the kids spend their quarters that they had saved up on the machines when they wanted to waste their money away. We also played a game or two and did the go-karts and few times and the kids were ready to go. I found a coupon book and was able to get a buy one get one free on the go-karts so that was a cheap trip. Once we walked back to the hotel we put on our bathing suits and headed out to swim. It was misting rain at this point, but we were going to be wet anyway so we didn't mind.

On Monday we took a trip to Downtown Disney. The kids were so cute. They were excited right away as soon as they saw the fountain. It wasn't anything great, but it's the small things I guess! They have a boat that you can ride around and it doesn't cost a thing. We took a few trips on that and the kids loved it. They also have a large Lego store there with a big outside area where the kids can play. This is also free. As long as you're able to keep your kids out of the store you should be okay going here. Luckily my kids weren't interested. We did lunch at the T-Rex restaurant and it was great. I can't say enough good things about this place. The wait wasn't bad and even though we paid more then we might for other meals the atmosphere made up for that. They also had a Build-A-Dino in the restaurant, which both kids wanted to do and since we'd done so well with them not spending a ton of money thus far we let them both get and dress a dino. After lunch we did a bit of walking around. The kids wanted to check out the stores and we let them each get a few small toys. We also found a few of the pressed penny machines so of course we did that too. Then to end our day we went to the Ghirardelli chocolate place and had ice cream. My husband, daughter and I shared a banana split and my son had an ice cream cone. All in all it was a great day.

On Tuesday we headed to Gatorland for the day. The kids were so excited about going. I had looked into going before we had left for our trip and was able to purchase two buy one get one free coupons before we had left for Florida. So we only payed for two tickets and that cut our cost in half. That was a big help. We had a few snacks while there, but all in all spent almost no money and still had a wonderful time. We did feed the birds, but that only ran $1 for a stick of food so we could have done that several times and still not spent what we would have on the other two tickets. The kids loved seeing all the gators and also enjoyed the petting zoo and everything else they had to offer. We did come home with one souvenir each (per kid) so I was happy with that. About a mile or so from our hotel was a Joe's Crab Shack and we'd never been so we had our eye on it since the day we arrived in Florida. We decided that was where we were going to have dinner. I found a coupon for a free appetizer so that was a bonus. Dinner was a little expensive, but wonderful and we were on vacation so I figured that was fine.

On Wednesday we packed up and headed back to SC. The kids had never been to a real beach before so we decided to hit Daytona Beach on the way home. I'm glad we did. It was on our way so it wasn't really out of the way and we pretty much pulled up, parked and played in the sand and water for awhile then headed home. It was the perfect ending to a great vacation!