Tips about Miscellaneous

Price out your vacation on disneyworld.com and check back frequently. Even after you book it, check back because if price goes down, Disney will usually refund you the difference. - MediaOhio

Find the best hotel deal. This often means going off-season; we've gotten excellent rates at moderate Disney resorts by not traveling over major holidays and/or in the summer. (There are also great deals to be had by using Priceline -- but then you'll have to stay off property!) If you are lucky enough to have an annual pass, you'll get even better discounts. - Hilary Sommer

Travel during Value Season if at all possible; it's cheaper. - Josh Olive

My sister-in-law is planning a trip and told us how she purchased Disney Store Gift Cards from her grandchildren's school. The school sells various gift cards as a fundraiser. She then used her gift cards to purchase park tickets ahead at the Disney Store. The leftover gift cards they will use for food and purchases in the parks. This tip may not save money as much as help a school while having fun doing so. However, having the pre-purchased cards does set a spending limit for kids and in the end may save money. - Bonnie

Disney Gift Cards: If you're looking for a different design than the basic Mickey that's available at your local Disney Store (perhaps so that each child can have their own design), you can purchase gift cards at www.disneygiftcard.com They offer a wide variety of designs. They can be used and reloaded at Walt Disney World and your local Disney Store! The only drawback is that you are limited to buying a set dollar amount that is on the order form - Rob Steere

After reading today's newsletter (12/5/06), specifically the ALL EARS® Hears section with the note from Sarah in Pittsburgh about the reward dollars, I took note that she said she would save her reward dollars for her next trip. It is worth noting that many rewards cards will expire at the end of a year, and if there are any reward dollars on the card when it expires, then they will be lost forever. Every year many people lose their reward dollars because they don't realize the card expires, so I thought that this was something worth mentioning. Reward dollars can be spent at the Disney Store, and Disneyshopping.com, for those people who can't get to a park before the end of the year, and I believe you can also call Disney and have them apply the dollars to an existing reservation. - Jason

If you don't like to carry a lot of cash, or use travelers checks (which can be a pain for small purchases), buy a Visa gift card at your local bank. It can be used as a credit card or as a debit card. What's nice is that, just like travelers checks, if it's lost or stolen you just call Visa with your card information (which you keep separately from the card) and they'll send you a replacement. I use it to pay for all our meals and gifts. It's a great way to keep track of your spending, too, since you pre-pay the card -- no debt to come home to! - Rebecca

Just to remind anyone who might read this before traveling to the US and will want to use a UK credit card... let the card company know you are going! On our first day at WDW our card got refused and we couldn't use it for the duration of our stay. We knew there was credit available when we left home and could have called the company from the US to find out what was wrong, but at quite a cost. When we returned home the credit card company said they had only blocked it as a security precaution. Luckily we had some Travelers Cheques as back-up. - Mark Burden, Dorset England

In years past, when going to WDW, we would always bring traveler's checks or use a debit card for purchases so we didn't have to bring a lot of cash. Well, the traveler's checks were kind of a pain because you'd have to sign them, write them out each time like a check, then wait for change... ugh! And the debit card is tough because it made it too easy to spend money and harder to keep track of it. This year, I went to the bank beforehand and bought a prepaid VISA gift card. It's used the same way as your debit card (complete with a pin number that you pick), and you can use it as a credit card, too. This was great! I think you can purchase it in amounts up to $600 -- we got one in that amount and another for $400, and we used it everywhere for food, even at the little stands in the park. Plus, if you should ever lose it or if it's stolen, the bank will send you a replacement card ASAP. (Just make sure to keep your card info separate from the cards themselves.) But the true benefit is that there's no risk of identity theft since your name is not on the card, except for your signature on the back. We really ended up bringing very little cash with us, which worked out great. Any amount that's left over on the card never expires, but there is a small fee after six months on the remaining balance if it's not used. Hope this helps! - Rebecca from Pennsylvania

When we travel to the World, we make sure to purchase as much as we can on our Magic Band. On one hand, there's no need to carry cash around, but the real benefit for frequent visitors is that at the end of your stay you get an itemized list of all expenditures. We still pay for it all with cash when we check out. After we get home and are settled in from our trip, we go through the list and use it to track exactly where we spent our money (dinner, lunch, toys, etc.). Doing this allows us to budget almost exactly how much money we will need for our next trip and there's no need to save all of your receipts to do it. - Fred Block

Your vacation will seem less expensive when you pay for your room a little bit at a time. I start making monthly payments as soon as we make our reservation. The room will be paid in full (or at least mostly paid) by the time we arrive. We set up our savings account to automatically deduct a portion of each paycheck every payday into our vacation account. This forces us to save. We also go to WDW after we anticipate getting our tax return back. That is also part of our "forced" savings plan. You can have your room paid in advance, as well as park tickets and travelers' checks for food and purchases. Michelle