Disney on a Dime: Money-Saving Secrets for Your Walt Disney World Vacation (Paperback)

by Chris Carlson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A great resource…for frugal ideas to make a trip to Disney possible, or…just for more ways to save. " -- Michelle Jones in BetterBudgeting.com, January 2006

"Budget traveler[s] looking for unique ways to cut the cost of their next Disney vacation should invest in a copy." -- Kimberly Button, BellaOnline's Budget Travel Editor,November 2005

"Covers all the basics to making a successful budget trip to WDW…[The chapter on free activities] was a great read." -- Jason Dziegielewski in DisneyGeek.com, November 21, 2005

"If you follow their tips we are sure you can save money on almost every part of your trip. " -- BetsyAnn & SuzyQ, Tagrel.com The World on a Budget Forum, November 2005

"Invaluable as a planning tool for folks considering a first WDW trip." -- Kevin Yee in MiceAge.com, November 2005

"Think you can’t afford...WDW, get a copy of this book and you may be surprised that you can." -- wdisneyw.co.uk, December 8, 2005

Complete with maps and phone numers, DISNEY ON A DIME should be the first...vacation planning book you buy. -- Jennifer Brown in BookPleasures.com on December 2005 Travel Genre

Not only helps you save money, it also ... [gives you] all the information you need to plan your trip. -- USA Travel Magazine, January 3, 2007

The book's strength is [the authors'] patient explanation of all the options you have among [Disney's] bewildering array. -- D.C. Stultz, goflorida.about.com, January 17, 2007

This guide will provide you everything you ever wanted to know about saving money at Walt Disney World. -- Jennifer in MouseInfo.com on December 4, 2005

Product Description
You can afford the Disney World vacation of your dreams--if you know how to save for it, save on the way to and from Orlando, and save while you're there. The Carlsons, parents of four young children, know from repeated, firsthand experience that you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to have a Walt Disney World vacation. They share their money-saving strategies for accumulating the necessary funds and then getting the most for the least on travel, tickets, food, resort hotels, and souvenirs for the kids.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: The Intrepid Traveler (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887140573
• ISBN-13: 978-1887140577
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #123,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

119 of 129 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Much all Common Sense and Shown Elsewhere, April 11, 2006

By	Lisa Shea "LisaShea.com" - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This book is an interesting mix. First off, it's short. There are just over 200 small pages. It sends mixed messages. "No childhood is complete without a trip to Walt Disney World". How's that for guilt for poor parents? Then it says "It is likely to be one of the most expensive trips you will ever take." I suppose they're trying to convince you to buy the book, but it bothered me a bit.

A lot of the tips here are common sense. Make a budget. Their sample budget shows that tickets (just entrance fee, no food or anything else) cost a family of 4 $710 - but lodging is only $160 for the exact same time period. That's a really scary statement, but it's true. They say to have a penny jar and to open a savings account. Use coupons at the store, have a garage sale. So far I'm not seeing the real value of this. I knew these things.

They talk about not buying souveniers. They say to take all hotel freebies you can get your hands on. They say to take the plastic cups your drinks are served in. Again, not quite tips that I want to know or need a book to think up. There's a section on what to pack - no tips on saving money there.

Now of course many of the tips are helpful. Send for the free Disney planning DVD that Disney offers. Get a hotel with free breakfast. Get a Disney Dining Card if you want to eat at restaurants a fair amount. Sign up for every official Disney mailing list on the web so you can get news of discounts and coupons. On the other hand, they push you taking food into the parks, something against Disney policy. When I go somewhere, I don't deliberately plan my family's health around rule breaking.

The lodging has a good amount of detail on Disney hotels, then lumps all non-Disney places as "off site" even though some are right in the Disney system. It also gives hardly any details to choose between them. Some of the information is simply wrong.

There are sample budgets and menus which might help if you've never, ever taken a trip before - but most of us know how to do a chart that has a line for transportation, one for food, one for lodging and so on.

There's an end section on 101 free tips. Sample tip - ride a bus. Sample tip - shop in the stores. I suppose these are free, but they aren't very appealing to me. In fact, the Lego store gets 4 different tips there alone. A few of the tips were neat, but a substantial block of them were not what I would call freebies.

I have to say I was very disappointed. I was expecting real tips that would directly save me money - on lodging, on food, on things to do. In a very few cases it was true - but in those cases like "get a Disney Dining Card" that is already trumpeted on every site and book you read. None were new tips. Most were silly tips. You can do much better with a regular book on Disney that mentions money saving advice while it fills you in on all the main details.

NOTE: I wrote this review after a thorough study of the book, and felt it to be fair. When I posted it, I immediately received a 2,241 word response from Chris Carlson. I took the time to answer each of his questions, in detail, to help explain my stance. I received messages in response with phrases such as "I can see by your extreme comments you are plainly stuck on your opinion even if it means thwarting the truth."

Here is an example of what Chris is complaining about:

Disney Policy: no outside food

Disney on a Dime: "There is absolutely nothing wrong with ... brown bagging your theme-park meals. ... you will save a lot on food by packing your own to eat in the theme parks instead of buying all your meals at the theme park restaurants and counter-service establishments. You'll need to pack your food and drinks in a cooler that you can leave in a park locker until you want it."

Me: "... they push you taking food into the parks, something against Disney policy."

Chris Msg 1: "No one that we talked to said that it was strictly forbidden." (acknowledging that they did encourage it)

Chris Msg 2: "[you are] accusing me of encouraging people to ... "sneak food in" ... you start throwing these lies around.
None of these statements are mentioned in our book."

This is just one example.

My core complaint with this book was and still is that it has *very* few "Disney" tips. There are lots of tips on coin jars and garage sales. There are lots of tips on travelling cheap. However there is only a tiny amount on *Disney* savings. My secondary concern is that I gave a fair review - and have since received numerous messages from Chris pressuring me because of it.

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful info, but nothing too earth shattering, October 19, 2005

By	Vincent Sharma (Saint Paul, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book had some good information in it. For instance, it had several tables that laid out how ticket prices change based on number of days, adding options like Park Hopper, etc. It showed the prices of different resorts based on which season you went, and had helpful suggestions on how to negotiate better rates with Disney resorts. It also did a good job comparing flying vs. driving costs. Having said that, there was nothing too earth shattering in this book, and most of the stuff in it can easily be looked up online. In fact, since ticket and resort prices constantly change, this book is sure to be out of date less than a year from when it is published. The authors gave some good advice, and I wish they had spent more time giving recommendations instead of just presenting you with tables of information, much of which will be obsolete very quickly. Overall, a quick read but very little information that you can't figure out yourself or find online for free.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disney on a Dime for a Miserable Time, December 13, 2006

By	The Night Reader - See all my reviews

You can't do Disney on a dime. And if you could, you'd have a miserable time. Most of the tips in this book are either ridiculous or downright hilarious. Did you really come to Disney to fill your pockets with free food and condiments from a topping bar? That's one of the tips for saving money at the park. Or how about bringing your own food into the park after driving there from your off-site motel room and telling the kids that they can't buy any souvenirs? What a vacation.

There are a few good tips in the book, but you probably know about them already or can easily find them for free on-line.

I'm a big fan of saving money at Disney. It is possible to save money there without ruining your vacation by cutting every corner. A good Disney vacation is expensive. All the penny jars (another tip from the book) in the world won't help with that. Do your own research and don't expect miracles. And don't be misled by authors whose next tip might involve panhandling outside Cinderella's Castle.