Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

In preparation for a trip to WDW, I decided to check this book out. I was hoping for some hidden tips while at the Parks. For the most part, this book offered tips on how to save up for your trip prior to ever making it to Orlando. Even those tips were obvious and not all that helpful.

What do you get instead? How about telling a family they can go to to WDW for just dollars a day after they have paid for their tickets? How? Stay at an off-site motel for $30 a day (where can you find something for that anymore?) and make sure to eat ALL your meals at the motel. So one is supposed to drive to an from the park while trying to get the most with their admission ticket? The gas prices alone from this venture would do you in! Or better yet, look like a real cheapo and bring your own food (which I am fine with until...) the author suggests you steal from the toppings bar at a counter service restaurant to make the most out of your sandwich. Or better yet, order a double hamburger and for an extra 75 cents..order an extra bun and you have 2 burgers for the price of one! If anything, there were several times I laughed out loud while reading the ideas expressed in this book!

I completely understand that WDW can be expensive. I appreciate trying to find ways to save here and there. However, I truly believe that if a family were to follow the ideas in this book, they would not have an enjoyable experience at all!! Not to mention, it sure wouldn't be fun having people look at you with disgust as you steal from a restaurant!!

This book should be called "Disney for the unfathomly cheap"... enough said. Don't waste your time with this book. Better luck reading more traditional WDW guide books or perusing various message boards full of avid WDW fans only happy to offer you their 2 cents on how to save.

After thoroughly reading "Disney on a Dime: Money-Saving Secrets for Your Walt Disney World Vacation", all I can say is save your money and the time you would spend reading this book. Not only is there nothing earth shattering revealed in this book, there is easily better information available online for free. There are many Disney based web sites out there, and I'd venture to say that 99% or more offer better information than this book does.

The first myth of the book to dispell is bringing your own food to the park and storing it in a cooler in a locker. Not only does Disney not allow outside food, they surely do not allow a cooler! Apparently the author has never been through the outside security checkpoints or bag check that has been implemented since 9/11/01. Secondly, the author advocates stealing condiments, cups, and just about any foodservice item you can fit in your pocket/purse. While this can be done, it's absolutely ludicrous to think anyone WOULD do this. Is this really saving money, when everything you are taking is provided free of charge in the park? I think not. I can go on and on, but I think anyone with a brain gets the idea here.

In closing, I think the average person understands that a Disney vacation is by no means inexpensive. The published statistic is that the average family of four will save for seven years to take a 1 week Disney vacation. With many of the offers Disney has had the past few years (discounted 7 days vacation promotions, free dining plan, etc.) it is now even easier to take that vacation AND stay on Disney property. Do your homework online for free, and avoid this book at all costs. That'll be your fist step in saving for your Disney vacation. It's a shame that I actually had to give the book 1 star to write the review, as it's not even deserving of that.

Seeing as how we're rabidly saving money for this trip, we have taken to more unusual date nights. Wanting to get out we headed to our local B and N, where I proceeded to pick up this book and read it, all of it. It was a fairly entertaining book - not much new really but well written and frankly once you've read one solid tour book on WDW (Like the Unofficial Guide) then you've read 80 percent of all of them. The book had a couple of good ideas sort of worth considering, but mostly it was just good for a laugh. Then again I prefer not to eat Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches for supper - saving a buck here or there is one thing, makin gmyself feel so deprived I would rather be at home then on my vacation is another. Regardless the book is certainly worth a read, but do it the way I did, in a nice comfy chair, with a late in one hand as you browse it at your local library or bookstore. After all, it's all about saving a buck right?

This book was really basic in offering tips for budget conscious disney travellers. It didn't help me much. A lot of the information I already knew. I was looking for something more and I didn't find it here.

For the price of this book you can buy four Mickey Bars at Disney.

The book has factual inaccuracies and is liable to COST you money! One of their "Great ideas" is to book your room a few days early to take advantage of lower rates and then just claim it whenever you wander in? NO! Hotels assume if you don't show you aren't coming and resell the room. They don't hold it waiting on you to show up two days later. Same type of useless advice on car rentals.

All in all, this was one of the biggest wastes of money ever...

Used many of these tips to save big money on our trip. Book was written in 2006 so a few updates are needed but overall accurate info.

I borrowed this book from the local library today, read the whole book, and now I am here on Amazon to purchase my own copy. I find it interesting that this book has received some mixed reviews. However, my belief is that even if I only get three or four new ideas from this book, it is worth it to me. As a Floridian, I take many trips to Disney. I am always looking for ways to make my stay more enjoyable. This book certainly does that for me.

I loved this book!! It was not too long and cumbersome to read. It has many wonderful money saving tips that I just didn't think of when planning my trip to Disney with our family of six.
It was very helpful for families with small children. I followed some of the author's advice and we did not have one tear from any of our kids! That in itself was enough to purchase the book! There was an earlier review on this book that said something about the author's trying to get people to sneak food into Disney. Well, I never had to "sneak" food in. That was one of my favorite tips! You can bring snacks/food into Disney in your backpack or whatever you are carrying. The Disney workers there that checked our packs said it was okay. Thank goodness!! The 101 free things to do really helped us also. I highly recommend this book to readers.