Doing Disney on a Budget with Lou Mongello

Published Aug 18, 2023, 7:00 AM

Make your Disney dreams come true! Jen & Jill team up with Disney expert Lou Mongello to uncover the ultimate secrets of doing Disney on a budget. From trimming down ticket costs to revealing the secrets behind scoring budget-friendly hotels, dining, and adventures, we've got all the insider tips to make your Disney experience unforgettable. Grab your mouse ears and listen in. 🏰

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Episode three twenty nine, Doing Disney on a Budget with Lou Mangello.

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your hosts Jen and Jill.

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are doing a listener request and only requested by listeners because I prodded you at an earlier episode to request it and several of you did about Disney on a budget, saving money on Disney, and very very excited to have a kind of like a Disney legend, Lou Mangello to talk about it.

If you're a Disney fiend Disney guru, you already know about Lou. For those who don't, well, it'll still be magical. We're bringing you some Disney magic.

Yes, and so if you ever want to take a trip to Disney, this is definitely when you're going to want to keep this in your pocket and listen. We are covering all the majors, all updated, so this is one you're going to want to run through. But first before we get into the tips, this episode is brought to you by thirteen point one miles. Yes, you could drive thirteen point one miles in twenty minutes, or I don't know how long it takes that in time it or you could take multiple hours to run it. I mean, sure some people can do it in less, but if you're me, it's multiple hours. You listen to a lot of frugal friends over that time. Don't have time to run thirteen point one miles. Don't fret. You can get everything you love about Frugal Friends and more in the friend Letter. We send it three times a week and we've got your freebies for the week. We've got your savings tips, things across the internet that you would love to know about saving money. We compile it all into an email that you get in your inbox three times week. It's like a text from your bestie, only it's in your inbox and you can ignore all those marketing emails that want you to spend money because we want you to be able to save it. So Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash friend Letter. It's definitely easier to read than it is to run thirteen point one miles.

Wow, what a Lucy Goosey amazing tie in Jen, You can tell that the Disney Half Marathon. Does half marathon is on your mind?

Yeah, well specifically the Wine and Dine half Marathon, because that's what I'm training.

For, the only one you'll do. We are motivated, Yes you are.

I've done Wine and Dine and Princess, and I do love those Disney races. I'm more of like, I'm a fan of Disney because I love the Disney races. And so this is we're talking about parks today though, because there's like literally no way to save on your running unless you're going to raise money for a charity. Then you can quasi get a free entry into your race. So maybe that is a tip for running, But if you don't want to run, listen to this episode with Lou Manngello. He is a former attorney who is the host of WDW Radio podcast he has been doing for gosh twenty years at this point, all about the magic of the Disney Parks, Disney Cruise Line, Marvel Star Wars. He is also the founder of the Dream Team project dot org, which has raised over half a million dollars for Make a Wish Foundation. He is fantastic and I don't know if there's anybody that knows more about Disney than Lou Monngello, and so we're going to talk talk about the four bigs to saving it Disney. We're not going to talk about how to save money for a Disney trip or how to save money on getting there. We have several you know, we have three hundred episodes on how to save money, and then a couple other episodes on how to save on travel. So like episode two eighty four, how to Hack Your Next Vacation with Chris Hutchins. It talks a smidge about travel hacking, but really just general hacking travel. And then episode two fifty how to Save Money on travel Frugal Traveling, so and then we have several actual like credit card point travel hacking episodes too, So definitely listen to those for money saving tips on how to get there. But with Lou, we're talking about saving money when you're there.

Let's get to Lou.

Lou, welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. We are very excited to have you here.

Jenna and Jill, thank you you very much. I am excited as well. Really appreciate it, but look, I speak for a living I really appreciate the opportunity and then looking forward to chatting with you today.

Amazing. Well, let's just jump right in because I don't want to waste any time. I know we've got some Disney gurus listening.

Oh my gosh, we we have a lot of listeners, and this was a listener request. Well, this was kind of a go died listener request because I did not tell you this before we started recording. I love Disney. I'm a big fan of Disney, and I asked kind of selfishly if our listeners would like an episode on Disney. And I was like, but I'll only do it if other people want it, and we had like two people request it, and I was like, that's enough for me.

So here we are full disclosure. I could take it or leave it. So I'll bring some balance to this episode. But go ahead, loud, tell us about yourself. And let's just also jump into like money saving ticket, how do you save on tickets?

Like what?

Just start there?

Yeah, we want to hit the big four today. And I don't know what you consider the big four, but for me, it's like tickets and that includes like Genie plus hotels, food, and then just like activities. So that's that's what we want to hit today. If you're listening and you're like, what are we going to cover? That's it, So let's yeah, let's start it off.

So I'll quickly preface it by saying that it has gotten more complicated to go to Disney in recent years, not just in terms of when to go and where to go and what to do, but in terms of how to save money as well. Man, and I think I'd love to sort of start off by sort of dispelling some of the misconceptions or misperceptions about going to Disney. It's prohibitively expensive. It costs ten thousand dollars to take your family at seventy seven dollars for a churoh, I mean it's pretty close.

I mean those are pretty seventy five for a Truro.

But there are a lot of ways to go to Disney World on a budget. There's also a lot of ways to go to Disney World if you're not on a budget as well. It's very easy to sort of do a luxury Disney experience. But they really have implemented a lot of things, especially in recent years, to make it more affordable for the average guest and family to be able to go and I think you hit on a couple of the big sort of key points, which is knowing when to go, knowing where to stay, and having a strategy in terms of the tickets that you buy and the way that you actually approach the parks. And we can sort of break this down however you want, but I think if you want to serve just a very quick tip, I think knowing when to go to Walt Disney World is probably the thing that's going to save you the most amount of money because sort of from a very simplistic thirty thousand foot view, Disney speaking, specially specifically, if Walt Disney World breaks down the seasons of the year into value season, moderate season, high season, and pricing changes accordingly. Recently, that's even changed on sort of a daily basis because theme park tickets prices will vary by the day that you go, So you know, trying to avoid summertime, spring break, Christmas, Easter, sort of those big sort of tent pole holidays is one of the best ways to save money. Of course, understanding that some people can only travel during certain times a year because of their teachers, their kids are in school, et cetera.

So what would you use if somebody could go at any time of the year, what would be like the best time to go.

So when you say best, I think that there's a balance you have to strike in terms of best in terms of value and best in terms of crowds, best in terms of weather. You know, if you're going on July fourth weekend, God bless.

You help you.

You know, it's wonderful and you get the fireworks, but it's hot, and it's crowded, and it is one of the most expensive times of the year in terms of And it's a broad stroke of the brush here because it depends on holidays, et cetera. But September and January and February are sort of really kind of the sweet spots in terms of the least expensive prices for resorts, least expensive prices for tickets. Your crowd levels are lower, and especially in January and February, your outside temperature and relevant humidity is also going to be lower as well.

And your chance for hurricane is lower in January and February.

Yeah, your chance for hurricane is lower. And I think sometimes the hurricane thing gets blown out. You know, Orlando was very very far inland. So hurricanes are sort of few and far between. They get a lot of attention, but I had more hurricanes in New Jersey than I did since I've moved.

To play right. That's crazy places get them too. Before we move on to the other three of the Big Four. Curious your thoughts on related to tickets Genie Plus, Like, what is that? I know they've kind of renamed it. Is it worth it?

So? Genie Plus is a replacement for what was the fast Pass system, which was a way to be able to get a specified return time in order to go to some of the more popular attractions without having to wait on the standby line. In recent years, that's been replaced by Genie Plus and the Genie system. And again there's a lot of confusion. We can take two hours sort of explaining the complexities of Genie Plus, but it does allow the opportunity to via the app get specified return times. There also is a Genie Plus which is a paid option where you can pay for some of the bigger, more popular E ticket attractions to have a specified return time for a specific dollar for a year per guest. So if you wanted to ride Rise to the Resistance or Guardians of the Galaxy, cosmic rewind, you can buy a lightning lane which will allow you to return that specified time again. Depending on crowd levels and popularity, that dollar figure could be ten dollars to twenty seven dollars per person per attraction.

Yeah, the confusion is a prohibitive factor for me, Like I don't I want to just go, I don't want to have fun, But I'm learning that like you need to be. You need to be a person who has really dug in and done a lot of research, in my opinion, to get a very good experience where you're not spending a ton of time in lines, which is why we go to people like you to get all of like the best tips. But so much confusion. And I don't know if that's on purpose or what, but I think.

It's on purpose. I think it's it's it's sometimes an unfortunately unfortunate but necessary result of the fact that the parks are very crowded. People don't want to wait line. There is a way to make you have a more efficient and effective time in the parks, but the only way to do that is, fortunately, or unfortunately by having some sort of a financial based system, right, because giving everybody fast pass means now the fast pass line is going to be as long as the standby line. And to be clear, you can walk into the park as long as you have a ticket and a reservation. You can walk into the park and sort of wing it and still have a great time. You will have a better and dare I say sometimes even exponentially better time if you do some of that planning and preparation ahead of time. You go in a little better armed and prepared in terms of how to approach the day and how to approach the parks.

Yeah, and when you go in those off seasons January, February, September, sometimes you limit like you don't need Genie play us at all or fewer. I still haven't been on Rise of the Resistance because I can't like get it. I've never been able to get on that ride.

And ironically I have been.

Yeah, but I haven't been to Hollywood Studios in a while. But so, yeah, that's like something I would pay for. But I would go maybe in January and not have to get Genie plus for all the other things and just buy the you know one thing I want. So there's there can be a balance too, But yeah, I know my friend Allison went during spring break and they did Genie Plus they got got it for everything all day whole trip, and she said it really did make a difference, like it was the one thing that was worth the money for them.

And I think it's a very subjective thing. You have to determine where the balance really is. Is, you know you're only there for a couple of days, is making sure you and your family and your kids get to experience all the things they want to do, Or if you're really looking to go on a budget, are you willing to have some of those trade offs yet still have a great time, but running the risk that you might not get to experience everything that you want to do while you're there.

So let's talk about staying at Disney. What are your best tips for saving on hotels? Do you recommend airbnbs? Like what is the sleeping situation? Saving money?

Again? First things first, the time of year that you go is going to save you. I'm not talking like saving ten twenty thirty dollars. I'm talking hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. I mean, there's that much of a difference if you go in some of the off seasons. Again, it's a subjective thing. How important is your resort experience to your overall Walt Disney World visit. There are value resorts, moderate resorts, deluxe resort, Disney Vacation club, accommodations that really run a very wide spectrum. And from the value resort perspect the resorts are wonderful. They're very very wealthy. And one of my favorite resorts is Disney's Art of Animation resorts. It is theme towards Cars and the Lion King and the Little Mermaid. Very fun, very whimsical. I very highly recommend staying on property because I think you want that all five senses three hundred and sixty degree twenty four to seven Disney experience that you do lose. I know a lot of people like to stay off property. They get an air and B and B and B and like, well it's only a twenty minute drive. Well, that twenty minute drive is more than a twenty minute drive. Right, that's going to be a chunk out of your day to get in the car. Schlep pay to park right as opposed to if you stay on property, you can park for free or take the internal transportation, which is complimentary and it does sort of disrupt the day a little bit, especially if you have young kids maybe want to go back swim in the middle of the day. Now all of a sudden, it's getting to the car, driving off property, getting back on property. So I very highly recommend. But if you're trying to save money, you can and will have a very wonderful, magical, Disney filled experience at the valley resorts. And certainly depending on how much you want to spend, how important your resort is to you, you can very much upgrade to higher end resorts that are closer to the parks. Some of them are our sort of border the parks and can walk right into them as well.

I've heard great things from people who stay at the campgrounds too, and that might be the value accommodations that you're talking about, But you get that magical experience at the park and then some of the fun of camping, at least for those who find camping fun.

And there are people who like they live and swear by the campgrounds. They will go bring their RV and come and stay for thirty days and like literally make camp there. I'm not a camper, maybe a little bit of a glamper, i'd like to do. And they have cabins there, But if you're going to literally pitch your tents in the middle of August and stay outside, I'm.

Not a camper. I do not like to camp. I do not like to sleep outside. Yeah, but I do. I think my resort of choice when I go there is I like to be like a little bougie, but not too much, so like Coronado, which is like the Chess, a tiny step above the value, but seems like it's so nice and it's so much less expensive than the other nicer resorts.

So I love Cornado. I think it's beautiful. The new Grandestino Tower is spectacular. It has some of the best dining in all of Walt Disney World in terms of fine dining, casual dining. Three Bridges, Bar and Grill that is an overwater restaurant is spectacular. You don't necessarily have monorail access or skyline or access. You do need to take the internal bus system or have a car. But the resort is beautiful, and you're right. I think it's a deluxe resort comes in at moderate prices.

Yeah. Speaking of dining, my favorite thing to talk about is food. What do you have to say about ways to save on food while doing this Disney vacation.

I want to spend a lot of time here, so like really give it to us.

I literally sat up in my seat.

I love it.

It's built by Disney. The whole thing about calories not counting in Walter's World, it's a lie. It's an absolute lie. I can swear that that's not true. Again, if you're thinking about coming to Walter's World and budget is important, food can and very easily get very expensive. But there's a lot of ways to I don't want to say get around that, but I think being strategic in terms of how you dine, maybe not doing a sit down, table service restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is going to save you one a lot of time, much more efficient day. It's also going to save you a lot of money. Some of the best meals I've ever had anywhere are counter service locations in the Disney parks and at the resorts. Years ago, they used to have a dining plan, which, since COVID has not necessarily come back yet, it is going to be coming back at some point. That literally, depending on which plan that you chose, would afford you table service credit, counter service credits and snack credits to help you sort of budget your day. But if you are looking to go and the finances are really important, you can sort of think about sort of what your dining budget can be. I'm a big proponent of, you know, when you get up in the morning, maybe having you know, cereal or pop tarts or whatever your thing is in the room, or grabbing something quick and going and then I like to save my time, my money, and my calories for a counter service lunch and then maybe treating myself to a table service dinner. You can also bring in your own snacks. I think people don't realize, you know, depending on how you want to do it and how heavy you want your backpack to be. You can bring in bottles of water, which I highly recommend rather than buying four or five dollars bottles of the Sanni water, bring in a refillable water bottle. There's water bottle stations everywhere at counter service locations will give you cups of water if you need to, But bring in snacks as well too. You don't necessarily have to get all the Disney snacks, although again I love them very much, so you have to sort of determine what your sort of daily budget is going to be and how you want to space that out. Again, this is where planning comes into play too. If you want to do table service restaurants, I very highly recommend planning your advance dining reservations before you go, because some of the more popular reservations will fill up, especially some of the busier times a year.

I was pleasantly pleased to find out that you could take snacks and water bottles into the parks. I grew up around an amusement park where nothing know of those things were allowed. You had to leave the park go out to your car if you wanted to eat your packed lunch. So to me, that's an incredible perk and something really kind. I think that Disney does and really does help at least when I've gone to reduce what I want to spend on the food there. My sister and her kids came to Disney, and since I live close, I would drive in and like pick up Panera on my way and bring them breakfast. Everyone's fed and we can just blitz it out, eat some of the snacks we brought, and then get a nice meal while we're there, So that was how we did it. But I am curious your thoughts on you've said some of the best food you've gotten from that counter service. What would you recommend if someone saying I do want I'm budgeting for this, but that means a spending plan, where are you recommending that they go if they want the best bang for their buck.

So there's a couple different ways to answer this question. So in recent years, Epcot usually four or sometimes five festivals throughout the year. The date of those festivals has been expanded. So for example, right now as we're recording this August first, the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival just started. That's going to run through November. And there are I think this year, forgive me, it's like thirty or so marketplaces on the Epcot promenade that you can go and get small, bite size, sometimes even shareable items that can run anywhere from five to nine to twelve dollars. That's a really great way to sample not just some of the different sort of flavors from around the world, but sort of eight your way around Epcot as well. And there's festivals going on there all the time. I'll go quickly Park by Park. I think in Magic Kingdom my favorite quick service location. God, I love them also very much. Let's say I love Columbia Harbor House in Liberty Square in Epcot. I am a monstrous fan of the Japan Pavilion. They have a grill called kats or a Grill, which is this beautiful sort of tea house with bamboo outside and a little coy pond and a waterfall. The food is spectacular at Disney's Hollywood Studios Woodies Lunchbox, which is in Toy Storyland, which is incredibly well themed. The loaded tater tots.

Yes, it's the only thing I like there. Unpopular opinion. I don't love the food, but that's good. Yep, Toy story go there, get the tots.

And in Disney's Animal Kingdom. One of the best restaurants counter or table service is called Stuli Canteen in Pandora The World of Avatar. It's basically a create your own bowl. You pick the different ingredients, you make your own bowl. It's fresh, it can be healthy if you want to be. And the food is spectacular there, and they all come in at pretty reasonable prices as well.

Yeah, I agree with all of those. I also like in Magic Kingdom that it's called like a chesh your cat tail or the Cheshar Taiale. It's like a chocolate croissant with like purple and pink frosting on top. You get that with a coffee m I think. So my I go like opposite of you, Lou, Like I'll do breakfast in the parks and then like do dinner on my own, because I think there's so much good breakfast at Disney, like the Mickey Waffle over it. I mean you can get in a lot of places, but like with natilla and berries or the Cheshire cat tail or even like the buffets, like if you wanted to do a character buffet, Like it's much cheaper to do a breakfast one than it is like a lunch or dinner. So like I love it for breakfast, and then like will sustain myself on snacks that I have brought for the rest of the day.

You're cartloading throughout the day is the way. It's more nutritional than it is. Yeah, anybody else.

You're basically running a marathon walking a marathon, so you should carbload in the morning.

You will get your ten thousand steps.

The average guests walks anywhere from like eight to nine miles a day in the park.

Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, you're really you do it? Do it for exercise, you know, go to Disney for exercise or really?

Yeah, definitely as I'm like currently training for the Wine and Dine half marathon, like yeah, and then I'll be doing even more walking in the parks.

It's so.

Sometimes I wonder like why, like why I hate myself? But it's okay. Any more food tips, Like is there anything outside of the parks that you like for food that people may not know about, like as a local, like insider tips.

So I think Disney Springs, which is a shopping, entertainment, dining venue that you don't need a ticket to to go into it. For me as a local, I'll tell you that I go to Disney Springs more than I go to the Disney Parks. And that's not hyperbolic, like it's actually true. I was there twice last week, usually going there because of the food. I think Disney Springs as some of The boat House in Disney Springs is my favorite restaurant on the planet, Like it's the Ladies. When you come out, We're gonna go to the Boat.

Okay, I've never been. I've been to Homecoming and that's one of my favorite restaurants.

Oh, Homecoming's good too. Homecoming launch on the weekend. But there's also a number of great counter service locations in Disney Springs. Again, if you don't want to or spend the money on a park ticket, you can really kind of spend the day wandering and enjoying and exploring what Disney Springs has to offer. A Chicken Guy by Guy Fieri is fantastic and it's probably, I think right now it is the best value anywhere on property. I think three fresh mead not heavily breaded and fried delicious chicken tenders. There's like twenty two different sauces you can choose from. I think three of them come in at under five bucks. WHOA, Like, yeah, it's a value, It's a really good value. Pepe by Jose Andres also is a Counterstom's location very like people just walk by it because it's really small. I think it's one of the best food in Disney Springs. There's a ton there's a poutine, there's a daily poutine stand, which again Body built it. If I if French fries were a health food, I would be in a Donnis so like French fries with gravy on it.

You know, you would sustain yourself one one Gideon's cookie, you could probably sustain yourself for the day.

Awesome. And the peanut butter cold brew coffee will change your life forever.

Sounds gross, but I'll try it.

Listen, when you guys come out clear calendars, We're going to spend a day just what's clear calendars, and bring stretchy pants for it.

Okay, convince me. I'm excited.

Only bring stretchy pants to Disney only those are the only pants I bring. Oh all right, so let's talk. Let's finish this conversation rounded out with activities. So yes, there's rides and walking, but like, are there any other free or low cost things families can do inside and then also outside of the park that people may not be aware of.

There's actually a ton and I think this is one of the things that people don't think about too when you go to Disney, especially if you go into the parks. I like the fact that you might see the price of a park ticket and get sticker shock. Thing that I will say is the longer you stay, the less expensive your day by day ticket is going to be. They encourage you, and I think you want a need to spend as much time as you can, so the having more time actually reduces the price of your ticket. It also reduces sort of the stress and pressure of trying to do it all. But there's a ton of stuff that you can do, both in the parks and outside the parks. This is not meant to sound like a shameless plug, but it's actually going to be. I actually have I have a free diet. It's one hundred and two things to do in Walt Disney World at least once. And as part of that book, there's also forty free things to do, see, eat and enjoy while you're there. It costs nothing if you just go to If you don't mind me saying, if you just go to radio dot com right on the homepage, just sign up for the newsletter and I'll send it right to your inbox. But in each of the parks, I think there's a lot of activities, and sometimes I always recommend to people, if you have the time, don't get a park ticket for one day, do things like go to Disney Springs and wander around, do a resort tour, hit some of the other resorts, especially during the holidays. I love, love, love going to visit a lot of the different resorts because they have not just different themed holiday decorations depending on where you are. Especially if you go places like Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, you're there's see very different holiday decorations than you will over at Disney's Beach Club. At Disney's Pollenesian Village resorts. There's gingerbread Like when I say gingerbreads houses, I don't mean the ones that you get at the grocery store. I mean like life size gingerbread houses and carousels that, yes are edible and you can buy pieces of gingerbread as well, as long as we're talking about food. But even in the off seasons, going to visit some of the resorts, each of the resorts too, especially when you stay on property, go to the front desk. They'll give you and I think it's in the it might even be in the app too. They'll give you a list of daily activities. So there's games and stuff that kids can do out by the pool. There are different like craft making activities. There's guided tours, of the resorts. There are free ladies follow me around the room. There are free themed and culinary tours of Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, so you can go and learn about places like Boma and Chico, and then you might even get a little sample of food for free. Yeah.

Oh I love touring and samples.

Were Yes, absolutely, I yeah, I love that area. Like I went to college in Orlando, and so we would go over there all the time, and like we wouldn't go into the parks, but we would just go to all of the tourist see things that are all around there, and some of them, some of them are a little tourist trap. Some of them are a little less exciting than I remember them being. Like I took my friends in January to this quirky gift shop that is uh that has a very large wizard head on top of it, and it was far less exciting than I remembered it being. But well, because you see.

Find outside that it's like nine T shirts for four dollars, You're like, oh, this is where I need to go to get my souvenirs.

Yeah, it's I would say, no, but not not save it. Buy them pre buy them on eBay and take them into the park. That's act.

Here's the tip if you really want to save on souvenirs, because yes, it can get very expensive. One like buy them maybe ahead of time, but when you if you have time and if you have a car, when you come down here, go to Walmart, go to Target, because the local targets have like authentic licensed Disney. It's not like the stuff you're getting from the Wizard Store sometimes, which may or may not be licensed, but it's authentic and license merchandise. So if you want to get like autographed books, t shirts, hats, water bottles, keychains, you can save a ton of money by taking a little trip or like grabbing an uber and going to the local Walmart Target. LEU.

I'm going to put you on the spot here and we can edit this out if this is too complicated of a question. And I recognize it's subjective, but if someone were to go to Disney and want to hack it as much as possible, what would you say is potentially the lowest amount someone could expect to pay per person per day.

So I'm hesitant. So I'm a recovering attorney.

So I'm because.

I want somewhere to walk up to the ticket out of though jealous.

That's why it's a fun question.

But I'll say that I think if you go in value season and you stay at a value resort, potentially take advantage of So there's a one word. We haven't talked about our discounts, And yes there are discounts available at Disney. If you are a Florida resident, if you buy your tickets in advance, you will actually save money. If you buy your theme park tickets in advance from Disney, then if you sort of show up at the gate, if you show up at the gate at ten o'clock and then we're like, we're gonna have a magical day today, you're already you've lost, right, but you're not hurting a job. I think this is and again i'm ballparking, but I think that you can potentially save like seventeen to twenty dollars per ticket. Like if you buy like a park copper ticket three days or longer at the gate versus buying it online, I think you can save like twenty dollars per ticket per person. Right, So that's if you have a large family multiple days, that starts to add up. But if you know that you're a person that's gonna come to Disney, and I think I think the break even is around nine days or so a year. You might want to look into buying an annual pass, which you're like, that doesn't make any sense. I live in Delaware. Again, if you come to Disneworld twice a year, it may pay off because one, you're sort of pre buying your days in the park, which gonna be much cheaper. You also get discounts like twenty thirty percent on discounts food on hotels, food and merchandise. But there's also other discounts if you are military, first responder, civil service. There's some corporate and government discounts as well. So for example, if you work for Hewlett Packard or some of the other companies that are sponsors and partners of Disney, they often have go to your HR department. They often have corporate tickets that you can get at a discount. If you're a Canadian resident, there's ticket discounts HI own Canada, Hello Canada, Triple A and CAAA they have great discounts all the time as well. One thing I do not recommend, and again you go, do you, But if you're driving down and you're on one ninety two going through Cassimi and you're like, ooh, discount tickets. Let's go pull in there, be prepared to be taken away in a van to an eight hour timeshare. President again, Mazeltov, if that's your thing, it's not necessarily I think the most effective and efficient way to save money on tickets?

Yeah, yes, isn't there also a hack like if you're buying them on the Disney website and it's the price you pay per day is like dependent on the day you start your trip, and you can get it cheaper if maybe you pick a different start day.

Absolutely, flexibility is gonna be your your greatest dast as flexible as you can be. And because the prices are laid out very clearly on the Disney World dot com site, you really get a sense. I mean you can sort of see the broad picture and say, look, if we just push our trip back four days, we're gonna save x amount of dollars per ticket. All those little savings really do add up. And again, like the reason why I wrote my and and now it would be even more my one hundred and two ways to save money for and at Walt Disney World book is because there literally are like hundreds of ways, and some of the ways, if you execute them, we'll save you just you know, hundreds, if not thousands, right off the bat. But if you start stacking those up, like I've had people reach out to me and say, we've literally saved thousands of dollars on our trip, they ended up spending it back because they because you know, they bought the kids souvenirs and a lot more food. So how you want to save and spend us up to you. But it is the reason why I think it. I don't mean to sound like a shameless plug, but it's the reason why I wrote the book was because how do I save money going to Walter Zoo World? Still, after almost nineteen years of doing this is the number one question that I get. And when you get the same question three times, like it's a common problem, I need to try and help people solve it.

Yeah, amazing, well well done circumventing the actual question. Still giving us tips but no monestary.

Yeah, I'm in prospect something else I respect, and we're all still going the same real yang.

The bill of the week.

That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week.

Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.

Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.

Duck bill, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week, lou Every week we invite our listeners and or our guests to present us with their bill for the week, their favorite bill, person, place, thing, And we know you have one prepared for us, and we are excited to hear it.

Well, don't be excited yet, because I want to make sure a spirit of I heard the bill of the week, and in order to keep it in the same sort of theme of what we're talking about, I thought about Disney and bills. Don't worry about the bill that you're gonna get your credit card bill when you go home, because it's incredibly frightening. Just enjoy your time while you're there. But I'll give you a little piece of Disney history, because did you know at one point Disney had their own bills. They had their own Disney dollar bills and Disney dollars. I look at your surprise face.

I love it. Yeah, No, I didn't know Disney.

Dollars were actually a form of like real currency that you could use at Disney was created by the Disney Company and you could use them in Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and literally, like one of the legendary imagineers and marketing guys was like, wait a minute, like we're bigger than a lot of small countries, Like why don't we have our own currency? And they were. I think it was one of the first, if not the first private organizations in its in the country to print its own money and have it accepted in the theme parks like the dollar. So in nineteen eighty seven they launched Disney dollars, and you can find this. I think there's actually YouTube videos like in Anaheim. At Disneyland, motorcycle police officers escort this armored truck with Scrooge mc duck, the Secretary of the Treasury, like into there and unloaded sacks of Disney dollars at the ticket booths and each bill I wish I had one to show you, like one dollar, I think had Mickey five, had Goofy. There was a ten dollars one with Mini and then they for the fifty anniversary of Disneyland. They had a fifty dollars bill with a special mickey on it. So it was brilliant in marketing because people were buying them, going, oh here kid, let's just budget our day. But what ended up happening is people would buy them. They became collectibles and souvenirs. So you're basically just buying money and then putting it. I actually have a Disney dollar in here.

Of course you do, Yes, you do.

I have a lot of stuff that you can see. But yeah, so they became collectible. They don't make them any moorsh Now they're even more collectible.

And what was the value? What's the conversion right of a Disney tollery US dollar?

It was one to one?

Was it?

So? Yeah, there was no like you just exchanged. It was like a currency exchange and it was one to one.

Wow.

They were hoping you'd have dollars left over from your trip and then they would have the actual US currency and you would be left with a piece of paper that wasn't good anywhere else.

You better believe it.

Oh my gosh, Disney, Oh.

This is a Disney does it a goal? An incredible lou You you knew the assignment. You did it, Yes, you did it. Amazing. We learned something we were We were shocked and shook. Still kind of confused. If you want to submit your bill if it has to do with a currency that was developed privately or literally any other type of brain your honor. Yeah right, visit from bronspodcast dot com slash bill, leave us your bill, and now it's time for Pete.

Yep, that's exactly Yep, you got it, you got it.

We get wild at the end of this show.

Yes, so this is our vulnerability round, but it's not going to get too vulnerable in this question. We just want to know. We're all going to answer it your best slash most memorable Disney Park experience, and lou this might be hard for you, but we'll have you go first.

I have many I'm very blessed to do what I do for a long time, but probably one of my most profound memories is being with my daughter, who was born on Mickey's birthday. No way, we didn't plan it that way, seeing her face covered in ice cream, sitting on Main Street, USA, watching the parade go by, just wide eyed, and then there's me behind her, just crying. Blubbering like a wonderfully mature man that I am.

That's so beautiful.

Yeah I didn't. So I loved Disney, but I didn't get into Disney until I had kids. That was what did it for me. Like I'd always like been to Disney in college, but like could take it or leave it. And when I had my son and I put him in that Mickey Mouse onesie and he got into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, that was the gateway. That was the gateway, and yeah, oh yeah.

Well don't they say that really about parenthood as a whole, Like it's kind of his ho hum life. And then you have a kid and you get to like re experience things through their eyes, which can give life new meaning. So yeah, as a parent taking your kid to Disney and experiencing it but also experiencing it through them, I can see how that would be really meaningful.

Seeing their little eyes look at the fireworks, assuming they're not afraid and like screaming. I know it's always a risk you take, but that guy was okay, So oh Lou, yes, okay, that one was really good. Jill, can you talk it now?

You know me, I'm I'm not a Disney adult. I have made that clear. But I'm here for the rest of you. I support you in your dreams. We did go as God.

We're going to find a way to convert you. We're going to find your entry point into Disney and the thing that you love that you can experience at Disney.

Okay, I mean we've been to Disney before, Jill and I. So we went to Disney together in what was it, the second week of March twenty twenty, like.

Two days before they shut down.

Yeah? Together, Yeah, and that was the last time memory Hollywood Studios.

What I'm gonna choose is something little bit more funny to me. We did go as a child with my family, and my dad had gotten Pacers hats. Mind you, we're from the Philadelphia area, like Pacers are an Indiana basketball team. We have no family from Indiana, like nothing. But he had gotten Pacers hats for all of us to wear. They weren't the right size, nothing fit, And it wasn't Disney because God forbid, but Pacers hats so that he and my parents could spot us. Because we grew up in the age of Honey, I shrunk the kids and home alone.

I don't know.

Parents were losing their children left and right, So we think this was his attempt to like, I'm gonna spot them, you know, if they're lost in a crowd, they're gonna be wearing these pacers hats. And we hated them, like, of course, we hated them. They weren't Disney, they didn't fit, we didn't understand them, we hated matching each other. But you we had to wear the pacers hats for our entire Disney experience so that if we got lost, our parents loved Otis in the crowd was probably I'm so proud of himself.

I believe that he would. Yeah, I got these yellow.

Yeah, I see and all these goofballs out here. I only spent a dollar per hat, and.

They're yellow, so I'll be able to see them for sure.

And then of course we were pretty poor, so the only characters we could see are like the Alice in Wonderland characters. I'd never even seen Alice in Wonderland, and then like the Queen of Hearts signed my autograph book, but she really scared me. She was very mean and I cried. So that was my Disney experienced. Pacers hat and the Queen of Hearts yelling at me. Okay, Jen Golden, I mean it is fun. It's funny and fun now.

Yeah, so I also so I love taking my son. We got to take him several times before he turned three, and we have been back. We haven't been back since we had to pay for him. But now that I have another child, I think we'll go back before we have to pay for him. So I will, We'll get I have been with. I took a work trip a work trip in January and and went to Disney.

She used quotes for those of you who aren't seeing her, which is everyone.

It was a podcasting conference and actually we skipped the first day of the conference and went to Disney. So but it's peripherally park related. It's running the half marathons. So like every finish line for one of the run Disney half marathons is like I cried. Well, I cry at the starting line too, when the fireworks go off for every corral. I shed a tear for every single corral. And now they break up the corrals too, so it's not just one per corral, it's like three. So like by the time we get to me, because I'm slow, I am bawling because of all the fireworks. So I start crying, and then I also end crying because I'm like so proud of myself because I am not super athletic and I like running is like a very mental sport for me, and I am bad at it and that's kind of why I do it, and so I'm just so happy when I'm when it's over, like that I did it.

Is this what it is? Is it tears? Is it like if you have tears, it creates a core memory, and so like extreme emotion. Is that the Disney magic is you need to cry? All of our stories cut tears.

Involved happy tears.

Yeah, we're gonna get you here, We're going to get to eat, and we're gonna get.

You to cry.

So yeah, I think that was the problem. When we went, you didn't cry.

So I don't cry it much, but I mean, sure, whether you like it hot kids, yeah, we can give it a charble.

There's the tip. If you want your children to remember this Disney trip that you're paying a lot of money for, they better cry by the time you leave. And that's I think the biggest piece of advice we could give you, and I think Lou would agree. Lou where can people find more from you and more information about like how to make their children cry at Disney.

You can find everything that I do the podcast, live video events and books and whatnot at WDW radio dot com. And everything that I do sort of on the business side of what I do and speaking and coaching you can find at Loumongelo dot com and I'm at Loumongelo on all social Amazing.

Thank you, Lou. This has been incredible excite for all of your tips. Wow, I'm over here just smiling, gazing upon you and Lou just really geeking out over some Disney stuff. I mean, I'm here for it. I am. I am living off of that excitement a bit here. But it is really cool to hear some more about what should you be focusing on. Where can you slice and dice from someone who really knows the ins and outs of it? Because I think that's, as I even alluded to in the episode, a little prohibitive for me in just not knowing what I don't know, but not totally wanting to spend a ton of time scouring all that the internet has because there is a lot on oh what is even possible? Am I imagining that there's a way to save that just doesn't exist, and then where are the ways that I can cut? And it truly does come down to what do you value, because there's always going to be ways to cut, But there's going to be some people who want to spend on resorts and some people who would rather spend on the Genie pass. So I think it was really helpful to kind of pare it down to what am I going to want out of my experience and then what can I cut as a result, So really helpful.

Yeah, I think the best piece of advice is to to definitely choose what you want to include. The goal isn't to get the cheapest trip possible, but to do everything you can to stack those savings, like Lewis saying, so that you can spend money on the things that really are important to you. Like for a lot of people, it's going to be those Genie passes. So there are you know, you can stay off property if your maybe your kids are older and you don't think you'll you know, want to do those mid day naps or pool days. Yeah, you'll have to spend twenty five dollars a day on parking. But if you're saving fifty dollars a night on your stay, you're still making out okay, so take everything and there are far more ways to save that we couldn't get into. But I think we really got into the best ones here. And make a decision based on your values and your family's values too.

Well. Thanks everyone so much for listening. Many of you know that we do have a membership for our listeners who are paying down debt, who might even be saving for vacations, all kinds of things with money, and we've got money challenges that we do monthly where you can also get into accountability groups and help one another work through these challenges, gamify it, get connected with community. It's just a really fun time. But in light of this membership that we have that you all can join, we do want to congratulate and highlight one of our members for a big win. This comes from MLC titled Better Challenge, when they shared I was surprised how hard it was to let go of my shoes. Spent too much time thinking of the memories attached and not how they aren't used any longer. Haha. Ultimately, so glad I did it, not planning to stop the seven days seventy five items, so I can keep the clutter down. So that's referencing the challenge that it was seven days get rid of seventy five items, and well done, MLC. This is exciting.

It's MLC that's so great.

So anyways, thanks all for listening. We hope that this helps you do Disney at an affordable rate for you with what you want to do. And also if this membership sounds really cool, we'd love to see you in there again. There's courses, interviews, challenges, friends, tons of friends, and there's like actually a whole subgroup in there who loves Disney as well and is trying to figure out ways to get to Disney. So there's a reason. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club see in there. Bye.

Grugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.

There's so much I could say about Disney, but I want to keep listeners.

I feel the same about Taylor Swift, so and there's there are some things that you just can't talk about openly.

Yeah, but you know what, I do appreciate that Disney is less expensive than Universal, and for that reason, thank you, Disney. Thanks remarkable to me how expensive Universal is, and I think with Disney you don't have to get like parked park. It's not as important. You can one hundred percent spend many days in just one park, and it's like, yeah, it's cumbersome to get to another park, Like I wouldn't even imagine to do that, Whereas Universal, it's like you have to get parked park and then they tack.

On like a couple of hundred dollars ride you can't do if you don't have a park to park.

Pass, which is genius on their course, but like, like I tried to get a singular day ticket as a Florida resident to Universal Universal and it was over four hundred dollars. I didn't go like that. No, I'm too principled for this. I Am not going to spend four hundred and twenty five whatever plus tax dollars. It was to spend one day at Universal. So Disney Disney for the win on that one.

Absolutely they do have I mean they're expensive as heck, but they do have some good specials for Florida residents.

Yeah, you're it is a fun and I will say I didn't share this in the actual episode, but I got the most into Disney when my niece and nephews came down and went you were even a part of this. I think I painted my nails now, I did it myself. I didn't go pay someone to do nail art on me. But I did do my own mini mouse nail art, which is, you know, extreme for me.

Which I've never done before. For the record, I bought mini mouse ears, so you'll see a lot of instagrammers and influencers with their mini mouse ears.

Quick tip.

I got them on eBay. I got two and they are official Walt Disney World ears from Disney World Hong Kong, and I got two for less than the price of buying one at the parks. So you your Disney ears.

If you want to be able to spot your children in the crowd. Yeah, don't do Disney ears.

Do pass do Paclers hats for sure, But yeah, so many, so many things we could say about Disney, positive and negative. But I think I think believe we're.

Gonna end it there. We're gonna end it there. Go get a snack.

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