Single Mom Travel: Orlando Edition + Disney
For spring break, I decided to stay domestic this year. Back in November, I was invited to visit Grand Hilton Vacations to learn about ownership in exchange for a discounted stay - almost 50%. There were three choices to choose from Orlando, Las Vegas, & Scottsdale. It was a 3-night stay for $199. I figured this was a no-brainer because I was already planning to take my daughter to Paris late spring. They allowed me to book, choose the location, and pick the dates later. I live near Las Vegas & Scottsdale is a 3-hour drive so I figured I’d do Orlando and finally take my daughter to a Disney World park of her choice. My daughter and I both had miles with Frontier built up from all the flying we did last year so I combined our points and booked a one-way only paying for the fees and paid for the other one-way.
If you’ve never attended a presentation to learn about vacation ownership (similar to timeshare), consider it. They always give discounted rates. I usually get one invitation per year. It only takes 1-2 hours out of my schedule and I believe it’s worth it. So far, I’ve visited Marriott, Hilton, and Westin. When I decided to finally choose my dates, after booking my flights, all the standard rooms were sold out for $199 so I had to upgrade to a one-bedroom suite. They also had a deal to add a night for $99, so I thought why not. I can’t remember the exact upgrade fee, but I’ll include the total cost in the breakdown.
Here’s the thing… Even though I chose Orlando as a destination, I did not want to spend all of our days at the Disney parks because I know that they are overpriced and Orlando had other things to do in the area. My daughter chose Magic Kingdom and we ended our trip there. It flew by extremely fast but I am happy to share everything we did with you. I tried to balance free activities with paid ones.
ITINERARY
Day 1 - Saturday
Arrive in Orlando at 3PM
Pick up rental car
Grab dinner at Chroma Modern Bar + Kitchen
Rest - by the time we made it to the hotel, it was already 7PM and most of the activities were close to being over
Day 2 - Sunday
Pick up brunch at the hotel
Ownership Sales Presentation
Chocolate Museum Tour - I have to be honest and say this was a little smaller than I had anticipated but it was still a cute tour and I try to incorporate something educational every trip
Disney Springs + Dinner w/Copellia - it brings me joy to always be able to connect with moms when I travel
Activity at the hotel - we didn’t end up doing this because it was raining really hard but they had activities to choose from daily.
Day 3 - Monday
Pick up other rental car (I didn’t originally plan to have a rental car the entire time and I booked this one two months prior)
Target/Five Below run for the beach and misc. things & snacks
Breakfast at Chic-fil-a - my daughter’s request
Shopping at the Outlet Mall - I was told we could find cheaper Disney items there but my daughter didn’t find anything and settled on buying things at Claire’s
Road trip to Sarasota - We don’t live near the beach and was told Lido Beach in Sarasota had one of the best beaches in Florida so we decided to go check it out. To our surprise, the beach had plenty of dead fish due to something called red tide and it was so gross near the water but we turned lemons into lemonade and watched the sunset.
Dinner at Lobster Pot
Day 4 - Tuesday
Magic Kingdom - we literally spent the entire day here. I let my daughter sleep until she woke up and had breakfast. We made it there between 12-1PM. We should’ve went when they opened at 9AM and got the lightening passes. There is so much to do and the lines for the rides were long (45-90 minute wait times for most rides). They had a fireworks show around 8PM and it was amazing to watch. I think that was my highlight of the entire park. We were there until 10PM and the park closed at 11PM.
Day 5 - Wednesday
Returned the rental car
Departed
Here is the cost breakdown:
Frontier Flights: $184.18 + $124 for the carry-on bag (We only took one - only because I needed to bring workout clothes that I honestly used one of the three outfits. We could’ve stuck with our backpacks and saved. I don’t mind flying budget airlines as long as the flights are 3-4 hours and the flight is the first one to go out with no layovers.)
Rental Car + Fees: $316.17 (I probably could’ve gotten this cheaper but I shared my original plan to not have the car the entire time. When I checked Uber fees and the cost to book a tour to the beach, it was worth it to just have a car. So I ended up booking with two different companies. The companies that I used charge me $20 to use my own insurance and one charged $10 a day for a pay-as-you-go EZ pass. I didn’t end up using it so I declined it with the next company.)
Parking: $100.40 (This includes parking my car at the airport in Vegas, parking at Disney which was $25, and parking for dinner in Sarasota since I couldn’t find any street parking and was tired)
Hotel: $437.62 (We stayed at Parc Soleil by Hilton Grand Vacations and had a one-bedroom suite that we did not need as we were mainly in the room to just wind down and sleep every night.)
Food & Snacks: $356.52 (I tried to allow my daughter to sleep until she woke up, which was usually around 10 or 11AM. That was fine because it was close to brunch time and we’d only need snack and dinner after that. Some brunch meals, we were able to split. For dinner, we wanted totally different options. I definitely went over budget a couple times with appetizers and a cocktail.)
Chocolate Museum Tickets: $34.32 (I got these off Groupon because the tickets included the tour & a souvenir mug - you know kids like to get things.)
Magic Kingdom Tickets + Memory Maker & Fees: $407.68 (When I committed to Orlando, I honestly didn’t think about how expensive Disney would be for a day, but I made it happen. The Memory Maker was beneficial for us because I didn’t want to have to use a tripod or ask strangers to take our photos and I wanted some for memories. Anytime you see a Disney photographer, you can use them and the pictures are loaded into the Disney app in minutes.)
Gas: $48.50 (I accidentally filled the first rental up and didn’t even use half the gas. Both SUVs were really good on gas. I had the Nissan Rogue & Toyota RAV4.)
Total Cost: $2009.39
**Please note - Before the trip, I spent $50 on miscellaneous items & snacks to prep for the trip. I also gave my daughter $50 to spend at Disney. She ended up using it to buy a bubble maker and some popcorn that came in a refillable bucket she could bring home.
Planning to visit Disney soon?? Here are some tips:
Don’t be like me. Plan in advance. I heard the ticket prices increase closer to your travel date.
If you can go during off-season, you can save money and time with the rides.
If you must travel during peak season, purchase the lightning pass.
You may be able to do everything in one day if you have the lightning pass and go when the parks open, but it’s not guaranteed so I’d encourage you to plan for two days per park if you want to do every single thing.
Download the Disney World app - it’s very helpful for mapping out your day.
I mentioned the Memory Maker - it’s worth it if you are traveling alone with your kids!
Wear comfy clothes - I wore jeans and a t-shirt with Vans. I wish I had swapped the jeans for biker or running shorts and the Vans for walking shoes.
Temperatures were in the high 80s during the day and it’s only March. Try to travel when it’s not so hot if you can.
Give the kid(s) a budget before you enter the park. Everything is marked up.
You can bring a water bottle - they say there are stations around but because my daughter was so caught up in visiting stores and rides, I didn’t have time to look for one.
Budget for everything you can think of.
If you only plan to do Disney, check out their resorts. I know they have bundle deals and you can get direct transportation to the parks.
Purchase some Disney things before arriving. My daughter ordered our ears and her purse off of Amazon and I made our shirts.
I hope you can tell by my daughter’s shirt that we had a good time and memories were made. I hope this is helpful for you planning your next trip to Orlando! You know I am all about giving our kids more experiences over things. Please let me know if you have any questions I can answer.