I use coupons to save money and build a travel fund so I can enjoy my other passion, travel. Travel allows me to share priceless memories with my family like my daughter spending her birthday with her favorite princess!

Recently we had an opportunity to combine a business conference with a trip to Disney World in Orlando and we tested a few money saving tips we had heard about.

How to save money on park tickets?

Here are a few ways to save money on Disney World tickets.

• Military Discount - There is a current promotion for Active and Retired Military with Valid ID where you can buy a 4 day park hopper pass for only $138. You can add the water parks options for $27. This promotion runs until September 30th, 2012. You can also find military discounts to other tickets to other area. Learn more about where to purchase your tickets HERE.
• Buy Package deals - If you watch for package deal, you can often save on tickets or meal plans. 
• AAA Discount - We purchased our tickets at our local AAA office to save money on our ticket price. As a bonus we also received a parking pass to allow us to park in a special parking lot. We still had to pay daily parking rates, but the lot was much closer than other lots.
• The longer you stay, the cheaper the tickets are per day.

Is There Really Free Parking at Disney?

It seemed to be a common theme among bloggers to search for free parking options at Disney World. If you stay off-site, daily parking is $14 per day which does add up over the course of a week. I had heard that parking at Downtown Disney was free and that you could take the Disney bus system to the parks.

We tested this system and this is what we learned.

• There is not direct route to the Disney parks from Downtown Disney so you have to head to a resort and then transfer to the correct park bus.
• This process can take an extra 1-2 hours.
• We were traveling with young children with a lot of "stuff" so the transfers were not very convenient.
• Parking was only $14 per day and you can pay once per day and park at the different parks.

I love a good deal, but we only tried this "free parking" option once and decided that with younger children and limited time in Orlando free parking was not worth the extra time and effort.

Should You Add the Park Hopper Option?

Park Hopper ticket options allow you to spend a little more per day to have the option to visit multiple parks in one day. We were only going to be able to visit the parks over 4 days, so we decided that this option would work well for us.

Here is what we learned:

• Park hopping takes time. Whether you ride the resort buses or drive between the parks, park hopping can take up to 2 hours. As I mentioned earlier we were traveling with young children so it definitely took us longer than others, but unless you have older kids that want to go on multiple rides per park or you only have a few days and are traveling really light, I probably would not buy the park hopper tickets next time.

Where Should You Stay?

We found an amazing deal on a 3 bedroom condo in Orlando. We did have to rent a car which we needed for the conference. The resort was amazing and there were pools and a man-made lake to enjoy after the parks.

• The condo was amazing, but because we had such a short time to experience the parks we did not have a chance to spend much time at the pool or beach.
• We had to allow more time each day to travel to the parks.
• Heading home a mid-day for a nap was not as easy as it would have been at a Disney resort.
• We had kitchen facilities that we used a lot for breakfast and snacks, but we still ate some meals at the park.
• The price was very good.

We loved the space and amenities available at the off-property resort where we stayed. It would have been even better if we had been in Orlando for a few more days to enjoy everything it had to offer. I would love to experience a Disney resort sometime. If your budget does not allow for this options, off-site hotels and condo are a nice option.

What Are the Best Ways to Save Money on Food?

We packed lunches for the first few days and used water bottles frozen in our freezer as ice. It saved us a lot of money; however, it added another item that we had to pack with us all day. During the last few days we stopped for food on the way to Disney and on the way home and ate a few meals in the parks too.

• If you don't have a meal plan, packing lunches can save money, but remember it adds more "stuff" that you have to tote with you all day around the parks.
• Eat breakfast before you head to the parks to save money.
• I brought some beverages including coke and frozen water (that thawed during the day and offered a cool beverage later in the day). We had a stroller so the extra beverages were easy to bring along.
• I bought coupons for local restaurants, but didn't spend enough time in Orlando to use more than one.  You can save money with these coupons of you have time to use them.

Other Tips:

• Start at the back of the park.
• Choose the left line. It is normally 10% shorter.
• Get Fast Passes early for the most popular rides like Toy Story Mania in Disney Hollywood Studios.
• Head inside to experience shows on rainy days and the warmest times of the day.
• Use the fast pass option instead of parent swap on rides with long lines. Parent swap gives the 2nd parent a Fast Pass, but the first parent still has to wait through the full line.
• Buy sunscreen, ponchos, batteries, and small souvenirs at a local store and pack the items to the park with you. Each day I gave my daughter a souvenir I picked up at Walgreens like Princess Bubbles to enjoy at the park. We also gave her a set amount of souvenir money for the trip to help her learn she could not have everything she saw.  

If you have a favorite tip for saving money at Disney, be sure to leave a comment!