Orlando Vacation: Cost effective dream

So a few years back my husband and I made a promise to take our son by the age of 3 to Disney World and again by 5, I know many of you will think isn't it a little early to take him on such vacation? (frankly I thought so myself) the fact is that I wanted to see his reaction to this type of vacation in different stages...toddler was one of them.

Now remember I am from Puerto Rico I have to invest in airfare which made this trip a little more challenging and even more challenging I was traveling on high season ...so the scavenger hunt for this trip started. We went to various travel agents which were charging me little over $2,000 at the cheapest, one even dared me to invest $4,000!. No way was this trip happening if this is what it was going to cost me. So I started networking with friends and family whom I knew traveled a lot for tips on how they got deals.

The best advice I got was from my boss, who said to me "No way would I travel to Orlando for that price!" she directed me to create my own trip using online search engines not only was I able to choose exactly where I wanted to stay but also I was able to find some amazing deals!

So here are my own tips and advise to traveling for cheap to Orlando:

Airfare

• Identify your needs and your family's. Is it necessary to have more leg space?, Is it necessary for the flight to have snacks and beverages "for free"on board?
• Evaluate how much luggage you need to take with you. We made it possible to fit us three in one 28" suitcase.
• Evaluate the time you want to travel, usually midnight flights are cheaper.

So after you have contemplated all of these points search flight that meet your needs and compare prices, some tips I read online was to search late at night for special offers and to use safe mode on your browser since it is said to climb up a price as you keep on searching.


Hotel

Where to stay!

• Again identify the needs of your family, Will we rent a car or will I have to be close to the parks?, Will it need to include breakfast?, Will I need standard or double?, Will it need to include parking?
• How many stars do you want for it to have.

Once you have all your'e basic needs specified utilize different search engines to look for hotel inside park areas as well as outside for our needs since we were renting a car it was more flexible for us to search different hotels. We scored a mobile deal for the 5 days we were staying for $200!!! double room, included parking and breakfast (although the breakfast was not a fancy gourmet selection it pretty much filled our stomachs to start the day)

Car Rental 

Tricky part 

• Read the fine print before submitting payment 
• Read the reviews for companies before making even a cancellation free reservation. 
• Use specific credit cards and ID for this, and be sure to have them on hand always. 

So remember I do not have a US resident however I am a US citizen, so I have to pay for insurance coverage all around and this does become very pricey, however if you do have insurance many of these companies will cover you even though is a rental, also some credit cards have insurance program that will also cover your responsibility in case of an accident. 

So here began our slight nightmare! We found a good enough deal with a company through a search engine. When we got to the pick up area we found out we had to leave a $200 safety deposit! We assumed this would happen and that is why we were cash ready, it is then and there we were informed that the business only handled credit or debit no cash. After a horrible customer service we decided to take a taxi and come back the next day with a deposit our family made to our debit card, thank goodness we used my husband's debit card to make the reservation because that was going to be the other issue at hand the card that was utilized to make the online reservation had to match the driver and had to be physically presented at the car rental place. 

This was by far the hardest point to handle since we almost lost our rental investment. My opinion if you can spend a little more in a hotel inside the park areas where you can take a shuttle it will save you a lot of hassle and bad experiences with car rental. 

All in all we spent about $1,200 and memories that were priceless. So it doesn't have to be an impossible vacation because if the price  with a little anticipation, a little planning, a little saving and a little networking, Dreams do come true...