Vacation Gleaton style, on a budget!!!

We are a little under 3 weeks away from our 2 week vacation and 24 days off of work for the hubby! This will be our first vacation with Baby C and as a family of 4!!!!

First stop.....why only The Happiest Place on Earth none other than Disney World. We will spend 7 days and 7 nights at this magical destination. Disney is offering an amazing military discount this year, without me working and without such a great deal there is no way we would be able to go on such an amazing vacation. The military member gets a free 5 day Park-hopper pass with the water park and more option for......FREE and can also purchase up to 5-5 day base tickets for $99 dollars. WOWZERS!!!! The water park and more option as well as the park hopper option can be added for $25 each, so our 5 day Park hopper with water park option will cost us $148. Of course since I am all about saving money and getting a good deal I will share with you the savings of such an amazing deal....if we were to buy these tickets at the gate we would be paying $322 for each adult ticket and $287 for the child ticket, plus the $60.58 in tax for a grand total of $991.58. Heck, that is my whole budget for the trip!!!!! I am so thankful that Disney has given this opportunity to Military families!

I was also able to snag an amazing deal on lodging for that week. Usually we would stay atShades of Green, which is on Disney property, but due to this amazing discount Disney is offering they are booked until September. So I was able to book 7 nights at The Radisson Worldgate Resort for $329 for the whole week courtesy ofArmed Forces Vacation Club. So you want to know how much the AFVCLUB saved us, you got it! If I had booked directly with the Radisson and used their military rate it would be $609.07.

I have quite a few other ways that I plan on saving money this trip as well. Everyone loves Disney souvenirs right? Well I have purchased Disney items from Wal-mart, Target, etc and plan on giving T something each night while we are there. He also has saved $71 that he can spend on whatever he wants while he is there. Our room also has a refrigerator and microwave, therefore we will eat breakfast in our room before we leave, take sandwiches to the parks(0n most days) as well as snacks. I am going to buy all of our food and drinks before we leave town so I can shop the sales and get the best prices, from experience if you wait to get to the Orlando area and grocery shop there you will pay a fortune! I have also purchased certificates from Restaurant.com, if you Google restaurant.com coupon codes you will be able to find at least a 50% off code, however the other day I found an 80% off code and was able to snag $25 certificates for $2, there are some restrictions on the certificates, but it tells you what they are so you can decided before you buy. One of the days we are there we also plan to hop on over to Busch Gardens using our free passes thanks to herosalute.com, for the past 3 or 4 years the Anheuser-Busch corporation, that owns Busch Gardens and Sea World has offered a free one day ticket to either park to military memebers and their dependents. This will be our 3rd straight year taking advantage of this opportunity. Tampa is only about an hour and a half away so we will come back to Orlando that night to avoid paying for another hotel.

After we leave Disney we will head to my parent's house in Charleston for a couple of days to regroup, get family pictures taken, wash clothes and of course visit them! Daddy C, T and I will then leave there (Baby C is staying) and we will head to the mountains of NC, first stop will be Boone, where we went to college, to visit a friend and do some hiking. Second stop Brevard, NC, where Daddy C's parents own a little place, we will stay there 2 days and enjoy hiking and family fellowship time all alone with T (he needs it!). Third stop Asheville, there were are camping for 2 days, for $29 a night, this is the only place on this leg of the trip where we will have to pay for lodging.

Of course I will post tons and tons of pictures when we get back and probably even while we are there, both or hotel in Orlando and our campground (yes, our campground) have Wi-Fi!!

This will be T's 3rd trip to Disney, so for good measure I will leave you with a picture from his first two trips!

T at Disney February 2007, 16 months old

T at Disney April 2008, 2 1/2 years old.