This Mistake Cost Me $1000 in Disney World 

Hey AJ! Could you do a "what's in my bag" essential video? Like what do you take with you to the park or how to avoid over packing.

Never EVER travel Spirit Airlines. I don't care if they pay you to fly with them. You have been warned.

This advice is GOLD people!! We took our first family trip to WDW back in early December 2020. We're a family of 5. I watched AJs videos religiously before hand ....it paid off... literally!! We attempted that sweet spot between the Thanksgiving and Christmas rush, only visited parks on the weekday, got the celebration badges (we coincided our 15 year wedding anniversary (Dec 10th) with our first family trip ..so double celebration, we opted to stay at a nearby condo for a fraction of the cost of a WDW resort. With the extra savings we planned a few sit down meals....MK was the utterly delicious thanksgiving style meal....this was perfect because it was large enough to satisfy lunch and dinner. Then, on our free day...we slept in and headed to the most delicious breakfast at a Disney resort.... endless supply of hot chocolate for the kids, waffles, sausage, bacon, potatoes, and eggs....it was beautiful and delicious!!

Pack-able rain jacket or poncho, and planning for the indoor things mostly only during rain times is always top-tier advice. Hit all the outdoors first!

One tip on Car Rentals. Get a Visa or Master Card that has travel benefits. The one we have has rental car insurance so we never pay extra for insurance. Some cover flight insurance too, as well as paying for the TSA Pre application fee. Another tip is to join the car company's frequent user program which is usually free. I never prepay for a car and get the same price. I usually reserve a car as soon as we decide on trip dates and then watch for price drops from time to time. I found the price usually drops abut 4 weeks before my trip date. ie.. A car I reserved last summer for the first week of December dropped from $350 to $250 about 4 weeks before my trip. Last tip.. If you are at the airport and your flight is delayed. Get in line with the other 150 people but call their 800 number and explain the situation. Doing this has given me flight choices I never would have had if I waited until everyone in front of me made their choices. I've even called when in a plane, stuck at the gate knowing I was going to miss my connection. Hope this helps..

AJ’s voice is so nostalgic to me. From when I planned my first trip in 2019…😢

I am staying at Swan and Dolphin in January and given the exorbitant prices of the on-property Disney resorts these days, this will be my go-to resort for the foreseeable future. As a Marriott employee I can apply my associate discount and it’s saving me a lot of $! And you can’t beat that location! Walking distance from two parks + boat and skyliner access? I’m sold.

Think about that folks-- family of 4 with the Christmas party and a sit down dinner-- $1000 for a 5 hour experience. Ask yourself before you book that. Is less than a half a day (night) in Disney worth $200 an hour? Only you know if that experience is worth it.

When you watch this then get a notification your flight times have all been changed and it screws up all of your shuttle reservations and tentative park day schedules 🙃

Don't know if I'll ever make it out to Disney World (I'm in the UK) but I still binge your videos! They're so amazing, and your voice is just so well suited to them!

I would’ve priced Long Beach and John Wayne/Orange County for the CA example, and also Ontario International.

We eat 1 table service a day. We have found a late lunch is a great time to take a break and sit, enjoy some great food and atmosphere.

My most expensive mistake was forgetting a medication at home in Canada. I ended up losing park time, having to find (and pay for) a doctor and having to pay for a week’s worth of an expensive medication that is covered by insurance at home.

We were at Disney World last week and I am low key hoping we end up in one of DFBs videos.

AJ they made changes to the no show fee. they now need cancelled at least 2 hours before not 24 hours.

I would love to stay at the Polynesian. Some day...some day.

I live in Dallas and I'm always looking for cheap or budget friendly ways to go places. I travel a lot and I wish I checked out the specials for my Disney trip I have reserved for October of next year. I forgot to check out special rates. Thanks for sharing the information. I learn something new every time I watch the videos.

We've flown into airports further from mco and rented a car. We usually get a rental anyway.

What about Southwest Airlines? They don't charge for luggage and carry on. Unless you only need a under seat piece for a week.

28:45 as someone who works in customer service, this is sadly not uncommon. Be aware that agents handling “chat” for many companies have 2-3 chats going at a time, and potentially also emails and text messages they are fielding as well. Add in many companies using bots to try to handle the simplest chat queries and only escalating the more complex to human agents, and there are a lot more places for misunderstandings and mistakes. So if you chat, be very clear about what you need, be kind and patient with the very busy agents, and double check and confirm things to make sure you really are all set. Alternatively if you have something you know is complicated and/or you want the agent’s full attention and focus then a call rather than a chat is more likely to get you better results. Again, be kind and be patient. Odds are good that they are as frustrated by the things they can’t control or fix as you are.

Thanks to your channel I re-thought which hotel we were staying at for our next trip decided to reevaluate ended up adding an additional night to our vacation and still came out ahead $700. As a Canadian traveller who has to worry about the exchange rate that’s also a really big difference in savings.

AJ needs to do a vid from "Aunt Susan's POV". Just getting it ALL wrong...

I would like to see a video on the best places in each park to take a mid afternoon break with little ones. Like my niece who is 4.

We’ve had great times hiding from storms - the play area just past Figment, watching Country Bears (twice), Festival of the Lion King. We’ve also had great times getting SOAKED - I think Disney is one of the only places you can walk around as a literal drowned rat and folks will just smile and call you Remy 😂

With the first point, talking about airplane tickets, it can also be good to activate a vpn, make it seem like your in other country, and then access the booking site because sometimes that can get you a discounted price as well. Also, if money wasn’t an issue, I would say at either Swan and dolphin, because I always wanted to stay there if I was a kid, or I would stay at the contemporary so that I can wake up, go downstairs and directly take a monorail to the Magic Kingdom.

I've been watching your channel for over three years now. its very well produced. very in depth as far as all the information you present. one thing i just realized though, is that Disney must really love you guys but....and ill say this without saying it, the real info and what to pay attention for......is between the lines. lol!!! in the late 90'S and early 2000's me, my(now)ex wife and the kiddos spent a lot of time at Disney Anaheim. a couple years ago i started watching this channel, partly as escapism and partly as pre planning to take my two youngest kiddos to Orlando Disney. i have yet to go, but if it does happen, ill be prepared, thanks to AJ. thank you and cheers from Denver Colorado

SurprIsed you didn't mention John Wayne (SNA) as an LA airport option. Conceivably it doesn't have flights to MCO...

I’m intrigued!

Don't forget that Long Beach is a great little airport that is close to Anaheim and if you can fly Southwest, two free bags, baby!!!!! Definitely TALK to an agent for air flight changes, I did a similar thing talking through the chat function to cancel a return flight from a trip to LA because I had to go to Chicago for work directly from LA. They canceled my whole trip! Luckily they honored my low fare when I had to rebook, but it was pretty scary when I realized what happened.

Just confirmed the Space 220 restaurant! Very very hard to get a reservation here, but keep trying. Diligence wins out. fyi, I understand January there is a Mickey Marathon, which made it very difficult to confirm dining anywhere popular. (why are marathoners eating at restaurants? ;-)

If you wake up and realize you forgot to cancel that reservation no one wanted to go to, It might let you edit the number of people. We went from 8 to 2, to get charged $20 instead of $80.

As a caveat to the dining cancellation fee, if a member of your party takes ill during the day, you can walk up and cancel and they'll more than likely cancel without charge. After a day at MK a few years back, my autistic daughter felt she had to get out of there before she had a meltdown and couldn't face more stimulation by way of a meal in a noisy restaurant. So we went to the check in desk, told them the situation, and they were very happy to cancel - especially as they had walk-ups waiting anyway. The reason the non-refundable deposit was introduced was because people were booking several restaurants at the same time and would just turn up at the one they fancied on the day. This obviously meant that for the duplicate reservations, that was one or more families (depending on the size of the party) who missed out on their preferred booking. We were also extremely lucky in that Disney refunded one of the three park tickets we bought for next May: a week after purchasing, my daughter (who had done a solo trip the week of Hurricane Ian) found that her park ticket had not only had the two days credited back, but it had also been extended beyond her trip for a full year! I was told that they don't do refunds, but they very kindly credited the third ticket back. That was a saving of £529 - not to be sniffed at!

John Wayne International is a good alternative to LAX. When I went to Disneyland I flew into there.

Flew in and out of Sanford airport a few weeks back. Nice little airport. Easy. Cheap. Would do it again for certain.

Ordering a large soda

Went to Orlando for Disney for a week for less than what some of those car rentals or even the discounted resorts cost! The most expensive thing for me was the Disney Tickets! For the cars part, it's 100% better to use Turo in any situation around the Orlando area. You can get one same day you arrive for way cheaper than what the car rental companies charge- and you'll get the car you select with no hidden fees. If you get one early you'll spend less than other car rental companies, get a way better car, and Turo support is way better than other car company support lines I've used by a mile.

If money was no issue definitely wilderness lodge 😁. Next trip we are staying at boardwalk as a dvc renter

I’m lucky enough to live 1 1/2 hours from the USA border so we drive to ogdensberg ny and fly cheap with allegiance air to the other airport standfield( ?). Way cheaper. Even with an Uber to wdw resort It’s an option. If you have time to do that type of travel.

Some of the advice that you offer could apply to a lot of places

You should do a video for foreign travellers not just Americans!

Disney’s Riviera resort is absolutely beautiful! I would stay there all the time, if money wasn’t an issue! I usually stay at Saratoga Springs, which have room that are almost just as beautiful.

Thanks you for all your information staying at the dinsey property how much it will cost.

So true about last min dinning. We could not get Tusker House which was a must do during out advanced dinning window. I actually got it the day before our Animal Kingdom day. Also we were at Mk and wondering where to eat for lunch and SOME HOW got a Be Our Guest spot ! Magic really does happen 🙂

The only thing about dining non peak...it was almost end of lunch dining time and after we were served our waitress and the staff literally disappeared...my 2 yr old was supposed to get some noodles and they never brought them or showed back to the table..so watch for that.

Hiring a car??? THINK ABOUT YOUR LUGGAGE! a 5 seater is unlikely to have trunk room for 5 suitcases + carry on. If you're ok having bags on your lap to/from the airport then go ahead, but if you have large/heavy bags I'd be sure to consider this with the type of vehicle you book.

no frontier

If I had unlimited funds I'd stay at the Beach Club Resort. So close to EPCOT!

I love you guys

Luckily my grandpa worked for American Airlines

Buying Genie+ for every single day. 😩

How about a behind the scenes video on how each of these daily videos is created??

Big question! What if I want to buy my tickets and reservations for late September/October at Disneyland, but I can’t select the option on the website, when will they be available?

When you decide watch Disney tip videos after your trip! 😂😂

Hi

😊

Throwing Aunt Susan under the bus again! Classic!!

The biggest Disney mistake is going to Disney to begin with its way to expensive and stressful call me old fashioned but I like fun on my holiday. Nothing is worse than having to plan almost every minute of the day

Here's a great way to save money on lodging.....get a family member to buy a house in the area! ;) My father lives nearby and I stay at his place whenever I go to Disney

First in 16 seconds

At the rate they are charging, pissing on a Disney toilet seat will cost you a grand. They kind of suck compared to decades past. Sorry people but if you have never been, you never will understand why it was so special. The movies are all that's left...RIP

Here's the best way to save money: Don't go.

going 🤣