Our 5-Day Disney World Itinerary as a Family of 4 on a Budget

Who doesn’t dream of taking their kids to Disney World? The castle, the fireworks, meeting Mickey. For my husband and I it was a no brainer that we would take our boys to Disney World together someday but it was a matter of when and at what cost. Together my husband, Rob, and I pieced together a smooth and cost effective plan to make our Disney dreams a reality.

Planning and Costs:

Flights: I always use the google flight search tool which allows you to play around with dates and compare airlines to find the best option. Separately I checked Southwestairlines.com and found reasonable direct flights from Indianapolis to Orlando on Southwest Airlines. And even better we were able to buy discounted Southwest Gift-cards through Sam’s Club, which saved us around $100 on flights. Also note children under 2 fly free so our 15 month old, Eli, flew at no cost as a ‘lap child.’
Flights ~$623
Hotels: Rob was set on staying on Disney property as he wanted the full Disney experience nostalgic of his own childhood trips. With that in mind we honed in on the ‘Disney Value Resorts.’ Ultimately we ended up with 4 nights at Pop Century and 1 night at Art of Animation. And honestly we LOVED both of them. The theming is so cute, each resort had multiple pools, themed playgrounds, and decent food court options, but the best part of all was the access to the Skyliner! We loved the ability to ride the Skyliner to Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Rivera and Beach Club. Plus busses are available to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, as well as to other Disney resorts, etc. Additionally we chose to get the Disney credit card which can allow you to get further discounted room rates.
Hotels total ~ $1,200
Crowd Calenders: We did take into account some online ‘crowd calendars’ which predicted the week of January 23, 2024 to be a low crowd week but the crowds felt moderate to high to me so take those with a grain of salt.
Transportation to and from airport: We used Mears shuttle bus which takes you directly to and from the airport / Disney resort. I found this super convenient and eliminated the need for a car/parking etc. Total round trip for the 4 of us the shuttle cost ~ $90.
Park tickets: This is the one price that is hard to get around but there are a few sites that offer slight discounts such as undercovertourist.com where we purchased our 3 day park passes. Children under 3 do not need a park pass, so our youngest again was able to go for free like on the airplane.
3-day park tickets cost ~ $1,000 and then we added Genie+ on our magic kingdom day, bringing it up to a totally ticker cost of ~ $1,100.
Dining and Souvenirs: We splurged on 2 character dining meals which can run you as much as $60/plate, but they are super cute and fun so I’d recommend trying to do one on your visit if possible. We also ordered grocery delivery to the hotel through Walmart.com for about $100 total for snacks, breakfast options, water bottles, milk, fruit; all of which can be brought into the parks so overall a great choice. To help with some of the food and souvenir costs we did use discounted Disney giftcards pre purchased from Costco ahead of time which helped a bit, but still our overall dining for the week + a few souvenirs brought us to a grand total of ~ $3,800.

Daily Schedule

Tuesday / Travel day: Land in Orlando. Mears shuttle to Pop Century. Check in, explore, ride Skyliner just for fun. Lunch and frozen drinks by the pool followed by swimming. Receive groceries. Rob and Nate watched Lilo and Stitch at the resort’s outdoor movie night.
Wednesday / MAGIC KINGDOM: Open to close park day. Rides, parades, splash pad, and fireworks. Some favorite rides were Jungle Cruise, the Railroad, Winnie the Pooh, Teacups, Buzz Light Year. Big Thunder Mountain according to my son was, “a little bit scary on the dark and sideways parts and a little bit fun.” Lastly holding our boys while watching the fireworks was sneaky emotional for both mom and dad and I can say we all felt that Disney magic.
Thursday / HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS: Opened the park and then the Skyliner allowed for an easy midday break back to the hotel. Toy Story Land was a highlight and the Toy Story Mania ride was our 3 year old’s favorite and the only ride we did twice there. *I think we all could’ve used a full rest day between park days, maybe next time*
Friday / ANIMAL KINGDOM: Open to close park day. I enjoyed this park although I felt like there were less rides for little ones there were some really great broadway and cirque du soleil style shows. We all loved the Lion King Show and my older son enjoyed the Nemo show (younger bro needed to exit for a nap.) We also all enjoyed the safari ride as well as the gorilla walking trail. Other things that the kiddos enjoyed were the Dinosaur playground and the Dinosaur spinners ride, equivalent to Dumbo but flying triceratops. This day we did an in park character meal at Tusker House which was super cute and fun, pictured with Daisy below. Lastly since Animal Kingdom closes earlier and has no fireworks we did return to our hotel by bus and then rode the Skyliner down towards Epcot to grab some ice cream near the Boardwalk and to catch Epcot fireworks from outside the gates.

Saturday / Non park day: Switched hotel to Art of Animation, which is walking distance from Pop Century, and still on the Skyliner route. Rode Skyliner from Art of Animation to Character Breakfast at Topolino’s at Disney’s Rivera Resort. We LOVED this dining experience, the food was delicious and served at your table and the characters wear cute outfits and provide excellent entertainment while you eat. The kids were pretty into this one, clapping along with the music and dancing at the table. For the remainder of our final day we hit the pool at Art of Animation then resort hopped by bus over to Animal Kingdom Lodge where you can see giraffes and other wildlife and lastly stopped at the Polynesian Resort to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks one last time from afar.

Sunday / Travel day: 3:30 am wake up call by our devoted Disney Dad, aka Rob, got us to the Mears shuttle and back to the airport for our early morning flight home. The boys slept snuggled up on us the whole flight back.