Seasons greetings Pam, and welcome to planDisney!
Oh my garland! What a jolly idea to give your family the gift of a Walt Disney World vacation for Christmas. I can't imagine a better present! With a group of your size, I completely understand wanting to keep costs down. Fortunately, I've always found options for booking a Disney vacation at a variety of price points. Let's get
snowing!
If you want to stay at a hotel in the
Disney Resorts Collection, I recommend reserving several rooms at one of the
Value Resort Hotels.
Disney's Pop Century Resort,
Disney's All-Star Movies Resort,
Disney's All-Star Music Resort, and
Disney's Art of Animation Resort offer onsite accommodations and benefits at a reasonable cost. Most rooms sleep up to four adults, but family suites at Disney's All-Star Music Resort and Disney's Art of Animation Resort will fit up to six.
I suggest starting on the
Special Offers page to see if any current deals or packages work for your group. If not, just use the regular booking tool at the top of the
Walt Disney World home page. You'll need to book each room separately in groups of six or fewer; if you set the number of Guests in your party to "14," your search won't yield any results. Should your military family members decide to join you, they'll be eligible for hotel rates and
tickets especially for members of the armed forces, so be sure to
check here or have them inquire at their local base for more information.
To save on
theme park admission, consider purchasing standard tickets and foregoing the Park Hopper® option. With a large group, focusing on one theme park per day is going to be easier and more relaxing anyway, and I think you'll do just fine with base tickets. Also, by traveling during slower times of the year (avoid spring break season and major holiday periods), you'll spend less on both your tickets and hotel stay. If you can make a trip work during early-May, for example, it won't cost as much as an Easter week vacation.
I hope this helps get you started, Pam! As the planning process continues, don't hesitate to reach out with more questions. Many of my panelist pals and I are very budget-conscious travelers, (every dollar saved is another dollar we can spend on our NEXT vacation!), so we're happy to help with tips related to saving money at Walt Disney World. Thanks so much for stopping by planDisney, and look forward to seeing ya real soon!
Happy holidays,
Betsy