A surprise trip to see Mickey and Minnie is a great gift to your family, Chad! I can also appreciate that you are planning this trip on a budget. Fortunately, the Walt Disney World Resort does offer a few ways to visit on a family-friendly budget!
Throughout the year, special offers are available to Guests. These offers tend to appear seasonally, several months prior to the next travel season. For example, the
Spring into Magic offer currently listed could save your family up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resort Hotels! This deal must be booked by May 27, 2021 for stays from April 18th through July 10th! The best place to find all special offers is on the Walt Disney World Resort website. When you get to the website, hover (don't click) your mouse over the heading that states, "Places to Stay." When you do this a dropdown menu will appear. From that dropdown menu, click on the heading that states,
"View Special Offers." A list of all current money-saving deals will appear. If you don't see a deal that fits your budgetary needs, keep checking! Every few months this page is updated to reflect new offers!
Another money-saving way to visit is to select a hotel from the
Disney Resorts Collection that meets your travel budget. For a value-friendly, great stay, I recommend either Disney's Art of Animation Resort or Disney's Pop Century Resort! In addition to being more affordable, both of these resorts are connected to the Disney Skyliner which makes for easier transportation to parks such as EPCOT and Disney's Hollywood Studios.
One final tip, Chad, is to select a time of the year to visit that isn't in high demand. The Walt Disney World Resort structures ticket pricing around demand. When the parks are in high demand, such as summer and holidays, the ticket prices will be most expensive. When there is less demand, such as when schools tend to be in session, or just following a holiday period, tickets will be less expensive. There is a
helpful calendar on the website where you can view ticket prices by the day. It will be helpful with your planning!
I hope these tips are helpful, Chad! Feel free to bring more questions to planDisney! We're happy to help!
Hakuna Matata! Jonathan