Even though we had Disneyland in our back yard my fiancé and I had been dreaming of a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida for several years. We’d recently engaged and were to be married in a few months so this was a kind of wedding present to ourselves. But we were young, going to school part-time, still living at home with our parents, and any money we saved up working was earmarked for our new condo. So this had to be a very budget-conscious trip.
It was 1987, three years before the advent of the World Wide Web. We researched the trip using free ‘hard copy’ travel guides from the Auto Club.
There were no online travel web sites for bookings. We went to the Automobile Club of Southern California and used our membership to get hard-copy travel guides for Kissimmee and Orlando, Florida. We bought an all-inclusive vacation package from a local travel agent, a service much more common at the time. There were only a handful of hotels on Disney property at the time and with rooms starting at $125 a night ($332 in today’s money) they were out of our price range. We opted for the Ramada Main Gate in Kissimmee at $35 per night. Instead of carrying cash we purchased American Express travelers checks which again was something that was more common at the time.
We were allowed two checked bags and one carry on each and we made use of them. Clothes and personal items were packed into one each. We decided that we would cook meals in our hotel room so we packed an electric hot-plate, pans, paper plates, utensils, dish soap, sponge, even some seasonings. We filled the final suitcase with snack bars, trail mix, Ramen noodles, iced tea bags, cookies, cereal and other food stuffs. Sounds silly but there weren’t the weight limits enacted by airlines today. It was cheaper to bring it with us so we just packed up stuff from our homes.
Our flight was a red-eye out of LAX with a stopover in Chicago. The round-trip airport shuttle was less than paying for parking for a week at the airport. After a sleepless flight we walked through the cavernous Delta terminal, excited to finally be in Orlando. We rode the airport bus to the remote car rental since that was cheaper than picking up a car at the terminal. Then we were off to Kissimmee, but with one stop first.
Near our motel we stopped at a grocery store and bought a cheap foam ice chest, bread, milk, cheese, eggs, OJ, soda (we still drank soda in those days), fruit, and lunch meat. At our motel we filled up the cooler with ice and that became our refrigerator. The hotel wanted $5.00 per day to rent a mini-fridge, but the cooler cost only $2 to buy and all I had to do was fill it up twice a day with free ice from the motel. Food was stored in plastic bags to keep them from getting wet as the ice melted.
We packed an entire mini-kitchen complete with hot plate, cooking pans, utensils, even spices.
Rooms with a kitchenette were too expensive, so we set up our makeshift kitchen with our hotplate on top of our dresser. It was almost as if we were camping. After making our breakfast each morning and washing up, we packed sandwiches into a cold-bag along with snacks. Every day we’d find some place in one of the parks to eat our picnic lunch, air conditioned if possible. And we allowed ourselves one indulgence every day, dinner out at the parks. A little reward for our thriftiness. Each night ended with ice cream and a fireworks show before the long walk back to the Disney parking lot and driving back to our little motel.
On our last day we packed everything up, returned the car rental, then boarded the airport shuttle for the Delta terminal. For a couple of wide-eyed youngsters the trip was magical. And with food, plane tickets, car rental, hotel, food and park tickets and souvenirs we spent less than $2,000. Of course we could never do a trip like that today, it wouldn’t be economical. Just the checked bags would cost nearly $300 today.
In the years since that first frugal trip we’ve returned to Disney World many times. As we worked hard and built our life and careers, we’ve been able to be a little less budget conscious on our trips. Though every time we go we always remember the penny-pinching, and the fun. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.