When I started planning a family vacation to Orlando, I knew we wanted to have the full theme park experience — staying at a Universal hotel, visiting the new Epic Universe, adding a Disney day, and enjoying the food and attractions along the way.
The result was a six-day vacation that cost $8,620 — and required some careful planning to make the most of our money.
Our family includes my husband and me, along with our three kids, ages 18, 15, and 12. At these ages, our children are old enough to appreciate the trip, enjoy all the rides, and make their own memories.
The final price tag for our six-day vacation may sound like a lot— and it was. But we also saved money in a few important ways.
Here’s exactly where our money went.
Flying instead of driving saved us two vacation days
The first major decision was how to get from Cleveland to Orlando.
We spent $1,451 on Frontier Airlines flights for our family of five. We could have driven, but the trip would have taken about 15.5 hours each way. That would have meant losing two full days of vacation time just to sit in the car.
For us, flying was worth the extra cost because we wanted to make the most of our time in the parks.
We spent $84 to park at Cleveland Hopkins Airport for six days. We also decided not to rent a car in Orlando and instead used Uber to get around when necessary.
We spent nearly $5,000 on Universal hotels and park tickets
Our biggest expense was $4,948 for our Universal hotel stay and four-day park-to-park tickets.
We stayed at Universal’s Terra Luna Resort, one of the newest on-site hotels. Terra Luna is considered a Prime Value hotel, and it shares a space-themed design with its sister property, Stella Nova.
The hotel’s biggest advantage is its location. Since we wanted to spend a lot of time at Epic Universe, staying close to that park was important.
Terra Luna guests receive early park admission, which allows us to enter Epic Universe one hour before regular guests each day. The complimentary shuttle ride got us to Epic in less than five minutes, and buses arrived frequently.
Booking two rooms was worth the extra cost
One challenge with Terra Luna is that the hotel offers only standard rooms that accommodate up to four people, so our party of five needed to book two rooms.
At first, paying for two rooms seemed like a big expense, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions we made. We had extra space, privacy, and connecting rooms so we could still easily spend time together.
We skipped Express Pass and still rode everything at Epic Universe
Our four-day park-to-park tickets included Epic Universe, Universal Studios Florida, and Islands of Adventure.
Before the trip, we considered buying Express Passes to skip the lines at Epic, but we were able to experience everything without spending the extra money.
Having four days gave us the flexibility to wait for the best times to ride each attraction. We ended up riding every ride at Epic Universe, and the longest wait we had was 45 minutes. That was during July, one of the busiest vacation periods of the year.
Our Disney day cost nearly $1,200
We added one day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for $926 in tickets.
Courtesy of Lisa Galek
Because we only had one day at Disney, we purchased Lightning Lane passes for $250. The passes allowed us to reserve a time for Rise of the Resistance and schedule times for up to three other attractions throughout the day.
The strategy worked well. We rode almost everything we wanted except Slinky Dog Dash, which was delayed during our reserved time and never reopened that day.
We spent $767 on food, but still found ways to save
Food is one area where we decided not to cut back. Part of the fun of going to Universal and Disney parks is trying the themed meals and snacks.
We spent $767 on food and drinks, eating at restaurants including Cowfish, Toadstool Cafe, The Three Broomsticks, Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, Krusty Burger, Lard Lad, Café L’air De La Sirène, and Le Gobelet Noir.
One trick we used was ordering kids’ meals when they made sense.
We kept souvenir spending low
When it came to souvenirs, we spent only $37 on three chocolate frogs for our kids.
Our children saved up their own money to purchase the souvenirs they wanted, including shirts, treats, and stuffed animals.
Credit card rewards and dining credits saved us nearly $2,500
Although the total trip cost was $8,620, we received $1,920 back in travel reimbursements through credit card points. Our final out-of-pocket trip cost was around $6,700.
A special booking promotion also helped lower our meal costs. Each of our two hotel rooms included a $300 Universal hotel dining credit, giving us $600 to spend on meals at Terra Luna.
The dining credit was extremely convenient and kept our overall food costs down. We used it for daily breakfast, as well as other meals, snacks, and adult beverages at the hotel.
The trip was expensive — but worth it for our family
An $8,620 vacation is a big expense, but the memories we made were worth every penny.
By saving where we could, using rewards strategically, and prioritizing the experiences that mattered most, we were able to enjoy the Orlando trip we wanted without overspending — and create memories our family will cherish for years.
