Vacation on the Cheap-Orlando 2013-Itinerary & Menu

We went to Orlando on vacation at the beginning of the month. It was a totally different kind of vacation for us for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is that we shouldn't really have gone because we're kind of broke right now. It seems to be a familiar state for us, but we are working on it. The biggest factor right now has been power bills of $400+ dollars every.single.month for several months now. Running the AC is killing us, but I can't live with the heat & humidity.

Despite our current economic situation, the fact of the matter was that we had already paid for the hotel (a great deal through a vacation club) back around March, and our tickets for Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure were paid for last year.

Back story: Way back in 2011 we started planning for a super special 10 day trip to Walt Disney World & Universal Studios for Christmas 2012. We pre-bought all the theme park tickets. Then the hubs got word that they were closing the facility that he worked at & we were going to be relocating just after Christmas 2012. To Florida! Yay, happy circumstance! On our first trip to WDW we traded those tickets in for annual passes which left us with a very small monthly payment.

Sadly, we can't use our WDW passes right now because we skipped a couple of those monthly payments in lieu of keeping our power on. It's cooling off a bit (like 5 whole degrees), so our bill should go back down to a slightly more reasonable bill.

Because of this, I had to get a bit creative when it came to stuff to do. This leads to the next reason why this vacation is different. Usually we go, go, go on vacation. We love to hit the theme parks early and stay late. Yes, we are usually exhausted & need a vacation from our vacation! LOL After this vacation, I'm glad we didn't do that & thankful that we didn't take that super Christmas vacation because we never would have made good use of all the tickets.

After some internet searching I found some great FREE things to do at Walt Disney World that don't involve stepping foot into one the four theme parks! Here is the itinerary I came up with:

 

Vacation Itinerary - September 2013

Day	Morning	Afternoon	Evening
Saturday 8/31 Breakfast: At Home Lunch: Packed Dinner: At Hotel	Drive to Orlando	Grocery Shopping Check-in to Hotel (after 4 pm) Swimming/Preparing food for the week	Disney’s Boardwalk
Sunday 9/1 Breakfast: Cereal At Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Islands of Adventure (opens at 9 am, leave by 8 am, latest!)	Islands of Adventure	Cinematic Spectacular –best viewing at Central Park at the lagoon curve (be there 30 min. early)
Monday 9/2 Breakfast: At Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Swimming	Explore the Contemporary (visit the butterfly garden & see the view from the rooftop) & the Grand Floridian resorts (Wedding Pavilion) Hula Lessons at the Polynesian at 330 pm (BE EARLY!)	Eat a Dole Whip Walk through the torch-lit gardens at the Polynesian. Watch the Electrical Water Pageant & Wishes fireworks from the Poly beach.
Tuesday 9/3 Breakfast: At Hotel Lunch: At Hotel Dinner: Packed	Swimming	Wide World of Sports Free Lego Build at Lego Store Downtown Disney (5 pm – BE EARLY!)	Animal Kingdom Lodge night vision goggle animal watching & African storytelling
Wednesday 9/4 Breakfast: Cereal At Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Universal Studios (opens at 9 am, leave by 8 am, latest!)	Universal Studios	Cinematic Spectacular –best viewing at Central Park at the lagoon curve (be there 30 min. early)
Thursday 9/5 Breakfast: At Hotel Lunch: At Hotel Dinner: Packed	Swimming	Art of Animation & All-Star Movie Resorts Downtown Disney Ride the boat from DD to Port Orleans	Eat beignets Yeehaa Bob! (begins at 830 pm BE SUPER EARLY!!!)
Friday 9/6 Breakfast: At Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Wilderness Lodge – follow the river from the lodge to the beach & watch the geyser erupt	Fort Wilderness – Butterfly Garden, Petting zoo & Tri-Circle D Ranch	Chip & Dale’s Campfire Sing-Along & Marshmallow Roast followed by an outdoor movie.
Saturday 9/7 Breakfast: At Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Pack up & check-out of hotel by 10 am	Anywhere on Disney property that we didn’t get to explore, or want to go back to!	Drive home

 Please don't think that everything went this way, because of course, it did not! LOL I love to plan everything out completely, but am pretty flexible in the moment.

Based on the above itinerary I devised the following menu plan:

Vacation Menu - September 2013

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Saturday 8/31 Breakfast:Home Lunch: Packed Dinner: At Hotel	Waffles or Pancakes (Mix maple syrup into mix for extra ones for snack) Prep: Make the hummus -Bake the orange cake	Leftovers or Sandwiches Veggies	Grilled Steaks Grilled Corn on the Cob, Sweet Potatoes, and any other veggies that we find that would be good to grill Prep: grill steak kebabs & pineapple (separately & assemble later) for Monday -Grill steak for Black & Blue salad for tomorrow -Make Tortellini Salad -Boil eggs (18) -Frost the orange cake
Snacks		Leftover waffles or pancakes	Orange Cake
Sunday 9/1 Breakfast: Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Cereal Fruit	Tortellini Salad Carrots, celery & cucumbers or leftover grilled veggies Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans (jelly beans)	Black & Blue Salad with avocado & hard-boiled eggs Strawberries with Nutella Prep: mix eggs & spinach together for breakfast (to turn eggs green) -Put chicken in crockpot on low
Snacks	Muffins & Dinosaur (hard-boiled) eggs Butter Beer @ Harry Potter!	Hummus & Crackers	Orange Cake
Monday 9/2 Breakfast: Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Green (Scrambled) Eggs & Ham Toast w/ butter Fruit Prep: Make Hawaiian Rice Pudding -Make Yakitori Noodles -Shred chicken	(Teriyaki?) Steak & Pineapple Kebabs Salad Hawaiian Rice Pudding	Yakitori Noodles with Chicken Sweet Potatoes Fruit Salad
Snacks		Tropical Trail Mix	Dole Whips @ Poly! Orange Cake
Tuesday 9/3 Breakfast: Hotel Lunch: Hotel Dinner: Packed	Oatmeal (with fruit?) Prep: Make lemon bars -Boil rice for tomorrow	Hamburgers & Hot dogs Grilled Veggies Lemon Bars Baked beans Prep: Grill Chicken & Veggies for kebabs	Tortellini Salad Fresh veggies Fruit Banana Pudding (?)
Snacks		Hummus & Crackers	Animal cookies
Wednesday 9/4 Breakfast: Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Cereal Bananas with Minion faces drawn on! J	Chicken & Veggie Kebabs Rice	Ham & Cream Cheese Bagel Sandwiches Veggies Prep: Freeze lemonade for Friday
Snacks	Muffins & cheese sticks/wedges	Fruit & Yogurt Parfaits	Lemon Bars
Thursday 9/5 Breakfast:Hotel Lunch:Hotel Dinner: Packed	Breakfast Burritos (with bacon) Fruit Prep: Make Pasta Salad -Boil eggs (8) -Bake extra bacon for BLT’s -Make brown rice crispy bars	Nachos with guacamole Prep: Make corn dog muffins	Pasta Salad with Ham Veggies Fruit Salad
Snacks		Brown rice crispy bars	Beignets @ POR! Drinks @ Yeehaa Bob!
Friday 9/6 Breakfast:Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Oatmeal with fruit Prep: Pop popcorn in individual brown bags for movie tonight -Boil rice	BLT’s Fruit & Yogurt Parfaits	Corn Dog Muffins Coleslaw Frozen lemonade
Snacks	Muffins & cheese sticks/wedges	Trail Mix	S’mores & popcorn!
Saturday 9/7 Breakfast:Hotel Lunch: Packed Dinner: Packed	Cereal Fruit	Pasta Salad with Ham Veggies	Tuna Salad with Relish & Crackers Veggies Fruit
Snacks		Brown rice crispy bars	Whatever is left!

*Use little umbrellas on Monday when we go to the Polynesian

*Make “minion” bags out of yellow paper bags for Wednesday when we go to Universal Studios

*Use decorated brown lunch bags & bandanas for napkins on Friday when we go to Ft. Wilderness

This too did not go according to plan, but that's okay! I spent about $200 on groceries for the trip which is more than I usually spend for a week's worth of food, but way less than we would have spent eating out! I also did not get many pictures of the actual food because it was consumed so quickly or I forgot, but I think I got a few. I'm still going through the pics.

Check back for more details of our "Vacation on the Cheap"! Feel free to ask any questions & let me know your ideas for Vacationing on the Cheap!