Many families in the US and Puerto Rico dream with going to Disney World with their little ones in the summer during school vacation. We did some research to see what it would cost to make this dream become a reality, and at the same time, looking at the hotel options available. This is we call 'pinching pennies', or 'getting the most for your bucks' in Barrio Obrero!

We did not take into account the airfare since there are specials during the different seasons of the year, and we are sure you can get a pretty decent air fare if you try hard enough. So having said this, Are you ready for some 'reality therapy?"

We recommend you sit down before you start reading, because some of the figures we will be 'throwing at you' will take your breadth away.

Let start with the entrance fee to Disney World. Disney World has eight (8) Major Attraction Theme Parks. If you have a child who is under three (3) years of age he/she will go in for free. If your child 'is between 3 years and 9 years the entrance fee is $52.00 for a one-day ticket. Since the child cannot go in by him/herself, one or both of you have to purchase your one-day ticket as well - this will cost you $63.00 for each one of you, or $178.00 for all three of you to see Mickey, Minnie & company for one day!

If you believe that going all the way to Disney World is worth more than one day of park sightseeing, you can then purchase a 5-day pass for the three of you. The cost for five-day passes is as follows: children under 9 - $162.00, for the adults (10 years and older) $199.00 per person. There are some discounts when you purchase your tickets in advance - $5.00 discount for the adult tickets, and $3.00 on the children ticket. You are looking at roughly $600.00 for a week of Disney World, Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Pluto, Donald Duck and company - these prices were obtained directly from the Disney World Website. No, this does not include meals! If you are also interested in going to Sea World and other tourist attractions then there is additional cost involved since the tickets to Disney World do not include entrance to Sea World and other attractions.

If the purpose of your trip is to have your child enjoy the Wonderful World of Disney in person, then we recommend that you focus on the Magic Kingdom Theme Park. We are making this recommendation based on the number of attractions it offers small children. Magic Kingdom has 36 different attractions and 14 of them are for small children. In comparisson, Epcot Center has 39 attractions but only 4 of them for small children. The attractions for small children (9 and under) go downhill from there -  MGM Studios has one attraction for small children, Disney Animal Kingdom offers 6 (how many animals can your child stand to pet on one day?), Disney Blizzard Beach has none and the Disney Typhoon Lagoon also offers one. I would not imagine why you would be interested in seeing the Disney Typhoon Lagoon since you have hurricanes in Puerto Rico just about every other year, and you can always take your child to the beach during a hurricane - is the same thing more or less.

Hotels
In looking at the hotels, we took into consideration what our family does during our trip planning - that is, which hotels has the best deals, as well as has laundy facilities. There is nothing worse than to get back home from vacation to do laundry, or having to go to a laundromat during vacation - which we had to do during our vacation to the Bahamas.

The first thing we take into account is the vicinity of the hotel to the place we would like to visit, in this case, Disney World. We can always rent a car and then worry about getting gasoline before returning the car, pay for insurance, etc., etc. It is much better if we can identify a hotel that offers 'Complimentary' transportation to the places we are interested in visiting, along with the small 'extras'. Since competition for your dollar is fierce, you have a good number of hotels in the Orlando - Kissemmee area that do just that. You also have hotels that offer complimentary breakfast and those move up on our finalist list rather quickly.

The price of a hotel room, particularly in Orlando - Kissemmee is set like in Puerto Rico, based on the season. The winter months is 'high season' because every one in the US wants warm weather. The summer months is the 'low season' because Florida can be 'hotter than blazes' during the summer, and it is not as attractive to tourists who can just use their BBQ in their backyard.

Another aspect we take into account is the proximity to the outlets/shopping centers. Since our "Mrs" would suffer from 'Plaza Las Americas shopping withdrawal', we need to accomodate her need to go shopping and spend still more money while on vacation. I always tell my 'Mrs" that she should have the realistic approach to shopping - there are items that 'you need to buy' versus 'items that 'would be nice to buy' - "need to have" versus "would be nice to have". My 'Mrs' likes to buy things because they are 'On-sale', whether she needs them or not - sounds familiar?! Every time I see an 'On-sale" sign at a store I know danger lurks close by!

So how do we do our research and vacation planning? Well, if we use Dubina.com to do research for our trip to Disney World, we would first look at the hotels that offer the little extras (complimentary breakfast and transportation, that have a laundry facility, and that are fairly close to shopping and the resort itself). Once we have written the names down and the pages within the Dubina.com directory where we can find them easily, we decide on a date for the trip. We then review each hotel on our 'short list', to see if rooms are available for the dates we would like to travel, and what the total cost of lodging would be.

Following this process, and using the dates of July 7th through the 14th, as an example, we find that The Ramada Inn Resort Eastgate in Kissimmee, has an offer of Kids Eat Free (extra points for this one), is located 4 miles from Disney World and the Outlets (Malls) and offers complimentary shuttle to just every where. This hotel would charge us $69.00 per night for a total cost of $566.71 for our seven day stay. This needless to say would be our choice. You do not need to follow our process, you can use whatever process works best for you.

The ideal way to approach the planning is to do your research online, including the cost of air fare, write down all information, then call your friendly travel agent and see if he/she has a better deal. If they do have a better deal go with it - if the deal is somewhat similar then you have a choice to make.

We are hopeful that you find this short article of help in researching your next vacation. The process we have described above is the same one we follow whether we go to Disney World, Puerto Rico, or anywhere else.

A. Gil de Lamadrid, Dubina.com