The first thing right off the bat is to fly into Orlando International (MCO) airport, not Sanford (SFB) if you're renting a car. Car rentals are much more expensive in Sanford. Sanford flight pricing can be definitely cheaper with airlines like Allegiant. But you may loose all your savings due to the exhorbitant car rental prices at this airport. And forget taking a shuttle or cab to the Disney resort areas from Sanford. That costs upwards of $220. You can rent a car for week at MCO for that.

If you get a rental car, do not take the full tank of gas option. They call it different names at different companies but essentially it goes like this. You pay for a full tank of gas up front and then you can just drop the car off with any amount of gas in the tank for no extra charges. They paint it so enticing. It sounds so good. But if you do the math it is a terrible deal. You are guaranteed to lose money.

The absolute only way that you can come out merely even is for you to literally run out of gas right at the car return gate and push the car to the checkout. Typical car returns are with a half a tank or more of gas left in the tank. That means that you are giving the rental company a free half a tank. If a tank holds 20 gallons, a gallon costs $2.50, and you return with 10 gallons in the tank - you've just paid $25 too much. Way better to just top up the tank somewhere and bring the tank back full like they originally gave it go you. You only pay for what you used.

Next comes your hotel. There are hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms in Orlando. Check around a lot of find your best deal. Trivago.com or Booking.com are good places to start.

Perhaps if you're a family of 4 or more, it's cheaper and nicer to rent someone's timeshare. Typically all an owner wants is to get back their yearly maintenance fee. THAT means you can be in a luxury two bedroom apartment, in a great resort, that typical rents for $200 per night. Except that you'll be paying $100 per night or less. And no, you don't have to go to the crazy timeshare sales meetings. You're already an owner because you're renting from one and using their unit. You can find timeshare rentals by their owners at Tugg (Timeshare Owners Group), Redweek.com, or Worldwidetimesharerentals.com among others.