Sad and know you all will understand

[usschmidt]

With the rising cost of gas, food, etc. my family will probably not be able to afford AP's and multiple trips like we'd hoped (will live in NorCal.) We will be able to go 1 time, but I'm just so disappointed I'm beside myself.

I've only been 2 times my whole life...1978 and 2007. I remember my first visit very fondly but had no idea how wonderful it would be taking my own kids. It was the first vacation ever that was just for pure fun...no extended family, no work, no drama, no obligations, no guilt, etc. Of course it wasn't perfect, but nothing is.

This is the only place that I can post this and be truly understood. I'm seriously crying right now lol. Thank goodness my kids have no clue. They'd be crushed.

I'm trying to look on the bright side. The first wait was 19 years, the second wait will only be about 5 more months.

Thanks for letting me whine.

 

[Jenn1116]

That's a big let down and I definitely feel for you. I'm planning a surprise trip for me, DD and my parents for this winter and may have to cancel if I get laid off in October due to budget cuts...(Stupid CA!) Keeping my fingers crossed.

On the bright side, at least you have a trip in the near future and it will be extra-special. Make sure to take a LOT of pics. And you can always starting putting money aside now for another trip in a year or two and use the great advice here to save money and cut costs for your trip.

 

[DoomBugger]

Better may be sooner as the gas prices issue will only get worse.

Just a year ago it was like $2.75, just a month ago it was like $3.50, we are headed for oblivion.

Don't let it get you down, just try to be creative.

 

[usschmidt]

Thanks, I feel better just getting it out. I know I'm just throwing myself a little pity party, but better here than irl kwim.

Gas ~ it's $3.99/gal here in Cupertino...sometimes I can get it a little cheaper. I'm not so worried about paying for the gas for the trip, but just how much it's eating into my monthly budget.

The other reason why I wanted to go multiple times this year is b/c we're planning on moving to Oregon in 2009. I know once we make that move we probably won't be able to make it back to DL for a few years.

If I could only win the lottery...but I guess I'd need to buy a ticket first, huh.

Again, thanks

 

[B9erSteve]

With the rising cost of gas, food, etc. my family will probably not be able to afford AP's and multiple trips like we'd hoped (will live in NorCal.) We will be able to go 1 time, but I'm just so disappointed I'm beside myself.

I've only been 2 times my whole life...1978 and 2007. I remember my first visit very fondly but had no idea how wonderful it would be taking my own kids. It was the first vacation ever that was just for pure fun...no extended family, no work, no drama, no obligations, no guilt, etc. Of course it wasn't perfect, but nothing is.

This is the only place that I can post this and be truly understood. I'm seriously crying right now lol. Thank goodness my kids have no clue. They'd be crushed.

I'm trying to look on the bright side. The first wait was 19 years, the second wait will only be about 5 more months.

Thanks for letting me whine.

I know exactly what you are going through. We're used to going 2-3 times per year but prices for everything not just gas, has me re-evaluating getting our annual passes in the future. I told my wife that in the future, we will probably only plan 1 trip to DL every other year and then on the off years will will plan more expensive, all-out types of vacations like DCL, or WDW.

 

[daisy_77]

I know how you feel. We are most likely going to cancel our WDW trip for 2009 and I am not renewing my DL AP after this next trip. It is hard. I am hoping that something finally gives with the gas and grocery prices.

 

[usschmidt]

In a sad way it's nice to know that I'm not the only one.

TBH I don't understand why they charge so much for everything. It's not like they're hurting for $ or anything. Does it really cost that much to run the park/hotels?

 

[pumpkin5156]

I feel for you, and I'm so sorry. I've had to cancel a few one day trips already just because gas and food are outrageous.

I won't be renewing my AP in December, but I'm just trying to think of how exciting it will be when I can only go once a year. It's hard when you have kids, though, because you don't like to see them sad.

Keep your head up and maybe try to cut down somewhere so you can make it work. We don't eat out anymore...ever. It's saved us so much! We cut out our cable and went down a plan on the cell phone bill, too. There are lots of things you can do. Hopefully you can make it work.

 

[cascarlet]

Big hugs. I know we've have not been in several years because of money issues, but we decided to take our stimulas check and stimulate the economy at Disneyland!! I also took a part time job for Disney money working from home.

Things will turn around I hope soon.

Marianne

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

 

[pixiewings71]

WE bought AP's for the first time last July. We have had a blast with our frequent trips, we've just been jumping in the van and driving down on Friday afternoon, coming home on Sunday afternoon. Well we can't continue to do monthly trips but we are still thinking about getting the AP's renewed....we are thinking if we do a 4 or 5 day trip (over a weekend) every 3 months we will be more than happy, so I think that's what we are going to do. We are also talking about buying the Deluxe passes instead of Premium so we have free parking, that way we can stay farther away and just drive to the parks daily, I'm just hoping we can figure something out....I don't wanna wait for a year between visits! LOL

I feel for you, I hope you guys can work it out so you can make more trips, we Disney Addicts need our fixes! LOL (((HUGS)))

 

[honeymom]

I think Disney is more special feeling the less you go. I have never been able to afford an AP, or to go as often as some people on these boards. I lived in LA for a while before kids, and I guess that is the most regularly I went - once a year. Most of my trips have had at least 1 1/2 years between them.

I'm sorry you are disappointed. But, know that a lot of us are in the same boat. Disney isn't feeling it yet, but my guess is that they will at some point and we will see some better prices. I think it is really time for them to roll back some of their prices anyway. They really have gotten way too high.

 

[DoomBugger]

The sad part about going every year and a half or so is that each time you approach the ticket kiosk the price has risen 10-15%.

The problem with assuming that Disney will eventually lower prices is that as food and fuel costs rise they also rise for the parks and if anything the prices will continue to rise.

There are so many people inthe world, Disney will always draw big crowds I'm convinced and they will continue to raise their prices unfortunately.

 

[bumbershoot]

We are also talking about buying the Deluxe passes instead of Premium so we have free parking, that way we can stay farther away and just drive to the parks daily

That's backwards. Deluxe has blockout dates and doesn't come with parking, but Premium has no blockout dates and come with parking.

Though you can add parking to an AP, even the so cal ones if memory serves, for about 59 bucks right now.



OP, I'm sorry. We've been very lucky in that since our first big trip in September, hubby got a job that pays for transit passes, so his commute is 100% free. Has certainly saved us on gas!

Actually that's something to think about when you move to OR; moving to a community that has good public transportation. If you're moving into Portland there are a ton of options, for instance. And if you have a company that is forward-thinking like hubby's (OK, so it's Seattle that offers the transit passes to companies based in Seattle) it's even better!

 

[usschmidt]

Thanks for all the tips! Thanks, Molly, for the heads up about transit passes. We will be moving to Portland...really like Garden Home area. But we'll just wait and see what's available this time next year.

 

[kelmac284]

Portland has GREAT public tranist. They have the max train that is linked to the buses and you can buy a monthly pas and park and ride. THat is what I did when I lived there. It is a great system and they even have a fareless square area where you can ride for free!

I too know how you feel. We bought our first AP's in 06 and then renewed them in 07 and ours expire next month. We are NOT renewing them because we are using our stimulus checks to take a trip in Nov to Disneyworld. We have gone twice before, once in 02 and again in 05 and we knew back then that we wanted to go again in 08. Back then we could get roundtrip airfare to Orlando for 199 rt. But now I am dreading what we are going to pay. We flew Delta and American the last two times and BOTH those airlines are double that so we are holding out and hoping that southwest has decent fairs. But we are afraid we may have to pay more even with them and they are NO FRILLS. No movies, NO food and NO layover. We also stay in my mom's timeshare to avoid paying hotel fees and on and on.

But alas this will most likely be our LAST trip back there because of rising costs and if it wasn't for that stimulus check we wouldn't even be taking THAT trip.

And honestly the reason we even go to Disneyland as much as we do is because we have figured out that going THERE versus any other trip is actually cheaper than anything else we could do as a family.

Whether we drive or get a cheap southwest ticket and if we use an AP and go more than once in a year our tickets are basically free after the 2nd trip and then we always watch and get cheap room rates. So we can usually do a trip fairly cheap compared to ANY other trip to say hawaii or pretty much anywhere else.

But as I said we are letting our AP's expire this year because we know we can't use them because of our DW trip and we won't be able to go back to Disneyland for AT LEAST 14 months now. It is sad but we will always find a way to go back even if it is only once a year because it is our favorite place and we can always find a way to go on a budget and still have a good time. And compared to other vacation destinations it truly is the cheapest thing we can do.

 

[pycees312]

With the rising cost of gas, food, etc. my family will probably not be able to afford AP's and multiple trips like we'd hoped (will live in NorCal.) We will be able to go 1 time, but I'm just so disappointed I'm beside myself.

I've only been 2 times my whole life...1978 and 2007. I remember my first visit very fondly but had no idea how wonderful it would be taking my own kids. It was the first vacation ever that was just for pure fun...no extended family, no work, no drama, no obligations, no guilt, etc. Of course it wasn't perfect, but nothing is.

This is the only place that I can post this and be truly understood. I'm seriously crying right now lol. Thank goodness my kids have no clue. They'd be crushed.

I'm trying to look on the bright side. The first wait was 19 years, the second wait will only be about 5 more months.

Thanks for letting me whine.

ooh my goodness..I also live in Nor CAl and i do hear what you are saying.
You may want to consider this.. Normally my family would spend 5 days or more in southern Cal when we would go. However for memorial day we are going Sunday-tuesday. And my kids are still jumping for joy. We will still get to experience the magic just not on a grand scale as before. We learned a few things from our last trips that were going to apply to this trip. We can eat a breakfast at cafe orleans. We know what everyone will order and what the price will be. We will skip lunch and order pizza from the local vendors for really cheap and eat in our hotel room for dinner. Hojo although this will be our first time there had a really good entertainment rate. So we will be 1 night at hojo and 1 in the Paradise Pier hotel. So there are ways to make it work.. and we all love Disney enough to skip on some luxuries were used to.
For food pricing etc. check out www.*****************
Good luck!

 

[Leofoenget]

With the rising cost of gas, food, etc. my family will probably not be able to afford AP's and multiple trips like we'd hoped (will live in NorCal.) We will be able to go 1 time, but I'm just so disappointed I'm beside myself.

I've only been 2 times my whole life...1978 and 2007. I remember my first visit very fondly but had no idea how wonderful it would be taking my own kids. It was the first vacation ever that was just for pure fun...no extended family, no work, no drama, no obligations, no guilt, etc. Of course it wasn't perfect, but nothing is.

This is the only place that I can post this and be truly understood. I'm seriously crying right now lol. Thank goodness my kids have no clue. They'd be crushed.

I'm trying to look on the bright side. The first wait was 19 years, the second wait will only be about 5 more months.

Thanks for letting me whine.

Where in N. Ca do you live? I live in Santa Clara. It takes 2 tanks of gas to get there and back at $65 each. (ouch) BUT that's still cheaper than flying. Even with $129 southwest flight I just saw 20 mins ago, because you would then have to rent a car. If you price cost it out over the whole family it isnt' that bad if you do other cost cutting things. I do understand though, AP's for the whole family is pretty darn expensive.

 

[bumbershoot]

For food pricing etc. check out www.*****************
Good luck!

[edited]

and allears.net

if only the dis, aka wdwinfo, would get some disneyland menus up, then we could refer them to there/here!

Where in N. Ca do you live? I live in Santa Clara. It takes 2 tanks of gas to get there and back at $65 each. (ouch) BUT that's still cheaper than flying. Even with $129 southwest flight I just saw 20 mins ago, because you would then have to rent a car. If you price cost it out over the whole family it isnt' that bad if you do other cost cutting things. I do understand though, AP's for the whole family is pretty darn expensive.

I think the OP's point is that the daily costs are too high, keeping them from planning the trip. I remember how much money we were "missing" when hubby was commuting by car, he went through SO much gas money! Awful. I'm not even sure how we afforded our big trip in September with all that money going into the gas tank.

 

[pycees312]

[edited]

and allears.net

if only the dis, aka wdwinfo, would get some disneyland menus up, then we could refer them to there/here!



I think the OP's point is that the daily costs are too high, keeping them from planning the trip. I remember how much money we were "missing" when hubby was commuting by car, he went through SO much gas money! Awful. I'm not even sure how we afforded our big trip in September with all that money going into the gas tank.

Thanks [edited] was the one i was trying to post. It will take us 165.00 for a round trip in gas.. but we are a family of 5 so that really beats the airlines by a mile.