how people afford those disney world vacations

[sam3996]

How to people afford those disney vacations. I never can save enough up to go on the vacation I would like. I wish there was a way you could just put a down payment on your vacation quote and pay it out each month until your trip. That would help alot!!

 

[Mandychelle79]

You can, you just have to pay it off 45 days in advance.

200 deposit and then make payments on it. Do it all the time

 

[minnie1928]

Not to sound snarky, but there's nothing stopping you from doing just that! Many people simply estimate how much they'll need for the vacation, decide when they want to take the vacation and divide the $ by the number of months to come up with a monthly savings budget.

If you think it will cost $2400 and you have 2 years, then it's $100/month to save.

 

[BMC423]

also don't think you have to get everything look for deals and ways to save on your vacation. And yes like the pp said all you need is 200 to book and then you pay off as you go as long as you pay it off 45 days before your trip.

 

[Pigeon]

Many banks also have vacation club accounts, like Christmas clubs. You figure out what the vacation will cost and contribute accordingly.

 

[SunnieRN]

Tickets are the least variable expense for a WDW vacation. They are the same price whether you stay off site, or in a deluxe villa.

With WDW vacations, you can sometimes get 'a deal', like free dining, or kids play free, or buy 4 get three free, but usually you can get the best deals, driving to Orlando, staying off site in a condo, cooking some of your meals, or staying off site.

The amount you spend can vary greatly. Figure out the cost, at today's prices, for the vacation you want to take. Remember, if you have a budget, your grocery amount for the number of days you travel, can go toward your vacation dining or meals in your condo.

Set a date for when you would like to travel. Divide the amount by the number of months and divide appropriately.

Remember to add in some souvenir money, if it is your first trip as well as money for snacks, etc, in the parks each day.

Have fun planning and saving! There are a lot of threads here, that can help you with both!

 

[ccgirl]

How to people afford those disney vacations. I never can save enough up to go on the vacation I would like. I wish there was a way you could just put a down payment on your vacation quote and pay it out each month until your trip. That would help alot!!

This is what I did last year. I waited until the free dining promo. Booked it with a $200 deposit and paid x$$ a month until the balance was paid off 45 days in advance of the trip. I also stayed in a value resort to cut the price down. As other said, you can open a vacation club or just put a set number of dollars aside in an envelope a month. You can find great lodging deals outside of WDW as well. When my DH and myself first got married we purchased a timeshare so we could have reasonable pre-paid accommodations for when we did have a family. Now that we have 2 children we are very glad we did that.

 

[scootch]

If you do a room only trip, you can cancel up to 5 days in advance. You just pay for the first night... then you can save each month.

We chose to stay in an old house and fix it up and have no mortgage. We also kept our van for 9 years and once it was paid off, we made a "car payment" to ourselves.. thus when it came to buy a new van, we paid cash. We have no debt and basically our house/car insurance is our largest bill. Thus, we have more money to enjoy life. No big fancy house, not alot of "stuff", we rarely eat out... but we enjoy traveling and are fortunate enough to do it.

 

[DawnM]

Well, we stay off site in a condo and eat a lot of our own food. We also go off season and get YES program tickets (we homeschool.)

Our trip for a family of 5 costs around $1,500 including transportation, dog sitting, tickets, food, and lodging.

I have an ING account set up for vacation funds and put about $150/mo in there. That covers it.

We also have a Disney Visa card and use the rewards dollars for food and souvies while at Disney.

Dawn

 

[amy-momofthree]

I do surverys on quickrewards.net and cash out for Disney gift cards.

I make $100 a month in gift cards doing surveys.

We are going in the fall, taking advantage of kids play free and staying in a value resort.

With the gift cards that I earned and Disney rewards dollars, we are only paying $800 out of pocket. This is for 2 adults, 2 kids, one baby and includes tickets, room and dining.

 

[Mouse_Geek]

How to people afford those disney vacations. I never can save enough up to go on the vacation I would like. I wish there was a way you could just put a down payment on your vacation quote and pay it out each month until your trip. That would help alot!!

Sam i know what you mean. How do people pay for a $4,000 or $5,000 Disney vacation?!? Well if you have the money yeah it's easy. But for what you want to know is how can i pay for that vacation. Garage sale, selling on e-bay even a part time job. I seen some go as far as getting a second mortgage on there home. That's when you know when you really love Disney . I know alot of people have so many ways of saving for there trip in advance. Also you can use your income tax. But you do what you can in order to save. Is it worth the money? Ohhhhh Yeah!!!! You can tell just by the way people talk on here. Hope this helps... Good Luck

 

[DirtyDiana]

Forgive me as this is my first trip that I'm planning/paying for myself, but how does the actual room-only payment work? You put down a deposit for the first night.. then how do they make you pay for the rest? You just call them and say, I want to add more money to pay off this bill, and continue to do that until it's paid off or something? I am so confused

 

[amy-momofthree]

Forgive me as this is my first trip that I'm planning/paying for myself, but how does the actual room-only payment work? You put down a deposit for the first night.. then how do they make you pay for the rest? You just call them and say, I want to add more money to pay off this bill, and continue to do that until it's paid off or something? I am so confused

We did a "room only" last year. First night's deposit was due at booking and then payment in full at check in. We didn't need to pay 45 days in advance for "room only". I believe that is just for packages.

 

[Carlyzmom]

Not to sound snarky, but there's nothing stopping you from doing just that! Many people simply estimate how much they'll need for the vacation, decide when they want to take the vacation and divide the $ by the number of months to come up with a monthly savings budget.

If you think it will cost $2400 and you have 2 years, then it's $100/month to save.

I agree. I have a "vacation" line in my budget. I am ALWAYS saving for a vacation, whether or not I am planning one. Of course, I am usually always planning one, but I have a category that I am always adding to. To me, it is a non-negotiable part of our budget!

 

[DirtyDiana]

We did a "room only" last year. First night's deposit was due at booking and then payment in full at check in. We didn't need to pay 45 days in advance for "room only". I believe that is just for packages.

You are so helpful. Thank you!

 

[Marionnette]

How to people afford those disney vacations. I never can save enough up to go on the vacation I would like. I wish there was a way you could just put a down payment on your vacation quote and pay it out each month until your trip. That would help alot!!

Others have pointed out that you can make payments along the way.

But saving is really a frame of mind. If you can afford to make payments every month on your upcoming vacation, you can afford to put money in a savings account for that same purpose. Personally, I prefer to keep control of my money as long as I can. I really don't want to wait for Disney to refund my money in the event that I have to cancel due to financial hardship.

I put my vacation savings in an account that is a little more difficult to get to. It has no debit card associated with it. It doesn't have any branches near me. I do all of my transactions online. And if I want to transfer the funds into my regular checking account, it takes 3 days for it to move from one account to the other. I have a certain amount for vacation deposted into this account every week. As long as I don't touch it, my vacation is covered by the time the bill comes due.

 

[patsal]

If you want something bad enough you save to afford it...that goes for anything vacations, house, vehicles, whatever. We use 10% of our income for vacations...over the years the amount in the vacation fund has grown substantially. From a five night off site vacation to five years later a 10 night all stars vacation to now--14 nights DVC every summer with a treat tucked in somewhere in between when we all have the time to do a 3-5 day break. We still ahve money left int he fund to travel other places when the opportunity arises.

You can totally do what you were asking about, book your vacationa nd make payments along the way. I used to do that and still do with my cruise vacations.

 

[FLA NUT]

Well, we stay off site in a condo and eat a lot of our own food. We also go off season and get YES program tickets (we homeschool.)

Our trip for a family of 5 costs around $1,500 including transportation, dog sitting, tickets, food, and lodging.

I have an ING account set up for vacation funds and put about $150/mo in there. That covers it.

We also have a Disney Visa card and use the rewards dollars for food and souvies while at Disney.

Dawn

You sound exactly like us. We stay in an off-site condo usually for around $200. It cost me almost as much for the dog sitting as our condo LOL. We always take our food into the parks which saves a ton. This past year was our first time doing the YES program. That was great, I hope they continue that program until we get back down there in 2012!!! I also have an ING account.

It must be something about the Carolinas that makes you be able to do budget WDW trips.

 

[allonte]

How to people afford those disney vacations. I never can save enough up to go on the vacation I would like. I wish there was a way you could just put a down payment on your vacation quote and pay it out each month until your trip. That would help alot!!

You can. It's called a Vacation Fund account at your local credit union or bank.

eta: We automatically have it deposited there from my pay check. We never see the money. Same goes for our savings account.

 

[3pletprincesses]

We wait until we find a promotion that works for us. We are going for a week in May for $2400 for the 5 of us but driving for 24 straight hours to save on airfare and only pay $500 in gas. No way I could do a weeks vacation with food, attraction and hotel else where for less then that. We don't go to Deluxe and get the magic your way tickets because park hopper is a waste of money IMO as we like staying at the same place all day and don't do water parks. I'm going back in August just with the girls for a week and it cost me $1300 for the 4 of us plus $1000 for airfare and we are staying value and doing the dining plan.

dh and I work hard, really hard to have $$ and that's how we spoil ourselves vs take out meals, theatre etc during the year. I work 14 hours a day 5 days a week and another 8-12 hours during the weekend. Granted I have a home daycare and get to spend the day with my girls and earn money by taking care of other kids but still I have another part time job. Some are jealous of my vacations and I'm jealous of the regular 9-5 mon-fri schedule but I still prefer my vacations over the 9-5 schedule. I put $100-150/week aside for vacation.