Affording WDW

[twinton]

Hi

Noticing that alot of people have visited WDW several times, year after year. How do you afford it? We are looking at visiting WDW in Oct 2010 - to give us time to save for it!

Is it as expensive as it seems? Any suggestions on where/how you can find discounts? We want to be able to enjoy WDW without worrying about coming home to debts.

Any advice would be nice.

 

[scottishsue]

Hi there !! We don't go every year, we go every 2nd year !
That gives us plenty of time to save for it.

If you shop around and book everything separately it can work out a lot cheaper. We book hotels and flights through Expedia, which are pretty reasonable. Car hire is also done separately.

It also depends when you go too - and if you can avoid school holidays it really knocks the price down considerably.

We managed £1500 for our flights for this October, but it can be done cheaper. We went through BA as they fly us from Aberdeen to Gatwick at no extra charge. Also watch out for sales around the beginning of the year.
A friend did that and saved a load !!

Hope this helps.

 

[cornish pixie]

Hi I dito everything ScotishSue says.
We To go every 2 years and we save like crazy and put away a certain amount each week.
We book everything seperately and shop around.
We book our cruise through an american company so have paid in $ which for us at the moment is great,
We use our AA card to get AAA rates which can save some money as well.
Basically our holidays are important to us so we are carefull at home .
When you know you have booked something it makes it easier to ask yourself do I really need this.
Anyway good luck and happy saving
Cornish Pixe

 

[T16GEM]

We haven't been since 2004, when we honeymooned at Disney, normally we would go every other year like others have said. As long as you are DISciplined (sorry couldn't resist ) and save a certain amount a week it is doable.

We tend to think like this.... Do we really need that new (whatever) or can we put the money toward the holiday? Our Kids will be 2 and 1 when we take them this year and I just can't wait to give them the best holiday ever so I am saving like a maniac!

I don't buy any kids clothes unless they are in the sale and I buy own brand stuff and we try not to eat out too much - it all adds up.

I saw your post about Tesco vouchers too - they are a great way of saving for your trip too.

 

[jen_uk]

We tend to book about a year before we go and then when we get paid every month put some money away straight away for it. If you eat outside of the parks it will be a lot cheaper for you, the buffet style restaurants are v cheap there.

 

[jns]

we do not go out very often or at all and save our money for our holidays that way

 

[wils]

We currently manage about one trip every 4/5 years but I can't complain as I'm a SAHM and so we have only one income. We save a bit each month though a share-save scheme at DH's work and when each scheme matures it clears any bills and then either goes on the house or on a holiday. It's great as it is taken out of his pay so we don't miss it or such or have to make an effort to save it.

I am saving £2 coins to take DD to the BBB next year. We are building up a nice stash but we don't get so many in change that we miss the money.

The children's spending money will most likely be made up from Birthday and Christmas money.

I also take advantage of deals and offers (often suggested by fellow Disers )

 

[paulh]

we go every year and try to fit in two if we can.We always think when the kids are older they wont rember us saving up for that new car but they rember all our holidays
Paulh

 

[wilma-bride]

We are very fortunate to have been able to do 4 trips in just over 2 years. We bought into DVC back in February so see this as a kind of pre-paid accommodation for future years, meaning we only really need to worry about air fare and car hire (and tickets and spending money). I am not the kind of person who likes to get into debt just to go on holiday. Like many of the others here, we save. I gave up smoking in February and the money I save is going towards our Annual Dues for DVC and towards our spending money for our Disney holidays. We don't really go out very much, we don't drink much and we don't mind going without little luxuries in order to be able to afford our holidays.

 

[natalielongstaff]

we go every couple of years as well we book the holiday then put aside enough each month to cover the cost we also cut out all the rubbish we buy that we don't need and neither me nor dh smoke or go out a lot