As a Canadian Disney fan how do u save for your trip?

[sheboz]

Just curious to hear how other Canadians save for Disney.
I would love to hear how you do it.

Just looking for some ideas. Thanks!

 

[caisland]

We use airmiles to get car rental coupons for Alamo.
Also used airmiles for Universal this coming August.

 

[bdoyledimou]

One paycheque, One vacation.

 

[dis_guy]

We don't actually save for our trips. Typically we go once every year or two and like to book at least a year in advance.

So what I do is put down the minimum deposit when I book online, then take the balance, divide by the number of months until it is due and pay that amount each month until we go. It all goes on my Aeroplan Visa, so we get miles towards flights, too.

It's like an interest free loan from Disney but you are somewhat exposed to currency exchange rates changing. I think it all averages out.

 

[CindyV]

We use airmiles for our disney tickets. We book a timeshare through my family
(250-550,depending on what is available and when you book) and we drive down. We dont really save for it because if we did i dont think we would go. I am sure we could put a little away each month in a different account to save that way. We have also taken money we have gotten back at tax time and used it on our vacation. This time, we are taking money from a vacation payout and setting that aside for our spending money. Our place has already been put on our credit card' as will some of our purchases when we are down there.
If we were to save for it, i would set aside money every month in a seperate account and do it that way.

 

[Sue M]

We usually go twice a year. I do the same thing dis-guy does. When I book, after paying deposit I divide balance by how many months I have and make monthly payments till we are PIF.
We fly out of Seattle for cheaper fares.

 

[Susie63]

We use our Aeroplan Visa for everything,utilities,insurance,grocries,gas. etc. That is how we get our flights.
Airmiles for tickets.
We don't use a lot of cash but when we do, all the change goes into a Disney bank. It usually works out to about $500 a year.That is our food budget.
Hotel is paid out of pocket,so I usually just save for a couple months for that expense.
Of course I usually come home to a big Visa bill,but hey....I need those souveniers

 

[dancin Disney style]

I put away money from every paycheck into my USD account and I get tips at work which I save. I find it very easy to save for a trip this way. I never spend money that I don't already have in the bank.

 

[dis_guy]

I put away money from every paycheck into my USD account and I get tips at work which I save. I find it very easy to save for a trip this way. I never spend money that I don't already have in the bank.

Amen!

 

[CdnCarrie]

Airmiles, airmiles, airmiles.

 

[sheboz]

Started to earn the airmiles for rental check!
Money taken off each cheque check!
Change jar check!

We are going next year (no date yet) so I have created a budget, I used the budget sheets from touringplans.com. LOVE me my touringplans.

DS gets very car sick, so we are flying out of either Detroit or Toledo. I use the purchase predictor on bing travel. Go to bing travel then to flights, enter your dates and it will let you know when is the best time to buy your airfare. We have saved some very big $$$ by following the purchase recommendations.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Disney Addicted]

Air Miles We have enough for Universal Studios park tickets and Blue Man group tickets. Now working toward Sea World, Busch Gardens, and Aquatica tickets.

RBC US Visa reward points for 1-night stay at Royal Pacific Resort. Need 4,000 more points. Do not know if we will get it, but we have 15-17 months still.

Disney Gift Cards QuickRewards to earn Disney gift cards. I know have $100 and I am aiming for $500 by time of our trip.

YES tickets for deep savings on Disney tickets

- every payday a portion goes into our US savings account.
- change collected in my mickey popcorn bucket
- fly out of Buffalo instead of Toronto

 

[Ted in Halifax]

I'm not a saver for vacations. Rather, I book my flights very far in advance ... often 330 days and pay them off when the come due (note: I usually don't pay more than $250 per person from a US airport, but have paid $329 from Halifax). So my airfare gets paid 11-10 months out.

Then ... I wait for my accommodation deal, like free dining and book it as soon as it is open. (i.e August 2012, I hope to book Late Feb 2013). Each month, I make biweekly payment on this from August until usually Dec 31st. If renting DVC .... and I only rent from someone I trust ... I pay well in advance, in a similar pattern and always include dining.

I also have a US dollar account that I squirrel money into when the currency goes up.

 

[Goofy's apprentice]

We have an automatic transfer weekly from our chequing account to our US account. That way it is a small amount and when it is time to pay for tickets, flights and maintenance fees (we are DVC) there is enough in the account to pay. It is also an easy way to watch the exchange rate. If we look at the transfers going in to the US account and they are over par, we may transfer an additional amount in that week to take advantage of the good exchange.

 

[pigletto]

I use the method of figuring out what I will need, putting a monthly amount in a separate account and paying in full when it's due. I may try to pay it off quicker this time to avoid losing too much to exchange.
As for spending money.. that's a little more variable.
For that we use change jar, found money, savings from rebates or coupons etc. It keeps us motivated to not waste money on take out or things we don't need.

And finally, I run the numbers over and over to get the best deal for what I want. This time it's free dining, but we also qualify for the AP rate and have used PIN codes. We have also bought YES tickets and rented points in the past.

I stalk airfare until I see a price that I can live with and book it.
Rental car is the same. For example 200 is my bottom line for the rental car this time. If I can't get it under 200 I don't want it and will use a car service to go from the airport to Universal and Universal to Disney.

 

[dancin Disney style]

And finally, I run the numbers over and over to get the best deal for what I want. This time it's free dining, but we also qualify for the AP rate and have used PIN codes. We have also bought YES tickets and rented points in the past.

I stalk airfare until I see a price that I can live with and book it.
Rental car is the same. For example 200 is my bottom line for the rental car this time. If I can't get it under 200 I don't want it and will use a car service to go from the airport to Universal and Universal to Disney.

I do similar things.....my friends have crowned me the queen of cheap travel. Ferrating out the best deals passes for fun with me It really has become a mission to get the most number of days for the least amount of money. This years trip is really going to hurt. We are going to a convention so the dates are not flexible and it's over the July 4th holiday. Still, we are staying 2 weeks and the grand total will be about $4500 for 4 people. I'm really good at knowing how much we will need for food and spending money. I'm usually within about $100 on those.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

hmmm ..... might do a self imposed post tax .... every time, I post something ... I must put $50 in a jar. .... just kidding!

 

[dancin Disney style]

hmmm ..... might do a self imposed post tax .... every time, I post something ... I must put $50 in a jar. .... just kidding!

You'll be able to retire a very wealthy man by the end of this year.

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

1. BMO Airmiles M/C
2. Airmiles GOLD member (25% off flights)
3. Save all my coins
4. Kids work @ Superstore and get 10% discount. We drag them along when we get groceries and the 10% savings off our bill goes into the bank.
5. Any overtime I get goes into a vacation account.

I should also add that I applied for the AMEX Platinum cards now offering 1125 welcome bonus airmiles on 1st purchase. My wife also applied for the same card. I'm hoping to get the bounus airmiles for her as well. No card fees for the 1st year. I then cancel them just prior to the anniversary date. Also have an American bank account. Put all my loonies/toonies in there when the exchange rate is good. I've also given a spare airmiles collector card to my sister and parents so they can collect points for me when they shop.

 

[Kat&Dom]

How I save on Disney trips:

Airmiles, I get our Disney tickets from them - always months in advance. Over the last couple of years, I have upgraded our free Disney tickets to Non-Expiring with Waterpark & More so we can just do a day at Disney if we want.

I watch for flight deals out of Calgary or Edmonton - I don't pay over $500 for flights to Orlando and if I see a flight for under $400, I book it immediately (Last November, I got our flights Calgary to Orlando return with all taxes in for $360).

For car rental, I won't pay more than $200 for the week so I watch constantly (I have gotten a weeklong rental for as low as $89 with all taxes in but $200 is my line in the sand, ).

Accomodation is usually offsite in timeshare so I pay $200 in exchange fees and we are able to buy some groceries to save on meals.

I set my budget for $500 per person for flights, $200 for weeklong car rental and if I can get it cheaper - more money for next trip.

I have US bank account and put money in it regularly so I have spending money ready no matter what the exchange rate does.

We typically arrive at the park at opening bringing some snacks and water with us, then we leave around lunch and eat at condo, swim, relax then head back to park late afternoon/early evening (taking water & snacks with us) so we don't spend a lot of money on food at Disney. I do buy treats for my son - he loves the Churros and Mickey Ice Cream Sandwiches and we do have the one meal per day at Disney. Saving on food is a big cost saver.