Bad Economy=More Banking or Renting out Pts?

[MommaX03]

With this economy, do you find yourself banking your points to delay your vacation, renting out points to cover expenses, or are you going ahead with your trip anyway?

I am just curious. A recent study said that around 60 percent of those polled are forgoing vacations in this economy.

For our family, we went forward with our Dec 2008 DCL cruise because it was all on points. But we are waiting on doing another WDW trip until at least next year, if not further in the future, due to finances.

What are you doing?

 

[disneyfool_1202]

We're considering a trip this December to WDW but instead of staying in a 1BR as usual, we're considering a studio, therefore using half our points and possibly renting out the rest to help pay for the extras (like airfare). We already have park passes (we bought 10 day no exp last time). If we go we definitely won't do the meal plan.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We have 2 expensive vacations planned, a DCL family cruise for May and a European Cruise that will take me "home" to Poland the land of my ancestors! We are not cancelling either. However, this is the third time we've tried for the European cruise...something has changed our minds the other two times. We are determined to do it before we can't because of health concerns.

I would not be booking either cruise right now...I would wait, but what's planned is planned.

We are borrowed to the hilt with DVC points, so renting isn't an option, even if I wanted to.

Bobbi

 

[Sammie]

Banking

 

[chrissybear]

I live for my vacations. I'm not forgoing our plans, because the economy is in the toilet. I have the points, so Im going to use them. That said, we are not going to WDW this year. We are going to HHI in Aug. We planned on doing that before the economy took a nose dive. We haven't been there since '05 and we had a blast. I can't wait to go.

 

[iloveokw]

I think that survey doesn't apply as much to DVC members as it does to people who are just paying up front for a vacation we have already prepaid our vacations. We will be vacationing more not less.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Using them all for one vacation this coming summer. Since we sold two contracts, we have enough points for a nice long summer vacation.

 

[ACDSNY]

We still are going on our vacations, but I imagine we'll have to help with some of the expenses for our grown kids as their jobs are effected by the economy.

 

[dvc at last !]

We were at WDW in January 2009 for the Marathon.
Got great fare from SW.

We have reservations for HHI ( first time ) end of June.
We will drive to DD in DC ---stay overnite and then continue to HHI.

We have reservations for OKW in October for the Race for the Taste
and to visit the Food & Wine Fest.
Too soon for SW reservations - hope they have great fares then, too !

 

[kimberh]

We have a huge 7 day Disney family cruise this Aug. I am paying, so nothing is changing so far. I have 4 rooms booked. I rented points to help with the cost... plus I have a lot of Disney Rewards to help pay for it. Still it is costing plenty. We have 2 trips to Disney, one is just DH and me this May, AKV Concierge, the other is eating me up in points, a one bedroom for 5 days, then a 2 bedroom for 4 days. These are consective, different children coming at different resorts. We have 4 birthdays in 9 days, so they all want their free Disney park admission. Oct 11th -Oct 19th.

We are still living as normal as possible. I have tightened up at home as much as I can. We took a cruise to Europe last Nov, I did not buy any new clothes for it. That all adds to the costs of a trip. I just shopped in my closet and it really did work.

We are self employed so the Economy really does affect us. Everyday I am checking our books. We had new customers call today and say we were the only ones in our line of work answering the phone. I guess others in our line of work have let their office staff go.

I really hope and pray our Leaders know what they are doing. I went through the recession with Jimmy Carter, it was not fun! We just about Starved and I am not kidding. We had a car financed at 18%. I heard yesterday that Interest rates were on the rise. The Low Interest rates have been our one ray of sunshine.

I will rent before I bank, then bank what I have not used or rented... to answer your question.

 

[Chuck S]

Since our cars will be paid off soon, the economy probably will have litttle effect on our travel plans for this year or next year. However, we did cancel a trip last June because it was just too expensive for us to travel at that time. While I do usually bank a few points every year, I banked a LOT ( for us) last year, and so will also be banking about 250 this year. On a positive note, it give me an opportunity to plan a couple of years into the future to take friends and family (if everything stays about the same), and to have enough points for about 2 weeks in a GV. Never stayed in one before. Woo Hoo!

 

[tinkerbellmom1]

We had two Disney vacations planned for this year, but DH took a transfer to another job within his work that wouldn't allow him the time off. It will be our first year since 2000 that we haven't had a vacation at Disneyland. Irks me just typing that!

We are keeping our October plans in place. We'll have at least 2 days at THV before our 7 night cruise. We did change the cruise plans from a suite to a cat. 6 and a cat. 11 across the hall for our 2 teenage sons. Huge financial savings over the suites (which is the way we have taken our last 2 DCL vacations).

We'll still be taking other outings around the country to check out colleges. Definately not vacations, but trips anyhow.

Not so bad considering the big picture.

 

[JenSop]

We'll still be going in June, UNLESS one of my upcoming auditions works out well and I get into a show that conflicts with the trip. Gigs have been waning lately, and I need the work if I can get it. So getting a paying gig would trump the trip.

The one thing that will be effected by the economy (for us) will be how we get down there. We usually fly, but I still haven't found a great rate for our June trip. So we're actually thinking of driving. With a new Honda Fit that gets 40mpg highway, it could be a very good money saver. Plus, it'll be kind of like an adventure!

 

[DaveH]

We do our vacations different every year. I would think there will be folks doing one long trip instead of 2 or more in a year. Save on travel. The reallocation may help this change also.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We have been extremely lucky (and thankful) with the economy not affecting us just yet. Our trips for this year won't change. We have two 10+ day trips to Disney planned so far and then some non-Disney trips.

 

[Starr W.]

We are going to cut out our MLK trip for 2010, but the reason is not the economy but we're going to HI for 2(hopefully 3) weeks in July 2010.

We haven't cut back on 09, but we are done with WDW until November. Here's our game plan

Pres day weekend at Boyne, MI(2br Mountain Run at Boyne)
Easter at Vero Beach (2br villa)
July trip to Myrtle Beach(2br villa at Sheraton Broadway Plantation)
Aug trip back to Boyne, MI(my new TS week Hemlock at Boyne 2br fixed week)
Nov trip to SSR in a GV!

Next weekend is only costing me which is the RCI exchange fee($164) because I got 2 "free" banked weeks from the previous owner of my Hemlock week.

 

[CarolA]

I have used almost ALL of my 400 points that I recieve next month.. Guess the Economy isn't having much of an impact! LOL!

 

[DisFlan]

We'll be going this fall, but our 2010 extended family trip is going to require some adjustments because of the reallocation more than the economy. No one wants to shorten the the DVC stay by a day or two, so we'll probably bank the points and do something somewhere else - just not sure exactly what, yet. Maybe a non-Disney trip to a gulf coast beach house for a couple of weeks instead of one week at WDW.

We may still work in a DVC trip for just the two of us sometime in 2010. Not sure, yet. We have a couple of other destinations in mind. (I want to dig for diamonds in Arkansas and DH wants to do the golf trail in Alabama.)

DisFlan

 

[nikkistevej]

We are still doing our 2.5 week trip (1 week DCL/rest at WDW) in June. The bank I work at got bought out , but we are still going to go if I lose my job(our merge date is May 23- our trip is after that), but if I get a job at the new bank- I hope they will give me time off . The cruise is completely paid off, and we have a large onboard credit- so if we do cancel anything it will be the WDW part. But we have to use the developers points we got for adding on by August- so that might wait. Now next year we were going to do a non Disney vacation(Oasis of the Seas or San Antonio) so I rented some of my points and will pay cash for those trips. Or- if I can't get a job, because I'm laid off- we'll use that to pay bills.

 

[nunzia]

We were at WDW in January 2009 for the Marathon.
Got great fare from SW.

We have reservations for HHI ( first time ) end of June.
We will drive to DD in DC ---stay overnite and then continue to HHI.

We have reservations for OKW in October for the Race for the Taste
and to visit the Food & Wine Fest.
Too soon for SW reservations - hope they have great fares then, too !

Sorry to hijack...but what do you do at Hilton Head? never been there