Buy Now, or Wait?

[iluvtheworld]

We are only a few months away from our trip We are planning to add the dining plan and have not bought park tickets yet. I wish we had purchased these things when the dollar was above par. If you were me, would you purchase now or wait? Anyone have predictions on what the dollar will do?

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

This was on CBC news yesterday:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/09/28/bmo-loonie-estimate.html

I work for two financial planners. Both are predicting the decline of our dollar. We are travelling during the same time frame as you, and we have prepaid everything but our meals (and I have over $1000 sitting in a US high interest savings account that was purchased when our dollar was $1.02 USD to cover that). The only thing I can't prepay is our rental car.

If I were in your shoes, I would go ahead and pay for whatever you can now if you are okay with the exchange rate as it stands. If it goes up, then purchase your US cash for souvenirs and spending money. And if it goes down, pat yourself on the back for a smart decision.

With the volatility in the market and Europe poised to go bankrupt, investors will flock to the US dollar. Bad for vacationing, but good for Canadian industry so I won't complain!

 

[Sue M]

I sadly agree. BCTV financial news is also predicting the CAD to go down as far as $0.93 by summer so I'm going to pay off what I can and start fluffing up my USD acct now.
We are going in Jan 2012, but we just returned from our Aug WDW trip, so my USD acct is pretty much wiped out, lol.

I bought our air about 10 days ago before CAD went down.

 

[EvangelineG]

Yup, it doesn't look good. Everything I've been reading predicts further decline too.

Luckily most of our trip is paid for, and I went to the bank yesterday to get some USD.

 

[tgropp]

Yes...book it now. For our December trip, I did my meal plan payment a month ago as I had kinda thought that the dollar may fall.
In all honesty, as long as the dollar stays near .90 cents, it is still a great rate.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

In all honesty, as long as the dollar stays near .90 cents, it is still a great rate.

I agree .

When we booked our last trip to Orlando in August 2008, the CDN dollar was averaging betwen 93 and 97 cents US. We book our Disney getaway, and by the time we travelled (January 10-17, 2009) the value had declined to 79 cents. Granted, we had paid for our entire package (room, tickets, meal plan, flights) all by the 45 day mark, but it sure made souvenir shopping a lot more pricey. If we stay around 90 cents on the dollar for this vacation, I will be a happy girl.

But I'm beginning to think I'm a curse on the economy.....every time I book a trip south, our stock market slides and our dollar goes with it . Perhaps I should just stay put and live vicariously through all of you!

 

[Sue M]

I agree .

When we booked our last trip to Orlando in August 2008, the CDN dollar was averaging betwen 93 and 97 cents US. We book our Disney getaway, and by the time we travelled (January 10-17, 2009) the value had declined to 79 cents. Granted, we had paid for our entire package (room, tickets, meal plan, flights) all by the 45 day mark, but it sure made souvenir shopping a lot more pricey. If we stay around 90 cents on the dollar for this vacation, I will be a happy girl.

But I'm beginning to think I'm a curse on the economy.....every time I book a trip south, our stock market slides and our dollar goes with it . Perhaps I should just stay put and live vicariously through all of you!

 

[iluvtheworld]

Thanks everyone for the replies. We went ahead and added the dining plan today. Still need park tickets, but I think we will be purchasing them through undercover tourist. Thanks again for the advice!

 

[Ted in Halifax]

Undercover tourist is the way to go!

 

[grantclaire]

Buy now! Also if you rent a car with Budget you can prepay with a discount too!