Canadian dollar exchange rate blues

[deedubb]

Trump said he will implement a 25% tariff on ALL goods from Canada and Mexico. Our dollar instantly tanked.
Not so sure I want to spend all my hard earned money in the US now.

 

[suse66]

I had 2 trips already in 2024 and am going again in nine days. I do have an AP and own DVC which helps with costs. I use Optimum points to pay for groceries, then use my budgeted grocery money to buy Disney gift cards to pay for food/spending money when there. Disney Math!

I am currently booked for March Break as well but flight prices are out of control. As well, I am on a wait and see approach for US travel after January.

 

[ottawamom]

It's all relative people. I remember the rate when we first travelled to WDW in the early 2000's. I think I was converting things at $1.54 range.

It still hurts, but if I travelled then with that exchange rate I will still do it now. Thank goodness I locked in the exchange rate on my cruise for 2026 (paid in Canadian $)

 

[mort1331]

We are locked and booked for this March,,,,will have to suck up the exchange for food,,,tickets flights hotels already done....might not golf as much as I was hoping...will wait it out and see

 

[Lesverts]

Single biggest reason for the dollar disparity is the difference in the Bank of Canada and Federal Reserve overnight rate.

 

[accm]

I had 2 trips already in 2024 and am going again in nine days. I do have an AP and own DVC which helps with costs. I use Optimum points to pay for groceries, then use my budgeted grocery money to buy Disney gift cards to pay for food/spending money when there. Disney Math!

I am currently booked for March Break as well but flight prices are out of control. As well, I am on a wait and see approach for US travel after January.

We also have APs and DVC, so the cost for trips doesn't feel too bad. But the flights. I recently booked our flights for end of January, and paid so much money. I was planning on a short weekend trip for the August long weekend, but those flights are currently sitting at over $450 per person from YYZ with no carry on. I don't know if I can justify a short 3 night trip at those prices.

 

[jeepwreck]

We just booked at trip for a 1bedroom at AKL with park tickets and we definitely felt the crunch for the exchange rate. Lucky the flights were in CND so it was just the Disney portion

 

[bwr827]

We just booked at trip for a 1bedroom at AKL with park tickets and we definitely felt the crunch for the exchange rate. Lucky the flights were in CND so it was just the Disney portion

Agree the flights can help! Only reason we are on our current trip is that last April we jumped on a great deal to fly at half the price we paid in early 2023.

 

[CanucksRock]

I got cheap flights on Cyber Monday for an April trip. …I have USD in the bank that I got at 0.76, so that insulates me from the current drop.

 

[disneyfreak89]

To answer the OP, YES we are very dismayed! We just went on a trip in October and paid off the remaining balance of our US MC at $1.45! Ouch!!! We rented DVC and fortunately booked and paid for the room in May when our dollar was hovering around $1.35 and I thought THAT was painful! We also were locked out of the "Canadian discount" ticket offer since 1) it wasn't valid for the month of October (grrr) and 2) you had to buy at least a 4 day ticket and we only wanted to/could afford 1 park day (double grrr). The pp was correct, us Canadian's don't always get a discount, it depends on the exchange rate from year to year. Even with the 25% off, add the 45% exchange rate and we're still paying roughly 26% more than the regular ticket price. I think US and Florida residents get some pretty good deals but the best deals are given to the UK residents!!

We never did go to a park because for 1 day for 2 of us would have cost us approx. $300 US ($435 Canadian with exchange) and we just couldn't justify spending that much. Before we ate anywhere, I'd look up the menus and do the math with exchange rate to see if a place was worth the extra $$ to eat there. Same with anything we wanted to buy. Needless to say we didn't buy much and we split a lot of meals. We were kinda thinking about going back next year but we missed the bounce back offer, so now we have to wait and see if they offer any general public discounts for November 2025. Oh, and the current ticket offer only runs until end of September 2025 so as of right now, there are no discounts for November 2025. Sigh. Of course, this is all pending whether our loonie keeps tanking, if it does we won't be going anywhere in the US anytime soon and that includes day trips to Michigan. And just when my DH was getting excited about traveling again.

 

[bcwife76]

We are headed to Disneyland and Universal Hollywood in March, haven't been to the parks since November 2021. Staying at the DLH Villas using our points at least so phew on accomodation (though I know we will have to pay the transient tax). Been putting off buying park tickets but will have to bite the bullet after Christmas. It's going to be......

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I bag up our refundable drink containers and usually take them when I get $20 worth. Then I put that into our US account. I just looked at RBC's currency converter and YIKES! $20CAD = $13.80US.

 

[ExcitedForWDW]

I had 2 trips already in 2024 and am going again in nine days. I do have an AP and own DVC which helps with costs. I use Optimum points to pay for groceries, then use my budgeted grocery money to buy Disney gift cards to pay for food/spending money when there. Disney Math!

I am currently booked for March Break as well but flight prices are out of control. As well, I am on a wait and see approach for US travel after January.

We were not planning on doing a March break trip but then found an air canada flight on the Wednesday to Thursday that was only $650 for all four of us using 80k points. I don’t like being home on March break with the kids home from school and all so we opted for another wdw vacation lol. If you collect ap points check out flights asap.

 

[ExcitedForWDW]

To answer the OP, YES we are very dismayed! We just went on a trip in October and paid off the remaining balance of our US MC at $1.45! Ouch!!! We rented DVC and fortunately booked and paid for the room in May when our dollar was hovering around $1.35 and I thought THAT was painful! We also were locked out of the "Canadian discount" ticket offer since 1) it wasn't valid for the month of October (grrr) and 2) you had to buy at least a 4 day ticket and we only wanted to/could afford 1 park day (double grrr). The pp was correct, us Canadian's don't always get a discount, it depends on the exchange rate from year to year. Even with the 25% off, add the 45% exchange rate and we're still paying roughly 26% more than the regular ticket price. I think US and Florida residents get some pretty good deals but the best deals are given to the UK residents!!

We never did go to a park because for 1 day for 2 of us would have cost us approx. $300 US ($435 Canadian with exchange) and we just couldn't justify spending that much. Before we ate anywhere, I'd look up the menus and do the math with exchange rate to see if a place was worth the extra $$ to eat there. Same with anything we wanted to buy. Needless to say we didn't buy much and we split a lot of meals. We were kinda thinking about going back next year but we missed the bounce back offer, so now we have to wait and see if they offer any general public discounts for November 2025. Oh, and the current ticket offer only runs until end of September 2025 so as of right now, there are no discounts for November 2025. Sigh. Of course, this is all pending whether our loonie keeps tanking, if it does we won't be going anywhere in the US anytime soon and that includes day trips to Michigan. And just when my DH was getting excited about traveling again.

We just bit the bullet and purchased our park tickets for March. I didn’t want to miss out on the Canadian park ticket deal and can’t imagine the exchange rate would be more favourable in a month or so. But wow that exchange from usd to cad to tough. Four day park tickets for four (1 < 10) were over 3k cdn… . With out the cdn deal it would have been an additional $700 ish

 

[accm]

We got our DVC annual dues statement and just figured out how much extra I'll be spending due to the crappy exchange. What are the chances things get better in the next month and a half?

 

[cinnamoroll]

We switched from Pop to an All-Stars and will only do 1 day in the park instead of 2 for an upcoming pre-cruise trip every bit helps...

 

[bwr827]

We switched from Pop to an All-Stars and will only do 1 day in the park instead of 2 for an upcoming pre-cruise trip every bit helps...

Understandable! Our next trip is estimated to be spring 2026 and I’m hoping that either the exchange has a chance to improve or Disney decided to offer a great Canadian discount.

 

[Frank4202]

Our trip is next month and this exchange rate is frustrating. Generally, it gets better during the Christmas season but it has only got worse with no end in sight. We planned our converting our money the weekend before we leave but now I have no idea what to do.

 

[disneyfan123]

I'm getting hammered on my DVC dues! I use our PC and Scene+ points over the year to stock up on Disney gift cards to offset exchange, but the crashing dollar is nullifying a lot of those gains.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I'm getting hammered on my DVC dues! I use our PC and Scene+ points over the year to stock up on Disney gift cards to offset exchange, but the crashing dollar is nullifying a lot of those gains.

I rented out some points this year and was able to be paid in USD via paypal, so I've been able to buy Disney gc's with the USD paypal - i don't know what I'm going to do next year, this exchange is insane!