Canadian Dollar

[mom to minnie&mickey]

Our trip is costing over 16000 American plus airfare. Weve already bought our plane tickets months ago so no backing out now. That's gonna add an extra 4-5 grand for this trip. I am struggling on what to do.

Wow,now that is some trip and I hear you on the exchange cost! I have not booked our July trip yet, waiting to see on any discounts. Since it is for my dd's high school grad. we are not willing to cancel but will downgrade a bit to offset the exchange rate (this is the worst case scenario). Looking at staying 12 nights at Sports instead of our favorite Pop which is $10/night cheaper and most of our meals will be offsite and snacks/breakfast in our room. I have planned just 2 ts meals in Disney with some cs thrown. Will also do only 8 park days instead of 10 to save another $100. The kids don't care either way, as long as they get to go, they are sooooo looking forward to it!

Perhaps there are areas you can trim in your vacation to offset some of the cost and still have a wonderful time?

 

[M&M mom]

Last Thursday I made the final payment on our upcoming trip. It cost just over $1100 cdn extra due to our weak $
I don't believe I would have booked the trip if I had known how much extra it was going to cost in exchange.

 

[SabbyR]

Its our eldest DDs grad trip and ever since she was little weve been planning on doing deluxe dining on her grad trip so we could do all the signatures she loves. Shes moving away to Montreal to go to McGill University (were from Sk) and taking a very hard course so realistically family vacations like this are not going to be happening again for a very long time. I really wanted to go all out this trip. We booked into POP for 14 nights with WPaM and Hoppers. The vacation fund was all filled and all was good. Then the dollar dropped. There are 6 of us going. Myself, dh, and 4 kids all Disney Adults now. Our youngest dd is 11. We can cut back and save money for sure but its disheartening because we had such a magical trip planned.

 

[mshanson3121]

We're nervous too. Originally at the end of the year, the dollar wasn't forecasted to go below 17-18% this year. Yeah, well that's been shot out of the water, we're already down to 19.2% and it's only January. I'm nervous. We're set to go in June. So far, if we cancel the only thing we've lost money on is our deposit ($300), and our Disney tickets - but let's face it, we can resell those and at least get that money back. But this is a bucket list trip for our family, and the kids are excited about it. I would hate to cancel now, as the next chance we would have is at least 2 years from now. And they're so prime right now - 8 & 5, DD (5) is sooooo into the princesses right now.

Right now, we're at about $5500 CDN for the trip - and $800 of that is just the exchange in the dollar. And that's before spending money, or if the dollar goes down any more.

What I keep holding onto for hope is the fact that this dollar dive is being driven by the oil war. And, these low prices are not going to last forever, because eventually OPEC is going to start losing money. In December, they said they had enough reserves to hold out for about 6 months, before they would have to look at taking action. Oil will go back up, as will our dollar. So... this is a temporary thing, but how temporary is the question.

 

[Debbie]

Trip 1: Renting points from my sister. I got a deal on that, but will add some extra, since the $ has dropped. As soon as MNSSHP opens up, I'll buy the tickets. Food....we'll deal with, probably 1 sit down, and the rest Quick Service. We'll be driving down, so we'll buy some food for the hotel-cereal, milk etc.
Trip 2: Paid for my hotel in November before the cruise earlier this week. Decided to fly out of home city, rather than drive to States on US Thanksgiving, paying for a hotel, gas, etc. Booked and paid for that yesterday. I will look at my savings and probably pay for the 6 day hotel after the cruise soon. (I have a good lot of that already set aside in a US acct.) Food, we'll eat on the cheap after the cruise.

Tickets.....APs bought YEARS ago for my first year after retiring, so no cost there.

 

[Enter User Name]

I am starting to wonder if my family will still go to wdw. Our trip price keeps going up. Who knows what our dollar will be like by the end of summer when we plan on going. I not booking unless a great deal comes out. Some friends of ours have already cancelled their trip and are going to Thailand instead.

 

[Disneymom20]

I think we are still a go - the majority of the package is paid for. We won't be doing as many meals out and have to be a little more careful.

 

[SabbyR]

Disney Cruise line came out with a Canadian discount, maybe Disney world will follow

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

Disney Cruise line came out with a Canadian discount, maybe Disney world will follow

This is encouraging news, thanks!

 

[jeepwreck]

Disney Cruise line came out with a Canadian discount, maybe Disney world will follow

that's awesome

what was the discount?

 

[xlxo]

Disney Cruise line came out with a Canadian discount, maybe Disney world will follow

I assume this is the discount you are referring to? Just two sailings?
http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/special-offers/canadian-residents-rates/

 

[Tiggs14]

I assume this is the discount you are referring to? Just two sailings?
http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/special-offers/canadian-residents-rates/

Be careful both of those sailings are cheaper using the guaranteed rates.

March 8th Canadian Offer (Inside) $4,567 / Inside Guaranteed (IGT) $4,035
March 22nd Canadian Offer (Inside) $5,004 / Inside Guaranteed (IGT) $4,035

The above prices are all for 2 adults and 2 kids. Don't fall for the discount rate trick!

 

[Enter User Name]

I am thinking of altering our trip plans and maybe staying at a condo rental that is the same price as a budget hotel. That way we can eat most meals there. We usually go back midday for a swim anyway. I will miss all the great meals in the parks and the themed hotels but it is a compromise I may make. That way I will still be able to have a couple weeks in Orlando within my budget.

 

[WishingMom]

I really hope it doesn't come to us having to cancel our August trip...but with the dollar as volatile as it is, it might just come to that...unless we get free dining! Fingers crossed!

 

[LindyN]

There has been a Canadian tiered room offer, expires on Jan 30.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I'm actually really surprised by the number of people that are thinking they will cancel their trip....reading that sort of thing on Facebook as well. Does no one remember when the exchange rate was around 50%? While we are not at par any more it's really not that bad. There are plenty of ways to cut vacation expenses and save a little money.

 

[Madame]

I'm actually really surprised by the number of people that are thinking they will cancel their trip....reading that sort of thing on Facebook as well. Does no one remember when the exchange rate was around 50%? While we are not at par any more it's really not that bad. There are plenty of ways to cut vacation expenses and save a little money.

Lots of people's jobs have been downgraded, other cutbacks have been made - at least here in Ontario. My salary has been frozen for 4 years & my DH's bonuses cut.

There are other factors at work that can make the exchange rate the straw that broke the camel's back. Lots are living close to the edge.

 

[Enter User Name]

I'm actually really surprised by the number of people that are thinking they will cancel their trip....reading that sort of thing on Facebook as well. Does no one remember when the exchange rate was around 50%? While we are not at par any more it's really not that bad. There are plenty of ways to cut vacation expenses and save a little money.

I think it is pretty bad. The last time I went to DW we were at par. Now I need $1.28 to buy an American dollar. Plus an extra 3% for credit card fees when you pay Disney online (most credit cards charge a fee to exchange funds even if you pay off your balance each month). So my trip will be substantially more expensive. That's close to 30% more. Last time I was able to get free dining as well which brought my trip price down. So without any great discount and the usuall price increases my trip is going to be quite a bit more than my last.
The loonie fell again today with no signs of stopping... Not looking good for us Canadians.

 

[mikeyblueeyes]

I echo the same here too. Last time I booked it CDN/USD was pretty much par - and I had a free dining pin code. The exact same trip now is just over $2,200 more expensive this time around.

 

[jeepwreck]

ya I would never cancel a trip that would just kill me. I would just find ways to make it a bit cheaper.

right now we are going Nov. 9-10. in our room we have 2 adult 2 kids, 1 infant. this is a big family trip so multi family goings. Our trip is just over $5800/US and with the exchange rate the way it is not its like $7200/CND

we are staying at POFQ with 7 day park tickets and dining plan. we are hoping on free dining in Nov. but have to wait till those dates are released.

if our dates don't fall within the free dining dates I am going to try to move out trip so it does but if not to cut down on some saving I would just make the trip a bit shorter then to cancel it all together.