Decisions, decisions.... to go or not to go

[mshanson3121]

You are planning well in advance which is a bonus. What I've done is create a spreadsheet for myself and chose what I hope to be is a 'worse case' exchange rate and budget according to that. I'm tucking away what I can each month to see if I'm able to afford our upcoming trip. Each little bit of 'extra' is going against the trip and slowly it is adding up.

If you create something like this you can begin saving and then see how realistic it would be for you to go. Takes some of the pressure off and also gives you a monthly/weekly goal to save.

One other recommendation. If you're only considering going to a water park one day, it is less expensive to pay the day rate than it is to add the water park and more option.

Yes, when I'm budgeting, I'm planning on a 40% exchange, basically going at today's rates. They said they should be better by summer 2017, but I'm planning on them not being better. If they drop much lower, we probably honestly just wouldn't go.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Yes, when I'm budgeting, I'm planning on a 40% exchange, basically going at today's rates. They said they should be better by summer 2017, but I'm planning on them not being better. If they drop much lower, we probably honestly just wouldn't go.

lol! I like you exchange rate much better than mine! I budgeted on 45% after I got dinged at 47% for some purchases on our quick December trip.

 

[Aladora]

What is AM?

Airmiles.

 

[dancin Disney style]

edit

 

[DizzyDis]

Yes, as above AM=Air Miles and we were able to get 5-day park tickets for the 3 of us that need them (2 adult and 1 child) for free with a little bit of extra work over less than a year. If you know you have over a year, there are some great deals where you can stock up, see the Air Miles Alert for lots of discussion on the topic. It isn't really the spend $20, get 1 Mile, there are tons of extras where you can really rack them up!

 

[Duckiedee]

I'm not sure if you collect Airmiles... I didn't do so until recently, however... since May I have collected enough for 4 tickets round-trip from Halifax to Florida!!! I applied for the World Elite MasterCard from BMO and you get uber miles for signing up (like one trip) and then you get 1 mile for every $10 spend (so EVERYTHING funnels through that card) I pay, I go to my car and every day I put the money from my bank account on the MC. I also double dip with my regular Airmiles where ever it is accepted. And I look for the Airmiles bonuses at Lawtons, ToysRUs and Sobeys, but ONLY stock up if it is something we will truly use and I don't already have a few (Like oatmeal) put away somewhere. I got a second card for hubby and he does the same thing. I've been truly shocked how fast the Airmiles add up. With the BMO WE MCard, you also get a discount off of how many miles you need to spend for each trip (25% I think). Also this year, we qualified for Onyx collector status and that can further reduce your points needed.

I also saw a bit on FB the other day... and for me this is true, because I do buy lunch often... but if you spend $10/day (this could include that coffee at Timmy's). That's about $200 a month! Holy sh! I don't normally go into savings mode because we already "Pay ourselves first" for investments and I always think of all other money as MINE! LOL.... but it was a good reminder... especially since we want to travel extensively worldwide with the kids in about 4 years.

Good luck! In my mind - it is always possible. We went full out 6 years ago and I have never ever regretted a penny spent. It is super expensive, but to me, it is worth it. The dollar should start to rebound this summer (hopefully), but we should definitely see an improvement by year-end - by the time you pay it should be more affordable. Right now I have the deposit down and I'm just waiting to throw down the rest once the gas rebounds and I'll put in on my MC!!!! LOL.

 

[mshanson3121]

I'm not sure if you collect Airmiles... I didn't do so until recently, however... since May I have collected enough for 4 tickets round-trip from Halifax to Florida!!! I applied for the World Elite MasterCard from BMO and you get uber miles for signing up (like one trip) and then you get 1 mile for every $10 spend (so EVERYTHING funnels through that card) I pay, I go to my car and every day I put the money from my bank account on the MC. I also double dip with my regular Airmiles where ever it is accepted. And I look for the Airmiles bonuses at Lawtons, ToysRUs and Sobeys, but ONLY stock up if it is something we will truly use and I don't already have a few (Like oatmeal) put away somewhere. I got a second card for hubby and he does the same thing. I've been truly shocked how fast the Airmiles add up. With the BMO WE MCard, you also get a discount off of how many miles you need to spend for each trip (25% I think). Also this year, we qualified for Onyx collector status and that can further reduce your points needed.

I also saw a bit on FB the other day... and for me this is true, because I do buy lunch often... but if you spend $10/day (this could include that coffee at Timmy's). That's about $200 a month! Holy sh! I don't normally go into savings mode because we already "Pay ourselves first" for investments and I always think of all other money as MINE! LOL.... but it was a good reminder... especially since we want to travel extensively worldwide with the kids in about 4 years.

Good luck! In my mind - it is always possible. We went full out 6 years ago and I have never ever regretted a penny spent. It is super expensive, but to me, it is worth it. The dollar should start to rebound this summer (hopefully), but we should definitely see an improvement by year-end - by the time you pay it should be more affordable. Right now I have the deposit down and I'm just waiting to throw down the rest once the gas rebounds and I'll put in on my MC!!!! LOL.

Ah, k. We do this, but with PC points instead. We have their Mastercard. I'm hoping to switch to their Elite one where we get 30 pts per $1 instead of 10.

 

[ottawamom]

mshanson3121 have you checked out Mousesavers.com they have lots of great ways to cut the cost of a trip to Disney. Also the Budget Board here on DIS could have some ideas you can use.

 

[mshanson3121]

mshanson3121 have you checked out Mousesavers.com they have lots of great ways to cut the cost of a trip to Disney. Also the Budget Board here on DIS could have some ideas you can use.

I have. We pretty well have cut our trip costs to the minimum - we drive instead of fly (much cheaper for us), stay off site and make meals at the house (massive savings, since the house we rent from is owned by a Canadian, so they knock some off their price AND let us pay in Canadian funds), and will be purchasing tickets through a discount place. Going to try and score Sea World tickets on Black Friday with a BOGO deal (if we even do SW), and hoping to get the free kids pass from Lego Club magazine. Even on the drive down/back, we saved quite a bit by using hotelcoupons.com, made sure we chose hotels that offered free breakfast, plus we borrowed an electric cooler that we were able to plug in the trunk, so we packed enough food, snacks and drinks for the trip that we were able to just picnic at the highway rest stops instead of spending more money on meals (we did buy supper each night, though one night we got a pizza, so we could have the leftovers for lunch the next day). We also traveled with our in-laws, which allowed us to share the cost of lodging and groceries.

Things we learned last time that we'll do differently: we may try and do the 28 hour drive in two days, instead of 3. That will save us 2 nights on lodging and meals, but we'll see. 14 hours in the car is a loooong time, lol. We ordered our food through Garden Grocers last time, but ordered WAY too much. Easily spent $100+ more than we needed to, and we ended up giving away a lot of food to the neighbours. We underestimated the effect Florida heat has on a person's appetite, so we'll know better next time. We'll be skipping a lot of the extras on the next trip. When we went we did HDDR, CRT, BBB, Pick a Pearl, face painting in Epcot, ate 3 lunches in park etc... Next time we'll pack a lunch just in case we stay longer than planned (which is what happened those times), allow for 1 dinner package (I'm guessing either for ROL at AK or SWS at HS), and the Pirates League.

For us, despite how far away we live, the "trip" is the cheap part. It's the tickets that are the main cost for us.

 

[samsteele]

I think a PP mentioned this earlier, but definitely price out an alternative family trip with a travel agent who can access any available discounts (eg a Royal Caribbean cruise) and then sit down with your kids and compare it with a WDW vacation. There are good deals to be had on RC cruises in the Caribbean. Watch out for the $ extras like the pop and liquor pkgs and some excursions. Do check out the RC subforum on the Boards. Lots of great info. The downside to WDW for Canadians with our low dollar is not just the initial sticker shock of either tickets or Magic My Way package, its the compulsion to deny ourselves the extras that we have enjoyed in the past when our dollar was at par, above par and even a bit below. Its hard to pass on those frills (whether it be a hard ticket seasonal event, special dinner, snacks and treats) because they are associated with great vacations in the past. Its important to be honest with yourselves and realize if you are going to be unhappy because so much of what you associate with the magic of WDW has to be cut from the budget. If you don't check out alternative vacations, you'll never discover new experiences for your family. WDW has become a premium travel destination even for Americans. When you add on our low Cdn dollar, there is a tipping point. If the only way your family can realistically make it work is to cannibalize all the fun little extras that add to your own custom WDW vacation, then its a good time to look at an alternative. I know this isn't a popular point of view, but money isn't just money. Its also security and peace of mind for your family. And there is satisfaction in knowing that you have found a good, fun alternative so you don't resent handing money over the barrel to WDW. All economies are cyclical. Our dollar will cycle up in years to come and WDW will become more affordable again. Most of us realize that WDW is just not a good every single year travel value for Canadians.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

We are planning on driving our next trip as well! Mainly because we have to stick to school vacation time now that dd is in hs and flights from where we are (Northwestern Ontario) are crazy expensive during those times. Will be about 29 hrs for us. We like road trips, but we shall see how this goes. LOL. But hey, it's the only way we could make it work budget wise this time, so we will remind ourselves of that often on the road!

 

[mshanson3121]

We are planning on driving our next trip as well! Mainly because we have to stick to school vacation time now that dd is in hs and flights from where we are (Northwestern Ontario) are crazy expensive during those times. Will be about 29 hrs for us. We like road trips, but we shall see how this goes. LOL. But hey, it's the only way we could make it work budget wise this time, so we will remind ourselves of that often on the road!

It's not too bad honestly. We drove it (28 for us) last June. We took 3 days, took the route through Virginia mountains, beautiful area, wow. First night we stopped in PA, second night in SC. Drove about 12 hours the first day, 11 the next and 5 the last day. Got great deals on hotel rooms through hotelcoupons.com - never paid more than $65 (US) a night and that included full hot breakfast and they had a pool. First day I think we left around 5 am AST and got to the hotel around 6 pm EST. Stopped three times, twice for gas/bathroom and once for a lunch. Second day I think we got on the road around 7:00 am and would have made it to the hotel probably around 7:00 pm, but we decided to stop and tour the Shenandoah Caverns (beautiful!) and picnicked there, which then caused us to land in Columbia/Charlotte area right in rush hour, so we spent about 1.5 hours crawling through gridlock. Finally made it to our hotel at 10:30 that night. Next day was an easy drive into Florida. There's some really great rest stop areas down state. One tip we were given that we loved was to take a soccer ball or football with you. Honestly, even just spending 10-15 minutes kicking/throwing the ball around gives you a nice chance to get out and stretch your legs after so long driving.

But we honestly, truly enjoyed the drive down. I think partly because it was new for us, we had never been down there before, so we all found the scenery interesting. Touring the caverns was nice. Plus, honestly, we just enjoyed the time together with each other, with the kids. We talked, told stories, had a lot of laughs. That said, yes, it is tiring. One big mistake we made was to jump right into Disney the next day. We arrived at our rental house around 4:00 pm. Unloaded the car, unpacked, got supper, put away groceries (had them delivered via Garden Grocers) etc... It was a busy evening, and I don't think we were in bed until midnight. Then we turned around and jumped right into Disney the next day. For us, that was a big mistake. Next time we plan on taking that first day to rest, even at least half the day. I think the big key when driving to Disney is to NOT TIRE YOURSELF OUT!!!! Because, when it's all over, you can't just hop on a plane and be home in a few hours. You have pretty well 3 days to get home. So, take rest days, take the day before you go home, so you can rest up. The drive home is definitely harder.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

That's a good idea about a soccer ball. We have always wanted to try driving and leave from a ton of snow and watch the changes in climate. We are used to travelling with a tent trailer in summer and stopping and setting up before we eat and sleep and taking it down before we leave the next day. So I think this will be easy peasy. (Ask me that after the fact...lol) We've had friends do it that have said it's not bad. We plan to take it easy the first day as well.

 

[kuhltiffany]

When we do road trips, I download audiobooks free from the Library before we leave. Harry Potter got us through driving from Toronto to Thunder Bay quite easily!