Discouraging prices for repeat trips

[princessmorgan]

I feel your pain! We are a still technically a Disney family of 5, but when my youngest turns 3, we'll be a family of 6 and that lessens our options even more. At least with 5, you can stay in one deluxe room if you get a really good discount or pin code.

We stayed at Bonnet Creek and did the YES tickets in January and took my parents all for $3000 (and we flew!). I do like staying on property more, but if it means I can afford going, then I'll stay off property. I have noticed how much more expensive it has gotten in the last 5 years, too. When we first went with our girls and had free dining, appetizers and tips! were included with the dining plan, I could still find flights for $49 each way......man those were the days

 

[adisneymama]

I think people just make it work by sacrificing in different areas.

We, for example, have always flown since we're pretty far (Houston). We will fly this year, as our son is still able to fly in my lap. But next year he'll need a ticket...and that's another $300-$400 on our budget. So we've decided to drive to save that money, plus what we would have spent on our two r/t tickets. We'll probably drive from now on, and also stay at Value resorts or even look into staying off-site if that means it'll mean we can go. I prefer to stay on-site, but hey, going to Disney and staying off-site is better than not going to Disney at all!

I also make it happen by planning at least a year in advance, so I break the amount I need to save into a monthly number which makes it much easier to swallow. It's easier for me to find $150 in my monthly budget and put it aside for Disney than it is for me to take $2000 out of savings.

By planning ahead of time, I can also see what deals make more sense financially for us. I have time to look into Free Dining + Rack Rate room vs. Room Only discounts. And when we go this year, I'm already armed with the information I need to make a decision should there be a 2012 Bounceback Rate in our room.

The past few years we've taken other (cheaper) vacations, but I really want to try to fit Disney into the budget from now on.

I hope you have a great first trip! I bet you'll get bit by the magic and do whatever you can to get back.

Driving from Houston is easy! We have done it the last few years and are doing it again next week. Very easy drive and if you want some tips on places to stop along the way just let me know. We are from AL originally so we are very familiar with I-10!

OP It is all in the planning and budgeting. Watching these boards will help because you will know when the deals are out there. Staying offsite or values, free dining etc always help.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

My first trip to WDW was in '93 (I was 11). My parents scrimped and saved for four years for that trip (we stayed at the Poly and had a dining plan). It was supposed to be a "once in a lifetime" trip, but they managed to make it a priority and slowly save for it and we continued to go every 3-4 years (we could have probably gone more often with cheaper trips, but honestly some of my best memories from that first trip was constantly saying things like "WOW, I can't believe we get to stay here" and "I get to order whatever I want?!?" at restaurants (we never went out to eat [fast food or otherwise] so I couldn't believe that not only did I get to go to a sit down restaurant for all of my meals, but I also got to order whatever I wanted). We now go about every 1-2 years, going for longer trips. It's easier now as we all have jobs and pay our own way. We've only flown once, but I've always preferred driving there to flying (it's an 11-12 hour trip one way).

Even if you don't get to go as often as you like now, there will be equally as treasured trips to look forward to in the future. My older brother, my boyfriend, my parents, and I are all going for a 13 day trip this December and it seems like every trip still continues to be better than the last! It's all we talk about right now when we all get together.

 

[thehowells]

i would think for sure being a family of 5 is tough, alot of things just aren't geared towards you.

i would love to have dvc, and likely will someday, i'm going to be 37 this year, i wish i had listened to my parents about money 20 years ago, but i was very foolish with it for a long time, lesson learned

because of that, we work very hard and save whatever we can for these trips, we will likely be booking trip # 5 since april 2008 tommorow, we don't spend money on other things, neither my wife or i smoke, we don't drink much, we don't have a huge house, we don't have a 50" tv, we love our kids, we love disney that's where our money goes


p.s. walt disney company if your reading this, 5 trips in 4.5 years from canada, and 100 plus dvds, plus d23 membership. do you think you could at least throw me some free pins or mouse ears?

 

[PatriciaH]

No kids, no debt, plenty of vacation time, health benefits totally paid for by DH's company, friends that work for WDW, friends that work for Southwest and give us passes, my family lives in FL so we can stay there and borrow a car if needed, sell on Ebay and do Sunshine Rewards to pay for trips!

 

[3pletprincesses]

This will be our 3rd trip in a year BUT we hadn't been there since 2006 and probably won't be back more then once a year from now on. I turned our Daughters into Disney monsters like me this past month. It's soo funny to see them finding hidden mickeys at the store, outside everywhere.

We usually only go when we can get free dining or kids play free. We usualy go for a week and stay onsite. with either offer, we save around $750 which is huge to us. We stay at the lowest priced resort as we can which is POR and love it. We don't buy too many souvenirs and try to limit our OOP expenses.

We don't vacation anywhere else. We only go to Disney which means we hadn't had a vacation in 4 years when we returned last October. This month's trip is already paid for of course and I already have started savgin for our trip next year. Every penny we save somewhere, we put in Disney funds. We live with the bare minimum because we have decided we want to vacation more then have extra stuff. all the money giving sa gifts go to our DIsney fund and so on. We usually drive to Disney which is 27 hour drive none stop when all 5 of us go as it's cheaper then flying but as I'm only going alone this month with the girls, we are flying down as it would cost more in gas and hotel then it would for airfare. If we don't have enough saved for the trip, airfare and tips by the 45 days mark, our trip is pretty much postpone or cancel until we have enough.

Once you go to Disney, it's hard to not go back. There's so much to see and do that no one gets bored.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Several ideas we have done-we have made 12 trips in 12 years for 3 of us. We got back last Sat and are going again in December.

-We drive exclusively-13-15 hours each way. It's no longer than a regualar workday for me. I just checked receipts and only spent $190 for the 1750 mile trip. I had a couple of gas cards saved from the CVS promotions to help. If we stay somewhere, it's priceline or hotwire.

-We stay offsite-you can get condos through Skyauction for $300 for the week during offseason. We stay onsite if Disney entices us with a discount. We rented points from a DVC member and stayed at Kidani Village/Animal Kingdom for around $1,000 last week.

-We also buy the 10 day non expire tickets and make them last over 3 trips. The Disney YES program has incredible prices for tickets if you have kids and can get individual enrollment.

How we pay:
-all overtime and bonus money goes into a slush fund jar.
-We get 26 pays a year, each bill is due 12 times a year, those 2 extra pays go into the vacation fund.
-We charge everything for points, then pay it in full never paying interest. We get over $500 a year by doing that alone.
-We live in a state where we can get grocery rebates from beer companies without buying the beer, we get about $500 a year for putting our names on the mailing list since we don't drink alcohol.

A typical offsite Disney trip is around $1300 for us, onsite is just under $2000. In comparison, we spent over $2800 on a trip to New York City last fall for 5 days, we get 7-8 at Disney. We wanted to visit Panama City for a beach condo in July, but the condo cost alone was higher than the Kidani room and YES tickets, thus we went to Disney. It can be very expensive but some financial discipline and create fundraising makes Disney a bargain for us.

 

[budbeerlady]

We do without other items to afford our Disney trips.
We go during "free dining" and stay at a value resort.
We go in the off season when hotels are less.
We are flying from MI so I obsessively check flights daily, once I see my target price I jump on it.
We had done the AP trick to go a couple of times in a "year".
We book early, pay it off as we go with overtime $, Christmas $, etc.

We spent a long weekend at Great Wolf lodge, at the end the bill was not so far off from the same amount of time spent at Pop in Disney. I would have rather been at Disney.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I'm in awe too of those that can visit Disneyworld so often. They must be fortunate enough to live much closer that I do. A huge portion of our expense in both time and money is for travel to and from our home to WDW. And then there is my partner, I just can't see convincing my husband to run off to Disneyworld for a weekender. Much as I'd love to. He is okay with once ever. Been there done that kind of guy. He said he would go back though when I told him about the Nascar experience and golfing. And he wants to stay at AKL! So saving saving saving already for that trip 1.5 years from now.... so I may not get to go as often, but I will get a longer stay when I do. I've only been 3 times so far, but Mom and I are going in Jan. Whoo Hoo, my 4th time.

Is it really that far from Texas to Orlando? One very long day of driving or a day and a half?
We live a little bit further and have been 4 times in 5 years.

However we do sacrifice in other places to be able to afford vacations. And we collect travel points and use them to redeem for passes, etc.

Four times is still a lot!

 

[torinsmom]

We have gotten tickets through the YES program the last two years, big discounts for having your kids go to an educational class behind the scenes. Our 7 day hoppers were $186.56 vs. $321.64 through Disney. They have classes for kids who are not homeschooled during winter, summer and fall.

We stayed offsite. Last year, we stayed in a 3 bedroom condo for less than $500 for the week. This year, we are at a 5 bedroom pool home for $700/week. Both are within 5 miles of Disney property. I love having the extra room to spread out, especially when it is more than just DS and me. I also like having a full kitchen and (gasp!) I even like having a washer/dryer so I can pack light.

We eat breakfast at our house or at a local buffet for less than $8/person. We may eat lunch at the park, but we order ice water and use flavor tubes to save on the drink cost. We always take a break around lunch, so we may eat lunch at the house or hit an offsite fast food place. We are using some restaurant.com coupons this trip to save even more money. Dinner will be offsite most days, before we go back to the parks for our second wind.

 

[elcycad]

Wow!I thought that I was good with finances, but some of you guys out there are really creativeIt seems as is there is a whole new world out there for getting to Disney.

 

[Forevryoung]

Wow!I thought that I was good with finances, but some of you guys out there are really creativeIt seems as is there is a whole new world out there for getting to Disney.

It's about what is important to you.

Everyone has "wants" that they spend money on. It's a matter of making family vacations (to Disney or elsewhere) a priority in your mind and sticking to it.

I'll make more meatless meals, drive an older car, spend less on clothing and entertainment and more to enable me to travel

When it's important, you (along with your family) get creative

 

[MinnieForMe]

We are a family of five that goes 10 days to two weeks a year. We have found that the only way for us to afford it is to make only one trip a year (flying) and stay off site. We are lucky to have been gifted a timeshare every year so we only pay transfer fees (My FIL is the greatest).

We also do not go into Disney for more than 1 or 2 days of parks and 1 water park each year so we buy a 7 day/7 waterparks pass with no expiration. I buy at least one pass per year using my Disney Visa reward card so we always have overlapping expiring passes and not a $2000 ticket expense each year. When I'm a day short, we use Florida Children's Hospital tickets. They usually include a gift card to Planet Hollywood so we'll have lunch there one day and explore the stores at Downtown Disney. Besides, my kids were beginning to take Disney for granted so we routine the following: SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Titanic Exhibit, Kennedy Space Center, Gatorland etc... This year we are doing Discovery Cove along with our 2 days in Disney.

The funny thing is as the kids get older they appreciate the Florida sun and just relaxing at the pool more and more. They actually decided to give up Universal last April to get more pooltime.

For our family, a Florida vacation is a priority so we budget for it year round!

 

[disneyofcourse]

One of my best friends travels with her 3 kids and her husband. They don't make much money but they still vacation every year. They don't really cut things out like eating out or cutting services. Usually they just take money from each check and set that aside. It makes them not feel the pinch. By the time a vacation comes around they put in on the Disney Visa and use the 0% feature and earn disney dollars. They keep the money in the savings account until the last month of free interest. Some times they stay at a value even if they save enough for a moderate so that that following year they can stay longer. She also looks for deals like free dining since that saves her a bundle with that many people.

Personally,I just ended up buying into the Disney vacation club and that works out in the long run for me. I end up taking family and point wise its cheaper to get a 2 bedroom (for 6-8 people) in a dvc resort than two or three rooms! When you really take into account the cost of other vacations...Disney looks like a bargain in some cases!


Oh Yeah! Forgot

She also will go to Disney and only go to parks 2-3 days and spend the rest of her time exploring the resort. The kids almost enjoy that as much as the parks.

She uses her disney visa for everything and racks up those points. (I do the same thing and it pays for my yearly passes) I think she also has a southwest card? that gets her some good stuff. (I do not)

 

[yesiamcrazy]

Family of 8 here. We've been 3 times in the last 4 years. Yes it is expensive. We stay only at value resorts, look for deals and discounts, drive mostly as opposed to fly (this past summer we found an amazing flight price and were able to fly). We don't stay as long as some people (6 nights has been the maximum). We may even start staying off site. We save all year for that summer trip. We drive used, paid for cars, have prepaid cell phones, buy generic groceries and use coupons. We are certainly not wealthy and I don't guarantee we'll be able to continue to make it work, but so far a yearly trip has been within reach.

Oh and I also have the visa credit card that I get points on.

 

[mrsklamc]

Family of 8 here. We've been 3 times in the last 4 years. Yes it is expensive. We stay only at value resorts, look for deals and discounts, drive mostly as opposed to fly (this past summer we found an amazing flight price and were able to fly). We don't stay as long as some people (6 nights has been the maximum). We may even start staying off site. We save all year for that summer trip. We drive used, paid for cars, have prepaid cell phones, buy generic groceries and use coupons. We are certainly not wealthy and I don't guarantee we'll be able to continue to make it work, but so far a yearly trip has been within reach.

Oh and I also have the visa credit card that I get points on.

OK with family of 8 you definitely need to check out romancing the mouse...We stayed there with 10 and it was SO great.

 

[Madisonsmom45]

I understand your thoughts on paying for a family of 5. Although we don't have 5 in our immediate family, we have always taken our tax return for our vacation. We use that. So depending on what the return is, that is what we are willing to spend on our vacation. I know it's not smart and you should not let the government have your money for a year and your supposed to keep as much of it in your own paycheck, but this works for us. It's kind of a secured savings as we know we can't touch it until tax time. It doesn't get used for bills, repairs, or anything like that. ( unless it was absolutely necessary ). So to make a long story short, this is how we are able to go just about every year. The day we get it, it gets thrown on the vacation. Usually paid in full.
Maybe this will help...

 

[torinsmom]

I understand your thoughts on paying for a family of 5. Although we don't have 5 in our immediate family, we have always taken our tax return for our vacation. We use that. So depending on what the return is, that is what we are willing to spend on our vacation. I know it's not smart and you should not let the government have your money for a year and your supposed to keep as much of it in your own paycheck, but this works for us. It's kind of a secured savings as we know we can't touch it until tax time. It doesn't get used for bills, repairs, or anything like that. ( unless it was absolutely necessary ). So to make a long story short, this is how we are able to go just about every year. The day we get it, it gets thrown on the vacation. Usually paid in full.
Maybe this will help...

I do that too. People might think it's stupid, but it works for me

 

[nicki.momof3]

I think people just make it work by sacrificing in different areas.

This statement is 100% correct.

We (family of 5) go to WDW 2 times a year (Easter and Christmas - peak I am a teacher).

We decided long ago that family vacations were very important to us and the time is a top priority. We live very busy lives so we love the time togehter.

That said we stay at POR (not deluxe).
We sut out extras at home to save. For example we have 3 kids (ages 6,7,8) and our family does not own a gaming system. No Wii, no DS - nothing. We buy new clothes when we need them not when we want them.

It is all about choices and budgeting and what your family chooses to spend their extra $$$ on.

 

[sk!mom]

This comes up often on here. You really can't make comparisons without knowing incomes, lifestyle, debt, distance, etc...

In our case, DH and I are 49 and married for 31 years. For the first 10 years, we were in school and then living frugally trying to pay off the debt. All vacations during that time were close to home and extremely budget. For the next 5 years, we were starting to really get on our feet and could vacation farther from home annually as long as we drove. Then we reached our goal of being debt free.

Now we're debt free and dual income. We've stayed in our modest home choosing to remodel rather than move. Travel is important to us so we have vacations in our regular budget. Although we don't so much budget as save as much as possible while getting the best deals on what we buy. We then plan at least one really great vacation each year.

We drove to Disney once 20 years ago and stayed offsite. It was fun but we didn't fall in love with it. It took 10 years and the birth of our princess to get us to give it another try. In the past 10 years, we've been 5 times. Flew all 5 times and stayed onsite. The first onsite trip that didn't cost us 52 hours in the car made us fall in love. We realized then that we aren't people who can drive that far or who enjoy staying offsite. We've stayed value 3 times but DH won't stay value unless it's a group trip with other people who really need value. We just came back from Wilderness Lodge and DH loved it so much, I may never convince him to stay anywhere else. We spend as much or more on every vacation as we do on a Disney vacation. We just choose to visit other places. We seem to need a Disney fix about every three years.