Discouraging prices for repeat trips

[Princesca]

No doubt, though, people have become accustomed to going to Disney far more often than it seemed people went a couple of decades ago.

When I was a kid in the 80s, most of my friends, by the time they reached high school, had been to Disney two, maybe three times, over the course of eighteen years.

Also, don't forget that Disboards are self-selecting. Anyone crazy enough about Disney to search out and post on a message board like this is going to be atypical when it comes to how many times they've been to Disney. They're also more likely to be someone who is willing to make an atypical degree of financial sacrifices for a trip to WDW. So here we are.

I suspect, if you polled the whole population, you'd find families have made 2-3 trips to Disney in the course of their family unit's history.

 

[thehowells]

to the original poster, i have a idea that may or may not work for you (depends on how flexible your travel dates are)
it is simply book, far in advance, once you make your deposit, you can move your reservation back a few weeks or months, and if any deals come out like free dinning, or 30% off of your room during the time you have booked, call and let them know you want to have that added, and the cm's on the phone can adjust your package accordingly

booking far out also gives you longer to pay for it
we booked yesterday for sept 2012, so i have a whole year to pay for my trip before the 45 days is upon me, but i really wished they took paypal, then i wouldn't have to use my credit card, or send money orders

 

[Pigeon]

It's a very expensive trip for us. Dh is a teacher so we are stuck with school winter or spring vacations. We live in the Northeast, and want to go when the weather is cold here, not when it's hot. The airfare is jacked up these two weeks, and Disney blacks out the deals. Last time it was about $6K to stay at a moderate, eating mostly counter service, with no souveniers or "extras" other than your basic park admissions.

We don't go very often. It's fun, but it's just too expensive.

 

[LaDonna]

My sister was going to go with us next year and while playing around with prices, including if there was free dining and upgrading to regular dining plan, I was only going to have to pay around $200 more than if she didn't go for her to be able to go with us(she had a budget of 600-700$) But now with all the price increases and such it is almost $500 more

 

[sammielynn]

Disney Visa is my friend! Use it on everything and always pay it off! There are also many reward sites out there that pay you money back for shopping through their links. I use Sunshine Rewards and do very well, I always have extra $$$ for Disney because of them.

 

[AmyMama2AvaNtheo]

This thread really has me thinking ... "How can I save more to help pay for our trip in Feb?"

We are military, so we get discounts most do not qualify for. Honestly, if Disney did not offer these deals, there is NO way as a family of 5 we could afford to go. I am a SAHM, with only my husbands Navy income. We are planning to go in Feb (value season) and using the special military tickets. Our trip will still cost close to 4K after everything.

We will be using part of our tax refund for spending money and the rest we will have paid for in advance.

 

[MinnieVanMom]

Disney has gotten so expensive. I remember when a mod room was about $100 with a discount. I was about to sell my DVC only to find out the same room is now nearly $200

We have just cut down on going to Disney. We use to go all the time and now I really make sure I have the entire cost in the bank before even considering the trip. Airfare, parking at airport, fuel, a quick meal on the way to airport, yes it is four hours away. Then the rental car, food, etc. It does cost about 4K even with a DVC to go to Disney. I now want more from my vacation and visit other countries rather than Epcot.

 

[nunzia]

No doubt, though, people have become accustomed to going to Disney far more often than it seemed people went a couple of decades ago.

When I was a kid in the 80s, most of my friends, by the time they reached high school, had been to Disney two, maybe three times, over the course of eighteen years.Also, don't forget that Disboards are self-selecting. Anyone crazy enough about Disney to search out and post on a message board like this is going to be atypical when it comes to how many times they've been to Disney. They're also more likely to be someone who is willing to make an atypical degree of financial sacrifices for a trip to WDW. So here we are.

I suspect, if you polled the whole population, you'd find families have made 2-3 trips to Disney in the course of their family unit's history.

One of my BIL just said this to us when he heard we were going AGAIN.."Disney is supposed to be just as special once or twice trip for kids" and I piped in, "Yes, once or twice a YEAR.." then did the standard "it's no different than people going to the beach every year, or camping every year, or fishing, etc." I then told DH to stop talking about our trips so much

 

[KELLY]

We only have 2 kids so once you add the 3rd one that is a big factor in the price. Beacuse of acomdations. We stayed at value resort the past 2 years and gone when FD was offered. WE did upgrade our hotel to a moderate for this trip. But I still find disney very affordable for our family of 4. This will be our 3rd year with free dining and that helps.

With all the said with the price increases for next year we will might be staying in a value again. I haven't price it out but I'm guessing it is around 300.00 more than it would be this year. My dh hasn't had a raise and had to take a pay cut over 3 years ago. We have only are home as debt and that is it. Dh has 2 very small credit cards with zero on them. We drive older cars. But it is time to get a payment soon. Dh truck is 12 years old and my van is going on 6. I also refuse to pay more than 300.00 car payment. I'm sort of cheap like that.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

We live locally (a little over an hour away), so travel to and from Disney isn't an issue for us. Also, we bought a cheap Wyndham contract off of Ebay for like $700 a couple of years ago. It gets us 2 weeks in a 2 bedroom at Bonnet Creek (inside the Disney gates) every year. That 2 bedroom has a full kitchen so I just bring groceries and cook all of our meals. We pay $73.xx/month in dues on this contract, which is reasonable IMHO.

Our only big expense related to going to Disney is our annual pass cost. We pay around $1200/year for APs I think. Honestly, I don't think that the pass cost is worth it, but my DH and kids do so I go with it (for now).

 

[gracie1]

You will want to go back! I do. However, we could've taken 3 cruises for the price of 1 trip to disney
I plan on going back December 2013, when the Magic Kingdom refurbs are finished.
Next year I am doing a cruise to Bermuda

But I do agree....going to the beach (i work at the beach resort) for a week will be $2k-$5k depending on where you stay, not counting groceries and food.

 

[MK2010]

We're a family of 6 from Texas. I worked 70 hour weeks for 4 months to pay for our last trip. i assumed it would be our only trip. Was I surprised! It only fed my addiction. It got my husband hooked too. We're planning on going back in Jan. 2013. We may have to put it off for a year...we'll see. I was talking to the kids about it today, they said they would help. Here are their money saving ideas:

1) Cut back on meal expenses. Yogurt for breakfast, Ramen noodles for lunch and dinner. No snack.

2) They would bathe and wash their clothes only once a month to save on our water bill.

3) Since we're a homeschooling family, I could just not buy any more school books.



Or maybe I'll find another way!

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

We're a family of 6 from Texas. I worked 70 hour weeks for 4 months to pay for our last trip. i assumed it would be our only trip. Was I surprised! It only fed my addiction. It got my husband hooked too. We're planning on going back in Jan. 2013. We may have to put it off for a year...we'll see. I was talking to the kids about it today, they said they would help. Here are their money saving ideas:

1) Cut back on meal expenses. Yogurt for breakfast, Ramen noodles for lunch and dinner. No snack.

2) They would bathe and wash their clothes only once a month to save on our water bill.

3) Since we're a homeschooling family, I could just not buy any more school books.




Or maybe I'll find another way!

So funny!!

 

[Nayan]

We live locally (a little over an hour away), so travel to and from Disney isn't an issue for us. Also, we bought a cheap Wyndham contract off of Ebay for like $700 a couple of years ago. It gets us 2 weeks in a 2 bedroom at Bonnet Creek (inside the Disney gates) every year. That 2 bedroom has a full kitchen so I just bring groceries and cook all of our meals. We pay $73.xx/month in dues on this contract, which is reasonable IMHO.

Our only big expense related to going to Disney is our annual pass cost. We pay around $1200/year for APs I think. Honestly, I don't think that the pass cost is worth it, but my DH and kids do so I go with it (for now).

We're locals too and have decided we've had enough. We're not renewing our AP's this year and not going to F&W. We want to go different places and with the cost of Disney climbing we're just not that interested in going anymore.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

We're locals too and have decided we've had enough. We're not renewing our AP's this year and not going to F&W. We want to go different places and with the cost of Disney climbing we're just not that interested in going anymore.

From your tag, you live somewhere near me BTW. We're in Indialantic.

The pass cost is just insane, isn't it? We get the DVC discount and and/or the FL resident discount, and I still cringe when we renew the passes. Right now only DH and DD have a pass (DD2 is still free thank goodness). My pass expired in March and I still haven't renewed it. I will do so in Nov. when we go for Thanksgiving, but it really pains me to pay so much for passes. We don't get the ones with the waterparks and the video game place anymore either even though my kids are now to the age where they'd enjoy the water parks. I just can't justify the cost.

I feel like I've had enough too. In July we used a timeshare exchange to get Marriott Lakeshore Reserve in a 2 bedroom. It was AWESOME. The kids did SeaWorld camp that week and that was also amazing. We're planning to make that our "big" vacation next year instead of Disney. SeaWorld passes are actually cheap compared to Disney passes.

 

[McKelly]

Yes, we have a trip planned for Christmas, with friends, but this might be it for awhile. I keep telling myself that I need to broaden my kid's horizon's and take them other places but Disney has always ended up being the best value for our family, due to our vacationing style (need something to do every day, no relaxing ). Now, I find that both my kids being over 9, it has gotten quite expensive, plus the rising costs of the rooms, tickets, etc.

So, if I needed the gentle nudge to go vacation elsewhere, I think the rising costs at Disney have done it for me. We have stayed off-site, while it was OK, I prefer on-site. I can get OK somewhere else and explore new areas of the country.

 

[MK2010]

I priced a vacation to San Antonio this year for our family. Since we live in Texas that would be cheaper right? Well, the answer is yes and no. We went last year and did the cheap route. We camped at a KOA, explored the Natural Caverns cave and went to the Alamo. If we went and did 2 days at Sea World, 2 days at Fiesta Texas (an amusement park owned by the Six Flags chain), and 2 days at Schlitterbahn (a water park) it would cost us around $3,000. I'd rather skip that and pay the $6,000 it cost us to go to Disney last year.
What I really wish, is that my husband, a minister, would feel called to go preach the gospel in Florida! Not really, I love where we are in Texas for our family, but doesn't Mickey need a preacher too?

 

[budafam]

2 Words: OFF SITE. We went to Disney for our first time in May of this year and I loved it. We had a lot of discounts though (including our Disney rewards Visa dollars to use up) so the entire trip ended up costing us $2700 for a family of 4 while staying ON property at Pop. We ate 4 meals at sit down restaurants and the rest were either in our room or at counter service/quick service places.

I want to go back. DH said no way, not for 2 years because it would be so expensive. I started crunching numbers. His mom wants to go with us this time so it will be 5 people and DD will be 3 so she counts as a person this time Even with free dining offers, the costs were outrageous. I'm talking $5,000-6,000 for us. So we looked into staying offsite and WOW! It cut our hotel funds in HALF! Plus we get the luxury of an entire house instead of being squashed into a small hotel room. We can now afford to go and still eat at all of the restaurants we wanted to (almost every meal) for MUCH less than what we would've been paying with free dining.

It just takes some number crunching.

 

[Cin]

Did you know you can book way in advance of your trip and make payments on it through WDW travel? All you have to put down at booking time is a $200 deposit. I am looking at booking a Nov 2012 trip and it is a lot easier to make small payments on it all year long than spend 1 big chunk at a time. It takes the sting out of the bite that way. Either way, it's a lot of money, but I don't mind budgeting for my Disney trips. I do hope for free dining on my dates.