Disney Debt!

[DCLMP]

Disney execs know exactly what people want. Prices keep going up, but people keep coming in droves. They totally know.
The problem for us is that Disney doesn't really care what DVC members want. We are a small percentage of their guests.

So is that why people are going into debt for Disney vacations?

 

[simonsayz]

While true that disney has gotten expensive, I've been upgrading my stay to better hotels and staying longer and longer.
The way I think is, I just need to make more money and not let a job take control of how much I can make. Which is why I started multiple businesses to get different streams of income.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I think my mom probably regrets not taking some trips when my sister and I were younger. Not to putting it on a credit card, but instead using some of the insane levels of cash she was socking away for retirement. Now she’s retired, my dad has passed away, and with her SS, 401K and pension she has plenty of money. But no one to travel with.

She keeps offering to take me & my family somewhere if we’d go with her. But for my mental state (and the fact that we can easily afford whatever we want), I just have no interest.

My mom has been gone for 5 years. I’d give my right arm for a chance to travel with my mom and kids again, even if she wasn't paying.
We did a lot of Disney cruises together when we were younger and don’t regret a single one.
I have a lot of happy memories and our kids do too.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

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[goofytinkerbell]

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[DCLMP]

It's been interesting reading the responses here.

Yes, Disney is VERY overpriced. People often forget that they are targeting people with higher income levels, and that's the majority of people on the boards. I'm not sure why I stick around, I'm certainly not in that demographic. I grew up poor. A vacation was a pipe dream, let alone a Disney vacation. I've been to the parks twice. The first time my parents put themselves in debt to give us a once in a lifetime family vacation (on the cheap, stayed offsite, etc). Our first vacation ever. I see people condemning people for going into debt for a trip, but my father was working himself to death. It was the first time he'd ever taken a day off work that wasn't absolutely necessary. It's the only time in my life I remember him being around for any length of time and enjoying himself. The second time my boyfriend-at-the-time and I were travelling through on our way somewhere else and we managed to stop for a couple days. Hardly a blip, but I couldn't pass up going back when I had the chance. We also did that trip on the cheap.

Financially, I'm better off now, but with inflation I'm not sure it's much different. I'm technically glassed as middle class, but I just barely make that cutoff. This year I might not. I'll never be able to afford to go back, and I know it. Right now it's a struggle to survive, and I'm not getting any younger so I need to start thinking long term. Even taking that out of the equation, Disney prices just aren't worth it. I read the boards. Crowds are too big, entry prices are way too high, you're nickel and dimed to death once inside, and overall quality is down. They've turned into another huge corporation who cares about nothing other than profits. If I had the money and did go then I'm sure I'd have fun, but I'm also sure I'd have buyers remorse. But the "if"s don't matter, since myself and my whole family have been priced out.

Disney has always been expensive. but now it's unreasonable. It really shocks me how many people are still willing to pay for it. But I get wanting to experience the magic.

I think your third sentence sums it up. I wouldn't let it get you down. This board isn't a good example of the general population. I doubt many people in the middle class even come here anymore.

 

[simonsayz]

Got any tips? Seriously though, I've tried and failed so many times. I think a lot of it comes from not having money to start with.

I grew up poor and raised from the hood so I understand what is like to be broke. I never went to a Disney trip until it was with my ex when I was 20 and that was just putting it on a cc while still a student and was in $20K+ in cc debt and plus student loans. I didn't go on trips. My trip as a kid was to action park with a total of 8 people packed into a Ford Taurus back in the 90s LMAO.

I was working my full-time job while working on my accounting and consulting businesses. I focused on improving my career to gain more knowledge. My business didn't take off until last year. I had the business for more than 5 years but never did much with it.
5 years ago I was waking up 4am to just market myself on the internet and figuring out how to use free software. I would go to work with a driving commute of 2 hours one-way. I used to live in NYC and my commute was 2-3 hours one way, taking the bus, ferry, train and walking. I would spend those time reading books on making money.

I would go to sleep at 12am because when I get back home I needed to market myself again and create my own websites and some other things. I finally got a client but that only was 3 times a year service so it wasn't much. I finally got a recurring client that was paying me only $120 a month for more than a year and he was my only client. I did odd work within my business to just make a few bucks here and there as a consultant and made only like $2k in a span of 1.5 years.

I didn't really use any of my money to start because I was working with free software that didn't do a good job, but I stuck with it regardless because I couldn't afford to spend money I don't have. Wouldn't make sense to spend $90/mo when making only $120 and spending 3-5 hours to work on it. I literally wanted to give up because I was lacking sleep, working my butt off for pennies. While people were working 40 hours a week, I was putting close to 50 hours for my employer while spending almost 90 hours a week on my own stuff and sleeping around only 28-30 hours a week. When I wasn't catering to the client I would get certifications and learn how to use different software and even Computer Operating system. I now use Linux as my main OS and it helps because it is a selling point to my client that I am 99.99% hack free. In fact, I joined a hacking club and was ranked one of the top hackers. My purpose is to keep my clients' information as safe as possible. Learning new set of skills might lead you to another type of venture and business opportunity.

Most businesses fail not because of not having enough money to start, it is because people don't stick with it long enough to see the fruition of it.

Now I am only working strictly on my businesses. Next month will be my official 1 year of not working for an employer.
So I have an accounting business, a consulting business, and a construction business.

I apologize to the readers for this long post about myself but I think anyone that wants to start a business need to see it through.

Not everyone is made to do their own business and kudos to people who wants to work for a paycheck. I grew up knowing that I don't want to work for an employer for the rest of my life. But I believe there are enough money around in the world that anyone can get out of the gutter.

Find something you are good at and ENJOY at it. Don't do something just because the money is good. It won't last.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

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[goofytinkerbell]

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[barkley]

People paying to go there now are not interested in what some people think is now missing. They for the most part want super cool rides. In the 70s and 80s the rides were actually fairly low key and not the reason people went to Disney. Now the rides are a major factor.

If all I want is thrill rides, I can head to the closest Six Flags for a lot less than the cost of a Disney trip.

and that is the sentiment many of us found our older teens/young adults expressing when we proposed return trips to disney. the rides are not attractive to their desires and they feel none of the emotional connections to any repetative experiences/observations at the parks that many of us who visited as children have.

the last trip we took with our adult children they were much more keen on going to universal. the felt the rides were better and made a better connection with them (they identified with harry potter while they viewed the competing disney star wars offerings as being dated b/c they equate it with 'an old overdone movie franchise that came out when YOU were in high school and disney has been doing and redoing since the 80's').

 

[dclpluto]

The last two years I rented out my DVC points. So instead of spending 15 k dollars I got 15k dollars. That’s a 30k dollar turn around. Never go in debt for a vacation.

 

[FreckledOne]

Most businesses fail not because of not having enough money to start, it is because people don't stick with it long enough to see the fruition of it.

Agree. People see the end result, and some want that lifestyle/success, but don‘t have an inkling about all the hard work and sacrifice it took to get there.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Many people go into debt to buy DVC. Those who saved in advance to buy have lost investment potential/growth had they not used that money to buy DVC.
If you can make money buying DVC and renting points, that's great, but overall timeshares are not an investment. I'm not saying people shouldn't buy DVC or shouldn't spend on vacations either. I look at spending on vacations is an investment in my sanity and quality of life.

 

[FreckledOne]

People here are also... cheap? Poor? They want everything for nothing, or you bill and they don't want to pay, so consulting is difficult.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Agree. People see the end result, and some want that lifestyle/success, but don‘t have an inkling about all the hard work and sacrifice it took to get there.

This can be said of sooo many successful people, not just financially successful. Others look at successful athletes, musicians, etc as if it was all so easy, just handed to them and they started at the top.
Ask Arnold Schwarzenegger how hard he worked to earn several Mr. Universe titles. He wasn't just born that way.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

View attachment 898590

My son loves this one, but numbers need to be adjusted up to modern-day levels.
Now it's more like $30-50/hr.

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

This can be said of sooo many successful people, not just financially successful. Others look at successful athletes, musicians, etc as if it was all so easy, just handed to them and they started at the top.
Ask Arnold Schwarzenegger how hard he worked to earn several Mr. Universe titles. He wasn't just born that way.

But there’s also a portion to be attributed to luck. The right place, right time. Because for all those successful people there’s also a group that worked just as hard that didn’t make it.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

But there’s also a portion to be attributed to luck. The right place, right time. Because for all those successful people there’s also a group that worked just as hard that didn’t make it.

This is true but do people who didn't put in any of the work become successful at their craft? Usually not. Those are the ones who tend to look at successful people with jealousy instead of admiration.

 

[loves to dive]

Is it expensive? Yes. It has always been expensive for most people.

When we started going back in 1983 I was a single mom working as a secretary. So one of those people working from pay check to pay check. We went the first time with my Mama and one of my older brother's who lived in Clearwater at the time and they had annual passes. My son (who was just over 3 at the time) fell in love with it. After that he and I would go every other year because it took me 2 years to save for it. On the off years we would take short trips to places we could drive to for long weekends. Like the beach or the mountains (we live in Georgia). He knew what we were saving for so had no problems sharing Happy Meals on the rare occasions we went out to eat. We continued to go every other year until he was an adult and married, he and his wife also started going with me every other year. About 12 or 13 years ago, he moved too far away to get down and go with me so I started going solo and was able to go every year.

Circumstances changed financially for me, I now have a husband so two incomes. He, however, is not a theme park fan. I'm retired now but planned well for my retirement and have 0 debt. I go at least twice a year now, some years more than that. I can drive down from Georgia and have an AP. My son, his SO and their little girl have gone 4 times since she was born and she is 3 1/2. They stay in value resorts and don't buy PHs. They have 2 incomes but are not upper middle class, they don't go into debt to go though. They just don't spend money on much of anything else. They rarely eat out (3 year olds are hard to take out) and they don't take vacations other places.

Hubby and I used to scuba dive so he and I would travel to other places for that. We got a dog that couldn't be boarded or left with anyone other than us so that had to stop. We now own a RV and take short trips in that. Talk about expensive. Both scuba diving and RVs are much more expensive than WDW ever was for us.

 

[Dakota731]

But there’s also a portion to be attributed to luck. The right place, right time. Because for all those successful people there’s also a group that worked just as hard that didn’t make it.

They may have worked hard but often without a realistic game plan or strategy. New restaurants have a very high fail rate - 4 out of 5 won’t make it past five years. Yet I’ve seen people with no restaurant experience take on a huge amount of debt and risk their families future for a fly by night idea that was doomed from the start. I know people who have started a cupcake business after that fad has already faded and wonder why they didn’t succeed. It’s not just bad luck, it’s not researching the market or getting real life advice from other entrepreneurs.