Do you pay for your WDW trip before or after?

[dreamingdisney]

I'm also one of those using their tax return to pay for their trip. I'd rather do it this way instead of using a CC. It's going to be soooo nice knowing that this trip is paid for before we leave!!

I agree with some of the previous posters who mentioned that time is slipping away for vacations with pre-teens. My DS is 12 (will be 13 in May) and my DD is 4. We've never been to WDW (been to DLR many times), and I want to look back and say that this is something we did while we still had the chance.
(Hopefully my DS will become a Disney teen)

 

[bigbabyblues]

Well, we usually end up putting the vacation on a credit card, because it's safer and easier than paying cash, but the amount we can charge depends on how much we saved. For instance, we went to WDW last fall. We charged $1300 and some odd dollars to our Visa to cover our package. When I got off the phone with Disney and had the total, I wrote the check to Visa. I had budgeted $140 a day for food on our trip, so that's the max we could spend each day on food, etc. We didn't end up spending all the money that we saved, and I wrote the check to Visa when I got home.

If we can't pay it off when the bill comes, we don't charge it. Unless it's an emergency, like when DH had to get his car fixed the other day; we didn't have the $400 cash, so it had to be charged, but not a vacation.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

In trying to get yourself out of debt--remember to give up only what you can live without--if you feel like you are sacrificing tooo much, then you will reduce your chances of success.

That being said--we pay as we go...pay our deposits and then use a debit card or a credit card that we pay off immediately.

We NEVER vacation on debt--so if we cannot afford it, we do not go.

 

[disneysteve]

Don't mean for this to get to personal, but since it's the budget board, I'm curious, when you want to go to Disney (or any other vacation destination) do you save enough to go to Disney or plan the trip, and if you don't have enough put it on Credit Cards & pay it off later?

We charge everything we possibly can and pay the bills in full when they come each month. We never carry a balance on our cards. We use two reward credit cards and earn hundreds of dollars worth of rewards each year.

 

[skiwee1]

I put the minimum deposit down most times and then pay the whole CC off when we get the bill. Works great for us and we never have to pay interest.

 

[littlestix]

I'm planning a trip this fall. I have a small amount of money saved in my "Disney fund". I'll be adding 1/2 to 3/4's of my tax check to that then I will still continue to save before the trip. If i save more than I need I'll put the extra in my christmas fund. I don't see any reason not to use my tax check. If i got the money through the year I would just spend it on something else like clothes.

 

[travelbug]

I have an ongoing account set aside just for travel (not just WDW, but any travel). I add to that account every payday. When I go on vacation, I often use my credit card for convenience. But the bill gets paid as soon as it comes. I generally overplan for how much I'll need/want to spend, so I know I'll have more than enough money when the trip comes.

 

[poohpcgirl]

Before any Vacation I always have everything paid for and then some before I go. I always save the spending money too before we go. That way, you know how much you have and you can spend it all without worrying about what will happen when you get home. I am going for 6 days and I am taking around 1300-1500 for the food and little extras. (And we are staying in a cabin and will be eating some there) So if I come back with extra, wonderful... it can go back into the ING savings for the next trip. You want a Vacation to be fun and relaxing and not have to dread coming home to a lot of bills. I have the ING savings account and it takes 50-75 dollars twice a month out of our checking. We never miss it and we have a constant Vacation fund all the time. No matter where we decide to go on Vacation. This is just how I like to do it. If I plan it enough in advance, then I take away just a bit at a time, it does not seem to be noticible at all in our daily lives.

 

[newholidayx2]

before of course

 

[Amirah95]

We pay for WDW before we go...we don't charge anything on our credit cards. We pay for everything with cash/debit card now. We even save up our spending money. Credit cards we use for emergencies. If you can get the expenses out of the way before then you're better off. No worries!

 

[luv2nascar]

I am currently saving for our family to go to disney.
We could have gone sooner but the money keeps slipping away
$2,600 to my new (used) van in the last year with repairs etc .
Always something comes up. But I am really trying to save like crazy and crossing fingers for trip in 2005.

We will pay for trip in advance. Kids save birthday and xmas money for the trip. I think I'm going to start putting some disney dollars away each pay for our trip. If we go in 2005 it will probably be at least another 2-4 year before we get back again. I know its a long time but we like to go to Ocean City, MD and we can't afford both. So we will go to the shore for a few years and save for disney.

 

[amyup]

This will be our first vacation on CC. This is also our first vacation to Disneyworld. We are justifying it by knowing that we are getting my husband's bonus a couple of weeks after we get back so the vacation will be paid off probably within that first CC statement. It is kind of strange to go on vacation without having it prepaid for but we thought what the heck, it will be paid off in the next month and it's worth it, since my son will be turning 3 that month ( so he is free on the trip) and I plan on becoming pregnant relatively soon.

I say life is too short and we live for vacations! If you have a plan to pay it off, go and enjoy it!

 

[jeancbpugh]

We pay for it at the time we spend it. We use credit cards for convenience, but pay off the total that same month, never ever carrying over so never a finance fee.

In my opinion, it isn't right to spend money you don't have yet on a vacation.

 

[wasabi girl]

I started saving for our first WDW vacation in Dec 2005, this past July 2004. I'm thinking of a trip Dec 2006 to take my Mom and I'm saving for that too. I think whatever way works for everyone is fine. But as for me, I enjoy saving for our trip and I'm going to enjoy being there so much more knowing that when I come home I won't owe a thing...

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I don't do credit cards...so I HAVE to save for my Disney trips BEFORE we go! I have about $700 saved up right now for whatever comes along. DH and I have a trip to Atlanta planned in May in July so the money will go to that first of course. I "officially" started saving for Disney in December of last year, but our trip isn't til May 2006 and more than likely I will use part of our income tax refund to pay for it. Yes....I'm one of those that likes the gov't to "hold" my money. I've NEVER put any vacation on a credit card, I've always had it paid for upfront! Nothing like walking into that Disney hotel and giving them the traveller's cheques for the room right up front!

I'm very excited about our trip to Atlanta in a few months. Can visit Atlanta twice almost three times for what our 7 day trip to Disney is going to cost in 2006. But that's okay, because DH and I haven't been to Disney since May of 2001 and I enjoy the time we are there and really have a fun time saving for it!

 

[Mad4Dizne]

We try to have everything paid off before we go, including gratuities, etc. However, since having a family member (middle aged)have cancer and go through the treatments and recovery period..... We now look on life a bit different. If trip time comes and it is not all paid for. We are still going. There are no guarantees in life and noone knows what the future brings, I say you sometimes need to "seize the day", as they say.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I try to pay it off before we go, but if not I will charge it and pay it later. This trip we already have our APs from last year, I've been paying on our hotel (GF - 2 weeks) every month and I buy Disney dollars every week so I'm sure we'll have enough spening money. We also have about $400 in change saved so far. I think the only thing we'll be charging are the airline tickets but will pay that in full when we come back. THe kids have their own disney dollars (gifts all year long) so they can buy all the souveniers they want. We're also buying the DDE (saving 20% off our dinners and such will be great since we'll be there two weeks and like counter service restaurants).

 

[welovedisneyx4]

We do several differents things to pay for our vacations. We save some before, we use our tax refund and DH's bonus (sometimes he gets one, sometimes not.) and we usually end up putting something on the credit card. We also take the $ we would be spending for groceries, etc. if we were at home.

We could probably re-do our taxes, etc. to get more back w/ each check, but we do like getting the big refund and it does help us w/ savings.

We try to have enough cash to cover everything on the trip before we leave, but we frequently end up putting something on the credit card. We try to pay that off ASAP when we get home. (Doesn't always happen, though. LOL!)

We are anxious to get our tax refund this year to pay the maint. fee/taxes on our Westgate condo and to catch up on a couple of bills and then to see how much we have left for everything else! (Including our fall Disney trip!)

 

[grlpwrd]

I build up savings for our particular trips yet put the bills on credit cards to get the reward credits. Then I quickly pay our credit card bill using our online bill payment service thru our bank with the savings.

 

[WDWorBUST]

We have the money saved before we go. We do have CC debt from my DH being off work for almost a year and I HATE it. I have a plan though to get it paid off and still go on vacation - it's like someone said earlier - if you give up to much you go crazy once you get the debt gone and you are right back where you started....you know it's kind of like dieting. If you just change the way you eat and allow yourself to have the things you like - only in moderation you will be much more successful in the long run.