Help!! Thinking of Canceling Our Trip

[leebee]

Don't know if you have "young princesses", but at WDW in January, make-your-own-crown was all the rage. For only a small fortune or an appendage, you get to pick a foam crown, then decorate it with beads, baubles and drapy-things...final cost based on the amount of decorating. We did NOT participate, much to the dismay of the younger princesses. Dsis and I are prepared this time...we've been saving princess stickers, beads, chiffon, etc to bring with us, along with a small slue gun and some sheets of art foam. On a quiet afternoon, our princesses will make their crowns in the luxury of our room...we may (deceptively) tell them we have already picked up the stuff from Disney, or not, but are planning a tea party to follow crown designing. Hopefully we will ahve a quiet afternoon out of the hot sun, and get a "lovely souvenier", too!

 

[leebee]

Also...each younger child *and maybe older, too* will want their own autograph book. Get them at Publix...I think <$3, spiral bound, in three different themes...Pooh, Princesses, or traditional characters. My DD has the characters autograph only one side of a double-opened page...then after photos come back, she pastes the photo of herself with the character on the page opposing the autograph. Another cool souvenier, maybe you could do a group photo with each character, then make duplicates for each child's book- cheaper than film and developing for six photos per character!

 

[madison66]

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[CheapMom]

rent out your rv for extra money

 

[Cameo]

Just another thought about Universal. We had Universal all planned for our last trip, but when we arrived in WDW, my daughter ended up with a lung infection (on her birthday) and we realized that we really needed more down time. We opted to skip Universal and just do some free things like checking out other resorts (even went to Ft. Wilderness!!). My kids were also more than happy to do an extra day at the water park, or even the pool, instead of another park with lots of hurrying and walking. Think how cheap it is to just sit around and enjoy your family in a great vacation atmosphere!! We saved some money by doing that and were glad we did.

 

[anditoo72]

Thank all of you for all your posts and great ideas. I am still working on my husband on skipping Universal, but there is no more talk of cancelling the trip altogether, thank goodness. I let him know there were many free things that we were not taking advantage of with such a packed schedule. We should cut back, mainly Universal, to save money and relax more.

I did go to the Disney Store today and got each of the younger ones a t-shirt (prices between 3.99-5.99), and a toy 50% off. I got all six kids a personal light up battery operated (batteries included yeah!) for $2.50 each. I also bought glow necklaces at the dollar store for .50 each. These will totally help my souviner budget. My husband loved the idea!! (In keeping with the bring from home and save, I bought disposable rain ponchos for .50 each also yippee. Ya'all created a monster!!!

I didn't get the older three a t-shirt or toy because our plan is to give them a chore to do everyday at the motor home and mid to end of the week give them each $20.00 to spend how they choose. Thanks to the ideas on this thread about responsibility!! The younger kids will be thrilled with thier new items and never know I didn't buy them at the parks. I know the older kids wouldn't whine anyway for not getting anything in the parks because two of the three older are my neice and nephew, so they are just happy to be comming along!! Thanks for all these great ideas on this thread, you guys have been great and very encouraging!!!!!!!

 

[missydisney]

I think you should follow your heart. If Dh is big on Universal maybe attend a tour at a timeshare and get discount tickets. We went to Westgate in April and got our 1 day disney ticets for about 20.00 each.
Also consider a soft pack cooler. We just bought one a WalMart for less than 5.00. It will hold 4 bottles of water and has an expandable top section that will hold sandwiches. Also Fort Wilderness is close enough to go back to the RV for lunch a great way to cool off. Take a swim then hit the parks again in the evening. Hope this helps.

 

[bigbabyblues]

One thing I thought of that you could do for free while you're there is go to the Campfire at FW (since you're already going to be there, lol). I think you roast marshmallows/make smores (bring your own stuff since you're camping there, it's cheaper), have a sing a long, Chip and Dale come and visit, and then they show a movie or two. Sounds like fun, I'm trying to work it into our trip. That would be a good, very inexpensive character experience, if the kids are into that.

Do you have extra stuff laying around? You could have a garage sale, and put all your profit towards your trip. Not sure how your area is, but I had a 2-day garage sale in May and made over $300.

I just read your post about buying the things at the Disney store, that's a great idea!

I'm glad you're still going to get to go on your trip, with some planning, it will all work out.

Steph

 

[ttichenor]

A couple of ideas we've tried...

We have set a dollar amount for the girls that they can spend on vacation. We give them a set amount and then they can spend it all or bring it all home, whatever they do with it. The trips we have done this has resulted in the some of the girl's favorite things. These are the chronic show and tell items at school, etc. I think they are more special because they had to weigh spending their money vs. how badly they really wanted the item. My SIL told me this tip several years ago and it has worked wonderfully!

Walgreens has a soft sided foldable cooler that is a free gift with 2 packs of Gatorade. It's U G L Y, but who cares? A friend of mine just went to WDW the week before Memorial Day and used hers in lieu of refrigerator at CBR. It folded flat for the flight and then she just used ice from the machine every morning.