How do you afford multiple trips?

[EllenMurphy]

I would suggest asking in the Canadian forum for some tips as I also see people who have tips on the exchange rate and an US bank account, etc.

 

[Shellyred8]

Timing matters. If you can go during off-peak times, you are going to save some $$ vs going during the busier times. This will most likely apply to almost all aspects of your trip.

If you go the route of buying discounted Disney Gift cards, start by just buying one or two a month in smaller dollar amounts.

 

[sponica]

I go on vacation to enjoy a lifestyle bump, so our ordinary lives are pretty boring. We never plan one that's more than we can stomach paying and if we spend a little extra it's never the end of the world.

That being said, my husband flew a lot for his old job, and the miles paid for the flights on our last 2 trips to Disney.

 

[ford91exploder]

As my partner and I have made more money, we have consciously kept our spending virtually the same. That gives us more money to play with each year. We invest most of it and use the rest to fund our obsession with travel.

A big house, fancy clothes, eating out, or expensive cars don’t make us really happy. Sure, they are nice...but we don’t need them to sustain our happiness. Travel makes us happy. So we have cut costs in all other areas and put that money towards travel.

You too have discovered the secret, "want what you already have not what someone else has"

 

[Cheburashka]

Everyone on the boards seems to go to Disney almost yearly, how do you all afford it? We are from Canada and I feel like we've been saving forever!

1. We fly to Florida from Texas, not Canada.
2. I'm in my 40's, so have had some time to become financially stable. I never used to travel when I was in my 20's or even much when I was in my 30's.
3. My son and I usually travel as a party of two, which cuts down on costs.
4. I'm frugal in most other areas of my life besides travel. As a single mother of a special needs child, most of my disposable income goes towards my son's education & other needs, and the rest goes towards travel for the two of us.

Btw I can't recommend trying to save money by stockpiling Disney gift cards. I tried that once and got stuck with several after some trip changes, and they were a hassle to keep track of. Finally, after two years, I've spent them all and it was joyous to finally delete the empty cards from the Disney gift card website. I know some people like doing this, but think twice before plunging in- it isn't for everyone.

 

[Elephantay]

CC rewards points, an above average household income, and a middle class lifestyle.

Our last Disney trip (2 of us) cost us 1k all in. Flights, hotel, tickets, and most transport was covered by CC rewards.

Could you share how you are able to get tickets with credit card rewards?

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Could you share how you are able to get tickets with credit card rewards?

Capital One Venture sign up bonus. Undercovertourist for tickets which codes as a travel expense so you can use your points against it.

This outlines the basics of how to do it although I disagree with the Swan/Dolphin redemption due to the points required: https://www.choosefi.com/disney-for-free/

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

As someone else said, people have different levels of disposable income. We live in a modest house for our income level. We buy used cars. We drive to the parks even though it’s almost 24 hrs from where we live. I use a budgeting spreadsheet to figure up how much meals are going to cost. Sometimes we eat outside of Disney. We’ve stayed offsite before. I have the Disney Chase debit card which had gotten us good room discounts the last 3 years. We spend on average $5-6k per trip for a family of 4 for 5/6 days in the park. We plan some meals that we can share. Sometimes I bring uncrustables and chips and my kids eat those instead of paying $7 for almost the exact same meal at Disney. We also bring bottles of water, snacks, and breakfast items. And we check Shop Disney when we find souvineers we like to see if we can buy them later once we are home. Cuts down on impulse buys.

 

[SwanVT2]

Rent points for dvc
Eat breakfast in room
Only do at the most one sit down meal per day and do it for lunch not dinner
don't eat at the expensive restaurants
Credit card points for flights
Don't go to park everyday.
Be frugal.with souvenirs
Aaa discounts at some.DS dining

 

[crisi]

Disposable income. Investment income. Having had two professional incomes in a fairly low cost of living region of the country enabled us to vacation regularly AND save.

(On the American side, we pay about $500 a month for a health care plan - and about $8k a year in deductibles - and we have really good insurance.)

 

[StuckInKS]

We have 6 kids, so it is a big spend to go to Disney especially now since we need two rooms, prefer staying onsite and all of our kids have grown out of Disney kids meals. Still, we make sure we cut what we need to if we want to go. Our home is older and paid off. We buy used vehicles. We drive 1,200 miles instead of flying. We keep our monthly expenses low so we only use about 1/2 of our income each month for actual living and the rest goes into savings. Then we earmark about 1/3 of our savings each month to take one vacation a year.

 

[PAsFab5]

We plan trips based on cheap flights...so if I can get $30-$60 RT flights to MCO on frontier I will start building a mock trip and see what it will cost in total.

We stay offsite at Airbnbs...we have paid between $800-$2,000 for 7-9 nights depending on the size of the place and amount of nights.

We always rent a car so before committing to a trip I check car rental rates. With the car we can get groceries and eat breakfast at home and pack snacks.

I am a DOD civilian and I am fortunate enough to be able to use the Military ticketing office on the base where I work to get deeply discounted tickets. I have also bought them onsite at Shades of Green if it was a last minute trip and my travel office could not get them in time.

Lastly, we don’t do the parks everyday. Florida is a gorgeous state with so much to see and do. We visit new beaches, go on hikes, visit new towns, go to flea markets....so yes we may go to Disney every year but we are only in the parks 1-3 days out of a week long vacation.

 

[Mikeyg76]

I use Marriott reward points for hotels (stay at marriotts mostly for work), I use point based credit cards to pay for most things and then use those points towards statement credits, I also buy Disney gift cards from Sam Club at a 4% discount and this month with a chase freedom card you can save an extra 5%.

 

[Stargazer65]

Debt, my friend, debt. You only live once after all.

Dut-dut-dut-dut--dut-duuu!! Charrrrrrrge...it!!

 

[jbrinkm]

The concept of renting DVC points is intriguing to me... Can someone point me to a thread where I could learn more?

We've only been once before (and an upcoming trip this summer), but we could probably afford to go more often if we wanted to - we just also like to see other places. We manage our finances similarly to many people here: paid-off modest home, drive our reliable, non-luxury cars into the ground, public schools, keep our cell phones until they break, cook & eat at home, discount flights, value resorts, etc... We also try to keep our trips short and cram as much as we can into a few days!

But thanks for asking this question, DisneyMama811! I've been wondering the same thing myself.

 

[Timandalicia]

Everyone on the boards seems to go to Disney almost yearly, how do you all afford it? We are from Canada and I feel like we've been saving forever!! I would love to be able to go yearly but it's so expensive! last time I was at Disney was in 2011 with my then boyfriend now husband, since then we've bought a house got married and had 2 kids and are only just now getting to a place where Disney is a financial possibility (then covid came along ) I've been pricing things out and once you factor in the exchange rate we are already pushing $5K not including flights food or souvenirs.

savings tips from frequent visitors would be great

We go 1 time per year. We buy annual passes and then go within the 12 month period the next year- getting 2 trips on one pass. Then wait 13 months and do it again. Saves our family of five about $2000 plus discounts on merchandise and 35% discount on hotel rooms.

 

[GBRforWDW]

The concept of renting DVC points is intriguing to me... Can someone point me to a thread where I could learn more?

We've only been once before (and an upcoming trip this summer), but we could probably afford to go more often if we wanted to - we just also like to see other places. We manage our finances similarly to many people here: paid-off modest home, drive our reliable, non-luxury cars into the ground, public schools, keep our cell phones until they break, cook & eat at home, discount flights, value resorts, etc... We also try to keep our trips short and cram as much as we can into a few days!

But thanks for asking this question, DisneyMama811! I've been wondering the same thing myself.

My favorite place to learn more is on this blog post:
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/renting-disney-vacation-club-points/
Not a disboard, but very detailed. I used info here to help with my first rental.

Here's a forum for DVC Rental with more info:
https://www.disboards.com/forums/dvc-member-services.89/

 

[Kmedders]

For us, we used to budget going once every other year. Then as we got raises, we kept our life style the same. That afforded us more disposable income for traveling, since that is very important to us while our kids are young. When we built our house 3 years ago, we literally put a line item in our budget for Disney trips, because I would not agree to build if it meant giving up our trips. Then during the shut down, we bought DVC resale and paid cash for that. That will allow us to go 15 days each year, essentially, but what we used to spend for one week through Disney. We have groceries delivered while we are there, fly on credit card points, and don't buy a ton of souvenirs. We don't believe in unnecessary debt, so we will not go into debt over a Disney trip. But we charge everything on a Chase Sapphire Reserve card, pay it off each month, and we typically get enough points for 8 round trip tickets to Florida each year. I attribute our ability to go twice per year to credit card points and DVC.

 

[nycdisneygal]

CC points, otherwise living well below my means.

 

[crisi]

The concept of renting DVC points is intriguing to me... Can someone point me to a thread where I could learn more?

We've only been once before (and an upcoming trip this summer), but we could probably afford to go more often if we wanted to - we just also like to see other places. We manage our finances similarly to many people here: paid-off modest home, drive our reliable, non-luxury cars into the ground, public schools, keep our cell phones until they break, cook & eat at home, discount flights, value resorts, etc... We also try to keep our trips short and cram as much as we can into a few days!

But thanks for asking this question, DisneyMama811! I've been wondering the same thing myself.

Renting DVC points is ..... well, its best for people who can afford to lose their money if they have to cancel. Many DVC rentals are completely non-refundable and non changeable. Some owners will try and work with you, but may be limited in what they can do since their points expire and DVC resorts book to capacity. Its best, even when working with an owner willing to try to work with you, to assume that if you have to cancel, its non-refundable. Its a good deal, just make sure its a good deal for you.