How many are canceling trips due to the economoy!?!

[cobbler]

I looked at AmTrak from Grand Rapids....37 HOURS!!!

I can drive myself there in 22 hours!

It's $1275 for 2 adults and 2 children!

I like the idea of taking my kids on a train, but not for that amount of time and money.

I live in the burbs of GR so I know what you mean!! Not only could I drive there in less time, I would spend much less in gas too

That is almost the same price as flying out of GR.

But to answer the question. We don't have any points coming until 2010 and our YU is June. We have a trip planned in Jan at a mod with an AAA rate right now, and I have already paid for the 1/2 marathon but if things get much worse and I see a reason to worry, that Jan trip will be canceled.

 

[LIFERBABE]

We are still going also.

We had years of budget trips before purchashing DVC and recent years of luxurious trips.

My boys dont stop growing because the economy is bad.

I have never frowned on cooking, Dh and the boys dont like restaurant food all that much and prefer to eat spaghetti or seafood in the villa when given the choice.

I've budgeted as little as $25 a day for snacks and such for the 4 of us and we haven't had a bad trip yet. Dh and the boys never know we are on a budget either. I am the spender, and will run up the bill with spa treatments, and shopping. I can cut that out and still enjoy my family and DVC.

Now if we did not own DVC, I would not go during this economy, because we would have to make too many sacrifices in how we normally stay in way of accomodations. I dont love WDW enough to stay just anywhere.
Dh is self employed, so we do have to pay attention, but Im happy to see gas coming down, as we are planning on driving to WDW, HH for Christmas.

I can see us not doing the DDP (didnt enjoy it that much in Sept) and we have plenty of park days and Fun days left over to still have enjoyable vacations for years to come.

 

[Disney_Villain]

The economy in the Canada is starting to turn sour now too - but we will always be going on our DVC vacations. Heck, we just booked another DCL for next year!

We learned our lessons years ago (in 2003), when the CAN/USD exchange rate cost us 1.65 CAN to buy 1.00 USD. Prior to 2003, we held off for ages going to WDW or DL . . . but eventually we tossed in the towel with the philosophy of "if you're going to wait for a good time to go, you might be waiting many years". As a result, we've had it great with Disney vacations in the last 5 years!

We like to think of it as "financially helping Mickey".

 

[bama106]

We just got back 10 days ago staying at the AKL, we are going back in January for the first time as DVC Members staying at SSR. We are also looking at going October 2009 staying at our home resort, AKV.

 

[WolfpackFan]

If anything the economy is making DVC trips that much more attractive. Basically these days our vacation plans center around staying at a DVC resort (either at WDW or HHI). We might have traveled to other destinations or even taken a cruise but with money being tight, at least by planning trips just using points we save on lodging. I know some folks say their DVC membership actually increases their costs since you spend other money at WDW. But when you really think about it, it's all up to you. You can spend as little as you want. I can see us perhaps in the future cooking more in our units and not going to the parks as much. This is especially true of HHI vacations. Right now we have four DVC vacations planned for the next 12 months.

 

[sorul82?]

Probably not cancelling, but altering our plans. No PAP renewal, 1 or 2 TS instead of the DDP, possibly just buying tickets for MVMCP and going to that other place instead.

 

[DVC Mike]

We have 5 trips planned over the next 7 months. We aren't cancelling any of them.

 

[JW2]

Trip in November is basically paid for but will consider driving instead of flying if costs work cheaper for the next trip- hopefully summer of 2009! The CDN dollar is starting to fall so makes it more expensive to travel -although nothing as bad as the early 90's when it was 65 cents to the dollar!!

To see the smiles on the boys faces .... priceless!!!

 

[ldo]

WE live in DC area. We go every year. We fly one way and rent a car for 2 days to get back (12 hours), or auto-train one way and drive back the other way. We cook simple dinners in the room or grill out for most dinners, and eat a quick breakfast in the room, as well. We eat at the nicer CS in the parks for lunch or dinner. We splurge on 1 character or fancy meal per stay.
We bought 10 day non-expire 4 years ago with WP and use 2 days of parks and 1-2 days of WP and do some of the many other WDW hotel and DVC activities on the other days. My kids love the Community Halls, pool movies, Ft W campfire, etc.
We feel very fortunate to be able to go every year, but could only do so by keeping the spending under control. We don't really "miss" anything, like DDP, 7 days in parks, etc. Our 1 big splurge ($500 for auto-train or 5 tickets DC-FL) is not driving both ways, but we would be crazy if we did that with 3 kids!

 

[ak1024]

We are leaving Saturday for a week at Old Key West and everything is paid for except for souvenirs. We had $1000 in gift cards from our add on and already have AP's so our food, MNSSHP tickets and fireworks cruise is covered with the gift cards. We are within driving distance (about 8 hrs) so gas is the only other expense we will have. In December, we will be at Saratoga using developer points and will basically only have a few meals to pay for. We are going the weekend before Christmas so we plan on a few special breakfasts in the room since we will be in a one bedroom.

Next year, we plan on May and October so we will see how that goes. We are fine money wise right now so unless something changes, we are definitely staying with our plans.

 

[WDWcanuck]

The only thing that's changing for travel is that I kinow I HAVE to vacation LoL.

Over the past two years, I've taken seven major vacations to the US (including one to SSR), due to the strong Canadian dollar. As well, I've visited the Western New York area about 6 times in the last year to shop.

A large part of our decision to purchase DVC now was it was affordable even with the exchange rate. It locks us in for future trips even if the CAN $ takes a slide. We no longer have to worry about figuring out the exchange rate on our accommodations. Ex: 2002 saw our dollar at 0.66, which meant a $100 USD/night room was about $150 CAN for us. We still have to purchase flights and possibly food, but that will be manageable.

So, even with these hardships, the US wil still a bargain, especially DVC. And who could ask for a better place to be than WDW?!?

 

[BelleOfAlaska]

This may sound strange, but I will not now how the economy will affect me until around August of 2009. I work in the tourism industry in Alaska and our company had a fantastic summer (our busiest ever). My concern is not in my vacation to WDW, but everybody's vacation to Alaska! That will dictate how much I get to spend in WDW, though it will not effect me actually going. I have enough airline miles for the plane tickets, and the resort is free as a DVC member, so all I have to worry about is how much I get to spend while I am down there.

 

[eva]

We'll still be going. We are taking our DD's, SIL, and grandkids in May. The airline tickets are bought and the rooms at BCV are reserved. We have park tickets already for DH and me. We will just buy the other tickets one each month till they are paid for. The only thing left will be food and extras. We are hoping the our Disney Visa Rewards will take care of a large portion of that. We are over $1,000 right now. Now I need to start a change jar for our drinks on a 4-day DCL cruise that DH and I are taking right after the kids go back home. Definitely not canceling here! This will be our DGD's first trip to WDW.

 

[DisneyDreamers2007]

We canceled our trip to Vegas in 2 weeks and to New York in December, because of a GM stock loss.

But we will definitely do our WDW trip next year, especially since we will not have to pay for rooms or airfare (using Alaska Air mileage plan). And we are going to Paris with my husbands work next month, again this is a free trip for him & I am flying with free air mileage.

We have a few more trips planned and are waiting to see what happens with our personal finances before we decide to keep or change any reservations in the future. Just have to be flexible and wait things out right now. I feel bad canceling plans because this just feeds into the economic problems of those who would have made income of our travels (airlines, hotels, restaurants, and other tourist industry employees). Everyone I know seems to be feeling the effects of the economic downturn now in one way or another, and analysts predict that more troubles are ahead.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

OT.....how does one get AMTRAK points? Please tell!

We use our Amtrak Mastercard. $1 = 1 point. Every purchase or payment possible goes through this credit card and then we pay it off each month to avoid any interest charges.

We have about 90,000 points

 

[DisDaydreamer]

I looked at AmTrak from Grand Rapids....37 HOURS!!!

I can drive myself there in 22 hours!

It's $1275 for 2 adults and 2 children!

I like the idea of taking my kids on a train, but not for that amount of time and money.

It's funny Amtrak fares for the Florida routes are different depending on the direction. In the spring/summer months the northbound routes are much more than the southbound, and it is opposite for the fall/winter months (this is the snowbird effect). However, with points there is no difference. So we usually pay points for the expensive leg and cash for the cheap leg. Plus we take the AutoTrain so we get to have our own car when we arrive. No rental car costs and we have everything we need packed in our car.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I will never cancel a trip because of what I hear or see on the news.
While I do feel badly for those affected, as long as I still have a job the economy is fine for me personally. In fact, there may be some great deals to be had on a variety of things which may make my personal economy great.

The best thing people who are working can do for the less fortunate, is to go spend money.

MG

Same here.

I have DVC, APs and have already paid for my airfare. I'm still going to Disney World.

 

[dianeschlicht]

No need for us to cancel either. We have two trips already booked for 2009. One from Jan. 20-31, and one from May 5-12. We already have frequent flyer tickets booked for those trips and our AP vouchers in hand. The only thing left to pay for is the TIW (DDE) card and our food and rental car.

We also intend to book a third WDW/DVC trip for early Dec. 2009.

 

[Laneychris]

We still plan on going in June 2009.

 

[dallasdisneymommy]

We are going in December because it is paid for ( except for meals) HOWEVER I would like to buy into new Contemporary Towers but am afraid to do this now until the economy gets better

DITTO!!! Our December trip is a go, but other Disney related purchases are on indefinite hold.