I have to ask...how do all these people afford...

[disneysteve]

I think you'll actually find a lot of the hardcore repeat dis'ers are like us, because you can't go to disney over and over again for decades being in debt or not saving, it would collapse over a few years.

I'd be happy to know that was true, but I'm not so sure. I think a more common scenario is take the trip on credit, take a year to pay it off, then take another trip on credit, take a year to pay it off, etc.

A lot of people have no problem at all routinely carrying 5-figure credit card debt. They pay a little off and charge a little more, never really making a dent in the overall balance. As long as they can make the minimum payments, they are happy and feel they are in control.

I'm not directing this at anybody here. Just saying that I think it is far more common than many people realize.

 

[Beca]

I think dvcgirl and Kickapoo are both correct. I think there are some people for whom being out of debt is not a priority in life. We have very good friends who have pretty good substantial debt. They own DVC, are AP holders for WDW and DL and make frequent trips a year. Their oldest son goes to a VERY expensive private university (he did get a lot of scholarships). The dad is now getting his MBA. They also have two younger sons who participate in a LOT of activities. We talked about debt once, and they feel that their boys are only young, and living at home for a few short years. They are not worried about being in debt while their children are at home. They want to enjoy time with their children, and give them many different memories as a family. They hope they are building strong family bonds that will ensure their family ties will stay strong long after the boys are grown.

OTOH, we do not carry debt. Well, that is not exactly true...dh is currently in grad school, and we have about $25,000 in student loans on his education. That will be paid off next summer. Other than that, our only payments are our home, utilities, and DVC monthly dues. We want to give our dd "memories", but do not feel comfortable charging those memories.

I think there are plenty of both types of people in the world. My friends make their own way, and do not ask anyone for anything....so, how can I say they are "wrong". I am more comfortable doing what we do, but they might feel that we are sacrificing experiences with our child.

To each his/her own.

 

[dvcgirl]

I think you may be mistaken. We save first, put the maximum allowable into 401k's roth IRA's Educational IRA's 529's. Won't beggar the kids or our future to have fun.

I think you'll actually find a lot of the hardcore repeat dis'ers are like us, because you can't go to disney over and over again for decades being in debt or not saving, it would collapse over a few years.

You have to have a system in place where you adjust your standard of living to cover being debt free, savings, and disney, in that order.

THEN you can do it.

I think almost every one of the repeaters here will agree that they've made a conscious effort to adjust their standard of living to "fit" disney in.

Well, I'd disagree. There are *millions and millions* of folks who aren't saving adequately for their future. We have that data....it's a fact. Even if they're not throwing it on credit cards, a lot of people adjust their savings downward to fit things like Disney in, make no mistake about it. We're living for today at the expense of tomorrow. Again, I'm not saying that folks in this thread are doing this, but in the general population, they absolutely are... Remember, a full 50% of families in this nation make less than $48,000 a year. A full 75% make less than $80,000 a year. Making a single trip to Disney each year would have to be consciously budgeted in that kind of household budget. I'd venture to say that there's certainly some splurging going on....

And while I will agree that people can't run up debt indefinitely, we have seen record amount of equity pulled out of homes in the past few years. Nearly 70% of us are homeowners in this nation. And all of the sudden a lot of those homeowners were feeling fairly wealthy with the rise in home values a couple of years back. That "paper wealth" has financed an awful lot of spending over the last few years. Lots of folks have also moved into dangerous ARMS to decrease their payments (so they could spend more elsewhere) and we're seeing them struggle now.

Hey, I know it's possible to be frugal in some areas of your life in order to sort of "splurge" in others. But I'd argue that most Americans aren't that pragmatic when it comes to spending and their financial planning.

 

[kevp33@rocketbroadba]

Acouple of tips if you want to go to Disney Cheap.
1) drive if you can. ( Great way to spend time with family, no air fare cost. even with Gas the way it is still cheaper than flying, we drove from Buffalo NY)

2)Find a clean cheap hotel, there are plenty.

3) Eat off Disney

4) Go at off peak

Example: 2 Adults 4 children Travel 11/26 to 12/3

Knights inn 2 rooms 539.00
Gas 350.00 (3000.00 miles @ 30mpg @ 3.15 gallon
food 2000.00 max
tickets 1320.00 (6 five day tickets
total 4209.00 plus a little spending figure $5000.00 total for a
family of 6 not bad!!

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

Well, I'd disagree. There are *millions and millions* of folks who aren't saving adequately for their future. We have that data....it's a fact. Even if they're not throwing it on credit cards, a lot of people adjust their savings downward to fit things like Disney in, make no mistake about it. We're living for today at the expense of tomorrow. Again, I'm not saying that folks in this thread are doing this, but in the general population, they absolutely are... Remember, a full 50% of families in this nation make less than $48,000 a year. A full 75% make less than $80,000 a year. Making a single trip to Disney each year would have to be consciously budgeted in that kind of household budget. I'd venture to say that there's certainly some splurging going on....

And while I will agree that people can't run up debt indefinitely, we have seen record amount of equity pulled out of homes in the past few years. Nearly 70% of us are homeowners in this nation. And all of the sudden a lot of those homeowners were feeling fairly wealthy with the rise in home values a couple of years back. That "paper wealth" has financed an awful lot of spending over the last few years. Lots of folks have also moved into dangerous ARMS to decrease their payments (so they could spend more elsewhere) and we're seeing them struggle now.

Hey, I know it's possible to be frugal in some areas of your life in order to sort of "splurge" in others. But I'd argue that most Americans aren't that pragmatic when it comes to spending and their financial planning.

But we're not talking about "general population", the title of the thread asks how people are able to repeat going to disney over and over and over again.

Yes, "most" americans arent' pragmatic, but "most" americans don't go to Disney 40+ times, either.

It's a very specific, I would categorize us as NUTTY subgroup of people from all over the world.

 

[kevp33@rocketbroadba]

Two adults one child AKL magic your way plus dining 11/26 to 12/3 2676.02 with discount on dining plan found on this site! $500.00 air from Buffalo (nonstop) 500.00 spending money Total $3676.00 Thats 70.00 a week out of your budget. Even less if you stay at a Sports or Music. Thats 50.00 a week.

 

[dvcgirl]

But we're not talking about "general population", the title of the thread asks how people are able to repeat going to disney over and over and over again.

Yes, "most" americans arent' pragmatic, but "most" americans don't go to Disney 40+ times, either.

It's a very specific, I would categorize us as NUTTY subgroup of people from all over the world.

You make a valid point. We're talking about the subset of Disney fanatics here. However, even within this thread, there are a lot of responses on how people are able to sort of "stretch their Disney dollar", enabling multiple trips. And that's very cool, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they can actually *afford* it. And that's why it's dangerous to compare yourself to someone else.

The OP may be meeting all of her financial obligations. For example...no debt...maxing out retirement savings....putting away something for kids' college accounts. It's easy to scratch your head and wonder about spending in our society when you live your life this way. My DH and I make a nice double income and we scratch our heads all of the time when it comes to this topic.

And so I guess my point is, no matter what the topic, is it really comes down to what your definition of being able to "afford" something really means. And most of the responses here don't give enough info (not that they should) to compare to ones own budget.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Two adults one child AKL magic your way plus dining 11/26 to 12/3 2676.02 with discount on dining plan found on this site! $500.00 air from Buffalo (nonstop) 500.00 spending money Total $3676.00 Thats 70.00 a week out of your budget. Even less if you stay at a Sports or Music. Thats 50.00 a week.

Just using you as an example. I think that is pretty average for a family trip.

I envision a lot of people think 3 trips a year would cost 3 times as much. making it around 10,000 a year on vacations. I can see how people would be amazed any average person could afford that.

But for us the 2nd or 3rd trip doesn't cost us as much with AP's (and DVC discount.) Find good airfare, stay in a studio with points and you are set.

In fact for us we have ended up at WDW a few times because it would cost us so much more to go anywhere else.

We want to do DL California, but it is always so much cheaper to go to WDW we end up there (and the flight is much shorter.)

We have done 3 trips to WDW for around 4,500 or less total in one year (staying at mostly deluxe resorts and one mod.) You can spend as much easily in one vacation. This is with about $500 on Disney Visa points too.

We don't go in debt for our vacations (or any other reason) but we are in a constant state of borrowing DVC points.

Bottom line is if you want to do WDW more then once a year, DVC might be for you.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

.

In fact for us we have ended up at WDW a few times because it would cost us so much more to go anywhere else.

We want to do DL California, but it is always so much cheaper to go to WDW we end up there (and the flight is much shorter.)


Bottom line is if you want to do WDW more then once a year, DVC might be for you.

Yeah, we end up defaulting to Disney all the time because when we budget for a vacation, we end up back at wdw because it's cheaper for us. Back in the day when we were poor students, we'd go to WDW without actually going into the parks and wander around the hotels, hang out at DTD, anything we could do that was within our budget that let us enjoy the magic. I think most people wouldn't consider that much of a vacation, but we enjoyed it.


FWIW, we've NEVER done a disney cruise. Not once. We look at the numbers and it's AT least the equivalent of an entire year's trips to wdw, and we just can't justify that cost.

Now, if I won the lottery, i'd totally be buyin' myself the Disney Wonder, and I'd take all my budget board friends along with me But as it stands, I can't justify that kind of cost.

DVCGirl, it might be an interesting thread to do a poll-like, how many vacation without saving, how many vacation and go into debt, etc. Polls tend to be more anonymous, so there might be more accuracy with the outcomes...

 

[disneysteve]

Two adults one child AKL magic your way plus dining 11/26 to 12/3 2676.02 with discount on dining plan found on this site! $500.00 air from Buffalo (nonstop) 500.00 spending money Total $3676.00.

We're going next week, 2 adults, 1 child (a Disney adult), MYW tickets, no dining plan, staying at a 2-bedroom, 2-bath offsite condo 1 mile away. We're driving down from NJ. The trip will cost us right around $2,000.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Yeah, we end up defaulting to Disney all the time because when we budget for a vacation, we end up back at wdw because it's cheaper for us. Back in the day when we were poor students, we'd go to WDW without actually going into the parks and wander around the hotels, hang out at DTD, anything we could do that was within our budget that let us enjoy the magic. I think most people wouldn't consider that much of a vacation, but we enjoyed it.


FWIW, we've NEVER done a disney cruise. Not once. We look at the numbers and it's AT least the equivalent of an entire year's trips to wdw, and we just can't justify that cost.

Now, if I won the lottery, i'd totally be buyin' myself the Disney Wonder, and I'd take all my budget board friends along with me But as it stands, I can't justify that kind of cost.

We did the same thing, buy 5 day park hoppers and stay for 8 days, just wander around and check out the resorts. We loved it. Loved just being there. We can afford the trips a lot more now then we could then, but I am so glad we still took them back then (the money for them came out of my college saving account ) We were both in grad school. Of course it was a lot cheaper back then. $79 a night for a mod resort! Oh the good old day.

We went on the Wonder last year and while it was great, it was a lot more money for us. That is a once very 4 years or so trip for us. I would love to take my whole family if I won a ton of money too.

 

[DisneyDotty]

Chiming in here late--
Vacations are a priority for us. We make them work without carrying credit card debt. We also don't spend as much as most families around us upgrading our house. For me, I'd rather walk on sheet vinyl kitchen flooring and take several vacations a year. Some of my neighbors think I'm crazy. I guess I am a little bit--CRAZY FOR DISNEY!

 

[jekjones1558]

maybe live below their means so they have more disposable income than others may have! Our it could be DVC?

Both of these are true for us. We live in a cheap house, rarely eat out, don't own a lake home, don't carry any credit card balance. So most of our disposable money goes for travel. Some people see our budget priorities as poor judgment, believing that we could be investing in something with long term value. We feel that life is short and it makes us happy to bring family and friends to WDW with us. I guess that there are no two families whose financial decisions are quite alike, but we are content with our choices.

 

[DisneyDotty]

I guess that there are no two families whose financial decisions are quite alike, but we are content with our choices.

Yep--so true. If you are happy with your priorities and can live with the way you spend your money (without worry or stress), it's all good!

 

[SHAYMARAYSMOM]

DH and I go twice a year. But the way we do it is never going in debt. We are lucky for that. But the tips I can give is we save change. I mean save it. I never use it. Then when I go food shopping any thing I save at the store goes right to the trip fund. Just those two things alone are huge amounts to add. This way here we never miss the money.

 

[englishteacha]

This topic came up in the teacher's lounge today. One of the teachers has never been to WDW, and her only child really would like to go. They think a Disney trip is too expensive. They have a camp on a lake, new cars, new garage and newly paved driveway. Recent purchases have been new furniture for the house. Their choices are to improve what they live in every day. I can see that point of view. We don't go to WDW every year. We take vacation of some kind every year, but we always save for it and I enjoy the hunt for bargains. It drives DH nuts that I start thinking about vacations almost a years in advance, but I like to think ahead and see how cheaply I can plan a trip.

 

[disneysteve]

They think a Disney trip is too expensive.

I hear this all the time. Earlier today, DW was speaking to a friend of ours. The friend asked when our next trip was and DW said I was leaving tomorrow and they were flying down on Sunday. The friend said they went a couple of years ago and it will be a long time before they go again since it was so expensive. DW asked what they spent. For 2 adults and 2 young children, their 8-day trip cost nearly $6,000. No wonder they think it is too expensive. As I said earlier, the 3 of us go for a week for $2,000. There is no reason the 4 of them couldn't go for close to the same amount. Our friend said she will definitely have to sit down with us and get the details. $2,000 or so is an affordable trip for them. $6,000 is not.

 

[punkin]

For 2 adults and 2 young children, their 8-day trip cost nearly $6,000. No wonder they think it is too expensive. As I said earlier, the 3 of us go for a week for $2,000. There is no reason the 4 of them couldn't go for close to the same amount. Our friend said she will definitely have to sit down with us and get the details. $2,000 or so is an affordable trip for them. $6,000 is not.

I can pull off a one week trip for about $1k. Of course that means we don't stay onsite, we don't park-hop, we don't eat at our favorite places, but it can be done. I feel very comfortable with a $3K trip for the 4 of us. It gives us some splurges. A $6K trip would be a major splurge. I don't think we ever spent that much for Disney.

Then again, our driveway needs fixing and our furniture is all hand-me-downs.

 

[Leofoenget]

I have to ask!!

I keep seeing posts on these various boards about people making their 3rd and 4th trips THIS YEAR to DW. How in the world can they afford to do that? I know what our six night trip cost and I know we saved up for quite awhile for it (ok, YEARS!!).

So what's the secret? How do they do it?


Lily

Some people have AP's, and drive in and stay cheap. Others have good jobs and can just plane afford it. Many others use plastic and are in debt up to their . If you have to fly your whole family in and stay expensive then they probably can't afford it.

 

[TnTsParty]

We go normally 3-4 times a year but we are only a 3 hour drive away. We also have seasonal annual passes that are greatly reduced in price for Florida residents and get another discount on it by using AAA. I always get either a Florida resident rate or AP rate. We also only go for 2, 3 or 4 nights. Our last trip was 1 night at All Star Sports and the other 3 at Beach Club Villas.