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

[barbeml]

Two Healthy Incomes, No Kids.

Most WDW we did in one year was three trips on our APs.

And no, we didn't go into CC debt (we don't carry balances).

 

[Green Tea]

My husband makes a great income. I'm fortunate to not need to work outside the home which makes juggling vacation schedules easier since there is only one working spouse to have to work out timing for. So, the way we vacation? We pay for them. I try to save money on things we buy by price shopping, on travel by looking for the best deals and prices. We aren't extravagant in anything really, except vacations. But, it wouldn't be 3 or 4 trips to the same place in a year. That would be pretty dull to us. Maybe WDW once but the others would be totally different.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

We make vacations a priority. I don't have the fanciest of clothes (although I do have a slight weakness for Coach purses!) and I don't live in the fanciest house. But DH works 3rd shift and coaches football and wrestling in the afternoon and weekends, I work first shift. DD attends day care for 9 hours a day. Our family doesn't get a lot of quality time all together. Vacations are our time to do this. So we travel when we can. Our WDW vaca is always our most expensive trip a year but we always overpay our taxes so we get a pretty decent returns. That's how we pay for Disney. In addition, we save all our change during the year and that's our Disney spending money.

 

[kfeuer]

For us, it's been a combination of living relatively close (7.5 hours driving time) and having grandparents who like to go with the grandkids. We share condos or a house offsite...last time my parents paid for the condo and we had days left on previous passes so our only expense was gas, food and souvies. Our last 3 trips have run us from $800 to $1750 for a week. We'd be hard-pressed to do any other vacation that cheaply.

My parents offered to do the same thing next year, but I think we've got to take a break for a bit. Our washer and dryer are going to need replacing soon, and our savings account has taken some serious hits this year from unexpected medical expenses. Heaven only knows how much our health insurance is about to increase in January.

I think it's for the best, though. We've done Disney so much in recent years that I personally have lost a little of the magic. Maybe we'll go back in 2009.

 

[Tissa]

Well if you by an AP then it's easy to figure out ways to take multiple trips in a year.

We drive down, stay at either a value resort, offsite pool home or rent DVC points. We only eat 2 table service meals a trip and the rest is offsite restaurants or I cook. We don't feel the need to spend lots of $$ on souvies. My boys get Disney Dollars for birthdays and Christmas and that is their spending money.

It's all about priorities, do we want to go out to eat all the time at home or do we want to save that money for another trip? Also we do not need expensive hotels or food to make us happy on a trip. It's all about the parks and spending time together. That's what counts.

 

[Chloe'sMom]

Some of us are single with good incomes. Everyone's situation is different so you really don't know.

I also either use my DVC or stay offsite. Disney hotel prices for the most part are not worth the cost. I can get bigger, better rooms for a LOT less offsite!

I also have never needed an extra suitcase for my purchases......

Us either! Even with taking my daughter this year (we bought more then usual) we didn't need an extra suitcase. Her souveniers were as follows:
2 t-shirts
1 Minnie Mouse doll (a gift)
1 book (a gift)
Some hair barettes (because Mom forgot to pack them )
A light up Tinkerbell thing

That's it - and that in my opinion was excessive. We did buy Christmas gifts and ship them home. But those are gifts we would have bought anyway.

~Amanda

 

[PrincessKitty1]

We live just a couple of hours away and have Florida Residents Annual Passes, so it's relatively inexpensive to go down 6-8 weekends a year. We usually stay at a Value Resort and we have a complete blast! A 2-night trip usually costs us about $500-$600 total, including gas. That's figuring $100/night for a Value Resort, $150/day for food/drinks, and $50 for gas--we rarely buy souvenirs.

BTW, I think DVC only saves folks money if they are used to staying at a Deluxe resort--I have looked at the numbers and I don't think it would be a savings for us at all. Plus, we like to be relatively spontaneous and usually plan our weekends just a few weeks or months in advance--with DVC you have to reserve farther in advance.

DH and I have 2 incomes and no kids. We're not rich but we have a comfortable cushion each month that tends to get spent on vacations and eating out rather than new cars or a bigger house. (Not that there's ANYTHING wrong with people wanting nice things--we just happen to prefer spending money on experiences/fun rather than stuff).

I think their are plenty of people on the Disboards who make lots of money and can afford whatever they want, but I also think there are plenty of people like DH and I who are middle-class and just have made vacations a priority.

 

[PrincessKitty1]

I should add that I have a 4-day weekend every week (I work 3 twelve hour shifts) and DH is self-employed, which is how we find time for weekend trips (since some people are wondering how folks have the time for all their trips).

DH won't take a week off at a time since he's afraid of losing customers, so all our vacations for the last 5 years have been 2-3 days at a time.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

My husband makes a great income. I'm fortunate to not need to work outside the home which makes juggling vacation schedules easier since there is only one working spouse to have to work out timing for. So, the way we vacation? We pay for them. I try to save money on things we buy by price shopping, on travel by looking for the best deals and prices. We aren't extravagant in anything really, except vacations. But, it wouldn't be 3 or 4 trips to the same place in a year. That would be pretty dull to us. Maybe WDW once but the others would be totally different.

We went to WDW 2-4 times per year, but we also vacationed at other places during the year too.

I would never go to WDW exclusively. There's too many other places in the world to see.

Besides, my husband doesn't love WDW that much.

 

[spima3]

With the disboards having over 148,000 subscribers the annual income is very diverse to say the least.
I remember awhile back when a poll was done in regards to a familys income and if I remember correctly there were alot of disboarders who earned above 150,000 per year or more. Some earned over 250,000 per year.

Yes, I remember this poll and was actually surprised by the income levels, of course, this is a Disney Forum, so I shouldn't have been.

We were in the bottom 12% in the polls, 13% were in the over $150K range;
a really great income by our standards. With that, even living well, we could probably travel to WDW several times a year as well. Although, I would probably prefer to travel to different destinations, take long weekends, stay at deluxe hotels, and on and on....

lori



lori

 

[roadtripper]

DVC is a big help, as many have said.

We were going to spend a few days in VT this summer, then Southwest had 120 RT to MCO. Booked it, used points for the stay, used Annual passes, used Magical Express, used Disney Rewards Dollars (we pay off our card every month). Total room charges were 437.00 (dinner at Flying Fish, souvenirs, Mickey bars, etc)Disney Reward dollar total was 440! For the four of us, the cost outlay was less than 550.00 for four days at Disney-- including airfare from NH and parking at the airport.
One night at the Trapp Family Lodge was about 300.00-- no food included.

 

[Mic]

We have been DVC members since 1999...bought a year after our first trip to WDW. For a family of 6, DVC made sense because of the 2-bedroom villas, and the fact that we have a full itchen for breakfast every morning. We have taken friends and family MANY times(I can't remember the last time just the 6 of us went), and we average 4 trips a year. Now that my kids are all teenagers(13,15,17,19), we are finding it hard to pick a time everyone can go. Oldest daughter is a sophomore in college, and second daughter is a senior in hgh school...and both are extremely busy. Second daughter is Sr. class president, editor of the school paper, captain of the Varsity cheerleading squad and soccer team, in National Honors Society, writes a weekly column for the local newspaper, along with a host of other activiites that keep us all busy. My son(15) joined the school marching band this year, and we haven't had a free weekend in 7 weeks! Oldest daughter's college schedule is not the same as our public school's, so we are getting used to doing our major trips in the summer(when it is hot and crowded at WDW). Our next trip is planned for January to celebrate youngest daughter's 14th birthday...and she'll be bringing several friends. Oldest will be bringing a fellow sorority sister from school, and son and 17-year-old daughter will be bringing a friend each. We have a 2-bedroom and two studios booked at the Boardwalk, and just need to decide on tickets(some of us have AP's). When the kids were younger, we could go to WDW twice for less than what most folks spent on one trip, but I'm not sure that is still true. It doesn't matter anyway, since we have 3 kids in braces(yes, THREE at once!) and soon will have a second one in college...my trips South may have to stop for a while. All the more reason to enjoy my upcoming trip!

 

[SanFranciscan]

Thank you MiniGirl! I don't know anyone here to make any specific allegations against anyone. The ones who know what we have said here applies to them will be touchy about it without being singled out by us.

I am not homeless anymore, but I still help out as a volunteer for the homeless. I know what decent people go to the shelters or hide from the police to sleep on the streets. It is rare to find one who doesn't have a work history. Many of them are working very hard at the kind of jobs I did as a homeless woman. I used to sneak into a women's restroom because it was around the back of a McDonald's where the manager wouldn't see me go in. While I was there I washed myself and dried my hair with the hand dryer to go to work a couple of blocks away.

At the time $50,000 was the official line to make a family affluent in California, but I remember standing in soup kitchen lines with people who were used to making a lot more than that. As you can imagine the widowed of both sexes are well represented among the homeless. If they were homeowners before, the well spouse had hawked their house in an attempt to save the sick one. Then the sick one still died.

I want people to enjoy their vacations. Yet it breaks my heart to hear the tourists around here sneering "Why don't these lazy bums get a job?" The people lining up on the streets outside shelters, in hopes of being one of the chosen few to get a bed before they are all filled, work hard waiting on the kind of people who sneer at them and never consider an establishment's personnel policies any of their concern when making vacation reservations.

As I have already said, I do think the frugal are entitled to anything they want because are willing to give up something desired to get something else desired more. My beef is with those who feel entitled to everything they want because when they ask how they can afford it they are asking how to make sure someone else makes the sacrifice, and you are right that it is generally the workers expected to bite the bullet. On that note, I will step down from my soap box now.
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Whoa!!!! I don't think she meant you personally. However, people have become very demanding and do demand low prices and it is coming on the backs of the employees -- at least in the airline industry it is. My dh is an airline pilot for a major airline. When we were married, he was a First Officer (2nd in command, if you will). He has been a Captain now for over 10 years. Last year he made less money than the year we were married AND he has worked more days. His vacation time is less than it was a few years ago and his sick time has been reduced too. We have had to sell our home and move into a more modest home and we can't send our girls to the school we were hoping to because we simply can't afford it. That's fine. We do what we have to do, and those changes have been what has enabled me to continue to stay at home; so I'm really not complaining. However, it does bother me when I hear people complain about having to pay extra baggage fees or whatever for their $16 ticket. The passengers don't realize it, but the employees they're complaining to are supplementing their travels with their pay cuts.

I think that is the kind of thing the poster was referring to. Things that we don't even realize are going on in probably every industry. Businesses are hiring part-time help in record numbers, so they don't have to pay benefits and then getting rid of the full-time employees. You may not be stiffing anyone personally, but that doesn't mean the people there to serve you aren't being stiffed by their employer in an effort to keep costs down and profits high.

Again though, this is not a personal attack on any particular person on this board or anywhere else. It is simply a sign of the times.

 

[Miz Diz]

When I started my job after college, someone told me they started putting a little bit of money every pay period into savings for vacation and christmas money. I started having money put into a special account for vacation and every time I got a raise, I raised that amount. I got to the point where I was putting a significant amount in for vacation and I never missed the money because I never saw it. So when we went on vacation, we had the money without charging the vacation.
The last several years we have been buying AP's and getting AP discounts on rooms. Sometimes we stay Deluxe, sometimes we stay Value, sometimes we stay Moderate. Last year we started talking about me quitting my job to stay home. Priorities, Priorities. We couldn't stand the thought of not being able to afford Disney anymore, so we decided to buy DVC. We have 1 car payment and a housepayment. We could have taken money out of our savings to pay off our car, but we decided to use that money to buy DVC. As of August, I am a SAHM and we can still afford to go to Disney because of DVC. We are on a much tighter budget now - not eating out and spending, spending spending, but it is worth it.

DVC also gets you $100 off per person on your AP.

Off topic - dh and I were just laughing last night at some of the stupid purchases we had made when I was working. Having 1 income definitely makes you reconsider those impulse purchases. But we never laugh at the money we spend on vacation because we feel the memories are priceless.

 

[drag n' fly]

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

DVC. That is the way we are doing it. Money does not grow by letting it sit in the bank. Having a diversified portfolio is what pays for all the nice stuff. Some of it is job circumstances. Dh is a P.Eng and makes a respectable salary. Some people live close and can drive. Some people have no kids. Some people are retired. Everyone's circumstances are different.

 

[Green Tea]

So many people keep saying DVC but I just never got it. We looked at the HH property back when it was in construction. Points were much less than now, but even then it didn't seem like a 'deal' to us. We'd put of $15-20,000 to start, then $750 a year in dues or something like that. It didn't include tickets to the parks. We had rented a townhouse in HH for about the price of the dues and as the years passed, the townhome became a little more expensive over the years, but income also rose, and I assume the yearly maintence fee did as well. So we could have paid the cost of the membership and vacationed every year for just the cost of the maintence fee, or we could have vacationed every year for about the cost of the maintence fee without the initial outlay.

We studied the numbers everywhich way, and it just never made sense for us. But, as a family who likes a lot of places, that is for the best.

Over the years our vacations have become a lot more expensive because we were able to afford a lot more. With the membership our dues wouln't have increased but the lodging would have stayed the same. Very nice, and very functional, but so was the inital townhouse we rented. People swear by the program, but for us, it just didn't make sense.

 

[DVC Sadie]

So many people keep saying DVC but I just never got it. We looked at the HH property back when it was in construction. Points were much less than now, but even then it didn't seem like a 'deal' to us. We'd put of $15-20,000 to start, then $750 a year in dues or something like that. It didn't include tickets to the parks. We had rented a townhouse in HH for about the price of the dues and as the years passed, the townhome became a little more expensive over the years, but income also rose, and I assume the yearly maintence fee did as well. So we could have paid the cost of the membership and vacationed every year for just the cost of the maintence fee, or we could have vacationed every year for about the cost of the maintence fee without the initial outlay.

We studied the numbers everywhich way, and it just never made sense for us. But, as a family who likes a lot of places, that is for the best.

Over the years our vacations have become a lot more expensive because we were able to afford a lot more. With the membership our dues wouln't have increased but the lodging would have stayed the same. Very nice, and very functional, but so was the inital townhouse we rented. People swear by the program, but for us, it just didn't make sense.

Even though we own DVC I'll be the first to say that it is not for everyone.

If a family only likes staying in a 5 star resort then DVC would not work for them. I have to admit I was a little disappointed until we started staying in the 1 bedroom units.

We bought so I could have a safe place to visit several times a year by myself without my dh having to worry about me traveling alone.

My dh can only handle WDW once a year and we usually bring our neices, nephews and grand neice with us.

What I have done the last several years is rent out our points so that we can go to Hawaii in January and stay at a 5 star resort on the Big Island. We also traded a week from our home resort to go skiing in Lake Tahoe in Febuary.

 

[fey_spirit]

Family size is also going to matter - we could never afford to do a yearly trip if we had children - but with just the two of us, I am able to save enough on her income to have a life and save up for our yearly Disney Trip.

I hear ya! We have been saving for over 2 years for our trip (first family trip)and still have alittle more to save mostly food costs now, as we won't be on the ddp...
We are only on one income and usually don't have anything left over to save.. I save bday money, xmas, ebay etc..
I don't know how people make yearly trips let alone like you said multiple trips!

I guess some people are much better at saving then others, and of course I am sure income level has alot to do with it also??

 

[crisi]

DVC isn't going to make it possible for anyone to go more often. It will make it possible to go more often if you want to stay on site. But budget borders should all know by now that Values are cheaper than owning DVC, and that offsite can be cheaper yet.

DVC is a little like saying "how can you afford to put gas in your car for your long commute" and mentioning that your Audi gets great mileage.

160 DVC points will get you about three weeks in a studio if you are careful about when you travel. And cost you $720 in dues alone. That's $34 a night in dues - which IS a bargain. But there is the $18k upfront. You can buy a timeshare offsite resale (or rent a timeshare offsite - there are plenty out there) for a fraction of that and pay less in dues. Or you can stay at the campground, or you can stay at the Days Inn.

Also, it should be noted that a lot of DVCers don't claim to save any money at all. Its really easy to find yourself inviting guests for a "free" room - or planning to fit in one more trip with those APs and needing more points, or deciding that with no room bill, you'll spend a little more on dining this trip. You CAN be disciplined in your DVC usage and if you are it can be a budget helper. But a lot of members discover that they lack that discipline.

 

[Kimmumum]

There are so many factors that determine how many times a year families go to Disney (or anywhere for that matter). We went in January (for the marathon, 6 days), we went again 4th of July (for 5 days) and we will be there again in January (marathon). Our 4th of July trip happened because we couldn't pass it up. We have DVC, we always buy 10 day hopper passes with 6 water park days and use these over 3-6 trips depending on plans for that particular trip), we use Magical Express (free), we generally don't buy souvies and we got airfare for $44. We were there for 5 days and took $500 for spending money/food money. We couldn't pass this trip up. To us it was well worth the $500 we spent.