Is the current economic status preventing your family from traveling?

[HeyIt'sMe]

I voted No. We are taking our annual family vacation in October-this year is our Disney year.

However, we have really cut back on eating out and buying "stuff" that we don't really need. And alot of the time it seemed like the 2 went hand-in-hand. We'd go out to eat and since we were out we'd stop at store(s) and end up buying something we didn't need.

 

[mytwotinks]

For us it's not affecting our "big" trips so much as our little last minute things. We live a few hours away from the lake of the Ozarks and my parents are a few hours away on Warsaw lake in MO. We would have spent a lot more time hanging out on the dock and letting the kids go tubing if gas weren't so expensive right now. Sometimes I just had to say no knowing it was going to be over $125 to make the round trip for an overnight stay.

 

[neatokimmo]

I voted no.

I haven't noticed a big increase in my bills because I made adjustments as things started going up. I found substitutions and bought less, wasted less. My income has not gone down or up really.

I am limited more by my time off because I tacked on some time to my adoption leave in the spring. I normally do 3-4 trips a year, this year is just two because I'm out of time.

Can't wait for next year and that full bank of vacation time!

 

[tink2dw]

I said No.

We had a Jan. 08 DL trip we flew for.

Got back to find oldest DD was getting Married!! We flew to that.

and We just got back from Toppnish, WA [can't spell it correctly on the board]where I saw my little brother.

Then we looked around Toppnish, the Indian Museum $3.00, the Hops Museum $3.00, and the Train Museum $5.00.

and Saw most of the 100 city Murals. Would like to have gone on the Horse and wagon tour. But it was a Budget trip and $12.00 per person was out.

The $13.00 Casino dinner buffet was free with a free club membership!

It was fun.

 

[tink2dw]

Oh and the wind blows all the time!! So, Ladies pack the hair spay or all you see is the back of your own hair!!

 

[donaldtutter]

No, fortunately, it has not prevented us from traveling to WDW this year.

 

[tar heel]

I don't see how anyone can say that the economy isn't really bad, that it's just the media.

Our situation is better than a lot of people's, but my DH's company has cut 11% of the work force and the other 89% aren't getting raises. I work for a successful nonprofit, but we're big-time worried about this year's fundraising. If you combine the losses this year in our 401Ks and our stock portfolio, it's !@##$%%. It doesn't feel right to not be trying to be more frugal.

Lots of people would have a very difficult time moving to take a new job b/c they wouldn't be able to sell their house. If a place is hurting economically, people aren't moving in and buying houses, you know. I live in a place that has been largely unaffected by falling house prices, but it's not a good time to sell either.

All that being said, we did not take a real vacation this summer (although we had a couple of weekends away related to my DH's music and many trips to my father-in-law's in a resort area) but the reasons were only partly economic. Last year, we traveled a lot, and our last trip was Christmas. We also may take a trip in the fall.

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

Yes, the economy is a factor in our decision to not travel in 2009. We have only not gone to WDW one year since 2001 and that was because we bought a house. We are skipping next year for a number of reasons.

1. The economy. We need to adjust our budget. Our bills are creeping up, up, up and we are hoping that it's going to stablize soon and that we can focus more on saving for emergencies and trips again.

2. Pleasure Island's closure has made WDW a less attractive destination for us. We are two adults with no kids, so it was nice to be able to go to PI, enjoy a few adult beverages and enjoy The Adventurer's Club, The Comedy Warehouse, and even Mannequins. It's a shame that there isn't going to be an option for us in the evenings anymore. The Boardwalk area doesn't do much for us.

3. Medical bills. I have had a rough year. I have cost more than $100,000 to keep alive and sort of well over the past year. Thank God for insurance, but even with insurance, I have had to pay a lot out of pocket. I also missed a lot of work, which leads me to reason number 4.

4. Credit Card Debt. I so wish that it had not been necessary, but you have to live. So, I am paying off credit card debt, which I had none of just over a year ago. It's not horrific, but anything is more than I ever wanted to have.

5. Corey is wanting to see more of the world, but it's not close to home. She is wanting to go to visit some of the other original 13 colonies, Ireland, Scotland, and England....again. Unfortunately, those trips will require boarding the dogs and at just over $100 a night for the three of them, trips are expensive for us.

I would love to say that in 2009 that we will have the ability to go somewhere/anywhere, but it's not a responsible move for us. Maybe in 2010....if I can stay healthy.

 

[jennz]

Yes for us. The worsening economy/inflation isn't media hype here. Prices where I shop (Wal-Mart) are increasing with each trip. Just yesterday I was surprised to see an 8 pack roll of toilet paper went up from around $3.50 to $4.82...that's quite an increase. I have also noticed that some things Wal-Mart raised prices on have been brought back down but overall it's costing more to shop there. Our electric is higher than last year at this time by 20% but the weather has actually been cooler...again higher costs. We're trying to decide if we'll be taking our trip in January.

 

[jeankeri]

We were going to go to Hawaii next April, but had to cancel d/t crazy airfares! They more that doubled between April (when we were first planning) and June, when we decided to postpone.

 

[EyeLuvMickey]

Thankfully, no.

 

[Mililani Mouser]

It almost did. We wanted to go to WDW this year but didn't because the airfare doubled. We were going to put off going to the mainland this year but DH is attending a convention at Anaheim, so we have free hotel, car and DH flies for free. Hopefully, this hurricane coming Monday won't "jack" up the gas prices even more.

 

[JonJor]

I voted no.....

WDW in three weeks we are going as DVC guests. I paid my friend...but it was definately a deal. We also already have park tickets floating around so it was pretty much the food and air. I figured if we had the same accomodations on our own it would be 3X as much as we are paying. That would not have happened....would have used our off-site timeshare instead of being on property.

We are still traveling but trying to do little things to cut expenses....using old tickets, having groceries delivered, bought glow sticks at the dollar store, etc.

We also have a cruise in January. If I was to try to book it today I probably would not but since it is paid for and was agreat deal we will go.

 

[dvcgirl]

Well, yes and no. We've had no job losses thankfully and DH even got a 4% raise, so we feel lucky on that front. We also have a one year fully funded emergency fund. The kink in our budget is our oldest dog has had lots of health problems resulting in about 10K in vet bills since last October. We really wanted to take our planned trip to Italy and so we cut our monthly discretionary spending to make up the difference in our "pet spending" category. We were also able to snag flights using FF miles, so that saved us two grand, and we cut the trip from 14 days to 12 days so that the flights would work, saving us about another grand or so. I guess it's all a matter of how tight your budget is and a matter of priorities.

We have no debt, and so our monthly expenses are very low. But with gas, food and utilities much higher than last year our dollars don't stretch as far as they did just a year ago. We save 60% of our net pay and that's non-negotiable. So, we figured out a way to cut back on monthly spending, pay the vet bills and still take the trip to Italy.

 

[rockyroad]

I voted unsure.

We did a short vacation, but not at WDW.

 

[mytwotinks]

I mentioned earlier that it is changing our close to home driving trips because of high gas prices, but so far our big trips aren't being prevented. We are going to Disney in January and I was really worried that our airfare was going to be outrageous, but I ended up getting it for only a few dollars more than our lowest ever. I took my 10 year old to NYC from KC in June and our airfare for that was fairly reasonable ($240 each) with only a few weeks advance purchase.

I've noticed that some of you are having trouble with airfare costs. I wonder why the costs are going up so much more in some areas than others. Kansas City has a pretty lame airport that is never really busy, so I would have guessed that we would be one of the most increased.

It really is too bad though. When people stop spending money on "fun" it is going to impact so many jobs.

 

[lvanleer]

No....I've gone to a few scrapbooking weekends this year and have a couple more; we just came back yesterday from our annual week-long vacation in West Virginia; and we're spending a weekend in Canterbury, NH and Dover, DE to attend the NASCAR races(my DH won tickets for the NH race and we get to stay at his parents' for that race since they''re about 8 miles from the Loudon speedway; then we're staying in Bear, DE for the Dover race)......Next year we'll spend our 25th anniversary in WDW and do our normal West Virginia trip.

 

[SILLYANDI]

We have a vacation home on the Colorado River and we only went one time this summer versus twice a month usually. BUT, we did this so that we could afford our cruise in December. nirmally we could have done both with no problem.

 

[Aisling]

I voted No, but after this big upcoming WDW and DCL trip, that's it for a long while. I just did my bills this morning, and OMG everything has gone up. I took a weekend trip upstate 4 hours away to visit family, and it cost me over $100 in gas and $30 in tolls for a 3 day trip.

Airfares are outrageous.

I recently switched to a different cable company to save $50 a month, and I'm looking for other ways to lower the bills.

My son will be graduating HS next year, and then comes college tuition if he doesn't get a scholarship.

So the current economic status has definitely prevented us from planning any trips in the future for at least 3 years.