Making Disney a Yearly Destination

[*Seanaci*]

I love reading threads like this. Especially since DH and I have decided to try and make Disney a yearly destination as well (long story short, we have a son who is 3...we'd talked about having one more kiddo...however, given DH's age, and the fact that we wouldn't try for another kiddo till 2013, we've decided to not have any more kids; which will now leave more funds for yearly vacations).

We're planning on putting away an extra $600 a month starting next June (we are currently settling a credit card and should be done paying on that by early next year, as well as paying off my DH's car by early next year, thus giving us an extra $600 a month) into a vacation fund. I can't wait!

Good luck with your plans and savings to have a yearly trip to Disney!

 

[brymolmom]

It obviously depends on your idea of what a budget is for one WDW vacation, but personally DVC does not work for us. That's not to say I wouldn't LOVE it! But, since we go during any great deals that are going on...what we end up paying for our hotel room is about what we'd spend on annual dues for DVC - and this way we don't have the huge upfront cost associated.

We do go once a year - well a bit more often then that if you work it out. We usually go during free dining for about 8 nights. All inclusive a year and a half ago for about $1800 for our family of 4. Decided to try out DisneyLand last spring (maybe about $2200 total). Then we did a quick Christmas trip last month - found an incredible deal offsite and went to MVMCP and used a couple days of our non-expiring tickets. Total cost was about $1500 ($750 for airfare).

We like to go more often but spend less each trip in order to do so. So it is definitely affordable to do it every 10 - 12 months this way.

 

[Happiest mommy]

We stay off-site (love the space) and contribute to a vacation club thru my DH Credit Union which is taken out automatically from his pay, that has been the best thing we did this allows us to go every year

 

[bpatton]

Wow! You guys are great and I appreciate all the responses you guys have posted! Definitely a lot of data to digest!

It's currently me and my DW for now, but we're soon expecting our first DD in March of this year. All this talk is really about planning as many trips to Disney not just for us, but to expose her to the magic and fun that can be had at WDW.

We really like to go in May since that is when our anniversary is, but we're really open to any time. Off-season is perfectly fine with us, and it sounds like that is the best bet to keep costs down.

Once again, greatly appreciate everyone who has posted all their tips and methods! This is definitely getting a bookmark for us to revisit when we start setting up the budget this year. Of course gotta wait for DD to arrive before we begin to create too much of a budget!

Look forward to more people responding and have been loving the boards (very addictive)! This community is simply awesome!

 

[rnorwo1]

I found the disboards when I was researching DVC... I lurked on the dvc forums for two years! At that point, we only had one young son, so we could go any time of the year... it was easy to look for specials and stay in a moderate hotel room (we stayed one night in a value the night before our package began once, and we didn't want to return to value if we didn't have to.) But then as he was entering school and we had another child, with dreams of a third, it became clear that finding those deals were going to be harder and harder... if you have 3 kids, there are very few hotel rooms that you can stay in, and as kids get older, it's very difficult to take them out of school.

So that's when we decided to buy DVC. We bought at SSR, which was the newest resort then (so we could get the most years out of the contract), and we bought a 100 point resale contract (paid cash), so we calculated that we would come out ahead of the moderates in about 7 years, depending on how many trips/length of trips we took. Our annual dues are about $450 right now, and so far, in the last three years, we've done 3 trips to WDW in the studios and one trip to HHI in a 1 br. In May we are going to stay 6 nights at BCV, we'll do 2 days at BWV for F&W, and then we'll do another 4-5 nights over Mardi Gras 2011... and we'll do all of that on one set of the discounted APs. We'll be borrowing points to get all those trips in, so we'll skip a year after that to catch back up. We can also just take one longer trip each year, but it costs more in tickets to do that.

Definitely check out the DVC forums for all your questions there, because there are some drawbacks. But if you want to go every year and don't know that you'll always be flexible on your dates b/c of school, you can pay cash for a resale contract, and you want to stay in a moderate or a deluxe, then DVC may be the way to go. If you're fine with value or off-site and can be flexible to go during discounted times, then definitely do not buy, but save the money with all the great suggestions offered above.

But definitely be careful of these boards... they can make disney an obsession for you, which will definitely not do your checkbook any good!

 

[Disney_1derland]

We try to go yearly. What I always tell people is that for us, this is a priority.

I have a separate account that is the Disney account and each year as soon as reservations open up we look at rack rate for the time period we want to go. We choose accommodations at our 'dream' resort for that year and total up the expense of the trip. I then divide it by the number of pay periods between then and the 45 day mark. Each pay period when I pay bills I transfer that amount to the Disney account.

Next, we wait for the discounts. When they come out (or occasionally when they look like they aren't coming out!) we book. If there are good discounts, we book the 'dream' resort. If not, we book cheaper. Then, when it's all said and done and I've based the cost of the trip on rack rate of the dream resort it leaves us enough for spending money and plane fare.

We also buy AP's and get two trips out of them by scheduling the trips slightly less than a year apart.

This has worked for us over the past 10 years. We've only skipped two years and that was due to pregnancy.

 

[Td1290]

You may want to try renting points once thru a DVC member to see if it is for you. It also is a good way to stay at top resorts for the rates of a moderate. I think once you try it, you will never look back

 

[KibbyCat]

Anyone know why they took away the option to post Reservations Wanted on the DVC board?

 

[roadtripper]

You may want to try renting points once thru a DVC member to see if it is for you. It also is a good way to stay at top resorts for the rates of a moderate. I think once you try it, you will never look back

WARNING!! We did this, and ended up buying DVC during our stay-- we love it. DVC on the resale market is really reasonable right now, but there will be a few more restrictions to resale purchases in terms of trading out to other places. Best to look into it first--check out the boards here.

That said, we love DVC and go to WDW every year--sometimes twice a year. It has been a great way to vacation and to bring friends and family to share the magic with us. We make it a family priority--we don't have a huge house, we don't shop a lot for things we don't need (and can't fit in our house!), and we talk about Disney ALL the time. It is one of the great joys in our family life. We save money out of every paycheck and put it into an online Disney Fund so we can watch it grow, and can still get at it quickly in an emergency. Have fun planning--it can be done even if you're not megarich.

 

[gobraves39560]

We go every May. I keep an eye on Mousesavers and Disboards for specials. We have never paid over $2000 for a package with dining and at least 6 nights at a value or last year.. POR. When I get paid the last day of the month… I just treat it as a bill and put $200-$400 on it. Also helps that we are only an eight hour drive away.