may have to cancel

[homemaker]

If we have to cancel our trip, what do I lose? I believe if it is less then 45 day til check in I lose $100 and less then 6 days it would be $200. Is this correct?

The trip is paid in full but we haven't been able to save any spending money. We were also planning on driving so we would need gas, hotel & food money.

 

[mom2faith]

That is how I understand it.

We booked 4/3 and forgot to cancel it before the 45 day mark and we got our deposit refunded, less the $100.

Hope that helps

Sorry you have to cancel!! But it is better to go and be comfortable, than to go and stress the entire time!!

Amy

 

[homemaker]

Thanks for the help. I guess $100-200 isn't too bad. We would like to hold out til the last minute. We hate to disappoint the 5 kiddos! We will just go early next year if we can't take this trip. Thanks again

 

[dogodisney]

Can you reschedule it? That way you won't lose any money and it will give you more time to save.

 

[mom2faith]

If we have to cancel our trip, what do I lose? I believe if it is less then 45 day til check in I lose $100 and less then 6 days it would be $200. Is this correct?

The trip is paid in full but we haven't been able to save any spending money. We were also planning on driving so we would need gas, hotel & food money.

I am looking at your dates...do you have free dining???

I also noticed that you are going to MNSSHP - that is not refundable, so that is someting to consider too - you would be out $100 plus the tickets.

We thought of cancelling ourselves, but we would have been out the $1800 in flights and decided that it was not in our best interest. Instead we just cracked down to save faster for the rest.

We are doing the "jar" thing where we have limited spending money for groceries, ges, etc. We cut WAY back - worth it for the trip.

Also I sold a lot of things on Kijiji (similar to Craigslist) and made over $1000 that way (yeah we had a lot of crap).

If the trip is paid for, you may want to really budget out your spending money and see eactly what you need and how much it would take to go.

We have done that. I budgetted for the following:

• Tips - we are on FD so I went to All Ears to see the menus to roughly guess our tips
• Daily Spending money $50/day (total, we have to share )
• $30/day for our travel days (we are flying so we do not need as much as you will)
• 1 ride photo
• Characters in Flight for the 3 of us
• 3 refillable mugs
• water, snacks at Walmart or Target

Also remember that the week you are gone, you will not need groceries, gas, etc - so you can use this money towards your budget.

Good luck!!!

Amy

 

[tripletots]

I had to cancel our trip, but I did it on day 46. I had most of the money for the trip, but I didn't have the money for tips (10 days of free dining) which would be about $450.00 plus spending money, gas money, etc....... I felt like I needed an extra $1500 to feel comfortable.

So instead, I booked 10 days at Bonnet Creek with Ken Price and I bought tickets to Universal. I have gift cards to Rainforest Cafe and I bought from Costco for $79.99 gift cards to Wolfgang Puck (Express or Cafe) that value $100.00. So I figure that's 20% off. I signed up for coupons from Sweet Tomatoes and I have a B1G1 free meal. I also have gift cards to California Pizza Kitchen from American Express. We will eat breakfast and lunch in our rooms and when we are at Universal we'll probably eat lunch there and eat dinner in our room.

We will get our Disney fix by pin trading at DTD and at the resorts.

I'm sorry you had to cancel your vacation, but maybe you could keep that money and use it for next year.

I figure this is our last family vacation for a while. Kids and college coming up soon.

 

[homemaker]

mom2faith: Yes we do have free dining, but we upgraded to deluxe. We figured with the deluxe we wouldn't have to put out any extra for snacks or meals. Plus the mugs will come in handy with five kids.

Also I held off on getting our MNSSHP tickets - just in case we couldn't save the extra. I am willing to take our chances on having tickets available. Just don't tell the children and everything will be okay!

We also don't have airfare since we were planning on driving. Driving is still a big expense with gas, hotel & food while on the road. We figured 2 nights each way at about $1000 round trip?

My DH is going to try to unload some stuff on ebay & craigslist, so we will see what happens.

I will also start collecting my change and try to cut back. With all the change in the bottom of my purse now - - lets just say there's ALOT.

Thank you to all for the ideas! If we don't get the extra now then we will just reschedule for later. Maybe make a Christmas gift for the kids.

 

[Trentmom]

Have you ever driven from SJ to Florida before?

Just curious why u are stopping two nights going down and coming back?

U really only need to stop one night each way. That would save you some money that way.

Bring a cooler for the car. U can eat sandwhiches and have drinks. Stock up on snacks from Walmart. At hotel for the night, u could just find somwhere to order a pizza.. That would not cost that much.

Only have to worry about gas and tolls.

Hope you can take your trip

 

[homemaker]

trentmom: We have driven before and can usually make it in one night unless we are pulling our travel trailer. This time our little one just turned 1 and doesn't travel well. She starts to fuss and cry after about 1.5 to 2 hours. That makes for a really long drive. I thought if we stop often(to get her out of her seat) it would be easier. I would love to make it one night each way, but don't think the baby will allow for it. Any ideas for maybe entertaining a 1yr old?

 

[starstruck93]

mom2faith: Yes we do have free dining, but we upgraded to deluxe. We figured with the deluxe we wouldn't have to put out any extra for snacks or meals. Plus the mugs will come in handy with five kids.

Also I held off on getting our MNSSHP tickets - just in case we couldn't save the extra. I am willing to take our chances on having tickets available. Just don't tell the children and everything will be okay!

We also don't have airfare since we were planning on driving. Driving is still a big expense with gas, hotel & food while on the road. We figured 2 nights each way at about $1000 round trip?

My DH is going to try to unload some stuff on ebay & craigslist, so we will see what happens.

I will also start collecting my change and try to cut back. With all the change in the bottom of my purse now - - lets just say there's ALOT.

Thank you to all for the ideas! If we don't get the extra now then we will just reschedule for later. Maybe make a Christmas gift for the kids.

$1000 How many people are traveling and how far?? I was able to get 3 tickets round trip from D.C. to Orlando for $522. Both ways are direct flights, so by flying we cut out the hotel, gas and food cost of driving (not to mention the shear pain and exhaustion of driving that far with a child!

 

[homemaker]

starstruck93: We are a family of 7 driving from South Jersey. I wish I could find cheap airfare. Just the thought of driving with five children scares me! Right now it is cheaper to drive and cut some of the expenses by packing food & snacks.

 

[Trentmom]

trentmom: We have driven before and can usually make it in one night unless we are pulling our travel trailer. This time our little one just turned 1 and doesn't travel well. She starts to fuss and cry after about 1.5 to 2 hours. That makes for a really long drive. I thought if we stop often(to get her out of her seat) it would be easier. I would love to make it one night each way, but don't think the baby will allow for it. Any ideas for maybe entertaining a 1yr old?

Oh okay. That makes sense then

U do not happen to have a laptop or portable dvd player do you?

If you have either one of them, I would take them with me and put on movies.That would help entertain the little one part of the way at least

 

[WantToGoNow]

Just a thought - if you backed the deluxe dining down to regular dining, wouldn't that save you a lot of money with a family your size. I find the regular dining to be more than enough food - we usually take snack items for breakfact, have a counter service lunch and table service dinner - by day 3-4, we don't even want to eat anymore and we usually have 20 or so snacks (that you could use for breakfast) left at the end to use up.

 

[ms_missy66]

When our girls were smaller, we'd leave at like 4:00 AM. They'd fall back asleep until like 8:00 or 9:00, and by that time, we already had a nice chunk of driving done. I can't imagine making the trip, essentially, three days! Do you have a DVD player in your car? In the interest in skipping one of those nights in a hotel, I would assign someone to entertain the baby full-time.

I'm also thinking about the deluxe dining plan. How much did it cost to upgrade? I get what you're saying about how it would cut down the need for additional snacks and stuff, but it's a LOT of food and time to have a sit-down meal three times a day. We just hit costco before we go for granola bars, juice boxes and a few other things. We're a family of four and spent nothing beyond our basic dining plan when we were there last week. If you could do with a little less dining, you could save money there.

Do you have hopper passes on your tickets? Think you'll really use them? We always bought that feature before having annual passes and we rarely use it. That could be a savings of $50 per person who has a ticket in your family.

I'm hopeful for you that you can either make it this trip or reschedule for another without losing any money!

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I have been driving to WDW from Long Island or north New Jersey for 20 years. Out budget for the trip - both ways? $300. How you get to $1k is beyond me.

When our children were younger, we drove through the night (wife and I switched off driving every 1.5 - 2 hours). Left after dinner. The kids slept and when they awoke, we were almost there. No hotels, few potty stops, and the only meal to buy was breakfast.

IMO, if your problem is coming up with the money to drive down, it is because you don't really know how to do a raod trip with kids.

With the DxDDP, you can avoid all tips by eating only at places that do not require tips.

At any rate, I wish you luck in determining your best course of action...

 

[maxiesmom]

I have been driving to WDW from Long Island or north New Jersey for 20 years. Out budget for the trip - both ways? $300. How you get to $1k is beyond me.

When our children were younger, we drove through the night (wife and I switched off driving every 1.5 - 2 hours). Left after dinner. The kids slept and when they awoke, we were almost there. No hotels, few potty stops, and the only meal to buy was breakfast.

IMO, if your problem is coming up with the money to drive down, it is because you don't really know how to do a raod trip with kids.

With the DxDDP, you can avoid all tips by eating only at places that do not require tips.

At any rate, I wish you luck in determining your best course of action...

Wow, I would love to know how you do it for $300. I just guestimated the cost to drive from Michigan to Orlando, and came up with $650. For a GMC Acadia it will be more than $400 just for gas! Add to that one night each way and money for food an we are looking at $650 easy.


OP--If you can't make your trip this year, try and reschedule it instead of cancelling. That way you shouldn't loose any money you have put down.

 

[koima]

I just had to cancel our trip and I'm busting my butt to save extra cash for a trip in the spring, so this is near and dear to me! If you're already paid for the trip and just need the travel and incidentals, I think if you really buckled down and made an effort, you might be able to make or save an extra $1,000 for your trip.

Call all of your utilities, services, etc. and ask if they can lower your bill. I did this recently and was surprised to save $65 a month on our cable/internet/phone bundle. I just called and asked, "Is there any way to lower my bill?" and they were great! We didn't drop any services, either.

Have a garage sale. Go through all the closets, toys, kitchen stuff, garage, and pull it all out. We had two garage sales without any big ticket items and made about $500. Most of that was baby clothes at $1 per piece and other baby gear that 1yo DD had outgrown.

Selling on Ebay and Craigslist, for sure.

Check Craigslist for focus groups or other things like that in your area, if you're near a bigger city. I have done these and generally get about $100 for an hour and a half.

Do the envelope system for your expenses and whatever is left at the end of the month can go to Disney.

Pack a cooler for food on the road and hotel snacks, obey the speed limit (use cruise control if you have it) and make sure your tires are full to use less gas, and price out hotels online to get the best deals.

Don't plan on buying a lot of souvenirs. Pick up things at the clearance outlet store and call it a day. (We're not big souvenir people, so this one isn't so hard for me.)

I think you could make it happen.

 

[cassandrap83]

Don't forget that with you not at home for a week you won't be buying groceries for the week, driving to and from work, eating out meals at work, paying for daycare.....etc.

We're able to save about $400 just by not being at home! lol

 

[frtchr]

This is not meant to be snarky, but I don't understand driving through the night. How are you not completely exhausted on the first day at your destination? And how, when stopping to change drivers every couple of hours, were kids not woken up by slamming car doors? Maybe it's because my kids are still little, but I don't get it.

 

[WantToGoNow]

This is not meant to be snarky, but I don't understand driving through the night. How are you not completely exhausted on the first day at your destination? And how, when stopping to change drivers every couple of hours, were kids not woken up by slamming car doors? Maybe it's because my kids are still little, but I don't get it.

We have driven straight through during the night from Ohio the last 3 trips. Yes, you are pretty tired when you arrive - that's why the first day is usually pretty low-key. We switch off drivers and the one rests while the other drives. The first trip ds was 6 months old; next trip he was 3.5 and dd was almost 1; last trip ds was 5.5 and dd was almost 3 - they never woke up when we stopped at rest areas, gas stations, etc. On the way home last time ds slept from the FL Turnpike until we reached Cincinnati. My kids can sleep through anything - they don't need dark or quiet.

This trip we (me, dh, ds8 and dd5) are leaving very early in the am and driving until 8-9 and then stopping for the night. The rest of our group (dd25, my cousin, her dh and children - ds9, ds5, dd4 and dd2) will be flying - our goal is to meet them around noon.