Now that the US Dollar is expensive ...

[minnie56]

True enough...but salaries have also?

 

[dsneygirl]

True enough...but salaries have also?

My salary certainly hasn't doubled like Disney passes have

 

[NARM Forever]

We're going to WDW in March and we have a wedding in NC in July that can't be missed so we're just going to have to suck it up and make some savings where we can. In July we'll stay with friends as much as possible.

We're DVC and our dues this year were $150 more than last year (increase in price plus exchange rate), still I priced out the accommodations on the Disney site to make me feel better. Our dues were about $2,500 and the value of the accommodations we booked are about $9,500 (like anyone apart from my rich friend would pay that ).

I rented some additional DVC points for my cousin and paid when the exchange rate was 1.1 and as he will pay me in US$, its like prepaying. I've also booked a car and one of the park tickets on my aeroplan points just to try and off-set the increase in the exchange.

I normally go to the outlets but probably won't be doing that this year. I've also been pricing out the Tables in Wonderland to see if that would be worth it for us. I would need to spend $500 in food and alcohol, not too hard to do nowadays the dining prices really have skyrocketed.

NARM

 

[minnie56]

Well one day passes have actually increased approx $15-20 since 2008 so not exactly doubled but the better value of course comes when more days are added. Disney never was known as a cheap vacation...still isn't i guess.

 

[Davey Jones II]

For those of you who are accustomed to staying at a moderate resort, you could try a value resort. The theming is charming, and you get most of the same perks of staying on-site.

Also, buy your park tickets before the inevitable, annual price increase.

 

[dis_guy]

For those of you who are accustomed to staying at a moderate resort, you could try a value resort. The theming is charming, and you get most of the same perks of staying on-site.

Also, buy your park tickets before the inevitable, annual price increase.

We're definitely thinking about POP instead of our usual CBR stay. I figure it would be about $500 less for our dates. I love CBR but really, we only sleep there.

And a good point to keep in mind about the tickets, too. Wish I'd have bought a bunch while the $ was better.

 

[kuhltiffany]

Hmmm, we have a trip planned for March and usually just charge incidentals when we're there. Now I'm wondering if I should go and buy some US cash now... Wish I knew if rates were still going down!

 

[pigletto]

Hmmm, we have a trip planned for March and usually just charge incidentals when we're there. Now I'm wondering if I should go and buy some US cash now... Wish I knew if rates were still going down!

Might be a good idea. I think the general opinion is that it's only going to get worse for awhile.

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

For those of you who are accustomed to staying at a moderate resort, you could try a value resort. The theming is charming, and you get most of the same perks of staying on-site.

Also, buy your park tickets before the inevitable, annual price increase.

We absolutely thought of buying our tickets now for July and book room only when the summer discounts come out. However, if a Canadians discount was to be released (and I do not even know if one will be) it may be tied to a package deal which we would then not be able to take advantage of.

 

[mshanson3121]

Hmmm, we have a trip planned for March and usually just charge incidentals when we're there. Now I'm wondering if I should go and buy some US cash now... Wish I knew if rates were still going down!

The financial forecast is for the dollar to continue dropping for the next 1-2 years, hitting $0.70 or so. I would suspect lower.

 

[SaraMc]

For us it really doesn't change anything. We went went the dollar was worth 53 cents in 2001 and still plan on going again this year. Infact we just came home last week from DCL and WDW..

 

[Aladora]

For us it really doesn't change anything. We went went the dollar was worth 53 cents in 2001 and still plan on going again this year. Infact we just came home last week from DCL and WDW..

The lowest our dollar has been against the US dollar was in January 2002 when it dropped to 61.98.

 

[xlxo]

I agree with sara....

It appears there some recovery this morning.... can it be sustained as oil enters the warming driving season?

 

[mort1331]

We leave in about 5 weeks, being DVC members and knowing this was our only trip, I booked a studio instead of a 1bdrm to save on points. I then just last week rented those extra points out and was paid out in US$. We are also driving for the first time this year, saving where we can. If it stays this low, might take a year off next year. Lets cross out fingers

 

[mab2012]

Might be a good idea. I think the general opinion is that it's only going to get worse for awhile.

The financial forecast is for the dollar to continue dropping for the next 1-2 years, hitting $0.70 or so. I would suspect lower.

That's certainly the popular opinion right now. And I don't necessarily disagree - I just paid off a summer cruise myself, and bought a wad of US cash for both the cruise and an upcoming March Orlando trip, because I think the risk of another big drop in that timeframe is much greater than the likelihood of a significant recovery.

BUT... currency markets are notoriously volatile and unpredictable. Economists look at the CAD dropping and say "Oh look, the dollar is dropping, we think it's going to go to X cents". When it nears, reaches, or sometimes surpasses X, they'll look again and say, "Hey, the dollar is still dropping. Now we think it might go as far as Y." Rarely will anyone predict a recovery - except maybe in the vaguest possible terms - until after it's already started to happen. Then it's more of the same ("oh, look at the dollar rising, we think it's going to go up to Z"). Repeat.

So for me, if my timeframe was a year or more, or even 6+ months, whether to pay off an entire vacation at current rates would be a much harder call. I don't think it's likely that we'll see the CAD at par with the USD in the foreseeable future, but a recovery into the mid-eighties is, IMO, entirely possible. Maybe not likely, but certainly possible. Any number of things could trigger it: a change in OPEC's position, some geopolitical shock, better-than-expected performance in the Canadian economy (maybe due to a combination of the recent interest rate cut, the low CAD, and demand in the US), or even just stabilizing oil prices due to changes in production and increased consumer demand (consider the Canadians who will decide to drive south this year to save money, or the SUV-loving population who will decide to drive more just because pump prices are low).

Of course I'm not an economist, and this should NOT be read as a prediction that the CAD is going to rise. It's nothing of the sort. Only a caution against the assumption that economists' predictions on currency movements are a foregone conclusion.

 

[SaraMc]

The lowest our dollar has been against the US dollar was in January 2002 when it dropped to 61.98.

Perhaps it did hit that point but the banks charged a different rate. I remember specifically on our honeymoon buying US funds and it working out to roughly 53 cents.
Doesn't really matter. I would still go if it was 25 cents for every USD.

 

[kuhltiffany]

Ok, I think I'm going to go and buy some US cash before it gets any lower. I hate carrying cash around though, is there such a thing as a pre-paid credit card or something I can put it on?

 

[dis_guy]

Ok, I think I'm going to go and buy some US cash before it gets any lower. I hate carrying cash around though, is there such a thing as a pre-paid credit card or something I can put it on?

We have a US$ account. When we go to the US we withdraw cash and once at Disney we buy gift cards to avoid carrying cash around.

 

[Madame]

Ok, I think I'm going to go and buy some US cash before it gets any lower. I hate carrying cash around though, is there such a thing as a pre-paid credit card or something I can put it on?

We also have a USD account (my MIL gets paid in USD & we just bought cash from her - the discepancy between what the banks buy your USD for and what they charge you to buy USD is increasing so we pay her a point above what she could receive in exchange from a bank).

We use our USD TD Visa & then pay it off from our USD account.

 

[jeepwreck]

we are going in nov. for 10 days and even thou the dollar does suck it will not affect our plans.