Podcast Segment About Teresa's Daughter

[lugnut33]

Am catching up on the shows after 10 wonderful nights at WDW, and just listened to the segment from the Aug.17th show about sending Teresa's daughter into the parks with little or no money. I am curious to know if there has been any reaction to that segment?

When I got back I posted a thread about how we saved a lot of money by eating off-site and back in our 1 bedroom Kidani villa this time rather eating in WDW restaurants for the whole trip. I'm guessing we save around $600 by doing this.

The reaction to the thread really surprised me because all I wrote about was what our family did on the trip. I was accused of being cheap, poor, ignorant, petty, egotistical, and to top it all off, a bad parent because we didn't eat every meal at a WDW property. Somebody even went so far as to say we were losers because we spent time swimming back at the resort. I found myself on the defensive and probably should have just ignored the angry masses. Here's the thread, it went to 10 pages in one day before it was mercifully closed.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2788673

Anyways, I'm wondering if the Podcast received any feedback like that about the segment? Were people upset that you would send your daughter into the parks with little money? Personally, I thought it was a great segment.

 

[safetymom]

We haven't gotten any emails about it unless the other Podcasters got them directly.

Where did you post your thread? Was it on the Podcast board?

I think what you did sounds great. There are lots of ways to have a great time at WDW without spending a lot of money.

 

[SamSam]

Oh, my! I'm so sorry you had that type of reponses to your posts. I haven't read your original posts yet (doing that next), but it sounds like you had a great vacation....please keep posting.

 

[dansyr2514]

Ignore the others. We splurge on the dxdp on vacation because we are 2 adults and that is what is important to us. But we save by renting dvc and spend alot of time at the pool and have an awesome time. I think you are smart. If you and your family had a great time and didn't spend the cost of a car to do it.... I think maybe the people putting you down are doing so because they didn't think of doing your strategies themselves.

 

[lugnut33]

We haven't gotten any emails about it unless the other Podcasters got them directly.

Where did you post your thread? Was it on the Podcast board?

I think what you did sounds great. There are lots of ways to have a great time at WDW without spending a lot of money.

I posted it on the restaurants board. I put a link to it in the OP.

My kids (14 &11) loved the community hall at Kidani Village. The hall was filled with kids all day playing games and making arts and crafts. I don't think that has any less value than being in the park.

 

[dansyr2514]

Btw, we've eaten offsite quite a few times and there are some really great restaurants! Oh and we rent a car too!

 

[lugnut33]

Btw, we've eaten offsite quite a few times and there are some really great restaurants! Oh and we rent a car too!

Our family loves Sweet Tomatoes.

Would you agree that it's really pretty easy getting offsite?

 

[dansyr2514]

We've never gotten lost! Found a great rodizio and also some great sushi places. We've actually gone pretty far off property and if you have a gps, it's pretty simple.
Also found the outlets...One day will definitely be devoted to those!

 

[lugnut33]

My wife loves to spend a day at the outlet.

 

[dansyr2514]

My wife loves to spend a day at the outlet.

I have found the mothership of all outlets...the Victoria's Secret outlet..and it not all lingerie...but poor dbf just saw my eyes widen at the sight of it and just muttered..."I'll be outside when you're done"...

Sorry offtopic...but I figured I'd share

 

[Cap.Steamboat Willie]

So sorry to hear that you were insulted for having fun on your vacation and saving money. I mean how dare you! I'm sure your family must hate you and are all near death because you didn't eat on property.

Fools are not "on the hill" any more. It seems they are on the DIS board telling others how to live their lives.

 

[EDuke98080]

We also eat at our villa for breakfast every day, spend time swimming at the pool, go for a drive to explore and even sleep late. Vacation should be what is right for your family. Sorry others were so unkind. Hope you had a great trip unique to what your family enjoys!

 

[LoriABil]

I loved the segment for so many reasons...
What a great way to teach your kids responsibility... "I think you are smart enough to do this, and I trust you to use this money wisely." There's no better self-esteem builder than that - because it's actually earned. I found myself rooting for Teresa's daughter, hoping she'd make it the whole week!

Plus, it struck me that sometimes we (not just parents, but people in general) tend to over-do it. Fun is what you make it. It's not about spending money, it's about the experience. Some of my favorite memories are family vacations, stopping at a roadside park or scenic vista with our cooler of sandwiches for lunch. You can't buy that kind of memory.

Plus, getting a kid out of the house for a week, at little to no cost. Who wouldn't love that You can't put a price on sanity, but if you did, it'd be $20 and a little gas.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

We took many of our meals offsite as well our last trip. We are a party of 7 so you can imagine the expense of eating at onsite pricing added to their special "holiday" pricing, the surcharge for daring to venture to WDW during specific date of the year. I can no longer rationalize the need to dine on property when I can go offsite and get food of the same quality for a lesser price. We had no issue finding dining offsite and we have a GPS so it really is a non issue there and even with the added cost of gas, it still was far less then accepting the prices for dining on property. Oh and we don't rent a vehicl we drive from Maine, it is cheaper to do that than to fly.

ETA I loved the segment about Teresa's daughter. I think it was a very good lesson for not just Teresa and her daughter but for the listener's as well.

 

[DVC Kathy]

It's not the same thing, but you should see the looks we get when DH and I tell people we spent a week at Old Key West in June, never set foot in a park, and had a great time.

We did do the Pirates and Pals Fireworks party, which was a lot of fun.

You have your resort, Downtown Disney, plenty of non-park property to explore, outlet malls, off site restaurants..... It was the most relaxed non-cruise vacation we've had in a long time.

Kathy

 

[FireDancer]

I normally don't eat off property just because I don't have a car with me. I'm also only paying for me so sometimes the convenience of just eating onsite is worth it. If I did have a car with me I would eat off property more often.

When we were kids and went though we ate very few meals in the parks. We never stayed onsite and ate breakfast on the way. We might eat CS in the parks but we only ate 1 or 2 TS meals a trip.

I think there is a difference between being smart with your money and being cheap. Making Ramen noodles in the hotel coffee maker or using the iron to make grilled cheese sandwiches is cheap, eating off site is just being smart with your money.

 

[kimisabella]

We just got back from 10 days at Kidani as well. We had a wonderful time and spent almost every afternoon at the pool as well. I'm sure we probably were there at the same time! My kids loved the afternoon pool parties, especially pitch and burst at 5pm!

We were in a studio, and had breakfast in our room every morning. It was great. Not only was it a money saver, but a huge time saver. We also went to Publix twice during our stay and got heros/salads and had them in our room for lunch before heading to the pool for the afternoon. We even had another family (husband's cousins) over to our studio for lunch one afternoon. This was our longest trip, and ironically, we spent the least amount of time ever in the parks. We visited the water parks 3 times, Sea World once, Discovery Cove once, and some half-days at the 4 theme parks.

We had 1 sit down meal at the parks, and it was a disaster. We went to Via Napoli this past Monday night after wanting to eat there for awhile. We were again with my husbands cousins family - we were a party of 8. I love Disney as much as the next guy, and usually would never say anything bad or complain, however, the series of events that happened during the meal wasn't acceptable and I had to speak up. They ended up comping my family's (the four of us) meal.

The counter service meals we had at the parks were great - Sunshine Seasons, Tangerine Cafe, EOS, even at Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach! We also had some good meals outside the park at Chevy's and Lone Star Steakhouse. It was definitley a different type of vacation that we were used to as all of our previous trips included the dining plan. I loved the freedom and flexibility it gave us, and now I think I'm spoiled and would only stay in a studio/villa in the future!

 

[lugnut33]

Interesting!!

I wonder if there is an evolution to visiting WDW? Like, most families start out commando and it's all about the parks. After several visits one starts to try to expand their knowledge of WDW and begins to look at the attractions outside the parks, like the resorts you're staying at. Then, the trips don't necessarily revolve around the parks and having good relaxing time becomes more important.

I'm sure there are more steps to it, but it's what I came up with quickly.

 

[kimisabella]

Interesting!!

I wonder if there is an evolution to visiting WDW? Like, most families start out commando and it's all about the parks. After several visits one starts to try to expand their knowledge of WDW and begins to look at the attractions outside the parks, like the resorts you're staying at. Then, the trips don't necessarily revolve around the parks and having good relaxing time becomes more important.

I'm sure there are more steps to it, but it's what I came up with quickly.

That's definitley what it is. After seeing every park yearly, my kids aren't as interested in going on the rides and walking in the HEAT!! Especially last week, it was very hot, and my younger daughter just couldn't take walking all day in the heat. They would much rather hang out at the water parks or back at the pool... Trust me, we gave them the option of what they wanted to do daily, and they always choose a water park/pool. I actually read a whole book during this vacation - either while sitting on our balcony, or at the pool relaxing. It was great!

Touring the parks 24/7 isn't a priority anymore, and that is fine with me. As long as we are all happy, having a great time, it doesn't matter if we didn't use every minute of our park hoppers in one of the 4 parks. We had an 8 day park hopper/water park fun & more ticket - we used.......gasp, 5 days of the park tickets and 4 of the "plus" options. They also love dolphins/whales so that is where the Sea World/Discovery Cove days came in.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

I agree that Teresa's segment was great on this topic! Not long after that segment I was listening to the radio and it was the "John Tesh" show on my local station. As much as I hate to admit it, I actually like listening to his little tidbits of info and one struck me in particular...

He said that people years ago used to brag about how much things cost - as if it was a badge of honor that you had the income to splurge on an expensive item. Now, it seems, that people are bragging more about how much they SAVED when buying that item. For instance a person might say "I only spent $25 on this Coach purse on ebay when the retail price was $100". So apparently more of us wearing our practicality as a badge of honor these days!

So to the OP, I applaud you and your ways of saving money! And don't let those nay-sayers get to you because it sounds like many of us are coming to the conclusion that saving is better than spending