Repeat Disney Visitors

[NorthernON_MOM]

I have noticed through reading the different threads that some people have been to disney many times and several have been multiple times in a year. My questions is A) do you love it that much and B) how do you afford it?

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Yes love it that much. How we afford it is to drive and not eat out a lot while down at WDW. We find that we save a lot of money on food that way. We don't eat breakfast out and make up lunches to take into the parks. We bring a case of water with us so that we don't have to purchase any while there for example. We eat out approx 3/4 dinners while there for a week stay.

We also look for deals such as the Cdn at par deals. We've now purchased annual passes so are looking at the AP rates for hotels. We've stayed at CBR and All Star Sports recently (over the years I've stayed at GF, Poly, BC also) and would stay again at the value resort without a problem. There are just the two of us though as DS is "too old" for WDW -- read he's a teenager and would rather stay with grandma than be seen in public with Mom.

There are always different things to do and see each time we are down there. Last time we went to MNSSHP and the Food and Wine Festival for example.

 

[NorthernON_MOM]

How do you get those? and how much are they?

 

[cdnmickeylover]

You can get a voucher for an annual pass at the Disney Store here in Canada. I believe the cost is $525 for an adult. I'm sorry I don't know how much a child's pass is. We purchased ours at WDW and I think they were $377 with the disney club discount which is no longer available unfortunately. A renewal of the annual pass will be cheaper but I'm not sure how much that will be. We got the annual passes which do not include the water parks, just the theme parks. In order for the annual passes to be worthwhile (without the hotel discounts, or any other discounts) I believe you have to visit the theme parks for a total of 8 days within the year.

The voucher is activated the first time you use it at one of the parks so you can buy the passes here in Canada and the year doesn't start running until it's first used. Hope that made sense.

If you go to www.allearsnet.com I believe that Deb has a page that lists the current prices for the annual passes.

 

[bunnyfoo]

A) Yup. We love it that much ... It's the Happiest Place on Earth That's what I tell all my friends who ask me why I've been so many times. My DBF and I have been three times so far and there are many things we have yet to do.

B) Good question I try to budget one vacation a year it just happened that we had bought annual passes for our May trip, so we thought we'd squeeze in an extra trip. The passes save us money on the trip (hotel rooms, food, souveniers etc.) but then we ended up taking another trip ... so in a way, they cost us money

I save money for my trip by using a savings account ... I transfer $50 each week into the account so after a while it adds up. I also put in money that I save from birthday/Christmas gifts. I have a change jar which can add up over time

Do you collect Air Miles or Aeroplan points? I usually try to get at least one of our tickets for free, although it's not always possible. If you're traveling with lots of people, you can also fly out of Buffalo.

You could also plan to take a trip during Disney's value season ... I know that's not always possible, but the hotel rates can be much lower during that period.

 

[hockey mom]

We also love it that much. My kids love repeating the old rides and there always seems to be something new opening for us to try out.

As for affording it I have a pretty good job that is considered free money(Dh pays all the bills), so it lets us go once or twice a year. We fly out of Buffalo or drive and I always get 7 day hoppers and 3 day universal passes and spread them out over 2 trips.

 

[DSNY FN]

We can never have to much WDW we would go once a month if we could get the time off work. We can afford it now being DVC members it means you don't have the big room bill when you get there so the money you put away over the year you can actually use when you get there not to pay for the room. Where else can you go that you totally forget about everything else going on in the world and just have fun.

 

[Susan--Ontario]

It's our family time together. We utilize a lot of the suggestions already posted here. The rest of the year we don't go out to movies, we don't go out to restaurants very often, we don't drink or smoke and we eat budget conscious meals (read hot dogs and KD here). I also have Canada Savings Bonds through work. They don't make much money but it is forced savings and that helps a lot.

People often ask us why don't we go anywhere else. We've spent literally months at Disney at we haven't done everything yet. We went to Disney Quest for the first time this last trip. We are seriously considering DVC. Apparently, we should have bought it years ago.

On Tuesday, the local TV station was doing a story on people at the airport whose planes were delayed. There was a family who were headed to the MK and weren't going to be getting out that day. I told my two year old daughter that they were going to see Mickey Mouse and she said "We see Mickey Now!"

I told her not this year, but with all this rotten weather we'll see how well my will power holds out. I sure do miss all my friends in Orlando when the weather here is so awful.

Never let other people make you feel crazy for going too often. That's why we have this support group here on the Canadian board for "crazy for Disney" Canadians.

Have a great day!!

 

[jwnandsn]

We got hooked on our honeymoon 18 years ago and have been a total of 16 times since (we have driven and flown). We can't get enough. We find it one place that allows us to get away from it all. We have so much fun that we forget about everything going on at home and work. It is a great stress relief for us.

We also purchase Annual Passes and some years have gone twice. It is hard not use that pass more than once.

We have stayed in rental homes for last few times (have a great contact that helps us get a good rate) but have stayed at All-Star, CBR, Grand Floridian and Poly. We took the Disney Cruise 2 years ago and loved it.

We go during the off-season mostly (first two weeks of December is our favourite). We have travelled by ourselves (we don't have any children), with friends and relatives. We have taken two of our nieces down twice and in Nov. 2002 we decided to take their parents as well. We had a wonderful time. It was great seeing WDW through the eyes of children and seeing my sister-in-law just light-up the whole time she was there.

We really enjoy the restaurants at WDW and always go to our favourite ones. I also have a Canada Savings Bond Plan at work that helps pay for a big chunk of the trip (don't miss the money being taken out of my pay and it adds up quickly. Because we don't have any children we spend our money on things we really enjoy and WDW makes us very happy.

We were just there in Dec. 2003 for two weeks and because of our Annual Pass are hopefully going down again at the end of April.

We have received great tips from the people here and thanks to Mike we now fly out of Flint, MI on Air-Tran - great prices and a very friendly airline.

Sandra

 

[Mortlives]

a) Yes, we do love it that much, although we are going to take a break, and probably won't be back until at least 2005.

b) We afford it by not dining out a lot at home, etc, and going in the off season, and taking advantages of specials and available discounts (I miss Disney Club!). Also, after the first trip, we limited souvenir purchases. Fortunately, for us, that's enough. Of course, YMMV. But if we had to pare down the costs more, we could drive down, and camp at Fort Wilderness (who knows? we may do that next time, anyway).

Ciao,
Mort.

 

[maryliz]

Ditto to everything already said above I have been to WDW 22 times and I still love it, and miss it when I'm not there (which would be especially these last few weeks with all of this snow, ice and cold temps ) About 7 of those trips were only for a day or 2, but the rest were anywhere from 5 to 12 days and we still cannot seem to do everything we want to. That's the "park-a-holics" in us ... can't go on Splash Mountain too many times IMHO

Yes, it's expensive. But we drive, buy AP's so we do at least 2 trips on one pass, and have gotten some great rates on hotels (OK, nothing beats my Courtyard by Marriott in DTD for $20.03/night this past August). We also take breakfast food, and a whole load of snacks/drinks so we often only "buy" one meal per day.

Long and short of it, I would much rather make magical memories for my family than worry about paying off my mortgage sooner than I have negotiated with the bank ! There will come a time very soon where the kids will be too busy with school that it won't be feasible to go as often, so I need to get it all in now

January 2005 ... here we come

 

[minnie56]

We love it that much at our house too!

We usually go 2-4 times a year and we just make sure we have that in the budget! We have just started expanding our horizons and trying cruising as well, but WDW is our fave and as most cruises leave from Florida...we add Disney on to the end of the cruise..Where there's a will, there's a way

 

[mom_rules]

Yup! Me too-I love it that much.

As for affording it- We opened an American Bank Account
and every pay we convert a set amount and deposit it to
the account (kind of like saving for a RRSP). Sometimes we
get a good exchange, sometimes not. When we are ready
to take another trip we search out deals, specials and codes
and book what we can afford at that time. We've been lucky since the last several times we've been able to stay deluxe!
YC concierge-Cdn at Par - here we come!!

 

[CdnDisneyer]

Trip no. 8 coming up for me in August.

We've just clued in to the money you save with an annual pass and have managed to go just this past December and will go next August and will take advantage of the value week right before labour day weekend.

As well as what just about everyone else said, we drive, and because we drive we can bring as much food and water as possible and last trip I even brought a toaster which gave variety for breakfasts and snacks. And another key is to not book the package deals, get the hopper passes that don't expire so if you don't go to the parks everyday, you have tickets for the next trip!

I also look at what you get for your money. I find even with the US exchange you really do get more for your money entertainment wise. i.e. compare the cost of a day and MKD with a day at Wonderland and I think we can all agree, you'll have more to do, see and appreciate at MKD. We've had a few trips up to cottage country and have been totally rained out in the summer, leaving you with absolutely nothing to do. At Disney even if the weather's lousy, there's somewhere to go, something to see and the atmosphere is anything but bleak at any time.