s/o affordable wdw vacations-what drives the vacation spending, destination or budget?

[barkley]

just curious how folks do this.

do you have a set budget amount yearly (like a fixed percentage of your income) that you structure your leisure travel around, do you have set/ideal yearly travel goals (like every year at least one wdw trip) that you structure the remainder of your budget around or do you use some other method?

 

[lovemygoofy]

I will have an odd answer but my vacations are typically set around time. I have crazy job with ridiculous hours some weeks and right now my husband is full time college student.
If I know I can work some time off, and he has time off then we start planning maybe 2-3 weeks out something that is likely within a 12 hour drive.

I mean budget is always a factor but not always the highest factor because downtime together has to happen that includes no work phone or laptop. We are planning a long vacation next year with cruise to Alaska. I am worried about it because we have never scheduled so far out for something especially such expensive vacation.

We have a 4 day get away scheduled in December because it's his winter break and my quieter time in the office. I'll take a few days off the week before Christmas in lieu of anytime off during Christmas. We just decided that last week so even 2 months out is a lot of time planned for us.

We try to plan one 5-7 day vacation a year (doesn't always happen) and usually 3-5 three or four day getaways a year. We have one account dedicated to fun extras like vacations, get aways and concerts.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

We go where we can afford--money's tighter than ever now that I'm a single mom. That said, if I am really motivated for a more expensive vacation I will make it happen, as I did with our Disney trip last March. Impossible is not in my vocabulary.

 

[J'aime Paris]

We set our vacations around time, since DD is in college and cannot miss.
Also, destination is a big consideration. We like to go to warmer weather during these WI winters!

 

[Colleen27]

Both at times. We usually plan one big trip per year where the destination drives the cost, and then plan smaller, less expensive trips with what is left of the travel budget.

For example, next year we're traveling cross-country over the summer. That'll be the big trip and I won't start booking other things until I have a pretty solid budget pinned down. We'll probably also go somewhere over spring break, and we always camp for a week during the county fair. And we'll be moving DD into a dorm for the first time. That, plus maybe a weekend here or there, will exhaust the budget for the year.

 

[superme80]

It depends on what we can afford and how much time DH can take off. This year we did 2 trips. A weekend to Santa Cruz, and a 3 day Disneyland trip. We will probably do Santa Cruz again next year, but other than that, not sure if we will do anything else.

 

[barkley]

We will probably do Santa Cruz again next year,

oh my gosh the memories! we went to santa cruz every year when i was growing up. i spent hours on end in the fun house (i was devastated when it was damaged such that they had to tear it down after the earthquake) and the penny arcade. THRILLED when i got tall enough to ride the big dipper. do they still do the free summer nite concerts on the beach?

 

[ronandannette]

Budget always carries the day for us and what we have to spend varies; we don’t specifically save for vacations. We keep a running list of ideas - I’m always looking into two or three different trips. When the time comes we decide which, if any of them we can afford. Sometimes we have to pivot and find something completely different. Disney vacations are no longer a priority for us and are apt to be a day or two add-on only if we’re already doing something else in the vicinity, like DLP last year when we went to Europe for a Med cruise.

 

[superme80]

oh my gosh the memories! we went to santa cruz every year when i was growing up. i spent hours on end in the fun house (i was devastated when it was damaged such that they had to tear it down after the earthquake) and the penny arcade. THRILLED when i got tall enough to ride the big dipper. do they still do the free summer nite concerts on the beach?

I think they do. We went in the Winter. Cheaper and less crowds. The boys loved it. We went mini golfing twice and found an amazing Taqueria. We never went when I was younger, so I went for the first time at 37. I didn't expect to fall in love with it. We can't wait to go back.

 

[LovesTimone]

We have AP for WDW, so we will plan a long weekend here or there... or even wake up on a Friday morning and book a room for 2 nights, and check in several hours later. We head for Vegas once a year. Head for the mountains in the fall, for leaf lookin' and hot tub soaking, we also like the mountain in the summer tubing, white water rafting, family time. Normally we do tend to go to look at the leaves. For a big trip, such as going to Europe or 7 night or more cruises. We plan at least a year out. So we are looking at what big trip we want to take next year.

I do spend a lot of time researching destinations, time of year, travel cost, resort, hotel, food, transportation during the vacation and activities/excursions, if currency conversion is a factor I check that out to. I try to stay within a certain number. When we went to Paris I spent a whole year researching. It was totally worth the time and effort.

 

[tvguy]

We pick a destination, and taylor the trip to fit what we can afford.
We went to Disneyland week before last. DW and I.
We went Sunday and returned Wednesday.
The air fares were cheaper on Sunday and Wednesday
The Grand California was cheaper Sunday through Wednesday.
Going a day earlier or coming back a day later added $100 to the cost of the air fare per person.
Going a day earlier or coming back a day later added $75 to the cost of the hotel room.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

It's kind of a combination of the two:

Where do we want to go?
Can we afford it? Can we afford doing SOME things? If no, then pick another destination. Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

[soccerdad72]

We're fortunate that we generally have the budget for trips, so for us, it's often about the destination. We have different destinations that we have on our list that we'd like to visit and have been checking those off. This past summer, it was the Baltic Sea (on a cruise). Next summer, the plan is Hawaii - which my wife and I have been to twice, but we've always wanted to take our boys when they got older.

 

[Cubbiecakes]

Vacations are just a line item in our budget, so the process is really driven by where we want to go or what we want to do. We typically have one "big" vacation (longer than a week) several small vacations (4-6 days), and a bunch of day trips (long weekends). To get the most bang for our buck we never travel during peak season.

 

[mrodgers]

Choose what you want to do. Research and figure out how much money it's going to cost. Decide the time frame. Subtract today from the time frame and divide the amount you need by the time frame based on paydates and that's how much you need to save from each paycheck.

Now for me it's wait 5 years for the kids to turn 18, save up a couple hundred thousand, buy a piece of property or a house, then start saving for vacation. I'll be ready for another vacation probably about retirement age which I estimate will be age 104 or so.

 

[slpeters]

We sort of have two major (7-10 days) vacations a year, generally spaced accordingly. We also do several 3-4 day long weekends that are much more spontaneous. Once we plan one of the big ones we start planning the next one. We're going to Orlando for a week in December, so almost immediately we start wondering whether the next one is Spring or Summer. Occasionally in researching a trip we will find that the timing is wrong. Maybe that destination works better in the Winter which would bump it to the second slot. Maybe the trip and the one that follows are a little too extravagant to be back to back, so we'll bump one to the following year. I guess we really start with the general framework that we do an extended vacation every six months or so and then we tweak from there.

 

[PollyannaMom]

just curious how folks do this.

do you have a set budget amount yearly (like a fixed percentage of your income) that you structure your leisure travel around, do you have set/ideal yearly travel goals (like every year at least one wdw trip) that you structure the remainder of your budget around or do you use some other method?

Closer to the second.

For the past several years, our travel has been centered around keeping in touch with far away family. We'll spend a few days with them, and add on a few tourist days somewhere nearby. We tend to pick the destination, then play around with the specifics to fit the budget.

This is a big trip year for us, though, as DS will be off to college soon, and we're trying to squeeze things in. We drove to D.C. in April, did our usual summer visit in upstate NY, and are planning our first ever Christmastime trip to Disney in December. Since that one's a splurge, we've been saving for it with a separate account.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Typically, DH's annual bonus = our vacation budget. This year, the stars aligned so we can go to Universal over spring break. Usually, DH has a plant shutdown (which involves long hours, paid overtime, and leads to next year's bonus) WHILE the kids are off from school. Next year, the break is later than the shutdown, so we can actually do something during the break, as a family. Added bonus, DD23, who teaches in a different state, has the same week off, so she's joining us.

We did splurge on Europe this past summer, but we budgeted from other areas to fund that. Maybe next year--maybe.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We generally go every two years, so I know when I have to start putting money aside to afford it. I'm on a fixed income, so I budget the same amount every month. I can usually save a couple of grand in a year and a half if I'm careful. We're not going until 2021 this time because my sister's daughter (my niece, of course) is getting married in Jamaica in 2019, our usual odd year of going so that's what I'm saving for now. However, Starting in December or January 2019 I will be putting a hundred or so away each month towards the WDW 2021 trip, just making it a bit easier to save because there's a lot we want to do on that trip.

We also save all of our loose change, really adds up. Saving change for a year or two usually pays for all the restaurant tips and little odds and ends like toiletries.

 

[neverlandsky]

We’re new to taking vacations and just started last year. We first have to get the stars to align aka time. Then we pick a destination. Now we consider a budget.

Our first trip to WDW last year there was no budget. We were celebrating a lot of life milestones and making up for no vacations. Yet learned a lot of what worked and what didn’t.

This year, we traveled to Tahoe/Reno for a week and Vegas for 5 days. Both trips combined were 1/2 the cost of WDW.

We found our vacation style, sloth pace.
We use bonus or tax refund to fund. I’ve noticed last minute planning like our Tahoe
trip worked out the best and was the cheapest.