Seriously, how do you afford the Poly?

[kentear]

I have a 15 year anniversary coming up next year and we want to go for a week to the Poly. The prices for 2 of us for a garden view room, with park hopper passes (no water parks) is over $3,000. That is BEFORE food or any spending money.

We must be really poor or all of you who go all the time and stay at the Poly must be really rich.

Am I missing something?

 

[Neesy228]

I've often thought the same thing...about all of the Deluxes....but I do think that many people save for a long time to go, and there are always those lucky few who can afford it no matter how much it is.

I, too, aspire to some time at the Poly one day. If you're going for your anniversary, why not do a split stay? Go to a mod. or value for the first few days of your stay, then upgrade yourself to the Poly for a couple/few nights

 

[Carrie in AZ]

My best advice is to keep an eye out for a code or special promotion. Have you visited the Code board on this site?

Don't give up hope that you can secure a code to help make your special anniversary trip a reality!!

 

[SnowWitch]

We stay at the deluxes and by no means are rich. I'm an RN. We do without alot of things other people do alot of, such as, eating out. We will get takeout maybe 2-3 a month, I have friends who eat out that much every week. Instead of going to the movies, we wait for it to come out on dvd. My teens love A&F and Hollister, clearance racks and outlets. I have found all kinds of ways to save money and feed my Disney addiction.

I never pay rack rate!

 

[stemikger]

Too me it wouldn't be worth it. I know I'm in the minority, but I could not see paying the extra money for any of the deluxe resorts. I love the value resort I stay at, it actually seems more fun then the deluxe resorts.

We resort hop and usually eat at the deluxe restaurants (the only real advantage as far as I can see) and we get to enjoy that perk without spending the money to stay there.

 

[HugsForEeyore]

I have taken 25 trips to Disney over the last 12 years, and only once ever stayed at the Poly! I saved my money for over 2 years, and we went with free dining last September, which saved us lots of money. And staying at the Poly was so worth it! Hope to do it again someday!

 

[Disney8704]

Havent stayed at the Poly yet, but that will be our next resort we stay at though. With that said, we always save up. No matter how long it takes. This August we are staying at AKL for the 1st time (12 nights) with Savannah view room plus 10-day park hopper tickets with AAA discount and it cost us $4025. We just paid it off yesterday (Thursday). Now we just have to save for food, which we plan on taking $1700 and then about another $500 for souviners. We already have some of that saved up already. AAA alone can save you a huge bundle on your room. If you go during value season staying at a deluxe AAA can shave off 15% of your room total. Sure it might cost about $70 to join, but we saved almost $600 with AAA on our room. So thats a HUGE savings.

Edit to add: We always book when the new rates come out for the following yr. And with that, we save up, pay off huge chunks of the trip a few times over the course of the yr. I always take the price of the trip (including air fare, souviners, food, transportation if we are taking a limo - which this time we are, and of course the main porition - AAA) and divide that by how many paychecks DH gets between then and the paycheck he gets before we leave. He gets paid every 2 weeks so it usually turns out to be about 24 paychecks. And we always also seem to manage to pay AAA off before 45 day mark even hits. Like this time. We just paid it off yesterday, and our final payment was due by June 12th. So we paid it off a couple weeks ahead of time.

 

[kileybeth]

When is your anniversary? Can you go during value season rates? Or free dining is how we made it affordable (Aug-Sept dates)

And sometimes, life just needs to be celebrated. I'm not talking don't pay the bills or anything but splurging for a special occasion when you know you will have to cut back in other areas is a good way to "justify" it for me.

all about priorities. "says the lady who only has stayed deluxe once and is now soooo addicted!" Even my frugal DH said club level was worth it! shocked my socks off! opps, I wasn't wearing any, I was in POLY paradise!

ETA: just reread OP post, if it is just 2 adults going, consider dropping your hopper option to save a bit too. 7 days is nice amount of time to see/do lots w/o kids in tow. also check out www dot mouse(no space) savers dot com for current deals and ideas how to save. also the infamous tiki*man website has deals. not sure how to post that as we don't/cant talk about that here so much BUT there is a pretty current thread going, do a search.

 

[Pooh Bear Hugs]

Strong £ made it a lot cheaper pity its falling. Paying things off bit by bit eases the pain of spending larger amounts too.

 

[pruesmom]

Our family and I go during value season with free dining. We usually stay at a MOD or a Deluxe. Watch for deals!

 

[designermv]

We're not staying at the Poly, but we're at WL which is also a Deluxe (albeit a less expensive one.)

We book our vacation a year in advance, and pay off a lot of it with our tax refund. We also pay a bit bi-weekly so by the time our 45-day window is here, it is paid off.

Check with AAA for discounts. Check the code thread here. Price out different dates. See if you can get a AAA Room only discount and weigh that against the package price. There are a lot of ways to save money, it just takes some legwork.

 

[frdeb1999]

We book a year in advance also and pay on it. We are by no means rich either. Check the different sites to see what you can get price wise. Seems high for just 2 of you.

 

[beansmom]

Now, mind you, I'm not knocking anybody's choices but....

my fiance is a DOCTOR...actually a Medical Director at TWO places so he makes a buck, yanno? And even though we COULD afford the Poly, it makes no sense to me to pay $900 for two nights in October. Not for a room we won't spend much time in. We DID buck up for AKL instead because I think that resort offers more in the way of things to see and do and even THEN I wouldn't pay $900...we got it for $513.

We all make choices and I"m glad somebody stays at Poly...leaves room other places for us!

 

[Alicnwondrln]

save, look for discounts or codes, go in the value season.
Do you have a Disney Visa?

 

[michelle1]

I think most people, if they really wanted to, could have a vacation at a deluxe resort...some people would have the money readily available, others would save for months and months. What separates those who do stay at deluxes from those who stay at mods or values is their willingness to spend that kind of money on a hotel room. Some people can easily afford it more than others so they don't have to give it any thought. I have always wanted to stay there and we could bite the bullet and just do it but the rational part of me won't allow it because there are so many other things to spend that money on. I hate that part of my personality!

 

[eliza61]

I have a 15 year anniversary coming up next year and we want to go for a week to the Poly. The prices for 2 of us for a garden view room, with park hopper passes (no water parks) is over $3,000. That is BEFORE food or any spending money.

We must be really poor or all of you who go all the time and stay at the Poly must be really rich.

Am I missing something?

I love the deluxes and if I'm going to Disney it is where I'm staying, so this is a easy one to answer. If you really want to go to the Poly, set a budget and save. I doubt very much that anyone here would call themselves really rich and I doubt you are really poor. Set yourself a goal, are there some things you can cut back on to save like eating out, movies etc. Can you have garage sales to pick up some extra cash (and get rid of stuff you don't want? )

When my family asked if the could spend Christmas at WDW we picked the Grand Floridian. I made sure everyone understood that the trip would be the Christmas gift. No Ipods, No psp2 or xboxes. nada. We had a wonderful time, definitely worth giving up stuff for.
Same thing when we decided to purchase our DVC. Dh & I really felt like it was an excellent choice for us so we saved, put down 1/2 the price and financed the other 1/2 over 3 years. We knew the sacrifice we were going to be making for this (No new cars, no big screen TV's, no other debt until it was paid) but for us it was the best choice in the world.

If you want the poly Go for it, it's a great resort. Get into the right mindset, tell yourself you can do it and get pumped.

 

[Mickey_Man]

I have a 15 year anniversary coming up next year and we want to go for a week to the Poly. The prices for 2 of us for a garden view room, with park hopper passes (no water parks) is over $3,000. That is BEFORE food or any spending money.

We must be really poor or all of you who go all the time and stay at the Poly must be really rich.

Am I missing something?

It is really a matter of choices. DW & I bought annual passes this year, as we knew we were going this past January (marathon weekend), this summer (anniversary trip), and I even convinced her to go in December for X-Mas decorations viewing.
We are by no means rich, so last Jan was our X-Mas gift to each other for 07, this December is the same for 08, and the summer is our Anniversary gift to each other! With the APs, we are saving on the hotel stays and obviously have the park passes paid for. We bought the Disney Dining Experience card ($60 or $65, I forgot which), and that is giving us 20% off most of our meals. In Jan we stayed at the Dolphin using a teacher's rate code (DW is a school counselor), and this summer we are using AP rates for the WL and a timeshare swap for the BCV.
In summary, we are choosing to spend any extra $$ on Disney trips, foregoing the gifts we would otherwise spend. We used mousesavers.com for some great savings advice and tried to maximize our savings (APs, multiple trips on that AP, discounts galore). We budgeted for the trip, saving along the way (and that stimulus check is definitely going to the mouse!). There are ways to save, and obviously choosing the right season to travel in makes a big difference in how much one spends. If you can go during free dining, you can justify the Poly's rates by saying it includes meals too! Or maybe you can get a room only code for a discount on the Poly. How about AAA? Check and see if getting an AP would make sense for you. Only one person in your party needs the AP in order to get the discounts. Do a little more research into ways to save and you may find some nugget of information that helps you save a lot of $$.

Of course all the $$ you save will just go to souveniers anyway!!

 

[JPN4265]

We save for the trip, okay sometimes its a spur of the moment thing. But we always do the Deluxe Hotels and Resorts. I guess that makes us rich?

 

[TJA]

Value season really makes a difference in price. We are annual passholders and have always gotten a really deep discount during value season. Normally pay in the low $200's per night for Poly. However, with rising prices of the resorts, not sure if we'll stay at Poly again unless a really good deal is released.

 

[choirfarm]

Now, mind you, I'm not knocking anybody's choices but....

my fiance is a DOCTOR...actually a Medical Director at TWO places so he makes a buck, yanno? And even though we COULD afford the Poly, it makes no sense to me to pay $900 for two nights in October. Not for a room we won't spend much time in. We DID buck up for AKL instead because I think that resort offers more in the way of things to see and do and even THEN I wouldn't pay $900...we got it for $513.

We all make choices and I"m glad somebody stays at Poly...leaves room other places for us!

Grin... here is a surgeon's wife who thinks 513 is outrageous. 82 dollars a night for a value with free dining is just right. So see, you left more room for me at a value!!!

Christine