Since joining DVC how have your spending habits changed?

[msdis]

Consider what you used to pay for meals, park passes, transportation (air, gas, rental car, transfers, etc.), recreation (boat rentals, bike rentals, pleasure island, mini golf, reg golf,etc.), kennel fees(big one for us), unpaid time off from work(anyone else do this?), extra shopping you could have lived without, and anything else you can think of and compare those costs of what you used to pay pre-DVC and what you now estimate you spend with DVC. I skipped the rooms entirely because for most it is a wash unless it a hugh difference one way or the other, then include it.

For us, even though we save a lot and can stay in a studio for 3 weeks for what the dues cost us compared to what a 8 day stay at the moderates used to cost us, we have more than doubled our other expenses.

 

[jmminarik]

So far, ours have gone up, but we don't want to think how much. Mainly, the increase is because we treat family and friends....nothing like spending $2800 on 5 day park hoppers.


-Joe

 

[yasuern]

If I consider just the Disney components - ie:meals, park passes, shooping and stuff related to being physical in WDW I say I spend less - I enjoy shopping to me its an olympic event - but since I know that I will be going every 6monhts or so I don't "impulse buy as much - and eating some meals in the Villas saves tons. However we fly and now being a family of 4 this is going to get costly - but thats not Disneys related - no matter were we go on vacation airfare 90% of the time is a factor.

 

[dvcHammer]

We actually spend less now. Eating in for breakfast in most days and having lunch and diner sometimes at home saves a bundle over the course of a week.
We would have been going anyway, so park passes have have gotten cheaper with the 10% off and dropping first and last days from the UMP saves $$. We spend that time at the resort or at DD.
With Southwest airfares being very inexpensive, the cost of geting there is low now as well.
And with the cost of a comparable on-site stay for similar lodging, the break-even point will come soon - and who can go back to a hotel style room after having a one or two bedroom home.

17 days till OKW. Can't wait!!!

 

[Doctor P]

I think, all in all, it is probably about the same amount of dollars, but they are allocated differently and cause us to have a more enjoyable and higher quality vacation.

As a comparison, our first trip to All Stars in 1999 cost about $1600 for lodging and UPH passes, plus another about $800 for food at Disney. The costs going to and from Disney were pretty comparable in 2001 so I will eliminate those costs.

For our 2001 trip, I think we spent about $600 on park passes, $120 on fireworks cruises, and about $1000 on meals I think, plus the $500 in annual dues. We also bought a lot more souveniers on the 2001 trip than we did in 1999.

 

[Richyams]

I said trippled, but there is a good reason for that. We bought ten years ago, our income has quadrupled since then......

So we are actually spending less.......

 

[Mickmse2002]

I think anybody who says they spend less is fibbing. Pre-DVC we would never go every year and stay 10 nights at a time. Now with DVC we do. Never did AP's pre-DVC, now thats the only way we go. I think the better measure is the perceived VALUE of the money spent pre- and post-DVC. I think the value is tremendous. We CAN do 10 night vacations, we CAN go every year, we CAN minimize the park passes by smartly using the AP's. Eating at the villas is also a huge cost savings from eating everything in the parks/hotels.

All in all the value for the dollars expended is much greater post-DVC then pre-DVC.

 

[seventh heaven]

My savings habits have changed. Since I plan each vacation so far in advance, I am able to budget spending money accordingly. There is no doubt that we are saving money on lodging.

 

[donald@home]

We spend less (and I am not fibbing). We eat breakfast and lunch in the rooms, only go to the parks for about two hours a day (on the days we go into the parks) because we have been so often so there is less impulse shopping, we have been so often that the need to buy souveniers is lessened, we spend most of our time by the pool with bottled water we buy at WalMart and keep cold in our villa, we enjoy our time in the rooms (because of the roominess compared to a regular hotel room) and have often just "stayed in" and watched a movie, for us a good time is taking a quiet walk from OKW to DTD where we will walk around and people watch, we often take friends and in exchange for our supplying the rooms they usually take us out to dinner or rent the car or both, we have gone on the cruise a few times and all of the food is included, etc. etc. etc. All of this adds up to spending less.

 

[lsutigger2]

I think ours is about the same, but what DVC has done for us is allow us to have MUCH BETTER accomodations. I would never have spent the money to stay in a deluxe before DVC. I keep telling my DH that the more we visit the fewer things I'll need to buy. So far, he's not 'buying' it!! We do spend less on food, but we've done extras, like tours and Cirque du Soleil tickets. I guess it's about the same.

 

[crisi]

So many variables.

We haven't taken our first DVC vacation, but like Rich, our incomes have changed pretty drastically since I first went to WDW. For one thing, I'm married and have two incomes, each of which is significantly larger than my just out of college income. But I've added three people (husband and two kids). So we will definately spend a lot more - but it isn't DVCs doing.

Like Mickmse, we go more often. We still are planning on only every other year, but that is different than the three, four, even five year schedule I was on.

DVC can allow you to save money on vacations - by eating in, by prepaying and not being subject to hotel inflation, by changing the nature of your Disney trips from commando style every day in the parks to "today lets sit by the pool".

But DVC can also encourage you to spend more money. The money used to pay your dues (and mortgage if you have one) is out of sight out of mind - making you feel that your hotel is "free." Or that you've gotten such a good bargain, you can afford more (dinners out, souvieniers, nights at DTD, whatever) than you really can.

 

[gmboy95]

WE have spent more, which to my wife and I is very dissapointing.....we got into DVC to pay less....but we only have ourselves to blame....I budgeted $1,000 for this last trip, and ended up spending $1,800....We are committed to spending just the thousand this year....we need to eat more meals in the room (one bedroom), and stop buying things on impulse....we have decided to have only three meals in the park restaurants this time around one breakfast one lunch and one dinner....lets see how it goes.

 

[Cruelladeville]

We spend much less now, but then we always stayed at the luxury resorts We have always gone to Hoop-de-Doo Review, the luau, golf, horseback riding, and fine restaurants. Now we usually eat breakfast in the room, occasionally some of the other meals, too. We have AP's now instead of park hopper passes, and that saves us money too. We take 3 trips per year, a week or more each time, so things can get expensive, but we usually eat very well for $1000 per trip, including souveniers, which we don't indulge in too much. We never used to go on a trip for less than $2500, and that was before 1997 when we bought in.

 

[jimmytammy]

We are going home 1st time in Dec and hoping on spending less. We are committed to less spending on souvenirs and at least eating breakfast in room except for DDs bday. Food and park tickets we hope will be our only major budget.
Tell me you DVC vets is this possible or am I just blowing smoke in the wind?

 

[ncligs]

Originally posted by jimmytammy
We are going home 1st time in Dec and hoping on spending less. We are committed to less spending on souvenirs and at least eating breakfast in room except for DDs bday. Food and park tickets we hope will be our only major budget.
Tell me you DVC vets is this possible or am I just blowing smoke in the wind?

 

[jimmytammy]

I thought that might be the answer. My DW and Myself both got a good kick out of it. Thanks!

 

[ncligs]

Originally posted by jimmytammy
I thought that might be the answer. My DW and Myself both got a good kick out of it. Thanks!

jimmytammy,

In all seriousness, if you cut out souvaneirs, eat breakfast in the rooms, don't go to fancy restraunts, and enjoy a few days at the DVC resorts without going to the parks, you will save considerable amounts of $$$$

 

[jimmytammy]

My DW said I was crazy if we were that close to the parks and didnt go and she likes San Angel Inn and Le Cellier so scrap the idea of saving $$$. So much for that I guess, oh well.

 

[Mickmse2002]

We go to the parks every day in the AM (after eating breakfast in the villa), return for lunch and pool time, eat most dinners in at the villa then head back to the parks for the night shows. In a nine night trip we will eat out normally three times. For a family of 5 we drop around $100 for each of these dinners. We spend lots on souveniers (whats the point in going if we don't bring home lots of Mickey stuff!). I only reported that our spending is up because we go far more often than ever before. Thankfully my income has outpaced my Disney expenditures so we can still go at least once a year without breaking the proverbial bank.

 

[wdwendyd]

I am one of the people that voted we spend three times as much but our enjoyment is probably tenfold! (and I used to have a great time before!) I have been a penny pincher all my life and now we are taking those saved dollars and living our dreams. DVC is the best one!