I am absolutely NOT going to kick you when you're down.

Early in our marriage, hubby and I had no savings to speak of and we used credit cards more than once to take small trips. Nothing extravagent, but really this WAS a bad idea.

We were making all our payments, but really were living paycheck to paycheck with NO savings. Then our son got sick and our budget went down the toilet, hubby lost his overtime, we had just bought a new car, etc...

We learned real quick that putting ourselves into "debt" even for the little extras was a big mistake.
So here is my suggestion, which I hope will ease the pain of cancelling your trip. Spend the next year or so really thinking about ways you can start tucking extra away (yard sales, cutting back on eating out or movie nights, trimming the Christmas budget or satelite bill, work some overtime, whatever), keep your eye on deals like free dining, off-site hotels, etc. and you might be surprised what you could afford in the next year or so without taking out a loan...
For years, hubby and I took out the max+$20 on our taxes at work, to make sure we got several thousand back when we filed in Feb., we would then use this cash to make home improvements or take vacations (Disney 2005!). This way we didn't really MISS the cash, and we couldn't spend it in the meantime. A traditional savings account works also, if you can avoid digging into it for other "emergencies".

(We seemed to have problems with this back then,

we've gotten much better over the years, especially now that we have an emergency fund for those little surprises.

)
Anyway, back to savings, your kids could participate in this also. You could make a family Disney "graph" like organizations do when they are saving for a big purchase (they use thermometers or whatever and color them in each time they reach a certain level of their goal. You could use a drawing of the castle or mickey head or whatever, mark it off in $100 increments and color them in as you add to your disney savings). You'll all be able to see how close you are getting to your goal and NO ONE will be telling you NO when you book your next trip.

Maybe you could throw one of those Disney theme nights each time you hit a $500 increment. Borrow a video from the library or friends, make a themed meal, play some themed games. The kids LOVE this stuff, its cheap and it would add to the excitement.

(There is a whole list of these ideas in this forum if you haven't seen it.)
Take this dissapointing moment and turn it into something exciting, rewarding and magical. Hope your next trip comes soon and is even more Magical than your last few!
