*sob*

[DesertBell]

I'd be in single digits today if I hadn't had to reschedule our trip.



It's just cruel, I tells ya.

 

[bumbershoot]

 

[DesertBell]

Thank you. I needed that.

 

[kiwitravel]

I'd be in single digits today if I hadn't had to reschedule our trip.



It's just cruel, I tells ya.

I feel for you, looks like we might have to postpone our trip next year due to the worsening economic situation. The US/NZ exchange rate has moved from 0.8 down to 0.53 this means our trip has gone up 40% on what we planned. Unless this chages sometime real soon it means we are going to have to push the trip back a year, either the situation will improve or we will have more time to save the extra.

While this sucks it is small compared to those people who are losing their jobs or have had their saving and retirement funds devalued or lost their homes.

 

[fairykin]

*huglet*... hang in there... everyone goes through times like this...
you made the right decision...and just think when you do get to go back you will be so HaPpY!

Merry Christmas

 

[Sherry E]

Just curious - I don't know the back story - why did you have to postpone/reschedule? Is it money-related or for some other reason? Anyway, I can totally relate to the sadness involved in either having to cancel a trip, reschedule or not being able to go to DLR because of money or some other unforeseen event popping up. That has happened to me repeatedly. Logically, I really shouldn't even be going to DLR in a couple of weeks nor should I have gone in October (I lost my job in February and have just been trying to freelance since then to get by until I find another 'real' job), but I figured I would try to squeeze in a couple of weekend trips and maybe a solo day trip this year before I have to kind of go back into DLR seclusion for a while. It will be very tough, but I have done it before!

Anyway, to you! Just try to think of it as, for whatever reason, not going to DLR at this moment is for the best this time around.

 

[PigletGurl]

awww, im sorry.

 

[wendypooh22]

 

[DesertBell]

Yes, it was money. It's not the best time to be self employed selling construction supplies. Plus, winter is always a big slow down. Hopefully things look up; I am optimistic that once the presidency changes hands the economy will pick up.

You guys are so sweet. This is the only place I can go and whine about this and have people understand- Disney makes me happy. Even more so, it's just devastating to disappoint my kids. (My son was upset. My daughter, the little mercenary, said, "Yay! Now we get more Christmas presents!"

 

[Sherry E]

Yes, it was money. It's not the best time to be self employed selling construction supplies. Plus, winter is always a big slow down. Hopefully things look up; I am optimistic that once the presidency changes hands the economy will pick up.

You guys are so sweet. This is the only place I can go and whine about this and have people understand- Disney makes me happy. Even more so, it's just devastating to disappoint my kids. (My son was upset. My daughter, the little mercenary, said, "Yay! Now we get more Christmas presents!"

I hope the economy improves soon, too. But it looks like it is getting worse before it gets better. So many people are being laid off left and right. I worked for 15 years straight (and 14 of those years were at one job), and now I feel totally out of the loop. I would feel like a fish out of water now if I got back into an office environment! And that's not a good thing when you are trying to convince someone they should hire you for a job when they have 200 other candidates!

A lot of non-Disney fans/people don't understand why it is so important to go there. They think it is just a frivolous expense and should be the last thing on our minds when we are struggling with money. Well, that is true to a large extent, and I went for many years just resigning myself to the fact that I couldn't go to DLR and didn't know when I would get back there! When I finally got the chance to go back - because someone was kind enough to give me tickets (and then a full trip with hotel stay formed after that) - I realized how much joy it brought me to be at DLR and how it put me in a better frame of mind and a better mood to deal with the 'real world' when I got home. But I still knew that I only had just a few short trips I would be able to manage, IF I was lucky, before I had to go into DLR hibernation again, and knowing that day is coming soon is a bleak thought!!

It is especially tough when you don't have money during the holidays, isn't it? I know that 'spending' is not the true Christmas meaning or spirit, but, let's face it - you want to do nice things for your kids and the people you love! Going to DLR around the holidays seems like the perfect way to really celebrate and immerse yourself in the magic of the season. I will cross my fingers and hope that you are able to take the family to DLR next Christmas!! And I will cross my fingers that things improve for your family work and money-wise!

 

[spacemermaid]

Awwwww, I'm sorry!

 

[evilprncess96]

I totally understand your saddness and frustration. My husband just got notice that he is having a 5 week layoff. My first response was to cancel our trip and my husband did the math and said no we are going - we will just do it cheap!! (We have saved for over 2 years for this trip). Just think of how much more excitement you will have for the next trip!!

 

[Sherry E]

I totally understand your saddness and frustration. My husband just got notice that he is having a 5 week layoff. My first response was to cancel our trip and my husband did the math and said no we are going - we will just do it cheap!! (We have saved for over 2 years for this trip). Just think of how much more excitement you will have for the next trip!!

That's what I had to do. Scale the trip down rather than give it up completely. When I was laid off in February, I already had an existing DLR package reservation for December through the WDTC. I scrapped that and got my money back, minus $100 they kept. I decided to wait until closer to December to see what my job and money situation was like before I re-booked a hotel. I thought things were looking up so I re-booked the GCH through Central Reservations, which is cheaper than WDTC. As soon as I realized I would not have the money for GCH, I switched over to the PPH for the same weekend, which cut off about $400. Then I realized that staying at PPH exactly one week earlier than my scheduled weekend would save even more money, I moved the dates and saved another $300, roughly. Now, the hotel is all paid for, basically, so I am just coming up with whatever I need for food, and the AP discount will help with all of that. And if worse came to worse and I had to shave more money off of the hotel, I could switch my weekend dates to weekdays and get an even better AP8 rate, although that would make it difficult for my friends to join me because they have to work!

I had this December plan for a whole year, so even in the face of losing my job, I wasn't willing to abandon the plan just yet! I would have if I had to and if there was no way to pull it off, but I was going to try to make it work in whatever way I could before I have to begin the DLR hibernation for a while!

 

[pixiewings71]

I'm sorry. I hope you can go soon!!

 

[bumbershoot]

It's not the best time to be self employed selling construction supplies.

...My daughter, the little mercenary, said, "Yay! Now we get more Christmas presents!"

I would think that job probably isn't the best to have right now.

Silly daughter!

A lot of non-Disney fans/people don't understand why it is so important to go there. They think it is just a frivolous expense...

I've stopped telling my friends. They think it's for kids (but I heard later the group of women from my San Diego trip thought it was "cool" that I took off and went by myself, and possibly were even jealous), they think it's superduper-expensive (the way THEY do it, once-in-a-lifetime-ish, yes it is) instead of a splurge in lieu of other things, etc etc.

I totally understand your saddness and frustration. My husband just got notice that he is having a 5 week layoff. My first response was to cancel our trip and my husband did the math and said no we are going - we will just do it cheap!! (We have saved for over 2 years for this trip). Just think of how much more excitement you will have for the next trip!!

Good news is, he doesn't have to take vacation time!

 

[DangerMouse]

I'm right there with ya. We had to cancel our DLR trip, too. We would have been leaving on the 15th. I can't believe I'm going to miss Christmas in DLR this year.

 

[DesertBell]

Do you know, I love how this thread is going? It's nice to know I am not alone- in a lot of things.

We rebooked for March, (more time to save) and hopefully we'll be able to upgrade our hoppers to APs while we're there. We live about 8-hours drive from DLR, so once we have passes it's not such a stretch to think we could drive up for a couple days every couple months. If so, I fully intend to be at DL NEXT Christmas!

I have hope for the economy. Certainly, the housing market is crippled right now, but the slowdown we're seeing in sales isn't that much worse than it normally is at this time of year. Still, it's very scary.

 

[kiwitravel]

Do you know, I love how this thread is going? It's nice to know I am not alone- in a lot of things.

We rebooked for March, (more time to save) and hopefully we'll be able to upgrade our hoppers to APs while we're there. We live about 8-hours drive from DLR, so once we have passes it's not such a stretch to think we could drive up for a couple days every couple months. If so, I fully intend to be at DL NEXT Christmas!

I have hope for the economy. Certainly, the housing market is crippled right now, but the slowdown we're seeing in sales isn't that much worse than it normally is at this time of year. Still, it's very scary.

Most pundits are saying the worse is going to be May/June next year and expect things to start picking up slowly from there. Its going to be years before there is any sizable recovery though. January/Feb will be very hard, expect some retailer failures then also probably going to lose at least one major car manufacturer unless the government bail them out. Unemployment to peak at around 15 - 20%. Incredibly this is the "best" scenario, the other scenario with the Financial sector failing and the government not able to stump up with enough money to save it is far far worse...

 

[evilprncess96]

We have just realized that we have to try and take each month as it comes and if there is any left over cash it goes to savings. We started this when saving for this trip and now the savings is going for paying the next months bills as necessary. I am just glad that we don't need to depend on our 401K right now...because ouch we have lost our hineys. Once again though we are just not going to look at it again for quite a while

 

[PCHoffman]

Leaving early Saturday morning!!! Woot!!!!