The impact of a strong US dollar

[Josh Hendy]

I don't think the US dollar is strong or that the US economy is doing well. There are plenty of negative indicators, like the employment participation rate for starters.

I think the USD is "strong" because other countries are just so, so bad. The Eurozone is a pile of financial toxic waste. Japan likewise. Canada and Oz are thrashing around in the deep end looking for their flip-flops after the price of commodities took a dive.

Even the littlest things that I buy that have to be imported are spiraling up in price (in CAD) and giving me severe sticker shock to the point where I'm putting off purchases and making do. Going to WDW may end up on that heap too ...

 

[Disneylover99]

This is a perfect example of the passive aggressiveness found on message boards. First you take a comment or two and twist them into something that appears controversial and then sit back and wait for the responses from others. You then take a few more shots at people defending their statements and then you take the "holier than thou" approach and say "I'm done discussing this particular issue", knowing full well you were never intending to discuss anything, rather, take your shots and move on.

I'll stay and discuss if you'd like. Something in this thread obviously struck a chord in me. But since this is the rumours and news board, I thought I would take this kind of debate elsewhere. Not passive aggressive.......more like damned if you do for staying (aggressive) and damned if you do for leaving (passive).

 

[Alfalfa]

I don't think the US dollar is strong or that the US economy is doing well. There are plenty of negative indicators, like the employment participation rate for starters.

I think the USD is "strong" because other countries are just so, so bad. The Eurozone is a pile of financial toxic waste. Japan likewise. Canada and Oz are thrashing around in the deep end looking for their flip-flops after the price of commodities took a dive.

Even the littlest things that I buy that have to be imported are spiraling up in price (in CAD) and giving me severe sticker shock to the point where I'm putting off purchases and making do. Going to WDW may end up on that heap too ...

Interesting. I hadn't even thought about our close neighbors in Canada; I have several Canadian friends who I talk to on a regular basis but we haven't broached this subject yet.

I just read where US consumer confidence rebounded last month but the very next article was how Australia's consumer confidence hit an 8 month low based on worries over household finances and job security.

U.S. Consumer Confidence Rises in March

Australian Consumer Confidence Falls

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

As another Canadian on these boards, we've watched our loonie slip in value versus the American dollar, but for us, its a double edged sword.

Travelling to the USA costs us more than it did in the last few years, period (but its still not as bad as it was in when we made our first trip in January 2009).

The company my husband works for, however, generally gets paid by its customers in US dollars as most of the product they manufacture is sold and shipped to American customers. That means a higher profit sharing cheque every year, and job security. For their employees, that means luxuries like Orlando vacations. When our Canadian dollar exceeded the value of the American dollar for a little while back in 2011 (I think?), their corporate profitability took a serious hit. Good for travellers, not so good for some industries.

With our dollar currently sitting at about 80 cents US, its making us much more concious of picking good value choices for our Florida trips. As a result, we opted for Universal annual passes: going "all out" with the Premier version (giving us park to park access, each a free ticket to Halloween Horror Nights, free valet parking, free after-4 pm Express Pass, in-park dining and shopping discounts, significant hotel savings, 8 free bottles of water each, no blackout dates, and more) was just a shade less than a 10-day Disney ticket with park hopper. We will get three Universal-centered trips in before these passes expire....which breaks down to just $144 per person in theme park tickets per vacation. For us, that's good value....and offsets the fact that we are paying 20% or more in exchange.

Ditto on accommodations. Our one bedroom villa at our offsite resort (which offers more amenities than their Disney counterparts) was $419 including all taxes and fees for our 7 night stay in May. The cheapest one bedroom villa via Davids points rental is AKL at $2338. Right off the bat, that's a $1919 savings in USD.....or about $2400 CDN.

Gas is significantly cheaper in the southern US, as is dining out (Disney restaurants excluded), so those costs are a non-issue. Even wih the exchange rate factored in, both of those expenses are still a good value as compared to home.

So....while the strengthening US dollar won't affect our family's plans to travel to Orlando (at least not in the short term....we have May, October and December 2015 already booked, and April 2016 in the planning stages), it will definitely affect how we spend our vacation budget.

 

[Alfalfa]

As another Canadian on these boards, we've watched our loonie slip in value versus the American dollar, but for us, its a double edged sword.

Travelling to the USA costs us more than it did in the last few years, period (but its still not as bad as it was in when we made our first trip in January 2009).

The company my husband works for, however, generally gets paid by its customers in US dollars as most of the product they manufacture is sold and shipped to American customers. That means a higher profit sharing cheque every year, and job security. For their employees, that means luxuries like Orlando vacations. When our Canadian dollar exceeded the value of the American dollar for a little while back in 2011 (I think?), they profitably took a serious hit. Good for travellers, not so good for some industries.

With our dollar currently sitting at about 80 cents US, its making us much more concious of picking good value choices for our Florida trips. As a result, we opted for Universal annual passes: going "all out" with the Premier version (giving us park to park access, each a free ticket to Halloween Horror Nights, free valet parking, free after-4 pm Express Pass, in-park dining and shopping discounts, significant hotel savings, 8 free bottles of water each, no blackout dates, and more) was just a shade less than a 10-day Disney ticket with park hopper. We will get three Universal-centered trips in before these passes expire....which breaks down to just $144 per person in theme park tickets per vacation. For us, that's good value....and offsets the fact that we are paying 20% or more in exchange.

Ditto on accommodations. Our one bedroom villa at our offsite resort (which offers more amenities than their Disney counterparts) was $419 including all taxes and fees for our 7 night stay in May. The cheapest one bedroom villa via Davids points rental is AKL at $2338. Right off the bat, that's a $1919 savings in USD.....or about $2400 CDN.

Gas is significantly cheaper in the southern US, as is dining out (Disney restaurants excluded), so those costs are a non-issue. Even wih the exchange rate factored in, both of those expenses are still a good value as compared to home.

So....while the strengthening US dollar won't affect our family's plans to travel to Orlando (at least not in the short term....we have May, October and December 2015 already booked, and April 2016 in the planning stages), it will definitely affect how we spend our vacation budget.

Thank you. Those are exactly the sort of personal adjustments that compelled the original question.

 

[clsteve]

I don't think the US dollar is strong or that the US economy is doing well. There are plenty of negative indicators, like the employment participation rate for starters.

I think the USD is "strong" because other countries are just so, so bad. The Eurozone is a pile of financial toxic waste. Japan likewise. Canada and Oz are thrashing around in the deep end looking for their flip-flops after the price of commodities took a dive.

Even the littlest things that I buy that have to be imported are spiraling up in price (in CAD) and giving me severe sticker shock to the point where I'm putting off purchases and making do. Going to WDW may end up on that heap too ...

100% agree. A strong US dollar in relationship to other sound currencies is positive for many domestic economic verticals.

However, we're too interconnected these days. That faltering Euro, because of the inherent inequalities between the North and South economies of the EU..... it's not going to take much for that reckoning they've been kicking down the path for years now to happen.

Maybe it's Greece that's the catalyst, maybe continued deflation, maybe it's the continued economic stagnation in France or a big upheaval in French politics that moves them to Nationalism - which may happen in their next major election.

Then, we have another major worldwide recession - a longer one, stopping our very short recovery in it's tracks.

Uplifting post, huh....?

 

[carmelhp]

I don't think it means the Euro is in freefall if it's slightly higher than the Dollar, but I'm not an economist.

Considering that when it was launched it was pegged at 1 for 1 for USD, no it doesn't mean that.

 

[MouseNerds3]

Yeah, me too.

Please do not feel unwelcome. Just ignore such comments.