Upcoming Trips...Are You Planning on Cutting Back on Anything?

[Chellymouse]

If anything, we've continued to add. Normally we do one 9-10 day trip every 14-18 months, but with DVC, I'm going twice once with my BFF in August for a week then returning in Dec. with DH for 9 days. DH and I don't buy a ton of stuff anymore and the dining plan, while we aren't happy with the changes, is still pretty economical for us, however, this may be the last trip with DDP since we have DVC. We've purchased 2 nights for MVMCP and the backstage Yuletide tour as well. What we're paying to have DVC has enabled us to "move" our money around and still have the trips we've grown accustomed to. Airfare has been the killer. It cost us $800 round trip from Akron Oh to Orlando on Airtran. BFF and I paid $500 round trip out of Cleve. for Aug, but we managed to get our plane tickets before air shot up.

 

[Cor44432]

We'll be cutting back in a couple different ways.
First, we're staying offsite for the first time..BUT, we did get a 3 bdroom/3bath
townhouse at Windsor Hills, so we are pretty excited about that.

2nd, we are cutting back drastically on our character meals, one of our
daughters will be 10, thus kicking in the "adult" pricing (which I think is
totally ridiculous), so we're down to probably one character meal, maybe 2.

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

Unfortunately, we're cutting back by not going - anywhere. Usually we go camping most every year up in the mountains. It's normally a pretty cheap vacation since I bring all our food from home, cook out over a wood fire (if they are allowed due to burn restrictions) or over a camp stove and camp in the National Forests. But with the cost of gas even that is cancelled this year - so no vacation for us. Although I would love to swing a Disney vacation this year. I will be reading these boards though and enjoying everyones vacations through all the comments here. I hope all goes well and you all get lots of pixie dust while down there and bring back memories to last a lifetime (or "sovinears" that do - I loved that commercial).

 

[d1gitman]

...This is our first year on-site...

We (DW & myself) never fully understood the WDW allure, then we stayed onsite. Wow, nothing like being fully immersed in the WDW experience 24/7. It really made our vacations WDW soo much better. I think you will be pleasantly surprised and wonder why you didn't stay on site sooner

 

[Darcy03231]

I'm going in October and not cutting back, but did shop for the best deal I could get before booking. I was lucky enough to get a 40% room code for my stay so that helped a lot. Since its just me and a 4 y.o. I opted for the DDP so we can do one character meal a day. I've bought a lot of stuff ahead of time at the Disney store that was on clearance ($2.50 t-shirts, $1.00 light spinner, etc) for souvenirs. I've been saving reward points so that will pay for BBB (bought the entire Cinderella outfit, shoes, crown, wand, gloves on clearance for about $30) and some souvenirs ($75). I've also been saving my bankcard points and have enough for a $150 prepaid mastercard. I'll take all the change I've been saving in to the bank right before we go to be counted and put that towards any extras too. Since the package and airfare are already paid for I'm in good shape.

 

[bellazachmom]

Heading to WDW in October, tickets bought, airfare booked, room half paid for. We are going....but we are thinking of cutting back a little while we are there. Anybody else and if so on what?

We aren't on the dining plan, so I'm thinking of cutting back on some of our sit down meals. I have ADR's for Kona breakfast, Prime Time dinner, Cape May breakfast, Akerhaus breakfast, and Park Fare for dinner. I might cut out Prime Time, Cape May and Kona. We aren't fancy eaters, it's no biggie to do breakfast in the room and I don't mind counter service at other times. I was going to cut out the Park Fare dinner, but I really want to see the Anastasia and Druzilla, if it weren't for them I probably would cancel it.

I think we'll be doing alot less souvies too and maybe forego the face painting the kids usually get. They do use their own spending money for that though. I don't have the heart to cut the BBB appointments and we are doing MNSSHP, it's the whole reason we are going in October. I thought about getting a cheaper room, but since it's almost paid for we are going to keep what we have.

If the only reason you are keeping the Park Fare dinner is to see the antics of Cinderella's stepsisters, there is another option. At the little theater on the side of the castle, Lady Tremaine and her daughters appear on the hours that Belle is not there reading her stories. It is a lot of fun and they are really funny to watch and interact with. After the "show" you can get their autographs and pose for pictures with them.

Just thought you might prefer to do this and keep a different meal on your schedule.

Hope this helps! Jennie

 

[MuseumMouse]

the thing is, you can still have a really wonderful Disney experience even if you do need to/choose to cut back a bit. I am a big fan of looking for good deals and ways to cut corners. Value season, value resorts, bringing your own breakfast foods (which also gets you into the parks earlier!!) have never negatively affected our WDW experience. In fact, i would venture to say it has allowed us to go back more often than we otherwise would be able to. But different people like different things from their vacations. I guess I"m just saying that going "on the cheap" is still a fabulous time!!!

 

[Disney8704]

Not cutting back at all this trip coming up in August. Infact we're going all out. LOTS of TS places (no DDP), AKL with savannah view for 12 nights / 13 days (the most I have EVER spent in Disney! Generally spend 9 nights / 10 days), limo to and from the airport and AKL, Backstage safari booked (DH anniv. present from me). Its been 5 yrs since we've been, DH and I will be celebrating our 4th anniversary, plus we've had to deal with 2 deployments 2 yrs in a row, so we really wanted to make this trip very memorable and go all out. With that said, if I wanna go back to Disney in December 2010 - thats gonna be a MAJOR budget trip! Im talking mostly CS and staying at a value

 

[UrsulasShadow]

If I do get to go back, it will be a major budget trip. Offsite for sure, or camping in FW. Counter service, grocery store for food, no extra perks. Still the best place in the world to be, though.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Yes, we are cutting back. Plane tickets are bought but DH just got laid off. Right now, everything is up in the air. We are reservations at AKL but that'll be the first to go if we have to cut back. We are also planning only 2 table service spots this trip. That is, onsite. Might be eating some table service offsite. Doing that because dining costs went up and quality/quantity went down - I'd rather spend money elsewhere.

 

[Figment's Friend]

Yes, we have to cut back a little this year.

We go all out with as much as we can on our Disney vacations, and that means 11 days at a Moderate on the basic Dining Plan. MVMCP is always included, too. The trip right itself is a dream come true for us, but this means throughout the rest of the year it's all about priorities. We never go out to eat, go to the movies, buy many extras, etc. Last year we got a little excited with ourselves and spent about $500 on souvenirs!! And I can't even remember everything we bought, I just kept hitting that ATM every night at the resort when we'd get back from the parks to spend the next day. So this year we decided to realize the trip is the gift and unless we fall into some serious money, we're gonna have a spending budget of about $20 each! (And not per day, I mean $20, if that, overall!) I don't think it'll buy much in the parks, but we are certainly cutting back on the stuff you can easily get carried away with.

Blame the magic!

 

[Smile4Me]

it took me long enough just to convince bf to go again! (last trip was special) Got a 40% for hotel-so thought maybe we could swing WL,,,done. enjoyed ddp last time, so gonna do that again. And really going to celebrate his graduation and birthday so gonna do Aqua Seas Tour., which is part of his birthday present. Maybe a tshirt and some postcards as souveniers, we don't need/want/ or have room for much more than that. All paid up though with a little under three months to go..saving everything we can-cause costs are going up everywhere!

 

[HunnyPots]

We cut out character meals this time .
With the latest price increase and this "holiday pricing" in effect it's just not worth it for us anymore.

 

[USC_Gamecocks]

We aren't going to WDW but we are going to Disneyland. Im glad we bought the plane tickets a few months ago at $330 and now its $570 the last time I checked. We will be staying across the street from DLR and planed to got to Universal Hollywood twice but with the gas prices in CA 5 dollars a gallon and a 30 mile trip both ways we are only going once. And cutting back on the souvenirs.

 

[selina4disney]

Yes, we are cutting back. We are not doing TS restaurants this time other than once at LeCellier and an Imagineer's lunch at Brown Derby in a 10 day trip. Other than that, we'll grab fast food and Mickey bars or whatever off the carts. We also planned to stay at Wilderness Lodge and decided to go back to Port Orleans again instead to save some $$. And we may not renew our AP's because we may only go once this year. It depends a lot on what airfare does and how much it costs us to heat the house this winter.

On the bright side, it will be interesting to see how much more we get done in the parks if we don't spend all that time in TS restaurants having long, leisurely meals! So maybe cutting back is a good thing. We might find out we like it better that way without planning our days around ADRs!

 

[That Mom]

On the bright side, it will be interesting to see how much more we get done in the parks if we don't spend all that time in TS restaurants having long, leisurely meals! So maybe cutting back is a good thing. We might find out we like it better that way without planning our days around ADRs![/QUOTE]

This is exactly what dd & I found on our trip last month. We only did one ADR (Mother's Day) TS meal. We enjoyed the freedom of not having to work our schedule around our ADRs. This was her 13th time at WDW so we weren't novices but I think this was one of our best trips.

 

[Figment's Friend]

Yes, we are cutting back. We are not doing TS restaurants this time other than once at LeCellier and an Imagineer's lunch at Brown Derby in a 10 day trip. Other than that, we'll grab fast food and Mickey bars or whatever off the carts. We also planned to stay at Wilderness Lodge and decided to go back to Port Orleans again instead to save some $$. And we may not renew our AP's because we may only go once this year. It depends a lot on what airfare does and how much it costs us to heat the house this winter.

On the bright side, it will be interesting to see how much more we get done in the parks if we don't spend all that time in TS restaurants having long, leisurely meals! So maybe cutting back is a good thing. We might find out we like it better that way without planning our days around ADRs!

I like your attitude!!

 

[*HappilyEverAfter*]

No, I don't think that we are cutting back on anything. I mean it's vacation for heavens sake. This might be our last trip for a couple of years worried, so we want to enjoy every moment of it, and not have to worry about money. While we are in Walt Disney World, we are not aloud to complain about how much something costs.

 

[Harambe]

We're figuring this will be our last trip in a while since college for two kids looms large!

So we have splurged a little on a 2BR at OKW. Breakfast there will be cheap (picking up food at Publix), and laundry (which I do a lot of!) is free.

I've made an ADR for each day of our trip, but not any super expensive restaurants (I know, they're all expensive, but no places with $35 steaks!), and we plan to use our Visa Rewards dollars to pay for all our CS meals.

One thing we have talked about is holding each of us to ONE SOUVIE each. But I am a realistic person, so I know that this notion will lay down and die at the threshold of MouseGears . . .

Absolutely NOTHING ruins a vacation faster than constantly worrying about costs.

 

[Abharmagic]

Less TS restaurants this time- but more for our sheer desire to spend less time sitting at a table with an antsy toddler and a preschooler and more time enjoying the parks. Other than that we are not cutting back, due to some good investments and my Dh's job doing well we haven't felt the economic crunch and thus we will vacation as we normally do- on a budget, but not holding back if there's something we want to do.