So, as many of you know, hubby and I had thought we were feeing burned out on DVC as of late. After much talking and many vacation dates (LOL!), we discovered it's the parks, as we really love the DVC resorts. Problem is that our kids are still young (3 & 7) and are park nuts! My eldest actually helps people plan Disney vacations - LOL! So, although we enjoy the resorts, and spend hours each day away from the parks, we are still at the parks pretty much each day for our yearly 2 week summer vacations.
So, we started looking at other vacations, besides Disney, and had trouble justifying the costs due to the huge amount we've spent on DVC vacations over the past 7 years. Despite this, we kept at it, took in all of the great support and tips from many of you, and we are happy to announce that we booked a Disney cruise to the Western Carribbean for next summer!
We were nervous to tell the kids at first, as our DD sent us a very strongly worded white board message the other day about non-park vacations. So, we really buttered them up by reminding eldest of the fun she had on our last Disney cruise, and this worked!
We are hoping to get Vero for 6 days before the cruise, and then we will be heading over to the Western Caribbean on the Fantasty! Called DVC to inquire about a cash/point combo, and it's not so bad, but we would have to put points back in reservation status if cancelled, and we lose any onboard credits given to us by TA, so we think we'll stick with cash. We got an oceanview room, and it seems to be discounted in some respect, so that's even better.
Once I plugged numbers into my spreadsheet, based on what we have been spending on Disney food, and what we'll save on tickets next year, the additional costs aren't as high as we thought they'd be, considering the cruise will be about $5,000 (including tips). Also, we have eliminated our March trips, and this really helps from a financial perspective as well. With what we are now saving on food, we can take extra vacations every third year (want to take 2 park vacations in a row in order to maximize AP).
Thanks so much for all of the tips, support and opinions on all of my threads/posts the past few months, especially my how to justify non-Disney vacations after DVC. We do love DVC resorts, and are looking forward to a more relaxed, less park vacation once the kids are a bit older. For now, this new plan will probably work out well!
Tiger
So, we started looking at other vacations, besides Disney, and had trouble justifying the costs due to the huge amount we've spent on DVC vacations over the past 7 years. Despite this, we kept at it, took in all of the great support and tips from many of you, and we are happy to announce that we booked a Disney cruise to the Western Carribbean for next summer!
We were nervous to tell the kids at first, as our DD sent us a very strongly worded white board message the other day about non-park vacations. So, we really buttered them up by reminding eldest of the fun she had on our last Disney cruise, and this worked!
We are hoping to get Vero for 6 days before the cruise, and then we will be heading over to the Western Caribbean on the Fantasty! Called DVC to inquire about a cash/point combo, and it's not so bad, but we would have to put points back in reservation status if cancelled, and we lose any onboard credits given to us by TA, so we think we'll stick with cash. We got an oceanview room, and it seems to be discounted in some respect, so that's even better.
Once I plugged numbers into my spreadsheet, based on what we have been spending on Disney food, and what we'll save on tickets next year, the additional costs aren't as high as we thought they'd be, considering the cruise will be about $5,000 (including tips). Also, we have eliminated our March trips, and this really helps from a financial perspective as well. With what we are now saving on food, we can take extra vacations every third year (want to take 2 park vacations in a row in order to maximize AP).
Thanks so much for all of the tips, support and opinions on all of my threads/posts the past few months, especially my how to justify non-Disney vacations after DVC. We do love DVC resorts, and are looking forward to a more relaxed, less park vacation once the kids are a bit older. For now, this new plan will probably work out well!
Tiger
