What is the secret

[KaryCam]

Move to Florida so you don't have to pay for airfare! There's no way we could cruise each year if we had to add on airfare to Florida for a family of 5. It's great to be a Floridian!
(I know, it's not realistic for most, but being able to drive to the port is a HUGE factor in how we can afford it.)

I second that!!

I have been really saving for this trip. I'm a stay at home Mom but have a part time direct selling business and am paying for most of it from that. Hubby is still not sure that he will like it so it may be our first and last cruise as a family.

 

[zaz]

I agree with other posters that Disney is the choice of destination. Saving money for it is relative to your other priorities. Our salaries are a good start, I mean, we couldn't afford the lifestyle we have without that as a base.

Now, my friends, are buying themselves big 350 000 $ houses, have new furniture every 3 years and spend a lot of time in restaurants, and buy quite a lot of clothes for their kids. Us? We have a 150 000 $ house, with old, very old furniture (I mean, our bedroom set was my grandma's and our table was my parents), but it's still in good shape. We bring lunches to work and cook at home. And every time I see a cute little dress for my daughters I wonder : what do I want more, a 15th dress or a trip? Same for most purchases : I try to sell something before I buy something.

Some of my friends think we are crazy to spend 10 000 $ per year on trips (we do have to fly 5 people March break) when we could get a new bathroom for the same price.

It's all about little choices, every day. We prefer to LIVE instead of appearing.

 

[sweetlovin']

I agree with other posters that Disney is the choice of destination. Saving money for it is relative to your other priorities. Our salaries are a good start, I mean, we couldn't afford the lifestyle we have without that as a base.

Now, my friends, are buying themselves big 350 000 $ houses, have new furniture every 3 years and spend a lot of time in restaurants, and buy quite a lot of clothes for their kids. Us? We have a 150 000 $ house, with old, very old furniture (I mean, our bedroom set was my grandma's and our table was my parents), but it's still in good shape. We bring lunches to work and cook at home. And every time I see a cute little dress for my daughters I wonder : what do I want more, a 15th dress or a trip? Same for most purchases : I try to sell something before I buy something.

Some of my friends think we are crazy to spend 10 000 $ per year on trips (we do have to fly 5 people March break) when we could get a new bathroom for the same price.

It's all about little choices, every day. We prefer to LIVE instead of appearing.

I think and say the exact same things!! My kitchen is tiny and my house just fits us. Could I use a bigger house with a little more room? Absolutely, but not at the expense of family vacations. I'll keep my smaller house and simple daily lifestyle so I can travel. One time, I listened to my cousin tell me what she spent on her bar tab and I thought, "Wow that is two nights at an all star or 1 night at POFQ and a meal at Chef Mickeys!!" I think and add in Disney Dollars

 

[HappyontheLake]

We bought DVC almost 10 years ago. However we do pay cash for the cruises.

We use points whenever possible for airfare, pre departure hotel stay, etc. (DH travels a lot)

We have to get two staterooms so it is a lot of money on our part but we do mix it up when it comes to vacations. This was only our second cruise, I am taking the girls again in July (Mommy + girls vacay) while DH and DS do something different. But next year we are doing a vacation that will be only DVC points, American Airline miles, & Hertz points.

I am waiting for the next itineraries to come out to see if I book again soon but don't know when we will cruise again after this year. We have definite locations on our list for the next couple of years.

 

[TinkBell10]

Since we live in Florida, we only sail out of Port Canaveral to avoid flight & hotel costs. Plus, book WAY early....usually as soon as dates are released.....as much as 2 years ahead of time. For example, we booked our June 2012 cruise in Oct 2010 and the cost we paid is about 1/2 of the cheapest room available if you were to book today.

 

[lbgraves]

How are we able to pay for a Disney cruise for our family of 5 each year (plus one with just me & my Mom and another with just me & DH)?

Move to Florida so you don't have to pay for airfare! There's no way we could cruise each year if we had to add on airfare to Florida for a family of 5. We also get to take advantage of Florida Resident rates, although I don't think they will be offered as much with the Dream and Fantasy as they were with the older ships. It's great to be a Floridian!

(I know, it's not realistic for most, but being able to drive to the port is a HUGE factor in how we can afford it.)

I have to agree that this is one of the major things for us. The only cruise we have had to buy tickets for was the PC repo getting us from one edge of the country to the other. Southwest made that one not so bad but Alaska has been in jeopardy due to airfare. It is an 11 hour drive for us but that still costs MUCH less than having to fly each time.

 

[goofysgirl]

We bought DVC back in 1993. I am a master at banking borrowing and moving points so we cruise on points. Since our DVC purchases we have purchased a home in FL as the older two girls are going to college there. DH and our oldest work for Disney so we no longer require airfare to make our trips a reality.
We also go for the standard inside staterooms as we need two. We had verandahs in the past, but really find we do not miss them if we do not have them. We spend so much time doing everything else, we basically are not in our cabins much.
I know this is not the best way to use DVC, but for us it is a great way to go on a seven day cruise for the $95 reservation fee out of pocket!

 

[VeroBeachGirl]

Like everyone says, you have to prioritize. For me, its about sharing unique experiences with my kids, not about keeping up with the Jones'.
I could be driving a range rover and getting my hair and nails done every week. Instead, I drive a "minnie"-van and keep personal expenses VERY low. This way, we can cruise every year with no guilt.

 

[Anal Annie]

what is the secret to being able to afford to go sailing with Disney every year

We CAN'T cruise every year. We simply don't have that kind of income and there's no amount of saving in the world that can change that. We can only afford to go about once every 3 years and that is with tons of planning and saving a couple of years worth of tax refunds... We own DVC but feel the points required to cruise are absolutely absurd so we re-book onboard for the discount & just keep moving the date forward until we find an itinerary we want or something we can afford. We also like to have our WDW vacations & those are our best value plus we try to go to Hawaii every 5 or 6 years so we have to spread out what, when & where & rotate through our different trips if we want to repeat. DH also can't take that much vacation leave. He can do a couple weeks a year with a long weekend here & there but can't take 3 or 4 different week long vacations. Just doesn't work out for him to get off work like that. I don't know how some people get that much leave. Perhaps they work for themselves or they're "the boss".

 

[BethC1952]

I agree with the PPs who have said that it's a lifestyle choice.

We are an older couple with no resident children. We live in an apartment now rather than a house (we just don't need a big house any more!). We don't exchange birthday, Christmas, anniversary or any other gifts, and we don't go out to dinner very often. Our gifts to each other are the time that we share when we're cruising. We rebook on board, and we always ask for the cheapest cabin available since we really don't spend a lot of time in our room. We're lucky to be able to travel at off-peak times.

I learned a very sad lesson from my parents. All of their lives, they scrimped and saved so that, when they retired, they could by a camper and travel around the country whenever and wherever they wanted to go. My mother died before she ever had the chance to retire, and my father never bought the camper, although he did travel a little bit.

We're busy enjoying ourselves now, making memories that will last forever!

Beth

 

[JackSparrowLive]

I forgot to add this about how my wife and I do it every (several times) a year....

I work a second job (part-time technical college instructor). All the money that I make there I don't consider part of my "income". That is our trip money. I quite literally go to the bank every two weeks, withdraw that paycheck and lock the cash up in the safe. We use that money for all of our trips.

 

[Pluto6]

If you figure out how to go every year let me know..lol We have found putting money away every week into a special vacation savings account really helps. We save our bottle return money and any unexpected money in this account also. And charge everything you can ( as long as you can pay it off at the end of the month) to your Disney visa card. This will pay for your shore excursions. If you cant afford a cruise every year, like us, remember you can do a WDW vacation at about half the price of the cruise

 

[KSandbergFL]

I drive a 1991 with 155k miles. My wife drives a 1997 with 135k miles. We haven't had car payments in years.... if you have two car payments, paying an average of $200/m for each... that's $4800/yr -- enough for TWO cruises.

Everytime I start to talk about buying another car, my wife will ask "so how many Disney cruises does that cost?".

We also go without cable TV and cell phone contracts... we use rabbit-ear antennas (free TV) and pay-as-you-go cell phone plans (average $10/m). I figure that saves us another $1500 per year.

 

[scootch]

no mortgage, no car payment, no credit card debt... only bills are monthly water, sewage, electric, trash, ect.....

 

[jgura]

We cruise every year by replacing our "visit relatives" trip with a Disney Cruise. We were spending at least 2K a year with air, car, kennel to visit family one time a year. So that combined with another type of vacation amounts to a cruise. We have been taking that approach for 3 1/2 years.

Sadly to say my kids know Mickey and the DCL staff better than cousins and grandma. They are always welcome to join us or come to our place.

We have also booked around the 90 day mark to get reduced rates on low occupied sailings. If your oldest is in kinder or 1'st grade, go during school, it is usually less. Use the Disney Visa. Book on board.

Warning: the more you go, the more you want to go again sooner!

 

[MommaMouse411]

i wish there was a secret....

alot of research on prices...and then using my tax return for vacations...right now there is no other place I want to vist but WDW or DCL...so I'm going to do that until my kids beg me to stop taking them to both...So for this year it will be one trip to WDW for a week and then scattered day trips here and there. And one week on DCL.

I also save save save...and I am a walmart shopper. so I don't buy expensive things. I also shop on ebay and buy consignment toys for my kids...they don't know whats new or not...for now. I think I've gotten pretty good and knowing all toy prices and kids items prices. Food is the same..I know when to shop where for what.

once in awhile I pick up a 1 day job with my mother to make a few bucks and that goes to savings...

I also have to consider this into my savings : Disney Passes, Busch/Seaworld Passes/Zoo passes/Museum Passes.

and Christmas. which I already have locked away...I start saving for christmas the day after christmas.

If I can't do it then I won't do it...so I would never force anything...

 

[Rono007]

We cruise every year by replacing our "visit relatives" trip with a Disney Cruise.

We started doing the same thing. We love our family, but after years of visiting them, the stress of trying to see everyone in a limited amount of time, and them rarely coming to see us, we decided that we needed to take FAMILY vacations instead.

Saving that money and putting it down on a cruise, booking a year out or so, and paying off the rest over the year + lets us afford to go and to get a nice veranda stateroom (which we really like).

We will further add savings this time by booking on board during our next cruise.

Also, as you can see by reading this thread, that everyone's financial status is completely different. If you really want to go, you will find a way to afford it. There are many options from cheaper staterooms, different ships and itineraries and times of the year to go.

 

[AmandaRG]

We, too, have a lower-end lifestyle than most of our friends. I went out with two girlfriends last week and spent $60 on dinner and drinks and decided that it won't happen like that again! I would rather make something and chill at someone's home but that is just me.

We have very little debt now (just bought DVC and will have it paid off soon), mortgage and student loans. We pay cash for everything else. I cook at home and shop frugally. It works for us.

Another thing that we have done is worked with our budget to live off of 24 of the 26 paychecks DH gets. Only groceries and gas for those two weeks come out, the rest goes into savings for trips.

 

[wrennies]

I have several ideas...
1. As already stated....finding a away to get rid of the Starbucks habit was the key for us. My husband would have a coffee a day ($2) and I had one or two lattes a day ($10)....Now do the Math. We now order coffee beans and grind them ourselves ($100 a year) and I found my latte mix on amazon (about $200) a year. I know that $300 a year seems like a lot, but look at the savings....around $4000.

2. If you did not book when the rates first come out....watch and wait.....We are looking at booking the EBTA. Right now with the GT rooms, we can do a 14 night cruise with a Verandah for $3000 for 2 people.

3. We do a big trip every other year and a small trip the other years. On the small trip years, we put away the saved money for the deposit on the next years trip.

 

[Bethshaya]

We bought DVC and use points to pay for our cruises. It was a great investment and allows us to go on a Disney cruise or Disney world every year. For the stuff we need cash for like tips, excursions, souvenirs, etc. We save by not spending money on anything fancy like the newest gadgets, TVs, cars and we keep are spending to just what we need like groceries and gas. For us an experience is worth the money and last a lifetime.

We do the same for all of our trips, cruise or WDW or elsewhere. We use our points and then only need to pay for flights/car and spending money.

We have enough points for a trip to WDW every year, or a cruise every other.

We have booked our wedding on the Disney Cruise and our entire trip is paid for by points.

We purchased DVC many, many years ago when it was really cheap. It paid for itself within two years. We spent on the entire purchase of points what we would have paid for just the cruise we are taking this year.

We are also Dave Ramsey graduates: No mortgages, no car payments, no credit cards, no loans of any kind. Our money is ours to spend or save after utilities and groceries.