When is enough, ENOUGH!!!

[Pigeon]

For us, the trips and the parks are the treat. We might do a character meal or two. But I personally wouldn't shell out for expensive extras while there are still plenty of fun things to do in the parks that we've already paid admission to get into.

From where we live, airfare is high and because dh is a teacher, we are stuck with going on the school vacation weeks, when most years there are no deals to be had. We're pretty frugal and tend not to take big vacations, so to be it already seems like we are paying a fortune to be at WDW for a week in the first place.

I am cheap, and Disney is masterful at parting people from their money, so to me all those extras seem like a rip-off. But if other families want to do those things, more power to them.

 

[crisi]

For us, and we are the exception, MNSSHP was NOT worth it. We did it - but it was a lot of money for a cute parade, fireworks we'd seen a better view of from Narcoosee's the year before, and candy. But a lot of people love it.

Cirque has been worth it the one time we took our entire family, and we are going again.

BBB was worth it the one time I took my daughter - as was the Princess breakfast we did together. But both were one time things, the delight, I know, will not be as big the next time.

For us, signature dining is worth it. Spending money on souvieners, not so much.

 

[KELLY]

We were origianlly at Pop. After many years of trying to figure it out. We either are going to stay deluxe or value. We go every year so OOP as far as souviners my kids usually have there own money saved up. I try to throw 5.00 in there banks every now and again. They get gc for birthdays and chirstmas ect.

We are staying at AKL this year we got the 40% discount added the QSDP and a 1 day ticket. We need to use up old tickets. We are also ding 2 TS meals OOP. I will bring another 250.00 for face paining,tattos and hairwraps. Staying deluxe is costing 1400.00 more than staying at pop. But we are going for 10 days and we will be spending some time at the resort. My kids are usally in bed by 8 pm if they don't have a nap. So the balconey is so worth it to me.

My oldest has done BBB before she asked to do it this year. I told her she could do it or we could stay at AKL. She picked AKL. She already has enough money saved to buy her Tiana dress. But for me to spend 200.00 when she is going to just go in the pool in a few hours is just crazy. A 15.00 face paint I dont' have a problem with.

 

[MomtoEmIs&Ow]

I am very excited about our upcoming trip to Disney, I am just wondering, when is enough, enough?

What I am talking about is, when do you say, no more Disney spending?

We have two rooms at Pop Century, which is great, because it is cheapest. However, we are doing a few "extra" things above and beyond the dining, hotel and park tickets.

At what point do you say, this is it for this trip? I mean, the money is all relevant. I can budget and save what is needed (within reason), but keep wondering what is "worth" the money and what isn't.....

If you are looking to save $$, could you not only get one room? Or do you have someone else coming with you? Our family of five was comfortable in a POP room when our youngest was an infant. We didn't spend tons of time there any way. Just a thought...

 

[MomToOne]

I find myself somewhat disappointed everytime I plan a special "thing". It just never turns out like I imagine it. For example, the Halloween party just wasn't as exciting for my daughter last year as I thought it would be. We had fun, but after just a couple of hours she was tired, so it really wasn't that big of a memory for her. She even fell asleep during the parade

I find the most special moments are the ones that are unplanned, and just happen along the way so I don't bother planning anything above hotel (value), meals (meal plan-we've always gone during free dining and I don't do anything outside of the plan at this point) and regular park tickets. I may throw in a Water Park ticket just because we usually really enjoy that, but that's about it.

 

[es45]

I find myself somewhat disappointed everytime I plan a special "thing". It just never turns out like I imagine it. For example, the Halloween party just wasn't as exciting for my daughter last year as I thought it would be. We had fun, but after just a couple of hours she was tired, so it really wasn't that big of a memory for her. She even fell asleep during the parade

I find the most special moments are the ones that are unplanned, and just happen along the way so I don't bother planning anything above hotel (value), meals (meal plan-we've always gone during free dining and I don't do anything outside of the plan at this point) and regular park tickets. I may throw in a Water Park ticket just because we usually really enjoy that, but that's about it.

Agreed

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

For us, we have a special "Disney" acct. that we put into all year long. It's $ from selling stuff on Craigslist, yard sales, and eBay. Basically, "extra" money. We only use that money to buy our tickets, souvenirs, and any OOP meal expenses. So when it's gone, it's "enough" Looks like we can do a water park and a few character meals this time around. Yeah!

 

[3girlsfun]

It sounds like the extras I have chosen for us to do will be worth it. At least I hope that is the case.

We will have 3 adults, 3 children, so, we decided the extra room was worth the costs for sanity purposes.

I am really enjoying the opinions, thank you for sharing!

 

[englishteacha]

There are some things I'd like to do someday...like stay in a monorail resort or at AKL, one of the special tours, and eat at some of the expensive restaurants. But I do realize that I live on a teacher's salary! Special things we're doing this trip that we haven't done before will be a day at a waterpark (I think Typhoon Lagoon), and a day at DisneyQuest. We'll be in WDW for our anniversary. I don't know what we'll do "special" on that day other than proudly wear our anniversary buttons. We may treat ourselves to a table service lunch. We almost always eat counter service or offsite. I emailed my DH info on the Wishes Dessert Party and his response was: "Heck no." (though his language was actually a bit more colorful...)

I think "enough is enough" is when you start feeling badly or uncomfortable about what you're spending OR when you start feeling pressured that you can't possibly do everything.

 

[Aisling]

This is a great question. I feel like I have no self-control when it comes to my Disney trips. And it's getting worse. La Nouba, Illuminations Cruise, club level, character meals, having to buy something in every shop, especially in Epcot where my biggest weakness is. I really have to stop, and enjoy WDW like I used to, just being there, and not spending a penny beyond room/tickets/food.

 

[3girlsfun]

Well, this is our daughters' first trip to WDW, so, I think that is why we are doing some "extras." When it was just me and DH, we ate only QS meals, and never bought anything, but, we also lived in Orlando, and didn't think too much of Disney other than a place to hang out at. Not to mention, I LOVED Pleasure Island, and frequented it at least once a week.

So, this trip we are doing the character meals (free dining) so we will just need tips, BBB for my oldest, first haircut for my MDD, and then also doing MNSSHP. I guess it is just so hard for me to part with the money because we lived there and did everything for free! We would go to Epcot to eat dinner and then leave! Crazy!

I will say though, when I lived in Orlando, I didn't even know about all the special events and such, bc I didn't pay attention to Disney! Shame on me!

 

[Planogirl]

I agree that this varies by person and of course budget. I have limitations and my spending has actually decreased over time. I have just added buffet restaurants to my "not worth it list" but I'll likely break down and eat at a few favorites from time to time.

 

[jgates]

We skip -

table service (maybe 1 per trip)
multiple souviniers
waterparks (1.5 hrs from Wi Dells)

We do -

try to do a meal a day where we all get water
spend hours wandering around the giant Dis Store (we LOVE to do this!)
and more wandering around the Art store

I have a hard time justifying the extreme things. I can't even justify a Deluxe resort, although that may be what we do for DD's grad trip. So we do normal trips without extreme extra spending. We still have a great time & we don't feel like we are missing anything.

 

[EKW]

Here's my thoughts on that: it depends on how often you go. My family has only been twice. We can easily fill up a 7 day stay with just the basics.

On the last trip we did 5 table service meals. We could have happily cut two of them.

If you go often enough that you've pretty much seen and done everything, then it would be worth it to branch out and add some extras...tours, etc.

Just my thoughts!

 

[paulkarlesq]

We had gotten a few great ideas through sites such as disney on a dime and mousesavers. Actually got a vacation saver planner through one. We are a few months away from our trip, but planning on bringing grandparents and a baby we're going to have to save here and there. They had some great ideas about packing lunches into the Parks as well as giving the kids a budget for souveneirs. Actually putting money or disney debit card in their hands, often the spending goes down as they agaonize over what to spend it on....