With the current economy will you "DVC" differently now??

[Chellymouse]

Just curious if the economy has affected your DVC vacations. Or maybe you are the type "vacationer" that has a wonderful vacation yet budgets so to speak while at WDW or at home before you go on a trip. Would love to hear your ideas. I have decided that we will be more thrifty while vacationing than on past trips. I feel that sometimes we SPEND way too much at WDW and it doesn't necessarily have to be that way to still enjoy our trips there. Plus a biggie is DD just got accepted into her number 1 college choice and she will be starting college in the fall. So we need to prioritize more so to speak. So.....here we go and I have answered too.


1. Will you continue to go the same amt. of times per year or for as many days?? No we are going to cut back to 1 time a year and if the planets are in alignment just perfectly...maybe a bonus 2nd trip thrown in there some years. Our plan is to go for at least 8 nights but no more than 10 once a year.

2. Will you spend less money while there and if so what changes will you make so that you are spending less money than previoius trips? For ex. Will you eat out less in the parks? Maybe less table service meals? Less shopping? Maybe even not buying park passes or AP's?Yes we plan on spending less than previous trips on certain things. We will probably cut back table service meals. We don't find it necessary to eat at one daily. We also like to have our big meal at lunch which saves us money too. Less shopping and less pin buying. I have to put a stop to the pin obsession that my kids have. As far as park passes or AP's the jury is still out on that one.

3. Have you become more thrify/mindful of what you spend while vacationing? Not really but started thinking this past year when we went 3 times that maybe we needed to have a plan for future trips. I am going to test this out in a week on our first 2009 trip.

4. Do you cut back at home...so that you can REALLY enjoy your vacation? Not really. Matter of fact we fell miserably at this. We still eat out way too much so that is another thing I am trying to be more mindful of especially when a trip is coming up. We know we eat out out a lot at WDW so maybe we can scale back the weeks leading up to the trip.

Good Topic!
1. We are only going once a year for the next 2 years because we are taking friends on one trip and family on the other. Because we aren't able to add on right now, it's once only.
2. Probably less shopping. Our food budget is a science and we've been using it for years. We have many things from WDW and unless something new comes out that we just can't live without, we will be spending less on items to bring home.
3. Not really. It's vacation!
4. We've been cautious at home and have decreased our discretionary spending, but we did that when we decided to buy DVC so it really hasn't affected us!

 

[AnnaS]

Just curious if the economy has affected your DVC vacations. Or maybe you are the type "vacationer" that has a wonderful vacation yet budgets so to speak while at WDW or at home before you go on a trip. Would love to hear your ideas. I have decided that we will be more thrifty while vacationing than on past trips. I feel that sometimes we SPEND way too much at WDW and it doesn't necessarily have to be that way to still enjoy our trips there. Plus a biggie is DD just got accepted into her number 1 college choice and she will be starting college in the fall. So we need to prioritize more so to speak. So.....here we go and I have answered too.


1. Will you continue to go the same amt. of times per year or for as many days??

We actually plan on going more often.

2. Will you spend less money while there and if so what changes will you make so that you are spending less money than previoius trips? For ex. Will you eat out less in the parks? Maybe less table service meals? Less shopping? Maybe even not buying park passes or AP's?

We will probably spend about the same. We don't buy many souvenirs/t-shirts, etc. anymore. We were always five going - I doubt my two oldest sons will be coming with us anytime soon, so expenses are almost cut in half.



3. Have you become more thrify/mindful of what you spend while vacationing?

No, spending will be about the same.

4. Do you cut back at home...so that you can REALLY enjoy your vacation?

Not really.


Hope that worked - can't always do the quote thingy

 

[DisneyGal74]

We will stil go as manyn time/day per year..We just became DVC last year so It saves us money. We will prob. not spend as much time (money) in the gift shops so DH will ensure we are more mindful of what we spend there!...We even may do Breakfast in the room to save a meal...We WILL make cut backs at home so our vacations are just as good! There are specific items we will alway get when we go regardless..ie my scrapbooks...lol

 

[edk35]

We aren't scheduled for another trip until sometime in 2010 - I have high hopes that the "current" economy won't be "current" by then.

Hopefully you will have a great trip next year. It is always fun planning them even if it seems a long time before we get to go again. That is why I love this board.

 

[crisi]

Hopefully you will have a great trip next year. It is always fun planning them even if it seems a long time before we get to go again. That is why I love this board.

We are (generally) every other year folk - though I've been five times in three years due to odd personal circumstances. I'm actually looking forward to getting back to our "not every year" schedule - I like going to WDW, but there are other things I enjoy doing as well....

 

[marbella_chris]

we would normally go twice a year, but just going once this year and banking our points for next year.

air fares are expensive from the UK, we will probably try and work to budgets a little more than we have in the past, although we are kinda done with all our souvenir type stuff from disney, and we feel that the quality of some of the merchandise has gone down over the years (t shirt quality for example)..

the knock on effect that lots of people cut back is that disney will do the same in terms of shows, and their expenditure on extras

just my 2 cents...

 

[edk35]

Good Topic!
1. We are only going once a year for the next 2 years because we are taking friends on one trip and family on the other. Because we aren't able to add on right now, it's once only.
2. Probably less shopping. Our food budget is a science and we've been using it for years. We have many things from WDW and unless something new comes out that we just can't live without, we will be spending less on items to bring home.
3. Not really. It's vacation!
4. We've been cautious at home and have decreased our discretionary spending, but we did that when we decided to buy DVC so it really hasn't affected us!

DO tell...about your food budget being a science???