You are going or went but: Can you afford your Disney vacation?

[DannyDisneyFreak]

Some of us are obsessed with WDW and have to keep going no matter the cost, others want to make their one big family trip to see Mickey and have the memories, others keep dreaming because it's to expensive, and some have the cash and can afford return trips to the Poly and GF or take the leap and join DVC... well I want to know how we spend our hard earned $$ (or easily recived but not as easily paid off Disney Visa) on our WDW vacation, please take the poll and post how you afford (or not) your WDW vacation

 

[tracilicious]

I don't see a poll.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

I don't see a poll.

Sorry, you must have posted before the poll was finished.

 

[Uuaww]

well, nice first choice, that one is me for a while.

 

[MOMOFMNM]

let me explain...

I booked a modest trip at WDW in 05, it was suposed to be for Dec but then the free dining came...so we upgraded to the Poly from POR and went with free dining and our TA got flights for about 180 pp on American...so....I started planning in May of 05...well...that was three months worth of not saving because we were going earlier but with five of us and FREE dining...I figured we would actually save money and get better digs...

so then the flight tickets were paid waaaay before the rest of the pkg...

and then the pkg was due before I really had enough time to save all the $$$ so we did infact charge our vacation and I have paid it off religiously...

dh should have just got the Disney Visa like I told him, but he would not do it.


I went back to teaching and am making a lot more money than staying at home like last year...

so this year, not only am I paying off our Poly vacation, I am saving about 400 a month to do our DVC rental trip.

Would I ever charge a trip again? no...unless free dining cam available!!
and seeing as we are going in peak season this time....I can forget about it!!

all in all, for the five of us at the Poly and free dining for 5 nights was just around 3200...if you divide that by five we actually got a great deal IMO...WITH ME and free dining we can not beat it. This is with air!!!

ALL IN ALL...the lesson learned for us was if we do not have the money UP FRONT for a vacation then we do not go on one. Good thing I am a good planner and saver!! This is why I planned our vacation 10 mos ahead this time!!

 

[rileyroosmom]

We are going this May and have been lucky enough to visit the World 3X recently. I wanted to go this May again, but with a family of 5 it gets expensive. To make it affordable we decided to stay off site this time and rent a pool home with my BIL's family. We just added on 2 nights at Pop Century before the pool home (my ds will stay in my bil's room). I am happy to say that both the pool home and Pop are paid for, as well as our Sea World tickets. I have the money for our Tickets and I am currently saving for spending money and should have $2,000 saved by then

 

[mom2boystx]

I really like this thread idea as it lets me see so many in the same situations as me We have made our reservations at CBR for 1st week in October but I am thinking of bumping it back to overlap the 15th to celebrate my son's 8th bday.

we have the ticket $ saved and some of our resort $...love that we pay the balance when we get there Lots of planning but way worth it!
Peggy

 

[minniedisney1]

We always go thru AAA & pay off our trip before hand. We have never paid anything but cash for a vacation. I married a man that believes CC's are for "true" EMERGENCIES ONLY. It does have its good & bad sides. We stay at mods or deluxe. It just depends on where we feel like staying. We go every year for 7-10 days. This year I finally talked scrooge into AP's . For our quick weekend trips we will stay at a value. This year we did that dining plan & will do that from now on. Even with the planning of our vacation budget, I will admit that is a nice feeling not being in vacation debt.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Voted other--we do not charge and we book what we feel like booking that we are able to pay for at the time. Some are value trips--some we stay nicer.


Florida residents--so when we do Disney...we usually get the Florida AP and then do short trips either for the day or weekend.

We only buy the AP's when we can afford it--I usually need a "break" between renewals---usually 6 months to a year.

We stay only at the resorts we can afford.

I do want to "vacation" there one time--but we just have other vacations on the table and we get our fix just fine in frequent shorts trips than in fewer long ones if that makes sense.

I do want to try Poly and beach club with my family--that will be when we have AP's again or some other ticket media and will only be for 2, maybe 3 nights at the most.

 

[marcyinPA]

I voted "other". We were just in WDW in September/October 2005, and we paid cash, but stayed at a value and got the free dining, and got DING! airfare for cheap.

We are planning on going again in June of 2007, but we don't have the money right now for it. I plan on saving and scrimping and hopefully we'll be able to make some ressies 6 months prior, but I'll only do so if we have the cash to pay for it. Where we stay depends on how much money I save and what kind of deal I can get. I'd love to stay Deluxe, but I pretty much can guarantee that it probably will never happen. We are fine staying Value.

We never ever charge vacations (well, we do, on the Disney Visa, to get the rewards points, but we pay it off immediately when the statement comes).

 

[lclark0621]

I voted Yes, we stay on-site at the deluxe resorts.

When DH & I were young & poor/stupid, we used to charge vacations. Who cared? It was only money?

Well needless to say, we changed our ways. Now we book a trip to Disney a year, and we are able to afford the trip. We generally go for 7 nights & stay at a deluxe.

DH & I are vacation junkies. My DH gets a lot of vacation time a year, that he must take or he loses it. We like being able to show our DS different things. Thankfully we are in a place where we can afford what we want to do.

We will never go back to the way we were. I just cant see paying off a vacation for years after I took it. We did that when we were young & dumb, and never again.

 

[Desnik]

We are DVC owners. We always pay cash for the other trip expenses.

 

[TravelinGal]

We do not charge things. If we can't afford it, we don't do it - whatever it may be.


I selected "No, but we saved or are saving for a modest vacation." Misread modest for moderate, but - we saved up for the trip regardless. This will be the first time we've gone for more than a week and I am SO excited! (10 days!) We are staying in a pool home - not so much for money issues, but for space. Can't imagine having to sit silently doing nothing in a hotel room while my baby took naps mid day or went to bed early. This way we have a place for adults when DS is sleeping.

It REALLY helped that Wendy's and Air Tran had that promotion. Pop (cups) and tax included our round trip ticket cost $83.00 per person (for 3 adults - it's usually over $350 per person for us!!) So 3 people are flying for less than the cost of one ticket! Air Tran has new customers for life from us! What a way to show the public you still value them!

 

[daisyduck123]

I had to vote "other" because we've always stayed at POP but this May we are trying a Moderate, "Carribean Beach", for 8 days.

My parents have always paid for us to go...Grandma has always come.

This time Grandma's not coming & we are paying for it ourselves....saving up.

 

[WIDisneyFan]

I voted we stay on site at the deluxe resorts.

For us this is our once a year vacation trip so we set money aside for it on a regular basis. Add to that I travel very regularly for work so flights are always done with frequent flyer miles which is a nice savings. One thing I will add is we ALWAYS charge it on our Disney Visa, but then pay it off immediately.

 

[Princessbaby]

I think, for us, planning WAY, WAY ahead of time and knowing a rough estimate for our trip helps us! We can save and it ends up helping out. We are already in the planning mode for a Nov 2007 or spring break 2008 trip. Too far away, but we have to plan like that! It gives me something to do!

 

[dixipixi]

We never take trips that we cannot afford. DH doesn't even believe in charging items to the room.

Sometimes it's hard to save every penny you'll need for a nice trip, but so worth it when you can come home refreshed from your vacation and not have to worry about the bills coming due.

We have taken a variety of different trips over the last 14 years. Some of them very budget oriented and others where we splurged.

I voted yes and that we stay deluxe because that where we have mostly stayed. We have also stayed moderate and offsite. We usually stay where the budget dictates.

I love the deluxe resorts, but I would never put myself in financial jeopardy to stay there. As long as we're at WDW and can afford to be there, I'm happy!

 

[sara74]

This is our first WDW trip but we have taken several vacations in our 9 years of marriage. I loved finding the dining plan as before we had kids we did a few all inclusive Caribbean vacations and loved that the whole trip was paid for before we even got there. DH and I are frugal with just about everything in our lives and live below our means in many ways so I love being able to splurge on a vacation! The rest of the year we are penny pinchers so I enjoy having everything paid for so we really feel like doing as much as we can, enjoying every moment to get the most bang for our buck.

This trip was planned as a 6 night stay at WL but we added 3 days before that since DH has to be in Miami for a conference. So I will stay with the kids at the resort and we will not hit the parks until DH is back with us. We did this so that I won't have to fly down without him. However, this puts part of our stay in Easter week, hence the value resort and not visiting the parks. I can't imagine me taking the kids without DH for their 1st trip into MK, much less doing it 6 mos pregnant during Easter!!!

 

[staci]

I voted no, we cant really afford it, so we save for a long time for a modest vacation.

Already in the planning mode for spring or fall 2008. It will be very much a value trip, likely just 3-4 days and only MK. But we want to get ds back before he is in school, and before he outgrows some of the magic of everything being real.

I cant imagine charging a vacation (other than for the disney visa points ). I am very proud to say I have NEVER carried a balance on my credit card, and never plan to. We pay things off each month, only use the cards to help gain credit and to get rewards.

 

[momof2mouses]

I like this poll. Lets you know you are not alone in having to pinch every penny to get to go to WDW. I can't wait for our first every trip in DEC.
DH thinks I'm crazy for planning so far ahead, but I told him "the early bird gets the worm".