$4 a gallon... we aren't going...

[princess17]

It's only a 2 hour drive for us so I will still go, but I can understand those who are driving from far away....it must be so tough.

 

[sknydave]

How much more in gas costs are you actually talking about if you had a trip planned to WDW. If you were driving 1000 miles to get there and had a car that averaged 20 mpg that means you would need 50 gallons to get there.

At $3 a gallon that is $150 one way...At $4 a gallon that is $200 one way.

So round trip it is $300 vs. $400...So you sacrifice a nice dinner for a pizza one night to make up the difference

When it comes down to it you are talking about an extra $50.

All this assumes you are driving 1000 miles which is the distance from Chicago and only get 20 miles to the gallon which is about what a minivan gets.

A nice sedan will get at least 25 mpg and need 40 gallons which is $120 vs. $160

Yeah.. We tried to point this out pages ago, but it fell on deaf ears.

 

[sbkline]

Personally I don't find the gas prices in the US that bad at all. I'm not sure how long ago gas was $3.00 for you but in Canada our gas price has almost doubled in the last 7 years so depending on how often you get to go to Disney you might be paying twice as much for gas since your last trip.

Also, as other posters mentioned it's not necessarily the cost of the gas just for the actual trip that is a deciding factor but the cost of gas in their day to day lives which eats into their vacation spending.

So if you commute to work and paid $100 a week for gas a few years ago and now pay $200, your pay presumably hasn't doubled with the gas prices so now you pay an extra $5000 a year in gas. There's your Disney trip.

I work at Walmart as a floor associate, which certainly isn't as "glamorous" of a job as many of you all have. Granted, I've been there 11 years, so my pay really isn't that bad...it's basically double what I made when I first started (although minimum wage has increased several times since then as well). However, for however much less I may make than many people here who commute to work, I only drive 7 miles into work. Unless I make a trip down to see family or something, I generally only have to fill my tank up once every two, 2 1/2, or sometimes even three weeks. And with the high gas prices, that puts it at around 70 bucks a fillup, or 140 bucks every two weeks. So fortunately, I don't have to worry about filling up every week and seeing the gas prices go sky high. And, as I said, even though my job pays less than many of you here, to a certain degree, that difference is offset by the lower cost of living here in Central Illinois, and the small distance I have to travel to work every day.

The fact that it's the day to day gas price and not just the price for gas on the trip, however, is a valid point. However, as with everything else, we must decide what the priorities are in our lives. Are you more interested in having things throughout the year, or are you more interested in that annual trip to Disney? There's no right or wrong answer there, but it's all a matter of what's most important for you. As for us, with the rising gas prices and everything, we've long ago cut out our weekly outing to the big town to go out and eat and everything...although the cost and responsibilities of having a baby also had something to do with cutting that out. But speaking strictly for myself (my wife may disagree), I would rather forfeit the weekly going out to eat and save on the budget that way, and then still affort that annual WDW trip. My brother doesn't see how we can afford to go to Disney so often, but then on the other hand, he drives 6 times the distance that I do to get to work, he takes more trips on his days off, such as to visit family, or outings with his wife, and they go out to eat much more often than us. Over the course of the year, that's alot of money, and if saved, could probably pay for a Disney trip. That's their choice of priorities, and that's fine.

But my point is, each person has to decide where a Disney trip fits into his priorities, and apparently, the OP has already decided, and that's fine. But if he really wanted to, he could save money throughout the year by purchasing fewer DVD's, going out to the movies less often, going out to eat less often, or whatever it is that you like to do for fun throughout the year.

 

[bjlc57]

Well gas is still going up..

the price of gas is still rising.. food is going up on a daily basis. have you seen the price of eggs? holey moley.. so is meat. and anything with wheat.. or corn.

I haven't seen one road side dealer yet for corn. Not one..

when does it affect your Disney plans? How much does everything else need to go up before you say.. something has to give.

GM is closing more plants and laying off people. They are down close to 3 million less cars sold this year. When I started this post the price of oil was $20- 30 a barrel less then what it is today..

not that many years ago The PRICE OF OIL WAS $20. period.

and now a bank collapsed in Indiana. Someone want to tell me again how we are not in a recession. I heard that 90 banks are on the governments list of potentially being taken over by the government because of going out of business..

yep, no recession here.

now we are waiting for the BIG ONE..

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

GMs problems are down to its crap cars and hee haww to do with any recession.

However Im pretty sure as always someone will be making the most of the situation and lining their nest while saying the plebs that get burnt as a result.

 

[nibblesandbits]

Ok...I hate to be rude, but we get your point...gas prices are expensive...they are impacting everyone's way of life...they are causing you not to go down to Disney this year. Many have stated whether they plan on going or not...and many have tried to explain to you that it could still be possible for you to go down if you really wanted to...it's not as if people aren't aware of the situation this country is in. You have brought this thread back for the third time now...I think it's time to drop it. Seriously...it's getting old.

Thank you.

 

[photoflight]

when does it affect your Disney plans?

Sorry to ruin your whine-fest but it doesn't change my plans, not one tiny bit.

Have a magical day.

PS: Before it becomes a point, yeah - I'm about 90 minutes from WDW. That makes it cheaper for me. For the record though, I just got back from a vacation in Maine. I flew part way, and drove the rest. For the week's worth of driving we paid about $14 more for fuel than last year.

 

[TakeMeThere81]

It's a 9 hour drive for us. We are still planning on going, but if gas gets close to $5.00 we'll probably have to reconsider.

We have to use Deisel so gas is quickly nearing $5 a gallon:hurl:

We also had to postpone our trip. Maybe by some miracle we'll still end up going again in December...we'll see.

But yes, gas prices have influenced us...mostly because month by month everything is so expensive we can't save as much.

 

[WDW Monorail]

the price of gas is still rising.. food is going up on a daily basis. have you seen the price of eggs? holey moley.. so is meat. and anything with wheat.. or corn.

I haven't seen one road side dealer yet for corn. Not one..

when does it affect your Disney plans? How much does everything else need to go up before you say.. something has to give.

GM is closing more plants and laying off people. They are down close to 3 million less cars sold this year. When I started this post the price of oil was $20- 30 a barrel less then what it is today..

not that many years ago The PRICE OF OIL WAS $20. period.

and now a bank collapsed in Indiana. Someone want to tell me again how we are not in a recession. I heard that 90 banks are on the governments list of potentially being taken over by the government because of going out of business..

yep, no recession here.

now we are waiting for the BIG ONE..

Wow, your mentality is very dangerous. If we do go in to a recession, it will be beacuse of people like you who stop consuming.

 

[WDWFigment]

Ok...I hate to be rude, but we get your point...gas prices are expensive...they are impacting everyone's way of life...they are causing you not to go down to Disney this year. Many have stated whether they plan on going or not...and many have tried to explain to you that it could still be possible for you to go down if you really wanted to...it's not as if people aren't aware of the situation this country is in. You have brought this thread back for the third time now...I think it's time to drop it. Seriously...it's getting old.

Thank you.

I think being rude is about the only way to get the point across... As others have suggested, I think it's time to lock the thread.

Sorry to ruin your whine-fest but it doesn't change my plans, not one tiny bit.

Have a magical day.

PS: Before it becomes a point, yeah - I'm about 90 minutes from WDW. That makes it cheaper for me. For the record though, I just got back from a vacation in Maine. I flew part way, and drove the rest. For the week's worth of driving we paid about $14 more for fuel than last year.

Good for you! I'm especially glad, because I love seeing your pictures (by the way, start posting more of them!). Didn't change our plans either, except that we were able to book some nicer/more difficult to book restaurants for our August trip presumably because others canceled their reservations. Ahhh, to be a student insulated from that terrible thing called "reality".

 

[Sam02]

I want to first say that financially you are making a wise decision. Money is getting tight for you, you can't do everything you want to do. So you cut back on a vacation rather than necessities (unlike some of my family members).

On the other hand, we know how you feel and was it really necessary to bring back this thread? People will make different decisions based on their circumstances, not yours.

I feel for all the auto workers who are losing their jobs but when a car company focuses on making huge SUV's and Trucks, then gas prices soar, those vehicles won't be selling like before. Maybe if GM focused on smaller cars, or alternative fuel vehicles like other car companies have then maybe they wouldn't have to be letting go of so many employees. I don't blame the gas prices for putting these employess out of work, I blame the shortsightedness of the company exectutives.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

If gas is such a problem, buy more economical cars :shrug:

Unless your rich its all about sacrifice, we want to go to WDW so Im buying fewer CDs, were eating out less, infact doing all we can to make sure we get.

If things become tighter, moneywise, I wouldn't hire a car,its all personal choice.

 

[haveyoumetmark]

Ok...I hate to be rude, but we get your point...gas prices are expensive...they are impacting everyone's way of life...they are causing you not to go down to Disney this year. Many have stated whether they plan on going or not...and many have tried to explain to you that it could still be possible for you to go down if you really wanted to...it's not as if people aren't aware of the situation this country is in. You have brought this thread back for the third time now...I think it's time to drop it. Seriously...it's getting old.

Thank you.

You're not being rude, what you're saying is perfectly adequate.

I am quoting this for truth. The OP seems to be calling attention to their thread every few weeks. Can't this thread just bite the dust already?

 

[djpoore94]

This may sound weird, but the high price of gas is the reason we ARE doing Disney this year!! We started pricing trips that were more within driving distance for us (within a 9 -10 hour drive), but then the gas prices started going up and making it expensive even in our somewhate fuel efficient small car. My hubby was surfing the the web just checking out airfair to Orlando and got us round trip for less than $300.00 for BOTH of us! I have to admit we let the whole trip spiral a bit out of control since we booked our room & dining and stuff, but we still think it's a reasonable price!

 

[MrsJackSparrow]

I agree with the previous poster. We're just southwest of Chicago and by checking the gas website, I just priced out our gas for this year compared to last year. It's going to run about $160 more this year. We booked with a bounceback rate from last year that includes free dining. We only stop one night on the way down, so it's not adding much to our trip.

The best Southwest ding fare I could get was $112 one way. When that's multiplied by the four of us and taxes and surcharges are added in, it's still a bargain to drive.

Getting more excited about going every day . . . :sohappy:

 

[Dwarful]

Like I said before, we are still going (single digit countdown!!). However, our area has been hit with 1. flooding, 2. Chrysler Plant shutting down (already lost Ford), 3. InBev taking over AB and the ??? that leaves the St. Louis area. So depending on how these things impact our area we may decide NOT to go back to WDW next year.

 

[uklad79]

I have noticed that most airfares from the UK have gone up a fair bit but I managed to get a direct flight for April/May for $880 which is only a little more than I paid for May just gone which cost around $838, $42 more won't kill me. I have also just booked our room at the Crowne Plaza Universal and due to finding a cheaper rate they beat it by 10% so I saved $1640 so for me gas prices haven't had any impact on my trip. I am sure the cost of food will have gone up a little but things should go up every year due to inflation. The problem with gas is it was kept low cost in America while the price rose in other countries so the shocker is the price went up all at once. Same with Walmart it keeps prices artificially low but as costs rise overseas where it's product is made and oil prices rise more one day they will have to just bite the bullet and put all the prices up.

 

[WildLodgeFan]

I have noticed that most airfares from the UK have gone up a fair bit but I managed to get a direct flight for April/May for $880 which is only a little more than I paid for May just gone which cost around $838, $42 more won't kill me. I have also just booked our room at the Crowne Plaza Universal and due to finding a cheaper rate they beat it by 10% so I saved $1640 so for me gas prices haven't had any impact on my trip. I am sure the cost of food will have gone up a little but things should go up every year due to inflation. The problem with gas is it was kept low cost in America while the price rose in other countries so the shocker is the price went up all at once. Same with Walmart it keeps prices artificially low but as costs rise overseas where it's product is made and oil prices rise more one day they will have to just bite the bullet and put all the prices up.

Yes I agree, it's the very fast shot up that has hit us so hard in America on gas. And in effect all other prices (especially in the grocery area) are shooting up relatively fast as well - grocery bills in my house has increased by 25% in the last year - not normal inflation for the US. I agree inflation is a normal thing, but such an increase is definitely hard to plan for when it's not been the norm.

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

Geesh..... this thread is still KICKING!!! Giving the Energizer Bunny a run for the money!!!

Times are tough yes....live within your means. End of story.

 

[SuzieN]

I just read yesterday that there is a town in Alaska where they are paying $8.22 a gallon!!!!!! Be glad you don't live there!