How bad do gas/fuel prices have to get?

[scorp111]

Yikes, never come to England. : You'd be paying about $8 here. :

I actually lived in England. Almost everything is more expensive in England with exception of some necessities. The average cost of living in the UK is somewhere in the 40-50 percent higher range than most of the US, so it isnt really apples to apples.

But yes, the US still has some of the cheapest gasoline prices in the world, coupled with some of the worst public transport systems (as a whole) and a society built around the automobile.

 

[Disney05]

You'll have to wait for the current President to get out of office before you see oil prices go down. It's all a big scam. The media feeds it all. We can complain all we want. Nothing will change. When our own government officials vote themselves a raise higher than the rate of inflation (what happened to by the people for the people) do you think they really care about how much gas prices are going up.

 

[Hakunamatata]

You'll have to wait for the current President to get out of office before you see oil prices go down.

 

[scpergj]

I LOVE it...I've been looking for a way to put that!

KEvin

 

[Disney05]

Have to expect that from a Southerner.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Have to expect that from a Southerner.

Thanks for the stereotype. :wave:

 

[Disney05]

George, is that you?

 

[Erika]

Leave the politics out of it, please.

Thank you.

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

And the thread takes a nosedive.

Thanks. :brick:

 

[sbkline]

not to argue , but its one thing ,when you live in Florida, to tell someone, "how much extra it costs" as opposed to living in Wisconsin or Illinois or New York State ( the primary areas that WDW advertises during the winter and spring months. ) and you have to travel over 3000 miles round trip. and IF YOU and your WIFE are PAYING FOR IT ALL. meaning that you are not splitting the costs.that it comes from YOUR HOUSE HOLD BUDGET.

I would not be so flippant with other peoples money, that it cost one "glass of wine".. We don't buy a glass of wine for $11 EVER. its never been in our budget.

Its very easy to price out the "lower class" to go to WDW, especially from the areas that I mentioned. ( well they shouldn't be there anyway. Right? ) .

No its easy to justify spending other peoples money.. But its not correct, nor do you or I know everyone's bank account. Or their justification to not go into debt just for a vacation. or to raise their debt to go on vacation.

so please don't justify or simplify things as just a GLASS OF WINE. for some, its much more then that and maybe that glass of wine IS THE DIFFERENCE.

I live in Illininois and I agreed with "The Mom"'s point. I filled my van up the night before we left. Then I filled it up again in Paducah, Kentucky, although I was only down to half a tank or so. Then I filled it in Georgia and that did me until WDW. I filled up once in Florida, then I filled up again in Northern Florida on the way out, and in Tennessee, and then again in my town when we got back home. So Six fillups total for the trip. When empty, I can put 18 gallons or so in my van. So if gas shoots up a dollar a gallon, that's 18 extra bucks that it may cost on each fillup. Multiply that by 6 and you get $108 extra on gas from Mattoon, IL to WDW and back. Seeing as how the entire trip (magic your way package, gas, lodging there and back, shopping, etc) cost around $3,700 bucks, $108 for higher gas prices is a drop in the bucket. If I can affort $3,700 then I can afford another $108 for gas.

However, someone else made a valid point that it's not just gas there and back. It's also higher gas prices all year around, costing that much more money per week throughout the year. But even then, life is all about setting priorities, and if family vacations to WDW are important enough to you, then you will offset that extra gas budget throughout the year by forgoing other things that are less important than your family vacation. Go to the movies less often. Go out to eat less often. Cut back on the amount of unnecessary things you buy at the store, etc. My wife and I used to go out almost every week and go out to eat, etc. But we can't do that as much now because of gas prices as well as the expense of having a child (not to mention the amount of free time we no longer have which is part of having children).

 

[JWG]

I almost drove off of an overpass outside of Tupelo, MS once. My dad and I were driving straight through from Tampa, Fl to Batesville, Arkansas. Scared me to death! I had fallen asleep. This happened about 18 years ago. I woke up right as I was veering off the interstate. It was about 3 in the morning. I immediately woke my dad and told him he should drive. I learned how easy it was to fall asleep behind the wheel and I was extremely lucky. I get a little nervous just recalling/recounting the incident.

Were you really able to fall back asleep? My mom did the same thing 15+ years ago on the plains of NoDak. She also made my dad start driving, but didn't sleep a wink after that.

 

[bjlc57]

in years past...

first of all 3000 miles is just "door to door " to WDW, and not counting all the other driving you do on a daily basis on the trip, or if you go to either beach or NASA, or another theme park.

two, in years past, that gas price difference would have PAID FOR OUR ROOMS for the week at the hotel that we used to stay at. Since we were paying $25-27 per night using the discount guide at an off site hotel.


three, gas isn't just high the week you go to WDW, its high on a daily basis. We are spend probably $20-$25 per week above what we were spending on gas. take that times 52 weeks and it adds up.

and with the cost of higher gas, means that everything else is going up because of shipping costs.

Sorry, but in this situation, just "one less glass of wine" isn't the answer in this situation. Its much deeper and a lot higher cost then that.

its the whole picture. and its not getting better as we speak. Wholesale cost of gas is 2.97 ( the price the stations are paying to the oil companies.) Gas may get as high as $3.75 this week. Contrast that to $1.80 or less.

 

[George]

Were you really able to fall back asleep? My mom did the same thing 15+ years ago on the plains of NoDak. She also made my dad start driving, but didn't sleep a wink after that.

I wasn't able to fall back asleep for a while. My heart was beating really fast. I did fall asleep eventually, but it was long enough ago that I'm not sure how long I was awake after the scare. My memory of suddenly waking up and realizing what was going on is very vivid. If I close my eyes and concentrate, I feel like it's happening again.

On the topic of the thread, I think that there is more agreement going on than people realize. The added cost of gas if you are driving to WDW is a small fraction of the total cost of the vacation. However, higher gas prices do affect a family's budget throughout the year (eventually it's more than just the price of gas, the price of everything that has been transported to your local store by an internal combustion engine will go up) and this makes the calculus tricky. As of yet, I don't think gas prices have had a big affect on WDW attendance. I bet there is an accountanear in TDC that has a pretty good guess when the gas price will start to have an impact on visitation numbers. As of yet, it has not impacted my family's vacation decisions.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Sorry, but in this situation, just "one less glass of wine" isn't the answer in this situation. Its much deeper and a lot higher cost then that.

So, what do you think needs to be done about it? What are your answers to the problem?

 

[Frosty689]

Maybe Disney should invest in alternate means of transportation... such as monorails =D

 

[wdwnj]

WE DROVE TO AND FROM NORTH NJ LAST MONTH (4/07) GAS WAS CHEAPEST IN NJ ALMOST ALL THER STATES WERE $2.90-$3.03 PER GALL. WE HAVE A CHRY VOYAGER--SET CRUISE CONTROL AT 80 MPH AND LET IT GO--CAR WAS GREAT ON GAS I THINK IN TOTAL DRIVING TO AND FROM WAS UNDER $200 FOR GAS--:brick:

 

[Dwarful]

Price of gas in my area has jumped this weekend to $3.49 a gallon. You can also see higher prices of other things as well, items in the grocery store, our utilities are much higher and we had a hard freeze in late April that ruined most of our fruit/veg. crops for the year so we will not have the local farmers markets during the summer months.

We are still going to Disney in August,but like others have said, we have made adjustments in other areas. This past winter I kept my thermostat at 60 degrees, we all dressed appropriately and were fine. We became used to that setting and felt hot when we went to visit friends and family who had the thermostat at 70+.