Where do you draw the line of affordable?

[mousehockey37]

Being new to the board myself, but not new to things overall, I've seen threads go up about how much people spend on their trips. I've seen some who spend over $10k just on airfare to get to WDW.

So my question to ask is this:

For those of us that are just regular people (no fancy jobs and living on tighter budgets, etc), where is the line of affordability?

Let's face it, not all of us are able to go every year or even every other year. The world has come down hard on alot of us, so for those people who are like me, how do you afford it?

 

[real mad hatter]

Good Question.

I think it's a personal thing.Your family income etc,how much would you spend on a non WDW vacation?Some of my friends cringe when they here how much we spend on a Disney vacation.That's the same family who smoke cigarettes like their going out of fashion,drink to the point that they can't remember what they did yesterday,think that a great holiday is two weeks in Blackpool [the pits] and last of all,have never had a passport hence never left the UK.Yet they tell me that Iam daft spending that amount of money.Yeh,right.:wave:

 

[real mad hatter]

Oops.

Being new to the board myself, but not new to things overall, I've seen threads go up about how much people spend on their trips. I've seen some who spend over $10k just on airfare to get to WDW.

So my question to ask is this:

For those of us that are just regular people (no fancy jobs and living on tighter budgets, etc), where is the line of affordability?

Let's face it, not all of us are able to go every year or even every other year. The world has come down hard on alot of us, so for those people who are like me, how do you afford it?

Missed your last bit.How do we afford it..Hard saving,every penny counts.

 

[AEfx]

It's interesting, because I always marvel at how much people spend on NON Disney vacations. 5K for two people to go sit on a beach for a week? What a waste, IMO.

I talk to people who get sticker shock going to the WDW website and getting a quote, until I find out they picked a monorail hotel and included Disney-sponsored airfare, etc.

The thing about Disney is that there are so many ways you can do it much more cheaply, if you don't feel you have to stay on property, and you don't go to some $50/pp Sit-down every day, etc.

As RMH said, I often go without other unnecesary stuff - I mean, do I really need to spend $10-15 a day buying lunch and a muffin/etc. for breakfast on the road, or can I just pack a lunch and eat before I go home.

Personally, I find not having kids saves me the most money.

 

[Lisalyn]

Being a single Mom on a single income I find WDW travel company package deals to be the way to go for me. Usually room and tickets. I get the most bang for the buck and all I have to do is put $200 down (which I usually do about 10-12 months out) and then pay it off a little at a time until it is paid in full. To cover the food and souveniers? I put aside a certain amount a month and every quarter buy Disney gift cards. By the time vacation time comes....I've pretty much paid for everything :wave:

 

[Clamman73]

10k on airfare!:hammer:

 

[jlevis]

That's not an easy question to answer as there are so many variables. Our two sons are grown with families of their own. In general we live modestly, I'm retired with a good pension income. My wife still works and makes a very good income. We go to Disney generly twice a year for 7 to 14 days. We make it affordable (and remember that is a relative term) by buying annual passes, driving and owning timeshares (non Disney). I think one thing that anyone can do to make any vacation affordable is to not go into debt to pay for it. Don't stay at a resort if you can not pay it off. Don't eat at deluxe restaurants if the meal is going onto a crdit card you can't pay off. Don't go every year if your still paying for last year. You get the point.

 

[todpatcam]

We are not rich by any means but we do have decent steady jobs - middle-class I would say. We have a 10 yr old that would love to be a Disney Artist when he grows up. This is a family trip that each of us look forward to each year - family time that we will look back on for years to come with great memories.

Disney can be an expensive vacation but as others have posted there is ways to save; staying off site (we stay on-site because its part of the experience we don't want to miss), Disney Visa (we put everything and I mean everything on our Disney Visa - we typically have $500-$750 towards our trip each year), shop for the best air-fare (i belong to several websites which let me know when fares are the lowest), and just watch the food and extras - they can up quickly.

The other is looking at times Disney is offering deals; room discounts or free dining. Our first trip to Disney was 5 years ago and we've been every since and we've had free dining each year. This may be the first year without it but we're already book with a 30% room discount but are holding out hope for free dining during our dates.

Last advice; save your change and cut back on things that you don't mind giving up for a vacation that IMO is the best!!!

 

[copcarguyp71]

I would guess those saying $10K for airfare would be those travelling from UK or Europe, remember this is an international forum.

We usually draw the line at around $5k for our family of three and saving is the key. I am also able to wheel and deal throughout the year on eBay and stash that money aside in Paypal like a vacation club. I am surprised that TDO continues to keep rack rates so high for the Deluxe resorts as they never seem really full when we are there but admittedly we usually travel during off peak season...which is another way to save some dough on your trip.

I have my own business and was able to write off a trip two years ago to attend an industry convention in Orlando so that is an occasional plus as well.

 

[Susan Savia]

Visiting Disney has always been affordable to us. We are annual pass holders and we stay offsite for 12 nights for $600, eat most of our meals offsite, drive our own car and we also take other trips through the year. We rarely go to movies or eat out. I am retired, husband works part time now. We always have a great time and find its not necessary to spend thousands on a trip to WDW.

 

[JIMINYCR]

I think one thing that anyone can do to make any vacation affordable is to not go into debt to pay for it. Don't stay at a resort if you can not pay it off. Don't eat at deluxe restaurants if the meal is going onto a crdit card you can't pay off. Don't go every year if your still paying for last year. You get the point.

Excellent points that everyone should follow, not just for Disney trips but for their every day lives. People think it's OK to live by extending their credit further and further without thinking of the consequences. My wife and I don't charge unless we have the funds to pay it off. We know exactly what we can do and can't do. As far as Disney trips go, we plan to save enough to enjoy what we want to do. If we want to go to deluxe restaurants, stay in higher priced resorts, it means working harder to earn that amount of vacation funds. We know what our limits are and don't over extend ourselves. Trying hard to teach my son those same lessons my dad taught me.

 

[eroyee]

Being a single Mom on a single income I find WDW travel company package deals to be the way to go for me. Usually room and tickets. I get the most bang for the buck and all I have to do is put $200 down (which I usually do about 10-12 months out) and then pay it off a little at a time until it is paid in full. To cover the food and souveniers? I put aside a certain amount a month and every quarter buy Disney gift cards. By the time vacation time comes....I've pretty much paid for everything :wave:

Good for you...Proud of you...

 

[BostonianEB]

This is our families first trip to Disney. We dont have a lot of money and we were stalking the internet for months trying to find the best deals and ways to save on our trip. We were able to get 3 round trip plane tickets, 1 week stay at the disney music hotel, and the park tickets for 8 days for only $2,100. It just takes a lot of research and patience. The only thing we need to buy is food and maybe a few souvineers (we saved up about $700 to bring for the week). We will be there on May 14th and we cant wait!!!

 

[majorrfb]

Save, no matter how small

We, wife and I, actively safe money from each paycheck for a Disney vacation.
We go each Dec. now. The vacation money is not touched for anything else.
We purchase tickets on line, non-expiration and stay off-site in Lake Buena Vista. We keep meals to simple fare and have a great time. :wave:

 

[addcogulf]

Being a Disney fan, I go to WDW every year. I do go on a budget. I plan my next vacation when I get home from the last, giving me a year to know what the cost will be. I stay in a value resort, look for free dining or other saving plans, go at value season and watch the airlines for the cheapest fares I can find. Having a year to plan, I usually am lucky. My vacation this year, with airfare, free dining, Music resort with myself, my hubby and my 13 year old Granddaughter is costing me $3,100. for six nights. I figure about another $500 for stuff we will buy. I feel the vacation is worth every dime. Last summer I went for two nights at a beautiful indoor water park near my home. It was beautiful, but the cost was high. For two nights, three days, all the meals I spent in excess of nine hundred dollars. It was nothing compared with Disney. I feel I get my moneys worth flying away to a wonder vacation spot where I leave all my troubles behind. And every moment is entertainment, even meals. :sohappy:

 

[bamillerpa]

We always go during value season. The rates are cheapest and the crowds (generally) are lowest. I also purchase a Disney gift card every week at the grocery store to help pay for things. Since we plan our trips pretty far out I find that I can pay a lot of our trip off with the gift cards alone. Our grocery store sells them in $25 or $50 increments. I plan what we are having for dinner each week and normally buy the bigger packs of meat and freeze them in portions that work for my family. I don't stray from my list. By being careful what I buy and planning meals around what is on sale I normally save enough at the grocery store to pay for the $25 gift card. If I plan really well I can buy less food the next week and buy the $50 card. The gift cards save us! We don't feel like we are really spending extra money this way which allows us to upgrade to the Poly which is our favorite resort. We also only go if we get either free dining or a room discount. The Poly rack rate is way too expensive without one of these discounts but to us staying there is part of the magic for us. It's a tradition and the gift cards pay for the upgrade and more so when it's time to pay off our vacation we normally owe maybe a thousand tops which we pay off in full when the statement comes. I also give my daughter gift cards to spend while there and tell her that she can buy what she wants but once the cards are done, so is she. It definitely has saved us on her spending when we are there.

 

[BrittanyRose428]

When my family takes me, I really don't know how they pay for it. :shrug: One minute they seem to be complaining that there's no money, and the next minute we're going to WDW. I don't get it, but I won't argue with it, maybe they do it on purpose to make it more of a surprise, who knows. (Though I have not been on a mom&dad paid for trip since I started college, which they're paying for).

For myself, I don't really know... I'm new to this whole paying for vacations yourself thing. :lol: My boyfriend and I have $1000 saved up, but we have no set time we're planning on going yet. Hopefully in the summer when we're both able to work more, we can save another thousand. But thats the only way we can really save for it I think. I had a trip booked online, thinking we'd just be able to make payments on it and it would be fine. But with me in college and him in jewelry school, we didn't get to work as many hours as we'd like, so with other bills and things that trip just wasn't happening. So I would rather take my time putting money away and avoid having to cancel a trip again. Such is the life of poor students haha.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

We save every bit we can to make our trips happen. The hubby works a LOT of overtime which is money that is never in the budget to begin with. It's all extra to our household. That's how the majority of our trips happen. 'm not down with creating debt for something as unnecessary as a vacation.

How much is too much? Too much, for me, is when the money spent isn't worth what I'm getting. If I blindly threw money out there, didn't feel like I was getting my quarter's worth, and wasn't bothered by this then I'd say I had too much money and not enough sense. That's when it's too much. That's when it's time to reevaluate.

We've enjoyed WDW in the past on trips where we spent as little as $2500 and as much as $14k. At this point we're a tad on the burnt side and eager to explore other Disney fun. The resort costs even with the best discounts, the dining costs for food we weren't truly enjoying, etc. all added up to a whole lot of wanting to smack somebody because we didn't feel like we were getting as much out of things as we were paying. That's not fun. We're taking a break from WDW for now. Maybe in the future we'll go back but for now we're excited to spend our vacation $$ on other Disney vacations. :wave:

 

[menamechris]

Being a local, it is still worth it it get the annual pass. But I am starting to draw the line on food and "extras". They are simply pricing me out. It used to be no big deal to be hanging at the MK and just go get a funnel cake or have dinner there. But the prices are going up so much and so quickly, that it just isn't reasonable to be doing that. My friends and I can leave Disney and go right outside property to Sweet Tomatoes or TGI Fridays and get whole meals for the price of chicken nuggets at a counter service.

 

[Demeter Tess]

I'm lucky enough to have grandparents just north of Orlando, so I've made many, many day trips to WDW over the course of my life. Not having to pay lodging or the majority of the food costs is a really big plus. The downside of that, of course, is that I've never had the experience of staying on-property. Until this coming June, that is. After years of penny-pinching, I've finally convinced myself to part with a large chunk of cash in order to spend 4 nights on-property. So excited!