How much has the Cost of your Trip increased ? Have you adjusted ?

[cvjpirate]

I try to go every year but have missed a few. I am spending about 3k each trip and have had to adjust to make it work. Have gone from the Deluxe Resort to POP. I have Gone from Dinning plan with 3 TS meals a day to no Dinning plan.

 

[Micca]

[QUOTE="monorailrabbit, post: 55610113, member: 457656"]Is it bad to admit that I'm just too lazy to really look into how that works? For some reason it confuses the heck out of me when I try to research it, so I just give up, haha! Don't get me wrong, though - I still super love AllStar Movies, it's just on my bucket list to ride the monorail in my Disney PJ's![/QUOTE]

Nah, "lazy" is highly underrated. FWIW the CMs in the kiosks are really helpful at explaining the whole thing, and if you take the DVC tour there's no high pressure sales like you might expect from a timeshare.

 

[vinotinto]

It's hard to compare because we don't stay at the same resort every time (different nightly rates). We have also stayed 4 nights during most of our last trips, but are staying 5 nights during our next trip (different length of stays). We also don't purchase the DxDP anymore, due to both cost and difficulty to schedule ADRs with FP+. Last time we flew, but we usually don't and this time we may or may not fly. Each trip is different. But, even with different trips, yes, prices are higher. For us, prices have not reached the point that we would stop visiting.

 

[Bete]

We have stopped going. It's 3 years now. For about 10 years in row we went every year and sometimes multiple times in the same year. I will go back but it will be probably 1 trip every 5 years now. If the economics change then I'll think about going more often again. We've done over 40 trips and I can leave it alone right now. Relatively speaking, I feel we went more often when there were better deals and less crowds.

We have spread our wings and have tried other destinations and we are happy going elsewhere for less money.

Each to their own and Disney will continue to increase prices until people stop going there.

 

[TXDisneyFan1]

Nah, "lazy" is highly underrated. FWIW the CMs in the kiosks are really helpful at explaining the whole thing, and if you take the DVC tour there's no high pressure sales like you might expect from a timeshare.[/QUOTE]

Last summer we stayed at the Poly and scheduled an hour long DVC session with a salesperson. We got to tour the bungalows and our family of 5 all got 3 extra use anywhere fast passes. It was definitely worth the time!

 

[jsrj21]

Our trips have gone up slightly over the last few years. I usually get some type of discount code and take advantage. Last two years it was free park-hoppers and a discounted room rate. We usually go for 9-10 days and the average has been hovering around $5000.00. That being said, it takes alot of work on my part to get deals on a rental car, we buy the QSDP and use our Disney Visa rewards for TS meals [we like to try a new restaurant or two every trip]. Airfare has been a pain because the rates are crazy from NYC....but there are good deals, it just takes vigilance and we're lucky that we have sevral airports to choose from [Newark NJ, JFK, LaGuardia, Westchester, etc]. We're taking a 10-day trip this year because next summer, we're going to visit the Southwest....

No doubt, the prices keep going up and up but like I've heard many people say, Disney's a business and they are in the business of making money. The biggest thing that bugs me is when I go and big attractions are closed.... So happy that this summer, Soarin will be open.

 

[disneyseniors]

I think your original question was, What are you spending now compared to previously for a wdw trip, or something to that effect.

I haven't paid too much attention to it, but it has gone up $500.00 for our trip this year. We are two adults, staying moderate, without water parks but we always use park hoppers. It fits well with how we tour; ie; two parks in one day, sometimes 3. This price is without a PIN code, but they are not due to come out til May, so we will probably get one like we usually do.

What do we do to cut costs? There are things we won't give up and things we will. We won't give up onsite, for now. We won't give up staying at our home away from home, POR. We will give up dining plan and go OOP this time which saves us money. We don't do any parties, so that is not a factor.

I forgot to say we are going for one day less this year and still pay $500 more for it, so that is a concern.

If next year the prices continue to climb, we will be at our limit. We will continue to visit Orlando area, but stay at a condo and spend 3 or 4 weeks doing all the other things there are to do in Florida. Probably will go to wdw a day or two and will do Universal 3 or 4 days, as we really love universal.

So that's our changes in a nutshell. Much more expensive but we are hanging in there, for now..................

 

[Disneymom1126]

We are not doing the dining plan this trip - planning to get garden grocer and do fruit/cereal in the room for breakfasts and bring snacks/water bottle into the parks (which we have done before, but usually still gotten drinks at quick service...now at $3+ per soda I will bring in some water flavoring and go that route with our water bottles). We are only doing a handful of table service meals as well.

Not doing memory maker this year...also driving 2 hours to fly out of an airport that is cheaper...we will be doing MNSSHP, but we aren't going to pay for any other "extras"

 

[3CW]

Our adjustment? We have largely stopped staying on-site.

Our upcoming trip will be our first one on-site since 2013, staying at the same resort. And granted, it will be high summer as compared to early December, so it's a more expensive time with different discounts available, but still. JUST our tickets and room this time will cost the same as combined cost of tickets, room, dining plan, and flights for two on that previous trip!

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I just pulled up my spreadsheets to refresh my memory of our budgets. Apparently, I've had the same budget for our last 3 trips to Disney. The biggest thing I can tell you is that since 2013, the military salute tickets which are STILL a great deal have gone up $34 a piece. It feels quite substantial to us.

We are not loyal to any particular hotel or staying on site. I will say that some of the deals I used to see offsite are less plentiful. We have been having better luck staying onsite for roughly the same price when you add in offsite resort fees and parking at the parks.

Luckily for us, our gas budget also went down a lot in the last couple years!

I think we are spending more on tickets, less on gas and roughly the same for food and extra experiences.

To save money, for us the easiest to do is cut down on table service meals and depending on the time of year to stay off site.

 

[dkrauss]

We've been renting DVC points for our trips lately. It allows us Deluxe resorts at a Moderate price range. We also have cut back on TS meals too.............for two reasons the first is cost..........but the second and one that has really driven the reduction is..............too much food and too much time

Doug

 

[pa. dad]

We used to sometimes stay on site and sometimes off site and now it is totally off site.
We also eat less meals in the parks as we've come to learn a bunch of off site places that have good food and are reasonable priced. Well still eat at disney if its somewhere we like or want to try.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We book and pay the bill. What's the question here?

 

[BudgieMama]

I can't really compare with our first trip, as it was very different, but I've just booked an identical package for 2017 as I have for this year:

14 nights at CSR, 14 day tickets with free Memory Maker, free QSDP, $200 gift card, 2 adults traveling.

2016 package cost £2558.
2017 package cost £2818.

Increase is £260, roughly 10%... With inflation plus the awful exchange rate right now, we weren't too unhappy with that as an all inclusive 14 day trip. Of course, that doesn't include flights- which are stupid expensive, but not available yet for 2017- but Disney doesn't control airfare, and we just have to suck it up.

 

[Davey Jones II]

In recent years, our trips cost us $1500 apiece (for two adults). Last year, we went to Cali/DLR and that trip was closer to $2000 apiece because of the weak Canadian dollar.

The real issue for me now is the outrageous hubris and greed of this company. On top of price increases much faster than the rate of inflation, they had the arrogant gall to cut corners at the parks this year. It really is a slap in the face for any loyal visitor. Less CMs, attractions running at half capacity, shorter operating hours, less entertainment, etc., etc. How can they do this crap, at a time when the parks are booming and the parks division is minting money? In effect, they are squeezing large crowds into an ever smaller amount of park and ride capacity. And they're doing this at a time when two WDW parks have construction walls, thus reducing capacity even more.

At Disneyland, almost half the park is under construction, and the crowds keep coming. But they have made the situation even worse by cancelling one parade (Pixar Play Parade), presenting another one only on weekends (Soundsational), leaving the Matterhorn closed except on weekends, randomly closing rides for mysterious "Maintenance", etc. All of this garbage will have the inevitable effect of swelling standby lines even more. Even the lines to get into the parks are much longer, because of less CMs to let people into the turnstiles! Disney doesn't care, as long as they get to pad their bottom line even more, and more and more...

I actually don't mind price increases that much, but to combine escalating prices with cutting corners? Truly an insult. They are charging more and more, and giving us less and less. Yes, they are a business, but there is a limit. You can't just laugh at your customers and treat them with contempt, as if they were nothing but walking wallets. What's next? Running every ride at half capacity, so that we will stand still in endless, slow moving lines while they put a vaccuum cleaner in our pockets, to suck up every last dime?

My response? I can't give them my hard-earned money when they undermine the guest experience and show nothing but contempt for anything but their almighty bottom line. Our next trip will probably be our first "Disney free" Florida vacation. We will buy the Orlando Flex Ticket, in which you get Universal, Sea World, their water park, and Busch Gardens for up to 14 days, all for about $360. We can take a ten day trip for a lot less expense, and a more relaxed experience than trying to beat the crowds at Disney.

We may go back to the World after Pandora opens, maybe in 2018. So that would be three years between Disney visits -- unthinkable for me, until just recently. Hopefully the current round of cheap, miserly, penny pinching cuts will be long gone by then.

 

[Minniesgal]

WE own Dvc so we are shielded from a fair bit of the increases. Park time isn't essential to us next trip I think we will only do water parks. And I'm not too worried about food costs as we are happy to eat offsite and just do 3 or maybe 4 favourite restaurants onsite so I feel we can cushion our trips from the worst of the increases, we are happy at our resort at the poolroom doing mini golf watching the fireworks from the beach etc the expensive stuff isn't import ant to us.

 

[texasroni75]

We try harder now to time our trips so that we can make use of a discount Disney is offering (Dining promotions are our friend because we often stay value and usually have the max occupancy in our on-site room). We go when airfare is least expensive (such as flying on Tuesdays).

For our upcoming trip, we booked last minute to accommodate DD's schedule, so we missed out on promotions. So, we are staying at a campsite and meals will be OOP - probably doing a lot of CS meal sharing to cut down on food waste/which equals $$ savings. We are also driving, since even with gas and wear-and-tear on the car, it is cheaper than 5 plane tickets. This trip will also be our first without park hoppers since 1999. Our souvenirs this time will be the Memory Maker package, and DD and I are splitting that cost.

So, we stay fewer days at the least expensive resort, almost no TS meals, and almost no souvenir impulse buys. Their price increases have forced us to do a LOT more $$ planning regarding things we hardly gave a thought to on trips before 2008.

 

[aretha30]

Our trip goes up each year, that is something we expect. We work hard all year and value our one long vacation. If we have to spend $500-$800 more every year for now we just accept it. We will book a hard ticket event, tour, or desert party if we see one that we are interested in. We don't nickle and dime souvenirs, if our kids want something (within reason) they can get it.
Over the last several years we have done some things that have helped with the budget. We stopped using the DDP and started getting Disney gift cards at Target. This way all meals were still prepaid but we save hundreds this way. We also take snacks and water into the parks, this way we aren't paying $3.00 for a bottle of water. We also bring food for a quick easy breakfast in our room.

 

[bbak30]

I don't really know the number, but it definitely feels more expensive to me. We have started scaling back the number of table service meals we do, as well as meals at Disney all together. It doesn't really pay to spend less days in the parks since the price to add a day is minimal.

 

[OB1]

We seem to be spending about the same amount, but we have cutbacks. After going for many years, we now either eat mainly QS, and have found a few off property mid range places to eat that we love. This happened because of Disney's pricing us out. Our souvenir purchases are way down. No longer do we get a t-shirt and hat every trip. We have enough of those now, and the over $100 for 2 people can be used elsewhere.
We live about 7 hours away, so some years we actually made 3 trips. Now it is 1 trip, and maybe a 2nd in a year. If we go twice, the 2nd is always offsite to keep prices down.