Better trips, or more trips??

[MinnieForMe]

We prefer to do Disney budget so that we can spend a week in Grand Cayman or Aruba snorkeling. I don't carry meals into the parks but I do carry snacks and water. We also stay off site because we own timeshare. We eat in the condo for breakfast and a few suppers to save for our bigger trip to the Caribbean. Although, when you compare the price of eating out in Florida to eating out in Grand Cayman/Aruba, it does feel budget.

 

[Southernmiss]

Personally, my opinion, staying in a 'better' hotel or eating in 'better' restaurants doesn't make for a 'better' vacation, especially at WDW. I'd rather stay longer or go an extra time and do it in a budget way. Staying longer and going less frequently is more budget for my family than several shorter trips because the main cost we have is a. getting there and b. hotel. We don't care about the room as long as it is clean because we only stay in the room to shower and sleep. Staying longer can be cheaper ticket wise, too because of the pricing structure of additional days. A 10 day ticket is a lot less expensive than two three or 4 day tickets, unless you are buying annual passes, longer stay tickets works better money wise.

There's no better, just personal preference.

This is our preference as well.

 

[msmama]

I've been pondering the same question myself actually!!

Not to hijack, but I've been pondering an Adventures by Disney trip vs a Do-it-myself trip. I could probably do 2 1/2 trips on my own for the price of an ABD trip, BUT I then have to actually DO IT ALL myself and if something goes wrong *I* have to fix it, etc.

There are SO MANY options to weigh, lol!!! I haven't been able to come up with the answer yet!

 

[indimom]

For me, any vacation is fun, even camping. A "real vacation" where I don't have to clean, make a bed, or cook is pure luxury to me. I don't need 5star hotels, a spa, or fancy restaurants to feel pampered.

We don't get vacations every year, so I do not want to wait longer/save longer just so I can upgrade my room or eat in a fancy restaurant. I'd rather go more often or stay longer or do more activities on our trip.

This summer we're doing a split stay: five days tent camping at Disney followed by three days at the Royal Pacific at Universal. Obviously these are going to be very different experiences, but I really can't say which one I'm more excited about.

I was smart enough to put the camping portion first and save the more pampered part of the trip for the end.

 

[hsmamato2]

2nd choice all the way
I love traveling,and I usually travel to see/experience new things....so If I have to budget our way thru it, I will, b/c it means we get to go!

 

[hsmamato2]

For me, any vacation is fun, even camping. A "real vacation" where I don't have to clean, make a bed, or cook is pure luxury to me. I don't need 5star hotels, a spa, or fancy restaurants to feel pampered.


This summer we're doing a split stay: five days tent camping at Disney followed by three days at the Royal Pacific at Universal.

I was smart enough to put the camping portion first and save the more pampered part of the trip for the end.

Good choice !! And I agree with the 1st sentence....

 

[lauradis]

Depends on how close you are to Disney. Being in Ohio it cost 1200 to fly and 500 to drive. So we try the every 3 year rule.

I'm not cooking or cleaning except load of laundry on true vacation. Don't have to have 5 star hotel for family vacation, but

Do need at least 4 star for grown up only vacations. I choose longer vacation trips because of our location

 

[merbobear]

We prefer to budget on our resort so that we can go wild and be more carefree with spending while we are on our vacation. We go to Disney for a longer vacation (9-10 days) because it wouldn't make financial sense to do 2 4-5 day trips (because it is approximately $1k for our airfare round trip). It makes more sense to do 1 trip and spend 1k on air vs 2 trips and 2k

That being said, I would be willing to spend more on a resort for location (we are looking at BLT for next year) but not for the "niceness" of the resort. We have stayed at Pop and OKW and to be honest, we preferred Pop, although OKW is hands down "better" in the ways you would typically judge a resort. Pop has a food court and Mickey Waffles, and that makes it a winner for me!

 

[eliza61]

I've been pondering the same question myself actually!!

Not to hijack, but I've been pondering an Adventures by Disney trip vs a Do-it-myself trip. I could probably do 2 1/2 trips on my own for the price of an ABD trip, BUT I then have to actually DO IT ALL myself and if something goes wrong *I* have to fix it, etc.

There are SO MANY options to weigh, lol!!! I haven't been able to come up with the answer yet!

The main advantage of ABD IMO is the ability to skip the queues. I can only talk about the Europe vacations.

Europe is ridiculously easy to plan a vacation for. Any competent travel agent worth their salt can plan an excellent trip.
Most packages do the same thing as ABD.
Just got back from Paris/London for 10 days with 9 family members, 3 of them were seniors (over 70).
My TA handle the transfers between airports, hotel accomodations and a few tours.
Paris and London have excellent, dependable, easy to use subway systems. Londons tube had live employees at the turnstiles who answered all our "how do you get to XYZ questions".

not sure what else abd offers but with a Rick steves quide book and a competent TA you can definitely plan a great European vacation.

 

[pigletto]

What we allot for vacations lets us budget a winter and a summer trip every year. For the last few years both of those trips have been Disney/Universal.
I could take one expensive trip to Disney with that budget but it would feel wasted to me. So typically we rent points for a studio or stay in a moderate for 9 nights or so.
I find for any trip, I solidly land middle of the road in our choices. I don't typically want the cheapest room category or the most expensive category. I would say we choose more often over more extravagant but with some limits. There are some things we aren't willing to go without.

 

[chobie]

This summer we're doing a split stay: five days tent camping at Disney followed by three days at the Royal Pacific at Universal. Obviously these are going to be very different experiences, but I really can't say which one I'm more excited about.

I was smart enough to put the camping portion first and save the more pampered part of the trip for the end.

That's sounds like an awesome vacation! And yes you are doing it the right way. We stayed at Pop last weekend but went one night FW to catch the sing-along and part of the movie. Everyone was having so my much fun and the campground is so nice, I really wished we were camping. The first few times I went to WDW as a child we camped and I have very fond memories if it.

And we love the RPR.

 

[usd2bmd]

Personally, my opinion, staying in a 'better' hotel or eating in 'better' restaurants doesn't make for a 'better' vacation, especially at WDW. I'd rather stay longer or go an extra time and do it in a budget way. Staying longer and going less frequently is more budget for my family than several shorter trips because the main cost we have is a. getting there and b. hotel. We don't care about the room as long as it is clean because we only stay in the room to shower and sleep. Staying longer can be cheaper ticket wise, too because of the pricing structure of additional days. A 10 day ticket is a lot less expensive than two three or 4 day tickets, unless you are buying annual passes, longer stay tickets works better money wise.

There's no better, just personal preference.

I agree. When we go we stay moderate. That is more than enough hotel for us since we do not spend much time in the room itself. Our favorite Moderate is Caribbean beach; there are plenty of pools (both quiet and themed) for everyone and I like the price.
I don't see us staying deluxe because for me personally i don't see the sense in spending that much to sleep and shower.

Our stays are normally 8 days, but I would love to do 10 or 12. My husband likes staying on property but even doing that we like to get the most "bang for our buck."

 

[tzeitel]

Totally agree with the statement below

For me, any vacation is fun, even camping. A "real vacation" where I don't have to clean, make a bed, or cook is pure luxury to me. I don't need 5star hotels, a spa, or fancy restaurants to feel pampered.

I would rather do longer and frugal () than shorter and more expensive. We do not pack meals to have in the parks or skip anything we really want to do, but I do not mind staying at a value - we love the Pop. We are park people, for us the resort is for sleeping and spending a couple of hours in the pool everyday...and for the Tie Dye cheesecake

If I could only do one trip I would save enough to do all the things on my Disney bucket list. Otherwise I am good with what we have been doing so far.

 

[1osfan]

To us, the choice isn't longer and better versus shorter, cheaper, and more often. We stay for a longer time but at a value resort. Since DW and I are both teachers, we have a very flexible summer schedule. We can stay for 12-13 days at a value resort and buy ten day tickets for about $270 a day for a family of four. We relax; we don't rush through our trip; we spend time at the resort; we spend time doing whatever we want, but we can only take that trip because of the cost. Double that price to stay at a deluxe. I could take two trips for the price of one.

So in the end, for us, it comes down to longer, cheaper, and more often. But, everyone is different. We don't need a bigger bed. We aren't there to sleep. We're there for everything else. If we go to the beach, we spend the extra money for an oceanfront room with a balcony. We only do that for a night or two and the view is one of our priorities.

 

[pryncess527]

We just made the decision to postpone our trip so we could increase our budget, so I'll say less frequent but more extravagant is our preference. But we are planning an adult only trip so age of kids is not an issue, and we have our heart set on some fantastic dining and a split stay ending with a savanna view at AKV. I'd rather out it off another year and have a staycation this year instead of downsizing

 

[Nina1]

definitely a personal choice. I'm normally a penny pincher in real life, I don't want to do it on vacation. I don't want to lug snacks to the parks, I really do need a queen bed and nothing beats sitting on a balcony at night watching animals while the kids are sleeping.
I hate small hotel rooms, so I'd much rather save and blow a big wad on comfort.
So no, I would not take a Disney vacation if the only way to do it was to stay at a value. I'd wait.

Agree with this. If we had to stay in a Value, I wouldn't go.

 

[Colleen27]

It really depends... If we're talking Pop vs Poly, I'd go with cheaper and more often. If we're talking about staying offsite and packing sandwiches for our park days, I'd wait until I can afford the sort of trip I'd enjoy.

 

[SnowWhite607]

I would rather go longer or do more trips than upgrade my accommodations. My girls are only 5 though. If I had two 15 year olds, space may be more of a concern to me. But studies show that while "stuff" doesn't bring happiness, memories do, so I would go for the more happy memories.

This

 

[ZehnJahren]

This is all very interesting! I thought I'd get more responses that people would rather save up and have longer, "nicer" trips but I love all the points of view. I keep leaning towards taking more trips and nixing the fancy hotel in favor of getting a vacation away from my life a few times a year instead of just once for a long time!

 

[taaren]

The main factor for longer/better to me is: what distance are you travelling to get to Disney, how arduous is the journey, and will it take up all your vacation time allotment for the year or is it something you can do frequently?
We have to cross the country to go to WDW, so if we go, we're going for a week or longer. If we go for an extended period, I want space and a nice room to relax and enjoy, so we splurge and get the 2 bedroom villas (we're DVC). We'll also probably do some nice TS as it then is our "big" trip for the year and takes up half of our vacation time from work.

If we're going to DLR, its only a 5 hour drive, so often we go for just a weekend, I just burn some floating holiday hours to take off 1 extra day from work, so those are park intensive trips where we get a studio if we have points, or stay in a very cheap hotel if we don't, and are very happy to be doing the budget-Disney for 2-3 days, just eating a few QS meals and sharing corn dogs in the park and fast food after we exit.

When it comes to cruises I'm firmly in the inside-cabin = more cruises camp. When we're on the ship we barely see the inside of the room, so why pay more? Others clearly value the balcony, but we wouldn't spend any time on one since we're non-smokers and there are public decks if I want to enjoy a view of the ocean.

I've been pondering the same question myself actually!!

Not to hijack, but I've been pondering an Adventures by Disney trip vs a Do-it-myself trip. I could probably do 2 1/2 trips on my own for the price of an ABD trip, BUT I then have to actually DO IT ALL myself and if something goes wrong *I* have to fix it, etc.

There are SO MANY options to weigh, lol!!! I haven't been able to come up with the answer yet!

I think it depends on where you're going. The do-it-yourself-ness isn't arduous in some places, like Europe, but in the more exotic locales I think the guide will be 100% worth it.
Eg. The Costa Rica ABD is on my bucket list. A) I have a friend who grew up in Costa Rica who tells me that going it on my own isn't a great idea for a variety of reasons, especially considering I don't speak any variety of Spanish. B) Trips with other companies like National Geographic are priced comparably, so ABD actually seems reasonable if its something I really want to do. Figure maybe when DS is 16 we'll be able to afford it ...