Anyone else completely slashed their budget?

Ellie Webbs

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 26, 2019
Had april 2020 booked at AKL, obviously cancelled and with the TUI offer to rebook +20% credit we swapped to WL for April 2021.
The original plan had us going to:
Teppan edo
Tiffins
Boathouse
Plaza
Victoria and Albert's
The Wave
California Grill
Kimonos
Bluezoo
Yak and Yeti
Takumi Tei
Trader Sam's

(Seems like a lot but its our 10 year anniversary)

With all the current restrictions/ restaurants not open / doubt as to whether we will allowed to go anyway - we have completely cut this down. Now we will be going to Boathouse and Cali Grill.

Anyone else been ruthless?
 
Quite the opposite - postponing from this year to next year has already cost us around £600 more, due to the increased hotel and flight costs, plus we have also lost out on free dining, so will now need to pay for meals - at least another grand I reckon. Plus have to purchase new travel insurance. So our budget has already gone upby almost 2 grand so far.

I am hoping that free dining might be offerd again in time for next year, but I am not holding my breath. Don't think there is much chance of that returning before 2022.
 
Quite the opposite - postponing from this year to next year has already cost us around £600 more, due to the increased hotel and flight costs, plus we have also lost out on free dining, so will now need to pay for meals - at least another grand I reckon. Plus have to purchase new travel insurance. So our budget has already gone upby almost 2 grand so far.

I am hoping that free dining might be offerd again in time for next year, but I am not holding my breath. Don't think there is much chance of that returning before 2022.
Yes we had free dining so our budget was bumped up by at least a thousand. I was talking about the post rebook changes 😊 we had a thought that maybe because we had waited an extra year we would do a lot extra than before, but that plan has been scrapped!
 


Why not go to Disneyland Paris & try other theme parks in Europe
We are looking into maybe a long weekend at paris 😊 but I have been many times and DH is not convinced as he likes the sun. An option though! And I keep reminding him of all the rides in DLP they don't have in Florida, but tbh for us atm its Florida or we will holiday in the UK, there are lovely places to chill here for a week...
 
Our cost has gone up due to 5 people and no free dining. Hoping for a Disney offer or will need to change accommodation. Even the few days cost at Universal is eyewatering though. I just keep checking hoping for an improvement in the hotel costs!!
 


We are looking into maybe a long weekend at paris 😊 but I have been many times and DH is not convinced as he likes the sun. An option though! And I keep reminding him of all the rides in DLP they don't have in Florida, but tbh for us atm its Florida or we will holiday in the UK, there are lovely places to chill here for a week...

We do Disney Paris end of August . Always been ridiculous hot. If anything felt hotter than Florida as it's not really designed for the sun.
 
Had april 2020 booked at AKL, obviously cancelled and with the TUI offer to rebook +20% credit we swapped to WL for April 2021.
The original plan had us going to:
Teppan edo
Tiffins
Boathouse
Plaza
Victoria and Albert's
The Wave
California Grill
Kimonos
Bluezoo
Yak and Yeti
Takumi Tei
Trader Sam's

(Seems like a lot but its our 10 year anniversary)

With all the current restrictions/ restaurants not open / doubt as to whether we will allowed to go anyway - we have completely cut this down. Now we will be going to Boathouse and Cali Grill.

Anyone else been ruthless?

We did this a couple of years ago after our last trip when we got fed up eating out. Now we go out the Saturday nights and the nights before check out. Max 4 dinners out per trip. Now we buy frozen pizzas, take out etc and eat on our balcony a lot more often.
 
Indeed without free dining the price for next year is a lot higher. However the greater likelihood for me is we do not go. Not only could timings not fit in with kids exam results next year But my wife’s family live in France and we’ve not been able to see them now for a year and I doubt we will until at least the spring what with how Covid19 is going.
 
I feel like I might end up doing the opposite. Me and family were zooming yesterday and mentioned when we finally get back to Disney (usually go once or twice a year so serious withdrawals going on) we are probably going to just go mad and be like "lets eat out for every meal" where as usually we do make some food (breakfast mainly) in the villa as a family etc. According to my Dad we are camping out in Dennys and doing breakfast lunch and dinner one day :D
 
I'm a twice a year girl and I'm really struggling with withdrawal. There's nothing to do here in normal times and we are in a lockdown at present in Wales so I can't even get in the car and go to Costco for the day, thankfully it should end next week, Cardiff here I come. Anyway, I digress. I'm pricing up Early February to early March 2021 and then doing late October to get both Halloween and Christmas in in one go, but, I'm wavering about getting an AP on the first trip as there are no offers for the second dates. It's going to add £100 to the cost, but, the discounts can offset that easily, not to mention all the AP perks and the $200 gift card would cover that, not to mention doing it through Quidco will earn a decent cashback. As there is going to be no dining plans anytime soon I'm wondering what to do. I've got the money I would have spent on this years trip stashed away in a savings account, not for the pathetic interest, but, out of sight etc... I've had something happen that has made me rethink my financial future in a positive way (not the lottery, I wish 😂) and I just want to get out there and enjoy life while I can.
I have way too much time on my hands.

I'm also sure that I read on the website that if you book the current offer before November 24th (I think) you get an extra $100 added on to the gift card. I can't seem to find that again, so did I imagine that?
 
I'm also sure that I read on the website that if you book the current offer before November 24th (I think) you get an extra $100 added on to the gift card. I can't seem to find that again, so did I imagine that?

So I think what they are referring to here is the $100 one you get for moving a reservation from this year not an extra for a new booking. Last year when they released the free dining offer they also had a pre-booking period where if you booked you got an extra $100 gift card on top of the $200 normal one offered. IF you have moved this into the new offer then they are honouring the $100 so you in effect get $200 in gift cards. I haven't heard of anyone getting one who hasn't had a previous booking they needed to move but I might be wrong
 
yes definitely....
we go to WDW every few years with the kids and grandkids..
last time (2017), we spent a very large fortune on 3 weeks there..
the next trip (2021) will have to be a tad more frugal...
times are tough...
.
 
I've never been before. Was going to do a big trip in 2020. Cruise, Universal, AKL and DXDP. 16 nights. £9500 total. Ended up losing £850 deposit. Becuase i didnt want to chance getting stuck going to the USA and having to quarantine and not being able to cancel.

But now we are planning on 2022 /23 and because we have the extra two years doing some credit card manipulation amex and avios ones and using my OH's ideal points (everytime he fits a boiler he gets points which they can convery into any reward you want.)

I am hoping for this:
business class to orlando: for £1600. Using Amex Gold for 2 and avios amex card.
Ideal points for tickets. Disney and Universal. £0
1 week Yacht Club and 1 week AKL £4000?
3 days Hard rock for remaining ideal or avios points. £0

Unless there is free dining when we will pay for disney tickets and hotel out of pocket AKL only and use the ideal points for a pre paid mastercard to pay for tips and universal tickets.

So all in all.. this pandemic might be good for our wallet. We are potentially saving 3000 ish total and going business class instead of economy. No cruise though.
 
I've never been before. Was going to do a big trip in 2020. Cruise, Universal, AKL and DXDP. 16 nights. £9500 total. Ended up losing £850 deposit. Becuase i didnt want to chance getting stuck going to the USA and having to quarantine and not being able to cancel.

But now we are planning on 2022 /23 and because we have the extra two years doing some credit card manipulation amex and avios ones and using my OH's ideal points (everytime he fits a boiler he gets points which they can convery into any reward you want.)

I am hoping for this:
business class to orlando: for £1600. Using Amex Gold for 2 and avios amex card.
Ideal points for tickets. Disney and Universal. £0
1 week Yacht Club and 1 week AKL £4000?
3 days Hard rock for remaining ideal or avios points. £0

Unless there is free dining when we will pay for disney tickets and hotel out of pocket AKL only and use the ideal points for a pre paid mastercard to pay for tips and universal tickets.

So all in all.. this pandemic might be good for our wallet. We are potentially saving 3000 ish total and going business class instead of economy. No cruise though.
This sounds fancy! I especially like the yacht club and business class flights!
 
I've never been before. Was going to do a big trip in 2020. Cruise, Universal, AKL and DXDP. 16 nights. £9500 total. Ended up losing £850 deposit. Becuase i didnt want to chance getting stuck going to the USA and having to quarantine and not being able to cancel.

But now we are planning on 2022 /23 and because we have the extra two years doing some credit card manipulation amex and avios ones and using my OH's ideal points (everytime he fits a boiler he gets points which they can convery into any reward you want.)

I am hoping for this:
business class to orlando: for £1600. Using Amex Gold for 2 and avios amex card.
Ideal points for tickets. Disney and Universal. £0
1 week Yacht Club and 1 week AKL £4000?
3 days Hard rock for remaining ideal or avios points. £0

Unless there is free dining when we will pay for disney tickets and hotel out of pocket AKL only and use the ideal points for a pre paid mastercard to pay for tips and universal tickets.

So all in all.. this pandemic might be good for our wallet. We are potentially saving 3000 ish total and going business class instead of economy. No cruise though.

that sounds fantastic!!
we pay for 9 people (DH and me, the kids and grandkids) so just covering economy class tickets plus the WDW tickets is a stretch..
turns out we're going to have to cancel summer 2021...
even though there seem to be several vaccines that will be available, it's not clear when they'll be available to everyone..
there's a lot that's not clear right now so my son is just too nervous to cut it close and wants to push everything to 2022....
i doubt the costs will go down at all by us waiting...
in fact, i'm sure everything will go up by 2022...
it's all a bit up in the air at this point...
.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top