Compromising or just priced out?

I agree with you. First AP’s for my family members were purchased in 2002. Only let mine expire a couple of times since. Now I am questioning renewing.
 
I have booked us two TS meals for our two night stay at the Poly in December. One at Kona for breakfast, which I love Kona, and I have one booked at Trails End for a Saturday brunch. Not a fan of paying for a buffet and I may end up cancelling it just because of the prices of buffets, and Trails End is one of the cheaper ones. The one breakfast buffet that I really miss is Boma, that meal is beyond amazing.
 
Anyone like the breakfast buffet at Garden Grove? It looks a little more affordable, plus DVC gets a 20% discount there.
 
I also skipped Universal for the first time my last trip and will be skipping it next time too. I love Universal and we always say we could never go to Orlando and not do universal. Well we didn't go last time and we all agreed that we didn't miss it, in fact we wished we had more time at Disney! we were there 9 days. We decided we will be back next year when the new harry potter coaster is opened and save money until then (love the Portofino bay hotel there too)
 


We just came back and did spend a lot but definitely have cut back. We used to go every second year but this was the first time in five years (partly due to price, partly due to the kids being older and there being more other options for us). We generally don't buy a lot of extra stuff so that has stayed the same. However, we have cut down on ADRs. We used to get the dining plan and eat one tableservice meal a day. This time we had only six in 14 days, shared some of our counterservice meals, and had lots of snacks/a couple of meals in our villa.
 
our trips are now every 4 years instead of every 2-3. we share QS meals and only do TS that are paid for by my Disney Visa rewards; right now I have ~ $170 saved for our 2020 trip. Used a TA last time that has great discounts and plan to use them again. Airfare continues to rise as others have said.

The grand kids want to see Pandora and TSL, after the next trip we are planning an NCL cruise to Bermuda instead of Disney, We live outside Boston so can just Uber to the port and will have over $1500 - $2,000 on airline ticket for the 5 of us.

We also have 6 Flags New England a little over an hour from us, thinking about getting Annual Passes for there instead of Disney.

I don't think of my family as being priced out, just going less often and seriously considering spending our vacation $$ somewhere else than Disney, 7-8 years ago would never have done that.
 
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I really hate penny pinching on vacation but that being said I have had to make changes. I pay for an extended family (8 people) so it gets pricey from the word go. We stay for 10 to 12 days each time but I have had to make major changes for our 2021 trip. In the past I have scheduled a day at Sea World with one of their add ons like young dolphin thing. This day typically cost me around $1200 for one day and it was mainly for my daughters mother. And this past June trip besides that I shelled out around $1000 for 4 1 day passes at Universal with their meal thing. And we stayed a night at Daytona Beach. I have informed everyone that in 2021 I have scheduled 2 free days. Go to the parks or do what you want but I am not paying for any of these things. I have further reduced by telling people I am not paying for everything. I still have to pay for 2 rooms for my daughters mother and stepfather but if your not my daughter,god daughter or her mother and stepfather you can come but your paying for your tickets and your share of the meal plan. The last savings is entirely Disney's fault. I gave each girl $800 to spend and the now 9 year old spent $600 at Universal on Harry Potter stuff but my 18 year old brought back $500-$600 dollars. Even I hard trouble finding anything to buy. Just 2 shirts this trip. All of these cuts bring down my budget by around 6k. I have to admit thou my girls have decided that they love the deluxe plan and being deluxe girls. I am still looking at 22-26k for the next trip. But I do save and pay cash and we only go every 3rd year.
 


We did not even go this year, only the 2nd year in the last 14:sad1:

Us too. And nothing planned for next year as well. And we’ve been yearly (and sometimes twice yearly as AP holders) since 2006.

The additional pain comes from our dollar (Canadian) being so horrible for the last few years.

Add higher crowd levels to that.

I think we’ll be done for a while. And that makes me so sad.
 
Stayed on site in April when my daughter's marching band performed. Since then I have stayed off site at a Disney Springs Resort for a conference and have another stay booked at a Disney Springs Resort later this month for another conference. I can honestly say that price point and amenities made the "off site" stays even more enjoyable. Throw in the addition of almost all of the same perks as on site (now extended at least through December 2019)and to me it is the best way to save money with no real compromise.
 
We also now only do Disney, but even that's skyrocketing in price. We wouldn't even stay onsite if it wasn't for the UK free dining deal because it genuinely does save money for us. Oh, and DVC but that's different. Flights also have skyrocketed for us coming from the UK but unfortunately NOT the exchange rate which makes everything 10 times worse!!
 
We aren’t priced out or compromising but I think we are a bit different. We already cut back on APs a few years back. Get them every other year now and have no park trips in between.

DVC helps. It’s paid for itself long ago.

I’m one of those weird people who loves to cook on vacation. We do all breakfasts, most snacks and at least one meal a day in the villa. I even bake. The restaurants we like tend to be the less pricey ones. So food costs are not so bad. We don’t drink.

The extras don’t hold a lot of appeal. I look at dessert parties and Early Morning Magic and am tempted, but just won’t spend the money for five. Same with the parties.

I find we can do Disney quite affordable still. We actually cancelled a trip to Quebec City in October because I could do Disney so much cheaper. That’s even without dvc this time because we are staying at the cabins at FW. A dvc rental covers that in full.
 
The resort prices are a bit out of control right now but when we have a slight recession (and we are due based on the length of the current economic growth) it will correct as it always has. Disney likes to push the envelope then correct when the economy limits travel.

We are staying in a family suite this trip for the convenience but if we weren't bringing my mom with us we would rent or house offsite. Other than that we may adjust slightly but we still love WDW and pony up the cash for what we want to do.
 
We go 2-3 times a year, normally around 21 nights each year. This year we cut back to a 9 night stay plus 2 separate 5 night stay trips. On our upcoming November trip we are also flying to SAVE money! This sounds so ludicrous to me since we only live about 4 hours away......but, the parking fee for 10 nights this November will run us $250, plus fuel another $50. I was able to find airfare to MCO for $112 RT pp for my son and I, with my 1 year old as a lap child. It seems absurd to fly, but we will save an hour, plus no parking fee.
We are also taking a year off of Universal, and won't go back to universal until November 2019.
 
We have definitely been compromising. As AP holders, we would go monthly for a weekend. This year, we've been twice. We'll go 2 or 3 times before the end of year, so the AP itself will be worthwhile, but aren't spending as much when we are there and are definitely comparing onsite to offsite as far as where we stay. Almost stayed offsite this past weekend, but Expedia had Caribbean all of a sudden pop up for $137/night. We stayed in Caribbean when it first opened and was still under construction. A lot of people don't like it for one reason or another, but we've always had a soft spot for it, love the room theming, and thought it was worth it for that price, even with the current construction. Have handicap placard, so parking fee didn't affect us, but does make me want to stay non-Disney on principal. If it hadn't popped up tho, I was in the middle of booking a non-Disney hotel. I also always bought a Christmas ornament on every trip. That too switched to every other trip when the prices jacked up last year. Ornaments that were $16.95 were all of a sudden $23.95. (But if you buy 3, you can get them for $20/ea .. no thanks, my tree is pretty full anyway). Pretty much all merchandise had their prices jacked up at the same time. We're not talking a dollar or two, but big hikes. Folks that come once a year wouldn't notice, but for those of us that come often ... I know I saw it as yet another money grab and feel more and more nickled and dimed.
 
I was quite shocked at the prices as well. I did it as cheap as I possibly could and it was still about 5 grand for me and my daughter with airfare from Syracuse staying at a value resort for 9 nights, no dining plan. Being Canadian and having to factor in exchange makes it that much worse. By contrast we went to Cuba all inclusive for 1400 total...not Disney but still. I was shocked at the price increases on food, 5.50 for an icecream bar, 3.00 for a bottle of water. Just crazy. They are going to price most middle class travellers out of the market. I also had to not buy universal tickets (170.00 each for 1 day!)
We had 1 sit down table meal...it was breakfast and it cost 80.00 US for 1 adult and 1 child.

This is why I don't do table meals at Disney. DH and I love good food and are willing to pay for it, but Disney "good food" is way overpriced and not nearly as good as "good food" is in the real world. The kids are happier with nuggets and other "kid" food than with most "good" food, so TS is wasted on them anyway. We bring refillable water bottles (and flavor drops) with us, as well as snacks. I'll splurge here and there, but I'm not paying park prices for ordinary snacks.

Universal and Disney are both terribly expensive for just a day or two, but the prices come down considerably (per day) as your length of stay increases. We're doing 5 days at Disney this year, and did 4 at Universal last year (purchased with the promotional 4 day park tickets for the price of 2). I will likely continue to choose one park or the other for the foreseeable future because hopping between Disney and Universal is crazy expensive.

DH has been wanting to go to Cuba for soooooo long. It's totally a bucket list trip for him. However, as we're in the US, not Canada, travel there is a bit more complicated by our government's regulations. That's one area where you Canadians have a big advantage.
 
I ended our 20+ year tradition of staying onsite the moment they added parking fees for those roadside asphalt value hotel parking lots. Ridiculous. It's not an affordability issue - it's the principle. If they didn't raise the room rates or if they could guarantee an upgraded room for the price, fine. But neither is true. And both together was my last straw. We still go, but won't stay onsite anymore.
 
LOTS of compromising here, on the verge of being priced out. I'm a Floridian living about 100 miles from WDW, so no real travel expenses or I'd never be able to go to WDW. Still, WDW's price increases across the board have outpaced my income growth by a lot, so things have had to give. 95% of my overnight stays the past few years have been offsite; all will be going forward, now that WDW charges for resort parking. Reduction in number of TS meals per year. Very few merchandise purchases. Far fewer trips/day visits per year, and we probably won't do our usual long visit next summer. I used to be able to float both WDW and Uni APs each year, but had to let go of Uni last year in order to afford WDW - now we're talking about ditching the WDW APs and going with Uni instead, or at least backing down to Silver APS for WDW, instead of Gold. For now, I can still afford to do something, but I'm not sure how many more years I'll be able to.
 
This is why I don't do table meals at Disney. DH and I love good food and are willing to pay for it, but Disney "good food" is way overpriced and not nearly as good as "good food" is in the real world. The kids are happier with nuggets and other "kid" food than with most "good" food, so TS is wasted on them anyway. We bring refillable water bottles (and flavor drops) with us, as well as snacks. I'll splurge here and there, but I'm not paying park prices for ordinary snacks.

Universal and Disney are both terribly expensive for just a day or two, but the prices come down considerably (per day) as your length of stay increases. We're doing 5 days at Disney this year, and did 4 at Universal last year (purchased with the promotional 4 day park tickets for the price of 2). I will likely continue to choose one park or the other for the foreseeable future because hopping between Disney and Universal is crazy expensive.

DH has been wanting to go to Cuba for soooooo long. It's totally a bucket list trip for him. However, as we're in the US, not Canada, travel there is a bit more complicated by our government's regulations. That's one area where you Canadians have a big advantage.

Cuba is a beautiful place amd so safe. And us Canadians get amazing, you can often for $500-$600 cdn all inclusive. But I like disney when travelling with my daughter its just so fun for kids. The prices though...wow. I paid $200 US for a value resort over christmas which is like $250 cdn...I paid less than that in July in TO for the fanciest 5 star hotel downtown TO. And the table service restaurants! Holy crap how does anyone afford to eat in those...esp with a bigger family. I almost fell off my chair when my bill came and it was 80.00! For scrambled eggs and sausages!!
 
Our first trip 2 years ago was all compromises. Drive to FL, Off site condo, Only 1 meal and 1 snack per day (and all QS), the rest we ate at the condo. Even then it was $3500 for 6 days. (Family of 6) Staying onsite would DOUBLE the cost for us, never mind flying in. For the same price we are doing a week at Discovery Cove, Sea World, Busch Gardens and Aquatica, AND universal annual passes. (doesn't include food/hotel for future trips to use said passes, but still). While we LOVED Disney, and cherish those memories, it will continue to be a once in 4-5 year trip for us, and unlikely we ever stay onsite.
 

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