Ever feel like you can not afford WDW vacations anymore?

pooh2001

been there, done that, TRYING to go back
Joined
Feb 16, 2000
We are approaching retirement age.
We still have a mortgage on our house, so in a few years, maybe downsize and use
the equity in the house to buy a smaller place to live and afford on a limited income.

With the increase tickets and room prices at WDW, we may not be able to afford WDW anymore :sad:

Anyone else thinking they can not afford WDW anymore?
 
Vacations are expensive.
There are so many ways to “do Disney” to keep it budget friendly. You can choose to stay off site, eat at less expensive places, go for fewer days or every 3 years instead of yearly or every 2 years, etc.
For our family, vacation is an important priority so we say no to other things so that it can happen.
You may have to shift around how you do it, but it can be done!
 


In our family Disney has always been an expensive vacation we budgeted and saved for. We went in 2009, 2011, 2016. We also go with a budget and are not Deluxe/dining plan people.
 


My recent trip has me questioning whether I want to afford a Disney trip anymore. Like @RedAngie said upthread, the value isn’t there anymore and I imagine that’s true at all pricepoints of deluxe, mod, and value, so changing the style of our Disney vacations so that they cost less only means we’ll be getting even less for what we do spend. I’ve long said that I wanted to be there in 2021 for the 50th anniversary since I was there for the 25th, and at that point my son will be old enough to remember the trip, so we’ll probably still do that. But it might be an abbreviated version of the type of trip we usually take and beyond that we may not return, whereas I had previously assumed trips to Disney would be something we’d do every few years throughout my son’s childhood.
 
We were last at WDW in 2015. It had always been affordable. But life changes also. I have a freshman in HS and a 5th grader so we can no longer pull them out of school to go in Jan or Feb like we used to. This season was value season so things were cheaper and more affordable. Plane tickets were also about $200 R/T not $400 like they are now. We would so love to get back, but I think we are out priced. Just to get into the parks is my mortgage payment a month. We have the whole world we also want to explore. We were lucky when my girls were younger we had already been there 3 times and took a Disney cruise. So we have amazing memories and are ready to move on.
 
I think Disney is a beautiful place where families can have fun together but we haven’t been in 6 years.

Technically we can still afford it but we have been to so many other places we enjoyed for so much less that the value just isn’t there and I don’t see us returning anytime soon.
 
I only get an annual pass about every 2 or 3 years now. I used to insist on having one all the time but I just don't feel the need to go like I used to. I never stay onsite and I almost never buy food when I go, unless I'm going for something specific. I could afford to continue to make Disney World a vacation priority but I just don't see the value in doing so these days. I'm exploring other areas now and feel like the money spent is a much better value.
 
I'll join the group saying that it isn't so much about "can't afford" as not feeling like it is worth the money any more. Bus service on our last trip was dismal - I'm not kidding to say several of our days were saved by being able to hop in the van and go rather than continue waiting 30-45+ min for a bus - but now they want me to pay to park. Room rates are going up, even though our last stay was in the middle of a construction zone. And crowds in the parks are nuts, partly because of the scaling back of *everything* (ride capacity, open registers, etc) at slower times. So no matter when you go, you're waiting in line after line after line. But the big deterrent really is the cost - we're taking two of our kids to Boston for 4 nights during peak leaf season for less than just DH & I are spending to go to Disney for 3 nights in the slowest of the remaining slow times (late Jan.), and that's despite me being an annual passholder. Disney just doesn't feel like it is worth that much more any longer.

That said, I'm not abandoning Disney parks altogether. I'm letting my AP lapse and we have no plans for WDW after Jan., but next summer should take us out west with a first-time visit to Disneyland and we're planning on going to Japan the following summer with stops at the Tokyo and Hong Kong parks.
 
I think what’s changed for us is that WDW is no longer a place to visit on an annual holiday. It’s a special once a decade thing to go all out on, but not something to repeat. We like to travel and it’s kind of shocking the kinds of exotic trips you can get for the same cost as WDW. I like Disney and DCL, but when I found out we could go on safari in Africa for 2 weeks in 5 star all inclusive safari lodges for the same price as one of the expensive summer DCL cruises I was gobsmacked.
 
I've never been able to afford a Disney vacation, but sometimes I just choose to allocate my money toward a ridiculously expensive vacation because I love Disney and want to share it with my kids while they are young. I mostly do the responsible thing when it comes to money, except when I make decisions with my emotions. I took my kids last March and I have no regrets. The memories we created together will last a lot longer than anything else I would have spent the money on.
 
We still love it, but are holding off on another trip until 2021 because of a family wedding and some other stuff in our usual odd year of going (we've gone regularly on the odd years since 2011). As it is, I plan to start putting money away for it in January, more so I don't have to tighten my belt and stretch my budget rather than a sense of not being able to afford it.
 
For us, it's a matter of location. We do love Disney, but we only go so frequently because we're already visiting family in central Florida. If it weren't for that, we'd probably only go every four or five years, and explore far less expensive places in the other years.
 
I'm in the camp of "not wanting to shell out the money" versus "not affording it". I feel like I can get a better vacation for the same $$ elsewhere...so I do. My youngest is a 12yo boy--while all the kids would be fine in doing a Disney trip, they would pick something different, given the choice. This past summer, we did 12 nights in Europe, with a lot of special add-ons, like several true 5-star dinners and an after-hours tour of the Vatican Museum. After doing that, it's tough to get psyched to pay $100/head (or close to it) to see Mickey at a buffet.

We ARE going to Universal next spring, staying at one of the premium hotels to get Early Access and FOTL passes. Lat time we went there, DS12 was too young for the Harry Potter ride, so he's really looking forward to it.
 

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