The Opportunity Cost of a Disney Vacation

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May 25, 2017
Hello All!
I heard a really great interview with an economist about smart spending on the radio (NPR's 1A) and the economist mentioned that you should always think about your purchases in terms of opportunity cost.

My Question: As a Disney World Fan, what sorts of things do you "give up" or "do without" in order to visit Walt Disney World?

Please be kind and honest with your comments!
 
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To answer my own question: We often give up eating out at nicer restaurants and we forgo other types of vacations that we enjoyed before having kids. My wife and I used to be avid multi-day backpackers, but that just isn't possible with small children. We live in SC, so we always drive to Florida instead of Flying. This makes the price of WDW comparable to a backpacking trip that requires a flight and shuttle transportation to a trailhead in California or Colorado, not to mention all of the expensive equipment.

We drive and buy used cars, and have decided to not replace my 20 year old Toyota until it can no longer fit our 2 small children and/or it has a major expensive repair (Luckily I live only about 8 minutes of residential neighborhood driving away from work)

Lastly, we try to be sale hounds at the grocery store, Unless I am buying essentials like eggs or milk, I buy what's on sale and can be stretched into multiple meals, we always hit the day old bread section and see which type of protein is on sale that week. We definitely have given up most date nights in favor of cheaper home cooked meals or takeout with the kids.
 
Hello All!
I heard a really great interview with an economist about smart spending on the radio (NPR's 1A) and the economist mentioned that you should always think about your purchases in terms of opportunity cost.

My Question: As a Disney World Fan, what sorts of things do you "give up" or "do without" in order to visit Walt Disney World?

I live a frugal life in general, a trait I inherited from my parents. There is nothing I give up in order to visit Disney World (or any other travel we take, which is much more extensive than Disney World). If I felt we were giving things up, we wouldn't go!

For example, I have always been a very low maintenance woman. I don't color my hair, wear makeup, do my nails, or pay attention to fashion/spend much on clothes. I have always been this way, it's not to save money for a trip, it's because I don't care about those things, but all that stuff does cost money.
 
I would say that we are giving up nothing for our Disney trips.
We get 26 pays a year, our budget is based on 24. That allows 2 trips out of regular paychecks.
Other money is earned through rewards programs, coupons, etc.
We do very little alcohol, next to no gambling, no smoking, and very few movies, etc.

If we diverted the Disney trip money, we would likely replace a vehicle a bit faster. Our 2010 Mazda is not holding up well at all. Our 2008 Camry and 2010 Tacoma are light years ahead in quality, the Mazda will be the first to be replaced.
 


I would say that we are giving up nothing for our Disney trips.
We get 26 pays a year, our budget is based on 24. That allows 2 trips out of regular paychecks.
Other money is earned through rewards programs, coupons, etc.
We do very little alcohol, next to no gambling, no smoking, and very few movies, etc.

If we diverted the Disney trip money, we would likely replace a vehicle a bit faster. Our 2010 Mazda is not holding up well at all. Our 2008 Camry and 2010 Tacoma are light years ahead in quality, the Mazda will be the first to be replaced.
Off topic but I had a 2003 Mazda that was nothing but trouble. The transmission finally went out in 2012 at about 115k miles and I decided to put no more money into it.
 
I don't give up anything now but way back when my son was young and I was a single mother making ends meet on a secretary's salary, we would only go every other year so I could save for 2 years. We rarely ate out and when we did we usually shared a happy meal. We did take a long weekend vacation on the non-disney year, usually to the beach since it wasn't that expensive and only about a 5 hour drive from home. When we went to movies we went to the afternoon ones and never bought candy or popcorn there. Our big deal was to go to the park on Sunday because the Medieval Society practiced their sword fighting in full armour and my son loved to watch it. We would pack a lunch and watch that and he would play then we would stop at Baskin Robbins on the way home and share an ice cream. My mom made all my clothes back then and I usually bought my son's at J.C. Penney because they held up pretty well. Now, we don't go unless I have cash enough to pay for it. I'm debt free but am going to one day a week work next year so I imagine we will switch from deluxe resorts to moderate or split stays value/moderate but that is all.
 
I wouldn't say we give up anything but rather we stick to a budget. Not just Disney but any vacation we take has to come out of a preset budget. We are already saving for our first family trip to WDW and we aren't planning to go until 2021! We will do other trips before that but they will be smaller because of the kind of trip I want to take to WDW. The amount we are setting aside monthly though is pretty small to save in the meantime.
 


Thanks to all respondents so far... I would like to clarify that "opportunity cost" can apply to things that you wouldn't buy or spend money on even if you weren't saving money for Disney World. (Perhaps this was a hole in this particular economists philosophy) For instance another example for myself would be cable television (I have no interest in 300 channels that I would never watch plus commercials) but that is still something that I am giving up in favor of WDW as a form of opportunity cost.
 
It's not that we cut stuff out it's that I quit doing stuff and now we have more money. I quit drinking alcohol 10 years ago and the amount of money spent on alcohol the previous 10 years that I saved in the last 10 definitely helped pay to go to Disney from Canada 4 times now. We also do flights and rental cars on CC points and take advantage of the free DDP. I guess I buy less shoes then I used to, I love nikes but now buy them when I'm in Orlando at Nike outlet store for $15 instead of $150, sure it's a limited selection but I always find something I like. I also am more frugal with my cloths, I have 10 pairs of the same urban star jeans from Costco, $18 each, that I wear on a daily basis.
 
Funny enough, I did the reverse...post-2012, giving up Disney was my opportunity cost for having the ability to take weeklong+ trips to all new sites and experiences:)...I have 1 day tickets sitting for a 2019 return, but for 2017, I gave up 7 days in Disney for a 6 day Pigeon Forge, TN trip (including dinner shows and a waterpark hotel) and a 7 night Bahamaian cruise (with tours in each stop). In 2018, I gave up 7 days in Disney for a 10 day trip to Niagara Falls (Canada), Pittsburgh PA, and Columbus OH (for the Origins Game Convention) and a 7 night cruise to Bermuda and Boston. In 2019, I'll be giving those types of trips up to return to FL:)...
 
I give up nights out, meals out. But I'd gove up almost all luxuries for Disney!
 
I don't particularly give things up - we have always lived frugally so that we can spend in other areas. But the things I'm frugal about aren't things that I wish I had or anything. We don't have cable, I don't really care at all. We drive older used vehicles, I don't care because I prefer no car payments so I can use that money for fun stuff. I don't wear makeup on a regular basis or have my hair cut on a schedule or get manicures... don't care for any of that either. I ocassionally enjoy buying a coffee out as a treat but don't need to do so regularly. We have 3 children and at this point in our lives frugality is an absolute must... so it's good that we were this way before kids too I think. In a few more years I'll be able to work more hours in a week but for now I still feel comfortable.

We don't have a ton of discretionary income so when we want to save up for something, I try to just make extra cash instead of taking something away. We are on our 4th (And may be final) home and all have been extensively renovated by us... We do almost everything ourselves including electric and plumbing so we save a lot of labor costs.

Next year we are hoping to build a deck and in 2019 a family Disney trip. To make funds for this I sell on eBay, and get cash from things like Ibotta and ebates. I also try to pick up an additional freelance project here and there. We also spend smart... We charge everything, never carry a balance and play the "which card has the best rewards this month" game... rack up airline points to pay for flights, etc.
 
Opportunity cost means things you don't get because you travel to Disney. As the saying goes, you can have anything but you can't have everything.

We live in New York so we fly. I use my Jetblue credit card like a madwoman to build up for free flights. That means I don't utilize other rewards programs, like cash back or a Hilton card for free nights in a hotel. The amount I have spent so far on trips makes me weak in the knees when I think about how much larger our retirement stash would be if we had never gone to Walt Disney World. However, I drive an old rusty car because it makes me happy and wear suits I buy with coupons and kohl's cash...

In other words, I've traded more money for the future and perhaps retiring at 55 (I hope to go at 57 anyway) for priceless memories with the most important people in my life. This is a trade I would do again in a heartbeat.

Now, if I could just find a way to justify the opportunity cost of a DVC purchase...
 
We haven't given up things for Disney, but we have had to give up things just to survive. In 2013, for the first time in my then 20 year career, I had to take a 15% pay cut instead of seeing my salary go up. It hurt. So we had to give things up. In 2016, I took another pay cut to change jobs, so more stuff had to be given up. Doing without and buying on sale or clearance has become a way of life for us.

For Disney, the only way we can go is to get creative. My father-in-law books a condo for us with his points, or we get a discounted condo through my employer for $349 a week. We open up credit cards to get 50,000 reward points or gift cards. I had to travel for work a good bit this year, so I accumulated enough points to stay two free nights at a hotel on the way down to WDW and back.
 
We don't give up anything specifically for Disney but we do prioritize travel over things like having more expensive cars, a bigger house, or hiring a cleaning service. That prioritization allows us to take 3 or 4 trips a year and almost every year that includes a Disney trip. Sometimes specifically Disney and sometimes a trip to Florida that includes Disney.
 
We cut the cord on our satellite 7.5 years ago--- not necessarily for WDW trip, but to save that $100/month in general because we weren't home to watch it much and we didn't have time to watch what we had dvr'd. And I can go weeks without turning the tv on at all (DH not so much). We also dropped our home phone and changed internet providers (we had internet through local phone company but they required you to have phone service too- couldn't just purchase internet even thought it wasn't through the phone itself.) That drop/switch saved us another $50/month at the time (now it is more like $22, as prices have gone up since). I usually forego birthday presents for myself (I mean, DH wouldn't buy me anything anyway--I have to do it myself) because I know I can wrangle a disney trip out of him somewhere and use "I didn't get a birthday present" as part of my argument lol.
 
As the saying goes, you can have anything but you can't have everything.
this. Not just for disney but for general travel..... I LOVE traveling, and I make it my 'job' to figure out how to travel without taking a huge bite out of our budget. (cc bonuses,learning how to get the max discount for whatever we choose) That means frugality in general anyway,and sometimes it applies to saving for a disney trip. We buy most things 2nd hand,or we buy something new of high quality that won't need replacing,and holds it value to us. We fix what breaks if we can before tossing and buying a new thing. I think it's balance between every day enjoyment,and saving for bigger things like trips. We have an antenna for tv, plus a tivo box I bought off Ebay years ago that works great- internet service, cellphones (prepaid so it's cheaper) we've bought one new car in 25+ years of marriage,and we drive our cars until they don't go anymore...(why wouldn't we? it makes sense to do so) so IMHO not giving anything up really,just maximizing a set budget to get what we want out of recreation opportunities.
 
To add to what the PP says--you always find the money for what's important to you. Think about how many people are dead broke, but still manage to scrounge up enough money for beer or cigarettes. Growing up, we were really poor...but there was always money for books. Along those lines, people here tend to put a high priority on a Disney vacation, so they find a way to go. It might mean cutting back on other vacation destinations, or eating out less, or buying secondhand clothing. But, it's a priority, so they make it work.
 
I have an engagement ring that contains a diamond that has been through a divorce and a failed engagement (I insisted on using it because I'm cheap and who's to say any diamond you buy hasn't had the same history). I used my grandmother's anniversary ring for a wedding band. We had a low cost wedding. All of this was so that our honeymoon could be two weeks long, one of which was in Disney.
We have been married 8 years and have gone to Disney every year, at least once per year. We don't buy our kids (or each other) pricey gifts for Christmas or Birthdays. We don't have cable. We don't eat out very often. I don't get mani/pedis nearly as often as I would like to (maybe twice per year). I wait for my sister or mom to get embarrassed of my wardrobe and give me their used clothes.
 
  • Expensive car
  • A new wardrobe each year
  • Birthday & Christmas gifts for my son that aren't trips (he couldn't care less as traveling is his favorite activity)
  • Renovating ___________ (fill in the blank with anything)
  • Many more things that I'd never consider. I'm not into shopping.
 

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