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Post Disney Vacation Update

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I’m back! And I’m feeling awesomely relaxed and ready the talk about my trip:

We left for Disney (via car- we decided to drive, as GF has an airplane phobia) on Thursday July 9th @ 8PM. The weekend prior, GF had stocked up on a ton of snacks, fruits, veggies and deli meat to make subs. We grabbed a large cooler from GF’s mom and filled it with pasta salad, fruit salad, subs (1 each for both of us for breakfast) a pack of bottled water, some fruit flavored waters and apple sauce. We filled the backseat of our car with our bags and all the other snacks.

A couple weeks before we left, GF and I came to a pretty reasonable deal- for the actual drives, she would pay for whatever food we needed (at the time, I figured this would be gas station fare) and I would pay for all the gas. I have to give it to GF, she saved a TON of money couponing, finding deals, and putting together the food for the cooler. As for the gas, there was really nothing I could do. The costs for gas on the way down came to $172.12. The costs for the drive up haven’t come in yet (why to gas stations take forever to debit your account?), but I’m assuming they’ll be roughly the same as the drive down. And then once we were in the parks, we’d (roughly) split costs as we’d go.

I would be lying if I said the ride down wasn’t tough (the ride up was even tougher), but having the food packed and ready to go made it a whole lot easier. The fruit salad didn’t last long (we ate it within a couple hours of leaving), followed by the pasta salad. Unfortunately, when it came time for breakfast, the ice in the cooler had melted and completely water logged our subs (which we wrapped in Saran wrap, not thinking about the ice water), so we stopped into McDonald’s to hold us over until we got to Orlando, which was at 1PM the next day.

I want to talk a lot about costs while we were there since they’re so intimately tied to everything we did. The biggest costs in any vacation were already covered for us:

  • My parents are in the Disney Vacation Club, so the room was covered in their membership
  • The Disney Dining Plan (their form of a meal plan, which covered 1 snack, 1 counter service meal and 1 table service meal each day of your trip) and the Disney Park tickets were covered by my parents. This is something that has eaten way at me since they told me they would pay for it. Originally, I wasn’t going to go on vacation with the family, as I wanted to be “a grown up” and pay my own way if I could, but of course, with the debt payoff plan, I couldn’t afford it and wasn’t going to burden my parents with having to pay our way. They convinced to come by saying they would handle the big expenses in order to have the family together and be able to celebrate my new nephew and their 1st grandchild together. Do I regret saying yes to going? Kind of (for not paying for it myself), but not really. We (and the family) had a fantastic time and I know my parents don’t begrudge me for paying for us, plus I know I’ll be able to get them back one of these days.

We probably could have got by with not paying anything else, but that wasn’t the point of my month off and going on vacation- I ended up spending $358.82 and GF spent $125.00. (Note- GF actually spent about the same as me but for a good part of our time in Disney, I only brought my wallet with me so she wouldn’t have to carry hers. Hence, a number of her purchases went onto my debit card and she gave me the $125.00 for the purchases she made on it). This is actually a whole lot less than I thought I would spend. Here’s the breakdown of how we spent the money:

  • $91.13 was spent on food outside of the dining plan. This included a lunch I got for GF and I in  Orlando prior to getting to the resort. For those of you who never tried- I’m enamored with Sweet Tomatoes, which is a salad buffet/vegetarian chain. GF loves salads, so I wanted to take her here since we don’t have any within 1,000 miles of here.
  • $123.47 was spent on booze- either for myself, GF, someone in the group, or the group as a whole.
  • $148.64 was spent on gifts for people other than us
  • $120.58 was spent on souvenirs for ourselves. What this consisted of was a Terror of Tower themed Clue game (we love board games, especially on weekend nights), a hanging 3-tiered picture frame and some glassware and coffee mugs (I like to collect coffee mugs).

The vacation was amazing and was worth every penny, especially to see family I haven’t seen in some time. It made me contemplate the potential of buying into the DVC, myself, when the time comes (many years down the road).

As for the drive up- it was long and tiring. We left the resort around noon on Thursday July 16th and didn’t get into Erie until 1 PM the following day. I have to be honest- I didn’t take anyone’s advice for the drive back. 1) We didn’t stop at a supermarket to get any food for our cooler 2) We didn’t stop over night at a hotel. Looking back, it was pretty dumb not to do these things, but we really wanted to have dinner in Savannah, GA to get a look at the city and I didn’t want to spend the money on a hotel, when I could sleep in my own bed if we pushed through the night. We ended up sleeping in my car for 3 hours around midnight to get some rest, which may have only made us feel worse. If and when we make this trip again, I’ll definitely have these mistakes in the back of my mind.

If anyone wants more specifics on our trip- where and what parks went to, how we battled the heat, how we tackled the large crowds, etc… feel free to ask me in the comments!


17 Comments

  • Reply Karen |

    Matt, your trips sounds super fun!

    I was recently in Savannah [last month] and if you are ever in Savannah again I highly suggest the 17hundred90 hotel.

    The BF and I did a road trip from Maryland [DC area] to Florida [Tampa area] and Savannah was the one place the BF and I wanted to spend the most time in. So worth it! The hotel rate we were charged the first night was $119 [online they advertise $149 which we were OK with] and you are in historic downtown Savannah.

    We were in a guest house not the main building but had parking, a bedroom suite [no one else was booked in the other bedroom so we had the entire house to ourselves], two drink vouchers for their bar and a continental breakfast the next morning.

    If you are curious I have photos on my blog from our trip or just google their name.

    Sounds like you were really pretty careful with your money while there!

    • Reply Matt |

      That’s a pretty awesome looking place. I have a feeling me and gF will back to Savannah, maybe not anytime soon, of course, but this is a hotel we’ll have to check out. Thanks for the advice!

      And actually, I don’t think I was too careful with my money. It looks like we didn’t spend too much when you look at the big picture, but I felt pretty free with it while we were there. We certainly could have spent more, but to be honest, there’s not a whole lot of things that interested us enough to buy.

  • Reply Juju |

    The money you spent sounds very reasonable for an epic trip that you all will remember for years to come. I’m sure your parents were more excited that you came than the money that they spent on it. Again, one day maybe you will all have another vacation and you can pay for their portion. It sounds like you need a vacation from the vacation!

    • Reply Matt |

      Thanks Juju- that’s the plan. I’m hoping that in just a couple more years I’ll be in a place to send them on vacation!

  • Reply Cheryl |

    To be young and sleep in a car, I would have needed the jaws of life to get me out. That was very nice of your parents to pay. Doesn’t seem like a lot of money spend for a Disney vacation even though you didn’t need to pay for the room or most of the food. You really are focused on paying off your debt, I give you lots of credit. Cheryl

    • Reply Matt |

      Thanks Cheryl. I agree- it was amazing of them to pay for us. I’m really blessed to have them as parents. I may not be that focused to pay off my debt this month (since I’m taking the month off) but I’m really looking forward to August when I plan to hit the ground running again.

  • Reply Walnut |

    I bet sending a heart felt thank you to your parents and hosting them for a backyard bbq again this summer would mean more than you trying to reimburse them for the costs. The best gift is always time.

    • Reply Matt |

      Agreed! Thanks, Walnut. We’re actually planning on doing this, this very weekend 🙂

  • Reply Nan |

    i love Disney and as a Florida resident have been numerous times. Did I miss the price of your tickets in your blog? How many days were you there? We like to stay on grounds when we can but it is not cheap. My Dd finds bargains but we have never got away with less than $100 a night with taxes but we still love the place. Of course, no souvenirs for us.

  • Reply Nan |

    Oh I just saw it- they paid for the room and tickets! LUCKY! One year I did splurge and buy my DD and grandsons seasonal passes! My soninlaw doesn’t care for crowds and Disney- he went once!

  • Reply Kathy |

    Love Sweet Tomatoes!!! Wish they had them where Im at. My mom in law is in Fort Meyers and thats the hotspot for the early bird special. Great food!

  • Reply Den |

    Sounds like an awesome trip! I second the idea of sending your folks a nice thank you letter. I bet they had a blast with all their kids there.

    We used to power through our trips and drive straight thru to get home earlier and skip hotel charges, but then as we aged we realized that the drive itself was part of the fun…..so now we budget for reasonable hotel stays and try and find a fun thing to visit (or a neat restaurant) in the area. It’s nice to have something interesting to look forward to on the way home. Sounds like you guys may re-work that part of your trip before your next long drive. Live and learn:)

    Great job on finances too! I usually feel that as long as I plan on spending the money on extra food and souvenirs I think it’s ok and worth it – fun mementos and memories of a great time!

    Thanks for sharing the details!

    • Reply Matt |

      Yep that’s exactly it! We (and by we, I mean me) wanted to just get it over with so we could get home faster. Next time, we are definitely going to enjoy both the ride down AND the ride back up.

      And thanks for the shout out on the finances- now that we’ve been home for a week and we’ve used all of the souvenirs we bought- they were absolutely worth it! Especially the Disney Clue game- so fun!

  • Reply CanadianKate |

    As a parent who does buy our kids vacations with us, here’s my thinking:

    1. I have money but that doesn’t give me happiness unless I spend it on things that do make me happy, like experiences with my kids. We don’t buy stuff, we buy experiences.

    2. The biggest gift anyone can give anyone else is the gift of time and attention. So by accepting your parents’ offer of the trip, you gave them a gift.

    3. There’s a huge difference between expecting a vacation and accepting a vacation.

    Now, if your parents were in the same debt situation as you are (and many couples in their 50s and 60s are), then perhaps you going along with this extravagance is enabling them. But if they can afford it, let them spend their money as they wish, even if you benefit from it.

    • Reply Jean |

      Kate, this is a great perspective! As I have gotten older, all my parents want is time with family as well – although typically it’s now the kids (my siblings & I) that foot the bill, since my dad is retired and has had some health issues. My other thought was that Matt could think of it as getting his inheritance early. 🙂

      • Reply Matt |

        HAHAHA- I like that thought Jean- “getting my inheritance early”. Very nice.

    • Reply Matt |

      Thank, Kate- you’re thinking has made me feel much better about the situation 🙂

So, what do you think ?