$200,000 a year spent at Disney?

Jeff:

I don't really visit many parks anymore, or at least, it's not the focus of my travel.

This is the camp I am in. I still travel a lot, just not specifically for parks. When I do travel though, I like to be comfortable and will typically spend more on any kind of up charge experience. But I also love the game of finding a good deal on a nice experience, hotel room, flight, etc. I just got back from Vegas for a convention and my suite at the MGM was $55 a night.

SteveWoA:

And you spent so much of that time on a boat. Seems so expensive for not really seeing much of where you went.

Different strokes and all that, I get it... But I also cant fathom when it comes to how much that cost for what it is.

I read this first while sitting downstairs in my kitchen, and then I read it again after coming upstairs at the end of the evening. This has allowed me to conclude that you are wrong on multiple levels.

I’m at the point in life where I enjoy certain luxuries on vacations, I use loyalty points to lower my costs but I no longer am exclusively focused on cost. So long as I can afford it, and it seems worth it, I’ll spend it. Travel is a large component of my yearly spend, I am happily (and ever increasing) my retirement savings and I cut back on other aspects to fund the travel.

Just going off on a tangent, because this thread for some reason suddenly has me thinking about all the family vacations we have taken over the years, and we are down to our last two family vacations before the oldest is 18 and, while certainly not the last family vacations, the last with both girls in the house full-time.

One thing we quickly learned about our kids, at least, is that the more elaborate we got, the more they kept reminding us that it's the simpler things.

Easiest example;

About 8 years ago we took out first trip to Sandbridge, VA. If you don't know, that's a hip little beach-town about 6 miles south of Virginia Beach, which gives you the same ocean and sand without the chaos. The vacation was packaged with trips to both Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion; at least in the adult itinerary. Now, there is no question that we all had a blast at those parks; that is undeniably true. But do you know where our girls had their best time? The beach (which is free) at Sandbridge. It's all they wanted to do. It became a running joke that no matter where we went (including Disney), it was always the simple things like a hotel pool or a beach or a nature center close by that really peaked our kids' interests.

I don't know what we're doing this year (which is a question in a different thread), but I'm giving it a lot of thought.

SteveWoA:

And you spent so much of that time on a boat. Seems so expensive for not really seeing much of where you went.

As sirloindude already pointed out, you are completely wrong. I got to sample five countries mostly separated by water. I never had to change hotels. I did not have to spend precious hours during the day flying because I moved while I was sleeping. My room was made perfect twice a day.

I also didn't have to worry about what my autistic kid would eat because I always knew that he'd have access to his favorites onboard. And on at-sea days, he could roam about the ship and I knew the youth counselors were looking out for him while we were taking a mixology class or eating a 5-star meal.

Lord Gonchar:
Sure, as a flat number, $200k is silly. But as far as it hits his personal finances...meh.

One might even think that for an $18k trip over two weeks, at a certain income level. Enjoy this photo of Ålesund, anyway.

Bakeman31092:

The Mouse will get your money one way or another, and you're powerless to stop it.

Do yall have Hulu or one of those other Disney services? Or maybe a sports thing? A Blu-ray? Then Mickey is laughing with your cash in his fist.

You both make it sound as if I’m naively unaware that some products and services we use are owned by Disney, and that there’s some nefarious deceit happening on their part to separate me from my money. Or that I don’t like Disney or something. I just simply made an observation that I spent $200,000 less at Disney theme parks in my lifetime than a super rich mediocre game show host spends there per year.

Vacations are one of the few places where it is very easy to choose a price and more or less hit it. We've taken some very expensive vacations. I've also taken some very cheap ones, including an August week spent hiking in RMNP where my condo in Granby was about $50/night, though it was in a very "colorful" "resort" that had a few people sleeping in camper vans in the parking lot, plus an on-site barber-slash-tattoo artist.

He was a really good barber but I can't vouch for the ink.

Jeff:

As sirloindude already pointed out, you are completely wrong. I got to sample five countries mostly separated by water. I never had to change hotels. I did not have to spend precious hours during the day flying because I moved while I was sleeping. My room was made perfect twice a day.

So you wasted days worth of time inside the ship seeing nothing new, instead. Some of the best experiences are those traveling to/from cities, driving through countryside and seeing cities that are not tourist-hubs. You don't have to fly anywhere... Trains, cars and even just public transport are enough, but anyway... I get you will forever justify your love for DCL and all that, but your argument in not 'wasting precious hours' traveling is funny when you literally spent most of your entire trip traveling between places. That is wasted precious hours.

Well I sure hope if your throwing them that kind of the money the least they can do is clean your room twice a day. As if cruises are not wasteful and terrible for the environment enough.

Jeff:
I also didn't have to worry about what my autistic kid would eat because I always knew that he'd have access to his favorites onboard. And on at-sea days, he could roam about the ship and I knew the youth counselors were looking out for him while we were taking a mixology class or eating a 5-star meal.

But you have done that same exact thing out of Florida... How many times now? It just seems to spend that money going that far to do the same thing you have done dozens of times now, just in a different body of water, on the same boat doing the same experiences. And there are plenty of amazing restaurants, not on a Disney boat, for your kid to eat things he would like.

Jeff:
One might even think that for an $18k trip over two weeks, at a certain income level. Enjoy this photo of Ålesund, anyway.

SteveWoA:

Different strokes and all that, I get it

I'm not sure you do.

SteveWoA:

So you wasted days worth of time inside the ship seeing nothing new, instead.

You don't know me, and don't know what's valuable to me, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped assuming that you do.

SteveWoA:
And there are plenty of amazing restaurants, not on a Disney boat, for your kid to eat things he would like.

You're entering dangerous ground. You definitely don't know my kid or what it means to be his parent.

Dangerous ground for suggesting there may be restaurants your kid likes on a European trip?

My god Jeff, calm down. No one is questioning if you're a good parent.

My god.

Edit: why is every disagreement some perceived wrong against you? Different opinions aren't an attack on you as a person. It's...a difference of opinion.

Tekwardo:

why is every disagreement some perceived wrong against you?

I think there is some daylight between: "So you wasted..." and "I would not want to spend..." Yes, Steve probably meant the latter. But words matter as well as intent.

And I suspect those of us who have never visited the same amusement park twice might be the first to cast that stone.

It's still an opinion. Regardless, it wasn't some attack on Jeff or his parenting or his kid.

Vater:

You both make it sound as if I’m naively unaware that some products and services we use are owned by Disney, and that there’s some nefarious deceit happening on their part to separate me from my money. Or that I don’t like Disney or something.

I was only trying to make a joke by changing one word in your post ("in" to "on"). I did not mean to imply or suggest anything beyond that.

As much as Vater did that to me in the past...

What has happened to Coasterbuzz LOLOLOL

What?

Bakeman31092:

I was only trying to make a joke by changing one word in your post ("in" to "on").

My bad. I read the bit TheMillenniumRider quoted, which was out of context.

Tekwardo:

My god Jeff, calm down.

You, of all people, can't be serious.

Nobody tells me what my kid can or can't do. That's deeply personal. It's not OK to go there. And you could have asked why it's personal, but you chose to tell me I should calm down.

This thread has it all. The guy who says "I get different strokes" and proceeds to say what's wrong with those strokes and the guy who only posts here to argue with Jeff.