Part 1. The Rationale Here’s a little fable about a guy who did not plan much for his vacation. Max made his vacation plans in the happy-go-lucky way that most of us do. He first went to a travel agent and asked for a Disneyworld vacation. The agent showed him all of the options to his selected trip and how Disney makes this vacation easy and “all-inclusive.” After reeling from the sticker shock Max booked his vacation and $6200 dollars later walked out of the travel agent thinking that all his travel and vacation worries were over. Here’s what he bought with his $6200. 1. Air Travel to and from Orlando from San Francisco. 2. Bus travel to and from the airport and Walt Disney World (WDW) 3. Hotel reservations at a moderate resort for 6 nights. 4. 7 days of park tickets. (park hoppers with waterpark options) 5. Standard Disney Dining plan (one table service, one counter service, one snack per person per day and one refillable drink mug per person.) So now he believes he has it all together. All he needs to do now is wait for his date and go on vacation. Disney will do the rest. Well, let me tell you about how Max fared on his worry-free vacation. Max figured that he was pretty much done with vacation planning so when his vacation date came he was packed and ready to go. But as the date neared he realized that his flight was for 6:00 a.m. and he lived 90 miles from the airport. That meant that he would have to wake his family up by 3:00 a.m. to make that flight. The solution: Rent a hotel room near the airport. Off budget cost: $150. Now he parks his car at the airport. That adds $10 per day. The luggage fees at the airport were a shock to Max’s system as well. Since they brought a meager 4 pieces of luggage the transportation costs of them added $200 to Max’s credit cards. Another added expense that Max didn’t count on was food for travelling. He realizes that he’ll spend about $100 in food during their travel days for his family of four. Now, touchdown time in Orlando is nearly 7:00 p.m. and by the time Max and his family arrives at their resort it’s well after 8:00 p.m. and everyone is so tired from their exertions that they do not wish to go to the Amusement parks so late. Max realizes that he not only wasted one day of admissions but it occurs to him that he purchased tickets for their departure day as well. Since departure is at 11:00 a.m. they’ll not be able to use those tickets either. So 2 days of amusement park tickets for 4 people go to waste. The good news, Max finally got a chance to read about his Dining plan. Initially, Max panicked as he thought that he had again bought too many days (he couldn’t of course use the dining plan credits on his travel days) Now he realizes that he has 7 table service credits, 7 counter service credits and 7 snacks per person. Since Max’s family, like most, eats three times a day those extra credits will come in handy. The way it works out, Max will only need to pay out of pocket two meals during their stay at the resort. That worked out to about $100 more dollars that he wasn’t planning to spend on food. The time in the parks were great though. However, weather was pretty hot and humid. Disney had thought of this and added plenty of indoor queues. But, the thing that bugged Max was that he didn’t know to make dining reservations ahead of time. When presenting at the entrances to the restaurants, he was frequently being told that there were no reservations available. Max and his family usually took their dining credits to those restaurants that had room. Unfortunately, those tended to be the establishments that were unpopular due to poor service or poor quality of food. Max began to feel ripped off by the dining plan. He also noticed that each meal included a desert. Like most people, Max and his family, really did not eat a desert at every meal. After a bit of addition he realized that the amount that he would have spent normally would have actually saved him money over the dining plan that was supposed to save him money. During the vacation, Max got into a conversation with another visitor. He learned of all kinds of other experiences that were at the Disney Park that he never had heard of. Luau’s, BBQ’s, Dinner theaters, and character breakfasts. Max was beside himself. How come no one told him of these things!
The same $6000 that he spent went so much farther for this fella who used his dining plan credits to an obvious advantage. Examining his expenses, Max realized that he spent over $600 more than he had budgeted but he had also overspent on park tickets and food. And in the end felt ripped off because his vacation was not really what he thought it would be. Now, I had called this a fable, but time and time again I hear of people’s experiences and they often come home with the same sad story. They overspent and under-enjoyed. I’ve found that there are some very non-vacation related steps that increase your enjoyment of a vacation immensely. Planning, is a step that we often take far too lightly. A day-trip to the mountains can be “winged” a multi-thousand dollar vacation should never be. Know, where you want to go, when you want to go there and what you want to do once there. Some vacations require a little framework while others, like our Disney World Vacation, require a great deal of scheduling to maximize enjoyment. Once you have an idea of what the vacation is all about, you need to build a realistic budget. I wrote Max’s story based upon our first WDW vacation. While that was a great vacation (mainly due to my research) I did crazy overspend on it. Since then I’ve learned what I should splurge on and what I really can do better for myself. But the main point about budgeting is that it is very difficult to enjoy a vacation while concurrently worrying about how you are going to pay for it. I pledged long ago that I would never go on another vacation that I hadn’t paid off before I walked out the door. That pledge has kept me going on great vacations without ending up in the poorhouse. Scheduling you vacation seems like you are taking your work with you. Truthfully, knowing how long you have on vacation and what you will realistically be able to accomplish within that timeframe will help you enjoy without feeling rushed or that you missed too much. It sets expectations right where they need to be. An added benefit of knowing in advance what you are going to do and scheduling it means that you will not be a victim of opportunists. People who are at the last minute looking for something to do will oftentimes overpay for what they find. If you plan ahead (an sometimes pre-pay) for adventures you will find that they are a lot cheaper than what is paid off-the-cuff. In this series I plan on taking you through the planning and execution of one of our typical vacations. I’ll share with you all the steps that I take and why they are important. And since I like to be honest, any pitfalls that I encounter.
Planning Your Vacation For Success Part 2
Planning Your Vacation For Success Part 3
Planning your Vacation For Success Part 4
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