That's awesome! My brother took his family (wife & four kids) last year. They drove to LA, stayed in a mid-rate hotel and went to the parks for three days and I think he said it was about $3500.
Since this was a once and a life time trip, we got the lightening lane passes for Disneyland, and the fancy tour package at Universal Studio's. Since our dollar cost us 50% more, that is where the biggest kick in the nuts came from. Below is the cost in Can dollars, for a family of 4 for a week. We ubered to a target near us and bought bottled water and snacks, so it would drastically cut down on food costs. 4k - plane tickets 2k - hotel - cheapest hotel by about 50%, it was old with no kitchenet, but was super clean 6k - tickets 2k for universal, 4k for disneyland 1.5k - shuttle service airport-hotel both ways, and hotel-universal both ways. Same price as ubers/lyfts, but i had it booked/guaranteed. And this way i didn't have to rent and drive in LA traffic. Plus what ever else we spent money on, gifts, food, good seating for the light shows. So 15-20k by the time we were done. I am not adding up what ever we spent down there, don't want to know.
Bro, the Pacific Surfliner is $16 from LA to Anaheim, and it's also booked/guaranteed and skips LA traffic.
That's more than our trip to Hawaii for two weeks or our 16 day trip to England/Scotland/Ireland. I know which one I'd rather do lol Ironically, even with the ridiculous prices, Disney still missed their last earnings report.
Well, after reading all you Idiot's Disney experiences, I'm feeling really good about the budget. I talked with Grandma some more. She's officially offering to cover hotel with kitchenette and tickets. And that special activity. I was fully expecting to just pay a discounted ticket rate but that subtotal just plummeted to $0. In general my philosophy is to save as much I can on the big stuff so I can just swallow the incidental costs without a problem. Things like paid parking, tolls, eating out where we want, buying random keepsakes at the zoo gift shop etc.
Of course I'm not saying budgets don't matter, but years later you're going to remember experience with the little one. Not the X dollars spent.
Taking it way back with little GTE, his brother and Dad. I don't know the exact year but thinking '79/80. Also, 100% chance there is booze in my dad's cup.
I've noticed most people with that philosophy have either always had a lot of disposable income or credit card debt. Which are you? I'll remember this trip fondly and not cringe over the financial hit the whole family took to fulfill a wish. We replaced our HVAC system yesterday. Over 10k down the hatch. I'm buying a used car. 22k. We are living within our means. Financial security is peace.
250usd each way. Then you got the 50% on top. LAX-hotel, hotel-LAX, hotel-universal, universal-hotel. Same price as an uber. My parents came with us(my mom drives me nuts, but they are old and my daughter(11) doesn't like crowds so when my parents went back to their hotel room, they took my daughter), so we needed a 6 person with 6 full size luggage, vehicle. I didn't know about amtrac right at the air port, but it runs every hour, so if you missed your train, you would have to wait for a hour, plus walk all the way through the airport to where ever it is. Plus an uber from the station to the hotel. Amrack would of saved about 125usd each way to the air port. It was sure nice to walk out the the luggage pickup right to the vehicle.
Don’t get me wrong, not saying you got hosed or something… it’s just shocking to see that amount of a line item just for ground transportation.
Oooooweeeeeee I'm texting with the dealership and I can tell my adrenaline is pumping. My hands are shaking. I think I wanna fight a little bit.
What works for me is if you go rub one out so you can negotiate with that post-nut clarity. I've learned to do that at home now.
We have a little more disposable income now, but my partner and I traveled a lot even when we were pretty broke. Just prioritized things that were important to us - we had cheap cars, we didn't eat out a lot, etc. But we splurged on the private hiking guide for our hiking trip to Peru. I hate how buying a car feels like a fight where the dealer is trying to screw you to the maximum extent possible. I almost walked out in the middle of the sale on my last car because the dickhead had the temerity to look me in the eye and say he was going to take my offer to his manager, but once he did that I couldn't back out. I laughed out loud and told him I could and would happily back out at any point, for any reason, right up until I actually signed the documents, and he could find some other fool to fake pressure.
Isn't that the best part? It's like Westworld: they're not human, so you treat them as poorly as you like.
Jesus Christ, he isn’t being nice to those parasites, is he? You could kill a car salesman with salt.
The negotiations or the nut rubbing? With Zoom/Teams, etc, the location you do either is available for both