Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Just taking a totally informal and totally unscientific survey amongst LPers. Just wondering how the price of gasoline might or might not impact your summer vacation plans. 1. Would you cancel a planned vacation if gas prices topped $4/gallon? 2. Are gas prices making you rethink planning a vacation at all? 3. Do gas prices affect your choice of vacation destination? 4. Would you cut back on other things in order to still be able to take a vacation? If so, what sort of things would you sacrifice? 5. Do higher gas prices make a Disney vacation a better or worse value? Why?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan AAACK!!! CORRECTION: Question #1 should read: 1. Would you cancel a planned vacation if gas prices topped $5/gallon? (It's already $4/gallon some places, some predictions believe $5 is possible by summer).
Originally Posted By SuzieQ 1. No. The vacation is planned and deposits are made. 2. Yes, it's cheaper to fly several people to Disneyland now than it is to drive. 3. No. 4. Yes. I'd probably cut back on clothing expenses, groceries (less expensive cuts of meat, etc), and/or eating out. 5. Worse, simply because it's more expensive to get there and back.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA 1. Would you cancel a planned vacation if gas prices topped $5/gallon? Probably not. Even with $5 per gallon, I find that there's a huge hassle factor of flying. I just took a trip to SoCal last week, and drove the 275 miles from Merced. To get the best airline deal, I could have driven to Sacramento (90 minute drive), gotten to the airport 90 minutes before my flight, and then arriving in L.A. at about the same time. 2. Are gas prices making you rethink planning a vacation at all? No. We're not big flyers here, so we're always looking for road trips. 3. Do gas prices affect your choice of vacation destination? Not really. See above. 4. Would you cut back on other things in order to still be able to take a vacation? If so, what sort of things would you sacrifice? Going out for fewer meals -- (We like going out for dinner) Cutting back on 'big ticket' purchases -- furniture, home improvements, electronics. Even cutting back on 'shopping' in general (which we also like to do) 5. Do higher gas prices make a Disney vacation a better or worse value? Why? Even with the extra $1.00-2.00 per gallon (compared to your last visit to Disneyland), it's still a good value. You can cut back on your hotel expenses too, as there are so many choices at the DLR.
Originally Posted By christiemarsh88 1. Would you cancel a planned vacation if gas prices topped $5/gallon? Depends on how planned it was. If reservations were already made and deposits made, probably not. 2. Are gas prices making you rethink planning a vacation at all? Definitely. My friends and I considered going to Chicago for spring break, but decided not to because the gas prices were going to push it way over our budget. 3. Do gas prices affect your choice of vacation destination? Yes. Instead of going to Chicago, we're now going to Branson to the outlets, which is about 7 hours closer.
Originally Posted By fkurucz I think that the impact of $5 per gallon gas won't affect vacation plans directly. By that I mean that the driving portion of a total vacation cost is often somewhat low (percentage wise). The effect that I could see is the cummulaive cost of gas over a year. 15,000 miles/20 mpg = 750 gallons. At $5 per gallon thats almost $4000 (versus say $2000 @ 2.50 per gallon). I could see that extra $2000 breaking some people's vacation plans.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Bottom line for me, if an incremental rise in fuel costs made me rethink my vacation plans, I have no business making those vacation plans in the 1st place, I would just delay until I had the money.
Originally Posted By Ursula 1. Would you cancel a planned vacation if gas prices topped $5/gallon? No. For our weekend vacations, we drive. Longer ones, we fly (I hate driving). We might rent a smaller car if a car rental was needed, however. 2. Are gas prices making you rethink planning a vacation at all? None of them! If I don't take regular breaks and vacations, someone will bleed. 3. Do gas prices affect your choice of vacation destination? Not yet. We have set places we like: San Diego, Palm Springs, Vegas. We drive to the first two and fly to the third. I don't drive in Vegas (unsafe for those around me! ) 4. Would you cut back on other things in order to still be able to take a vacation? If so, what sort of things would you sacrifice? Yes, we would. I would stop spending on silly things like huge meals at DL (I go a lot), buy less stuff, maybe buy one less handbag, or cut back on eating out and BBQ instead. One thing I've done is stopped eating lunch out at work. I went from $10 a day to pennies a day eating leftovers or taking soup, etc. 5. Do higher gas prices make a Disney vacation a better or worse value? Why? For us, a Disney vacation is the best value, hands down. We are DINKS, so we travel off-season. Plus we get discounts due to my husband working at Disney. It is much more cost effective for us to go to WDW once a year for 10 days than to travel to any place else we'd like and enjoy for the same time-frame. If we didn't have this wonderful luxury, I would be hitting the last-minute cruise discount websites. I've been watching them and the deals you can get simply blow my mind, like $2,000 off of a 10-day cruise.
Originally Posted By mater4 1. No, I would budget for the possible increase. 2. No, It is still cheap for us to drive. $300 in gas vs $800 to fly. 3. No, we just plan and save ahead of time. 4. Yes, we would cut back on eating out, shopping, and some of our entertainment. 5. Still a good enough value for us. Afterall DL is still cheaper than going to Hawaii or some exotic location for us.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy 1. I wouldn't cancel a vacation just because of gas prices, but with the economy on the ropes and the chance of everything else going up in price I would consider saving money before splurging on a vacation. 2. I'd definitely consider the cost of everything before planning a vacation, gas included. 3. I only vacation about once every 3 years, but I have cut way back on the weekend trips this past year as gas prices went through the roof. I'm sticking close to home. 4. I've already cut back on a lot of things, but mostly just to maintain a savings rate and not to pay for a vacation. I've scaled back on the cable TV I subscribe to, reduced my mobile phone usage, changed my grocery shopping habits to be more frugal, stopped going to the movies, stopped buying clothes as frequently, etc. I also stopped making trips on the weekend this year and am spending more time at home. 5. Higher gas prices are really irrelevant to the value of a Disney vacation in my opinion.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP 1. Would you cancel a planned vacation if gas prices topped $5/gallon?--No 2. Are gas prices making you rethink planning a vacation at all? This isn't how you meant it, but for our summer vacation we are driving to Denver for fun and a family reunion (from So Cal.). The gas prices will influence which car we take. The somewhat cramped gas sipping Metro (30+mpg) or the more comfortable gas slupping Kia (20mpg). 3. Do gas prices affect your choice of vacation destination? Kinda, if they were back down to a $1 a gallon we may think about a cross country road trip, but we didn't even consider it. 4. Would you cut back on other things in order to still be able to take a vacation? If so, what sort of things would you sacrifice? We're already pretty close to the bone here. So, we may change the destination and the amenities, but even if it means driving to my parents for free food and free room and board we'd do SOMETHING to get out of the house. 5. Do higher gas prices make a Disney vacation a better or worse value? Why? Better in some cases, because not much driving is involved once you get there as compared to a traditional road trip.
Originally Posted By beamerdog 1. Would you cancel a planned vacation if gas prices topped $5/gallon? Probably not, but I might fly instead of drive depending on the distance 2. Are gas prices making you rethink planning a vacation at all? Yes. 3. Do gas prices affect your choice of vacation destination? Yes. 4. Would you cut back on other things in order to still be able to take a vacation? If so, what sort of things would you sacrifice? Yes. Eating out, movies, buy cheaper cloths, food, etc. 5. Do higher gas prices make a Disney vacation a better or worse value? Why? Worse. Instead of a rental car, I would have to use WDW transportation which is difficult with the service dog. Also, waiting for the bus (I've done it) is a nightmare with crowds of kids (and adults) trying to pet or interact with the dog (talking to him, calling him, etc.).
Originally Posted By SuperDry 1. Would you cancel a planned vacation if gas prices topped $5/gallon? No, but I really don't have time to take long road trips anymore, so if it's more than 4 hours by highway (at the most), I'll fly. But oil prices have made flying more expensive as well. 2. Are gas prices making you rethink planning a vacation at all? No, but fortunately, I live 1 mile from work and drive less than 6000 miles a year total. So, gas cost is not a huge part of my normal budget. 3. Do gas prices affect your choice of vacation destination? No, but I'm really starting to like destinations where you can use public transportation. I was in San Francisco recently, stayed on Market Street, and took BART directly from SFO to the hotel. It was wonderful not having to deal with a rental car or traffic. Saving money on gas is an added bonus. 4. Would you cut back on other things in order to still be able to take a vacation? If so, what sort of things would you sacrifice? Yes - travel is an important part of my life. If I had to, I'd probably sacrifice things like premium cable TV and buying the next gadget that I don't really need anyway. 5. Do higher gas prices make a Disney vacation a better or worse value? Why? Better value. I'd probably consider using Magical Express more, although it's really more psychological, as the rental cost of the car is going to be far more than the gasoline, assuming I'm just sticking around the resort. I've only done a "no car, all Disney transport" trip once, and although it has some limitations, I surprisingly liked it.
