Disney Drought

We went 14 years between trips. Mortgage, university tuition, braces, etc. got in the way for a while. We finally got back in May this year, and had a fabulous adult time - no kids.

I found this group back in February, and lurked for a while before I finally spoke up and joined. I've slowly been working my way through all the photos - that is a great way to keep the Disney withdrawals away. There are so many fabulous shots of all things Disney - many I would never have even noticed without this forum. We are going for a "bonus" trip again in October, so I am reading everyone's posts, looking at all the pictures, and living vicariously through all the trip reports.

We once went 3 in between trips. 3 YEARS!!! 2005 to 2008 - we planned to go in 2007 but ended up moving and had to put it off a year.

Our first trip ever was 2005. Prior to that, I figured WDW was just another amusement park, and we had plenty of those closer to home. That first trip educated me.

After that, our next trip was 2007, then 2010. Since we discovered WDW's awesomeness, that three-year stretch is our longest Disney drought. I pass the time by keeping up on WDW news and preplanning the next trip, no matter how far in the future it is.

I haven't been to WDW since 2005. So it'll be 7 years when we go in Dec. That's probably the longest in my lifetime!

But I did sneak a trip to DL in there in 2010. That trip resparked my desire to go to WDW. Before then, it was school school school...try to find a job...try to find a job.

I think my longest drought was 6 or 7 years. Typically, I usually go every other year or every two years, but recently, I've been trying to get there once a year! My addiction is getting worse as I get older!

I will agree, the more we go the more we want to go. When our boys were growing up we only went once every 3 or 4 years. When they went off to college we started going every year. Once they were married and out of the house we started going twice a year and we are now up to 3 times a year. So while our longest drought would have been 3 or 4 years it has been a long time since we have had that long between trips.

Well... Jess wasn't too much into it... lol

What got me through it was the thought of being able to go every year. After that 2003 trip, my Dad was getting super serious about getting into DVC. So it was a matter of saving, choosing a home resort, and the perfect time to buy. Finally in 2008 it was time. Had the money, picked out where we wanted, and now we just needed to wait on the right price. Finally got it with some twisting of arms. The person we were worried about not wanting this was Jess actually... lol. But she said yeah... and here we are in 2012... preparing to go for our 4th year in a row. So yeah.... it took us roughly 4 years of no Disney... but now were on our 4th year going every year... so it was a good compromise... lol

Mase,
Maybe I have just missed something here but how do you wait for the right price? I always thought the price was the price and you either pay it or you dont. I do know they will sometimes offer the older DVC resorts for less but I did not realize you could talk price with them. What exactly did you do to get them to meet your price?

We go ours for $83 a point. Every month they have this online talk show or whatever talking about DVC. At the end they will give out something for listening. Usually its some kind of discount. We waiting till our sales rep was getting a little desperate to sell AKL, and we waited to get the discount we wanted, and then asked if we could split the contract into 3 parts. We have 210 points total, and wanted a 100 point contract, a 60, and a 50... and when we bought... we wanted the full previous year. So in the end... to start out with... we had 420 points to start with.

So the current price of... what is it... 132? Is like.....

This was my 4,000 post....

I haven't been to WDW since 1992...so it's been 20 years.
What did I do to get myself through that time?
Let's see...
(1) got a bachelor's degree
(2) worked, worked, worked all the time...
(3) started working on a masters degree
(4) more work, work, work...

Gah...no WONDER I need a vacation! I haven't had a proper one in 20 years!!!!!

Until this summer...it had been 15 no-Disney years! Got a couple of degrees, a divorce , lost a mom, kids grew up . lots of life stuff.

But, I am back! Full speed magic. Life is good.

Oh yeah, disneydoc reminded me...I also got a divorce during that time...also, I came out...and had a seemingly endless parade of (now ex) girlfriends. Yeah. I stayed pretty busy in the last 20 years.

So, with the financial situation in my house taking a nose dive I'm headed into a dreaded Disney Drought in the coming years. I've got a trip on the books in October and one next June, but after that I honestly don't know when I'll be able to get back. There are many contributing factors that I hope will clear up in a lovely sort of manner. In the past my longest stretch was about 6 years. I don't think I'll have to wait that long in the future, but you never know.

Our longest was 2.5 years. We went while I was pregnant and then didn't want to come back until my son was 2. I passed the time by lots and lots of reading on message boards!

I didn't go from age 10 to age 32. YIKES. But since then, my longest drought has been two years. And one time I was lucky enough to go to WDW in March, DL in July and WDW again in March. That was a good year.