For those of you that stay deluxe - what do you do for a living?

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I don’t look at price for dinner, movies, vacation but I sure as heck won’t buy a pair of jeans over $40.

This is how we do it. I’m currently covered from head to toe and I don’t think my whole ensemble cost $40. This and DVC (when we finally get some points from the stripped contract we bought in our bank).
 
There are a lot of posts, and I haven't read them all, so maybe this is covered.

Hate to offer unsolicited advice, but I think you asked, so here's what I think.

Wife and I have 4 kids, aged 4,4,6,and 8. We've gone to disney the last three years and stayed at Poly, GF, and Bay Lake. Planning a trip to Boardwalk for the spring.

We live in Northern NJ, right outside of Manhattan. We live in a nice town, in our dream home. She stays at home. I am in IT for a large international products company.

We're more comfortable than most of our friends, but I truly believe it is because we sacrificed a lot when we were in our 20s and early 30s. When my wife was working we saved all of her salary to save for a house. We would go to vegas a few times, other than that, local vacations, jersey shore or other drivable things. We bought a small 2 family house, renovated a floor (by ourselves) for us to live on and rented out the other. We still own it and make a profit on the rent. Our friends were going on nice vacations, buying nice cars, buying nice condos. Most of them wound up underwater on their mortgages. We just kind of stayed the course, I got an MBA, switched employers a few times, and voila - we can now afford to go on nice vacations.

Long story, short - worry about making the right decisions now, build your education, live somewhere with a lot of jobs, switch employers to make jumps. Save now to live later.
 
Agree! And more importantly, what decisions you make about that money. If you choose a large McMansion with a large tax bill on it over a small home with much less upkeep & taxes; designer clothes; huge gas guzzling vehicles over less expensive, less luxurious ones; the latest tech gadgets for everyone in the house; other expensive vacations during the year & every expensive activity available for your kids, you will have less money for Disney vacations no matter what your income.

Well yes, if I live in 1 bedroom studio instead of a small home, ride a moped (remember those?) instead of a car, and eat top ramen for every meal I just might be able to stay an extra day or two on my Disney vacation once every few years!
 
Wow, a I've noticed a lot of Disney lovers are in IT!

Something nobody has brought up: you have to take into consideration there are a lot of people who stay Deluxe that can't actually afford it. They are putting the cost on their credit cards and just paying the minimum. The pressure to keep up with the Jones' (or the DisBoards) is strong, and not everybody is patient or a good saver. To each their own: I work in finance and am a super saver. But I have friends/relatives who see something they want and just charge it, regardless of whether they can truly afford it.

In short, I love the OPs question because I've always wondered myself! But when you get down to it, its not the profession that matters. There are so many other factors involved.
 


I'm in health care and my wife owns a successful business, we are comfortable but extremely frugal. I worked my way through college and my wife started her business from scratch, so we both know the value of a dollar. We have a nice spacious home on 15 acres. My wife drives a 7 year old car and I drive a 12 year old truck. We generally pay for things as we go and have virtually no debt. We take a lunch everyday and don't go out to eat a lot. We've stayed at both Deluxe and Moderate resorts over the years. When I was younger I always wanted to stay in a Deluxe resort. So when I did it was a bit of a rite of passage. Although we have truly enjoyed the luxury experience, they are wonderful, I do feel a bit guilty spending that much money. After all we generally are just sleeping in the room.
Our last trip we stayed at POFQ and I must admit enjoyed it as much as any Deluxe stay. I call it our last trip the "acoustic" version. It was extremely laid back and low key. We'll stay at Deluxe resorts again, but don't underestimate moderate resorts for value and fun. Perhaps it's nostalgia but it does seem to take some of the pressure off versus a more expensive stay.
 
Something nobody has brought up: you have to take into consideration there are a lot of people who stay Deluxe that can't actually afford it. They are putting the cost on their credit cards and just paying the minimum. The pressure to keep up with the Jones' (or the DisBoards) is strong, and not everybody is patient or a good saver. To each their own: I work in finance and am a super saver. But I have friends/relatives who see something they want and just charge it, regardless of whether they can truly afford it.

Nobody brought it up, but sure it's been thought. Sure there are a lot of people at every category level with the "You only live once" philosophy and are putting themselves in major debt. But that happens in every aspect of their lives, not just going to Disney.

But people who do that don't usually brag about it in a forum like this.
 
This is how we do it. I’m currently covered from head to toe and I don’t think my whole ensemble cost $40. This and DVC (when we finally get some points from the stripped contract we bought in our bank).
And we always go in the fall when it's cheapest and always get a deal. We Just booked Poly for Sept/oct 2019. We looked at going this April 2018 but the price for those rooms were out of our reach so we opted to take our daughter out in the fall instead when the price of the rooms are not only $150 cheaper per night but we will also most likely get a discount bringing the price down significantly from other times of the year.
There are so many things to take into consideration when looking at a family staying at a deluxe.
 


Well yes, if I live in 1 bedroom studio instead of a small home, ride a moped (remember those?) instead of a car, and eat top ramen for every meal I just might be able to stay an extra day or two on my Disney vacation once every few years!

No, I didn’t say you’d have money for Disney no matter your income. I said you’d have less money for Disney no matter what your income is. I did not mean to imply that anyone can afford it. But if you make a good salary but take out the largest mortgage you can for a huge house, buy the most expensive vehicles you can, take several other expensive vacations a year, keep buying all the newest electronics as soon as they come out & sign your kids up for every expensive sport or hobby there is, then you’ll have less money to spend on Disney.

That is a different concept. It just means you make different priorities with your money. So you have less money for Disney. I would never imply that anyone will be able to afford WDW, let alone a deluxe.
 
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It's more about priorities and very careful budgeting. Just investigate how far what you have will go, how can you do things cheaper, allocate specific budgets for everything.

I think conversely sometimes wealthy people tend to do this more and watch every cent.

Somebody on here just told me I should 'downgrade my accomodation' at WDW from Deluxe because of the 'low' amount i budgeted for offsite groceries (which I thought was a little bit rude, but hey-ho). Like I don't deserve to stay there or something because i'm being careful with planning.

It's this careful planning I pride myself on because I don't like spending money that I don't need to.

So just because someone is staying Deluxe doesn't mean they blindly spend lavishy or live an extravagent lifestyle, even if they do have money.
 
'wealth' is all relative, $100k in a good portion of the US is high level earnings, in some City's a household income of $100k is 'low income'.

We personally go to WDW once a year or so, we live on the West Coast so its a big operation getting a family of 5 over there and doesn't come cheap either. However, as some have said it is all about opportunity, sacrifice and having the means. We don't drink, smoke, gamble or have high cost hobbies or interests. Instead of having lots of smaller vacations with family throughout the year that mount up, we choose to have fun staycations and focus on 1 or 2 bigger events such as Disney. We are in a position that we can afford to do this and choose to stay where we like, however, that doesn't mean we are frivolous. We usually tie it in with some great TA rates and to be honest, the price we pay is not that much different than rack and discounted rates at moderates!

I remember being there one year at the Poly having done a split stay between there and Port Orleans French Quarter to offset the cost, and saying to myself that I wished I had made the decision to stay the whole time at the Poly. All in all it would've been $750-1000 more overall, which is not an insignificant amount of money, but I just remember that feeling of 'I wish' when looking at my family playing in the pool and running around the grounds, that feeling of joy and contentment with my family and life.... I guess money can buy you some things! lol... Since that point, we do what we can to make it work to stay there full time. In addition, we also go for 10- 14 days instead of our previous norm of 5-6 days so we can spread out our enjoyment and actually enjoy the ride without feeling rushed and having to squeeze it all in. We feel this has really enhanced the experience for our family and allows us to make the most of our hotel resort too.

I both understand and appreciate that a lot of people simply cannot afford to stay at Deluxe resorts and Villas in general, but this is what works for us and we work hard to achieve it. This year I convinced my wife to stay off site for 1 week as they didn't have the rates we wanted for the first week. I've done offsite a few times with work and i've enjoyed it, it isn't the same on many levels, but offers lots of advantages. So we will be offsite for a week while we visit family and hit up Lego Land then a week at the Poly and Contemporary!

I have found all the hotels we have stayed at to be great, obviously some have more perks than others but at the end of the day it is still a stones throw away from Disney and a really special place for you and your family.
 
It's more about priorities and very careful budgeting. Just investigate how far what you have will go, how can you do things cheaper, allocate specific budgets for everything.

I think conversely sometimes wealthy people tend to do this more and watch every cent.

Somebody on here just told me I should 'downgrade my accomodation' at WDW from Deluxe because of the 'low' amount i budgeted for offsite groceries (which I thought was a little bit rude, but hey-ho). Like I don't deserve to stay there or something because i'm being careful with planning.

It's this careful planning I pride myself on because I don't like spending money that I don't need to.

So just because someone is staying Deluxe doesn't mean they blindly spend lavishy or live an extravagent lifestyle, even if they do have money.
To be fair I ran across that thread a little while ago perusing the boards.

That person didn't insinuate anything. I think you're reading too much into their comments. They simply said "Maybe you could downgrade to a moderate and free up some additional for your food budget." AND that was after it was mentioned by other posters that you may be underestimating your food budget. They didn't say you didn't deserve to stay at Deluxe, they said nothing like that at all.

For me your other thread could have gone both ways-either you're on a tight budget or you're just looking to not spend unnecessarily on food. You did mention the 'cheapest' option so they may have thought you were working with a tight tight budget and needed to float the money vs adding on money (as was mentioned by other posters in upping your food budget).

I would agree with your comment about staying at Deluxe=lavish lifestyle. I mean that goes for all categories. Someone staying at a Value isn't poorer income/lifestyle-wise automatically than someone staying at a Mod or Deluxe.
 
Grant you Disney World resort hotels are expensive, but if you've done any traveling outside of WDW you know they're not extreme. Most popular cities such as NYC, DC, London, Paris etc your going to find hotels in prime locations are going to run you 400+ a night. I don't think you have to wealthy to afford a Deluxe resort. Like others have said it depends more on disposable income then how much money you actually make.

A lot of people can afford deluxe and don't think it's worth the money so they stay value or moderate. Others save for years to afford a deluxe. Everyone has different priorities.
 
There are a lot of good examples here of how to pay for deluxe, but I think it’s a little harsh to say that anyone can afford to stay deluxe if they put their mind to it. Some people scrimp and save to afford value resorts. One of my former students became a single mom at a young age. She worked her butt off to take her child to a value and she was very proud of accomplishing that. I don’t believe that if she’d been a little more thrifty, she could have gone deluxe. If you’re already skipping the salon, going without cable and bringing your lunch to work to get by, you don’t have a corner to cut to save for a deluxe.
 
I've been to Disney several times over the past 20-ish years (see signature). Both my husband and I have always worked decent jobs but because we live in a high cost of living area it just goes right out of our hands with living expenses. Over the years, when the kids were younger and I had huge daycare bills, I still went to Disney and, honestly, I could have afforded to stay at a deluxe. But I'm one of those people who just has all this "practicality" thing going on in my head. I could never justify spending that much on a "hotel room." So we either did a moderate, used Shades of Green (husband was a reservist and now retired), and when the kids got older and we would have needed TWO rooms to be comfy, we started using off-site vacation home which are a real value.

I'm going back to Disney in 2 weeks and am staying at the Contemporary. It took me weeks to pull the trigger on that decision but I did get a good rate with a military discount, I will only have 3 people in my room, my parents are coming along and getting their own room and my dad has terrible arthritis in his ankle and is going to rent an ECV for the time. I just think all in all, it will be easier to get to and from the parks and, I'll be honest, it almost seems liberating to know that I won't have to make that drive from offsite to onsite several times a day in some cases. But, oh, the vacation I home I could get for a third of what I'm spending.:headache:

We are not rich by any means, we live in a modest house and have stayed in it over 20 years (a lot of people we know move often to better things), I don't ever have the "latest" anything. Took me until just last year to get rid of the formica in my kitchen. I painted my cabinets rather than replace, and so on. Many people I know have all the wonderful upgrades and they keep on improving. I have no issues paying for a deluxe. My husband is an electrician and I work for the federal government.
 
There are a lot of good examples here of how to pay for deluxe, but I think it’s a little harsh to say that anyone can afford to stay deluxe if they put their mind to it. Some people scrimp and save to afford value resorts. One of my former students became a single mom at a young age. She worked her butt off to take her child to a value and she was very proud of accomplishing that. I don’t believe that if she’d been a little more thrifty, she could have gone deluxe. If you’re already skipping the salon, going without cable and bringing your lunch to work to get by, you don’t have a corner to cut to save for a deluxe.
I think it's harsh to say everyone can afford to go to Disney at all.
I'm guessing the majority of people posting in this thread make well above the national household median income.
 
To be fair I ran across that thread a little while ago perusing the boards.

That person didn't insinuate anything. I think you're reading too much into their comments. They simply said "Maybe you could downgrade to a moderate and free up some additional for your food budget." AND that was after it was mentioned by other posters that you may be underestimating your food budget. They didn't say you didn't deserve to stay at Deluxe, they said nothing like that at all.

For me your other thread could have gone both ways-either you're on a tight budget or you're just looking to not spend unnecessarily on food. You did mention the 'cheapest' option so they may have thought you were working with a tight tight budget and needed to float the money vs adding on money (as was mentioned by other posters in upping your food budget).

I would agree with your comment about staying at Deluxe=lavish lifestyle. I mean that goes for all categories. Someone staying at a Value isn't poorer income/lifestyle-wise automatically than someone staying at a Mod or Deluxe.

Well I could have misconstrued what they meant, i'm sorry if that was the case.

I guess I got the impression they were incinuating 'if you can only afford or want to pay out x amount for groceries you should downgrade so you can afford to eat' - but again I could have taken it the wrong way (and I hope so).

Yea the CR is expensive and it's a splurge for us, but it's doable and we budget accordingly. We will have a good amount for spending money (or groceries lol). We stayed in a value last time and LOVED it (Pop), so it really doesn't matter what your vacation looks like, it's what it means to you and your loved ones.
 
I haven’t read all the comments but here goes. I only have been able to stay Deluxe by renting points for DVC. I work for the State of Kentucky and believe me the pay is okay but not great. I am also lucky to get a travel reimbursement check every month, which I save half for trips for. Plus I am single and don’t have many bills.
This year will be two years in a row that I have been able to stay deluxe because of DVC rental. When I go back in 2020, I will more than likely go back to moderate and stay at French Quarter. Unless I can find a good deal on the GF.
 
My husband and I are doing our first deluxe vacation, but it's what we can afford now so that'll probably be our norm from now on.

First, we are lucky to have gotten good jobs. I'm a RN, about to become an NP, my husband is in software development for a large company. We are financially much more comfortable than many of our friends in our mid-twenties. We are not the types to do more than one vacation a year (in fact, this is our "honeymoon" as we elected to save up money for furnishing our first apartment, paying off some student loans, and then buying our first home, instead of vacationing during the first two years of our marriage), and we are also not the type to live extravagantly day-to-day. We go out on a date every now and then, will go out for beer with friends once every week or two, and do a lot of cheap or free activities locally instead of spending large amounts on fancy dinners, nights out, and expensive clothing. By doing this we have been able to spend more on our Disney vacation where we get exactly what we want and don't worry about the final cost of it.

That's a long winded way of saying hard work on our careers, smart saving, living within our means, and determining what is most important.
 
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