Excerpt: Vacationing Disneyland the Sane Way: A question about savings…

Another question we’d like for you to consider is to evaluate the cost of time, more importantly saving time.  There is a balance to be considered between saving time and saving money; and consequently spending money and spending time.

Some examples of this include considering the cost it takes to plan your own vacation versus using a travel agent. This balance is different for everyone. For many, the time it takes to book and schedule a Disney vacation, including research, booking and ticketing, is upwards of 20 hours. How much does that time really cost you, or perhaps how much do you really expect to save by doing it yourself? Again, this differs for each person: there are the stay at home parents, which have virtual free time; or there are others where they struggle for enough family time, so 20 hours is priceless.

Another example is considering the cost of a character meal, which costs almost double what you would expect to pay for a similar meal, but in exchange you get the ability to have your family spend private one-on-one time with 4 to 8 characters without waiting in line.

A final example is eating outside of the park. You can leave the park, take the parking lot tram, drive through the North America’s largest parking structure – just to get out of the park – then navigate Los Angeles freeways to get to some outside-of-Disneyland restaurant or fast-food and save $5-10 per person. Then turn around and go through the same routine on the way back into the park.  So the question would be: what did you save?

Now, all of our pockets are not lined with gold – at least mine are not. But each person needs to evaluate, in advance, where their balance is for this equation. The choices should become clearer as you go through this guide. However, it is important to understand the relationship between time and money as it applies to vacationing, especially at Disneyland where opportunities abound for significant time savings at a premium cost.

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This guide is a free except from my eBook, Vacationing Disneyland the Sane Way, available at no cost to my clients. If you’re interested in a copy, please contact me.