Painful Canadian Dollar

[Carolynleanne]

We have a trip upcoming on January 29, so it's certainly too late for us to make any decisions based on the current rate. Having said that, throughout the year I keep a running spreadsheet of our current trip budget, which includes the exchange rate. I watch it carefully and adjust savings as necessary. I was a little concerned just prior to Christmas and set myself a threshold for when I was just going to buy all of my US cash at that time and accept the rate. The rate stabilized and came down, so I held off and will use my credit card to gain the extra points.

Just to put it in perspective though, the current rate that I am using in my spreadsheet is the MasterCard rate of 1.3616220. Our total trip cost in Canadian dollars with that rate is $32,276.54 (A lot, I know, but it's 2 weeks, 7 people, 2-Bedroom Deluxe Resort, includes everything - flights, accommodation, meals, groceries, generous spending, hotels, a few evening magic events, 5 nights in St. Pete at a 2-Bedroom deluxe resort, etc). If I drop the rate down to say 1.20 (just to give a wide swing), the Canadian Total comes to $28,843.94. So the difference is $3,432.60. Granted that is a lot of money, but in the grand scheme of things, and in the context of the overall price, it's not that much. If we use last January's rate of around 1.266096, the difference is only $2,028.82 from last year, all else being equal. So really, our trip is only costing around $2,000 more than last year where the rate was lower - not enough to stop us.

Just for interest sake - if I put the exchange rate at 1.0, the total Canadian cost comes out at $24,596.26....now wouldn't that be nice for an all expenses paid trip for 2 weeks to Disney World/St. Pete

$32,000 trip? Can you adopt me? Our budget is $6000 for a week, haha!

 

[Carolynleanne]

My folks just booked 10 nights at Cabana Bay and purchased the "2 days, get 2 days free" for USF/IOA. To save money, they are only doing 2 parks, 1 park per day. They also are going to the Kennedy Space Center via bus tour and likely the World Golf Hall of Fame. I think my dad had sticker shock at the cost based on last year's trip, which had a slightly better exchange rate.

I told them to start saving their air miles hardcore as we are going back for 2 weeks November 2021! LOL

This is us too! We have West Jet dollars and a companion fare reserved for Florida

 

[marcyleecorgan]

saving something is better than saving nothing... lots of saving up over here...

 

[minnie56]

Our dollar is painful indeed...
We did a week at Boardwalk in December -4 people and the bill was $14000 by the time the dust settled and that’s with 50% off the room rate.

Big ouch.

 

[sherilaine]

Honestly it's not like it took a nose dive in the last few days or something - this is not new information for anyone planning a trip south of the border. My worries are far more to do with flying with this shut down impacting all the important jobs around safety at airports than the dollar and whether that shut down will eventually see other issues arise.

As I type this the dollar is currently trading at 0.75419 USD, now let's compare that to the highest it has traded in several different time frames:

-- Last month: 0.75682
-- Last 3 months: 0.77275
-- Last 6 months: 0.78035
-- Last year: 0.81206
-- Last 3 years: 0.82333

Now we can go back 5 years when it was almost at par - those were the days and we enjoyed a couple of trips at that high rate, but we all knew they were short lived and if you buy gas then you are likely saving a lot at the pumps because a high dollar usually means high oil and gas prices!

80 cents is often cited as the ideal trading value for the Canadian dollar, which is a nice mix for trade and manufacturing to thrive - so right now we are looking at a 5 cent difference really.

I have done up a spreadsheet when we book and make decisions on our trips - and I include a column that calculates the exchange so we can see the true cost of the trip and we can adjust it as the dollar fluctuates - then you know exactly what you are in for and should not be shocked when it's over.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

From what I understand, you should add at least 1 hour to your airport arrival times for TSA, air traffic controllers, or lack of them, is what my folks are concerned about. Baggage handling is done by the airports, so that won't be affected.

 

[kiford]

You only depress yourself by looking at the US costs and thinking wouldn't it be nice if that was the cost in Canadian dollars or at least close; it's not likely to happen. In the same way that I look at a price on something in Canada and mentally add HST to determine what it's really going to cost me, when I'm looking and planning I mentally add a "worst case" exchange rate. Then I look at the total cost of the trip in Canadian $ using that and round it up a little to accommodate changes in the rates and decide if that's something I'm OK with in the same way I'd look at the cost of a trip in Canada. Do I feel like it's worth the price?

 

[Carolynleanne]

You only depress yourself by looking at the US costs and thinking wouldn't it be nice if that was the cost in Canadian dollars or at least close; it's not likely to happen. In the same way that I look at a price on something in Canada and mentally add HST to determine what it's really going to cost me, when I'm looking and planning I mentally add a "worst case" exchange rate. Then I look at the total cost of the trip in Canadian $ using that and round it up a little to accommodate changes in the rates and decide if that's something I'm OK with in the same way I'd look at the cost of a trip in Canada. Do I feel like it's worth the price?

Yes, totally. We travel a lot and often compare the prices to different vacations. 8 days at WDW all in is $6000 CAD for us. We’re spending $5000 to go to Arizona/Grand Canyon this instead, and a lot of the activities there are free. So it’s all about worth. It makes us happy, so it’s worth it. But as a family of 5 on a budget or $6000 a year for travel, we have to be choosy!

 

[bcwife76]

It's not stopping us from travelling to the US but we are making adjustments. For our upcoming Spring break cruise I cancelled a couple of things I had already booked onboard and we are only doing one day at DL instead of two. In August for our anniversary Alaska cruise we downgraded from a verandah to oceanview and saved $2200US! It was kind of ridiculous for us to book that room in the first place, we sailed to Alaska two years ago and had a verandah (and used it a lot) but we know what it's about so...yeah. I have a feeling our cruise out of NY is going to cost us an arm and a leg for accomodation in NYC and activities though

 

[Sue M]

With the low CAD and higher room rates at wdw this is the first year in forever we won’t be going to WDW Labour Day for our usual 2 weeks.
Instead we booked Universal in April/May. Going to Ft Lauderdale first, for 5 days, then Universal deluxe resort for 10 days. I booked Royal Pacific for the price of a WDW moderate. And it includes the Universal Unlimited Express Pass. We plan on doing all 3 parks. For 10 days I’ll get their AP. It’s the same price as their 5 day ticket.

Early Aug we may take a short 6 day trip to DL. Staying off site. We live on the west coast 3 hrs north of Seattle so cost is cheaper for us to go to DL than WDW.

 

[isabellea]

Just came back from WDW two weeks ago. Since it was a trip over NYE, everything was rack price except for the 4 day tickets we already had. When planning I was always adding 30% more and we were very careful in our spendings. Accommodations at POFQ for 6 nights, dining plan and Memory Maker cost was 3K USD so not too bad considering (close to 4K after souvenirs and tips). Normally we would have stayed 7 nights for a 4-5 days in the parks but adding a night at the beginning of our reservation was too expensive IMO and I didn't want to leave later since we were driving and we had to be back Jan 5th for my oldest DD cheer.

We are returning to FL this summer but it will be mainly a beach vacation where we are cooking most of our meals and we will only stay two nights at AKL so I can attend the DIS Pandora party, no park day for us. Food at the grocery store is expensive (costs us over 200$ per week at home) but Publix will be much cheaper than eating out 3 times a day!

 

[BLAZEY]

It's not stopping us either. I bought our Canadian Promo DL tickets at Expedia and paid in Canadian $$. I accessed Expedia through Ebates and saved another $23. I have a US $ account and have been putting money in there at various rates. Our Universal Hollywood tickets are free with airmiles. Got a decent flight on Delta from YYJ to SNA paid in C$$. We will not be spending as much money on souvenirs, but focusing on spending our time with family as we are travelling with DH family for this trip.

 

[PanamaMike]

Jan 2000 trip was $1.48 so current rate stings but not as much as then.

 

[Carolynleanne]

As you all said, it sucks, but we still go, HA! We're skipping this year, but just put in a DVC request for 10 days NEXT January at Board Walk and Wilderness Lodge. At a certain point you just say WHATEVER and try not to think about it

 

[lolomarie]

For us it's not about the dollar, we're not going back under the current government administration. I know my family's small amount won't make an economic difference, but it's a stand we've decided to make for ourselves.

 

[Carolynleanne]

For us it's not about the dollar, we're not going back under the current government administration. I know my family's small amount won't make an economic difference, but it's a stand we've decided to make for ourselves.

Good for you guys

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I just bought a $50 Disney gift card after cashing in some PC Optimum points for groceries. I think I'm going to use those points and put those funds towards gift cards until we go again. I'd love to accrue $1,000 in gift cards ($700 US likely...sad)

 

[bababear_50]

Going to pick up $60.00 USD each pay for the next few months,,,just makes the whole exchange thing a little less painful for me than in one big shot.
Hugs
Mel

 

[tgropp]

Jan 2000 trip was $1.48 so current rate stings but not as much as then.

I remember our first Disney Christmas vacation in 1994 and the dollar was $0.64. Makes today's dollar look good

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I remember our vacation in 2005 and it was at par, I believe. We paid $65 US per night at All-star Movies at the end of January. And the parks were DEAD in terms of crowds.