Is the economy lowering your trip counts?

It's upon us. The Media was predicting a bad summer for family travel and popular destinations. The worries about the price of gas, the war and the current state of the economy in general were all being blamed for what was supposed to be a "slow" summer.

I don't know about some of you, but I am pretty far behind in my trip count this year. I'm only at 3 trips and I should be double that by now.

I know the economy in my area has been hit pretty hard and the price of gas is certainly not helping. I even have what is considered an economy car, yet I still double take when I look at the final price to fill up my 13.5 gallon tank. Construction has made at least one of my trips a nightmare.

The job market up here is pretty thin at the moment and there are signs it will be getting worse before it gets better. A lot of people I know will not be taking a vacation this year, instead they are looking for jobs.

Not only gas has gone up in price, anything that uses gasoline as part of it's delivery system (which is just about everything) has gone up. All the needs like groceries and such have affected my wallet more so than usual.

What about you? is this affecting you? Are you getting more or less trips in this year? Is Cedar Point your family destination for a few days instead of 5 days somewhere like Disney or the Oceans?

Things have gotten bad enough that we'll only be able to take two trips this year, I'm afraid. We've already taken our first, and likely won't be able to return for quite a while.

At work, we've seen several layoffs and are about to begin an hour-cutback period starting in two weeks, where we're losing 10% of our hours, and that hurts more than anything.

On a more positive note, through social and professional networking, there are a couple jobs out there, so I'm trying to stay positive.

Yes. If by "the economy" you mean "having a real job now." ;)

The economy isn't helping me plan more trips, but it isn't stopping me from doing the normal yearly trips.

i'm not letting it affect me. i will continue my normal routine and go to cedar point until i'm burned out from it.

Gas prices are severely limiting my trips, however, I'm doing better than ever economically.

It's not affecting me yet.... but it's still early in the season...

Well, let's see...

In 2003, I made 4 trips (my highest ever).

In 2004, I made 3 trips (May, Sept, and Oct).

In 2005, I made 2 trips (May & Sept).

In 2006, I have made 1 trip in May and am returning on the 18th for a Live Show intensive trip. And I am no longer employed--I got downsized by the auto industry downturn, and currently looking for work.

But, I was appointed the Mayor and must check on my property :)

If I don't find work by the end of this summer, I doubt I'll be able to return for Halloweekends. One has to eat, you know.

MrScott (Who's Toyota gets 40mpg :) )

It's certainly affected my trips. Between the gas prices (including natural gas) and higher prices all around, I can't afford to make as many trips as I used to, even with a CP Season Pass. In fact, this year I had to cancel out on a Holiday World trip, Beastbuzz and Timbersfest because all three require overnight stays.

I've made three trips to the Point, but that will be it until September, and the number of trips I make this fall will depend on finances.

Hey Linda, don't ever hesitate to attempt a ride with me down there. I'll try and let you know in advance when I plan on going.

Dj.. same thing. You guys will get used to my driving after the first 3 turns I take on 2 wheels.

Ha! Well, if your driving is any more, umm, "exciting" than mine, my GF might need some Xanax or something... She freaks out occasionally, and I take it easy on her!

But thanks for the offer for sure! If you're ever going when its financially convenient for us, we'd love to tag along.
*** Edited 6/9/2006 2:59:52 PM UTC by djDaemon***

My trips are down as well, only made one so far,and thats prolly the only trip ill make this year.Usually by now ive made at least 2. Times are tough right now with gas being high and me being unemployed, so i prolly wont be at the point anymore this year.

Being from Cleveland, which is fairly close by, the price of gas has had no effect on how often I go to the Point.

Now living in the Cleveland area, I will eventually be making more trips than before. Right now the main thing holding me back is that I have a family now. My little guy is only a 1 1/2 years old, so there's not a whole lot for him to do (yet!).

Plus my wife has a real job and must work summers. She is planning on getting back into teaching (like I do), which should free us up for more trips. I guess, having been here a year now, I should probably go to Geauga Lake at least once!

CP is 2 hours away for us and we've been there 3 times so far this year. It would have been more but we both work 40 hours a week and she works some weekends. We have also made trips to GL twice and Kennywood.

This week we're going to Hershey, Dorney and Knoebels from Sat. thru Tues. then home for a day and back out to CP for 3 days.

The weekend of the 4th of July we're going to MiA for 3 days.

All in all i'd have to say that it's not really affecting our trips, but as others have stated it does make it nice having a Toyota that gets almost 40 mpg.

Thank goodness that MiA is only 40 miles from my house, ill be making more trips there, but is not as fun as cedar point,but oh well :-)

I still haven't made it up to MA. Just haven't found the time, and I hate going on Saturdays.

even tough my Chevy's get 38+ I still find it hard.

It won't affect me too much, but I am feeling the crunch in other ways. We (my mom and I) are trying to spend even less in the park than we did last year, and I only spent around $100 total for food, souveniers, etc for the entire season. I know opening weekend I managed to spend less than $20 for the two days I was there. It is nice though to have family in Mansfield so that we can just have a short drive back from the park and not spend money on a hotel room. No hotel rooms unless necessary this season after opening weekend.

No change in our vacation habits. We are driving to the beach instead of flying this year, but that's partly because we are going in peak season instead of the late-summer shoulder period, and flights never went much below $350 per person.

But, gas prices don't make much difference to me at all. It's about 240 miles round trip. That's about 10 gallons in the mini-van. The difference between this year's gas prices and last year's amounts only to $10 per trip.