It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – an offsite, non-Disney, Christmas TR

Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina said:

The average Canadian is entitled to two weeks vacation a year (once they have been with a specific employer for a full 365 days) until they build seniority at their place of employment. My Steve (who has worked at the same company now for 22 years) now gets five weeks vacation a year. He's almost maxxed out his potential entitlement under the corporation he works for.....I think he gets an extra day's vacation at 25 years, but I don't think he can get much more beyond that.

My office is an anomaly. They let me take whatever vacation I want in a year (and I'm salaried, not hourly, so I don't lose any pay when I do take time off). We close for two weeks every Christmas, so that's automatic. The rest is up to me (yes, I am beyond lucky that way!). I probably end up with 5 or 6 weeks off in a 12 month period, but like I said....I don't think that's the norm. I have been with the company a long time (almost 18 years) and am the sole admin person they have. That makes me fairly valuable to them, so they indulge my vacation addiction to keep a good employee. My bosses have even been known to give me an unexpected cash bonus right before I leave on our holidays on more than one occassion.....so yeah, I never lose sight of the fact that I'm extra fortunate!

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My2CrazyGirls said:

Awesome trip report Gina!

I have to ask...Money aside, how do all of you Canadians take so many vacations? I know Europeans take a lot of "holidays" because they get several weeks vacation. What is the average amount of vacation weeks Canadians get???

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bankr63 said:

And for those who wonder WHY we need vacation, just thought I would post the noon weather here in Ottawa. This is in Fahrenheit, not Celsius. Check the wind chill in the bottom right. I Soooooo wish I was in FL today!

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bankr63 said:

And for those who wonder WHY we need vacation, just thought I would post the noon weather here in Ottawa. This is in Fahrenheit, not Celsius. Check the wind chill in the bottom right. I Soooooo wish I was in FL today!

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saskdw said:

It might vary by Province, but here in Saskatchewan everyone is entitled to 3 weeks vacation by labor standards and it goes up to 4 weeks after 10 years with the same company. There are many jobs that have more with time served, especially government union jobs.

You also won't see Canadians posting on DIS that they are taking a 3, 4, or 5 night trip to Orlando. It's usually a min of 7 days. For us we won't go if it's not at least 10 days and usually a full 2 weeks.

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debster812 said:

Gina, we are in FL right now, visiting my parents in Bonita Springs. We flew in last Sunday to Tampa, spent a couple of days up in Sarasota, and drove down. Our flight down was less than smooth, and I used your fabulous TR to distract me. I'm lucky I don't have motion sickness, just a little fear with bumpy flights! As usual your TR was wonderful, and helped to keep me quite entertained. Can't wait to start hearing the next trip's plans and exploits!

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dancin Disney style said:

We're not too much warmer than that. Currently -23C with wind chill sitting around -35C. Still no complaints from me though...this is the only really cold weekend we've had this entire winter and no real snow.

Going out bikini shopping in an hour!!!!

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ArwenMarie said:

We've stayed at a lot of the Marriott timeshares in Orlando and we've never been disappointed. Differences in age of property and stuff like that, but they are all nicely appointed and maintained and housekeeping has been great at all of them.

We've also stayed at a lot of the WDW DVCs and the Marriott timeshares are better quality in terms of units and service.

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Lynne G said:

Hehe, we are at -15F. Lucky us. 50 mph winds, so branches and other assorted objects flying everywhere. Frigid.

Ready for the warm sunshine. Would like to be Florida bound now.

Even though I get 6 weeks of vacation, I never take more than 2 weeks at a time. Long weekends make up the rest.

Ok, link to you April trip report soon? Waiting patiently.

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jump00 said:

Brrrrrr it's so cold.....-25 here, near Toronto Ontario.
Thanks for your kind words Gina!!! I'm so sorry you suffered a brain tumour - I hope you are symptom / side effects free now. Was it a while ago? You are so brave.
It also sounds like you work for a wonderful company!! They are lucky to have you too.
Can't wait for your next pre trip report .

Jump00

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dixonsontour said:

Great report as usual looking forward to your next one.

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Callie said:

Great report!
Looks like we are going down to Orlando in June...ack going to be a sauna. But free lodging via my moms DVC I can't complain.
Would love to go in October again, but I don't think my boss will give me another week off that month since I'm already going to DC.

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Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina said:

Okay, we're all waiting for photos .

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dancin Disney style said:

Lots of people get 5+ weeks per year. It all depends on what you negotiate for yourself. My BFF started a new job 2 years ago and got 5 weeks that would kick in after 3 months on the job. Her DH gets 6 weeks and he's only been with his company for a year. My DH had 3 weeks after 5years which was cut to 2 weeks a couple of years ago...cost cutting measure. It actually doesn't make much sense as he is salaried. So now he's been there 11 years and only gets 2 weeks a year. Come April it's negotiation time again and he's fairly certain he will not get a raise (they just built a new multi million dollar facility) but vacation time will be back on the table.

Then there's me....I own the company so I can take as much time as I want. Problem being the work needs to get done whether I'm there or not and it's very difficult to get anyone to fill in. Last year I think I took in total about 7 weeks.

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My2CrazyGirls said:

I know it varies but overall, US companies are not that generous with vacation time. Some no longer give sicks days so you have to use your paid time off (vacation) if you get sick! And many large companies do not negotiate, your vacation days are tied to how many years you have been w the company.

And I can tell you it can be near impossible to take more than a week off at a time. My husband has vacation days built up so I suggested a 2 week summer road trip. He said that sounded fun but taking off 2 weeks is just not usually possible and it is pretty rare for someone to take off that long.

So for those of you that gets lots of vaca and take long trips, enjoy them

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Mrs Doubtfire said:

What a shame having to post such a sub standard bikini picture dancin Disney! Personally I would have left it

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dancin Disney style said:

As requested.....

View attachment 151330

Just a candid shot that I took this morning....sorry I'm not looking my best

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My2CrazyGirls said:

I know it varies but overall, US companies are not that generous with vacation time. Some no longer give sicks days so you have to use your paid time off (vacation) if you get sick! And many large companies do not negotiate, your vacation days are tied to how many years you have been w the company.

And I can tell you it can be near impossible to take more than a week off at a time. My husband has vacation days built up so I suggested a 2 week summer road trip. He said that sounded fun but taking off 2 weeks is just not usually possible and it is pretty rare for someone to take off that long.

So for those of you that gets lots of vaca and take long trips, enjoy them

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dancin Disney style said:

For sure there are lots of variables here too. Some people get sick days, some do not. Some people get personal days, most do not. I think most companies have policies about when you can take your time off as well as how long you can take at one time.

My staff can take whatever/whenever the exception being in mid Nov-Christmas. I only contract staff so if they don't work they don't get paid. The people that are employed by the facility that I run my business in are all union and they have to apply for time off a minimum of 3 months in advance and it goes by seniority. I constantly hear from them about not getting days that they asked for.

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