DVC Chit Chat Thread

[DisMomNCM]

All this talk of retirement and I can’t collect my teaching pension until I’m 63….only 28 more years to go

 

[atthebeachclub]

A cardiologist where I work retired this year in his mid 90s. Honestly…goals. He was still smart as a whip.

 

[TheThousandthSoul]

All this talk of retirement and I can’t collect my teaching pension until I’m 63….only 28 more years to go

Just like a SSR deed!

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

This is so important. The one thing money can’t buy is time. We only get so much of it so it all needs to count. Learning what enough is was the key to my happiness.

Money can’t buy time, but it can’t buy happiness, love, or close relationships either. DVC gift cards can’t buy time or love, but in my experience, Disney spend has given our family a lot of happiness and given me a closer relationship with my kids.

For those of you who are retired, how do you keep your brain mentally sharp? I've heard it is easy to let it become a vegetable once you stop working. After 30+ years in my industry, I need take a break from some of the intensity, but don't want to completely veg out.

Surely trying to balance LL, dining plans, WDW transit system, and character greetings should be enough to keep anybody sharp!

Ok, new topic chit chat friends— I just got back from dinner with a good friend I have known and admired for 10+ years but don’t see very often (we live in different cities) and discovered she has never been to ANY Disney park and after discussing for 15-20 minutes, I think genuinely would not enjoy going to Disneyland with us. This is baffling to me but hey, I guess every Disney hating adult is a slightly shorter line or lower price for the rest of us.

 

[tx911]

Money can’t buy time, but it can’t buy happiness, love, or close relationships either. DVC gift cards can’t buy time or love, but in my experience, Disney spend has given our family a lot of happiness and given me a closer relationship with my kids.

Bingo! It don’t sing and dance and it don’t walk either

 

[atthebeachclub]

just got back from dinner with a good friend I have known and admired for 10+ years but don’t see very often (we live in different cities) and discovered she has never been to ANY Disney park and after discussing for 15-20 minutes, I think genuinely would not enjoy going to Disneyland with us. This is baffling to me but hey, I guess every Disney hating adult is a slightly shorter line or lower price for the rest of us.

At least she knows herself!

My kids’ cousin has never been before either. She’s 9, and she’s convinced she wouldn’t like it. But I don’t think it’s true at all; I think her parents have conditioned her to believe that though since they don’t like it because they seem to believe it isn’t cultural enough for their family.

 

[IsDVCForMe?]

Good morning DVC!

 

[DisMomNCM]

Good morning DVC!

Good morning! 6 days until my feet hit Disney asphalt.

 

[atthebeachclub]

Ugh! Wish I had a Disney trip before January! Have SO much fun!!

 

[AstroBlasters]

Money can’t buy time, but it can’t buy happiness, love, or close relationships either. DVC gift cards can’t buy time or love, but in my experience, Disney spend has given our family a lot of happiness and given me a closer relationship with my kids.

Surely trying to balance LL, dining plans, WDW transit system, and character greetings should be enough to keep anybody sharp!

Ok, new topic chit chat friends— I just got back from dinner with a good friend I have known and admired for 10+ years but don’t see very often (we live in different cities) and discovered she has never been to ANY Disney park and after discussing for 15-20 minutes, I think genuinely would not enjoy going to Disneyland with us. This is baffling to me but hey, I guess every Disney hating adult is a slightly shorter line or lower price for the rest of us.

I went to DLand once before I met my wife. It was 1992 and I was 11. I remember thinking it was overhyped and that people paid a bunch of money to get in a park with mostly lame rides where they try to constantly sell you overpriced junk…. no thanks….. I’ll stick with Six Flags Over Texas.

And then 12 years later…..I live in Los Angeles and meet a girl in a bar (The Standard) on Sunset Blvd who I later learn loves theme parks (Disneyland pass holder) and I can’t believe that an adult would ever want to go to a child’s theme park.

Fast forward to a few years later and we are married with a child in SW Washington and I am working 6-days a week with an hour commute each way. I discover that it is apparently a birthright for women who grow up in so-cal to go with their children to Disneyland at least once a year. (Especially if they were a former Cast Member!)

So here I am…. an overworked and horribly unexercised man is his late 20s… with his family staying at The Disneyland Hotel (for cheap in 2011) and we are going to Disneyland.

I don’t know if it was the runners high from finally getting exercise after all of those steps, but I went on Peter Pan and got flooded with pixie dust and actually felt like I was flying over London and all of the stress I was carrying just melted away….

I later discovered Trader Sam’s and would go get two Mai Tai’s and bring them up to our room and we would sit in the hall outside the room together and drink them waiting for our kiddo to fall asleep….

That’s when I internalized that Disney is a place where if you go in with the right mindset…. and stay on property for at least a few nights….and have a person in your group who knows what they are doing…. that it can be magical place… expensive…yes…. run by people who want to squeeze every dollar out of you….yes…. but still a place where the family can be happy together and not something where either the kids are happy OR the parents are happy…. you can have both….

That feeling has cost me a LOT of money over the last 15 years that could be worth a lot more if I would have stashed it into an investment portfolio…. but it has also brought us a lot of wonderful memories together and provided us with a lot of joy…..

DVC is part of that because it made it possible to stay on property and stay in the magic as the prices of hotels shot up and we had to start traveling around a school schedule and not whenever plane & hotel prices were cheap…..

We tried staying off property for a few years…. it wasn’t the same…. the magic didn’t start as soon as we woke up and it always broke as soon as we crossed harbor and saw the real world again…. no thanks…. I’d rather spend a small fortune and make sure I can stay at The Grand Californian and The Disneyland Hotel….

 

[smile5sunshine]

I should have started packing weeks ago. We leave a week from today, and all I have pulled out are my daughter's endless piles of princess dresses . They take up an entire suitcase on their own, and quite frankly, this year I don't even think we will be able to fit them all

Vacuum pack all those princess dresses! Even if you don’t do any of your other clothes, just doing thr princess dresses makes a big difference and saves sooooo much space.

Happy packing!

 

[Brian Noble]

I think genuinely would not enjoy going to Disneyland with us.

And this is true for a lot of folks. And, that's fine!

Lots of people in my neck of the woods own cabins Up North, usually on an inland lake. It is lovely up there, and it sounds like they have a wonderful time, year-in and year-out.

And, they are welcome to it. My idea of roughing it is when I do not have the washer/dryer in my bougie vacation condo, and I need at least a few decent restaurants nearby. This is one of the reasons I have a tough time in the Smoky Mountains, which tends to lean quantity rather than quality. However, I will recommend Seasons 101 in Sevierville, and admit to enjoying the fried chicken dinner at the Applewood Farmhouse.

 

[Moneypenny]

The not knowing what the future holds is the worst.

We are pretty sure our son will need to live with us for as long as possible. But we don't know how long that will be since it really depends on our health. So we need to not only plan for the rest of our lives but for the rest of his too. It's very stressful. And we have no idea what kind of places he could live when we're gone or how much that would cost.

So we're constantly trying to strike a balance between saving for all of that but also living our lives and giving him fun experiences. At least with DVC, we know that we could always sell it if we decided we needed more money. So that's one reason we felt okay forking over so much cash for our contracts over the last few years.

My stepmom has an aunt and uncle with an adult disabled daughter. A few years ago they all moved into a senior living arrangement and were able to set it up so that the daughter will be able to remain there for her entire life after her mom and dad pass. It gives them all great peace of mind to know she's going to be taken care of and be able to stay in a place that is comfortable and familiar to her. They didn't think this was an option for them because the daughter isn't 55 years old yet, but apparently many senior living places will accept a family member/spouse who is under the age limit if they are disabled.

 

[RuntheMouse]

Ugh! Wish I had a Disney trip before January! Have SO much fun!!

I’m trying to talk DH into a “surface of the sun” trip! We don’t have Disney planned until October and it’s killing me!

 

[DisMomNCM]

Ugh! Wish I had a Disney trip before January! Have SO much fun!!

This is the longest I've gone without a trip in a while- haven't been since I was 33 weeks pregnant last February! I haven't been to Disney NOT pregnant since July of 2024 lol.

 

[DisMomNCM]

Vacuum pack all those princess dresses! Even if you don’t do any of your other clothes, just doing thr princess dresses makes a big difference and saves sooooo much space.

Happy packing!

I really need to look into this...

 

[IsDVCForMe?]

The not knowing what the future holds is the worst.

We are pretty sure our son will need to live with us for as long as possible. But we don't know how long that will be since it really depends on our health. So we need to not only plan for the rest of our lives but for the rest of his too. It's very stressful. And we have no idea what kind of places he could live when we're gone or how much that would cost.

So we're constantly trying to strike a balance between saving for all of that but also living our lives and giving him fun experiences. At least with DVC, we know that we could always sell it if we decided we needed more money. So that's one reason we felt okay forking over so much cash for our contracts over the last few years.

Thanks for sharing this. We are in a similar situation. I don’t like giving too much personal information on the internet, so never really discussed it. It’s hard thinking about what will happen when we’re gone.

This is also one of the reasons why we bought into DVC. Had such a great trip in the fall and our daughter just loved it. It’s something that you just can’t explain.

We also feel that we can sell it, if needed.

If you ever want to chat, feel free to reach out. Some people don’t like to discuss these things, so I understand. Would love to hear your story.

 

[DisMomNCM]

That feeling has cost me a LOT of money over the last 15 years that could be worth a lot more if I would have stashed it into an investment portfolio…. but it has also brought us a lot of wonderful memories together and provided us with a lot of joy…..

When my husband's uncle passed away several years ago, he gave all of his nieces and nephews stocks. We kept those stocks, including a large number of Disney ones, for a while. One day, my husband looked at me and said, "Why are we letting this money just sit here? We could be making memories with this. Let's buy a third contract."

And that is why I love him so much lol.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I really need to look into this...

Space bags are a dream. They make them now where you don’t even need a vacuum.

 

[TheThousandthSoul]

Vacuum pack all those princess dresses! Even if you don’t do any of your other clothes, just doing thr princess dresses makes a big difference and saves sooooo much space.

Happy packing!

We finished packing yesterday and didn't even think about using a vaccuum pack for the princess dresses! You just saved me some volume!!! THANK YOU!