DVC Chit Chat Thread

[ClaraOswald]

It's always interesting to see how much vacation each family decides to take each year.

We decided we don't like to take our son out of school for more than 1 week (5 school days.) We we will do 1 trip in the winter. Then we take a longer trip in the summer. This summer we are driving out to California/Disneyland and the whole trip is 12 days long. I do hate leaving our house and our dog that long but such is life.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

Is there a minimum order value for Walmart? Also do you need a US address for payment (credit or debit card)?

There isn’t a minimum order, but there is a delivery charge if you don’t have their yearly plan. Not sure about U.S. address for credit card, but could you just buy a gift card and use that? There are other grocery stores and even the Amazon food side that deliver to the resorts. We always do a pretty big order as we eat our breakfasts and about a third of our other meals in our villa.

 

[VGCgroupie]

What type of room? We're staying in a studio in October (2 x adults) as I really wanted to visit the resort but didn't think it would interest my (now 10.5yo) son

A 1 bedroom.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Totally off-topic, and please don't take this offensively because it's not meant to be in any way, but I've always wondered how people can take multiple weeks away from home for vacation.

Clearly everyone is different, and I suspect that part of it is the American perspective of only getting limited time off in the first place, but my longest trip on vacation ever was to WDW for 12 days, and for me that was way too long to be away from home, my pets, my job, etc. "Long" trips for us these days are 9-10 days, max.

2-3 weeks away from home seems crazy to me, so I'm just wondering how people handle the "back home" part of it.

We are on our way back from 2 weeks. Longest we have done. I decided while convenient for flying purposes it’s really just too long. I think 7 days could be a sweet spot. But we normally do 4-5 nights prior to this.

Edit to add: we homeschool so time out of school has no bearing on our vacations.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

Seriously, 24/7 ?
That almost seems like a waste, is there really anyone around from like 2am to 6-7am?

We frequently arrive well after midnight. Half our family is up and going by 4:30/5am. We always get a large grocery order because there aren’t a lot of options for early or late eating. We did Jiko a few weeks ago at 7:30pm. We were at BCV and then couldn’t get a bus back to Hollywood Studios to walk back to BCV because HS had just closed and the bus driver insisted he couldn’t take us back to the park. We ended up getting an Uber.

How are Disney DVC ‘deluxe’ resorts when there is no room service?

 

[Becx N Gav]

Totally off-topic, and please don't take this offensively because it's not meant to be in any way, but I've always wondered how people can take multiple weeks away from home for vacation.

Clearly everyone is different, and I suspect that part of it is the American perspective of only getting limited time off in the first place, but my longest trip on vacation ever was to WDW for 12 days, and for me that was way too long to be away from home, my pets, my job, etc. "Long" trips for us these days are 9-10 days, max.

2-3 weeks away from home seems crazy to me, so I'm just wondering how people handle the "back home" part of it.

I totally understand! Being in the UK we are very lucky to get so much paid holiday days each year. For me I am happy taking short overnight stays or longer ones. The main driving factor for taking a 2+ week holiday is the cost of travel. I would rather take one longer trip and only pay for flights, connections, parking etc. once. As for the feeling of coming home, it sucks either way lol! Even if I'm back from a long weekend I have to get ready for work, do laundry etc. From a longer trip (even a week or so) there's just more laundry. I do struggle a bit with jet lag, but even if it was a shorter trip it would affect me the same!
I don't have pets.
If I don't do my job someone else can pick up anything urgent so I don't tend to come back to more work.
I'm just glad I have the choice (at the moment) and I can afford to take trips as I know many can't (and I'm hoping the airfare isn't too prohibitive going forward!)

With regards to taking my son out of school - I would consider this if it saved money for flights but we do have to pay a fine (£120) so it's a toss up

 

[Mirabell Rose]

What type of room? We're staying in a studio in October (2 x adults) as I really wanted to visit the resort but didn't think it would interest my (now 10.5yo) son

You can also see the model villas at the DVC lounge in Disney Springs

 

[VGCgroupie]

I’m wondering if I jinxed us by letting my son break my rule of not buying resort merch of resorts we don’t own. He is the proud owner of a Riviera shirt I bought him while staying at Boardwalk.

I’m in the Lyft on the way to MCO questioning my whole DVC portfolio now.

More later. I’ll create my trip report thread for those who are interested in my emotional roller coaster of a trip.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I'm assuming you're American? Sheesh, that would be nice to have that open-ness.

I'm a doctor and only get 10 business days off per year. Like I said, I think it's more my own mindset of only having limited time off that feels almost like a constraint.

It would be nice to be able to have more open time off, as we could probably figure out the home-life. But that'll never happen...

Yup I’m American. I have family and friends in France who can’t believe the limited vacation time and long hours Americans have. They all get a minimum of 30 paid vacation days a year, and most people get a lot more than that.

 

[Brian Noble]

I've always wondered how people can take multiple weeks away from home for vacation.

My base trip is a week at a time, but If I am crossing an ocean, I want the trip to be longer.

It helps to have a very flexible job. My job is based on a 9-month appointment. I can choose to work some (or all) of the other three months and be paid for that time, or I can choose to use that time for myself. I will sometimes pick up some extra paid time but that's becoming increasingly rare. I've decided I'm okay living with less and having more time, but that's a luxury that most people don't have.

The house will generally take care of itself. I might need to have someone come by and mow, but thankfully my neighborhood is not one that gets up in arms when one's grass gets a little long. I am pet free (and being able to travel is one of the reasons why). My partner gets a dog sitter---usually someone in the community that would not mind having a house to themselves for a week or two.

I'm a doctor and only get 10 business days off per year. Like I said, I think it's more my own mindset of only having limited time off that feels almost like a constraint.

Depending on your specialty---and where you live---there might be other ways to make this work, provided you are willing to find a new (professional) home. My ex was essentially a contract doc---in a publicly-funded clinic, she was paid for her time; in a private practice, she took a percentage of her collections. Neither would have been as lucrative as being a partner or hanging out her own shingle, and not working means not being paid, but it gave her enormous flexibility.

 

[Choppers]

I totally understand! Being in the UK we are very lucky to get so much paid holiday days each year. For me I am happy taking short overnight stays or longer ones. The main driving factor for taking a 2+ week holiday is the cost of travel. I would rather take one longer trip and only pay for flights, connections, parking etc. once. As for the feeling of coming home, it sucks either way lol! Even if I'm back from a long weekend I have to get ready for work, do laundry etc. From a longer trip (even a week or so) there's just more laundry. I do struggle a bit with jet lag, but even if it was a shorter trip it would affect me the same!
I don't have pets.
If I don't do my job someone else can pick up anything urgent so I don't tend to come back to more work.
I'm just glad I have the choice (at the moment) and I can afford to take trips as I know many can't (and I'm hoping the airfare isn't too prohibitive going forward!)

With regards to taking my son out of school - I would consider this if it saved money for flights but we do have to pay a fine (£120) so it's a toss up

Also UK owners and echo all of this. Flight prices have been kinda mad lately so always prefer a longer trip to make the most of it. Fortunately we both work in higher education so get good annual leave (40 days) and don’t have to travel in school holidays (DINKS).

 

[J-Dog]

We are on our way back from 2 weeks. Longest we have done. I decided while convenient for flying purposes it’s really just too long. I think 7 days could be a sweet spot. But we normally do 4-5 nights prior to this.

Edit to add: we homeschool so time out of school has no bearing on our vacations.

This is just how I feel as well. I'm just not sure I could handle 2 weeks, even at WDW or Aulani. Just too long away from home.

Our DD is just now getting old enough that taking her out of school is becoming a consideration.

I totally understand! Being in the UK we are very lucky to get so much paid holiday days each year. For me I am happy taking short overnight stays or longer ones. The main driving factor for taking a 2+ week holiday is the cost of travel. I would rather take one longer trip and only pay for flights, connections, parking etc. once. As for the feeling of coming home, it sucks either way lol! Even if I'm back from a long weekend I have to get ready for work, do laundry etc. From a longer trip (even a week or so) there's just more laundry. I do struggle a bit with jet lag, but even if it was a shorter trip it would affect me the same!
I don't have pets.
If I don't do my job someone else can pick up anything urgent so I don't tend to come back to more work.
I'm just glad I have the choice (at the moment) and I can afford to take trips as I know many can't (and I'm hoping the airfare isn't too prohibitive going forward!)

With regards to taking my son out of school - I would consider this if it saved money for flights but we do have to pay a fine (£120) so it's a toss up

Thanks so much for the perspective. I will totally admit that I am jealous of the freedom of so much time off.

Depending on your specialty---and where you live---there might be other ways to make this work, provided you are willing to find a new (professional) home. My ex was essentially a contract doc---in a publicly-funded clinic, she was paid for her time; in a private practice, she took a percentage of her collections. Neither would have been as lucrative as being a partner or hanging out her own shingle, and not working means not being paid, but it gave her enormous flexibility.

Good point. I know multiple docs who essentially do contracted locum work that basically work whenever they feel like it. I can see the attraction, and they all seem to have as much work as they want. I don't know...I would be nervous without a full contract, I guess.

 

[cheryl.UK]

We like to take 2 or 3 short breaks of 2-4 days and then a longer vacation of 3-4 weeks, although this may change now that we have retired. We go on one long haul vacation a year, more often than not to WDW then other breaks in the UK. This year, so far we have been to London for 4 days and have a 3 week vacation planned at WDW. We intend to book a 5 day vacation at Center Parcs which is a lodge style forest break with loads of activities and maybe a short European cruise to Scandinavia.

 

[atthebeachclub]

minimum of 30 paid vacation days a year

good annual leave (40 days

I thought my 35 days of PTO was pretty good! But my goodness!

 

[AstroBlasters]

I thought my 35 days of PTO was pretty good! But my goodness!

I’ve been at my company for 10 years. We get 4 weeks of flex-PTO and an extra week every 5 years. We also get 5 sick days or something like that.

We can carry over up to 7-days each year, but if we have more than that then they are gone forever. There is no vacation payout.

I just make sure to carry over my 7-days in case someone gets sick and beyond that I am going to use every minute of vacation I can.

 

[Brian Noble]

I had to "firmly suggest" time off to one of my staff members once who had maxed their PTO, and so was effectively letting vacation days expire.

Staff member: "But there's so much that I have to do! What will happen while I am gone?"
Me: "We've been around since 1817. We'll be here when you get back."

After that, I made a habit of running an annual report in my org of everyone who had maxed PTO, and each one of them got a note saying, effectively: "Go on vacation. That's an order."

 

[atthebeachclub]

I’ve been at my company for 10 years. We get 4 weeks of flex-PTO and an extra week every 5 years. We also get 5 sick days or something like that.

We can carry over up to 7-days each year, but if we have more than that then they are gone forever. There is no vacation payout.

I just make sure to carry over my 7-days in case someone gets sick and beyond that I am going to use every minute of vacation I can.

I’m blessed in that my PTO can bank up to 1.5 times my annual PTO earnings, carries over indefinitely up to the max, and can be paid out at 100% if designated in advance. For a long time I treated my PTO like a savings bank for emergency job loss (when it would pay out at 100%) and rarely used it; certainly never for vacations. Obviously I’ve changed my ways!

There is a new government designated sick time thing too but I haven’t had to use it and don’t really understand how it fits in the context of my PTO (which previously covered both vacations as well as short term illness; long term illness was covered by short or long term disability).

I feel very well covered overall at the moment for vacation and time away, but know things could always change.

It seems like your company polices really incentivize use of the PTO. Where I work I notice people are either always using all their PTO or none. Few seem to be in the middle.

 

[ClaraOswald]

My husband doesn't have a set amount of days he's allowed to take off. They basically just let him use his discretion and take off when he wants. This can be good and bad, I think.

At his former company, he would end up having to use a bunch of days for "staycations" at the end of the year because otherwise they would get lost.

Now, I just remind him to take random days here and there. And then we have been taking 1-2 vacations a year for a week or so.

 

[AstroBlasters]

My husband doesn't have a set amount of days he's allowed to take off. They basically just let him use his discretion and take off when he wants. This can be good and bad, I think.

At his former company, he would end up having to use a bunch of days for "staycations" at the end of the year because otherwise they would get lost.

Now, I just remind him to take random days here and there. And then we have been taking 1-2 vacations a year for a week or so.

Having to plan 7-11 months out helps with getting vacations out on the calendar.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

Totally off-topic, and please don't take this offensively because it's not meant to be in any way, but I've always wondered how people can take multiple weeks away from home for vacation.

Clearly everyone is different, and I suspect that part of it is the American perspective of only getting limited time off in the first place, but my longest trip on vacation ever was to WDW for 12 days, and for me that was way too long to be away from home, my pets, my job, etc. "Long" trips for us these days are 9-10 days, max.

2-3 weeks away from home seems crazy to me, so I'm just wondering how people handle the "back home" part of it.

No offensive at all. I'm PRN so my schedule is extremely flexible and I can work around my husband's schedule. We have adult children and a wonderful boarding lady who takes care of our dogs while we are on vacation. And basically just use up my husband's vacation hours every year.

We've always traveled as much as we could (dependent on schedules, time and finances) bc you never know what will happen in the future.