DVC Chit Chat Thread

[Cfabar1]

I have heard for Alaska they say you sail Holland America to see Alaska, and the Disney Wonder to see Mickey dressed up in a cute cold weather Costume

 

[VGCgroupie]

if my kids were older I'd pick the cruise over WDW if the dollars punched evenly just about every time...

We spent $2300 over 6 nights at WDW. Yes included some merch but a huge chunk of it was food. That paired with airfare, is where my mind was going. Also, my son is very excited to wear his halloween costume again and a cruise seems so much better weather wise than WDW early Sept.

But, with the younger kids we aren't quite comfortable yet doing two staterooms, which means as soon as the kids go to bed we sit in solemn silence in the dark in our prison...

LOL. Verandah or the win

The 2 BR villa nicely solves for that equation!

YEs!

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

I would love to hear from someone who has done Alaska with Disney and also other premium cruise lines how the experiences compare/contrast.

I only have experience with DCL here, but can say that what pushed us over the edge to pay more for DCL was talking to a friend who cruised with NCL (on the Encore I think). She was really let down by length of time in ports, always having to walk through a smoky casino to get anywhere, and very few offerings that were truly kid friendly. I found a YouTube channel called Window Seat and thought the DCL Alsaka cruise video was really well done. He took his family and you really got a good feel for what it is really like. We had a very similar experience to his.

 

[PoppyJ]

I only have experience with DCL here, but can say that what pushed us over the edge to pay more for DCL was talking to a friend who cruised with NCL (on the Encore I think). She was really let down by length of time in ports, always having to walk through a smoky casino to get anywhere, and very few offerings that were truly kid friendly. I found a YouTube channel called Window Seat and thought the DCL Alsaka cruise video was really well done. He took his family and you really got a good feel for what it is really like. We had a very similar experience to his.

I heard the same exact thing from a friend who did Alaska on NCL the week before we did DCL. NCL didn't arrive to some ports until the afternoon. I thought we had excellent port times and locations on DCL. We did DCL because we love Disney, so I feel like we just lucked out on the ports, but it is something I would definitely be cognizant about if I did another Alaska cruise. We did not have to tender at any ports but I saw other ships that did. We also were very close to town at Ketchikan and Skagway. There was a shuttle at Juneau but we rented a car so we didn't have to take the shuttle. This was our first cruise, and we were extremely happy with the experience.

 

[Judique]

BWV has a garbage pool is the main one. The food options are not great either.

The whole BCV vibe is much better.

Haha....I own both resorts and prefer BWV over BCV. Garbage pool doesn't make a lick of difference to me as I don't use the pools. I've had to sit by them with kids and that's it.

@HyperspaceMountainPilot - if I'm not in a Boardwalk view or on Village Green, I will actually request tennis courts to be as close to my parked car as possible because I tend to use it almost every day. I do dislike asking for a pool garden view down there and having to pay extra versus getting the standard view.

BCV is my next trip in October. I've got a waitlist in but no high hopes.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

I think there are three main reasons.

Two are cultural differences. First, a good part of US culture is still grounded in the puritanical attitudes of the colonizers founders, and a big part of that was work before play. Second, the US' political economy is farther towards the private end of the collective/private spectrum of capital, and so one's "value" as a person here is more closely tied ot their economic productivity than it typically is in the EU.

The third is more pragmatic. We have a much weaker social safety net and things in the EU that would be provided by the state are provided by one's employer---this includes (some of) one's retirement income, and (more importantly) access to affordable health care. If one loses one's job, healthcare costs become an immediate and major concern. So there is a (largely unspoken/unacknowledged) fear: "If I take too much time off, I'm going to be in the next round of downsizing, and I can't afford to lose my health insurance." Even the state-provided retirement income is contingent upon one's employment history and earnings record.

My daughter's health insurance was through the University of Wisconsin; while she was a graduate student instructor, her monthly cost was quite reasonasble, as the University subisidized it. She graduated in December, and has been on the job market since then. During that time, she has had to pay the full cost of her insurance policy, and will until she starts at her Assistant Professor gig this July. Luckily, she has access to financial resources---her mom and I are picking up the tab for the part that UW used to pay for. But, if she did not have access to those resources, she would have spent that six months uninsured, paying the full cost of any necessary health care out of pocket. That's a gamble that thankfully, she did not have to take.

I'd have a lot more to say about all of this, but this is not the controversial topics board.

Students who are in that float period between graduating and job with health insurance do often get the help of the US’s expanded safety net via the ability to stay on a parent’s insurance and in most states that have Medicaid expansion, qualify for that while in that period. I understand that Wisconsin didn’t take the expansion. But I agree to an extent to your other points. Back when this country was founded, the largest number of people worked as farmers. Farming did have stretches that could be used for time off for more than a week or two. When factories started becoming a big share of the jobs, unions made increases in vacation time tied to seniority. IMO sometimes the young are in more need of extra time off with the demands of raising children. I do wish we would have better paid time off, and the culture that encouraged us to use it to renew and stay healthy.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Speaking of my daughter: Proud Dad Moment! Her doctoral regalia arrived yesterday. #OnWisconsin

View attachment 1067470

University of Wisconsin in Madison? That's where my niece is headed this fall for undergrad!

 

[Brian Noble]

You betcha! I've enjoyed visiting Madison over the last many years, and will miss going there.

 

[ClaraOswald]

You betcha! I've enjoyed visiting Madison over the last many years, and will miss going there.

I've never been to Wisconsin at all. My niece is in SD and visited Madison and the campus and just fell in love. She's really excited. But I'm sad that it's so far away from us! I think she will love it though.

 

[Brian Noble]

Both of my kids applied there as undergraduates, but both ended up going to Michigan. My daughter ended up there for her grad work in part becuase her doctoral advisor at Wisconsin happened to be her undergraduate research advisor's PhD student at Michigan way back in the day. So that letter of recommendation carried a little extra weight, I suspect. She loved her time there, though she lived a little bit off campus, to the west of the university hospital.

 

[Brian Noble]

Semi-relatedly: I told my kids to choose their doctoral programs carefully, because they will be stuck with those robes for the rest of their careers. I did not think about this carefully! Carnegie Mellon is pretty subtle, except the hood is lined with the Carnegie family tartan. Luckily, I can carry off plaid. Interestingly, Wisconsin has two versions: black with red trim, and red with black trim. My daughter has the coloring of Snow White, more or less, so the red-with-black should look great on her.

 

[Flash_Sloth]

About 2 years ago, we did an Alaska cruise on NCL out of Vancouver. The day we were boarding, DCL Wonder was also boarding. DW was wearing a Disney shirt, and everybody kept thinking that we were in the wrong line.

That was our first and last NCL cruise. We got screwed on the shore excursions badly. Their post-cruise land tour into Alaska was pretty nice.

We've never sailed DCL yet. Upcoming cruise is on Virgin; first time trying them.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

@HyperspaceMountainPilot We've done Alaska on RCL and DCL and the latter was better. But you asked about premium cruiselines to compare with DCL in Alaska and RCL is definitely not that, so can't say. It seems you cruise a lot, what are your favorite beside Disney?

 

[Judique]

Haha....I own both resorts and prefer BWV over BCV. Garbage pool doesn't make a lick of difference to me as I don't use the pools. I've had to sit by them with kids and that's it.

@HyperspaceMountainPilot - if I'm not in a Boardwalk view or on Village Green, I will actually request tennis courts to be as close to my parked car as possible because I tend to use it almost every day. I do dislike asking for a pool garden view down there and having to pay extra versus getting the standard view.

BCV is my next trip in October. I've got a waitlist in but no high hopes.

And, replying to myself, I posted this above at 4:13pm and then looked later and the waitlist had filled at 4:09pm!

Then checked availability and saw the same night was still available on the website so I modified my other nights to book and include the night filled by the waitlist. Then canceled the night MS had booked. Easy peasy and didn't have to request MS to combine my nights. Also chose different points for the new nights so I could save what I want to bank.

That gives me a 5 night stay end of October at BCV. Then Hilton Head over Thanksgiving with family and then I continue to WDW for a few nights in December. After that end of January into 2nd week of February.

 

[atthebeachclub]

Semi-relatedly: I told my kids to choose their doctoral programs carefully, because they will be stuck with those robes for the rest of their careers. I did not think about this carefully! Carnegie Mellon is pretty subtle, except the hood is lined with the Carnegie family tartan. Luckily, I can carry off plaid. Interestingly, Wisconsin has two versions: black with red trim, and red with black trim. My daughter has the coloring of Snow White, more or less, so the red-with-black should look great on her.

Not that I anticipate having to wear it ever again, but I was a bit disappointed when I discovered my professional program had such an ugly colour for the striping on the robes. #firstworldproblems indeed!

 

[ClaraOswald]

There seems to be a pretty big overlap of DVCers who also like to cruise.

Every now and then, I think I might like to take a cruise. But I just don't think I'd want to with our son. The idea of being "trapped" on a boat if he is melting down is too scary for me.

But if I did cruise, I'd definitely do an Alaskan one.

 

[Chili327]

There seems to be a pretty big overlap of DVCers who also like to cruise.

Every now and then, I think I might like to take a cruise. But I just don't think I'd want to with our son. The idea of being "trapped" on a boat if he is melting down is too scary for me.

But if I did cruise, I'd definitely do an Alaskan one.

Just curious, but what is the solution for a “melt down”?
Going back to the room wouldn’t cut it?

 

[ClaraOswald]

Just curious, but what is the solution for a “melt down”?
Going back to the room wouldn’t cut it?

Well, it's more like if he starts feeling like he just wants off the ship. His comprehension on many things is more in line with toddler thinking. So he wouldn't understand that we can't get off the ship.

We have the same fear about long plane flights, which is why we currently limit them to just a few hours, at most. Because he starts to get antsy.

And maybe a cruise ship would be large enough for him but...maybe not. And for safety reason, I would also be afraid of him near balconies and whatnot. He doesn't understand danger, unfortunately.

 

[atthebeachclub]

There seems to be a pretty big overlap of DVCers who also like to cruise.

Every now and then, I think I might like to take a cruise. But I just don't think I'd want to with our son. The idea of being "trapped" on a boat if he is melting down is too scary for me.

But if I did cruise, I'd definitely do an Alaskan one.

Even I’m not sure if I’d want to be on a cruise ship very long so I can relate! Alaska cruises do sound cool though. I am hesitant though…it’s a lot of people on a boat. Would I like that? I am not sure.

At least on Disboards I feel like I’ve seen a lot of DVC owners with special needs kids and also people with food allergies or special dietary needs in the family. Which makes a lot of sense to me. It is more homey than a hotel so may feel more familiar, and also you can cook in your room!