Has owning DVC curtailed your variety of travel?

[DVC Grandpa]

For those who have been DVC members for a number of years, have you found yourself always vacationing at DVC therefore forgoing other vacations opportunities’ not offered by or thru Disney?

Most families have limited resources in vacation time and funds thus requiring choices on where to go and what to do. Do you find that with your DVC membership, those choices are minimized because of the commitment to Disney?

Out family loves WDW and after we bought into DVC, we felt that’s this will be our vacation spot and it now it’ in bold in our yearly planning when to call to schedule a trip to Orlando for that winter getaway…just what WDW was planning when they built the vacation clubs properties.

How many of us have “put all of our eggs in one basket” and while it has been many great trips and memories, are asking ourselves what happened to our plans of years ago to vacation at…….. and……… etc.?

 

[bdb7607]

While we are new to DVC, Yes it has changed our vacation planning. All non-summer travel is now to WDW....yes, they have us hook, line and sinker.

 

[CraftyMouse]

Truthfully, since owning our DVC membership we have vacationed at a greater variety of places than before. We used to only go to WDW, thus the DVC purchase. Since we bought in we have visited Vero Beach and Hilton Head which we probably never would have done without the membership. We have also visited Arizona on points, taken a 3-week trip to California (Napa to San Diego and lots of places in between!) that included a stay at Disneyland on points and visited the Caribbean on 4 DCL cruises.

So...as you can see, our DVC membership has allowed us to visit lots of different places...and I've loved every minute of it!

 

[nhdisnut]

The biggest change in our vacationing is that now, instead of visiting WDW once a year or once every two years, we are now going to the World at least twice a year!!! That said, we are still travelling to other places (not with points) primarily to give our kids a wide-ranging set of experiences before they are grown and gone. Some of our non-Disney trips have included San Fran and Yosemite National Park, Washington D.C., New York, Boston, and Acadia National Park.....

We love the mix of experiences (but also love going "home" as much as we can!)!

 

[starbox]

We always spent all our vacation $$ at WDW. Now, for the same cash $$$ I used to get 10-13 days at WDW, I get 10-13 days at WDW PLUS 5 nights at HHI or VB. So it has incresed our variety by adding a beach trip every year.

 

[emma'smom]

Since buying DVC, we have planned several extra trips to Disney. However, we still travel to lots of other places as well. If anything, it gives us a warm escape during the cold winter months when we might otherwise just stayed at home.

 

[jarestel]

Actually, it did at first. We tended to make 3-4 trips a year to WDW due to the initial buzz of owning DVC. After 6 years of DVC membership we've managed to scale back to a trip or two every year, leaving plenty of opportunities to visit other interesting non-Disney vacation destinations.

 

[Pootle]

....... well yes it has a bit ...... but I wouldn't have it any other way

Before buying into DVC 10 years ago, we'd already been visiting annually since 1988 so you could say we were 'hooked'. We've just returned from a long weekend in Italy, which is something we also do each year, and would have loved to stay a little longer but DH just doesn't have the vacation time left because I haul us off to the USA at every available opportunity

When DH retires hopefully I'll have just what I want; more time to see the many lovely parts of the UK, occasional trips to Europe and my Florida fix - sometimes it feels really good to be a 'baby boomer' and have all these options

 

[bobbiwoz]

Some of our pattern of travel had already been established before buying into DVC. We would go to Florida over MLKjr weekend for instance, now we use Orlando as our home base, we used to stay in different places, Key West, Marco Island, Key Largo for instance.

There's no question that we go to WDW more, but this is what we thought about when we bought. I wanted to go to the Flower Show every year, DH wanted to go in December every year. Prior to DVC, we would always take a Caribbean cruise during my spring break, that pattern has been broken, we alternate a cruise with DVC, either VB exclusively or VB with WDW.

There are 2 trips that have been postponed too many times. One, a cruise of the Baltic/Russia, and the other a trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton. They are not happening in '07, but we've promised ourselves that one will happen in '08.

Bobbi

 

[DisDaydreamer]

This is an interesting point. We probably have not gone some places we might have otherwise, but we have always had a moderate family income and without DVC we would not have had most of the wonderful vacations we have taken. DW and I love the beach and wildlife so VB and HHI mixed in with WDW resorts have given us many happy days.

DW & I are both 49 so we still have a lot of years to go before we can even think about retiring, but we do talk a lot about visiting our national parks like Glacier, Yosemete, Yellowstone, and many others. And not to forget Europe. DW does at times think she is running out of time to see the places she wants to see.

 

[browniemtb]

This is a great point.....but for my family we have a vacation routine. Maine in the summer and Florida in early spring or late fall. Also, with our family we are able to take advantage of a home in the white mountains of New Hampshire and Scottsfdale Arizona. But now that we are DVC members I think we may take advatage of some of the II trades and see other places. Unfortunately some of the trips we would like to take utilizes about 7000 points for a family of 4 to go. So to sum it up I hope that DVC will open up some variety for us......
Brownie

 

[JimC]

We own at both DVC and Marriott Vacation Club. We actually travel both to Disney and elsewhere more than the last decade and much more than the previous decade. DVC and MVCI have made that more enjoyable and more cost effective.

 

[keishashadow]

Def...more trips to FL, less to other beach vacation destinations we would frequent pre-DVC.

Will say due to the split stays we plan to conserve points, we get to enjoy a 2 for 1 trip (either Universal onsite, beach, cruise).

 

[helenabear]

So far it hasn't changed anything for us yet. I bought DVC since I went, on average 2x a year. I would still do other little trips (and have to this day as well). I have a feeling it will add to our trips in the future if we decide to trade. The only change is that I don't worry about the money when it comes to going to WDW... it is now easily budgeted for

 

[deedeetoo]

This was one of our main concerns when we decided to purchase DVC. Not that we don't love WDW, but even too much of a good thing can get tiring. Due to vacation time issues and our kid's school and activity schedules we can only do two vacation weeks a year. We tend to do one flying (Orlando or other) and one someplace we can drive to (save $).

Since we are new owners we don't know how it will turn out yet, but we bought 150 pts with the idea that we could go every year in a studio or every other year in a 1 BR. If it turns out we regularly want to go every year and we can't stand the studio we will buy more points.

 

[Fitswimmer]

I used to rent a house in OCNJ for a week or two every summer, I don't do that anymore-but I could point to other reasons for that than DVC. My parents moved to The Villages 7 years ago, so my vacation time was already being spent in Florida even before I bought DVC. Now, when I go visit them, we spend 2 or 3 nights at the World, which makes the visits more fun for all of us.

 

[DVC Grammy]

We bought into DVC with the intent of spending most vacations at WDW. By the time we became DVCers, we had already been to most of the places, cities, and countries we wanted to see.
Now that we're older and empty-nesters, DH and I are making up for less-than-wonderful childhoods, after making sure that our kids got their Disney indoctrination!

"DVC= Entitlement to at least one great childhood, no matter when it's taken!"

 

[bcvillastwo]

This is an interesting and challenging post. There's not doubt that we spend more time at WDW than we did prior to becoming DVC members in April 2002. We were going at least once a year and now we go 2-3 times a year. However with that said, we became DVC members because we really like the WDW vacation experience.

On the other hand, come to think of it we haven't vacationed anyplace else since we became DVC members (not that we mind). Actually, we are retiring a the end of January so we have plently of travel ideas in the works that don't involve WDW. It will be interesting to see how our vacationing changes after retirement. One thing is certain at least in the short term--we will be spending longer periods of time at WDW each trip. So instead of 5-6 days we may stay 10-15 days. This will be made possible not by buying more points but because we have a RV.

We are so fortunate to live in the good old U.S. of A. We are blessed.

 

[3DisneyKids]

DVC Grammy-- I LOVE this quote:

DVC= Entitlement to at least one great childhood, no matter when it's taken!

This is exactly how my DH feels and one of the main reasons we bought into DVC. He never went anywhere as a kid (in fact, he had never been out of New England until he met me in 1993....and where do you think the first place I dragged him was??? LOL--of course, WDW! )

Now that we have 3 kids of our own, we are making sure that they have incredible journies and magical memories. Of course, this means an annual pilgramage to the World, but we also plan to visit other locations. Right now our kids are young, so taking a trip "out West" or even to D.C. isn't necessarily age-appropriate right now, though it will be in a few years. Until that time, it will WDW and HH for us...and DCL at least once, I'm sure!

The OP poses an interesting point and one that I think about from time to time....will we only focus on Disney trips now that we are owners? And the answer is, of course, that it is up to each individual family. As I said, it is a priority for us to take our kids lots of different places as they grow up. And since that is a priority, it will happen. For others, they feel no need to vacation anywhere else, so they will continue to do all-Disney all the time.

 

[Fitswimmer]

DVC= Entitlement to at least one great childhood, no matter when it's taken!

I think we should have T-shirts, mugs and pillows emblazoned with that!

(not refillable mugs, too much controversy)