Nosey

[PSUGuy]

I'm an applications programmer at a small Pa university and I teach here part-time, wifey was offered early retirement with a buyout last year, she may go back to work part-time someday. We get a Spring Break here in March when we often take an 8 day WDW vacation. I also get off from X-Mas eve day until the day after New Year's Day and I have 4 weeks vacation as well. We do 10 days at Myrtle Beach in July and a few long weekend trips to places like Niagara Falls, Gettysburg, etc. Our next WDW trip will be Food&Wine in Oct or Nov this year.

Bill From PA

 

[DisneyShannon]

I am single no kids and live with my dad. I am a Department Manager for the local hospital. I save all year and use my income tax money. I get 15 days vacation a year and try to go to disney twice a year.

 

[Legacy]

Interesting info. I'm not nosy about how people afford it...just how they can take so many days off of work!

Looks like most responders have state/fed jobs and the spouse is self-employed. That's kind of what I was guessing was the case!

 

[Heidijs]

Interesting info. I'm not nosy about how people afford it...just how they can take so many days off of work!

Looks like most responders have state/fed jobs and the spouse is self-employed. That's kind of what I was guessing was the case!

Maybe Disney will have a special gov't employee week soon!

 

[iwrbnd]

I've wondered the same thing.

My husband is a family doc so if he doesn't work he doesn't get paid. I force him to take one vacation a year for 7 days. He would prefer 4 days since he's swamped when he gets back & financially we definately feel it!

I'm a teacher so I have school breaks.

I would looove to take longer & more vacations but "it ain't never gonna happen"! Hey, maybe things will get better under Obama's health plan & we'll get paid vacations!!!

 

[ancestry]

This year we are going for 10 days (not 14) but I am self-employed and also teach online for a University so I have control over my own schedule (somewhat). I will have to log in to the course I am teaching while I am at Disney but hopefully I can do that early in the morning and again late at night.

My husband has been at his job long enough that he gets 3 weeks of vacation each year. Often we schedule our vacation to overlap on a holiday but this year that isn't happening. He often works evenings, weekends and holidays and gets additional comp days for doing so in theory he can take more than 3 weeks.

 

[Dash7]

This is interesting. At my company we are only allowed to take 1 week off at a time, so no multi-week vacations for me. Maybe someday!

 

[stitch1094]

I work for a life insurance company and based on my years of service, I have 4 weeks of vacation time. My wife is a teacher, which means our vacations to DW are during the peak times.

The last few years we have done 10 to 14 day trips. Being a DVC member takes the sting out of lodging. We "only" have to pay for tickets and food (which we usually use our federal income tax return for).

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

OK..I'm just plain nosey here...for those blessed people who can take 14+ day trips:

What do you and your spouse do for a living?
How are you able to take off that many days straight from work?

I can't even imagine leaving work for 10 working days...I'd have SO much to do when I got back! I can understand affording it all, I think, with lots of saving, or being blessed financially...

Just curious...

For us it wasn't always this way, we have been working over 21 years so being an old timer helps with the time off work and salary.

When we were younger and had small children it was different, maybe no vacation or a short one and no Disney until the kids were 9 and 10.

 

[kohlby]

We're also not taking a full two weeks - though DH is taking 9-10 days off work so close to it! (Hoping for 9. It depends on how the drive back goes!) He gets 20 vacation days a year and was allowed to roll over 3 unused days from last year. He struggles to have to use up his vacation days at the end of the year. He used to only have to take 10 days off and cashed in the rest but they changed the policy. He's an electrical engineer and I'm a SAHM who homeschools.

For hotel - we're using our Starwood points to get a free night on the hotel on the drive down as well as 5 nights free at the Dolphin. (The buy 4 get one free worked with points!) Then we're switching to a Universal Hotel which I managed to get a great deal on. We do the off-season and I watch the prices. Last time, the person at the hotel's check-in desk was shocked our rate was so low. We have free Sea World tickets thanks to credit card points. All but one of our Universal tickets were free thanks to credit card points. We did have to pay for our Disney tickets but we do 10 day never expires - which means three of our tickets were at 2006 rates and already paid for. I did have to buy one for my 3 year old this time. We do counter service and eat breakfast with food we bring in our room. We're not big souvenir buyers. We don't go every year, so that helps too!

 

[Mama Steph]

This August will be our longest trip yet. We will be at Disney 11 days (10nts) and will be driving so that is an additional 2-4 nights. DH owns a small building company. While he is gone, very little will be done but I am a teacher so we go during peak season. Since we have a family of 7 we almost always drive so that adds 4 days to our trips. We just don't have time to go during the school year (except Xmas which is way out of our price range).

 

[Tiger926]

I'm a highschool teacher, so I get whole summer off, and hubby is a bank supervisor with 5 weeks of vacation each year. We are DVC members, so we go for 2 weeks each July.

Tiger

 

[ReelRedHead]

We are going for 10 nights in June. I am a teacher and my hubby does environmental work. We are NOT wealthy!! The trip was really not that expensive at all. 10 night, POR, park hoppers, QSDP, 2 adults, one 5-year-old.
The total was $3800.
Save, Save, Save.

 

[vroomagain]

DH and I are both students and work at our respective colleges. We had middle of Dec- middle of Jan. off so we took off 2 weeks.

We have no idea what our vacations will look like when we have to get real jobs

 

[bumbershoot]

I really don't care how others can afford a vacation for a week or a half year.
That is non of my business and I hope they can take a vacation as long as they like.
Why would you care what others do? As long as they pay there bill's and taxes I hope this is a free country.
BTW we just take a month to vacation and do the things we like.

Perhaps so they can gear their career towards that direction?



I'm at home with DS, and we homeschool, so apart from his sports and homeschool PE classes at the Y, we're free as birds. DH works for amazon.com as a product tester. For the first two years of employment he gets 2 weeks, and then 3...and you can carry it over. (if you're in customer service it's very different FYI) If DH is gone, they either hold off on the testing he needs to do or have someone else do it. He has some other things he's doing (since flexibility is very much a part of being at amazon) that might get backed up, but he's very good at clearing his to-do list before going away.

We've been more in the mode of doing several shorter trips in the year, but this year we're doing WDW for the first time, and we want to do it up BIG. So we're planning on using the time leftover from last year plus his weeks this year.

 

[Hallowishes]

ok, i work retail .. but i work for a terrific company. ive worked for them for just a little over three years. i get 3 weeks vacation + 1 week of wellness time. then, i rolled over 4 days from last year (we can roll over up to 5 days) so i will be spending 11 days at WDW in september. for the past two years, ive gotten free dining and i stay at a value resort (all star music) my trip costs me roughly $1500 with airfare from cleveland, ohio. i save up for it all year and really try to be thrifty to afford it .. and its completely worth it to me

 

[deerhart]

I'm an attorney and my husband is currently a retail manager (he'll be out once he finishes his masters degree).

I am taking off 2 weeks this year for our vacation (starting with memorial day weekend and then a few days after we return). We will be there for 9 days/8 nights with 2 kids (ages 7 and 10) at BC. Our trip is less expensive then many other places we looked at.

It takes lots of planning on my part (to not have things scheduled, have memos to my files for people to fill in etc, and to let all my clients know I won't be available) and yes I have lots of work when I get back (but hey that's a NORMAL workday).

 

[FigNewton]

I'm a state worker (have been for the past 35 years) I now have earned 5 weeks vacation. I earned it--I'm gonna use it.

Same here, earn about 18 days a year now after 10 years. My wife works for a health insurance company and also gets about 3 weeks per year.

Seriously the time off is the only good thing left about being a state employee here. People think we are all spoiled and taken care of by the state but the truth is we are severely underpaid and underfunded.

 

[Heidijs]

Same here, earn about 18 days a year now after 10 years. My wife works for a health insurance company and also gets about 3 weeks per year.

Seriously the time off is the only good thing left about being a state employee here. People think we are all spoiled and taken care of by the state but the truth is we are severely underpaid and underfunded.

Same for city workers...0% cost of living/raises here this year! WOO HOO!!! Oh but our health insurance went way up...yep, vacation and sick time is about all it's worth...DH is head of streets and is very underpaid...

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

I'm a stay at home mom and DH is a CPA for a government entity. So he does get lots of vacation but does have a hard time catching up when we get back. We have also tried to plan around school holidays and DH is often off work for the holidays that the kids are so that he doesn't miss the full 2 weeks of work.