Profile of a DVCer ...

[goofyforwdw]

Can't believe I have just found it. We are a family of 5 Dh and I will be married 25 yrs this coming Feb. Our kids are 15,17,and 20.
We bought in a HH back in 96 when it first opened .DH had been trying to get me to go to a presentation before that but I didn't want to give up vac. time to do so DAH. We are all six feet tall and over except for my DD (15) so the bigger rooms and beds really appealed to us. My 20 yr old 6'6" was so excited the first time we went into HH and he went in the room with the tub, I heard him really excited and asked what was wrong and he tells me" MOM a tub I can fit in" it was so funny. We are all disney nuts some more than other but all crazy. We are a higher middle class family that works hard for the thing we have. My DH has had his own fire sprinkler company for 25 yrs and just reaently gave it up and went in the local union bringing my 20yr old with him. They have worked nonstop for the last month 10-12 hr days and weekend. I work out of the house booking appt and doing sect. work for a company.We do own our on home and most times it need a lot of work we also have a log cabin in NH that is my salvation when the world gets to me thats the place I go to relaxe. We add on since our HH days to the point that we now have 850 pts. I am hoping to get a part time job at the DS and may add on 50 more pts so that some day the kids can share 300 each, that is if I am not using the but in forty more yrs I will be 86 and DH will be 95 so we may no be able to go as often LOL . As far as family goes they think we are nuts but I just try to explain it nicley and I think they are starting to get it, when I tell them some of the other things we do besides the parks. Some have come with us and are amazed at how nice the resorts are. We are taking both of our familys in 2 two bedrooms and 2 studios for a long weekend in Jan to renew our vows. There are 20 of us going out of 25 that we invited. We are provinding the rooms and some events they are own their own for flying,and park tickets ect. Some of us are staying for a week some are staying 3 days.DH and I are going for 5 days next week and the 4 days in Oct. and maybe a 4 day cruise in Nov. Taking the kids for 5 days in Dec then the family thing in Jan. Feb and March are up in the air and then a 2 bed in April and August at HH . We love to travel and love our DVC
Take care Brenda

 

[DVC1996]

This is a neat and interesting thread to read dh and I are 49 years old. My husband is a regional pharmacy supervisor for a major drug chain and I am a speech and language pathologist who has recently retired. We have two grown children who are in college. I have been a Disney fanatic all my life! As a child, I religiously watched Walt Disney on the Wonderful World of Color and also the Mickey Mouse Club. I recall vividly the night he revealed his plans for Walt Disney World. We live in TN and my father promised that when WDW was completed we would go!
So......in 1971 he kept his promise! We stayed off-site at one of the motels on 192 which were really nice back in those days!
We were so excited when we got there that I remember we drove to the parking lot at the T&T center to see if we could see anything! LOL One thing that impressed me immensely back then was the cleanliness and quality of everything at Disney. It was near perfect ....as near perfect as perfect gets IMO. I recall that there was someone right behind you in those days to pick up any piece of litter or lint....... And the landscaping was so beautiful! ON that first trip, we took the ferry to the MK from the TTC rather than the monorail. My image of the MK at that time was that it was a magical island with a Castle on it. What an image it left in my mind!!! Now back to dh and our life vacationing at WDW and DVC. dh and I were high school sweethearts and married in 1977. Our first trips to WDW were in a Volkswagon bug with no air conditioning! What a ride..... but we were young and those are some of the best memories. We stayed off-site primarily during those early days. However, we began staying on-site after the first moderate was built- Caribbean Beach Resort. Until 1996, we vacationed annually at either the CBR, DL, or PO. We also stayed a couple of stays at the Poly and WL. We saw the booths at the hotels in 1991 advertising DVC but dh was very skeptical since timeshares had a bad name in our neck of the woods at the time and he refused to go to a presentation. In 1996, we received a postcard about a special at Vero Beach. Anyway....we vacationed there and dh feel in love with this place!
We then stopped by HH on the way home and toured that resort.
After we got home, we discussed it and called DVC for materials on joining. We had trouble getting through to the original guide assigned to us but I really liked the VG I talked to instead. Her name was Julie Hughes and I reguested that she be my guide. No problem. Anyway....we ended up buying 210 pts at Vero and two years later we added 50 pts at OKW. We have had no regrets except maybe not buying back in 1991-92. DVC is the right choice for us since is satisfies our yearly WDW addiction and our love for the Florida beach. Going to Disney always brings back precious memories and keeps me young at heart
WE LOVE DVC

Harriet

 

[dvcelise]

Hello to all,
I am 34 years old, my dh is 35. We have been married 10 years and have 3 dd's, ages 7, almost 6, & almost 4. I am expecting another child (sex unknown) in Jan 2003. I am a Physical Therapist working an average of 10 hours a week in home care/acute care setting. My dh works for the local gas company. We joined DVC in 1998, right after my almost 4 year old was born. We originally purchased 250 points, but have added an additional 150 points since. Ultimately, we would like an even 500 points! Our home resort is BWV(250) and VB(150). We are both disney fanatics, well actually all 5 of us are disney fanatics! I do all the planning though, kind of the obsessive-compulsive type planner. Our next trip is WLV 10/20-10/30 in a dedicated 2BR. This has been a very interesting thread to read! Thanks to all for posting!!

Elise

 

[SEC]

Our DVC family consists of myself and my husband. We bought DVC because we love to go to Disney and when we looked at the numbers, it made sense. I tell everyone I bought it as my 30th birthday present and it did make turing 30 a lot easier. We are both professionals and college educated. My husband has a master's degree and I will finish a MBA in May 2003.

 

[KathyK]

My DH and are are in our early 30's. We first looked at DVC while on our honeymoon in 1998. We joined nearly 2 years later, after we had purchased our house (DH kept reminding me about priorities).

DH has a degree in Political Science, adn works as a fundraising consultant. I have a master's degree in Chemistry, and I write analytical chemistry methods at a major pharmaceutical company.

At the time we joined DVC, we had no children. We now have a DD who is 9 months old. When we joined, the main reason was that we wanted to be able to share the "magic" with our hypothetical future children. Well, DD will have been to WDW twice before she is a year old. We also wanted to share the "magic" with our families. In 2000, we went with my sister and her familY (BIL and 2 sons). They had never been to WDW before, and now they are going for tehir second trip in about a month. A DVC tour is on their itinerary. In November, we will be going to WDW with my MIL, FIL, SIL, and SIL's family (BIL and 3 sons). Sharing teh magic is what it is all about for us. I'm looking forward to the next 39 years of vacations and sharing the magic with our future children as well as other family members.

 

[Marisa'sMom]

This is a great thread! I've enjoyed reading about families just like mine! My husband and I are in our 30's (DH mid, me late) and our DD is 9. We use to live in Florida and visited VB when it first opened, and we were bit by the DVC bug. At the time we could not afford points, so we would go out there and eat lunch from time to time.

Then a few years later we moved to NC and thought HH would be the perfect meeting place with our Orlando friends. We of course discovered HHV. Still couldn't make it work. Our folks live in Orlando and every time we would go home we had to go to Disney. We love WDW! Dec 00' we went out to tour at BWV and we were able to buy our first points at VWL!! What a blessing! Our families are happy for us because they know how much we love Disney. Of course they are disappointed because now we use our points instead of staying with them!

We are middle class folks. I work as an Admin. Assistant for an Insurance Co. and my husband is a Pharmacutical Rep.

 

[maddy]

This is a great thread. DP Janet and I have owned a home together for 17 years and now are empty nesters. We went to wdw only once with our daughter, when she was in high school. Several years later we decided to try it as a an adult vacation spot and have been regular visitors and DVC owners for ever sence. We own 155 pts at BWV and are hoping for a west coast add on sometime in our lifetime. NO one we are friends or workmates with gets the disney thing, so this board is a real life line to our people. Janet is the fiscal coordinator for OSU Alumni Association and I work for Hewlett Packard as a technician. Keep buying those printers, folks.
We supplement our yearly 2 week vacations in wdw with business trips and 1 and 2 day trips around the NW. We are in our late 40's early 50's and are helping our late 20's daughter get her life back on track after a stint in the Marines and a 7 yr marriage to a great but-not-the-right guy. As a college graduation present it will be off to wdw for the 3 of us again, full circle. Our dream retirement is an Airstream trailer and a winter time job at wdw.
Maddy

 

[colleen costello]

It strikes me how many folks here are pleased because DVC will allow them to share Disney magic with friends and family who might otherwise never get to go. Isn't that nice! I hope to do the same. Dear friends of ours left Indiana to move back to South Carolina. They are not big "vacation people" like we are, and I am going to try to get a few nights at HH next summer so they can join us and enjoy the place. It will be a great reunion and a chance for our kids to have a ball together in a Disney environment (my favorite kind!) I just think a special part of being a DVC'er is the opportunity to share with friends and family.

 

[wdwendyd]

Hello everyone!
I love the DIS boards and read them everyday. I am a Stay-at Home mom to 3 kids and I have a wonderful husband who is a WDW convert!
My love for all things Disney goes way back to before I was born as my older brother loved the movie Peter Pan, so my name was to be either Peter or Wendy depending on how things turned out.
We grew up an hours drive from Disneyland and my brother took me on the Disneyland employee trips to WDW in 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1983. My first job was working at Disneyland in the Frontierland shops as a cashier. The next year I worked on Main Street.
I love WDW more than Disneyland (and that is saying a lot!) and felt guilty trying to get my DH to go. Little did I know, he was beginning to like our trips. The only thing he didn't like was packing and unpacking all our camping gear.
When we went on the DVC tour my heart was racing. Maybe I could actually realize my dream of staying at the Boardwalk! After the tour, my DH said it wasn't a good idea. I had the saddest feeling inside, I can't even express to you what it felt like.
But then I discovered the DIS boards! And I found out about resales and I actually talked my husband into it!!!
Now I am so happy and my life has pixie dust in it everyday!

 

[ncligs]

Any more new DVC members that missed this thread?

 

[sheryl0521]

Wow, what a great topic!
Our family consists of Me(33) & DH(34), DS(9) and DS(15 mo.) My hubby and I have been married for 10 years and have visited WDW an average of twice per year since before we were even married. We first looked into DVC about 5 years ago, but it just wasn’t in the plan. I was diagnosed with MS this summer and our priorities have certainly changed! We bought into DVC in Sept and can’t wait to start to experience the magic!

I am a Systems Specialist with a local financial services corp. and DH is in the liquor sales field. I have a fairly normal schedule, but hubby’s schedule can be quite erratic and we certainly appreciate our time away with the family. Like other posts before mine, our friends and family don’t ask “if” we are going back to Disney, but “when’. I would say we are middle class as far as incomes go. We have definitely have put in the time to reach where we are today.

Most of our family likes to head north to VT, NH and ME to vacation, but we are the odd ones that like to head south to FL. We have tried to take “stay at home” vacations but by the second or third day we are always saying that we wish we had gone away (usually thinking about WDW!)

It has been great to meet about half of you and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the posts (the 15-mo old DS is waking up from his nap.)

Sheryl

 

[WOW]

A UK DVC'r posted that she only comes across UK members on this site-----we almost always meet UK members when we are at OKW. I envy them because so many of them come for looooong periods of time.

We have been members since 93 and have had 10 years of gorious vacations. We are now 55 and 56 and our kids are 23 and 24. We all still enjoy DVC and go at least once each year. Of course, I am the real Disneynut and go more often---every chance I get. Have even gone solo (until Hubby caught up with me) and that was really nice to be able to think about only what I want to do. We almost stay exclusively at OKW because it seems to be everyone's favorite.

 

[kel3420]

We are a family of five, dh (39), ds (15) dd (14) dd (5) and myself (37). We live in the suburban Chicago area and bought into DVC almost 2 years ago. Dh is a an engineer and I am a full time mom.

We had gone to several other timeshare presentaions are were SO turned off. I could have promised dh a new Ferrari if we went to another one, and he still would not go

We travel to Disney every other year, and when doing research for a trip, I ran across this board and was immediately interested, but confused. We usually stayed offsite or at the All Stars, but with that trip we had upgraded to the Poly and were very impressed. I had mentioned to dh about DVC on the plane trip down, and just suggested, that maybe, perhaps, would it be possible (lol) to just stop in at the DVC offices? We did, and were SO impressed that there wasn't a hard sell and the rooms were so much nicer than what we were even currently in. We bought it, lol.

As I mentioned we usually travel to Disney every other year, and do a beach/tropical vacation on the off years. We bought into Vero and have been quite impressed. Actually I look forward to our Vero vacations more than actually staying in the World. In a month, we go to the BCV for four days and Vero for four days. This is becoming a Thanksgiving tradition.

 

[AEN]

I thought that this was a great thread.

We just joined in September and are really looking forward to our first trip. We are aiming for HH in August 2003.

I am a CPA and DW stays at home (doing some work with a contractor) doing the more important work, watching DD, 10, DD, 8 and DS, 6.

FYI on two other DVC members;

I brought based on the recommendation of two members:

A) One of my partners (also a CPA), and
B) A friend who is a detective in NJ and his wife is a computer analyst.

I hope this helps.

I really enjoy this forum.

 

[DVC-LEROY]

Interesting posts! I always wondered who my neighbors were. My DH is a VP/GM of a manufacturing company. I'm a stay at home mom and an employee development/ customer service trainer & consultant. I'll be working again when our DS goes to school - he's 4. We bought in 2 years ago (VWL) after his first trip to WDW. We just got in on some BC points - we'll be staying there in February 2003.

 

[SamS]

My wife and I are "empty-nesters", and have been for some time. Married in our late teens while I was a student at Penn State, we only had one child, who is now thirty-three,and has a son and a daughter. I'm a teacher; my wife works as a business manager ina dental office. I guess we qualify as upper-middle class economically. Retirement should be within the next five years, if all goes as planned. BCV ownership came after a visit to WDW with son and his family in June. We had not been to WDW since 1989, and couldn't believe we let that much time pass between visits. Although we vacation at the Outer Banks in NC and New England each summer, and take a group ski trip to Vermont each January, the Mouse will surely play a more important part in our future leisure life. We had the most fabulous time at Disney in June! It is so hard to wait for our first visit "home" next June. We even discussed a Thanksgiving trip, but decided against it because we'd have to shorten next June's 12 night trip or skip Xmas of '03. We're looking forward to making our visits at off-peak times, and eventually adding more points so we can go more often, and take our son, DL and grandchildren. That's about it.

 

[DeeDeeDis]

Its nice to meet all of you

DH and I (both 43) just purchased DVC last month. Stopped in for the presentation while at WDW in august, left 3 hours later, very interested but not sold yet. DH found this board and 3 weeks later we took the plunge.
I work in recreation, DH Computers, we have 3 boys; DS16, DS14, DS11. We own a 4br cape in a nice town (around 10,000 people) in Mass. DH and I have always been big on vacations, normally do two big vacations a year, one skiing and one in the summer. Last two summers have been at WDW (offsite).

Whole family loves WDW and all three kids still think its fun to hang out with mom & dad (odd but true). Actually DS16 who is a HS Jr wants to go to college to become an engineer is now taking about becoming an Imagineer. Middle DS wants to be tigger.

Well off? No I'd say middle class. The timing was good for us to buy, finally had a little money put aside (it was suppost to be for wooden floors but hey those rugs can last a few more years), also the interest rates are real low (did not finance thru DVC, hoping we can pay off the DVC in about 5 years.

Also DH and I figure we work hard, spend alot of time involved with the boys, their school and their sports, we DESERVE to TREAT ourselves to some first class vacations.

Like someone said early in this post you can't take it with you. Family vacations, spending time with my boys (all 4) is priceless and I know it won't last forever.

 

[MelissathePooh]

DINK's checking in here! d-r teaches at Michigan State University and I am a field claims adjuster for a large insurance carrier. We own an old house in an historic neighborhood and drive an SUV - sort of yuppie hanger ons I guess (d-r is 34 and I am 29). Our pride and joy is our furry little four legged boy (our dog of course)!

My mother always took me to WDW growing up - every year since I was 6 mos old and d-r went to high school in Florida so day trips to WDW were common for him. Neither of us realized what a large role Disney would play in our lives, but it became very important to us. We had to move across country when d-r was hired at MSU, so trips to WDW (where family would come as well) became our way of truly going home along with a nice vacation. We had a wedding at YC (originally eloped) and honeymooned there (of course) and now go every few months for at least a weekend. From collecting movies and lithographs, vacationing and now d-r building a model MK - its just something comforting that we share that makes us feel at home. So buying DVC was just a way of sealing the deal I guess.

No one understands why we don't get tired of it or what the attraction is to it - and I know there are certainly less expensive hobbies to have, but its our place for escaping and returning to a familiar place that just happens to be magical!

 

[Suzi Q]

DH and I are 53 and are also empty-nesters. We met in high school and were married the year Magic Kingdom opened. We have wished many times that we had gone there for our honeymoon. We made our first trip to WDW in 1981 when our youngest of three sons was just 2 1/2. Our oldest son was 8 1/2. We had planned on staying 5 days, but had so much fun that we ended up staying 5 more days in Fort Wilderness. We have so many wonderful memories with our boys there. While our boys were coming with us, we stayed at Fort Wilderness and now our goal is to try all the resorts.

We never thought that we would be able to afford DVC, but after looking into it, we found it to be very affordable for us. We bought into DVC in 1998 at BWV and this year added on at BCV. How we wish we had checked into it sooner while our kids were home with us. It would have been a stretch at times, but it would have been worth every bit of it. New furniture, and other things are soon forgotten, but time spent together making memories lasts forever.

We are from the midwest. My husband is a computer software architect and I do medical transcription part time out of our home. We travel alot both with business and pleasure. We have travelled to several foreign countries, but WDW is our escape into the magical world. We go there 2-3 times a year.

We can't wait until we can bring our little granddaughter with us.

Our family and friends think we are Dis Nuts, but we don't care. They can't imagine why we go so often. We can forget about the world when we are at Disney and thoroughly enjoy every minute we are there.

Like many of you, we would like to spend our winter months after we retire "working" at WDW. My DH wants to drive a boat or work with the fireworks. I would like to help the gardeners or taste test the ice cream mouse ears!!

 

[ilovefh]

we havent bought into DVC but we sure are thinking about it!! I agree with everyone, family vacations are wonderful! My family went on two vacations together per yr, whether we wanted to go or not (most times to Disney, and who wouldnt want t go to disney ) Thats one, of many things that i got from my family, that I want to pass on to my children. I had the greatest childhood, and I dont think my kids could have it any better than I did! Can you tell I think my parents are the greatest most supportive people in the world? But I think family vacations are such an important part of family life (if u can afford it, i know some people cant) I have friends who never went on vacation with their families and there is a huge difference between us (not that vacations solve all problems or kids who dont go on vacation turn out poorly) but my friends dont have the memories that I do. they have memories of doing nothing with their families! and thats why they think im nuts for wanting to go on one vacation at least per year, even if i have to save every penny i can find! they also think im crazy for still wanting my parents to come with us on vacation.