Nosey

[gallmcduck]

We r from the UK so different holidays than in USA. We wouldn't go that distance for any less than 14 days especially with the kids. This year we are going for slightly longer yippeeeeee. Can be quite expensive for us but you can make some savings by staying offsite, leaving out car hire,using dining plan (but you pay slightly more for your accomodation as you need to stay onsite to access). Like said previously it's soooo worth it so you don't mind saving hard throughout the year.

 

[Befferk]

I am an Administrative Assistant, so not government or a "fancy" job. I've just been at my job for 11 years and get 4 weeks vacation. Before my DH was laid off he was also up to 4 weeks. He's a full time student now, so our vacation this year is when his school gets out of Spring semester. My work is very laid back and the two other gals and I in the office pick up the slack so that each other can take longer vacations, because we all know how nice it is. To me, less than 10 days is not worth it for us to go to Florida because we can only go every couple years. So we make it work. This May, my last day of work is 5/12 and I won't return until 6/1. Can't wait!!

 

[Pakey]

We only go for a week at a time to WDW because my husband and I take an annual trip somewhere else (and always someplace new) that is 14-21 days. This year is my pick and I'm leaning towards Egypt.

I worked for many years where it was never a possibility to take that much time off at one time. I've been the CFO at a large manufacturing company with the same staff for +/- 10 years and as long as I schedule for a non-peak time and take my phone, my staff manages just fine without me. My husband owns his own business.

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

We live in the arctic and it's so expensive to fly out of here that we never leave for less than 3 weeks. Usually we take one 3 week vacation in the winter and one 5 week vacation in the summer. My husband is a CA and I'm self employed.

On the down side, we are supposed to fly out on Friday and we are blizzarded in right now. DH was travelling for work and supposed to return today but his flight was diverted to another community. The blizzard is supposed to last through tomomorrw night so I am VERY worried we will not get out on Friday

We're supposed to check into the Contemporary on Monday so think warm thoughts for me I guess I'm glad I paid for travel insurance, I wonder what will happen if we can't get there by Monday I'll try not to totally freak until Friday when we don't get out and then I'll call Disney

 

[NashBridges]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[checkmate]

our own business, him in computer programming, I do home staging for real estate. We take 6-8 weeks per year to holiday. 2 weeks in the winter for a family trip, 2 weeks for a couples trip, then a 2-4 week trip in the summer where we drive across the country and camp etc.

 

[livie1205]

My dh is a LEO and I am a SAHM so we are not rich by no means but we budget and do not waste alot of money,we do not run up debt so not alot of bills to pay and when we built our house we did not go beyond our reach as far as mortgage payment.He gets about 5 weeks a year for vacation time,a few weeks for personal leave and a few weeks sick leave a year...they are very good to him so we take the kids to wdw every other christmas for a big family trip (AKL CL) and we take a smaller wdw trip each year for a week or so.
This year we have AKL CL in Dec, POLY in April for late honeymoon (very late) and next may 3 weeks at ALL STAR SUITES for a big summer trip. We always plan ahead so we can pay for our trips BEFORE we go so we do not have vacation debt when we get home...
.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Wow most people missed the point of the question (nothing new around here).
DH and I both work in telecommunications at a customer service center, I'm in quality control and DH is in operations support. I get 6 weeks a year time off and I can take mine whenever I want just have to fight the other 5 people in my office for it, only 2 can be off the same week, but it's usually just an issue at Christmas. DH on the other hand has 5 weeks time off a year and he 'could' theoretically take his whenever he wants but its not realistic, b/c more than a week out of the office nad he would be swamped. We have specific goals to meet by the end of the month everymonth and with more than a week off he would never get caught up. Mine would be covered by co workers, his would not. He only took 10 days for our wedding and Honeymoon and it took him the rest of the month to catch up plus several extra late nights working.

I scheduled a 13 day trip to Disney a few years back before I took this position (and before DH) but got sick about day 5 and had to come home early so I'll prob never try that again. The position I had at that time was no pressure, no production, no goals, no planning needed, just a show up and do it kinda of job so taking 2 weeks was no big deal.

 

[tzolkin]

We will go to Disney for 10-12 nights (plus driving), not 2 weeks plus.

Two years ago we visited family in FL and went to a friend's wedding along with our Disney trip, so we were gone a little over 3 weeks.


DH is a nurse and I don't work. He has vacation time and can use it as he decides as long as he requests it in advance. There is no work waiting for him when he returns because it must be completed daily-- others work hard to get everything done and may take a bit of overtime, just like he does when they are on vacation or out sick. We were at Disney for 12 days in May and he took off during the kids' winter break-- he still has about 25 hours to use up. I'm not sure the exact number of vacation hours he is up to now. It started out as 2 weeks/year. He has worked at the same hospital for almost 7 years.

As far as affording it. We just budget in our daily lives and try to be practical when planning a trip to keep the cost reasonable (we drive, buy groceries, don't purchase extra stuff). We are fairly young 28/29 and have 3 children.

 

[mjkacmom]

I'm at a big financial services company. My level gets 21 days, plus we can "buy" another week and we get one or two bonus days for reaching annual goals.

So, I have over 5 weeks. Time off is valued here, so we find ways to cover for each other easily.

My DH has been a CFP for the same large financial services company for 20 years, and although he gets 5+ weeks a year, I don't think he would be able to take 2 weeks off. He's a senior member of a branch office. He has taken 1+ weeks off, with maybe a couple conference calls thrown in.

 

[BradyBz12]

DH is a service writer for an auto dealership and I'm a graphic designer with my own small business. We've worked our way up to 3 weeks at WDW for our annual vacation the past 2 years. It takes a LOT of scrimping, saving and planning to pull it off.

Time off is tricky - DH only gets 2 weeks paid vacation, so he saves up his sick time time to take the extra week. I'm much more flexible with my own business, but even though I do a lot of planning to clear my desk before we go, I still usually end up bringing my laptop to take care of the little things that crop up while we're gone.

In terms of cost - it helps tremendously that we pull our travel trailer to Fort Wilderness and stay there with our dogs. Ends up costing us about as much as a value resort - a bit less if we luck into an AP or AAA discount. The ability to cook some meals saves on food (we usually eat 1 meal out each day), and bringing the dogs with us saves us the expense of having to kennel them (plus we just love traveling with them!) Plus we just LOVE the Fort and all it has to offer.

When it comes to meals, we've done a lot of research about what's available and have found ways to save while still enjoying eating out - a big part of any vacation IMO.

For park tix we've found that by purchasing APs and planning so that we get 2 year's worth of trips out of each (6 weeks total) we save a TON there alone. We also take advantage of the discount perks that go along with the APs - namely the TiW card, which we can also use over 2 trips and has easily saved us several hundred dollars.

At this point our friends and family are playing into our Disney habit - giving us Disney gift cards for birthdays/Christmas - and we also save up points on our Disney Visa throughout the year (they paid for our MNSSHP tix last year).

We've been to WDW often enough at this point that we don't buy many souvenirs anymore, so we save a good bit of $ there too.

In the end we've come up with a way to spend 3 weeks at WDW (on property) for what the average week-long package costs. It's not easy, but we think it's worth it for the fun and relaxation we have while we're there.

 

[mousireid]

We are a military family. We take advantage of special offers, tickets, lodging, budget and save for our wee trips. Where we could take a vacation 4/5 weeks roughly to use each year to go to Disney my family are in Scotland and before we were either stationed overseas or elsewhere in the US and we sepnt time visiting with them and taking 4/5 day trips to Disney or long weekends, or even a two nights stay (when in CA at DL) or here in FL to DW.
I have jobs/college and he has a career. We are NOT loaded but we choose what to do with our money that is all. And as for time. Life is VERY short. If you got hit by a bus tomorrow, what did you want to do and say before you go. Better do it now! That for us inlcudes memories at Disney!

 

[KateMW]

We only go for a week at a time to WDW because my husband and I take an annual trip somewhere else (and always someplace new) that is 14-21 days. This year is my pick and I'm leaning towards Egypt.

I worked for many years where it was never a possibility to take that much time off at one time. I've been the CFO at a large manufacturing company with the same staff for +/- 10 years and as long as I schedule for a non-peak time and take my phone, my staff manages just fine without me. My husband owns his own business.

First off, how cool is Egypt going to be? Wow! Very jealous!

And the part I highlighted is the key to my husband taking vacations. He's a partner in a large law firm, so as long as he has his phone and isn't planning on going during a trial or time leading up to trial, we're usually fine. We can take as much time as we want...but it comes with long work days year around, working weekends, last minute cancelations, etc. It's probably worth it...maybe.

 

[amzking]

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!

I haven't taken a two week vacation to WDW, but both my husband and I have 4 weeks a year, and we are in the private sector (health care and alarm systems.) Now mind you, that includes sick time too, but I have always had rather generous time off and DH has been at his job long enough that his vacation time awarded every year has gotten higher. In three more years I will get an extra week a year. He started with only one week off for the first year.

The only time we have taken two week vacations is either overseas (not worth it to go for only a week, IMO) or to Colorado to visit family.

We have a modest home and only one car payment, which is why we were able to do multiple small trips to WDW this year, in addition to our first-ever week at WDW in May. Of course we are local so air fare is not an issue. We did Buy 4 Get 3, upgraded those tix to APs, and always got awesome AP rates for the rest of the trips. I think the dining plan is a money saver for us too, the way we like to eat on vacation.

 

[Cap'nJack'sMum]

We live in the arctic and it's so expensive to fly out of here that we never leave for less than 3 weeks. Usually we take one 3 week vacation in the winter and one 5 week vacation in the summer. My husband is a CA and I'm self employed.

On the down side, we are supposed to fly out on Friday and we are blizzarded in right now. DH was travelling for work and supposed to return today but his flight was diverted to another community. The blizzard is supposed to last through tomomorrw night so I am VERY worried we will not get out on Friday

We're supposed to check into the Contemporary on Monday so think warm thoughts for me I guess I'm glad I paid for travel insurance, I wonder what will happen if we can't get there by Monday I'll try not to totally freak until Friday when we don't get out and then I'll call Disney

I hope you get out!!! I would be freaking out if I were you. I admire your calm demeanor.

 

[newharmony]

DH and I go for 20 nights at a time, and we go twice a year. When DH first started going, he went to the campground. When we married, we stayed at the ASMovies at first, then Riverside. We'd go for a week at a time. We eventually bought DVC points for SSR and have enough for 20 nights there, then we bought BWV ...enough for 20 more nights. He is a retired insurance agent. He sold his business to his son about 10 years ago. I still work, but only about 30 hours a week. I have 6 weeks paid vacation. We have worked many years to get to this point. We are now looking forward to buying a home in Mount Dora, FL and spending even MORE time at WDW!

 

[dis75ney]

I work for a major pharmaceutical company and can earn three weeks off per year. Unfortunately, I do have a PTO cap where I'll stop earning PTO unless I take PTO. While I understand why the cap is in place (my company actually WANTS us to take time off), I wish that the company would let the employees make the decision on whether to take time off. I also get the major holidays off (NY, Memorial, Labor, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), and we get four floating holidays per year as well that are use 'em or lose 'em by the end of the year.

This year I'll be taking three weeks of vacation: a staycation next week, WDW in May for Star Wars weekend, and then we'll be taking a cruise in September. My boss is already panicking...

 

[bouncycat]

I'm a banker, and DH is a Chief in the Coast Guard, we're not loaded either, I book early and make payments, so we can do the trip all on cash. We usually do just 2-4 nights when they have the military special, so no 7 day trips for us. We're local, so that helps a bunch, but it is nice to stay there, and eat at the different places and such every once in a while, or take a family member or friend. This year, we're going all out, for my friend who's graduating from college as an accountant. We're using taxes and payments to go, and I'm saving $ here and there to be able to indulge a little bit. My advice, just save save save, and take advantage of any specials!!

 

[lynnebla]

Why?

If they're thinking the same as me (I'm a CPA), sounds like somebody may be doing a little "cheating" on their taxes. You can't just choose a lot of things like head of household status & how dependents are claimed. While I'm all for keeping as much $ out of Uncle Sam's (or Obama's, as the case may be) hands, there are ways these things work & they can't just be changed to get the best deal possible.

 

[Dr. M]

I'm a dentist and my DH is a SAHD. I work 30 hours a week and have to plan my vacations 6 months in advance. I usually take about 4 weeks of vacation spread throughout the year, and I try not to do more than 10 straight days at a time, because I feel obligated to be available to my patients. I've known most of them for years, and they've all become part of our "dental" family.