Other vacations than DVC

[davale4]

Last year we decided we would skip our WDW vacation and bank our points. We went to PR and stayed in at a BEAUTIFUL hotel. We did a lot of sight seeing and exploring the island. Both my kids love it and had a great time but....they didn’t consider that a “real” vacation (what???!!!). My DD9 kept asking when were we going to Disney that year (we had explained that we were not going at all that year).

Long story short....we ended going to Disney as well so they could have their Disney fix. The good thing is that my DH has plenty of vacation days and we can do Disney (which according to my kids is the real vacation) and take a “fake” vacation as well.

 

[Cyberc1978]

Thanks everyone I appreciate your feedback. I’m glad to hear that you also go elsewhere even though wdw is a lovely place.

I see that a lot have been cruising, I’ve never done that but would love to in the future. Would you recommend doing a dvc cruise as our first cruise or something else?

 

[lovin'fl]

Thanks everyone I appreciate your feedback. I’m glad to hear that you also go elsewhere even though wdw is a lovely place.

I see that a lot have been cruising, I’ve never done that but would love to in the future. Would you recommend doing a dvc cruise as our first cruise or something else?

Our first cruise was a Disney cruise and then after that we did Carnival. Last year, we finally also tried Royal Caribbean. I actually prefer Carnival, especially if it's 7+ days as the short Carnival cruises can sometimes be party cruises.

 

[DieHardJoe]

We did our first cruise in 2004, 5 years prior to owning DVC. It was a week sailing from Seattle to Alaska with our 2 daughters. It was phenomenal!! We did it the last week of July and had almost all good, comfortable weather which helped. Since then we have done a 4-day Disney cruise (with no kids) and loved that as well. For us, you can't go wrong with either option.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Thanks everyone I appreciate your feedback. I’m glad to hear that you also go elsewhere even though wdw is a lovely place.

I see that a lot have been cruising, I’ve never done that but would love to in the future. Would you recommend doing a dvc cruise as our first cruise or something else?

We are senior citizens who have done over 50 cruises since the 1980’s, so before DCL.

We do not even tend to look at other cruise lines if we are doing a quick Caribbean/Bahamas cruise, we both like the DCL difference that much, but we do not value rock walls or zip lines and we enjoy DCLs onboard activities a lot. However we have done and enjoyed other lines.

However, for other itineraries, we do shop around. Disney DOES NOT DO partial transit of PC, so we have done that twice on Princess. We have done full transit on DCL. Also we did a Podcast cruise on the Oasis in 2016, so we are opened to other experiences.

If when you are ready to cruise, you still enjoy Disney, I would start with DCL. Our first was chosen by me as a way to celebrate Tom’s 60Th birthday.

 

[disneynutz]

Vegas and cruising. Cruising started when we got the free DCL cruise for buying BLT, since then we have switched to Celebrity and have taken a few trips.

Bill

 

[clayfolks]

We usually go to WDW 2-3 times a year. This past year, we were also in London, Barcelona, Rome,Tuscany, and Venice. The year before was Malaysia, Hong Kong, and London (grandkids). Next year we have booked a DCL med cruise. I have cruised other lines and am open to some of them, but preferred this itinerary.

 

[AnnaS]

Hilton Head, Vero Beach, Pawley's Island (Myrtle Beach), Washington DC, VA, Toronto, California, 7 DCL cruises, PA, Upstate NY, ME, Cancun, come to mind

 

[Geomom]

We bought our DVC in late 2008. In addition to going to Disney World 1-3x/year, we do 'big' trips every 2 years--2012 (Yellowstone/Grand Tetons/Devils Tower/Mt Rushmore/Badlands/Denver); 2014 (Zion/Bryce/Arches/Grand Canyon/Mesa Verde/Santa Fe); 2016 (DCL cruise to Alaska); summer 2018 (DCL cruise to Northern Europe). We also do 'local' long weekends to the beach (Maine or Cape Cod) or mountains (NH/VT).

 

[Chuck S]

I do short local overnight trips a few times per year, occasionally I'll do a Carnival cruise out of Galveston with friends. When my Mom was living, we would do a week in California to visit old family friends from time to time, most of them have passed on, now. Occasionally I'll do Vegas, when I can get a free room promotion.

 

[limace]

My family would not be happy if our only vacation was Disney! We do Disney every few years, though are switching to every other year and on our way to annual now that we’ve started picking up DVC . We do Maui every couple years-my folks own a couple months in a condo there and we’ve been going since I was pregnant with my now-21 year old daughter . We do several camping trips a year, and DH and I have done a couple cruises on HAL and Celebrity. We’ve also been fortunate enough to do some international travel-London a Paris with our oldest a few years ago and we are in Mexico right now-our youngest two are in a Spanish immersion school so we figured that was a good excuse to start hitting Spanish speaking countries .

I love Disney and so do the kids, but it’s definitely not a relaxing trip for us, nor does it give us new cultural experiences or a chance to try really authentic local food. I want both kinds of vacations! Which is probably why we are driving cars with a ton of miles on them-our priorities are elsewhere.

 

[bcwife76]

Disney cruises!

We also have a small 5 year contract with UVC - Unlimited Vacation Club (Now/Dreams/Secrets/Breathless resorts in Mexico, DR, Jamaica etc). So we go to Mexico etc as well. However, instead of upgrading that contract, once it's up (in 4 years) we will buy more DVC points instead ;-)

 

[Figment1983]

We own BLT/VWL (or whatever it's called now), use this strictly for Disney vacations or Aulani. We typically also do something in the Caribbean, a Family Ski trip, visit Family in NY, then lots of weekend trips to different places....for adult trips, Vegas every year, long weekend ski trip, long weekend island.

This year has been crazy and will probably be very little Disney. Whistler with wife in January, Breckenridge with family February, Park city with wife March, Caribbean cruise with family leaving tomorrow (followed by a BLT night), St Kitts in May with wife, DC with Family Memorial Day weekend, Bahamas with wife in June, New York Family July, Bahamas family September, Vegas with wife November, Disney December.

Then start the vicious cycle all over

 

[Figment1983]

Thanks everyone I appreciate your feedback. I’m glad to hear that you also go elsewhere even though wdw is a lovely place.

I see that a lot have been cruising, I’ve never done that but would love to in the future. Would you recommend doing a dvc cruise as our first cruise or something else?

Just be prepared to have a hard time switching if you do a Disney cruise first. We've done a ton of cruises, our we love Disney and Royal....leaving on our first MSC cruise tomorrow.

Disney I like because the rooms are much bigger and you don't feel nickel and dimed like on some others (soda/juice included, no extra charge to do stuff on their island)

Disney's private island is the best in the industry

 

[John-DVC]

Aulani and wdw take up two trips every year.
Been on a few royal Caribbean cruises one NCL all in North America. Going to try our first Disney cruise in Jan 19.
Probably will venture off to Asia and Europe more in 5-10 years as the kids get older and will enjoy those areas more.

DVC alone is enough to be honest anything on top is just gravy.

 

[arminnie]

I have traveled all over the world from Kuala Lumpur to Budapest to Prague. I’ve been to Italy, London and Sydney many, many times. Plus lots of other places.

But now I am an older retiree. I love going to Disney. It’s a fairly easy drive (about 9-10 hours). I can access almost everything no matter my physical limitations.

 

[gracelrm]

We have been owners since 2001. We have vacationed at Disney probably an average of once a year. We have stayed at Vero Beach and Hilton Head in addition to WDW. We are teachers and have a spring, Christmas, fall and summer break, so we go at different times of the year. We have taken three extended family trips which typically wipe out our points for a few years and that's when we typically travel to other places. Some years we go to Disney for Fall break and then take a summer vacation elsewhere. We have taken cruises a few times and have made three trips out west to visit many of the National Parks in the US. This past summer, we toured the Northeast US hitting Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland and a few other states. My DH loves extended road trips and so every few years, we skip Disney all together and save up points for another year.

 

[Leilanie94]

We have been DVC owners since 2011. We love Disney but there also other interesting places to see.

California: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco
Colorado
Las Vegas
New Jersey
New York City
Philadelphia
Seattle, Washington
Washington, D.C.

July 2018 - We are going to Japan - Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Just be prepared to have a hard time switching if you do a Disney cruise first. We've done a ton of cruises, our we love Disney and Royal....leaving on our first MSC cruise tomorrow.

Disney I like because the rooms are much bigger and you don't feel nickel and dimed like on some others (soda/juice included, no extra charge to do stuff on their island)

Disney's private island is the best in the industry

Hmmm-I wonder when that will be changed since "everyone else is charging - industry standard".

 

[bwvBound]

I’m kind a curious as an dvc owner do you vacation other places than dvc if so where do you go?

We consider ourselves 'opportunistic' travelers. We can be easily talking into booking travel by simply waving a shiny object with a low price in front of our eyes.

We own other timeshare to use both directly and to trade using RCI/II/etc. We've used these to visit Australia, Canada, South Africa and other destinations. Our South Africa exchanges rocked! We had back-to-back weeks in different destinations ... simply awesome.

We also enjoy cruising as a means to see new places. We are working on our "world cruise" over the years and could easily finish with one or two more segments. Cruising has already given us a taste of each continent including Antarctica. If we linked our cruise history by connecting the various ports, we show a solid trail from Sydney, AU across the Pacific to the US western states, down through the Panama Canal, up the US Eastern seaboard, across the Atlantic, across the northern routes to St Petersburg, Russia or southern routes through the Mediterranean to Istanbul, Turkey; Ashdod, Israel; and Port Said, Egypt. The Antarctic jaunt does not currently connect to our other cruises -- but may someday if we complete a loop around South America. Our remaining wolrld-cruise-gap needed: Australia to Egypt. Looking for a great deal on a Suez Canal crossing!

So far in 2018 we've been to: Flagstaff, AZ (via RCI); New Orleans, LA (via Worldmark); WDW (via DVC); and Atlanta, GA (family visit). Coming up: Pacific Coastal Cruise (Holland America Line); Solvang, CA (via Worldmark); Pagosa Springs, CO (via Worldmark; for two visits); and a DCL Cruise to revisit the Disney Magic on her 20th Anniversary. (She was our 1st ever cruise in 1998 and we are excited to see her in 2018!).