people who travel often & for over a week, how do you get so much vacation time at work? or is your job flexible?

[ParrotBill]

In our early married life we were two professionals with 2, then 3, then 4 weeks vacation and Disney was our only vacation. Many years later she does not work and I get 6-8 weeks off. We have always prioritized travel above other discretionery spend. A DVC investments over 20 years ago has paid off huge making Disney vacations comparable to other vacations even with theme park admission and expensive food.

 

[PACtivity]

I sacrificed any big trips during the first year at my job and just let the vacation pool roll over. Since then my boss has never denied a request and last year I took almost five weeks off throughout the year (not including sick time).

 

[DVC-Don]

My wife owns an insurance agency in Upstate New York and I worked there. I'm retired now but she still runs the place mostly online from home. Got all the time off I/we needed. Her two employees get up to 4 weeks vacation a year.

 

[loveswdw]

I've been with my company (ag related media) for almost 25 years and get 4+ weeks of PTO. My DH is a LEO with 23+ years on the job (he can accrue time, I can not). We do love Disney but like to go other places, too.

I've always wondered myself how people afforded to do so many trips a year. Even with APs and DVC, it can be a ton of money. We don't take 2-3 trips a year (never been able to afford it). We've been averaging a trip every 18 months or so for a week. Our last trip to WDW was June 2018 so I'm jonesing for a trip! But I'm having a really hard time justifying ticket prices in the last several years. Almost $2,000 for 4 tickets for our family of four for 4 basic park days (no hopping). That is INSANE.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I’m a part time nurse practitioner at a pediatric practice and I make my own hours, and my dh owns his own business so he can take off whenever he wants also. This allows us to do 2 Disney weeks each year in early December as well as 2 weeks in the summer somewhere and a one week trip over spring break, as well as several weekend trips.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I've always wondered myself how people afforded to do so many trips a year. Even with APs and DVC, it can be a ton of money. We don't take 2-3 trips a year (never been able to afford it). We've been averaging a trip every 18 months or so for a week. Our last trip to WDW was June 2018 so I'm jonesing for a trip! But I'm having a really hard time justifying ticket prices in the last several years. Almost $2,000 for 4 tickets for our family of four for 4 basic park days (no hopping). That is INSANE.

I’m with you.

We only go to Disney every 2-3 years because we like going other places too. And with the cost of Disney we can do 2-3 trips for the cost of one Disney trip.

Last trip I went on was with only DD12 and myself since DS went on his senior trip and my SO didn’t want to go with just us girls. It was sooo much cheaper. I’m contemplating a trip for DS’s college graduation gift for 2022 but the prices are insane for a family of 4 adults, especially since we will want two rooms. I’m thinking about taking DS for a mother son trip since he really wants to see Galaxy’s Edge. And going somewhere else as a family. We could do Europe for cheaper than Disney. We were going to do Disney, just us two, in March for his 21st bday but we won’t go with the limited offerings and mask wearing.

Now that my son is in college and DD is in high school I see the way we do Disney trips will change because of schedules. I think this is how I’ll get my Disney fixes more often. After my son graduates I don’t see him vacationing with us often so I can do girls trips with DD, and when she goes to college doing trips with my SO.

 

[Pixie Dust Believer]

I have been with my company since graduating (a little over 9 years). Starting at the 7 year mark, you get 25 vacation days in addition to the 12-13 holidays. We don't have personal days, but do get unlimited sick days which is nice. We can have up to 30 days in the bank to roll over.

In terms of affording it, my parents and I often share a villa rather than booking separate rooms. I travel a lot for work so I often have credits/miles to pay for my flights. We definitely take advantage of tables in wonderland discount when eating out. We tend to over budget our trips into our spending plans for the year. That allows us to go with the flow and sign up for any experiences that catch our fancy.

 

[Trackmaster]

I kind of want to say that a big part of it has to do with the massive amounts of PTO coming with more seniority at the employer. You may get 2-3 weeks in your first two years, but generally you get up to five or more if you've been there 10 years.

 

[WDWLODGE]

I work for a large Health System in the Clinical Engineering Dept. I accrue a little over 8.5 hours of PTO every 2 weeks, which comes to about 5 1/2 weeks a year. On top of that they allow us to carryover any unused PTO( up to 3 weeks) to the following year. I very rarely have less than 5 weeks available to me at any moment.

 

[hlm2007]

My husband works as a VP of Marketing in the medical field and travels for work a TON (esp over weekends). Given that, his company is very lax on personal time. He is always working really and rarely takes even a day off but he can work from wherever as long as he plans in advance. I work 100% from home and technically have 2 weeks vacation but I have flexible hours and work on vacation also most of the time so I don't have to use my vacation.

 

[SomDayMyPrnceWillCom]

Single mom and teacher so while I have to save up for the cost of the trip, I have the time off during the summer to go. I just can't afford to go for more than 7 days generally. I don't go every year either. It's usually every 2-3 years. I had my kids many years apart so my daughter is now grown and owns DVC and she let me use points a couple of times so that helped. We're planning May/June 2021 at AoA just my son and me for our next trip.

 

[sponica]

At my old employer my time was use it or lose it with a bank reloaded every July 1. When I was hourly, I had 15 vacation days and 10 personal days (?) and salaried was 22 vacation days, we also had the week off between christmas eve and new years day. I also worked in work group that didn't care how many hours you worked in a week as long as the job was getting done, and wouldn't make you take time off if it didn't prevent you from doing work (what's the difference between spinning in your chair on the friday before a long weekend or just leaving early for it?)
Currently I accrue 10 hours every 2 weeks, I had 200 hours accrued but I'm using it to supplement my short term disability and cover the remainder of my FMLA while on maternity leave. I'm in a different work group but the mentality is still the same, as long as the job is getting done the hours worked in a week typically don't matter.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Ive been with the company almost 20 years and I get 33 days PTO plus holidays a year .

 

[wfjny]

To understand, I think I need to explain how we “Do Disney”.



First, my job. Thru last year I was up to 27 PTO days a year. I work in IT. It is not uncommon for me to have to work a weekend. I have a great boss, and he will tell me to take some time off when that happens. I have scheduled trips when I knew I would be working the weekend before. I have been able to turn a regular weekend into a three or four day weekend, or a holiday weekend into a five day weekend without touching my PTO.

My company has now switched to a unlimited vacation, they are calling responsible PTO. It seems that people are actually taking way less time off, but Covid may be skewing that a bit at the moment.

My wife works for the schools. It is very hard to take a school day off, but they do get so many days off with various holidays as well as “teacher work days”. Students and non-teaching staff are of those days. It has been the perfect job, as her schedule has lined up completely with our children’s schedule.

We go to Disney about 6 times a year. Twice we will go for a week long trip, while the rest of the time we will go for a long weekend.

We live just outside Charlotte. It is an 8 hour drive to Disney. When we start our trip, we normally leave after work, and drive to Jacksonville, Florida. The next morning, we get up and drive just over two hours to WDW. My point being, we do not lose a day driving on our way down.

How do we afford to go so much?

We purchased DVC back in 2009. Benefit of owning a DVC, we purchase AP at a discount. DVC means we do not pay for parking at the resort. AP means we do not pay parking at the parks. Big savings. Die to some business travel, I am a Diamond member with Hilton. I have a bunch of points. They can come in handy sometimes if we are staying offsite.

My company will sometimes give us “Reward Points”. This is for a job well done, sometimes for other incentives. Most of my coworkers use them to purchase amazon gift cards. I save them and use them to purchase gift cards for Landry, Darden and Blomin’ Brands.

A typical long weekend has us leaving after work Thursday night, arriving in Jacksonville between 10 and 11 PM. We leave the hotel early (6:30) the next morning, and arrive at the MK by 9. Pre-covid, we would probably spend a few hours there, then leave, grab some lunch, check into the hotel, clean up, and go to another park for the later afternoon/evening. On our last day (Sunday or Monday), we would try to get into AK, hit a few rides, and then leave before noon. We would be home by 8:00 PM. We normally do not do that on our week long trips, at that point we are ready to just head home…

How does it add up? We went a few weekends ago. What did it cost us?
Time off: Wife and Son were off on Friday. Daughter had an on-line college class for Friday (took in hotel).
Tickets: Already purchased AP, so no new cost
Hotel: $75 Hampton Inn in Jacksonville, stayed on points in Orlando.
Gas: About $100 for the entire weekend.
Food:
Breakfast at hotel (included)
Used Gift Cards at Rainforest Café, Olive Garden and Subway
Fast food paid with cash on drive down, and drive home
Did eat in HS one afternoon. And bought popcorn chicken and sushi at Publix one day.
We did have some snacks in the car we brought from home as well

That is how a family of four was able to do basically three and a half days at WDW for somewhere between $400 & $500.

 

[joedplumber]

20 Vacation days + 17 Holidays + 5 sick days

Have never taken 2 weeks of vacation in a row other than my honeymoon. I think it's a cost thing at this point.

 

[J-Dog]

I'm with the OP. I've been in my profession for 17 years. I still only get 8 vacation days a year.

We go to WDW about every 3-4 years because it's such a hassle for me to take a decent amount of time off.

 

[SleepyWhale77]

My workplace is oddly generous with time off, I get six weeks of paid time off every year. I’ve been at my job for 8 years, those starting earn about 4 weeks a year off, most senior get upwards of 10-12 weeks off/yr.

we have a crummy 401k match of 5.5% of salary if that makes you feel better (tops out at 7.5% after 12yrs). Most of my peers are at other places are getting 7-10% early on.

I guess that balances.

 

[Monykalyn]

Independent contractor/consultants!
Pro-unlimited time off, generally flexible schedule
Con (huge)-no work NO PAY! No benefits (have to do own-good financial planner a MUST-which we have had since our 20's)
But with disciplined savings we fund our own "PTO" and I don't think I could go back to a rigid schedule with someone else telling me what days to work and begging for time off ever again...
And one silver lining with the pandemic was figuring out how to do our usually "in person" jobs remote.
I work as nutrition consultant in nursing homes-haven't been physically in a NH since march (that may change next week on a very limited basis and 2 x week testing and I am so EXCITED to be back in person - even if only a few hours a month!!!)
Hubs does fundraising with schools-all his kickoffs are now virtual, sales all online etc.
This allowed us to spend 2 weeks in June in Orlando at a marriott vacation club resort and still work. I'm taking 8-10 days off over Thanksgiving but will likely work a day or 2-especially with the HS freshman only 2 days a week in seated class-no biggie if he misses those as he can just do the virtual/online school days.

Looking to go to Mexico -Puerto Vallarta-in January for 8-10 days as well-why not? If classes still online and as long as we have internet can work with a beach view just as well with a backyard filled with snow view!

We have owned a timeshare for decades (gifted to us) and I think this is the first year we've used all our weeks + bonus weeks. The timeshare has been a wonderful way to get away-and still have our own "bubble" with full kitchens, 2 bedrooms etc - and the resorts we've stayed at have been stellar on cleanliness and distancing guidelines! In fact we are looking to possibly get another one-based in Hawaii though...going free/cheap right now...

 

[Raya]

US Federal employees get 106 hours vacation time/year for the first 3 years - if you're careful with planning around holidays you can get 2 week long trips out of that. At the 3rd year, you go up to 160 hours which easily gets you 3 week long trips. (These are separate from sick time.) Fed salaries aren't the highest, but there are some discounts especially if you work for DoD.

 

[FrankDIS72]

I've been at my current job for over 20 years. Since I've been there for so long, I accrue nearly 8 hours every biweekly paycheck. I have a week's vacation in no time.