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

I work for the school district, I get my summers off, plus the week of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring Break. However, it's more expensive traveling in the summer. And you need 2 weeks at Disney to manage the summer crowds.
 
I work and live in Germany. By law I believe we have to get 25 paid vacation days… Many good companies give 30. I get six weeks vacation a year. From the start. sick days is completly different.. There is no max on that for discussion sake. Besides that we get many paid holidays.. But different here is if that holiday ( example if Christmas day ) falls on a weekend, then you dont get the Friday or Monday as a replacement day.. You are out of luck.. Holidays are paid only if you are working on that exact day… But here too, Christmas legal hoidays is the 25 AND 26 and we also have Easter Monday... it does add up.. Also in most professional jobs ( exemp in the US) you get to bank any overtime… so if I work one week 50 hours. I bank 10 hours I can take off whenever. I know when I worked in the states overtime was time you just gave away.. ( unless you were non-exempt and got paid OT). I hon

Back when I worked in the states, my first job was horrible.. 5 days paid vacation. AFTER 6 months probation. After 3 years then 10 days.. I lasted there only 9 months… Then I worked for a different company 15 days was the start and after 10 years you got 4 weeks. Believe older contracts had 6 weeks for long seniority..

I recall a friend way back then worked for Aldi USA and as a german company he got 4 weeks vacation from the start.. Was a big deal..
 
I work in registration at a Children's hospital urgent care on weekends only. They offer a program called "Weekend Only" where you work 2 twelve hour shifts, every Saturday and Sunday, and you are paid for 36 hours and given benefits. The downside is that you work every weekend all year, and only have 4 days off per year. So I only work 2 days/week for basically full-time money. I think this type of schedule is often offered in hospitals. We normally travel Monday-Thursday, so I can have Friday off to do laundry and grocery shop before going back to work on Saturday. Hope that helps! :) Best of luck!
Very interesting concept. Never heard of that. Has some unique Benefits. For a couple avoids daycare costs during the week and allows a higher income for part time work. Downside you give up weekends.
 


I work for a private school - not teaching, when you start you get 10 days vacation, 3 personal days, 10 sick days and about 24-30 extra days off throughout the year (legal holidays, religious holiday)
plus all snow days or emergency school closures. After 5 years you get 15 days vacation that's the max you can get. You can accumulate up to 30 vacation days and 40 sick days. Personal days you have to use or you lose them.
They just recently stopped the cap on vacation days, I imagine due to COVID, so people wouldn't take off right when we were trying to get school up and running.
I've been here 16 years and have accumulated the max (or over) now - didn't take too much vacation or sick when I started - no money and I feel like those sick days are a sort of "emergency fund" if I really do get sick and need them.
 
My company (major airline) offers up to 5 weeks of vacation (based upon length of service), plus an additional week to cover sick time (It's a PTO program, so it all comes from the same bucket). Between that, DVC for the hotel cost, an Annual Pass (whenever they sell them again) and my flight privileges, it's easy to slip out for a long weekend here and there on top of regular vacations.
 
Work behind the scenes in the mortgage/banking industry and our company provides 6 weeks of PTO. Assuming we aren't slammed (which happens at different times of the year, never consistent) free to vacation as needed.
 


I've never thought of this question...... but I have asked myself many times..... how do people pay for all these Disney trips they're taking!! :rotfl2:
I will be honest. I work for an airline so our transatlantic flight are relatively cheap. Not free but cheaper, but still for a family of 4 or 5 adds up to probably more than what most pay for driving.

AND my mom foots the bill. Not all but very well the majority. She pays for the package or cruise and I pay for car rental and extras.. Disney is also her thing and she is VERY frugal throughout the year. Going out to eat is too expensive for her as she prefers to save for these trips.
Our summer trips with her is the highlight of her year. Not getting OT but one reason that we will sail or travel once we are allowed to. She is 70 and healthy and not be able to travel is hitting her REALLY hard… The only thing she had to look fowarded to right now is sitting at home, getting older and reaching possibility an age where she is no longer fit.

On our own with family income we could afford a trip every year, but it would be shorter, no deluxes… But we travel many times a year anyways on our own pocket. But the Disney trips are very expensive (almost 10 grand now as we now do WDW and a cruise if we can)… It is insane but i would rather my mom spend her money WITH us not give us at a later point.
 
I am a healthcare provider, where patients heavily depend on me being there. While in no way is it against the rules to take a week or two off at a time, I just find it difficult to do that. My trips usually encompass some form of Thursday-Mon or Fri-Tues, or some kind of combination of two separate weeks, that way my patients can still get in for multiple visits within each week with me instead of having to see a different provider or miss a visit. But this means that I often take lots of short trips throughout the year to use my PTO. The last place I worked we had 15 days, I usually do 4-5 trips each year (not just Disney, all over), using 2 or 3 days of PTO at a time. It makes it seem like I travel a lot, but they are generally short trips.

ETA: @AngieInOH Haha, I'm in a unique position that most people probably aren't. I'm still young (late 20's) and spent 5 years after graduating living with parents and saving money. I'm single, no kids, and some of my trips include my parents and/or adult siblings, who will pay for their own tickets and we split the food and lodging. This makes trips a whole lot cheaper for me than most people.
 
I’ve worked at my hospital since I was 21. I’m 16 years in now. I accrue 7 weeks of PTO a year (10.77 hours per pay period)Out of that bank comes vacation, sick, personal and holidays. I’m off the 6 major holidays so I really get 6 weeks of PTO since I have to use 6 days of PTO. Other employees who work holidays don’t have to use their time on their required holidays.

I can take two week vacations and I have with weekends and a holiday mixed in. But it was only 8 working days. I try not to do 10 PTO days at once because my coverage will get overwhelmed.

My kids are older now (20 and 14) so I don’t have to use much time for them getting sick or school vacations since they can stay home alone and are self sufficient. I rarely get sick and have called out 3 times in the last 8 years. So basically all of my time is PTO. I don’t use it all on vacations. Sometimes I take off to do a beach day with my friends or a day just to hang out or a spa day, etc.

Akso at my hospital you start accruing 7.69 hours a pay (5 weeks a year) and at 5 years you get 9.23 hours a pay (6 weeks a year) and 10 years is maxed at 10.77 hours a pay (7 weeks a year). So even at entry level you’re doing pretty good. This goes for everyone except senior management and docs start out at the max.
 
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I've never thought of this question...... but I have asked myself many times..... how do people pay for all these Disney trips they're taking!! :rotfl2:
My personal reply: I don't have a New car or a car payment. I live in a "simple" house. My own daughter was paying 20% more for her "simple" apartment monthly than our mortgage payment. My home is so "simple", I would guarantee the Home Improvement shows would pass it by. I'm pretty good at grocery shopping by sale items. When I was working, I was faithful to depositing $$ into a vacation savings account.
 
I've been with the same company for more than 12 years and, as of 2 years ago, reached the "max" vacation time given (20 days). Bundle that with paid holidays (9 days), floating holidays (3 days) and personal days (5 days). That's 37 "vacation" days off a year.

My wife works for the state and gets 55 "vacation" days off a year.

We're quite grateful, we know how blessed we are in this regard.

And, since the topic of "how do ya'll pay for it?" has come up: We create a savings plan and funnel money into it and away from other things if necessary (like eating out or unnecessary vanity purchases like new shoes); when asked what we want for birthday and Christmas gifts, we say "Disney gift cards, please;" and we use credit card rewards points to cover airfare, park tickets, dining and even souvenirs.

In 2014, we paid for our 10-night WDW trip using credit card rewards points. We rented DVC points and stayed in an AKL studio. We have a winter 2020 trip booked using points, which includes a 9-night stay at OKW.

And, no, we don't have any credit card debt. We use our credit cards how we used debit cards: only spend what we have in cash and pay off the balance every week. We've never paid interest, either.

It's doable! Just gotta be patient and organize yourself.
 
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We pay for our vacations by both working full time and having grown kids therefore empty nesters. Once we finished paying for their college and helping out with graduate education we have some discretionary money. We prefer to travel and want to while we are young enough and healthy enough to do so. Disney is a big part of that travel but we also go other places like national parks, Canadian Rockies, and other places around the country.
 
I currently get 20 vacation days a year. The hours are accrued monthly at a rate of 1.67 days a month, but I can go negative and use hours that haven’t been accrued yet (to a certain extent). The accrual rate increases with years of service.

We also get 10 company holidays and 2 floating holidays.

Finally, we get 6 “wellness days.” This is basically sick time.

Even with having time off, I feel guilty taking more than a day or two. No idea why because they don’t ever guilt me.

Edit to add- I’ve been with the company 5 years. My next vacation increase would be at 10 years (25 days) and then again at 20 years (30 days).
 
Both DH and I work in high education, so we each receive 24 days of annual leave a year (2/month). Plus we both have the week between Christmas and New Years off, as well as Memorial Day, Labor Day, Good Friday, Fourth of July, two days at Thanksgiving, and MLK Day off. Any time that we don't use one year can roll over to the next. We also get 12 sick days/year (1/month earned) that can be accumulated. Thanks to Covid, working from home, and multiple canceled vacations we've been able to stock up.

How can we afford to go multiple times a year? Decent paying jobs. Some trips we drive instead of fly to save money (family of 6). I stock up on Disney Gift Cards through Target (5% Red Card discount) to apply towards the cost of annual passes, food costs, or room. Every bit saved helps. We also own DVC and use that. Disney is our vacation and we visit 2-4x/year.
 
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I'm a self employed farmer. I work like mad from March-June, work a "regular" schedule from mid June through August, then work like mad again from September to November. For the most part, from December to February, I don't have much to do. I can usually squeeze out a week or two vacation in late July or early August, then I can do whatever I want during the winter.

There's plenty of folks out there that don't work 9-5 jobs for "the man."
 
For me its a combination of having 5 weeks vacation, 3 personal days and 9 paid holidays, along with being about to take unpaid time if I want. DH is retired so he has all the time he needs!
 
Very interesting concept. Never heard of that. Has some unique Benefits. For a couple avoids daycare costs during the week and allows a higher income for part time work. Downside you give up weekends.
Yes, many of the weekend-only employees have young kids and their spouse works a traditional 8-5 job, so no daycare costs are involved. Would be great for a young family who doesn't have a lot of support nearby either. I'm an empty-nester, so I don't need to be home on the weekends for soccer games and such now, so the schedule works out for me too.
 
Husband is retired - I get 32 PTO days, 10 holidays and 2 personal holidays...plus an occasional comp day for working extraordinary hours (I’m in tech) - we’re DVC with a bunch of points, live within driving distance and get the gold AP (its our Christmas gift to each other) we can carry over a max of 5 days from year to year but those days have to be used by mid-March so to me, it’s use ‘em or loose 'em - so I go to WDW 3-4 times a year for 6-7 days each trip...it really doesn’t cost me much more to go than to stay home (not counting the original DVC outlay and dies)
 

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