"Honestly, sometimes it feels good to get out of the bubble."

[Mickey of the Villages]

This quote comes from another poster on another thread going on right now. But it is so timely to the way my wife and I feel these days that I thought I would place it as its own post. I haven't listed the poster's name because for some reason that does not feel right - but I couldn't agree with him more Hopefully he'll see this post and declare his authorship .

My wife and I are lifelong Disney. From when we were kids on a once-in-a-childhood-trip to our senior trip in high school, to our honeymoon and many many visits since. We bought DVC a few years back and have enjoyed it, we've bought points on transfer and we've had cash stays at DVC. Disneyland Paris, yes. We've even been a few times during the pandemic.

But over the last year we've tried some different things.

Universal: We went to Universal for the first time with our sons (a teen and tween). They loved it - especially Volcano Bay. We thought it was fun too but its much more about them.

Car rental: We rented cars on our last stays and found out we love it and would not go back to DME even if it was still there. Ever had the pretzels at WaWa? They're awesome. We love takeout from Chili's and even tried the Benihana at the Hilton when we couldn't get into Teppan Edo at the Japan pavilion. We also cruise the shady souvenir stands - so much fun.

Staying Off Property: We are about to try our first stay off property at a Marriott timeshare because it was $250/nt instead of $750/nt cash or points at OKW (we've even learned we love OKW because the car is parked just outside your room!). I love staying in the bubble but I also don't mind having an extra $500/day on vacation. We've even considered whether we could WFH in a timeshare for an extended period of time in the summer when the kids were out of school.

There's a saying, "do what you've always done, get what you've always got." Well, we did that for years and years. Now we're doing new things and we find we love it.

 

[wdwnut]

We have been alternating large family trips between WDW and other vacations. We’ve gone to HawaI, Washington state, Alaska, and were planning an Italy and Greece trip in 2020. That trip is now planned for ‘22. This year is a family trip to WDW for 19-23 of us.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

It was my quote!!!
More later when I have time to type...

 

[keishashadow]

Not one to tell others how to vacation. We love disney yet, very comfortable leaving the bubble. Never considered our DVC contracts as self-limiting nor, the end-all, be-all when it came to vacationing in general, let alone in Orlando.

The weekend point re-distribution, initially forced us to get out of our comfort zone. It was either book partially thru CRO or explore other options. So glad that split stays at the Loews resorts have become our norm! We are fans of renting at WBC too.

Adjusting has equated to more trips per year for us. It’s been fun exploring the real world in the area & discovering lots of great, new restaurants.

 

[bwvBound]

This is an interesting question for us as times are a'changing.
Short version: Rather than resist change, we are actively changing ourselves. If we return to WDW (not a certainty), we'll likely have a car and focus our attention to off-property activities.

Longer version:
We are Disneyland locals. Prior to Covid-19, we visited often and usually stayed offsite within walking distance. Thus, there is "no bubble."

For WDW, we accept the bubble but our D'Land perspective continues to invade our minds by erasing the boundaries and minimizing its implied rules. That said, our WDW travel patterns since buying DVC are seriously influenced and bounded by the bubble: We fly into MCO, happily take advantage of Magical Express and rarely try to leave the property except if we require groceries.

However, if the future pushes us to rent a car on arrival ... or actually drive our own cross-county (yep, maybe?) ... I predict we'll be off-site a good measure of time. I'm hoping The Holy Land Experience reopens. I'd like to revisit a few restaurants I enjoyed prior to Magical Express. I'd love to find areas to explore using OneWheels. (The OneWheel is our major purchase of 2020 ... and I ride mine everyday. For the near future, we are booking weekend trips that provide interesting places to practice land-surfing?) We'll see!

 

[asunutgirl]

When we bought into DVC, we intentially bought with the plan to vacation with Disney every other year. We are Scuba certified and love to plop ourselves on an island somewhere and spend the week in the water. We have been to WDW both in the bubble and outside and it's been great either way.

 

[Matty B13]

We like the WDW Bubble because our kids are so young and traveling is so hard between the car seats and luggage needed, that MDE and the luggage handling made it very easy on us....... now that this has been taken away, we will probably be looking else where very soon. Also, as Disney keeps on raising prices well above inflation, more like 10% each year, going to other places just looks better and better. We could probably visit Hawaii for the $10k we spend at WDW each year and have a nicer villa.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

We took multiple trips to WDW from 1993 to 2018 and always ventured out of the bubble. Even when we took DME to and from the airport, we often rented a car to drive around and off property.

 

[Shellyred8]

This quote comes from another poster on another thread going on right now. But it is so timely to the way my wife and I feel these days that I thought I would place it as its own post. I haven't listed the poster's name because for some reason that does not feel right - but I couldn't agree with him more Hopefully he'll see this post and declare his authorship .

My wife and I are lifelong Disney. From when we were kids on a once-in-a-childhood-trip to our senior trip in high school, to our honeymoon and many many visits since. We bought DVC a few years back and have enjoyed it, we've bought points on transfer and we've had cash stays at DVC. Disneyland Paris, yes. We've even been a few times during the pandemic.

But over the last year we've tried some different things.

Universal: We went to Universal for the first time with our sons (a teen and tween). They loved it - especially Volcano Bay. We thought it was fun too but its much more about them.

Car rental: We rented cars on our last stays and found out we love it and would not go back to DME even if it was still there. Ever had the pretzels at WaWa? They're awesome. We love takeout from Chili's and even tried the Benihana at the Hilton when we couldn't get into Teppan Edo at the Japan pavilion. We also cruise the shady souvenir stands - so much fun.

Staying Off Property: We are about to try our first stay off property at a Marriott timeshare because it was $250/nt instead of $750/nt cash or points at OKW (we've even learned we love OKW because the car is parked just outside your room!). I love staying in the bubble but I also don't mind having an extra $500/day on vacation. We've even considered whether we could WFH in a timeshare for an extended period of time in the summer when the kids were out of school.

There's a saying, "do what you've always done, get what you've always got." Well, we did that for years and years. Now we're doing new things and we find we love it.

Not sure which Marriott timeshare you will be at, but we've stayed at a couple of different ones that were 2br units and absolutely loved them!!! We've done Cypress Harbour and Royal Palms. Both of them would lend themselves nicely to WFH, imo. Also, both of them had nice sized screened in porches, so you could sit outside without so many bugs.

 

[Mickey of the Villages]

Not sure which Marriott timeshare you will be at, but we've stayed at a couple of different ones that were 2br units and absolutely loved them!!! We've done Cypress Harbour and Royal Palms. Both of them would lend themselves nicely to WFH, imo. Also, both of them had nice sized screened in porches, so you could sit outside without so many bugs.

Over spring break we're going to stay at Marriott Grande Vista in a 2Br. I am so surprised by the difference in price. Maybe it's pandemic related.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

I think that can be true with many things. If you are constantly doing the same thing, over time you may/will want to experience new things. That is totally normal. In this instance, if you are taking multiple WDW vacations each year then there will probably be an urge to check out other things.

For us, we bought into DVC because of the option to stay at 10 different deluxe resorts. When we take a WDW vacation, we want to be in the bubble and I'm not sure if I ever see that changing (if we want to change it up we will stay at a DVC property other than our home resort). A lot of that has to do with the fact that we take many non-WDW vacation: Europe, cruises, and other U.S. locations. Because of that, when we go to WDW we are "all in". If we were going multiple times per year (as other DVCers do) I could definitely see wanting to check out other places off site, but we are the once a year or every other year type of DVC members. We have done the "week at WDW followed by 3 days at Universal trip", so we also like doing other things even in Orlando. But when it is time for the Mouse, we aren't leaving the bubble...but that's just us.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

We like the WDW Bubble because our kids are so young and traveling is so hard between the car seats and luggage needed, that MDE and the luggage handling made it very easy on us....... now that this has been taken away, we will probably be looking else where very soon. Also, as Disney keeps on raising prices well above inflation, more like 10% each year, going to other places just looks better and better. We could probably visit Hawaii for the $10k we spend at WDW each year and have a nicer villa.

We are actually planning an Aulani trip for 2023 for my daughters HS graduation present. The funny thing is that the Hawaii trip will be less than WDW, and we are traveling from upstate NY. That's what not paying for park tickets and WDW dining does for the vacation bill

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

I love the bubble. We live it up while at Disney, suspend reality, and do all the fun things together as a family. I'd go more if my husband was on board, but he reins me in (sometimes he has to pull pretty hard lol). I'm a big believer in vacationing often as a family, so much so that about half of my paycheck goes toward funding it.

However, we never stopped going other places either. We were supposed to go to Hawaii last summer, but went to Colorado instead. I'd love to buy a trailer and take it up there for a month every summer. We're hoping to take an east coast tour maybe in 2022 and show our kids early American historical sites. Alaskan cruise is also high on the list.

I want to go to all the places.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

Oh and we're also renting a car in July at WDW for the first time to spend a few days seeing other things in Florida.

 

[Matty B13]

We are actually planning an Aulani trip for 2023 for my daughters HS graduation present. The funny thing is that the Hawaii trip will be less than WDW, and we are traveling from upstate NY. That's what not paying for park tickets and WDW dining does for the vacation bill

You might want to look at renting your DVC points out, and renting a villa at another resort, it might be cheaper than Aulani, and nicer.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We take many vacations, or at least we used to, but when we want to go to Disney, I want to be in the bubble.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

You might want to look at renting your DVC points out, and renting a villa at another resort, it might be cheaper than Aulani, and nicer.

Interesting. I will definitely consider that. Is Aulani not that nice?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Interesting. I will definitely consider that. Is Aulani not that nice?

Tough question, but we’ve stayed there three times and would stay again without hesitation. As you are nearing the area, you are up high looking down into the resort area, and you see resorts, Aulani looks Hawaiian. It has amazing art and culture items. It’s where we definitely want to stay on Oahu.

 

[gisele2]

I think that can be true with many things. If you are constantly doing the same thing, over time you may/will want to experience new things. That is totally normal. In this instance, if you are taking multiple WDW vacations each year then there will probably be an urge to check out other things.

For us, we bought into DVC because of the option to stay at 10 different deluxe resorts. When we take a WDW vacation, we want to be in the bubble and I'm not sure if I ever see that changing (if we want to change it up we will stay at a DVC property other than our home resort). A lot of that has to do with the fact that we take many non-WDW vacation: Europe, cruises, and other U.S. locations. Because of that, when we go to WDW we are "all in". If we were going multiple times per year (as other DVCers do) I could definitely see wanting to check out other places off site, but we are the once a year or every other year type of DVC members. We have done the "week at WDW followed by 3 days at Universal trip", so we also like doing other things even in Orlando. But when it is time for the Mouse, we aren't leaving the bubble...but that's just us.

Same for us , we used to travel outside WDW before COVID . So when we are there , we like being in the bubble .

 

[CarolynFH]

Interesting. I will definitely consider that. Is Aulani not that nice?

Aulani is beautiful and celebrates Hawaiian culture in ways no other resort I’ve seen does. Other resorts in Hawaii generally look like resorts on islands and beaches all over the world. Aulani is more expensive than many in Hawaii but is equally as nice. (Compare cash prices for Aulani with prices at the Marriott Ko Olina right down the street.)