Am I setting myself up for disappointment?

[jennstew]

DH and I are taking our children to WDW in Dec. 2007. We took them for the 1st time in Oct. 2003 (they were 4 and 1.5 at the time) and we spent 1 day at each park, they had fun but obviously the youngest doesn't really remember it. When we go on our 12/07 trip dd will be 8 and ds will be 6 which I think is going to be a great age for them to experience WDW. Okay I am babbling, on with why I am posting this. Dh and ds are not into Disney as much as dd and I are so this will mostly likely be our last trip to WDW world. We would like to be able to go on other vacations and money won't allow us to do both. So I am trying to make this the best WDW trip I can for the kids, I have already started to do some planning now, it's going to be a long 22 months of waiting. So far we are going to spend 2 days at MK and Epcot, 1.5 days at AK and MGM. We are going to go to MVMCP. We are going to do some character meals and I am still working out if we should stay at Pop Century or go for a Moderate. I know at lot will change between now and then but I love planning a Disney trip. I just wonder if I am setting myself up for disappointment by trying to plan the "perfect" trip?

 

[Tissa]

There is nothing wrong with planning the perfect trip I think we all do that. What you have to take out of your Disney vocabulary is the word perfect. Nothing is perfect especially when it comes to taking kids on vacation. You plan everything around thinking what they will like only for them to tell you how much they don't like it Just go with the flow and if things don't go the way you planned 20 months ago say that's ok.
Then go have a

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I always put a lot of pressure on myself to plan "perfect" WDW trips. I could tell you to relax and have fun with it and blah blah blah, but that would be very hypocritical since I can't do that myself!

So try to plan things that you will all enjoy, try to be flexible, and try NOT to look at it as your last WDW trip. We went in January '05 for our "once in a lifetime" trip because we had 2 free airline tickets. We only stayed for 4 days, and we had crummy weather for 2 of them. DH had never been to Disney before and wasn't excited about going, but by the time we were watching Wishes on the first night he was talking about planning another trip. We went back in October for 8 days and had a great time. On the way to the airport Magical Express was showing a video of all the holiday stuff and DH started talking about how neat it would be to see the decorations, etc. We are currently putting together an August trip with some friends, and DH is looking forward to it. We are also looking at doing a short trip in December to see the decorations! At first DH was protesting, but now he keeps talking about going in December! And we are buying APs.

It is possible that when you get to Disney and your DH sees how much fun your kids are having that he might agree to go again sometime. I think the age of the kids makes a HUGE difference. It won't be the same experience that you had when the kids were younger. Our DS was 8 for our first trip, and while he was probably a bit too old to really be enchanted by the characters he still had a GREAT time.