Disney cruise or anywhere in world, family of 4 with two young boys

[Intr3pid]

What would you mean by a 'big' trip? A Northern Europe cruise just by itself is pretty much a standard August cruise in that part of the world, but, yes, that itinerary is best done aboard a cruise ship. We did a 10-nighter ourselves two weeks ago.

We also fly business class all over the world on our frequent flier miles - but never to Europe. Save the miles for longer trips such as to Asia with a long stopover or two along the way.

 

[Lisa F]

Speaking from experience, it is not hard at all to take your kids out of elementary school.

Completely agree with this. It wasn't until my son hit middle school (here 5th grade) that he got real grades and missing the work became any kind of an issue. Even then I got no pushback from teachers, it just was a little hard on him to make up the missed work, which he had to do because of grades. His grades took a little bit of a backslide that grading period (from A's to A- so still high honors, but it still stressed him out). Before when they graded as 1/2/3 (below expectations/at expectations/above expectations) missing a week was absolutely no big deal.

My son was a much better traveler and has much better recall of the trips the older he gets.