Disney World and Other Vacations

[Frozen2014]

Just a fun post to see how other families vacation. Obviously posters on here love Disney. I got the bug myself after our first trip. But the fact is, Disney ain't cheap...and it makes a difference how far you live from Orlando (I.e. Can you drive to save on flight)?

So I'm wondering

• How often do you go to Disney World?
• How old are your kids (if any)?
• Where else do you travel? Or type of vacation?

We went to Disney World for the first time October 2014 when our kids were 9 and 5.
Our next trip is a Royal Caribbean cruise spring 2016 (kids will be 10.5 and 6.5).
I'm thinking that the trip after that will be Disney World again late 2017 or 2018.

These trips cost us around $7K (vacation plus flight), which is why we're looking at one big trip every two years.

 

[Doug M]

We try WDW every 3 or 4 years, and do nature vacations the other years generally, IE Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Canyon, Black Hills, Yellowstone.

 

[rajak73]

We were there when kids were real young. Then 1998 oldest DS graduated HS and his HS band marched in one of the parades. 2004 youngest graduated HS and just a trip. Then 2012 Daytona 500 and Disney, youngest flew down and we met him at airport and stayed 6 days. One day at Epcot in 2013 for Daytona, then 2014 Dec..16 days, just DW and me. Had great times at all the trips. 1500 miles kinda cuts down on how many times you can go. Maybe when we retire....also take trips to Yellowstone, Branson, Mo, Wisconsin Dells. I keep reading about the research you have to do to go to Disney, Doug M I'm sure will attest to this, you wouldn't want to go to Yellowstone and not do any research. We had DBIL and DSIL went to Yellowstone a year before we did and told me you could see it in couple of days. We stayed 7 days and didn't see it all. After we get back started talking about the trip and asked if they saw this at Yellowstone..no, how about the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone...no, how about this....no but they said they saw Old Faithful.So no research means you don't see much at any vacation destination!

 

[dashofsunshine]

It's just myself and my husband we are 26 and 31, based in Tennessee. We go to Disney once a year, sometimes once every other year. If we do every other year, we will make a trip to somewhere stateside (the Grand Canyon, to his home in NY, the beach in NC or Florida, etc.). Every 3 or 4 years we try to go somewhere international. Next year is Japan we are super excited!!!

 

[rwdavis2]

We go every 4-5 years. I know I would get tired of it if we went annually. I was working out in Los Angeles for about 2 years and went to Disneyland 3 times and got bored with it by the 3rd time. Hard to believe.

 

[Asellus]

We go to Disney every 3 years. We try to budget 3-4k not including food. I'd love to go more often but the other years, we really concentrate our money on debt or other important purchases. (I know sometime between this trip and the next, we'll need to replace the roof...) We drive down so a longer destination is necessary. My husband does 100% of the driving.

We don't really have any interest in nature vacations or the beach. (We live in RI....the beach is not a destination, the beach is where you go to cool off in the summer)

My kids do long weekends a few times each summer at Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire and we'd like to take them for a few days to Williamsburg when Ian is older. Disneyland is on our must do list eventually and Japan is on our bucket list. (But I admit, I only want to go there for Tokyo Disney and Volks stores....yeah I want to spend a fortune to go there and spend a fortune on dollies and disney)

Maybe plans to go to England and Scotland one day.

 

[pjhootch]

Kids are all grown but we still try to vacation together once a year. We do WDW about every 3-4 years. Sometimes sooner, rarely later. We will sometimes drive up for a day from a vacation in Miami and just do the MK. We have driven down from Destin for a couple of days when we were really spending a week on the beach. Some years we cruise. We have done camping trips in National Parks. We have one kid that doesn't care for camping so those trips have dwindled or not included her. Lots of vacations to see family in the desert or NYC.

 

[PSUGuy]

We average a WDW trip yearly. Due to wanting to be home for the birth of grandkids we delayed twice resulting in an 18 month gap but these were balanced buy 2 6 month gaps. In addition our whole extended family spends 10 days at Myrtle Beach in July. We used to do Disney in March when my school breaks but 4 years ago we switched to Oct for Food&Wine. When we made this change we still did something in March, hitting Savanna twice but we bagged that because the weather is dicey then even in Ga.

Bill From PA

 

[ayz75]

Before kids, I'd say I probably went every 2-3 years with friends (only once with hubby) and after having a baby, we brought her for the first time when she was 5 months, and will be going again next month when she turns 2 (along with the DCL) so I think we're sticking with every two years. We like to travel and because my immediate family members don't live in the same region as me, we travel a lot to see them everywhere around the world too. Typically we do 2 big trips a year and a couple of mini trips, one of the big trips always include a trip to Asia to visit family. The other big trip is (going to be) Disney and Europe alternating (and yes the cost is the same!! a 10 day trip to Disney/DCL and 14 days to Europe on our own!). Mini trips are like visiting family in the West coast or road trip.

 

[PoohsFan1]

We are DVC members so we go to Disney twice a year, however since my oldest will be in High School next year, our long twice a year trips will more then likely change to only once a year (right now my DDs are 13 and 11), however her high school does have 4 day weekends a couple times throughout the year therefore we may be able to sneak in a few small trip here and there . On the other hand, we do like to go on other vacations just to change it up a bit. My parents have time share condos in both Gatlinburg TN and Williamsburg VA that they let us use from time to time, in fact in June we are taking very good friends of ours to Williamsburg VA which they have never done before, so it will be fun to do those things with them. And next year, we are planning on a "Megga Trip", as my DH refers to it, by instead of flying to Disney, we will drive and on the way we will stop off at Hilton Head for a few nights (stay at the DVC resort there, plus this will be something new to us) and then drive on to Disney for a week. After our week at Disney we will then head over to US/IOA and stay there for a couple of nights since my kids have been wanting to check out Harry Potter's World. My family has no problems going to other destinations, just as long as we get our "Disney fix" sometime during the year .

 

[IrishNYC]

We usually go to the Florida Keys every other year, and something driving distance (of NYC) the years we don't go to the Keys. We gave up the Keys this year for DD5's first trip to Disney. We're also road tripping to New England or Quebec this summer.

 

[lillyshula]

We live about 16 hours away from Disney World. Driving is a pain sometimes, but as a family of five, it really cuts down on the cost of the vacation if we do not add flights. We like to go every three to four years to Disney World. Spreading out Disney vacations means we can enjoy other things in the years we do not go. Right now our girls are 10, 9, and 5 so they are getting to an age where the can appreciate other vacations. We go to Branson, MO a couple of times a year and have taken vacations in Texas and to the beach as well. We are looking forward to taking the girls to the Grand Canyon soon and follow that with going to California to see the redwoods (and maybe Disneyland). Washington D.C. is also on the list for a non Disney year We are also saving for Ireland, but that may be a trip without the kids.

Our next Disney trip is in 16 days and I am already planing the next one (looks like 2018 or 2019).

 

[Jennytoon]

We usually go every two years to WDW. Otherwise we camp / backpack (w/o DH on these trips), we have a timeshare on Cape Cod and we go every other year and trade to somewhere we haven't been before every other year.

I realized recently that unlike the past, we seem to have quite a few "really expensive" vacations planned up for the next few years and started thinking about what I should cut. But then I realized that my youngest is now 7 and my oldest is 14, 11 y/o in the middle, so we're in a sweet spot where the youngest is more independent (read, more relaxing for parents) and in three years the oldest will be gone. So I've decided to just go for it and go back to cheap vacations in a few years.

Santa often brings us some form of vacation for Xmas, as this makes both me (who doesn't want another big electronic) and DH (who thinks Santa presents have to be a big number) happy. It's worked great for us, kind of cheating by doubling up the budget pot and because it doesn't happen 'til later than Xmas the special-ness of the gift doesn't get lost in all the hubbub on Xmas day.

 

[Frozen2014]

Love hearing all your replies. For us, I wouldn't want to go too often or it may lose its magic. Also, our kids can experience it at different ages. So glad we went when DD was into princesses. Also, for our first trip, we did it all (meal plan, memory maker, Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, Mickeys Halloween Party,, suite room, rented car, etc)...plus just experiencing it for the first time..so I don't think any future trip will ever live up. But can't wait to go back in a few years....which would be around 4 years later.

 

[2Gma]

We go to Disney every 2 years: 2011, 2013, and upcoming trip in May 2015!!
Kids are 8 and 6.
We travel by plane to Disney. We stay offsite in 3BR condo so our total cost is about $3700 for each trip.
We travel to National Parks and Tropical vacations in the "non-Disney" years.

 

[Planogirl]

We've gone yearly most years but we also make sure to see other places too. Europe has been out of reach for a while but I would go there instead if I could.

 

[gtpoohbear]

How we vacation (especially at WDW) has changed over the years. The one non-negotiable is that we take a "big" family vacation somewhere every year. It used to be in the summer, but we've recently gone in the spring instead a couple of times. While DD was little, we would use that trip as our WDW vacation every 2-3 years. We would do the full experience - deluxe resort, 10-day tickets w/ dining, etc. But after doing that several times, I starting feeling like it wasn't as special anymore, like we were just going through the motions and trying to repeat our past trips.

So our strategy has changed a bit. Now we actually go more often (1-2 times per year) but just for quick trips (2-3 days) and we focus on one particular park, and always make a point to do some of the "extra" stuff that we never wanted to give up park time for in the past. I should mention, this works for us only because I have family that lives in Florida, that we go to visit a couple of times a year anyway, so it's easy to add on a few days at Disney when we fly down. Living in Colorado, multiple short trips per year would otherwise be very cost-ineffective.

This frees up our yearly "big" vacation for other stuff, so I feel like we are giving the kids a more well-rounded experience. In recent years we have gone to Jamaica, Yosemite, New York City, Washington DC, and this summer we will go to Olympic National Park.

 

[Monykalyn]

This year is an exception in that we are going to WDW 2 years in a row (I panicked just a bit at the thought this will likely be last family vacation with kids-my oldest is a senior in the fall) so hubby agreed to do anther big trip. It was my sons first trip last year and the first trip my middle remembered so this one we will be able to relax a bit and enjoy more I think. Plus we are going for SWW (yay!) and also planning Universal.

We live in a 3-4 hour drive radius from St Louis, KC and Little Rock/Hot Springs AR (and 45 min from Branson MO) so we have lots of close vacation options. My MIL has a house at Lake Ozark so when we want to do chill time we just head there and spend a day hanging on a beach at our favorite resort (Captain Ron's) or go to the club pool and watch the boats go by on the lake. Then we head down to the martini deck at my MIL house in the evening and boat watch some more.

After years of scrimping by business is going very well now so hoping family vacations continue. DH and I are talking about London next year (adults only for us). And a Washington DC trip next spring. Disney likely won't happen again for several years-and we want to do DLR first anyway

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I try to go every 2-3 years. It hasn't always worked that way but that's what I aim to do.

My kids are now 15 and 9. We are going this August for a big trip since I think it may be our last family trip with DS getting older.

For non Disney vacations years we do a week in Wildwood/Jersey Shore. We rent a condo right on the boardwalk. It's a leisure vacation. Lots of sleeping in, afternoons at the beach with a cooler packed lunch and at night we hit the boardwalk. We do day trips almost every weekend anyway.

We also pick other places to go like a long weekend in Virginia to do Busch Gardens and we stay with friends at a campsite which we stay in a cabin. Or Baltimore for a long weekend and we see the sights, go to an Orioles game, eat seafood. We may hit the Poconos for snow tubing. Or DC and NYC for sight seeing. We live in South Jersey so it works for us.

SO and I do adult only trips too (not this year since WDW is costing us so much). We did Central America two years ago. We've done long weekend trips here and there. Next year we are planning to do Bahamas or Aruba.

I MAY also do a mother/son trip in 2016 and a mother/daughter trip in 2017. DS is thinking Disney or Universal and I know DD will pick Disney. I plan on going during F&W with DD (Jersey week) so it'll be a completely different trip for me. I have to see what DS decides. Then DS goes for his senior class trip in 2018.

 

[agavegirl1]

I (we) don't go to WDW very often, about every 4-5 years. We have done two long Orlando vacations with Universal Studios and WDW. All the children are grown and it is just my fiance and I. In addition to WDW, in the past seven years, we have traveled to Las Vegas twice, the California coast once (sneaked Disneyland into that one), Tuscany once, the Jersey shore once and Belize six times. We've also gone camping and done some motorcycle road trips.