Disputing with my husband. . . Please weigh in

[andera42]

We took our kids when they were 8, 10, 14 and 18 had a great time. It was nice because for the most part we could do all the rides together. But I wish we could have started when they were little. I won't complain, I was just so happy to get there with them at all. We are taking our grand kids 4yo and 6 yo this year so I guess I get to have the experience with little ones.

 

[Bashara]

We went to Disneyland when my boys were 9, 7 and 4. They are 15,13 and 10 now and all still remember it. Oldest remembers the most of course but even Mr 10 has some vivid memories.

 

[knewton64]

I recently began planning our first family trip to Disney. My DS will 7 and DD will be 4.5 at the time of trip. My DH thinks they are too young and it will be a waste because they wont remember any of it. And in his words, "he's only giving the guy with big ears money once." He would prefer to put it off until they are 10 or older. I think its the perfect time and if we wait too long it wont be as magical. They may not remember but I will!

Any feedback would be most appreciated.

I still remember to this day that I burned down my mother and dads house ..... To the ground..... And u was four years old .... Go have fun - enjoy is my vote

 

[CMByers]

I recently began planning our first family trip to Disney. My DS will 7 and DD will be 4.5 at the time of trip. My DH thinks they are too young and it will be a waste because they wont remember any of it. And in his words, "he's only giving the guy with big ears money once." He would prefer to put it off until they are 10 or older. I think its the perfect time and if we wait too long it wont be as magical. They may not remember but I will!

Any feedback would be most appreciated.

I think those are perfect ages! My oldest daughter got to go when she was 1, 7, and for her 10th birthday. My youngest daughter got to go at 2 and then for her 5th birthday. While my oldest loved it at 7, the "magic" was so much more "real" when my youngest was 5. I honestly think the ages your kids are are the perfect ages for them to be in awe of the magic. I also agree like many others have said - I would be surprised if this was your only trip! When we took my kids at age 7 and 2, that was supposed to be the only trip for many, many, many years - but I am upgrading to an annual passholder when we are there this coming December!!!

 

[DISfirstTimer]

Update: My husband and I spoke last night. I presented him with 3 vacation options, what a typical day would look like for each, and approximate cost. An all inclusive resort in Mexico, a Disney Cruise, and WDW. I now have the go ahead to book WDW!!! I'm going to do my best to keep it low key for him and magical for the kids. I'm not going to treat it like we are never going again because as many of said there is a good chance he will catch "Disney Fever". We are planning to take the kids out of school and travel late Feb -early March 2018, a time crowd calendars predict to be low and will allow us to celebrate my son's 7th Birthday at Disney! Thanks for all your feedback and thanks in advance for all your help in future discussions as I begin planning!

 

[kboo]

Update: My husband and I spoke last night. I presented him with 3 vacation options, what a typical day would look like for each, and approximate cost. An all inclusive resort in Mexico, a Disney Cruise, and WDW. I now have the go ahead to book WDW!!! I'm going to do my best to keep it low key for him and magical for the kids. I'm not going to treat it like we are never going again because as many of said there is a good chance he will catch "Disney Fever". We are planning to take the kids out of school and travel late Feb -early March 2018, a time crowd calendars predict to be low and will allow us to celebrate my son's 7th Birthday at Disney! Thanks for all your feedback and thanks in advance for all your help in future discussions as I begin planning!

Wow, I've been following all this (I'm the one with the DH who had a meltdown one night in 2014 and swore we wouldn't be back in "MANY years"... just look at my signature, LOL)...

There are a ton of great resources and you will be going at a terrific time. You'll have a blast, and you are absolutely right, just plan a few fastpasses each day, and maybe a few "special" meals - character meals, or cool settings, whatever most appeals to everyone, and take it "easy"!

 

[DISfirstTimer]

Wow, I've been following all this (I'm the one with the DH who had a meltdown one night in 2014 and swore we wouldn't be back in "MANY years"... just look at my signature, LOL)...

There are a ton of great resources and you will be going at a terrific time. You'll have a blast, and you are absolutely right, just plan a few fastpasses each day, and maybe a few "special" meals - character meals, or cool settings, whatever most appeals to everyone, and take it "easy"!

I shared your story with my husband! I told him if he needed to he could take a morning or two to himself and I'd take off with the kiddos. I have no issue with that!

 

[kboo]

I shared your story with my husband! I told him if he needed to he could take a morning or two to himself and I'd take off with the kiddos. I have no issue with that!

Ha! Seriously, feel free to PM me if you want more concrete suggestions as you get closer to your trip. I think DH slept in/worked in the room (boooooring!) one day and golfed a bit one afternoon on that trip. But now he doesn't want to miss any of the magic with the kids. He was actually the one who asked, "so did we buy DVC yet?" when we had been talking about maybe doing it in 2018.

 

[Dis703]

Perfect ages IMO and ours have been going since they were 2 years old. Always a great trip. Thing thing about kids and Disney is that there is so much to see and do at every age they may have different interests. The littlest ones might be really into the characters while a 10 year old is more into the thrill rides.

As for remembering, I went to MK when I was 11 years old and have very few memories of that trip. I know I was with my aunt and uncle and cousins but can't even remember for sure who all was there. My only memory without prompting is of the fact that they forced me to go on Haunted Mansion even though I was terrified. Aside from that I only remembered things when I went back as an adult and was like "oh, yes I did this" as I would go on the rides.

You will remember it and you will have pictures to show them as well. And if you are lucky you might all catch the Disney bug and it may not be your only trip after all.

 

[margot31]

Oh please.....we just took our 2.5 and 6 month old in April....already have another trip booked for Oct.

 

[sprousehouse]

Personally, I would not have wanted to take a 4.5 year old. Mine were 6 & 8 and could hack multiple, full days in the park. We did 8 day tickets, rope dropped most every day and only did fireworks once (mine never sleep in) one night. Kids were never really cranky or tired. I saw people with little ones who were melting down and it looked miserable to me.

I'm a go-go-go kind of person so mid-day breaks aren't for me (we went early Dec so they weren't needed anyway). Mine aren't big into characters (and seriously I can't believe that ANY child thinks those characters are real - mine would not have bought that at any age anyway) but loved the theming and the rides. We had an amazing trip and they look at the pictures and talk about it all the time.

We did do a 1 day trip to Disneyland when they were younger (4 & 6 I think) and while they did great for one day, I knew it wouldn't work for longer than that so WDW had to wait.

So I think it really depends on expectations and what works for your family.

 

[ChiefM]

The wife and I talked about going to Disney World for many years. I am an older father now (52) and I wanted to take our daughter when she was younger, She is now 17 and we have a 1 1/2 year old son. Active duty military and deployments was always a deterrence for us. We would go on vacations but only for 3 or 4 days max. I am now semi-retired and we are going for 9 days in September and I know it will not be super magical for our daughter and my young son won't remember anything. There is no way to plan the exact perfect time because for us life got in the way. I can't make up for lost time and wish my daughter had a prior trip to reflect back on but I wanted to make sure she went before life gets in her way, getting a job, married etc.. Now that we are going in September I am going all out and making it the most magical trip I can. We went for a budget room but getting the in room celebration, photo pass, best places to eat, etc, etc. I am the Disney fanatic and could go every year now that we can afford it. The wife watched the planning video and begged for a Animal Kingdom room overlooking a Savannah on the next trip.

There is no exact prefect time because it's what works for you and your family. Life gets in way so plan accordingly. The hubby may or may not have a change of heart.

 

[margot31]

The wife and I talked about going to Disney World for many years. I am an older father now (52) and I wanted to take our daughter when she was younger, She is now 17 and we have a 1 1/2 year old son. Active duty military and deployments was always a deterrence for us. We would go on vacations but only for 3 or 4 days max. I am now semi-retired and we are going for 9 days in September and I know it will not be super magical for our daughter and my young son won't remember anything. There is no way to plan the exact perfect time because for us life got in the way. I can't make up for lost time and wish my daughter had a prior trip to reflect back on but I wanted to make sure she went before life gets in her way, getting a job, married etc.. Now that we are going in September I am going all out and making it the most magical trip I can. We went for a budget room but getting the in room celebration, photo pass, best places to eat, etc, etc. I am the Disney fanatic and could go every year now that we can afford it. The wife watched the planning video and begged for a Animal Kingdom room overlooking a Savannah on the next trip.

There is no exact prefect time because it's what works for you and your family. Life gets in way so plan accordingly. The hubby may or may not have a change of heart.

If you are still active duty are you aware of all the discounts available? Room? Memory Maker?

 

[ChiefM]

I am retired now and I did use my military discount and I got one sweet deal on the room, food and tickets. We are leaving 2 days early before the check in at Disney. I am meeting up with high school buddies on International Drive and the family is going to discovery cove for a day. I plan on needing a vacation AFTER the vacation.

 

[2disneywego]

Yay!!!!!!! Disney here you come!!!!
Very happy for you.
My DH loved Disney but we had to balance it with "non-Disney" activities which we suprisingly enjoyed.

Please feel free to pm me for some suggestions. Will you have a car? If not, please consider it, it will make it much easier to get to other places, even ones close to Disney.

 

[imBryan]

Glad to see that you're going. Their ages are perfect, and they will have a great time. We took my son when he just turned 2, and over 6 months later he still talks about it every day. He had a blast. It was the best week of our lives. Yes, he was hard to manage, but we did manage him, we went at his pace, and it was wonderful.

 

[kboo]

My older daughter just made me a Mother's Day card that listed as one of the reasons why I'm the best mom ever, that we told her we "could go to Disney World every year" (this is how we told her we bought DVC). She hadn't been talking about WDW that much and she actually just told me yesterday she's not that into princesses any more, but I guess she still loves the magic at WDW.

 

[kranzaldua]

So I didn't take the time to read all the replies, and I'm sure what I'm about to say has been said by others, but I'll go ahead anyways. I think the time is to go now! For one, after they are 10- they are considered "Disney adults" so the price of tickets are more $$$, as well as the dining plan- should you choose to go that route. My boys are 3 & 5 and we have been every year and my 5 year old can remember stuff from our past 2 trips. Plus, there's always lots of photo-ops for priceless pictures that can jog the memory.

 

[Neytiri411]

Your kids are not too young. We took our kids to DL for the first time when they were 4 and 6. They had a blast and 4 years later they BOTH still remember it. Now we've gone to WDW last year and we are planning another trip next year. And we have a Disney Vacation Club contract pending. We were also "only going to go once". Haha! So you never know. But even if you never do go again, I think Disney is such a great experience for people of all ages. I would not take back the trip we took when they were smaller, even if they couldn't remember it. My daughter got made up as a princess when she was 6 (she'd die now before doing that) and my son made his own iron man car (he doesn't like cars now, or Iron Man). BUT they both have such good memories of these experiences and the trip and so does our whole family. And the pictures are the BEST. So my vote is to go now. There is no point in waiting. If you know you want to do it sometime, I say do it NOW, as one never knows what the future holds. Good luck!

 

[keepswimming76]

I just read through all of this and I'm so happy to hear you decided to go!

My DH and I always said we would NEVER go to WDW until the kids could remember it. And then when my son was almost 4 and my daughter 6 months old my parents offered to take us for a quick trip, just 2 days. That was in 2010. We've been back as a family five time since! Now my husband is the one asking when we are going again.

You never know. Your husband may become a Disney geek after just one trip.