Financial Advice Needed

[texaslady22]

I am a college instructor. My husband stays home with our 3 children: 7, 3, and 13 months.

We're debt-free except our mortgage and have maybe 2 months savings (and I'm proud of that. We worked hard to get here)

We were planning a trip to Disneyworld next May and budgeted 4,500 for the week including flight. Then, I applied for the business and personal Southwest credit card and got the 110,000 Rapid Rewards points AND companion pass. That will easily save us $1,000 off our trip next year since the flight will be free!!

So, we realized that we're coming in under budget and we have lots of extra Southwest Airlines points and the companion pass good through the end of 2014. We homeschool and we're learning about New York a lot in the next year. We were thinking of maybe taking the 2 oldest to New York with our extra points. We have 2 free hotel nights from our ICH hotel card so we could stay at Times Square Holiday Inn for FREE for 2 nights and have a FREE flight! (We'd still have taxi fare, food, tickets, etc)

Should we do it? Our boys would be 4 and 7. I'm sure they'd enjoy it and learn a great deal, but is it reasonable when it 2 months we'll be doing a 9-day Disneyworld trip?

And if we DO go, is 2 nights enough? If we added on a night at Times Square Holiday Inn, it would be like $400 and that's a lot of money to us. So should we do 2 nights there and then move hotels to one that's more affordable?

What should we do? Live while we have the chance? Or say one trip is enough?

 

[mum2simon]

We homeschool too! We love it! I just took my 6.5yo to NYC with a few friends (7, 7, and 5) and they LOVED it! They want to go back asap We live about 3.5 hours from the city, took an early train in, spent the day and got home around 1am. It was a LONG day, but wonderful...I would do it again in a heartbeat (in fact we are...in Sept.).

I wouldn't add a third day, especially if financially its not the greatest decision. If you manage your expectations and know that you won't see absolutely everything, you will have a great time. Have the kids make a list of what they really want to see and prioritize.

DH and I lived in the city for 7yrs, so I knew my way around, but we had lunch at a famous Brooklyn pizza joint, played in the park in DUMBO, then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan, (played in another little park to rest weary legs and have a snack), saw the 9/11 memorial, walked to Battery Park to view the Statue of Liberty, took the train to the Lower East Side and ate at a Sushi restaurant for dinner, headed to 5th Ave for some sights and to Central Park (the kids ran around Central Park even after a long day of walking...we didn't take any cabs). We didn't necessarily hit all the big sites...but the kids got a great feel of the city and saw most of the bigger building and stuff...even if from a little afar (they still thought it was awesome!).

As a homeschooler, I think that the more field trips the better... that's whats great about making our own schedules. I wouldn't blink twice about the two trips so close together

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Keep in mind that Southwest flies into MacArthur Airport in Islip, which is quite a trek from Manhattan.

 

[audrey2580]

We took our son (8) and nephew (9) to NYC in April and then the Aulani in June. You can never have to many vacations especially if they are educational. The boys loved the Met and the Natural History Museum. But I would say don't stay in Times Sq. Its so crazy and not really close to anything. We stayed near grand central and really enjoyed the location and taking the subway to everything.

 

[chris31997]

With the ages, I would do a 2 day trip and then save plan for another.

As a fellow homeschooler, you can always do a field trip