Going alone with 4 children! Would you do it??

[liznboys]

You are definitely not insane for still wanting to go. And if I were in your shoes, I very well might consider doing it too. That is a tough decision though, good luck!

 

[Hannathy]

I would ask his employer to reimburse you for any money lost since he will be staying home.

In this economy this is a laugh! Unless he is a child Psychiatrist (incredibly in demand) I don't know anyone who would risk it doing that.

Back to the question, Yep in a heartbeat! You will have a blast and kids know when they have to step up and get it together. you'll have a blast!
And DH won't have to feel bad that the kids trip was canceled because of him-even tho it wasn't his fault-we still feel bad when we disappoint our kids.

 

[momto3pirates]

How are you going to do the rides? Are you going to limit it to only what the youngest can/will ride? I have 3 boys (13, 9, 6) and while my youngest would ride everything, he does not meet the height restrictions for the 48 inch rides. I took them to Sea World by myself last year and sent my oldest through the big coasters by himself, but the lines were very short compared to Disney. Most had only 5 min wait. I would not send him through a Disney line alone If they don't meet height restrictions, they can't even go in the line. Of course if your kids aren't big riders, it would not matter.
Not saying I would not do it...just giving you something to think about.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

How are you going to do the rides? Are you going to limit it to only what the youngest can/will ride? I have 3 boys (13, 9, 6) and while my youngest would ride everything, he does not meet the height restrictions for the 48 inch rides. I took them to Sea World by myself last year and sent my oldest through the big coasters by himself, but the lines were very short compared to Disney. Most had only 5 min wait. I would not send him through a Disney line alone If they don't meet height restrictions, they can't even go in the line. Of course if your kids aren't big riders, it would not matter.
Not saying I would not do it...just giving you something to think about.

The only ride in WDW that has a 48 height requirement is Rockin' Roller Coaster. Your six year old would be big enough for anything else.

As for the OP, there are only about four or five rides in all of WDW that a 4 year old can't go on, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

[Hannathy]

Her 3 oldest are all old enough to go on the rides by themselves so they can stand in line together. And what is incredibly wonderful for the middle 2 is if they do baby swap they will get to ride all the rides twice!!!

She has no problem with the rides.

 

[dreamscometrue101]

My first suggestion would be to see if you could find someone that could go with you. Because your youngest is 7 years younger than your oldest it might be a struggle being able to enjoy absolutely everything with all of them.

Your youngest won't be able to do a lot of the rides the older ones will like so you'll find that you're sitting off the rides with the older ones. If you had another adult there with you then you could hand off the youngest for a ride or two. (Hey, I'll even volunteer for the good of your family.... lol)

If you can't find someone else to go with you, then go anyway. You will have fun, just probably not as much as you'd have with help. Any chance I would get to go I would be there in a heartbeat.

 

[CLR4321]

I would definitely still go. It may be a great time for you to hang out with just the kids. If you have an adult who could take your DH's place...I'd do that. Have fun!

 

[ihave4kids]

I would definitely still go. I took my 4 this year and loved every minute of it. they were 19.17.15.and 13 this trip,but I also took them by myself 2 years ago (had 5 then because we took a friend),4 years ago (also had 5 that year) and 9 years ago.EVery trip was awesome.

 

[hopeandtink]

How are you going to do the rides? Are you going to limit it to only what the youngest can/will ride? I have 3 boys (13, 9, 6) and while my youngest would ride everything, he does not meet the height restrictions for the 48 inch rides. I took them to Sea World by myself last year and sent my oldest through the big coasters by himself, but the lines were very short compared to Disney. Most had only 5 min wait. I would not send him through a Disney line alone If they don't meet height restrictions, they can't even go in the line. Of course if your kids aren't big riders, it would not matter.
Not saying I would not do it...just giving you something to think about.

My 4 year old DD will ride everything!! We had a mom and daughter trip in March and she rode everything except Rockin Roller coaster, which she cried about because she wasn't tall enought. She needs to grow 1 1/2 inches by Sept. 27th!! My 3 older boys can and will ride everything. I am really thinking that we will be ok.

 

[momto3pirates]

Primevil whirl in AK is also 48 inches. Your 4 year old must be tall for her age. My DS6 is only 47 inches tall now. He is trying hard to grow so he can ride those two when we go back in October. At 5 he could not even ride the 44 inch rides! That is why I brought it up. He is a dare devil, though and was upset in June when he could not ride RNR or Primevil Whirl.
My husband is a police officer and cannot get many holidays/weekends off, so my boys and I do a lot of mother/son trips. Have a great time.

 

[momto3pirates]

Her 3 oldest are all old enough to go on the rides by themselves so they can stand in line together. And what is incredibly wonderful for the middle 2 is if they do baby swap they will get to ride all the rides twice!!!

She has no problem with the rides.

I know they are old enough to ride alone, but I would not trust mine to stand in line for 30-45 minutes alone. Maybe I am too overprotective, but I would not be able to leave my kids to ride EE or RNR by themselves.

 

[CandleontheWater]

I would still go, when I was a kid my mother used to take me and my 2 brothers down all the time without my dad (he didn't get much vacation time with his job). I know that you will have one more, but my brothers could never have been called well-behaved when they were younger and we still did just fine. I think your 11 year old is old enough to lend a hand with the younger ones if needed, and I think that your oldest could stand in-line alone together and be just fine. Just stress to them that they have to stick together and if they are well behaved you won't have to worry about them getting into any trouble while waiting in line. I hope you go and make wonderful memories!

 

[PrincessTiffany]

I know they are old enough to ride alone, but I would not trust mine to stand in line for 30-45 minutes alone. Maybe I am too overprotective, but I would not be able to leave my kids to ride EE or RNR by themselves.

There would be absolutely no reason for them to stand in 30 to 45 minute lines. The OP will be there at one of the slowest times of the year. If anything has over a 25 minute wait, just Fastpass it and come later in the day.

 

[pickles]

4 kids here..3 of which are MR/handicapped. I went by myself in late april early may and did fine. the only trouble I had is one of the handicapped ones started having some trouble. that is what babysitter clubs are for. I put her there for one night so I could get a rest from her and also give some other attention to the others.

But overall we had no trouble.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I would call a sister or cousin or best friend to go along. Either that, or rebook for a later date. Or complain to the boss that the vacation is already paid and then your DH go along anyway regardless of what his company says.

I was switched to a different manager and different team at my job 2 weeks before my last trip due to some emergency situation they needed my help with. I made sure everybody knew that I was not giving up my vacation.

 

[MJAJmom]

I took my 2 boys, ages 4 and 6, by myself twice now. Once last Oct and then this past June. I really enjoyed taking them and we had a wonderful time without DH!! I only took 2, so I can't imagine how 4 would be, but only YOU can answer that question. My vote would be to GO.

However, be realistic and know that it will be a different kind of trip than when DH goes. You will have to travel as a pack and not be able to split up. You have to think about what rides to do and not do, including seating arrangements. How will you manage meals - ordering at CS, travelling through a buffet line, and at a TS meal. Do you take a stroller?

All of this is manageable, you just need to think it through a little bit more. Your pace may be slightly slower, but you will find lots of reasons why it's more special because only you are there. I think you have to allow yourself a week to totally panic and freak out because you're going alone and you think you're insane!!! Then you'll calm down, and you'll know that it's all going to be OK and that you can actually pull it off. I went through all those same emotions before my first solo adventure!!

Pace the floor a thousand times, take some deep breaths, then sit down and smile when you say "OK, let's do it!!"

Best of luck to with your decision.

 

[zoey9797]

Well, Do you really like your kids? LOL!
I love spending time with DD. We have done Mother/ Daughter vacations and loved it!
I say go. If you can get another adult, great. If no, make sure you explain to the older kids that there may be limitations this time b/c dad's not there.
That way they understand going into it and there are hopefully no meltdowns.

I don't think it is unreasonable to nicely ask the company to pay for the wasted airfare ect if you cannot transfer it or change the name. Just actual cost that you are out. Especially if DH is a good employee. A good MGR will know that they do not want to cause problems with an already trained good employee (especially if 3 recently quit) over a trivial issue like this.
If the vacation was approved already, your DH is doing a heck of a favor by staying and the company knows it. Maybe they could hire a temp for the position.

My DH would want to stay if they asked in this situation too- so I would be the one calling the MGR *smirk*

 

[DisneyFanSince71]

My considerations based upon what you are telling us.

1) What's the gender breakdown of the kids? Toughest configuration might be if its G-G-G-B. Then how would you handle the bathroom situation? (That's what I think about in my G-B-G-G family).

2) Do you have a double stroller? That always helped when we were at Disney. Youngest could fall asleep while others could keep playing

My 2 cents

 

[jngwright]

I took my 2 6 year olds in late April/early May and it was fabulous!! I was in the same boat as you-DH couldn't get away from work. We were origianally staying for 7 nights and we were having so much fun, we stayed 3 more days. My boys are not always stellar in the behavior department, but they were great the whole time. I took them to a kid's club one night midway through the trip and enjoyed a few hours at WS by myself.

I say-go for it and make some great memories!

 

[stitchlovestink]

I would ask his employer to reimburse you for any money lost since he will be staying home.

You are very brave! I wouldn't touch that one with a ten foot pole in this economy. If he's only been at this company since June, I'd say more than likely he's still in some sort of probationary period where they could choose to let him go just because they want to. I wouldn't make waves w/ the employer over a $100 airline ticket. I am figuring she said they paid just under $600 for 6 tickets r/t.

I have four kids (ages 4 to 13) and I have to say I wouldn't bring them to WDW by myself. They're very well-behaved but I think it would just be too exhausting. I've brought them camping by myself for a few days and we've done fine, but WDW is an entirely different situation.

I'd look for a different adult to go with me or pay a responsible sitter-of-sorts to go.

You know what you can handle without getting too stressed or exhausted though. Best of luck in making this decision - it's a tough one, for sure.

bolding is mine....
God Bless You Because to me camping w/ that many kids would be way harder and more difficult than WDW during a hurricane.

I would do it. The great thing about being on property is you can always head back to your room to rest and give you and the kids some down time.

I agree with this. Esp since you are getting a 2 br suite. You will really be able to spread out and if the kids need some down time, everybody's got tons of room. Some can nap in a bedroom while others watch tv in the living room area. Truthfully, even going by yourself, you couldn't ask for better hotel arrangements IMHO.

My 4 year old DD will ride everything!! We had a mom and daughter trip in March and she rode everything except Rockin Roller coaster, which she cried about because she wasn't tall enought. She needs to grow 1 1/2 inches by Sept. 27th!! My 3 older boys can and will ride everything. I am really thinking that we will be ok.

And with that mindset, you will be ok!

I would call a sister or cousin or best friend to go along. Either that, or rebook for a later date. Or complain to the boss that the vacation is already paid and then your DH go along anyway regardless of what his company says.

I was switched to a different manager and different team at my job 2 weeks before my last trip due to some emergency situation they needed my help with. I made sure everybody knew that I was not giving up my vacation.

If you have a friend or relative or someone that you could live with for an entire week, I say bring them along. But just keep in mind, that the other person will have to understand that the kids are the priority here. And be sure that they will be able to 'tolerate' your kids for that long non-stop. I don't mean this meanly. Some people (esp if they don't have kids) do not do well travelling long term w/ others' kids no matter how well behaved they are.

You have a tough decision. I think that deep down you've made up your mind that you want to go and take the kids, but need affirmation that you are making the correct decision. Believe in yourself.
Have a wonderful trip.