If you have kids in school, when do you go?

[MeridaMerida]

I'm trying to plan a trip and looking at the school calender + a crowd calendar and just getting completely slammed by the crowd reports. I thought we would pull out of school right before the holiday to get a break in crowds but even the 5-6 days in every direction are red crowd zones. What's the best time to go with kids in school to world or land that's actually enjoyable?

 

[Mrs.AMC]

We don't pull out of school. Not any more than a day leading before or after a vacation. The school system here is too strict with attendance rules.
So we've just adapted to traveling during school breaks when we bring DGD.
DH and I travel plenty other times without her
Honestly, I can't say that there are huge differences between the crowds.
As long as you don't pick the big holiday like Christmas or New Years
All in all, summer is probably the better time
Reason is the crowds are more spread out. Summer breaks last 2 1/2, 3 months so the crowds are spread across that entire time. No other break for school is spread out that far. Spring Break is at most over a span of 3 or 4 weeks, Fall break for those that have it is usually 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[pixiedust2u]

Our kids our Kindergarten and Elememtary age
We’ve pulled them at various points in the year Typically we’ll pick one 5 day stretch that they’ll miss. Honestly, after they survived missing a significant amount of school during the pandemic I feel even more strongly that missing a small stretch of school won’t cause harm.
And also in regards to the pandemic…. The world can change overnight in an instant. Take the vacation. No one gets to the end of their childrens school years and thinks “gee we should’ve never pulled them out for that 5 day family vacation”! If anything you realize you should’ve done it more!
Yes, I greatly value education. But also find significant value in making memories with our family.

In years past we love end of April beginning of May at WDW. Temps are perfect (not too humid yet!) and crowds are manageable!

 

[Jacq7414]

I’m a teacher so I always have to go during breaks. I usually go during Easter week.

 

[Disneylover99]

We go in August. Hot but fun. Not too crowded.
And we go Christmas/New Years week. Super fun! More crowded, but manageable. Weather is beautiful.
Love both times!

 

[lorimt]

We have only gone during our spring break which is usually the first full week in March so before the huge spring break crowds. They pushed our spring break out a week for 2023 which means it will be crazy busy so we opted for the first week of January. I’m sure it will still be packed but the price
Is much better than spring break. We will never do summer. It is just too hot.

 

[mrsap]

We have taken our kids out since they were little. We would always go two weeks, Thanksgiving week to the week after, so they’d miss 8 days in total. Now that they’re getting a bit older, we only take them out 5 days. They take work home and work on it when we are back at the resort for our afternoon break, before pool. It used to be a great week to go, but it’s changed a lot. Good luck planning and enjoy it!

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Speaking of the pandemic it has changed things in regards to taking kids out of schools. Where once it was boarding on impossible to do any remote work now some schools may have an option in place to keep up with work and even go so far as to not count days as absent if you arrange things in advance and depending on how flexible they are. So that could be a game changer. It's something worth exploring at the very least

 

[SleeplessInTO]

We do winter break and March break, when our school calendar gives us two weeks off for each break. Occasional long weekend when there’s PD days. I try to minimize taking DD out of school so we work within her school calendar.

The decor and weather are great for Christmas and New Years. Less rain, and I like the temperatures (but full disclosure, we are Canadian lol). Just can’t swim every day reliably. March break weather is great for swimming.

Crowds don’t bug us as much since we go multiple times a year. Whatever we don’t manage to do this trip, we will do on the next one.

 

[gorkt]

I used to pull my kids out during Jersey week since they had a few days off that week anyway. We only went every few years, and the school system was relatively flexible, particularly when the kids were in elementary. Once the kids were in middle/high school, it was a bit trickier, but the kids worked with the teachers one on one to reschedule tests. They would do some homework on the plane usually and pass it in remotely.

 

[DeeBee3]

One year I was able to piece together a trip when Columbus Day and Yom Kippur aligned. It was a while back. It was just pure luck so she only missed 2 days. Otherwise, I have to go when there are scheduled breaks. Pre-K or K/1st is not a big deal, but now it's a bit stricter so unless it's 1 day, I have to go according to school calendar.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

We’re a no on taking out of school, so have to work the holidays and windows here and there as able. During the school year that generally means shorter trips often around the holidays - high resort and airline rates, crowds, etc. For longer trips we like July. Yes you have the heat, but resort rates are among the lowest of the year (you have a stretch from July through August where resort rates are typically consistently lower than average), there are often discounts available, etc, and personally I think crowds trend lower overall during the summer, more hours, weather jumbles up touring habits (which can be a good thing), etc.

I wouldn’t mess too much with the crowds calendars, personally. Just a cause of unneeded stress/anxiety. Good planning can usually trump crowd calendar jockeying.

Happy planning!

 

[Disneyfan628]

When our oldest was younger we would pull him out of school sometimes but he’s in 8th grade now and taking some high school classes with strict attendance policies so it’s just not an option. We are going during our schools fall break in September. I don’t know what the crowds will actually look like but we are hoping for the best and just being prepared to deal with it.

I’ve basically given up on finding a pleasant low crowd time to go until 2034. Hopefully someone will have some better advice!

 

[oneIIIone]

When the girls were younger we chose to pull them a couple times for Veterans Day week so that the holiday made for one less absence on their attendance report and because it was rated as somewhat less crowded. Didn’t pull them once they reached middle and high school.

 

[maltdizzy]

Don't overthink it. You can't beat the crowds, and post-pandemic it's impossible to predict them. Just pick a time that works for your schedule. Some people go every year for Xmas or Spring Break and have a great time, despite crowds.

For K-3, we would pull the kid out of school for seasonal things like skiing, but not now that he is in HS.

We never pulled the kiddo out for WDW because our big vacation is usually the last week of Summer vacation (which would be WDW every 3+ years). That used to be the week before Labor Day, but the county keeps creeping the start date earlier, so now it's mid-August. Crowds have been manageable, but weather more unpredictable (since it's hurricane season), but what really effects the planning now is MNSSHP, which used to start in late Sept and not start in early August.

Disneyland? We used to live in L.A., and the boy was born there, so those trips are usually based around going back for other things and tacking on a couple of days at DLR and/or Knotts.

 

[holden]

We stopped taking our kids out of school when DD19 was in 5th grade. It wasn't worth the stress of making up all the missed work.

 

[RoseGold]

Early December was too much for me last year, never again. Our school added Yom Kippur this year, which is the first week of October, so we are trying that.

But the hot never bothered me anyway, so I'm fine with the summer.

 

[isabellea]

Our kids never missed more than 1.5 day of school for a vacation. We usually go during Spring break (1st week of March), summer or the Holidays. This year we will go Dec 28th-Jan 4th. We always had fun and did everything we wanted to do no matter when we go. We just prepare ourselves for crowds and have fun no matter what.

 

[mdmost]

We've only done two trips with our kids. We got to Disneyland more frequently because it's easier to do a faster trip over a long weekend.

For WDW, first trip was mid-August right before school began. 6 day trip, 4 park days. It was great and a real vacation for all of us. Last year, we went over Labor Day weekend and skipped the Friday before Labor Day. We flew out on Thursday after school and returned on Labor Day Monday. It was a quick trip but we had a blast. The Delta variant was in full force and that made for lower crowds. When they returned to school, both kids complained about missing that one day and how much work they had to do to catch back up.

Since one is now a freshman in high school and the other in 7th grade, we really can't do anymore during school trips. We may look to do an around Easter trip as our school district now lets everyone off the Friday before and the Monday after. So we would do another leave on Thursday evening flight and return on Monday evening. The other option is just to wait till next summer. Honestly, we'll probably wait till Tron has been up for a little while before we visit again.

 

[JenBush]

As long as you avoid 4th of July summer isn’t too bad, it is very hot though. Also take advantage of random teacher inservice days where students are off and take off a few days before or after. They still miss school, but only 2-3 days instead of a whole week.