Northeast DISers how often

[kiki02]

in a year do you make it to WDW? It's not that close, so wondering what people do and how often? and do you drive, fly, take train, auto train?

 

[cluvsdisney]

On average we probably go every 10 months. We fly from NYC.

 

[Happyjen27]

I've been rocking once a year. I dream of going more often, I price check to see when I can swing it. I look at the kids' school schedule and my husbands vacation schedule and work all the angles.

And it ends up being once a year.

We fly. I hate car trips. I drove/rode to Florida twice as a teenager. I've also taken the train 20 years ago. When I calculate gas, tolls, hotels for overnights and food on the road, it really does not end up being a significant enough savings for me to bother driving. I feel like I would start my whole trip tired if I drove.

For autotrain I would have to drive like 8 hours to get to it. Not worth that either. I can get direct flights for about 200-300 per person and get there in 3 hours. Nobrainer.

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

I would go once a year if we could afford it. I wouldn't go any more than that because of the distance (central PA) though I could live there Our last trip was 3 years ago.

We are making a big trip out of it this year since we probably won't be back for a long time. We do have other places we really should go! But we always drive. I do not fly. It's cheaper to drive anyway, and then we don't have to rent a car either.

 

[katie111]

We go about every 10 months from MA but I have 2 brothers that live in Orlando so that is my "excuse". We never stay with them though. We always fly. I've driven to Hilton Head twice with the kids & that was far enough for me. I got the SW card last year & we have taken 2 trips with free airfare already.

 

[JessM]

We go once a year usually. This coming year will be twice but that's just because I'm doing my first RunDisney event.

We fly, its gotten very affordable out of Portland, ME, there is no way I would drive. We used to drive to Manchester NH to fly SW those flights were direct and reasonable too!

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Our first trip was in 2007 and now we've been a total of 4 times in 6 years. Planning on going again next year, too. Wish we could go more often, but it's a long way from MA! We definitely fly---can't even imagine driving that far! And we get to leave home and be in MK by noontime! We fly out of Green in Warwick and usually get decent rates--less than $1,000 for all four of us.

I struggle with the...I really want to go to Disney, but maybe we should try a vacation somewhere else. We usually do one big trip and then a week of smaller trips/day trips. We have taken the kids to DC, PA twice, and too many trips to NH to count! So it's not like we've never done anything else. But my heart keeps wanting to go back to Disney!

That's what I'm interested in. How do you balance seeing new places with going back to Disney? Do you do other trips in the years you do go to Disney? Or do you alternate between?

 

[Happyjen27]

We always do other trips, Disney can't be the only one for the year. Last year we went to Niagara Falls in Canada, a cruise to the Bahamas, and then camping here and there within a couple hours from home.

As much as I really like Disney, I also like trips that aren't so spoon fed. Of course, the cruise was totally more spoon fed than Disney, but we wanted to see how the kids liked cruising. I don't care for it much myself, but the prices are right if you live near a port and have the flexibility to snag a last minute deal.

 

[nansmama]

Since 2008 we have been five times, and have two trips coming up. We went two times in 2012 and it will be three trips for 2013. The October trips are only a few days, though (for the Halloween party). We are taking our longer trip in November instead of Jan/Feb this cycle, which is why the three trips within one calendar year. We may or may not get there again before October 2014.

 

[beffiegirl]

We go to Disney every year, but this year twice. Going for NYE. We usually drive since it's hard to get a non stop flight from Philly, and Newark is so expensive! Though we moved recently closer to Newark.We're a family of 5. But if the price is right. We usually go on a cruise every year too. We started to drive more often because in the winter the flights get cancelled if its snow. If you drive and you here it's gonna snow you can leave earlier, just hop in your car and go! Bought DVC since were there alot.

 

[MouseloverJD]

I try to go at least 2x yearly unless I have an AP, then as many trips as I can afford (airfare is expensive).

I like to go in May to celebrate my birthday and in December for the Christmas holidays. I justify by making them gifts to myself.


I am rather thrifty and will have the entire trip paid off before I leave and have multiple gift cards from reward sites for spending money. I always fly because driving would take too long.

 

[Couchy]

recently we have gone often. We make use of our AP's and free flights on SW. DH travels a lot and can add those miles to his RR account and they add up fast. When we have free flights we go, so three times a year usually

 

[disneysteve]

We're in south Jersey and have been going every year. The only reason we don't go more often is because of our daughter being in school. We used to go twice a year until she hit middle school. Once she hit high school, we were stuck going in August as pulling her out of school was too hard. To compensate, we started going for 2 weeks instead of 1.

Our record was 4 visits in 13 months.

We typically drive.

 

[Darcy03231]

I live in southern NH and we went every year when the kids were young. Once they hit the teen years we took about 6 years off and did other things. In 2007 we went back, did 3 trips between 2008/2009, and then went in 2011 and 2012. We're back to taking a break again.

We always fly.

 

[jenny105]

I used to go every year 2006-2010 but now it's every other year. I managed to get down there this year on a business trip but that doesn't really count does it?

 

[SDSorority]

Every 2 years, alternating with WDW inspired trips in between.

For example, we went to WDW in 2011, then in 2012 we went to Canada, then in 2013 we went to WDW, then in 2014 we're going to Norway.

 

[Arielle22]

We go every 2-3 years. When our girls were young it was 3 years but now that our salaries increased it is 2 years.

Over the next couple of years, I expect to go once a year. DH and I go in 39 days (yeah) and then we want to go next August with our girls (in college now).

DD20 wants to do the college program next year so we would go visit her. Then in 2015, a friend, my sister and I are going to celebrate our 50th birthdays.

We always fly. The thought of taking 4 days out of our trip to drive is unpalatable. DH and I are flying out of Green in RI and back to Logan in Boston. Last trip we flew out of CT. It was a long drive but we saved a lot on tickets.

 

[KayW]

We have been going once a year since 2008. We fly from MA. Couldn't imagine the drive. This past year we did 2 trips since we had extra points from joining DVC and it was my 40th.

 

[dromio42]

We go every other year for a 3 week trip. The autotrain works great for us since we don't have to pay for a rental car (or the extra insurance you need if you have it for more than 15 days)....not going again till December 2014...boo

 

[kiramay]

I went every 1-2 years as a kid. They got more spaced out when I was older since we did cruises and other trips too.

Now that its my turn I plan to alternate yearly vacations; 1 big trip in 2012, small in 2013 (Two WI Dells trips), big for 2014 (WDW), and if we can get a good bounce back we'll do budget WDW in 2015... I've been to 45/50 US states plus Canada and Mexico thanks to my parents--- I want to do that for my kids too.

We drove to Florida twice from Chicago; next trip we're flying.