The one with the dusty, wrinkly, moldy-oldy 4 day park hopper ticket from 1992! (August 2025)

[MamaMouse0920]

Ugh for some reason I got zero notifications of your guys' comments, what the heck?!

BUT here's what we ended up doing-- we're keeping the 10 days in August as-is (our flights are non-refundable (Basic Economy) so even though Disney would have allowed us to switch the dates, we'd lose $$$ on airfare so that would stink), and my mom agreed to watch the kids so Matt & I get a solo trip!!! It will be Sunday through Thursday, so 3 full days and 2 half days (travel). Not as nice as 7 days for sure but we will be kid-free and honestly we are so excited!

..also, as I type this (and as I write up my TR with our many date-nights) I am realizing it sounds as though we don't love our kids LOL I swear we very much do, but also we understand the importance of prioritizing our marriage in order to foster a home filled with love & set good examples of love-filled, happy marriages for our kids to hopefully follow when they become adults & seek out partners to spend their lives with. I've said it before that we are so fortunate to have my parents & siblings close by and willing to help watch the kids... a kid-free vacation is almost unheard of for most parents so we are BEYOND grateful for the opportunity! Plus it doesn't hurt that our kids will be in great hands, and absolutely love spending time with grandma & grandpa so honestly they will probably not even be THAT sad to miss out on Disney (we haven't told them yet....)

When Matt was growing up (he's an only child, I feel compelled to point out) his parents implemented an 'every other year' vacation rule - one year they'd go on a trip as a family and the next year the parents would go on a couples only/kid free trip.. when we first became parents we said we loved that idea but didn't know the feasibility of it, and incidentally without any effort on actually planning them out it has just sort of happened to work out that way throughout the last 7 years of being parents.

2019: Family trip to Sanibel Island, FL - just DD7 (I was pregnant with DS5)
2020: DS5 was born in the heart of COVID, no trips this year (I imagine that was the case for a lot of people, not just the ones with an 18mo & a newborn LOL)
2021: Matt & I solo trip to Ft Myers Beach (our first trip without the kids)
2022: Family trip (+ extended family) to Las Vegas to celebrate my brothers 21st birthday (don't come for me- the kids actually had a blast in Vegas and obviously we only did kid-friendly activities!) + WDW in September + Matt & I solo trip to Washington DC where Matt attended a work conference --> lots of trips this year!
2023: Family trip to Ft Myers Beach + WDW in September
2024: Matt & I solo trip to WDW for conference in February; Family (+ extended family) trip on a cruise; + WDW in August
2025: Family trip to WDW in August

So yes, we consider ourselves extremely fortunate and are SUPER excited for February!! 82 days!!!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

I say you & Matt GO!!

Your answer wins!

I also really like the more relaxed trip and not going to the parks as much.

100%, like I said we ALWAYS say "we need more rest days to explore etc." and then never end up doing them so I honestly would consider doing an entirely park-free trip one of these days!

plus we did a split stay so we could get 2 free water park days

OMG this is genius!!!

The kids didn't complain about not going into the parks one time.

1,000%!!!! When we went on a cruise that left out of Orlando we had a lengthy chunk of time between getting off the cruise ship & needing to be at the airport so we hung around Disney (went to Disney Springs, took the monorail around the monorail resorts etc.) and honestly it was hardest for me, ha! I hated being so close and yet so far away... it was a bit like dangling the carrot in front of me and then taking it away! But the kids I think would have no problems! They're content to just be in the bubble.

Your family does incredibly well at WDW and the kids are old enough to KNOW you left them behind.

Oh for sure, after we decided on this solo trip I tested the waters a bit at dinner that night...

me: "would you guys be sad if mom & dad went to Disney World without you guys, if it meant you got to spend the week with Grandma?"
DS5 & DD7 simultaneously: "yeah we'd be sad you went without us"
me: "really? you wouldn't be excited to stay with grandma for that many days in a row?"
DS5: "well, yeah okay I would be okay with it!"

..so we decided we'd make let grandma be the one to tell them, so she can be the bad guy (or good guy, depending on how they take the news when it's real life & not just a hypothetical Hopefully it helps that we have the August trip on the horizon, though!

Theme park hours are shorter in February and I don’t know how long your conference days will be. You will have to judge whether that makes a difference.

Ooooh good point about the shorter hours, I didn't think about that!!! I will be done around noon each day, and the conference offers discounted 'after 1pm admittance' tickets so that's likely what we'll do for a day or two!

Just know going into it though that February has several weeks that are very busy especially compared to when you went over the summer

Oh for sure - when we've gone to this conference in years past I've been surprised with how busy it's been!! I think Presidents Day & Mardi Gras can sometimes coincide - plus FARTS & the Princess Marathon sometimes overlap with the conference dates too! Thankfully this trip the marathon starts the day AFTER we leave to go home so hopefully won't see those crowds!

Also it can get too cold to swim in February so going back for swim breaks may not be an option to avoid crowds.

I will 100000% be bringing more sweatshirts this trip - I remember my teeth chattering some mornings & nights!!

...and I also remember getting sunburned in the middle of the day, so suffice it to say FL weather is weird