What is Jersey Week??

[bobbiwoz]

Very often there's an election day holiday the same week as the NJEA convention, so people taking students out of school, are only doing it for 2 days.

Bobbi

 

[Dopey Sharon]

Or, in the case of our school district, have school Monday, then off the rest of the week.

I really don't understand why they don't just have the entire week off.

 

[OneMoreTry]

We were there once in October and I bet 25% or more of the people were from NJ. It was crowded.

And, my mother said if you don't have anything nice to say..... So

 

[Goofy's apprentice]

Were there for Jersey week the last two years and will also be there this year. Due to this and the ending of F&W, SuperSoap, etc the parks are really busy. Last year we stayed into the next week and things really improved crowd-wise.

Having said that....the weather is great, F&W is in full swing...as it is a good time for us to go we will continue to go at this time. Just plan your park days carefully and make dining reservations. It will be a great vacation

 

[MEGADAN]

OK, I admit, we've been to WDW on Jersey Week and our kids don't even go to public school, (Catholic Schools are not closed) I think it is just a matter of fact that most New Jerseyians travel to WDW alot. lol We also go in May, August, October etc....

 

[WOW]

We have gone NJ week many times, and it actually isn't bad. We live in NJ and basically we are a stressed out population, so please excuse us as it usually takes us several days to decompress. NJ is a beautiful state with many good places to visit, trouble is, there is so much traffic that you can't get there!!!!!!

 

[mstec]

We've always gone in early November, and now that our kids are in grade school, we've been going during Jersey week especially so we only have them miss Monday thru Wednesday (3 half days), instead of a full week of school. We also always loved Disney in November - great weather and low crowds. We did notice last year that it seemed more crowded than we were used to, and we even commented to one of the CMs, who said they thought it was more crowded also, however they felt it was less to do with Jersey week and more to do with people pushing off their fall vacations, due to possible hurricanes. He said that September and October were really dead and that it seemed like everyone waited until November to go.

 

[Copper3]

Having been a 20 year resident of the state I'm well aware of the reason for the days off.

The problem with the current set up is that parents remove their children from schools for the REST of the week thus reducing the attendance level of the schools. I believe attendance levels affect school funding (but hey I could be wrong). If the convention moved to the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week schools could just close the entire week by moving one day in the school calendar. The teachers would still get the benefit of reduced hotel rates because the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving is a very slow time and parents would have the option of scheduling Thanksgiving week out of work instead of Christmas week.

Until recently I lived in NJ and that was for the first 32 years of my life and we didn't always have election day off of school. I didn't remember that until fairly recently, possibly because of 9/11, so it wasn't always 3 days of a week off.

I agree that they should just get the whole week off to off-set the absenteeism. Think about it, you go to school Monday, have Tuesday off, go to school Wednesday and in my district it was a half-day that neither the teachers nor students really cared about (at least in the higher grades), then have Thursday and Friday off. Wednesday was the biggest joke, more than half the teachers in my high school would call-in sick and classes would become merged because of a shortage not only of teachers but substitutes as well. Most periods became hang-outs and we would talk about what everyone was planning for the long weekend. If there ever was a week I would take my kids out of school this would be it.

Thanksgiving week would not work because too many teachers would complain about having it during a holiday week and attendance would slip at the convention. Remember, they have families that they go away and visit during the holidays as well. Is that a time you would want a convention for your work? It certainly would not be my choice.

Jeff

 

[CNMooner]

The second half of our disneymoon fell on "Jersey Week" last year and there was a noticeable difference in crowds-- it went from manageable to packed in my opinion. Have a good touring plan and you'll be fine-- the weather was beautiful and people from New Jersey are great! LOL.

New Jersey is the single biggest market for WDW and a densly populated state, so don't underestimate the impact. Just do some planning and it will be fine!