When to travel?

[kristenrice]

We have 2 daughters who are going to be starting school soon. DD5 is going into Kindergarten this fall and DD2 is starting Pre-school. I am trying to convince DH to snag up one of those 100 point AKV contracts. Our plans are to vacation every other year for 5-7 days.

For those of you with school-age children, what is a good time to vacation? I would prefer not to take the kids out of school. I took my oldest out of school for a week (actually, 3 days since it was M-W-F pre-K) and both girls will miss a week again in October. I do not want to do this when they are in school all day, all week. DH and I both have a lot of seniority at work and getting time off is not a problem when done in advance. We'd be able to make reservations 11 months out, but when to go?

Our children are in private school so their spring break isn't always in the premier season. This year, it was April 4-11. Spring break would be the preferred time for us, as long as it isn't everyone else's spring break too. The only dates I could plan on for certain is the summer. Is it better in early summer, right after school lets out, or in later summer, before school starts? I hate the heat as much as the next person, but 95 degrees with 100% humidity will be more tolerable in WDW than in Michigan! I don't have a pool and that water area at Kidani is so appealing!

Any opinions welcome! TIA!

 

[Chic]

If you don't want to take the kids out of school, I highly recommend doing a visit in early June just as soon as the school year ends. The parks won't be quite as crowded and the weather won't be miserably hot yet. It will be in the upper 80's and lower 90's but the full blown humidity usually isn't a factor yet. If you do take the kids out of school, I would go in early November when the Holiday decorations are up, the crowds are light, and the weather is in the upper 70's and lower 80's. Either way you can't lose because you're in Disney World!

 

[melk]

The last two trips we have gone the last two weeks in August. Hot and humid? Yes, horribly. But most Southern states are back in school, so not terribly crowded (but you need your eating plans made, because of all the free diners). Our next choice is April vacation. But we're looking into taking the kids out in January for just 3 days for a quick trip. My husband is sick of the crowds, sick of the heat, so we're compromising by taking a shorter trip at a time that he'll enjoy more.

 

[kristenrice]

When I was younger, my parents took us on 4 WDW trips, all during spring break. When I "grew up" rotfl2: ) I decided to take an onsite visit. My DF (now DH) and my parents went along too. We were flexible in when we could travel so we opted for the first week of February. The weather was great, crowds were non-existent and it is now my dad's preferred time to travel. We took our honeymoon the first week of September. That was a wee bit too warm for me. I think the lowest day temp all week was 92. Although, I will say that the crowds were even less in September than in February which made the heat a little more tolerable. This year, we went the last week of January. It was a little cool for my taste. We were only able to swim once and even that was chilly. Plus, we had a weather delay going home which almost turned into a nightmare. I think I'd rather go in the spring or summer. I don't think the heat would bother me as much as wall-to-wall people. Right now, our DD's are so young that they don't quite understand the concept of waiting in line. If it were hot AND crowded, we'd be stuck with very crabby children. Since our kids don't start school until after labor day, I'm thinking the first week of September might be optimal. I assume the crowds would be rather light with most kids back in school.

DH will be home from work in a few hours...I have to put together my "sales pitch"