Where else do you vacation?

[bshawcrew]

Our kids are 16, 13, and 3. We pretty much only vacation at Disney. We are in NC so take local long weekend trips to the beach and mountains, or go to local amusement parks, but when it comes to our week long annual vacation, we always end up at Disney. The closest other thing Ive almost booked was Disneyland. I try to book other things, but always end up thinking about how many days that could get me at Disney. Anyone else?

 

[rachael95]

We've not had a real vacation in years. We have done a few long weekends like you all do. Since we're in TN, we end up doing day trips to the Smokey Mountains or weekends to Asheville or Chattanooga, but most of our trips are to visit family ---and those do not count as vacations in my book!

Disney will be our first vacation with our DS that is more than a weekend. Looking forward to it.

Once DS is old enough, though, I want us to take a long car trip along part of old Route 66 and then go visit the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns. Just take a couple weeks to drive the country. We did that when I was a kid and it's the best vacation we had as a family.

 

[TXMouseketeer]

We just returned from our 5th WDW visit (second in 6 months), and I was telling my parents of our plans to return in 2017. My dad asked if we had plans to visit any other place, and I said possibly DL. LOL

We had actually been discussing a beach trip when the conversation turned to WDW, and next thing I knew we were booking the trip.

I consider staying at new resorts, eating at new restaurants, and riding new rides a "different" vacation each time.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We're not "regular" Disney goers having been there just once with our kids (we do hope to return someday). Panama City Beach is a place we've taken them twice & will probably return to soon, possibly this Summer. We've also spent a week in Branson, along with shorter trips there as it's close. Took one trip to Wisconsin Dells, and most recently a road trip to South Dakota (Rushmore, Badlands, etc).

As mentioned, this year's trip is not definite. Possibly the beach, maybe just a week at the lake with our (new to us) boat. 2015 plan is Universal/Sea World/Aquatica/WetNWild. Other places we really want to take the kids are:

Yellowstone (I've been, DW has not)
Colorado (DW & I have both been, kids have not)
*N. California (redwoods) (DW & I have both been, kids have not)
*Desert Southwest/Grand Canyon (I've been, DW has not)
DC (I've been, DW has not)

Not sure we'll squeeze it all in before DD13 gets too old to travel with us DD8 maybe. The two * in particular are really too far for us to travel given my limited vacation time/kids' swim team schedule.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We've not had a real vacation in years. We have done a few long weekends like you all do. Since we're in TN, we end up doing day trips to the Smokey Mountains or weekends to Asheville or Chattanooga, but most of our trips are to visit family ---and those do not count as vacations in my book!

We've done several long weekends in Nashville or Chattanooga, or have spent a day at one or the other while on the way to some other destination. Lots of fun

Once DS is old enough, though, I want us to take a long car trip along part of old Route 66 and then go visit the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns. Just take a couple weeks to drive the country. We did that when I was a kid and it's the best vacation we had as a family.

My favorite memory as a kid was a 6-week, 7,500 mile road trip we took in 1977. First time we ever experienced $1.00+ per gallon gasoline

 

[robinb]

We have vacationed in Hawaii, Europe and Asia. Our last non-Disney vacation was a 7-night cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line for Spring Break to the Western Caribbean. We waited until 5 weeks before the trip and got a rockin' good rate of just over $200 per day for all three of us. That included our cabin and food and entertainment onboard and the teen club for my DD. Of course, with 5 people you will probably have to pay more, but I just saw a 7-day cruise out of Charleston on Carnival on May 31st (last minute) for about $2000 with all taxes and port fees for 5 people on their "kids sale free" promo. You will have to pay more for your excursions in port, but even they can be pretty cheap if you choose a beach day on your own.

 

[PartOfYourWDWorld]

Disney, Gulf coast of Florida and northern michigan.

 

[Kristina4109]

Besides WDW and DL, we do Legoland, San Diego Zoo, Sequoia National Park, San Francisco, New Mexico, PA, and Universal L.A.

 

[Lydia91]

I love to plan vacations -- so we have the following in the offing (obviously subject to change):

2014:

family reunion with husband's side - week at a lake house in Ohio
Disney
long weekend in Chicago

2015:

kitchen renovation (instead of big trip)
San Diego
long weekend in Chicago

2016:

Croatia (kids will finally be big enough for Europe!)
New Orleans
long weekend in Chicago

2017:

Looking at Ireland or Spain (Barcelona and Tarragona)
long weekend in Chicago
Family reunion in Northern Michigan

 

[kkmcan]

We have been trying to incorporate seeing new places as well as our beloved Disney parks and cruises.

2006- Polar Express in Williams, Az
2007- San Carlos, Mexico
2008- Oklahoma City to see my parents
?- Branson, MO
2008- Las Vegas with kids
2009- Disney cruise
2010- San Francisco
2011- Disney cruises
2012- nowhere new but for sure Disneyland and San Diego
2013-Orlando Discovery Cove, Aquatica, Sea World
2014- Hawaii

We used to go to Wash DC when the inlaws lived there.

Also in addition to those trips, we go to San Diego every year to stay at our favorite resort on the beach. You can also see from my list below that we visit either DL or WDW every year.

 

[laughinplace199]

There are places to vacation other than Disney World?

We went to Vero Beach, FL last year (but added a couple of days at WDW to the end of our trip since we were flying out of MCO).

This year we are branching out. We are taking DD14 to NYC in June while DS12 is on a school trip to Yellowstone and DS7 spends a few days with grandma and grandpa.

Later this summer, we're going to California. We'll do Disneyland, the beach, Hollywood, and we'll also visit San Diego for a few days.

 

[staceyrhood]

Disney Cruise, Monterey Ca, Amelia Island Plantation, Reynolds Plantation in Ga.

 

[ebradley23]

We love to vacation. Pre-child we went to Hawaii, Jamaica, San Francisco several times, Cozumel, Barcelona, Malta, Italy, Greece, Turkey, France and Costa Rica. We were married 11 years before having a child, and I traveled for work. We had a ton of hotel points and frequent flyer miles, so we used them up. Since we had our son 2 years ago, we've done a couple of cruises. We started with a Bahamas cruise then we did a Southern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan last year.

 

[puffkin]

We were just talking about this. We pretty much only vacation to Disney. My kids are 8 and almost 2. We are not really beach or nature people. So Disney is so easy and surprisingly affordable for us. We also live in the northeast, so day or long weekend trips to major citys (Philly, NYC, DC, Baltimore, Boston, etc) are not that hard to do.

As soon as my youngest is potty trained and able to go into the kid activities, I think we are going to try cruising. I like the idea of going to different ports to explore, and getting beach time....but not being stuck at the beach for a whole week.

My son is pretty into sports, so we are talking about doing a ball park tour once the little one is a bit older and can sit through the games. We could swing through the northeast and towards the midwest and hit quite a few ballparks in a week trip depending on schedules.

We also want to plan a California trip. Obviously hit Disneyland for a few days, but explore the West Coast a bit more than we have before...there is so much out there to do.

With our Florida trips, we ALWAYS rent a car and do different things in Florida. There are so many gems outside of the themeparks. It keeps each trip fresh, and we really have been some nice places. Our upcoming trip we are spending the first two days in Clearwater Beach, and then driving to Sarasota to see the Ringling Museum and grounds before heading over to Disney for a week. Can't wait!

 

[monorailsilver]

Staycations in the burning and expensive state of CT!

Actually, my sister moved to Florida nearly 2 years ago so the past 2 Aprils we went to her house. We did stop in DtD both times for lunch/dinner.

But we went to sanibel, captiva, ft. Myers beach, Marco island, Naples beaches/north Naples beaches and that's just in 1 week!

Basically we are beach hopping. Be found a few beaches we like so far in her area.

Lovers Key and barefoot beach state park were favs and the sanibel light house area was nice. We like ft Myers beach by the pier for the super soft white sand. We didn't like captva since the sand wasn't super soft due to all the shells. Plus the day we went the waves were too big to swim.

We did OC, MD a few years ago and liked that.

Last summer we didn't do a staycation since we did ft. Myers in April and Disney in August but I think my dh will need a week off so he doesn't turn into crabzilla before the end of summer.

When he took his week in 2012 we went to a Yankee game (that was 2 days worth since we stayed at my moms), Yankee candle in Deerfield, mass, sunflower maze in middle field, ct, I think I dragged him to the beach one day and we went to the sub base and walked the sub there.

A previous summer we did six flags, Yankee candle, mystic aquarium (when we were members) and I forget what else.

 

[mm1971]

Our kids are 16, 13, and 3. We pretty much only vacation at Disney. We are in NC so take local long weekend trips to the beach and mountains, or go to local amusement parks, but when it comes to our week long annual vacation, we always end up at Disney. The closest other thing Ive almost booked was Disneyland. I try to book other things, but always end up thinking about how many days that could get me at Disney. Anyone else?

We have gone to:

Niagra Falls, Canada
Punta Cana, Dominican
Washington D.C. - mostly the Smithsonian museums.
We usually do one week at Disney and another trip elsewhere.

 

[theduhaimes]

Since we are a large family (family of 6) and airfare can be expensive, we tend to do road trips with the kids each summer. Last year we went to Williamsburg, VA and this year we are going to Niagara Falls and Toronto. We tend to do our WDW vacations in the fall or winter so we do a budget road trip during the summer. I love planning vacations so I figure out where to go and then how to save the most money. My kids have been up and down the East coast -- from Florida to Boston and a lot of places in between.

 

[J'aime Paris]

We love traveling and have taken many nice non Disney trips with DD.

Chicago-- American Doll store (when she was younger), museums, shopping
Minneapolis-- Mall of America, cool downtown
NY City-- Saw the Little Mermaid on Broadway
San Francisco-- BIL lives there, many fun sights to see
San Diego-- Sea World and Zoo
San Antonio-- Alamo, Riverwalk and stayed at a Dude Ranch!
Mexico--lots of kid activities at all-inclusive resort
Hawaii-- Fun luau, ocean activities, just darn beautiful!
Grand Cayman Island-- Calm, clear water, and Stingray City!

That being said, guess where DD wants to go for her Sweet 16 in October?
She's bringing BFF to WDW!

 

[EMode]

We take 2 vacations a year, WDW (or other Orlando attractions) is usually the Spring Break trip and then we pick somewhere else to go. This year for Spring Break we went to Gatlinburg TN to see Smoky Mountain National Park and we loved it. It may be our new go to destination every year. Planning Universal this summer.
We normally do a beach trip in the summer usually to the Jersey Shore because its pretty close. We have also been to Cape Cod, Lake George, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake Bay area, Williamsburg, and Washington DC. We do alot of camping and day/weekend trips too.
There are so many other places I would love to vacation and we'll probably go to alot of them, for us WDW is definitely not the only vacation destination.

 

[khertz]

Before DS was born, DH and I took non-Disney trips to Hawaii, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and Seattle. Since DS has come along, we have only taken 2 non-Disney trips. His first was to Panama City Beach at 6 months old, and then last year we took a spring trip to the Smoky Mountains, which he LOVED! By then, he had been to Disney World twice and Disneyland once, so I didn't know how well a non-Disney location would go over with him, but we all had a great time! We visited Cade's Cove, went horseback riding, saw Dixie Stampede, spent a day and a half at Dollywood, visited a ton of amazing restaurants, and spent a morning looking around at the Apple Barn, plus a lot of time at the indoor water park at our resort. It was a great trip!