Which date in September is best ???

[alexandra uk]

We wanted to go on September 3rd but the 10th is coming up £160 cheaper.

Would there be alot of difference (crowd wise) between these two dates ?

 

[Freaky]

We have been in September only once (many many years ago) and the crowd levels do seem to reduce after the Labor Day holiday which is the first Monday in September. I think it would be a lovely time to go, especially when you can get great flight prices but unfortunately our kids start back to school in the first week so for us it is not an option.

 

[wayneg]

For 1st week in Sept I would still expect a few UK travellers around keeping kids of school to take advantage of a lower cost holiday. 2nd week in Sept should be quieter but dont think there would be a lot of difference. Just try avoid any US holidays like Labor day. Further you get into Sept the weather is also better, mid-end Sept shoud be a few degs cooler.

 

[stal]

Do remeber that September isn't as quiet as it once was.

Disney now tend to offer free disney dining plan in august and september which encourages alot more people to visit at that time!

 

[Tinks1984]

I doubt there being as many UK travellers to WDW at that time, with the children mostly due back in school at the beginning of September. But, as the other poster pointed out, watch out for Labour Day, as that week could be much busier.

You have to weigh up the options, if you have children, is it worth taking them out of school at this time of year? I suppose it depends what year at school they are in, if it's an important year (ie SATS, Mock GCSE's, GCSE year) then this may not be a good option.

If you on the other hand don't have children, then I'd personally go for the 10th Sept option, you miss Labour Day/Week and you also save on money, which you can then use as spend or for tickets when you're over there

 

[alexandra uk]

Thanks for the advice

The boys are 4 & 6 so they're not missing anything important at school; if they were doing exams I would'nt dream of taking them out. I'll have to make the most of it while they're little.
Ideally I would like to go for the first 2 weeks of December but I'm in uni and to miss 2 weeks would be too much (unfortunatly I have lots of exams/assigments )

 

[wayneg]

We took DS out for 2 weeks every year at Junior school. We found best time was adding 2 weeks on before Oct half term so we could turn it into a 3 week holiday, great weather, low prices, low crowds and Holloween events.
Others will say not to take kids out of school whatever, we had full backing of school and a very advanced child. Only you know your children and the school they goto, do whats best for your circumstances.

 

[Freaky]

I agree with Wayneg - you know if your kids can manage missing a couple of weeks off school. We have taken our 2 out for at least a 2 week break almost every year and they are still in the top streams so it hasn't done them any harm. As DD is now in her first year at grammar school we are more reluctant to take her out - don't think they will look on it too favourably - so we have flights booked for the end of July next year. Still looking for another trip though

 

[disneyholic family]

we were there in mid-september 2 years ago and WDW was a ghosttown - almost nobody in the park ---- it was absolutely heavenly...

as for taking the kids out of school, we did it 9 years ago....
DS was 11 years old, DD was 14...
we took them out towards the end of november and only returned at the end of december...
they ended up missing 3 weeks of school....no big deal at all....
the schools weren't happy and told me that i couldn't take them out of school...
but i simply told them that i wasn't asking their permission to take my kids out - i was simply informing them that the kids would miss 3 weeks of school...no discussion...
and that was that......no big deal...

 

[alexandra uk]

Our school has a very strict policy on this you can't even ask for a holiday form; you have to book an appointment with the head and give an explanation of why you want to take them out (I sent their Dad the last time) even then they will only grant you 10 days maximum.
I wish I could just say to our head teacher I'm taking them out and thats that - she scares me to death

Has anyone ever heard of a school taking it further ?

 

[CustardTart]

Our school has a very strict policy on this you can't even ask for a holiday form; you have to book an appointment with the head and give an explanation of why you want to take them out (I sent their Dad the last time) even then they will only grant you 10 days maximum.
I wish I could just say to our head teacher I'm taking them out and thats that - she scares me to death

Has anyone ever heard of a school taking it further ?

Wow! And your children are 4 and 6??!! Seems crazy to me... We took our children out of school regularly for vacations when they were at primary school - in fact, what with moving house several times both in UK and abroad, they missed about 5 /6 months of schooling! And the world didn't come to an end. They both went to Uni and have good jobs... Good luck!

 

[orangetiggs]

we are getting married at wdw day after labor day!!! i have been in spet before and i think its really quiet but i have never thought its busy and i've been at thanksgiving before and thought that was ok as well

 

[disneyholic family]

Our school has a very strict policy on this you can't even ask for a holiday form; you have to book an appointment with the head and give an explanation of why you want to take them out (I sent their Dad the last time) even then they will only grant you 10 days maximum.
I wish I could just say to our head teacher I'm taking them out and thats that - she scares me to death

Has anyone ever heard of a school taking it further ?

the head of my kids school was also pretty scary (actually i had rather stronger language to describe her back then)...
but i didn't care...
in all the years my kids had been in that school, they had barely missed any time for overseas trips....and that despite the fact that we're americans and our families in the states always want us to attend major family events....

but this was a major trip for us....one that i wasn't willing to give up on....
i knew it was the last time DS would be able to miss any school without it being a problem in terms of missing material that's actually important (the following year he entered a highly competitive school from which he never missed even one day in his entire 6 years there -he never even took a sick day)....
in any case, it was the one and only time we took the kids out in advance of thanksgiving to be able to spend it with my family in the states...and then in between thanksgiving and christmas, we went to WDW - of course i didn't tell the head that we were going to WDW...then we came back home right before new years...

whatever....it was important to us and it wasn't up for discussion....i told her that......there really wasn't anything she could do that would have made me change my mind...

 

[Chilly]

I went the last two weeks of September this year and the year before and the free dining definately made a difference to the crowds but it was still a nice time to go and MNSSHP was on as well.

I was taken out of school for two weeks in June every year until I was 14, never did me any harm

 

[squitty]

We went the 10th Sept this year for 3 weeks.
As said above the DDP did make a difference in the crowds since the last time we went at the same time of year, won't put us off going again in Sept again though.