Why is Valentine's weekend as expensive as Spring Break?

[ogreenlee]

Does everyone have Winter Break these days?

 

[Amanda999]

Monday Feb. 17 is Presidents Day - all schools in the US have it off, and many have the entire week off (we do in Massachusetts).

 

[ogreenlee]

I guess trying to fight for a balanced calendar in my school district won't lead to better vacation planning for our family anymore.

We have an extra long weekend that weekend from school, using furlough days. It goes from Thur-Tues. I was all excited, thinking it would be the perfect time to squeeze in a trip.

My husband and his reluctance to take our daughter out of school is disappointing me.

 

[jcarwash]

As above, the President's Day weekend has its own set of room rates that are even higher than "Peak," which are the room rates used for the remainder of that week (Peak Feb 17-22 2014) and use for dates including whenever your spring break is (Peak Mar 7 – Apr 12 2014).

Easter week has its own high rates too (Easter Apr 13- 20 2014).

 

[ogreenlee]

I was looking at DVC stuff last night, and came to the conclusion that it's not a good economic deal for our family of 3. We would have to cut out other vacations to make it worthwhile, and I'm not willing to do that.

That being said, it got me jonesin' for another trip. We went from Dec 28-Jan 5 this past year, and we had a great time, but it was so crowded and expensive. We stayed at Pop until moving over to Universal, and it was fine, but I really wanna upgrade our resort, but I can't justify $500+ a night at any hotel unless it comes with a whole lot of other stuff.. not just a room with a view of some animals.

I really need to find a good transition week (very beginning or end of school) for us so that we can maximize our time and money.

 

[Amanda999]

Are you in Georgia (not sure I'm reading your signature info correctly)?

If so, perhaps your child gets out of school early June?? In Mass. the kids go back (to public school in our town) Wednesday after Labor Day. So, we go to Disney the last week of August to the day after Labor Day. Only 1 or 2 of those days are crowded at the parks (and not all the parks even) - it's just great, and cheap too.

I have heard (but you will know of course!) that the Southern states start school mid August. If so, perhaps you get out earlier in June than we do - the crowds don't build until mid June. So perhaps that would work for you. Or, perhaps you have a teacher education day or two - stretch that to a 4 day weekend possibly?

It is worth the $10 or so, for me, to join Touring plans dot com. Or look at easywdw dot com's free calendars. You'll see how bad the crowds are during national school holidays, but there could be some days in a row in your town that are different than the nation's school in general.

 

[v.t.]

We have gone the first and second week of June and the crowds were very manageable.

 

[ogreenlee]

Our last day of school is on May 21. I'm looking at that week, too, but I want to go to Ireland in June while my daughter is at camp.


I'd be happy to get all of our big vacations while the kid is out of school, but my husband can't take off that much time in a row. We have decided that we're going to go somewhere tropical every Thanksgiving week from now on (started the year before last with Dominican Republic, and after spending a cold week in Boston decided to go warm again this year to Mexico). It's an easy week for my husband to get off work, and the kid is out of school. It helps, sadly, that I have no siblings and both my parents have died, and he only has one brother and a mom surviving, and it's kind of a ho-hum day. We're "ThankfuL" to spend that week as a family somewhere else. lol

It's hard to say we might have to put off Disney until 2015. I enjoyed our winter/NYE trip there this past January, but it was so expensive and crowded. I also would love to go to the water parks, b/c we have never been.