How often do you visit with kids?

[TinkB278]

My simple advice is be willing to pull your kids out of elementary school for a week or extra days around school holidays. We were very reluctant to do so and now regret it as my daughter is now a college freshman and my son is entering High School.

Can I ask why you regret it? I’m afraid I’d end up regretting it too so I’m curious to hear your thought process.

 

[pineapplepalms]

This really depends on the specific school. In our area, some schools have low enrollment, so even if kids get disenrolled for missing too many days, they can just reenroll and return to the same class. However, our school is very full with a long waiting list, and kids that miss too many days get actively disenrolled and may not be able to return to the same school. Our kids are little (oldest is in 2nd), but they love their school and we will maybe miss a day or two at their current ages. As they get older we’d rather avoid missing days if possible.

The good thing is, I’m pretty happy with their school calendar. In addition to summer break, they get full weeks off for Thanksgiving, February break, and spring break, plus 2 weeks off for Christmas/New Year’s. We’ve been doing around 3+ weeks/year each at WDW and DLR, sometimes swapping out for a different destination. The trips are pretty much all during school breaks (we took them out for 1 day in the fall so we could go to Oogie Boogie Bash - so worth it!).

It can be quite crowded during breaks, but we’re also used to it now, familiar enough with everything to navigate crowds, and also know that we’ll have another trip to do things we may have missed. So we still enjoy our trips during breaks despite crowds and with Genie+, we generally avoid long lines. Some of our favorite days, though, are days where we hardly do any rides and just soak in the atmosphere doing non-Genie+ focused things.

 

[BrianLa]

Can I ask why you regret it? I’m afraid I’d end up regretting it too so I’m curious to hear your thought process.

Now with my daughter at college and my son a year away from High School, their school breaks no longer line up other than the summer and Christmas week. We missed our opportunities to pull them out of school for fall/winter trips during MVMCP or late spring trip when school grades did not matter as much. My kids are good students and have good grades and 1 week or a few extra days away would not have had much of an impact on their grades. On an average year we would spend about 3 weeks at WDW, typically Easter break and 2 weeks during summer months but certainly would have liked to go more frequently during the holiday seasons. Also with my work, I was limited on how much time I could take during their school breaks as well.

 

[BrianLa]

This really depends on the specific school. In our area, some schools have low enrollment, so even if kids get disenrolled for missing too many days, they can just reenroll and return to the same class. However, our school is very full with a long waiting list, and kids that miss too many days get actively disenrolled and may not be able to return to the same school. Our kids are little (oldest is in 2nd), but they love their school and we will maybe miss a day or two at their current ages. As they get older we’d rather avoid missing days if possible.

The good thing is, I’m pretty happy with their school calendar. In addition to summer break, they get full weeks off for Thanksgiving, February break, and spring break, plus 2 weeks off for Christmas/New Year’s. We’ve been doing around 3+ weeks/year each at WDW and DLR, sometimes swapping out for a different destination. The trips are pretty much all during school breaks (we took them out for 1 day in the fall so we could go to Oogie Boogie Bash - so worth it!).

It can be quite crowded during breaks, but we’re also used to it now, familiar enough with everything to navigate crowds, and also know that we’ll have another trip to do things we may have missed. So we still enjoy our trips during breaks despite crowds and with Genie+, we generally avoid long lines. Some of our favorite days, though, are days where we hardly do any rides and just soak in the atmosphere doing non-Genie+ focused things.

I agree with being able to navigate better even during crowded periods. And 100%, not having to do everything every time takes a lot of stress out of the trip. There have been plenty of times where we just said "we will do it next time" knowing next time is 6 or 8 months away. Also, I always get asked "how can you go during July or August when its so hot and humid?". Simple, we spend the mornings at the pool or water parks, have a late lunch or early dinner, wait for the rain to pass and then head to the parks late afternoon when rope droppers have reached their limit and are leaving the parks. It actually feels like a vacation.