We have gone a few times that last weekend in Jan/First weekend in Feb because the kids have no school on the 30th. The park is pretty dead (well as dead as a park can be!). Not sure your kids have those days off from school, but highly suggest it.

Anonymous wrote:The best time to go is to pick a random teacher work day that is a three day weekend. Leave the night before after school and fly back late on the third day — that gives you three days in park.

Alternatively, we have done VIP multiple times and my husband convinced me that it’s basically cost neutral because we can do three days of rides in one day, and save a ton on hotel rooms (we need two hotel rooms for our biggish family). Note that the VIP tour costs more on holiday weeks though. You do need to buy park hopper tickets on the day of the tour but don’t need to buy lightening lanes or snacks (meals not included but snacks are). The vio tour is not a per person cost and accommodates up to 10 people so if you can split it with another family that has similar interests, that could help.

It is not remotely “cost neutral.” A single day of VIP on average is $4900 (700x7 hours) plus tip. This does not include tickets or food.

Will you go before Thanksgiving? We were first-timers and did it last year for DD's birthday, which is at the end of November. We flew in on Monday night and did Magic Kingdom on the Tuesday and Epcot on Wednesday and then back to MK on Thanksgiving. Wow. The crowds were incredible that day and just kept growing as the day went on, felt like double the day before. I mean family groups of like 15-20 all in matching family t-shirts. I was glad this wasn't our primary day do MK but rather to revisit what we wanted and a few new rides we didn't get to (or that were being serviced--happens pretty often on the coasters). We did enjoy Thanksgiving meal in the castle and felt that it was fun and worth it for DD. Definitely take advantage of staying on-property so you can use the hour before the park opens to all to get in your one or two rides that are most important and/or draw the biggest crowds. On Friday we did Animal Kingdom and that was do-able because it's not drawing the same crowds as the others, though it did get busy as the day went on. Again we went early-admission there and hit the Avatar ride first and got in pretty easily. (We skipped Hollywood because our DD was 8 and I'll do that on another trip.) You will need to do Genie+ to help on some rides.

The parks were decorated beautifully as were the hotels, so it was worth it for me to see Disney at least once with the decorations. We toured all the big hotels and had a meal at a couple to enjoy the atmosphere. Big gingerbread house and tree at the Floridian. Amazing tree at the Wilderness Lodge. Definitely want to go back to that one again.

I had tried to book in October and earlier in November (around Veterans Day) but actually found those to be worse from a scheduling perspective. There's something called Jersey Week where kids are off and go and then the Epcot Food and Wine Festival and races. We just decided to go for it despite warnings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. To clarify this isn’t a birthday trip, just a chance to visit Disney for the first time that works with the holiday breaks aligning best with my work and their school outages. We don’t get Presidents’ Day holiday days anymore.

We could maybe work Labor Day but school is tight since we won’t take days off school to go to Disney.

Spring break at Disney doesn’t appeal as much to me tbh.

I would do Labor Day personally. Though in FCPS we get 4 days for that now - not sure about your school district.

If you are willing to deal with the summer heat, really any time in August is quite slow as most of the south heads back to school. Labor Day is also slow, but no need to go that weekend specifically.

True - we had a good trip one summer. We went to the parks early, went back to the hotel pool in the heat of the day, and went back to the parks in the evening.

I think this is another good way to do it—the tickets are really cheap after 4 days so the goal is to stay a full week but plan on being in the parks only half day. Go at opening, stay till 11, plan for some inside activities (there are a fair number of shows depending on park), then hit the pool. Maybe go back after dinner.

The best time to go is to pick a random teacher work day that is a three day weekend. Leave the night before after school and fly back late on the third day — that gives you three days in park.

Alternatively, we have done VIP multiple times and my husband convinced me that it’s basically cost neutral because we can do three days of rides in one day, and save a ton on hotel rooms (we need two hotel rooms for our biggish family). Note that the VIP tour costs more on holiday weeks though. You do need to buy park hopper tickets on the day of the tour but don’t need to buy lightening lanes or snacks (meals not included but snacks are). The vio tour is not a per person cost and accommodates up to 10 people so if you can split it with another family that has similar interests, that could help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. To clarify this isn’t a birthday trip, just a chance to visit Disney for the first time that works with the holiday breaks aligning best with my work and their school outages. We don’t get Presidents’ Day holiday days anymore.

We could maybe work Labor Day but school is tight since we won’t take days off school to go to Disney.

Spring break at Disney doesn’t appeal as much to me tbh.

I would do Labor Day personally. Though in FCPS we get 4 days for that now - not sure about your school district.

If you are willing to deal with the summer heat, really any time in August is quite slow as most of the south heads back to school. Labor Day is also slow, but no need to go that weekend specifically.

True - we had a good trip one summer. We went to the parks early, went back to the hotel pool in the heat of the day, and went back to the parks in the evening.

Anonymous wrote:Take them to a national park instead

She doesn’t need your approval to take her kids to Disney. Bug off.

Take them to a national park instead

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. To clarify this isn’t a birthday trip, just a chance to visit Disney for the first time that works with the holiday breaks aligning best with my work and their school outages. We don’t get Presidents’ Day holiday days anymore.

We could maybe work Labor Day but school is tight since we won’t take days off school to go to Disney.

Spring break at Disney doesn’t appeal as much to me tbh.

Just skip it then. You will be miserably disappointed if you go over thanksgiving or Christmas until you do the VIP. It's OK not to do Disney.

I agree. Op, why didn’t you address going during summer?

Op here. I went during the summer the one time I went at 18. It rained mid day, destroyed my phone and the showers were terrible on snd off during that trip. The heat as well was a challenge for my asthma. I have two with asthma as well so I’ve skipped the summer idea.

There's just as good a chance that will heppen over labor day weekend as well. And hurricanes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. To clarify this isn’t a birthday trip, just a chance to visit Disney for the first time that works with the holiday breaks aligning best with my work and their school outages. We don’t get Presidents’ Day holiday days anymore.

We could maybe work Labor Day but school is tight since we won’t take days off school to go to Disney.

Spring break at Disney doesn’t appeal as much to me tbh.

I would do Labor Day personally. Though in FCPS we get 4 days for that now - not sure about your school district.

If you are willing to deal with the summer heat, really any time in August is quite slow as most of the south heads back to school. Labor Day is also slow, but no need to go that weekend specifically.

Exactly. Labor day weekend will be more crowded and more expensive than a random week in July or August.