Regrets taking too many Disney trips

[yeheyprincex2]

This can be a problem! After taking my kids to London/Paris/Rome this summer, they're already thinking about where the want to go next. The trip they have their eye on is "Alpine Adventure"--Switzerland, Austria, Germany. Added bonus, it has all sorts of extras like mountain biking, rock climbing, white-water rafting, and, of course, plenty of high altitude things. Perfect for a wimpy, height-fearing person like myself! But, as you say, I want them to have experiences. And in this case, my MIL hailed from the Black Forest region of Germany, so it's a great way to introduce my kids to her heritage.

sounds like our children have a lot in common. I have two boys and they are adrenaline enthusiast already, lol
They will get on any roller coaster they are tall enough for and do tricks on their bikes. of course they have already been bitten by the travel bug thanks to my husband and myself. good luck to the both of us

 

[QueenIsabella]

sounds like our children have a lot in common. I have two boys and they are adrenaline enthusiast already, lol
They will get on any roller coaster they are tall enough for and do tricks on their bikes. of course they have already been bitten by the travel bug thanks to my husband and myself. good luck to the both of us

Actually, mine are 3 to 1 on the adventurous stuff. It's kind of funny, all 4 kids look at the same photo (in this case, summer luge-ing down the Alps), and 3 of them are saying, "OMG! That looks so cool!", while the fourth one says, "That looks terrifying!" I promised him that, if we did go, he could sit it out with me, no judgement here. He skipped the London/Paris/Rome trip--too hot and crowded for his taste--and I'd really like to go on the next big family adventure with us. We can be "white-knuckle buddies".

 

[MinnieMyers]

We just thought of this, too. We do Disney for our "big" family trip. Before marrying DH and adding another DS to our family, myself and other kids had been 4 times. DH and his DS have never been, so we are going in Jan. After this trip, we will not go back for a few years and it will be a split trip with Universal. We want to travel more with them and considering our trip is costing 8k, it would be an amazing trip anywhere for the 6 of us!

 

[Candycane83]

I’ve been thinking about this for some time too. My son is 4 right now. This December we’re booked to go to Disneyland California. Then booked for a Disney cruise and WDW in July. I was thinking now is a great time to take him and Europe when he gets older...? Is it too much Disney for 6-7 months apart though?

ETA: he’s been to WDW at 2.5, Bahamas at 3 and Asia just last March...

 

[Rob Troxel]

I’ve been thinking about this for some time too. My son is 4 right now. This December we’re booked to go to Disneyland California. Then booked for a Disney cruise and WDW in July. I was thinking now is a great time to take him and Europe when he gets older...? Is it too much Disney for 6-7 months apart though?

ETA: he’s been to WDW at 2.5, the Bahamas at 3 and Asia just last March...

I think you have been there too much when you feel like you are just going thru the motions and not enjoying what you are doing in the moment. Everything just becomes too predictable (Same old Same-o) and you say to yourself. "Why am I doing this?" I have to stay away for at least a year to better enjoy the time we are at WDW when we return. Disney has done a masterful job reinventing reasons to come back, like "Food and Wine" events, adding new adventures in the park, etc. Things like that will motivate us to return quicker.

 

[bigeyedfish]

This is exactly what I’ve been saying all along. We aren’t Disney fanatics - in fact, I’m here planning our first trip in 2019. I have been putting Disney off for years because of the cost. I have a hard time reconciling the fact that we can visit another country for the same price (or less!). But of course I’m excited for our likely only Disney trip!

 

[Rob Troxel]

This is exactly what I’ve been saying all along. We aren’t Disney fanatics - in fact, I’m here planning our first trip in 2019. I have been putting Disney off for years because of the cost. I have a hard time reconciling the fact that we can visit another country for the same price (or less!). But of course I’m excited for our likely only Disney trip!

It will be interesting to get your 1st trip to Disney feedback and to see if you schedule a return trip to WDW once you have experienced the magic.

 

[kkmcan]

My dh and I had this same talk when the kids were pre-teens. We wanted to take them different places before they grew up and moved out. So we started giving up DL a little bit at a time. But we always did a short 2 day trip to DL once a year, we just gave up multiple trips a year to DL. Thats easy for us because we are within driving distance and we now only need 2 days of parks to get our fix. Our DL trips are usually quite cheap when we factor in just 3 nights in inlaws timeshare, driving and 2 day tickets. Here are some of the places we've been since we decided to discover new places.

2010 San Francisco
2011 Disney Mexican Riviera cruise
2013 Orlando- Sea World, Discovery Cove, Aquatica
2014 Hawaii
2015 Alaskan cruise with family on RC
2016 New York City

plus we've been to Wash DC, Branson, Las Vegas, Denver and tons of trips to San Diego (our other favorite place)

 

[BabybetterDisney]

Like many of you, we spent years going to Disney every year, usually for a week or so. We stayed offsite in our early years, moved to moderate later on and mostly deluxe or Swan in recent years. Most of these years we also spent a low cost week in Maine that was very relaxing. DD, now all grown and married, loved these trips and many of these included grandparents, all of whom she adored.

Now that we are empty nesters, we are traveling abroad and the fact hasn't escaped us that some of our past Disney trips cost as much as our trips to London and Paris. Our DD would have loved to have seen these places but we always assumed Europe was out of reach. We also got into a Disney rut and didn't take her other places in the U.S. until she was in high school. In retrospect, we should have gone to Disney less and explored other places while DD was growing up.

Here's my question. Does anyone else regret taking too many Disney trips and wish they had gone other places with their kids?

Not at all. Disney World is the best place in the world. I don't want to ever go anywhere else. But that's just me. If you enjoy other places, there's nothing wrong with that. No need to regret the past, just enjoy the present!

 

[Rob Troxel]

Not at all. Disney World is the best place in the world. I don't want to ever go anywhere else. But that's just me. If you enjoy other places, there's nothing wrong with that. No need to regret the past, just enjoy the present!

Your comment "I don't ever want to go anywhere else" is music to all Disney management. It's what they work for to ensure many return visits and you live that life. I might suggest however that as you get older you realize something is missing from the safe world Disney provides. When you go to other parts of the real world, there is a sense of anticipation for the new unknown experiences. And yes a little anxiety. The reality of clambering aboard the real Eiffel tower, panning for gold in Victoria Australia, experiencing Yellowstone parks beauty an on and on. Those types of experiences far exceed anything Disney can do but you have to move out of your comfort zone briefly to judge. The real point to my earlier post is that in some cases it is cheaper to do reality and push yourself to do something different. It does not mean it will replace your Disney vacations but it adds to all you can enjoy while on this great earth.

 

[Disfan454]

I have definitely been thinking we need to stop going to Disney after this trip in November to start seeing other things. I found a good mix and we now have a Disney cruise planned for October 2019 to the Bahamas. In 2020 though, I want to take them to see places in Europe.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Not at all. Disney World is the best place in the world. I don't want to ever go anywhere else. But that's just me. If you enjoy other places, there's nothing wrong with that. No need to regret the past, just enjoy the present!

I'm the same way.

Although I do visit family and friends via road trips.

And I've been other places. And I am older, and I don't feel like I am missing anything. I've done what I've wanted to do.

 

[siren0119]

Like many of you, we spent years going to Disney every year, usually for a week or so. We stayed offsite in our early years, moved to moderate later on and mostly deluxe or Swan in recent years. Most of these years we also spent a low cost week in Maine that was very relaxing. DD, now all grown and married, loved these trips and many of these included grandparents, all of whom she adored.

Now that we are empty nesters, we are traveling abroad and the fact hasn't escaped us that some of our past Disney trips cost as much as our trips to London and Paris. Our DD would have loved to have seen these places but we always assumed Europe was out of reach. We also got into a Disney rut and didn't take her other places in the U.S. until she was in high school. In retrospect, we should have gone to Disney less and explored other places while DD was growing up.

Here's my question. Does anyone else regret taking too many Disney trips and wish they had gone other places with their kids?

It's funny, my husband and I were just talking about this. Now that we've been able to make two Disney trips happen, it's SO tempting to make that the go-to vacation every year. But then I look at the actual dollars being spent, and wonder what ELSE we could do that would broaden my kids' horizons. It's a tough call!

 

[ajwolfe]

We love our Disney trips and I don't see them ending but I do see the time between them extending. We travel other places as well but our list of places we want to take our kids is long and our time with them at home is short. So here we are decided to skip the next few years and focus on other trips for now. IMO this becomes more relevant as your children start to age and that ticker of how many years of vacay left starts ticking louder.

 

[Yarbogash]

I think the key is to think like your child when planning your vacation. What does your kid like and enjoy? My kids love Harry Potter so we are going on the Harry Potter backstage tour near London. Our younger son loves animals so we are visiting a couple of petting farms. Our older son is fascinated by ancient Egypt so we splurged on hiring a archaeologist who digs in Egypt to show us around the British Museum.

I think though that kids need to learn though that they aren’t the center of the universe so we are visiting a few places that mom and dad want to go to such as a whiskey store so my dh could taste and purchase Scottish whiskey. My kids also sometimes have to put up with my shopping.

Life is about compromise though so we’re trying to find activities that have something for everyone. The castles we visit have something for the kids such as a giant trebuchet or a falconry show. The tour of London we take will be on a double decker bus since DS7 really wants to ride one.

My final peace of advice is to listen to your kids. My kids told us yesterday they are tired of visiting castles so we’re not visiting any more of them. We also look for signs of boredom and adjust accordingly. We make sure that we don’t do the same sort of thing everyday and build in some downtime and kid time for things like running and playing on playgrounds. We also try to book apartments and homes instead of hotels. My kids would rather eat yogurt or cereal for breakfast in their pjs instead of going to a hotel restaurant every morning.

I think kids can enjoy cultural trips if you make them fun. We did a tour last summer of the Boston area. It was chock full of history but found ways to make it a trip that the kids would love.

I’ve been surprised by how many families don’t consider visiting a public park and playground while on vacation. We do this in every city and it’s always great and of course very economical.

 

[Yarbogash]

The escalating costs for a Disney trip and a little Disney fatigue means our usual annual trip next March will be last for a while. Mainly we are just trying to satisfy everyone and keep everyone engaged. We typically do Las Vegas and Southern California every year and will keep that up. DD 3 loves Disney so 1 day at DL will be doable.

Am definitely interested in expanding our kids horizons. DS is 8, likes science and dinosaurs. Just did a father son trip to the Tyrrell Dino Museum which went really well. In Florida next year we will go fossil hunting at Peace River. Field Museum in Chicago next summer.

Whole family likes beach vacations so already booked Cancun for Dec 2019.

2020 will be our first big trip outside of the Americas with the kids; toss up right now between Japan or the south of France. And of course a side trip to a Disney park could happen either way so win win.

 

[Huff]

It's not important where you go with your kids while they are growing up. Whats important is the time spent with them. Its the time they want, not the place.

 

[cadien]

It's not important where you go with your kids while they are growing up. Whats important is the time spent with them. Its the time they want, not the place.

But exposing them to a wider world has benefit for them regardless of what they want. And if they're getting the time regardless...

 

[QueenIsabella]

But exposing them to a wider world has benefit for them regardless of what they want. And if they're getting the time regardless...

MTE. A 5yo wil be happy to spend time with his family, whether it's at WDW or at the beach or at a cabin on a lake. Older kids will still enjoy the time, but might also learn a lot more about the world--or even themselves--if they're exposed to a wider range of places/cultures. Having traveled to Europe twice with family, DD15--a Nervous Nellie--is ready to travel overseas on a school trip, without us. DD12, Mr. Picky Eater, tried very hard to be open-minded about food, and learned he liked ~80% of what he tried. Do I still have a Nervous Nellie and Picky Eater? You bet--but they were willing to try new things and experiences.

 

[kiramay]

Yes and no. So far.
We’ve done 4 Disney trips with the kids (and 2 without). Another planned next year. It’s comfortable, familiar, we have more than enough to occupy our time, tons of places to eat.... I like busy and comfortable.
We also go to Wisconsin to camp or visit the Dells yearly.

However, I’d like to do US/Harry Potter soon.
I’d like to take the kids to see national parks.
I’d like to take a cruise.
Our Disney trip next year may be our last big trip, and I’m looking forward to doing other things.