The Mouse or the House??

[Gregandmel]

Ok - so here is our (my) problem. We had our "Once in a Lifetime" trip with our kids back in 2008. NOT! Couldn't wait to get back to Disney and within months was planning our next trip. Went again this past April 2010 and again......was back about 3 months before I"m itching to go back. My family has had a truly incredible time both trips and now I can't seem to shake the Disney Fever. It gives me a feeling in my heart that nothing else does!! My oldest son is 20 (in College) and my youngest is in 5th grade. It's been somewhat easy to take my 5th grader out of school for a week since he's still in elementary school (took him out in 3rd grade & 4th grade). My issue is I am really wanting to go again April 2012 when he's finishing up 6th grade before he starts middle school. Once that happens....NO WAY can we take him out mid-year during school (not a strong enough student). My husband likes Disney, but not crazy about it like me. We keep putting off re-doing our living room (about $5000 - $6000) because we don't have the funds (hmmmmm......might be the vacations! LOL). I keep trying to tell him that this is the LAST OPPORTUNITY to experience Disney the way we love (good weather - decent crowds). I"m not opposed to going in the summer in the future, but I see "one last" window where we could do it this way. My husband keeps reminding me that we WERE able to experience this - TWICE already. The kids really want to go back and i"m torn between re-doing the living room or saving for another trip. Help!! Anyone else ever been in a situation like this? What did you do??? THANKS!!!! (just needed my fellow intercot friends who would understand this!) Am I being selfish? :mickey:

[DizneyRox]

House

A house is an investment, the mouse is a money sink. This applies to any vacation mostly, and I do see value in vacationing. But, not at the expense of necessary home upgrades/repairs. Doesn't sound like this is a necessary upgrade, but if it's been years, it could be way overdue.

[caryrae]

Hard to make the right decision when you're under the Disney influence. I would choose the house too.

[GottaLvDisney]

Our experiences sound so similar. We did our first trip in 2007 and I was hooked (DH, not quite as much but he's still a fan). We went again in
2009, were planning to go in 2010 but had to cancel. Now we're going back this year, but DH keeps reminding me that we're never going to get our kitchen upgraded if we don't put the money back.

I chose WDW bc DH isn't even close to having time to redo the kitchen at this point and it's likely (knowing him) that the money would be pilfered to fund other smaller household projects. The other big factor in our choice was the fall break that the kids school has this year. They used to have it every year and it meant that the kids didn't miss any tests, etc... - just two days of work which isn't much. Now they only have it once every few years so we're taking advantage of it bc I have two that will be in middle school next year and it'll be harder to pull them out.

It really is so hard to choose once you have the Disney bug. I know the house should win, but I'm in the same boat and it's hard to convince myself to make that choice here. I just keep justifying it by saying we'll start saving when DH finishes the other gazillion projects he's planning before the kitchen. Aaahhh - if only there was enough to do both :)

[Jillirose]

There are two issues, both have affected our family as well.

We always save, pay in cash before vacationing, according to our budget. The last several years have worked out, but three years ago, we had necessary home repairs and we missed a trip. We tried to do a couple short trips (to see the Lions, etc.) instead. We really missed it, but knew that we'd get back in the future! We have never been DVC members, but I have friend who bought just enough points to go every other year... I've been thinking about that and reading a lot on the DVC discussion thread.

The second issue is Disney with the kids at that age. My son is in 7th grade and daughter in 10th. I feel like we don't have that many years left with them, and family memories/vacations are essential. We try to go a few days early when they have a Friday off (teacher inservice) and pick low season times to go. They usually finish up on most of the work on the way down :teach: Halloween is nice and week before President's Day works for us.

[buzznwoodysmom]

I guess for me it would depend on how badly your living room needed updating. Are you just WANTING to update your living room, or does this room NEED to be updated? I love decorating our home, and redecorating, and changing paint colors, and getting new furniture, but none of that NEEDS to be done. If my home was in major need of something I'd use the money on my house before any vacation, including Disney.

However, I understand where your coming from. We moved into our new house in May of 2008. We wanted to get dining room furniture. Since our previous home did not have a formal dining room, we did not have dining room furniture so the dining room in our new home sat empty. In the end we decided to skip on the new furniture at that time and instead took our kids on vacation in June to Disney's Vero Beach resort, followed by a surprise 2 nights in WDW. In the end I knew that my kids would never remember how long the dining room sat empty, or what kind of furniture we had, but they'd have memories of the summer mom and dad took them to the "disney beach" and surprised them with a side trip to WDW. It was the best decision. We never did get that formal dining room furniture. Turns out we realized we are not really formal people, hahaha, and since we have a snack bar in our kitchen as well as a breakfast room, we didn't really need a 3rd place to eat. Instead we turned our formal dining room into a second living room. This room is the kid's living room and that space is used every single day. We are getting way more use out of that space than we would have with a formal dining room that would have mostly just been nice to look at. Only you know what the right decision is for your family and home.

[Dsnygirl]

Wow.... your thought process sounds SO much like ours! (and obviously a lot of other people's, as evidenced by the prior posts... :thumbsup:)

We bought our current house in '08, knowing it was going to need updates, but also thinking we weren't sure how long we were going to stay in it. So, the updates planned were minor -- the kind of things you do to "get through" until you decide if you're going to sell or not.

We also then immed. began to plan our next Disney trip, as we hadn't taken the girls since '06, had gone by ourselves for a "couples wknd"/I'cot's anniv. wknd in '07. They were turning 7 and 10 over the summer, still young enough to take out of school w/o too much difficulty, and PINING for Disney!! We made the same evaluation as many others -- we wanted to make memories, not major house changes. We knew the girls (and we) would LONG remember the trip, but would really not care about new furniture, paint or hardware past the first few days.

We did the same thing the following year, '09, pulling them out of school in October for "one last school-year" trip during our favorite Disney season (Halloween) b/c we knew that with our (then) DD11 going into 7th grade the following year, it'd be too much for her to miss a week or more of school, and we really prefer longer trips.

In 2010, we actually skipped going... my DH had gotten laid off in January, and got a new job in March. He didn't want to ask for vacation time so soon, and we also had some "house goals" that we finally needed to accept needed to be done. (And we'd really only thought of a 5 or 6 day trip over Veteran's Day in November, anyway... but it was still hard to say no to for sure!!) And I have to say -- I am really glad we stuck to our guns and got our house stuff done -- it's made a world of difference here, and those are the kind of rennovations that I think make skipping a Disney trip easier to take. The kind of changes that really make your day-to-day life easier, not just "prettier". Those I think most of us would agree can wait for Disney!! :blush:

So -- I hear you on wanting the Disney trip AND the new living room, as well as wanting to go when you guys enjoy it most. But maybe -- if you were willing to consider giving up April (peak season, a LOT pricier than summer...) and go off-season during August (no limits on vacation days for the kids, depending on you & your husband's schedules and where you live, maybe you could even tack on a driving day on either side of the trip and save on airfare..) you could do both?? It seems you've waited quite awhile for your living room, so it sounds important to you... whether or not it's a necessary change or just an asthetic one, it sounds like you'd really like to do it. So maybe trying to combine the two and sacrificing a bit on timing might work??

(and btw, we're doing that exact thing this summer... 12 days in August plus driving time so we don't have to worry about school or the crazy airfare costs going on right now, plus save a little $$ for some MORE house stuff we'd like to do... I'll let ya know how it goes and if it is indeed worth the crazy heat that will go along with it!! :D)

[mgmnut]

I do all the repair work on my home and there is always a project going on. House was built in the 1920's. My wife is after me to update the main bathroom, which needs it for both cosmetic reasons as well as updates for functionality. My living room was last updated in the 80's (not by me) as well as the dining room, and they look like the 80's. I am using money that would normally go to house repairs/projects to take the fam to Fla. Family time for me takes top billing. The house is not falling down or in disrepair and I just finished a few big projects. I have no guilt taking it easy and heading down for some R&R. Although my situation is a little different than yours, We have not been down in 5 years.Plus the kids and I are more of the Disney Fans than DW is. Although she is totally on board with me this time. Her idea of vacation is relaxing on the beach, going up to the mountains, or spending time camping. I guess it all depends on how much push back you are getting from your husband. A trip is nice, but if you have been there in the recent past, no sense causing tension if it is not necessary.

[Gregandmel]

Thanks for all the responses. Certainly sounds like I"m not the only one with trying to decide what to do! We bought our house in 1997 and the living room "pretty much" looks like it did when we moved in. It's a lot like another Disney trip - they are both "Wants" - not "Needs". DH wants to put hardwood floors in, paint, new curtains, flat screen tv, etc... It will make it look great and it probably needs a good "facelift". I hate having company over because it always looks a bit "dated", but I don't care too much - still looks decent. But I've managed to talk him into going on vacation twice instead of doing this, and now I feel like I need to give in and get our house updated. He said we'll feel so much better once the house is done, and THEN, when we have extra money, we won't have to decide if we need to update or go somewhere. I know he's right....it's just hard to give up seeing the Mouse..... especially when I want to go on an off time when it's a great experience. Ugh! Maybe I'll just keep playing the lottery! THANK YOU GUYS for your great responses. So happy I'm not the only one trying to make good decisions!!! :mickey:

[brownie]

The house - you are going to have more memories and experiences there than you will at Walt Disney World.

[baby minnie's mommy]

Don't think of it as a "last opportunity" to visit Disney a certain way. Enjoy the Disney memories you've made already, and look forward to creating new ones again in the future. Your next trip may be at a different time of year, but can still be a blast. Sure it's hot in the summer, but you'd just be experiencing the fun of Disney in a different way. Such as more pool visits, Mickey ice cream, the nice cool queue at Pirates, a relaxing seat at a nice cool restaurant, etc. :mickey: Rides like Splash Mountain are even more fun when it's hot!

When the kids are very little they don't handle the heat very well, so it's nice to take them at a cooler time of year. It's hard trekking around with a small child in the summer heat. Older kids can handle it better, though.

[buzznwoodysmom]

:ditto:
I agree with the above post. We used to HATE WDW in the summer. It was too hot, the parks were too crowded, and our kids did much better during cooler months. However, as they've gotten older we'd found that early June is one of our favorite times to visit. The parks aren't too crowded yet, and the temps aren't unbearable yet. Our kids adore the WDW pools, and we've found we enjoy the relaxed pace of doing WDW in the summer. We spend more time at our resorts at the pool in the summer, but it makes it really feel like a vacation. We've visited WDW during the first half of June for the past 3 years, and have had some of our funnest trips. Our other favorite time to visit is Thanksgiving week, which we've done twice now. Both of our favorite times to visit are during school breaks. Don't let the time of year you have to go make your trips less magical.

[Gregandmel]

All of your wonderful advice has helped. Our very first trip was in June 1997 before Fast Pass and before we knew anything about "The World". All I remember is that it was hot, crowded, and we didn't think we would ever return due to the amount of $$ we spent! LOL It took me 11 years to go back. However, after having 2 sucessful trips under our belts, maybe.....just maybe......with careful planning we can enjoy Disney during the summertime. I know so many of you go during the summer and have a blast - I just think I'm spoiled due to the low(er) crowds and great weather. But it's Disney right? The other option is never go back and let's admit - that's really NOT an option!!! LOL . Thanks again!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

I would say house...as much as I love the world, I dedicate my tax refund and savings to buying needed furniture etc for two years in a row and then on the third year we take our trip...

[princessgirls]

Sounds a lot like what goes on at our house.

My husband Fred is not as "into" Disney as I am, but he does enjoy going, and "gets" that it is a true (no cooking, cleaning) vacation for ME!!

With every relationship there is compromise, so that's what we do. Give and take. We have not taken a Disney trip since 2009, and I did a family vacation (from the dark side:thedolls:) with my inlaws last year, so I knew I had some leverage to get my trip to Disney this year!!! I did get ONE day in WDW during my inlaw trip, but it was NOT NEARLY ENOUGH for ME!!!!

I also have to due a fair amount of research, because I do need to get the best price. I really wanted to go this March but it was outrageous. August it is!! August is HOT, but LESS expensive. Give and Take... I offered August, and got the trip I wanted and the husband even agreed to 10 days, because the price was so good.

Julie:mickey:

[mdhiggin]

I think about things I want to redo in my home, but I also know that my kids are the ones doing the damage to it. I've decided it's in my best interest to wait until they're grown to do any remodeling, because they'll just tear it up. :secret: So, we'll keep enjoying Disney for at least another 50 years until our DVC runs out.