How Often?

[Tygger7]

We try to go every other year now...but hoping to make that more frequently now that our DD is heading off to college. She is planning to do the college program with Disney, so we'll have an even better excuse to visit.

[Wayne]

I guess that I'll be the unusual one here. It has been 8 years since we were last at WDW and I don't see a family trip headed back there anytime soon, although DD might go on the senior trip to Grad Night in 2012.

Do I miss it? Yes. Up until I married in 89 (we honeymooned at WDW), I would make the trip twice a year on average. However, we have decided as a family that we want to experience more than what we can get with Disney. I don't mean that as a slap at anyone who goes frequently.

Our family vacation time is precious to us. Stress-free downtime is priceless. Having to plan meals 6 months out is just one thing that makes no sense to me and would detract from what I want a vacation to be.

[GrmGrninGost]

We try to go at least once a year. If finances allow we go 2 or 3 times. WDW is the place my wife and I enjoy the very most, so why not go there?

[brownie]

Not often enough! We're thinking about Disneyland in 2012 and Walt Disney World again in 2014. We'll have to see what happens. 6-7 years between trips to Walt Disney World is a long time!

[AllDisney]

We first began going every 4 years but soon that plan was no longer in effect

We go when we can afford it and fortunately for us that happens pretty often

[Narawen]

We have a somewhat odd pattern. We wait 4-5 years between visits, but then go 2 years in a row. That first trip always gets me anxious to go back, but after the second we just fall away for a few years. I'm hoping in the future to bump it up to every other year, since there are still many other places I want to see, but Disney just feels like a second home.

[Ian]

We're going less and less as the years go by, our family increases in size, and the prices keep going up and up.

It helps that we've bought into DVC to give us some level of certainty around accomodations, but that doesn't help with park admission and food. The cost of both annual passes and the DDP has gone up significantly in the past couple years and with another child (DS4) now old enough to need a dining plan and an AP it's getting price.

And then there's airfare which, for a family of six, is a big expense. And now with fuel costs skyrocketing, it looks like airline tickets are going to shoot up too. We're actually going to drive this next trip to save some cash.

But anyway to the point ... when we were a family of three we used to go anywhere from three to five times a year. When DS was born, we cut back to more like two to three times a year. Now that the twins were born, we're looking like we'll be once or twice a year max. Probably once barring some miraculous turn in our financial situation.

It's not all money, though. Some of it is also time off. I swtiched jobs back in '08 and at my old place I had like six weeks of paid time off. At my current job, I have a little less than four. And DW has even less, so ...

[joonyer]

We have only been to able to go about once every other year, even though we live relatively close (5 hours driving). That's about all we could fit into our family budget, and as our boys got older our schedules. With more extracurricular activities (band, sports, church trips) there were less and less opportunities for us to go except in the middle of summer (without missing school), and I don't really have the desire to experience those crowds in that heat and humidity again. Been there, done that. We will probably go again next year, October, 2012.