1-day trip for Leap Day birthday worthwhile?

[ewasilau]

Just gathering some thoughts and opinions - I recently heard about the Disney One More Day promotion and the 24 hours of MK on 2/29. Well, 2/29/12 is my daughter's 8th (or 2nd!) birthday and the first time she's had a "real" birthday and really cared about it. She's a big disney fan and, in my thinking, by her next "real" birthday she won't be a little girl anymore . . .

So, I'm debating a 2-night, one day trip to MK for her "real" birthday. (either dinner when we get there or a fun brunch before we leaveor DTD but no parks except for our one full day). Funds are very small, but we do have a decent collection of FF miles (so flying to FL is doable but still leaves miles for a future vacation for our whole family of 5) and a value hotel is $85/night for 2 nights. Park tickets (for 1 day) and food/incidentals will make the trip about $500 by my calculations. And she'd miss school for 3 days. Or 2 and a half.

Worth it? Will the park be too crazy to enjoy it? Will my expectations be too high? Anyone ever take 1 kid on a special trip w/out making the rest of the family crazy jealous? (though we would do something similar for the little brothers when they turn a significant number)

Thanks for any thoughts!

[gerald72]

You'll regret it if you don't.
And you'll have memories to last a lifetime, or at least til she turns 12 (or 3).

[BrerGnat]

How long can your 8 year old last in the parks?

My son is 7. He'd never be up for such a long day.

My personal opinion is that it's a lot of money for a birthday. How will the rest of the family feel about that? Do you spend $500 on your other children's birthdays?

While it sounds fun in theory, I think it's just too hectic a trip for such a young kid.

[buzznwoodysmom]

My personal opinion is that it's a lot of money for a birthday. How will the rest of the family feel about that? Do you spend $500 on your other children's birthdays?



These were my exact thoughts. I only have two kids so maybe my feelings are if I do something this extravagant for one son, then my other son is the only one left out and I'd feel like I'd have to do it for him as well. Plus there is no way I could take one of my kids to WDW and leave the other home with dad. I'd feel so guilty about it I wouldn't be able to enjoy the trip. But my boys are only two years apart in age, so doing things together is the norm in our family. My boys do pretty much everything together.

I think it sounds like a fun weekend for the birthday girl, but I'd think about how her siblings would feel about their birthdays this year.

[dnickels]

If the funds are "very small" then I don't think it's worth it. As others have mentioned, an 8 year old probably gets all the hours they can handle and then some from a normal 9 am - 9 pm park day so how much more will they really be able to get from those other 12 hours? If the park hours were normal would you fly down, stay two nights, miss 2 and 1/2 to 3 days of school for one day at Disney? If you wouldn't fly down for one day of park visitation with regular hours I don't think it's worth that much more to go down just because they're having a 24 hour special promotion.

Ultimately your and your family's decision, so it doesn't matter all that much what we think, but that's the way I would view the decision-making process.

[ColleenMcD]

If it were me...I'd do it. And then for my other children, make sure that at some point within the next year they got a trip of their own - somewhere.

Don't look for permission from anyone else...do as your heart desires...

[disney obsessed]

I have done a version of this. While my two older girls were at camp, I took my 5 year old. we left tue am and did MK on wed and came home thursday. The rest of the time we spent at the pool or wandering the property. it is my daughters favorite memory. She is 15 now.

while riding the monorail loop, we saw a rainbow over the lake. the next mothers day she decorated a plate with us in Disney and the rainbow behind us. we used it daily until I noticed that it was chipping so I put it away for safe keeping. that was just two weeks ago.

if you can, go.

[ewasilau]

Thanks for all of the thoughts and questions so far. Yes, I'm definitely worried about our other two kids being jealous, but they would get similar short trips at age 8 also. And this would be in lieu of both a party and a gift, so while we wouldn't necessarily spend $500 on each kid at their birthdays, we know plenty of families who spend $300 on a birthday party at a gym, etc. I'm wondering more about how the surprise would be remembered and whether the long day would be too crowded, etc. My daughter has a crazy amount of energy and I think would last from early a.m. to at least midnight, esp with show/food breaks. But I'd hate to have one day and have the park be a zoo. I actually thought about going down on her birthday and going to the park on March 1, but our frequent flyer miles would be harder to use.

thanks again for the thoughts - feel free to add more!