When to go?
 

I am a teacher and I feel like I am always faced with this dilemma. I definitely don't want the summer again, with that said, would u do...
Thanksgiving?
Christmas?
February break?
April break?
Please consider crowds and airfare costs.

Please consider airfar

Since you mention February and April vacation I'm assuming you are from the Northeast. If so, April vacation is a great time to go, as long as Easter is not around that time. The weather is great and the crowds are low-moderate (again, only when Easter is earlier, like it will be in 2013). BUT, airfare is crazy high. You will likely have that issue for all of the times you listed, though.

We also enjoy going in mid-late August, before school starts. Yes, it's hot, but the crowds are low-moderate and airfare is cheaper.

Christmas/New Years is the most crowded week of the year! We go for Christmas and leave a day or 2 after, and we are happy to go home because the crowds are that bad. :crowded:

I've never been around Thanksgiving, but from what I've read, you can expect heavy crowds and high airfare then, too. But not as bad as Christmastime.

Good luck deciding!

I travel with a school teacher, and we too have tried to find a way to get out travel in July or August. As hot and uncomfortable as it is, we seem to wind up doing exactly that, though. We've done Christmas and Spring Break and enjoy those trips, but the crowds are just too heavy for those to be our main trips every year.

Fortunately, he retires at the end of this school year so we can start visiting when the weather and point charts are a little easier to take.

thankgiving - although the airfare would be the same as summer (if not a little higher) just depends upon when you buy the tickets

It is enough colder that you can actually do things during the daytime.

it is not as popular as Christmas to NY - so the crowds are less - but they are almost as much as Easter - of course it depends upon the park. the MK seems to be the most popular during that time.

does your friend get off the entire week of thanksgiving - or just the last part?

another thing about thanksgiving week it should save you some points.

sun, mon, tues are choice season (low points) -only wed, thur, fri are magic season (higher points) - sat goes back to choice season.

so you can do it on less points than summer.

My wife is school teacher so we are in the same predicament. I checked airfare for all of the same vacation weeks and it was all too high. I ended up checking July and found fares on southwest for $70 each way. We've been in July before so we are well aware of the temperatures but the airfare was too good to pass up. We are going and we'll see what happens.

I would prefer to go on April but I can't justify the airfare. Good luck with whatever decision you make.

As a former teacher, my family always had to go during the hot, humid summer, so I feel your pain in this decision. Airfare from the NE is always bad during school vacations. If you can get the time off, Thanksgiving week is the best.
Ironically, now that I'm retired and could go anytime, my grandchildren don't want to miss school so I'm right back to summers again. :scared1:

Can you tack a few personal days onto a holiday break? I'm a teacher also and I did that back in 2010 to go to Disney and will be doing it again next year to go on a Disney cruise. My district always has off the Monday after Thanksgiving. Our cruise next year is the week after Thanksgiving; I'll already have Monday off and will use four personal days for the rest of the week. Now, it takes some planning as this year I can only use one personal day and will have to carry over two. That way I still have one left for Mother's Tea in May of 2014. It's just a thought. I know some districts may not allow that and/or maybe you don't feel comfortable doing that.

Good luck with your decision. :wizard:

April break airfare is a crusher. The absolute highest of them all. One thing we do every year is take a 4 day weekend, wife leaves wednesday after school, Thu and Fri personal days, that is what they are their for. and come home on last flight on unday night, makes for a nice long vacation. And we do it 10 days before Feb break. back to school for a week and then a week to relax.

One other thing to think about, not sure where you are from orr if you get them off, but, the Jewish holidays line up perfect this year. They are the thursday and friday after labor day. Cheap air and WDW is a ghost time that time of year:thumbsup2

Wed-Sun withh no days taken off;)

I am a school counselor and face the same dilemma! Summers are ok every now and then, but I prefer other times of the year. I looked into Thanksgiving break this year, but the flights were a little more pricey than I wanted to pay. However, I get Mondays after thanksgiving off, so I was thinking about trying for Friday-Tuesday some other time. I think the flights will be cheaper after Thanksgiving, and the crowds will start to thin out over the weekend. Since early December crowds are low and flights are pretty cheap, I plan to take a long weekend and go frequently for Christmas time. This year I'm going over MLK weekend...leaving Thursday night and returning Monday so that I'm there 4 nights and miss only one day of work. Flights are just a tad higher and crowds aren't that bad. I don't think I'll go very often for Presidents' Day weekend in February because it takes more points. Same with Easter break, plus the extra large crowds.

We went the week after Thanksgiving in 2010, flying down the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Surprisingly, the flight prices were very reasonable (I paid way more for our June, 2012 flights). When we arrived on Saturday, it was crowded, but we saw a big difference by later Sunday as most people left to go home.

I'm a teacher too, so I go to WDW at peak times. I have gone during presidents week in February at least 5 times. The crowds aren't too bad if you get to the parks early and hop around if it gets busy. The weather is iffy though. I prefer being able to swim...

This year we are going for Easter :eek: the airfare was ridiculous -the most I've ever paid. I'm hoping the weather is warmer than February. We will be there for 9 days and have AP's, so I'm not too concerned about crowds.

Thanks for all the replies. Wish I could say we have a decision! lol...

I'm jealous of those of you who have personal days!

I'm going to say Thanksgiving is your best bet UNLESS....Your area has a fall teacher's break. We have taken friends with school age children during the fall teacher's union break, and it gives you the better part of a week in October when crowds are a bit better, and weather is good.

As others have said - whenever easter is early (march or early april) then the Patriots day april week is the best time to go
Lower crowds
Usually off peak pricing at at WDW
The only thing that's expensive is the airfare if you're trying to book Sat-Sun

That being said, sometimes flying Mon - Mon can save substantial dollars or we have also found that flying out of ALB can sometimes be less - but if you're from Boston, that's a much longer drive, and the eastern part of state makes all the airports (BOS, MHT, PVD) busy

Good luck!