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~my thoughts about life~



Friday, February 10, 2012

Dream Vacation

I titled this post "Dream Vacation" because that's what I'm doing right now- dreaming of vacation!

Spring Break for our kids is just around the corner.  Hubby gets limited vacation time at work and none of it is paid time off.  Taking a vacation for us is a big financial burden.  That's problem number one.

Problem number two has to do with me.  I'm one of those parents who doesn't allow their kids to miss school for vacations.  Maybe it's the teacher in me or maybe it's actually my laziness coming through.  Making up a week's worth of schoolwork when you're in middle school is not an easy task.  Two of my kids achieved perfect attendance last year and the third only missed one day.  Because of my unwillingness to pull them out of school, our vacations are limited to summertime and Spring Break.

We've been wanting to go to Disney World for years now.  The last time we went there, 7-year old Big Sis looked like this:

~May 2007~

Back then, the boys were in Kindergarten and 2nd grade.  I didn't mind pulling them out at that young of an age. 

Have you ever searched for a Disney vacation in the months of March or April?  Forget about it!  The prices skyrocket during those months.  For our family of six, it would cost in the neighborhood of ten grand for a Spring vacation.  Yeah, seriously, $10,000.  I decided to come up with a list...

Other Things I Can Do With $10,000:
  • Buy over 250 pairs of shoes
  • Go on 5 regular, non-life-changing vacations
  • Put $2,500 in each of my kids' college funds
  • Build an addition onto our house (I'm thinking master bedroom & bath)
  • Eat at Chipotle 4 times a week for two years
  • Pay someone to clean my house for four years
  • Pay my house off a year sooner
  • Buy Hubby a used car or put a serious down payment on a new car
  • Give my little cousin a seriously awesome wedding gift next month
As I was typing out this list, not only was a salivating, but I began to question myself.  No, ten grand is way too high of an estimation.  There's no way it would cost that much.  I decided to go to Disney's website and plan my trip, just to prove to myself how much it would really cost.  Yeah, I was off by a couple grand.  I was underestimating!!!

A week's stay at a moderate resort with tickets for 7 days would cost us $11,398.24!  That does not include dining, airfare, or ground transportation.  For funsies, I decided to see what the whole package would cost.  With flights and the dining package, it would cost $16,932.68!

I guess instead of this:


We will be doing this for Spring Break this year.


That's just as much fun, isn't it?

4 comments:

Xazmin said...

It IS just as much fun!

I too am a mom that does not believe in pulling kids out of school for vacation.

We saved up to go to Disneyland a few years back, and then our work truck broke down. Cost us $2000 to fix. We ended up doing a stay-cation, and visiting all the fun touristy sites around here, that we take for granted and never visit.

I think the kids had just as much fun.

Also, I would enjoy purchasing over 250 pairs of shoes. Just sayin'.

Mamarazzi said...

LOVE the last picture. love! oh and your little princess, so sweet!

where are all the links? come on, put a few in there. a dream is a wish your heart makes and all that crap...dream BIG!!

Lisa said...

Wow, is that ever expensive. So after reading this I wondered what if someone came to Atlanta for a family vacation. So I googled prices for everything and this is what I came up with.
*Roundtrip airfare on Southwest Airline.
* Rental Minivan
* Hotel: Embassy Suites 2 bedroom suite with kitchen, 2 baths, pool, wifi and complimentary breakfast and dinner.
* Season Pass to Sixflags/Whitewater. (Cheaper than buying parks separately and tickets can be used at all parks nationwide)
* Stone Mountain Park Tickets
* Atlanta CityPASS (includes Georgia Aquarium Deepo Pass, World of Coca Cola, Zoo Atlanta, Inside CNN Atlanta Studio Tour, Fernbank Museum of Natural History)
* Sunday Dinner at Medievil Knights Dinner Theater.
And the price was $4,985.37. You should consider coming to Atlanta instead.

Carrie K said...

It is crazy, isn't it?! Mark's company is actually sending all of the office workers to Orlando for sales meetings in April and they have offered to pay for just about evrything for their families to go too! I'm talking staying in a fancy resort that we could never afford, week passes for all of the parks, and the gas and mileage it takes to get there! A total blessing from God! The catch is that I will have to take my 7th grader and 3rd grader out of school for a week, which they are already freaking out about the make-up work.