If you couldn't go to Disney...where else would you go?

[disneygirl76]

Hi all! :wave:

So here is a crazy question for you! I am assuming that most of you are like I am that if you had your choice to go on vacation, you would choose Disney! My DH and I are like this! But we got to thinking...where else would you go?

Here is the scenario: So my DH and I like to go away for a week at a time - to really feel like we have really gotten away. My brother is moving to San Fran in July and could potentially be moving there permanently. My DH and I will go out there once it is permanent - so that puts Disneyland and the Walt Disney Museum on hold for a bit. We want to take a Disney Cruise - and are waiting to 2012 for the NYC port b/c that is so much easier for us to get to. Eventually, we will do a 2 week trip across the country and a 2 week trip to Europe, and will get to the DVC Hawaii. And finally, we are not lay on the beach kind of people. We do not like to just go and veg. We like to be active.

So at this point, we can't actually think of where else to go or what other vacations there are to take. So even though we love to go to Disney, we can't actually think of any other places to go.

So my question to you is this - if not Disney - where else would you go? :wave:

 

[mickeysshoes]

I would sit in the corner and

 

[coltow]

Tour New England :wave:

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Its a big world out there so much to see. Your near NYC, so I assume you have done that. I would consider
-a drive up to Boston, maybe take in some beaches or lakes in Maine.
-A great place and drivable really is Quebec City in Canada, and Montreal is wonderful as well.
-If you head mid-atlantic, Washington DC(and heck drive a bit further and check out Busch Gardens Williamsburg) and
-in the midwest, I love Chicago. See a game a Wrigley if you can, and do a ghost tour.
-Vegas is a must do if you have never been
Finally if you love good food and music New Orleans is really wonderful...
-Oh Key West, the real ONE in florida is great, and not a beach place, just wonderful people.

 

[R W B]

Oh gosh where do I start lol. I'm a huge Disney fan and really love WDW but I have so many other places that I want to go and see. Please keep in mind I was born, raised and currently live in New Orleans, La so some things I want to do you might do often.

Lets just keep it Domestic and all trips would be atleast a week long,

Southbeach Miami- Ive been once for 3 days and loved it
Tampa Bay/Orlando Area (Non Disney/Universal:lookaroun) I lived in St Petersburg for a month and it was pretty cool.
Washington D.C.
NYC-Would take time to go see Niagara Falls
Atlantic City/Boston/Jersey Shore area
Somewhere in a cabin in the Mountains in TN and visit Dollywood
Mall of America in MN (for the girlfriend really but I like buying new things too, lol)
Yellowstone National Park
Aspen, CO for skiing
Lake Tahoe, CA
Las Vegas-Would take time to go see the Grand Canyon-Only been to Vegas when I was 20, now i'm old enough Id like to go back.
San Diego/Los Angeles
North Cali
Hawaii
Alaska

The only trips I think are a long shot of myself actually doing is Lake Tahoe and Yellowstone.

Off the top of my head I would also like to go to see San Antonio, Mt Rushmore, Chicago and Key West, FL but these would not be week long trips I dont think.

Finally I do recommend a trip to my neck of the woods here in New Orleans, we have alot more then just Bourbon St, lol.

 

[jlevis]

Yellowstone, its the last of the major national parks for us to see. A side trip to Grande Teton would be in order.

 

[LilSuzy]

Hawaii......aloha oe!

Mahalo:animwink:

 

[POTC]

Universal!!!

 

[tikiman]

Hawaii!!!!!

We aternate from WDW to Hawaii just about every year.

I am starting to like Hawaii better with the cost of WDW going up for everything and the service in many cases going down. We also return from Hawaii very relaxed but I need a vacation when I get back from WDW.

Our kid likes Hawaii as much as WDW. Next year will be a mix of Hawaii and Disney with going to Aulani.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

It would be one of the following spots for me:
Door County, WI
Wisconsin Dells
Appleton, WI
Mall of America

 

[DizneyPryncess]

Hey :wave:

Matt & I love traveling, and although we love Disney, we've been to other places that we really love too. Here's some of my favorites:

-Hiking the Great Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN. It's absolutely beautiful there.
-Driving the coast of California. We flew into San Francisco, went to Carmel for a night, Hollywood for a night, Anaheim for a few nights, and then over to Las Vegas for a few nights.
-Aruba, our favorite place besides Disney.
-Hilton Head. I think we've talked about this before, but I spent a lot of time there growing up & I still like to go back.
-Wilmington, NC. Something about the historic downtown, and the various gardens always traps me in. I could live here.

 

[gerk77]

We also love Disney, but there is so much to see. We have started cruising and love that also. We get to see many places and let the ship be our hotel. No, we have not taken a Disney cruise. Maybe one day.

 

[Korfar]

Vegas. That is our favorite place after WDW.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

While we enjoy Disney and want to take the kids often, Disney is not always our first choice. Here are some of the vacations we've taken that we really enjoyed and some on my planner that are either on the horizon or in the wish list.

Done-
- We went to Europe for a little over 3 weeks. Did parts of England, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.
- We spent about a week and a half in Yellowstone & Grand Teton
- While it also incorporates visiting family, we like to travel up to NY,NJ,PA,DE,MA,DC, and CT to do city and historical touring.
- Went to California for a week and just drove north stopping wherever it seemed interesting.
- Lately we've been doing an annual trip to New Orleans
- We used to do an annual trip to Vegas...we're hoping to start that up again
- mind you we live in TX, so this is convenient for us, but we like to go to the Hill Country- lots of neat little places between San Antonio & Austin
- I am not a beach person either, but I got back from Cancun a few weeks ago and am now more into beach destinations with more to do...i.e. ruins, hiking, snorkeling/scuba, zip lining, fishing, food tours, etc.
- We're stopping in Biloxi on our way back from WDW in AUgust and looking to add that to our regular rotation.

Horizon/Wish List
- Hawaii...if all goes well, we'll be spending a week or so in Maui next year
- Skiiing...we had to cancel our trip to Park City, UT, but we will be going there + some other ski destinations once the kids are a bit older and we can sort out some of the air issues
- Alaska...as nice as the cruises are, I want to fly into Anchorage and drive up to Denali for half of the trip and then down to Kenai Fjords for the other half- supposed to do this a few years ago, but had 3 major house problems that ate the $
- San Fran & Yosemite- one of my summer getaway trip ideas when it's horribly hot here in TX
- return to Yellowstone once the kids are old enough to know better than trying to apporach a bison or mess with the thermal features + road trip in this to Mt Rushmore and Glacier National Park
- Australia...DH and I both want to do this...I must dive the Great Barrier reef + I want to do a great white shark cage dive
- Cambodia...Angkor Wat...nuff said
- Bora Bora...I MUST stay in an over water bungalow with a glass bottom area for fish viewing and feeding
- Scotch, castle and Golf tour in Scotland...pretty self explanatory
- I want to return to Austria, Italy & France + try and make my way to Spain, Greece, Hungary, and the Czech Republic
- the violence scares me too much right now, but Israel, Egypt and Jordan are on my bucket list

I'm sure there's more...but you get the idea.

 

[Ransom]

- Went to California for a week and just drove north stopping wherever it seemed interesting.

My wife and I used to do that a lot. Not specifically in California (I was born and raised there, but moved here to IL when my wife and I got together), but just anywhere. That was our favorite type of vacation for years and years. And by stopping wherever it seemed interesting, we made lots of great memories that we would never have had if we'd been more destination-oriented.

Of course, that was back when gas was cheap.

If we could do it again, we'd like to hit some of the theme and amusement parks all over the country. Do a grand tour, seeing the sights along the way while stopping at each of the parks for as long as we wanted to.

Maybe when we're retired...

 

[rkelly42]

1. Sanibel Island FL.
2. Arizona.. love the whole state
3. Yosemite
4. Driving Rt. 1 up the coast of Maine making plenty of stops along the way to Bar Harbor.
5. Hawaii.. Maui to be exact.

 

[disneygirl76]

Hey :wave:

Matt & I love traveling, and although we love Disney, we've been to other places that we really love too. Here's some of my favorites:

-Hiking the Great Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN. It's absolutely beautiful there.
-Driving the coast of California. We flew into San Francisco, went to Carmel for a night, Hollywood for a night, Anaheim for a few nights, and then over to Las Vegas for a few nights.
-Aruba, our favorite place besides Disney.
-Hilton Head. I think we've talked about this before, but I spent a lot of time there growing up & I still like to go back.
-Wilmington, NC. Something about the historic downtown, and the various gardens always traps me in. I could live here.

Hee hee Yeah - NO HILTON HEAD! I spent 2 1/2 years trapped on the island so I pretty much done with that. :lol: We are going to do the fly into San Fran and drive down the Cali coast next year when my bro moves there for good.

I hope you are feeling good mama! :wave:

 

[disneygirl76]

While we enjoy Disney and want to take the kids often, Disney is not always our first choice. Here are some of the vacations we've taken that we really enjoyed and some on my planner that are either on the horizon or in the wish list.

Done-
- We went to Europe for a little over 3 weeks. Did parts of England, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.
- We spent about a week and a half in Yellowstone & Grand Teton
- While it also incorporates visiting family, we like to travel up to NY,NJ,PA,DE,MA,DC, and CT to do city and historical touring.
- Went to California for a week and just drove north stopping wherever it seemed interesting.
- Lately we've been doing an annual trip to New Orleans
- We used to do an annual trip to Vegas...we're hoping to start that up again
- mind you we live in TX, so this is convenient for us, but we like to go to the Hill Country- lots of neat little places between San Antonio & Austin
- I am not a beach person either, but I got back from Cancun a few weeks ago and am now more into beach destinations with more to do...i.e. ruins, hiking, snorkeling/scuba, zip lining, fishing, food tours, etc.
- We're stopping in Biloxi on our way back from WDW in AUgust and looking to add that to our regular rotation.

Horizon/Wish List
- Hawaii...if all goes well, we'll be spending a week or so in Maui next year
- Skiiing...we had to cancel our trip to Park City, UT, but we will be going there + some other ski destinations once the kids are a bit older and we can sort out some of the air issues
- Alaska...as nice as the cruises are, I want to fly into Anchorage and drive up to Denali for half of the trip and then down to Kenai Fjords for the other half- supposed to do this a few years ago, but had 3 major house problems that ate the $
- San Fran & Yosemite- one of my summer getaway trip ideas when it's horribly hot here in TX
- return to Yellowstone once the kids are old enough to know better than trying to apporach a bison or mess with the thermal features + road trip in this to Mt Rushmore and Glacier National Park
- Australia...DH and I both want to do this...I must dive the Great Barrier reef + I want to do a great white shark cage dive
- Cambodia...Angkor Wat...nuff said
- Bora Bora...I MUST stay in an over water bungalow with a glass bottom area for fish viewing and feeding
- Scotch, castle and Golf tour in Scotland...pretty self explanatory
- I want to return to Austria, Italy & France + try and make my way to Spain, Greece, Hungary, and the Czech Republic
- the violence scares me too much right now, but Israel, Egypt and Jordan are on my bucket list

I'm sure there's more...but you get the idea.

Wow! This is an awesome list!

 

[lighteningqueen]

Mass
Maine
Vermont all in the fall
Yellowstone
Great cabin at Castle Mountain in Estes park for a month ahhhh
amish country states they look so green and beautiful
smithsonian

New Mexico used to live there and there is soooo much tyo do and see and eat green chile night and day all day long real mexican food

 

[disneygirl76]

I like the New England trip idea. Going in the fall would be a good time to go. I wonder how far north we could get in a week.

I have done NYC and Boston (an ex used to go to school in Boston) so I have spent a great deal of time there. But we have never done Maine, NH, Connecticut or the Cap.

Chicago - my bestie and my bro live there so i've done Chicago several times over.

Williamsburg - we spent a week there last Thanksgiving and did Busch Gardens.

Universal - i've done it a couple of times and will do it again soon to see Harry Potter (i was going to wait until after the last movie comes out to do it)

Anywhere else in FL - I was born there and I have loads of family so I've done the east coast of the state.

I definitely want to travel across the country hitting the National Parks. But the DH and I want to wait until we have some kiddies before doing that. I feel that is a good family adventure. :lol:

So I know I might be nuts - but Vegas scares me! Ha! I know! I'm so silly.

Since we are not lay on the beach people - and I was trapped, I mean lived on Hilton Head for a couple of years - places like the Outer Banks and Myrtle Beach are out.

The other thing we were thinking is driving the Blue Ridge parkway during the fall. We have done parts of it before. And we have been to Pigeon Forge before. So it would be nice to see more of it.

As for Europe, I've done England and Ireland. But I would love to do more of it. The hubby and I are thinking that trip will be for maybe a 10 year anniversary or something.

As for Hawaii - just waiting for Aulani to open up! :lol:

I agree, it does not always have to be Disney. But because we have so much fun there, we kind of default to it. But I miss experiencing something for the first time. Going exploring and on an adventure. With Disney - its so much fun and I love it but I know it inside and out. There is always new stuff to do and try there, but I am excited to try and do something new. Hmmmm...

Thank you for all the great ideas! When you list things out like this, it's amazing to see how many places you have been.