How much do you split up to tour the parks?

[imgoingtodisney]

In Oct we (MIL, husband, 9yr son and I) have 5 park days at Disney. There is a running joke that MIL will be able to keep up with my son and I better than my husband will be able to. Husband wants to know when PS are and when he can rest. LOL. Do you split up from your groups? I think it may be best for the sanity of all.

[BethC]

We do tend to split up a few times a trip. My daughter is more into the thrill rides and exploring Epcot, while my son likes the tamer rides and going to the Animal Kingdom. So my husband and I will take turns spending one-on-one time with the kids. It works out really good, the kids are happy, and I don't have to go to the Biergarten in Germany! LOL!! (Not my favorite restaurant).

[pat fan]

The only time we really split up is at the hotel when I take the kids swimming so DH can take a nap.This is a family vacation after all,and we actually like to do stuff together.

I think if we went with other family members (in-laws,cousins etc..) then we would split from them quiet often:p !!

We just decide what park we're going to and everyone gets to pick 1 or 2 things to do so it keeps everyone happy.It isn't like we spend all day doing something the older one wants and the younger guy gets frustrated.We compromise and it seems to work for us.Good luck!

[SooziQ123]

We have a 12 yr old son & 4 year old daughter.....I have been thinking of ways to make everyone happy.....I decided to give my son(easily agravated) a pen & paper & have him make up an itinerary for mainly MK......this way he will seem to be the leader.....I have no problem following his direction.....the trip will be more pleasurable for all of us because he won't be having hissy fits all day!

[Toby'sFriend]

My husband has always been the type to say "We are on a FAMILY vacation and we are going to stay together as a FAMILY!!!!"

So I can well remember the first time we ever split up -- it was about 11:00am and I was sitting next to DS #2 in the front seat of our car at the Sci Fi Diner. He was 3 years old. I looked over at him and discovered that he had fallen over sound asleep. Now this was a huge catastrophe -- he obviously had not checked with my carefully planned itinerary which stated that naps were not scheduled until 2:30pm.

I looked back into the back seat and told my husband that I'd have to take him back to CBR for a nap. DH of course wanted to pack the whole family up and go back to the hotel together. I pleaded with him to please stay in the park with DS #1 while DS #2 and I went back to the hotel. The problem for days had been that our older son did not sleep during nap time and was always noisy in the room -- so our younger son wasn't getting a good rest.

Well - our waitress was kind enough to pack up our food for me and my husband agreed to stay in the park with the older son. They had a blast that afternoon without having to drag Mom (and her itinerary which told them where they had to be every second of the day) and the baby along. After our nap in the hotel DS #2 and I had a great time building sand castles on the beach at the CBR - something that would have never made my carefully thought out itinerary. Ever since then -- we split into groups once or twice on every vacation.

[ShuisFan584]

Well my family always goes to the same park together, but sometimes we split up within the park. My sister and I usually wake up earlier and want to get to the park as early as we can. We make a meeting time and place so my parents can meet us later when they get to the park. We usually stay together the rest of the time, but might split up once or twice just for a little while.

And this year, my sister and I are getting 7 day passes and my parents are getting 6 day passes. So one of the days we will be splitting up from our parents because they will stay at the resort or go shopping, while we'll be at the parks.

[Planogirl]

Sometimes we split up when DH, DS and I go. DH loves to swim or nap when DS does and then I might slip away to do a little shopping. Or maybe ride some things that neither one of them want to ride. Other times, DS and I would do some touring while DH took off for a while for his offsite break.

We all seem to do better if we take breaks from one another during long trips. :)

[Ninilchicken]

We split up for parts of MGM, US, SW and IOA. DD10 and I went to the tamer stuff, DD14 and DH went on all the thrill rides. About halfway through the "family vacation" I had to laugh when I realized we had never spent 18 days, 24 hours a day together, before. The girls were tired of sharing a bed, everyone was tired of waiting for turns in the bathroom, etc., etc. Splitting up in the parks was really kind of a relief.

[Yeabower]

There were 5 kids in my family (now 6!), so what we did, is my mom would take the 3 littler ones on a little kid ride, and then my dad would take me and my older brother on a more intense ride, and if one of the littler ones wanted to come, they could. Then, we would decide a meeting place. We might decide to ride 2 rides at a time, and then meet back. We do this everytime we go to a theme park of any kind. It works very well :)