Oh! You're going to be in Florida? Let's get together.

[DizFanSLD]

Judging by the many large family groups we saw last week wearing matching shirts, and standing around looking irritated and arguing about what to do next, it seems to take a very particular kind of skill to successfully navigate a WDW trip with extended family. We tried it with just my parents for a couple days when my DD was 7, thinking that they would enjoy seeing WDW through her eyes, and it was kind of a disaster. They complained about everything, very obviously just didn't "get it," and both ended up coming down with the flu on the second full day of the trip. We swore to never again try to travel to WDW with anyone. We have our way of doing things that works for us, and as a PP said, you spend too much on the trip to have it ruined by that kind of drama. Vacations are for spending time with your immediate family unit in our opinion.

And we have relatives an hour from Disney that always want us to call them and get together when we are down there. Ummm, no thanks!

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

I handle it like this. To the locals wanting me to visit I explain I cannot go to their house. "Sorry we can't come, you can meet us at X when we are there". For fellow friend travelers if they come to the resort , park , restaurant etc when I am there great. There will be people there anyway so if it is somebody I know great. I will not alter my resort , park , restaurant etc to accommodate anyone.

So far for 10 years this has worked for me and my family.

 

[surferdave]

Ah, c'mon, nothing like stopping to visit family on the way to Wally World!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bu4MwNTJwA

 

[RalphinSC]

Now YOU have the right idea. We had a trip in 2008 in which we made the mistake of inviting my inlaws to join us for a few of the days.
We even treated them to MVMCP tickets.

Big mistake.

They just did not, and would not, get Disney.

They hated eating and being silly at Whispering Canyon (also our treat).

They hated Epcot. ("What is the point of this?")

Grandma got angry that Malestrom was too scary.

(They did like Biergarten.).

At MVMCP they rode the train and rolled their eyes. They complained through a show. They weren't impressed with Monsters Laugh Floor.

"Grandma, did you like it? Wasn't it cute?"

"I guess it was cute ...for children."

They bought a watch for a different grandchild/cousin and left after 90 minutes. And they were insulted that the rest of us stayed.

They wanted to hang out in the hotel room and show us video on Grandpa's laptop of the toddler grandchild who was, evidently, in desperate need of a Mickey watch. And they wanted us to eat pie they brought from home while sitting on their bed. If we'd had Mickey watches, we would have been looking at them while tapping a foot anxiously.

Relatives and vacation don't mix. At least not for us.

EEEK! That's a nightmare!

I'm helping two other groups of family come down this June (brother's family and uncles's family). I'm an uber planner and will plan away for them but we will pretty much let them loose in the parks once we get there because I don't think our touring styles will mesh at all. Or at LEAST we will have a solid understanding of what to expect before we go.

I'm already listing all the psychosis of these folks and figuring out how to deal with them and keep my sanity.

 

[pianoronni37]

UGH! YES!

And there is no reasoning with these people!!

I have friends who work for Disney - if they can meet me at the parks or DTD, I will happily hang out, ride a ride, eat a meal with them.

But my other Floridian acquaintances? GOD FORBID I go there and not tell them.

I got guilt-tripped so badly on facebook the last time I came home from Disney for not seeing one girl, OTHER friends came to my defense!!

1) I don't rent a car. I rely solely on Disney transportation. Because I am paying. For a trip. TO DISNEY.

2) If you are SO GUNG HO about seeing me, maybe make the trip to NY sometime? OR.... let me ENJOY my time away from my stressful, brain-busting job, if I am so important to you.

Gosh. Vent over. But I 100% feel your pain.

Thanks

 

[Imhere]

I'm seeing the other side of this scenario:

"We found out my cousin and her family is coming to Florida. To be polite we mentioned they should stop by and see us. OMG, they said yes....ughhhhhh."

 

[pianoronni37]

I'm seeing the other side of this scenario:

"We found out my cousin and her family is coming to Florida. To be polite we mentioned they should stop by and see us. OMG, they said yes....ughhhhhh."

 

[The Fox Menagerie]

We have friends in Kissimmee who really wanted to see us during our trip to WDW. We did not want to give up precious park and resort hours to do so, but ended up agreeing to meet. They picked us up in a nice size air conditioned car. We traveled to Hillstone restaurant and had a fantastic dinner. We stopped by their house so we could admire their glass collection that we'd only ever seen in pictures. We were away for WDW from 4pm to 8:45pm; we arrived back in time to catch the fireworks from the beach at the Poly. While we really dreaded leaving the park, it turned out for us that it was time well spent and we appreciated the visit. Next time though, we'll likely say, "Come see us at the park"!

 

[MeanestMomEver]

I'm seeing the other side of this scenario: "We found out my cousin and her family is coming to Florida. To be polite we mentioned they should stop by and see us. OMG, they said yes....ughhhhhh."

Maybe they are thinking, "Great, now we have to stop and see those cousins! I knew we should have kept the trip a secret!"

 

[Suellen]

I often offer to meet for a ride or a sit by the pool or whatever the tourist like folk are already planning on doing. Sometimes it works and sometimes it just doesn't happen.

I'm not offended if people just want to be with family - that's cool too - just say it.

I can't imagine being offended that family wanted to visit - so long as they are understanding of the visitors lack of desire as well / or lack of transportation (always our problem when we visited here).

Just fess up and say you don't have time or are really busy or don't have a car or whatever.

 

[Pig Pen]

...but I understand completely! I have been on both sides of the fence here. Before we moved to Florida, we sometimes snuck down for vacation to avoid having to visit the various relatives around the state.

We now live about 30 minutes from WDW and expected lots of friends and relatives to take us up on our offer to host them during their vacations.

How many have done this, you ask? Nada. Zilch. Zero.

People come to WDW and I see their posts on Facebook and then they depart. One acquaintance called us and DH was able to go meet up at Epcot, but he felt weird intruding on their vacation.

I sometimes feel bad that I didn't get to see them, but I TOTALLY understand the mindset.

That being said, today we are heading over to Bradenton to visit relatives who are renting a house on the beach for a few weeks. And THEY invited US!!!

 

[jenrose66]

There should be a name for this.

You're spending the equivalent of your child's Freshman year tuition on a Disney vacation and every person you know, kinda know or might be related to in the entire (very large) state thinks you should stop by, hang out or get together.

Well sure, why would I want to ride Soarin' when I could sit on your sticky, plastic covered sofa and listen to your clock tick while you slowly make delicious bologna sandwiches and tell me about your neighbor's dentist's daughter-in-law's food processor incident?

Even attempts to downplay or even fail to mention the trip don't seem to help. Someone blabs.

And if you have older kids and they have friends going to Disney on their spring break as well... Yeah, they think they should hang out while there.

This is the one time I'm brutally honest with people. When I go to Disney I am there for Disney and I refuse to make any other plans.

 

[Manders77]

We used to live 30 minutes away from WDW. We didn't expect people to come by and see us, some did some didn't. We had AP to all the parks so we could come to them if they wanted. My biggest peeve was certain friends who called me up to tell me they were going to WDW and wanted my tips tricks, secrets I knew and wanted me to help them plan their vacation. While assisting they planned time to meet with us, we would come to them. I asked are you sure its your vacation. They insisted, called us several times checking in with us. Fine. Well that day, they called and said sorry can't do it. DH was peeved because he missed out on a flight opportunity to meet these friends of his (he knew them since they were little). Well found out later on facebook they meet up with other people. If they wouldn't been open and honest, we would of saved alot of frustration. Maybe they felt obligated but I gave them many opportunites to cancel beforehand, even told them DH had a flight opportunity but if they still wanted to meet he wouldn't take it.

After that incident, when someone called us, either they came to us or we didn't see them. We didn't go out of our way, especially after we had the two kiddos.

Now we live in RIchmond, and all we hear is oh I wish you guys were still in FL.