5th Person = 5th Wheel while riding attractions?

[tiki23]

We're a family of 5 and our 3 teens are adult-sized. Many rides/attractions are based on two-across or four-across seating, so I'm afraid one of us is often going to miss out on family interaction. None of us are shy about talking to strangers in situations like this, but still, it would be nice to turn to someone in our party and say "I love this ride!"

Has anyone else thought about this, or am I just being silly? I've even thought about bringing a friend for my daughter to make us a round number. Though that could bring issues on its' own; I wanted to spend some one-on-one time with my daughter doing "girly" things.

Thoughts, anyone?

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I am in the same boat as you. We are a family of five. My oldest is 13 and we are thinking of taking one of her friends with us. The only problem with that is now we will need two rooms. We are still not sure what to do so I look forward to reading the posts.

 

[lajones81]

We're a family of 5 and our 3 teens are adult-sized. Many rides/attractions are based on two-across or four-across seating, so I'm afraid one of us is often going to miss out on family interaction. None of us are shy about talking to strangers in situations like this, but still, it would be nice to turn to someone in our party and say "I love this ride!"

Has anyone else thought about this, or am I just being silly? I've even thought about bringing a friend for my daughter to make us a round number. Though that could bring issues on its' own; I wanted to spend some one-on-one time with my daughter doing "girly" things.

Thoughts, anyone?

I don't think this is silly!

I have only traveled either with one other person or my immediate family (4 people total) so we've never had a problem. I do remember when I was a kid that my sister would get either my Mom or Dad for the morning and I would (obviously!) get the opposite. We would switch parents after lunch. Sometimes we would ride with that parent all day or for a specific ride. For example, I always rode Haunted Mansion with my Dad...not sure why, but you can't just break family tradition!

My suggestion is that you simply rotate the people that you sit with. It sounds like you are a nice family and I'm sure everything will work out!

Have a wonderful trip!

Er, on the other hand, you could, well, um, just invite another DIS person along! Yes, oh, yes, you would like me to come and join your family! Oh, that is so kind of you! I would be glad to round out the bunch! Hehehe...

 

[MomofKatie]

There are several rides that can seat three on one vehicle- so you can split up 3/2 for some.

 

[jlcbshaw]

When I hear the phrase "5th Wheel" I take it as one person feeling as if they are unwelcome in a group and that makes them feel awkward and uncomfortable. Seeing as how this ia family issue, I can't see this happening.

We are also a family of 5. Dad and son (13) and Mom and two girls (16, 9). We have always just split up riding partners and no one person has rode by themselves or with the same person every time. We always do a 3/2 split. The kids are even nice enough to all ride together so that my wife and I can enjoy some of the rides together. Seing as how the kids are older now, we are even considering allowing them to venture off on their own together as their own small group. They have done this at Six Flags for the past two years and we haven't had any issues. The older two have their cell phones and this helps with any issues that do come up. Of course, that puts them into an odd riding number for some rides, but they are pretty outgoing and have been taught well when it comes to proper behavor and how to avoid/get out of a potentially dangerous situation. Again the cell phone contact has helped to ease some of our fears about allowing them to venture off on their own.

Side note: We have also taken a friend with us to even out the "kid" ratio, but this is often difficult because they each have their own set of friends that they want to take, so we have only done this on a few occassions and only on local trips, ie Six Flags, water parks and Texas Ranger games. Most kids taken at one time 6 + my 3 and mom stayed home for her sanity.

 

[kellypops]

My situation is this--my husband and I will be taking his 10-year-old (my stepson) in September. My stepson will want to ride EVERYTHING with my husband (who is larger than normal...therefore, no room for me, too)--so I'm concerned about feeling like the "third wheel" and riding everything with strangers or by myself. Any thoughts?

 

[UrsulasShadow]

We're a family of 5 and our 3 teens are adult-sized. Many rides/attractions are based on two-across or four-across seating, so I'm afraid one of us is often going to miss out on family interaction. None of us are shy about talking to strangers in situations like this, but still, it would be nice to turn to someone in our party and say "I love this ride!"

Has anyone else thought about this, or am I just being silly? I've even thought about bringing a friend for my daughter to make us a round number. Though that could bring issues on its' own; I wanted to spend some one-on-one time with my daughter doing "girly" things.

Thoughts, anyone?

Not silly at all. On the 4-across, simply ask the CM for seating for "3 and 2", and each of you will probably get a single rider or 2 to sit with. The 2 across will be a little awkward, but it's not likely to be too many rides like this. Don't give up your mother-daughter time though. How many more chances are you going to have with your daughter before she's all grown up? She has plenty of other times to hang out with her friends. Family vacations are best spent with family.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

My situation is this--my husband and I will be taking his 10-year-old (my stepson) in September. My stepson will want to ride EVERYTHING with my husband (who is larger than normal...therefore, no room for me, too)--so I'm concerned about feeling like the "third wheel" and riding everything with strangers or by myself. Any thoughts?

I don't know your relation with your stepson, but it can't be hurt any by insisting you get "equal time" riding with him on the rides...might make you a little closer. Don't insist the boy rides alone, though, so you can ride with your hubby. He's only 10, after all, and may turn it into a competition for your husband's attention. Nobody wins a competition like that.

 

[SonyaD]

Well I have the best solution to this problem just have another KID! LOL

Honestly I think you all should be fine. I think sitting 3 and 2 will fix it most of the time that way no one has to ride alone. On rides that 2 then I would just trade off the person that rides by themselves so the same person doesn't ride alone all the time.

 

[DebbieB]

I've gone with 2 friends and we kind of alternate the 2 across rides, like Splash Mountain, Big Thunder, RnR. We don't formally say "this time you're a single", it just kind of happens.

 

[isabell122]

We're a family of 5 and our 3 teens are adult-sized. Many rides/attractions are based on two-across or four-across seating, so I'm afraid one of us is often going to miss out on family interaction. None of us are shy about talking to strangers in situations like this, but still, it would be nice to turn to someone in our party and say "I love this ride!"

Has anyone else thought about this, or am I just being silly? I've even thought about bringing a friend for my daughter to make us a round number. Though that could bring issues on its' own; I wanted to spend some one-on-one time with my daughter doing "girly" things.

Thoughts, anyone?

Since your daughter is a teen, you might want to bring a friend with her because i know how it feels to share the magic with someone thats with you. Maybe the girl that she invites never has been to disney world before and this might be a once in a lifetime oppurtunity for her to go to wdw. Also about the beds don`t worry, she could always sleep in a sleeping bag. zyou might also want to check out the girl that shes bringing because you never nkow she could just be nice to her for a specific reason. You can still also spend time with her, maybe one of the boys in the family wants to do something that friend wants to do, so you could spend time with her, or talk to her about it and reason it out, figure out ways that it would make it fun for everybody. if you don`t want to bring another person i wouldn`t worry because the rides such as test track and dinosaur are 6 seats per car. So tell us what you decide to do, hope this helped!!!

 

[kda]

Odds are that all 5 of you won't want to do all the same things, so there will be some natural splitting up. Mother/daughter time sounds great! I'm just guessing, but at least some people might not really want to sit through some of the wonderful shows (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, the castle show, etc). And some may want some relaxing pool time (or need a nap!) when others are on the go. Teens often go off on their own at Disney.

And when you are together, just take turns sitting with each other. Good reason to ride things more than once. Did you ask the kids for their thoughts and ideas?

Sounds like a great trip!!!

 

[Epcot82Guy]

I've been in the 5 friends group before. Surprisingly, few attractions will leave someone by themselves if you use the 3/2 method. The 2 seater attractions (i.e. you will have one person by him/herself) are:

Splash Mountain
BTMRR
Mansion
Snow White
Winnie the Pooh
Buzz Lightyear
SSE
RnRC

With those, as someone suggested, just rotate who is the solo person. It works out just fine in the end.

 

[tiki23]

Thanks for all of your replies!

Doh! Now why didn't I think about a 3/2 split?? I hadn't mentioned the possibility of taking a friend along on the trip because all three kids would want to bring their friend, I'm sure and I didn't want any bad feelings.

Since this will be our first trip to WDW we're all very excited and I really wanted us to spend this time together just as a family. With the ages of my kids, we're running out of years in which to do that.

Thanks again; you've made me feel better!

 

[seashoreCM]

We are a family of five. My oldest is 13 and we are thinking of taking one of her friends with us. The only problem with that is now we will need two rooms.

This is the tough problem when it comes to inviting friends. I would have to come down hard on DD and say no simply because of the room issue. You can promise DD that "next time" you and your family would go along on a joint vacation with her friend's family (with plenty of go-your-own-ways opportunities)

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

Personal pet peeve of mine, coming from working in attractions: When you get to the "grouper" CM at the end of the line, please tell us the TOTAL NUMBER in your party. We know how big our ride vehicles are, and we'll split you in a manner that will get you all on board. If I have a group of 8, and the first person tells me "4", then I'm going to group accordingly, not knowing that the next 4 people in line are also with you, and they could end being separated.

 

[missypie]

We are a family of 5. We negotiate/decide who rides with whom for every ride. Mostly it's who "has" to ride with dad and who "gets' to ride with mom. We all take our turn to be a single rider except the youngest. It's simply never a probelm.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

Personal pet peeve of mine, coming from working in attractions: When you get to the "grouper" CM at the end of the line, please tell us the TOTAL NUMBER in your party. We know how big our ride vehicles are, and we'll split you in a manner that will get you all on board. If I have a group of 8, and the first person tells me "4", then I'm going to group accordingly, not knowing that the next 4 people in line are also with you, and they could end being separated.

A little off the subject...How do you deal with parties that have at least one member larger than can comfortably fit in a seat? I've seen on the At Large boards that a larger person, traveling with maybe 2 others, should say, instead of party of 3, "party of 2 and 2".

 

[Goofy's Muse]

Doh! Now why didn't I think about a 3/2 split?? I hadn't mentioned the possibility of taking a friend along on the trip because all three kids would want to bring their friend, I'm sure and I didn't want any bad feelings...

LOL... this is EXACTLY why WE don't do the bring a friend thing! The 3/2 worked very well for our family of 5. We did mix it up as others have suggested... sometimes "a girls/guys split", sometimes "a grown-ups/kids split", sometimes "Dad with the oldest kid/Mom with the younger ones". Actually we found that accommodating 5 in some of the restaurants was the bigger challenge!

Enjoy your trip...

 

[kimbac3]

We are a family of 5 too. I am worried about this as well. But I've researched this subject here on the Dis and now after reading this thread I do feel better about it. When I first asked about it I felt silly for asking but everyone here is so helpful I'm thankful I did!

Kimba