Any ideas ( this is a bit long)

[bhillier]

My parents, brother and his son 3 y/o will be joining my family (kids 9 and 4 y/o) @ Poly. I'm staying for 8 days (5/10 - 18). My family will be there for 3 full days (13 - 17th). I have done all kinds or research as far as hotels, shows, need for PS for food ect.... Trying to pin rest of the family down as far as which parks they want to visit. Is there any where they want to eat. No ideas from anyone. Can't even get them to look on line or @ the books that I've given them to get an idea of what the parks offer.

We will have seen each of the 4 main parks once when they get there. I have no idea what to plan for the rest of the vacation.
Should I just plan for myself and kids and let them tag along if they want. I didn't want to control the whole vacation. I thought it would be great to include everyone.

Ever been in a situation like this???

Any tips???

 

[MomE@Home]

The Disney site has a real neat program you can download that might help get your other family members involved in the planning of your trip http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/special/magicalgatherings/mgPlanner?id=MGPlannerLandingPage

Hope this helps !

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

Yes I've been in the same situation. The only difference was we were staying and travelling together for the whole 5 day trip.

So I just took it upon myself to book PS's that they would like, thinking that I could always alter or cancel if they/we didn't want to dine there on that particular day. Also, I picked the parks, and basically told them this works the best for our itinerary.

The interesting thing was that once they realised that they would get far more out of their Disney trip by my "obsessive" planning (like all of us DISer's do.... ) they were really happy to stick to my plan. I showed them my "itinerary" the first day, and also gave them the option to alter or change anything if they wanted. They started to ask my what we were doing the next and where we were eating, etc.

They really appreciated my planning in the end.

One of the things I did do, which turned out to be a big hit was book the Family Magic Tour for all of us. I didn't tell them what we were doing, but asked that we needed to plan to be at MK at 9:45am one morning for a "surprise" Everyone had a ball!
Just make sure if they are newbies to Disney that they visit MK once before the tour. This way they don't feel distracted by their surroundings, and are able to have fun with the tour. We were the same mix of family as you - Grandmother, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.

Good luck with your planning.

 

[IloveWINNIEthePOOH]

I would plan out my own vacation, including things, whether it is PS at restraunts, Cirque Du Soleil tickets, PI, etc. and also putting into thought what the other people in my party might like doing, and adding a few things like that to it. Then when it is all done, before leaving, I would make copies for the other vacationers, adding a few extra boxes for them to add things that they would like to do with you, like to do alone, and allow them to mark out things they won't be doing along with you. Get the "itinerary" back from them about 4-5 days before you leave, switch a few things around to try and please everyone. When you get to the hotel and everyone is there, go over, and let everyone get their final say-so in the planning. Hope this helps you!!!

I always think that the person who does the most planning, deserves the most fun, so make sure you don't leave yourself and what you want to do (including your family)out of any thought!!!!!!!!!........ LOL.

HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!

 

[IloveWINNIEthePOOH]

I would plan out my own vacation, including things, whether it is PS at restraunts, Cirque Du Soleil tickets, PI, etc. and also putting into thought what the other people in my party might like doing, and adding a few things like that to it. Then when it is all done, before leaving, I would make copies for the other vacationers, adding a few extra boxes for them to add things that they would like to do with you, like to do alone, and allow them to mark out things they won't be doing along with you. Get the "itinerary" back from them about 4-5 days before you leave, switch a few things around to try and please everyone. When you get to the hotel and everyone is there, go over, and let everyone get their final say-so in the planning. Hope this helps you!!!

I always think that the person who does the most planning, deserves the most fun, so make sure you don't leave yourself and what you want to do (including your family)out of any thought!!!!!!!!!........ LOL.

HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!

 

[SuzieQMomof3]

I second the vote for the Family Magic Tour. It is (so far!) my most magical Disney memory.