Any tips on traveling with friends?

[Juls]

My dear family of 3 (Me, DH, DD-8), along with my dear friend and her family (DF, DH, DD-8) have decided to take the plunge and visit DW together. Both families have been before - seperately, and we have already discussed and agreed that too much together time is not a good thing.

So I was hoping some of you who have done disney with friends could share some of your tips and suggestions that could possibly keep us all from killing each other! Am looking forward to reading others experiences.

 

[BrianD]

Whatever you do, make sure you don't share a room, which it sounds like your families are too big for that anyway. Maybe just spend half days together and then spend the other half of the days seperately.

 

[Horizons16]

well not sharing a room is a great idea. If they are good friends i dont think that you will have much of a problem. I never did.

 

[Deluzy]

Something I read about on someone's trip report was to do a scavenger hunt - for example:

In Epcot, I read that they put names of all the countries in a bag and each family (team) drew out 3 or 4 names. Then they had to go to each country, buy the coutries flag (they mus be cheap) and get a picture of them taken by a CM. I think that you could just skip the flag and get a picture of the whole family with a CM. Then, they returned to a mutual meeting place at a certain time to see how they did.

That idea could spur on so many variations, but I thought it might be fun for friends to do - since you are all in the same age group as well.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

I agree with BrianD. Find time for yourself. Don't schedule every waking minute together. We have gone with others from time to time and on some days we agree to "meet back at the pool" at a set time. It's a good way to be alone with your family a little bit and not cause people to get sick of each other.

Decide in advance who is apying for what. Like when you go to dinner togther and one bill comes out.

HBC

 

[eeyore0062]

We would plan a schedule before we went, and decide what things we would like to do together, and what things we would like to do separately. Usually we would start non EE mornings at the same park, and ride the cool rides, then split and meet up for dinner. .

On EE mornings, we would get up and go, and they would sleep in, have a nice breakfast and meet up with us around lunch time.

Sometimes we just went separate ways the whole day!

The trick is really doing some planning ahead of time... and having cell phones so if one party is going to be late or not going to make it, the other party isn't left waiting... this was probably the only problem we encountered the whole time... so we have learned that lesson!

Have a great time!

 

[drewswife]

Take walkie talkies or cell phones. It works great when you seperate. This way you are not always worried about splitting up and then meeting afterwards. We went with 2 families and found the walkie talkies worked great.

 

[KimR]

I totally agree with the above posters who suggested not spending every minute together...or at least make sure it is understood that time apart is an option. Also, try to anticipate potential problems in advance based on the different personalities and try to head off conflicts before they start. For instance, is one person in your party an early riser, while someone else likes to sleep till noon? And what about touring styles, eating habits, etc?

We had a succesful 'group' trip back in 200 when when we went with my sister, my parents AND my in-laws (the parents and ILs joined us for the last 2 days). It was a recipe for disaster: My parents and in-laws have totally different personalities, my MIL and my FIL do not get along at all, my MIL is a complainer and very overbearing and can't tolerate the heat (we went in May), and to top it all off....my parents hate theme parks. A month in hell sounded preferable to that vacation, but it wound up being the best vacation we ever had.

I think what made a differance is that DH and I laid down some ground rules first. (Since it was 'our' vacation and they were tagging along we could do that....yours sounds more like a joint undertaking). That saved the day. With 1 exception (and really, it's totally unrealistic to expect my in-laws to get along for a full 48 hours) everything went SO much better than I ever expected. I got to share my favorite place in the world with the people I care about most with no conflicts, fighting or *****ing. That in itself is a miracle....I never would have believed it. So...it can be done and really, I think with some planning , WDW is so much fun to do with a group! I will treasure the memories of that trip for the rest of my life!

Good luck
Kim

 

[MELSMICE]

I would say each evening decide what you are going to do the next day.

I definitely wouldn't spend every day/all day together. Pool days are great, dinner & other meal will be fun. Spending all the time in the parks together would be too much. Maybe one or 2 park days would be okay, but not every day.

We have gone with friends & family at different times & we find that we enjoy both the time we spend together & the time we spend alone, as long as there isn't too much of either.

 

[BounceyOne]

Everyone mentioned not spending too much time together, but I think the girls would want to. How about you take their DD for one afternnon or evening and then they take your DD with them one afternoon. That way the girls could be together and the adults would get a little alone time.

 

[paulsimon]

I don't think it's a bad thing to try to stay together - just realize that if you want to do something different from the other family that it's o.k. and that it's not personal. You're spending your money and you should do what you want. It's impossible to please everyone and stay together on every ride because everyone has different tastes. If you try to do that you'll end up spending half the time doing things you don't want to do.


We often go with friends and family. Sometimes up to 3 or 4 families - all with kids. We like that we don't have to try to entertain our kids all the time - they can do that for each other. We also find that the kids sometimes behave better for other parents. We tend to break up in groups, not necessarily same family groups, and find meeting times which always need to be flexible. The kids are different ages and like different things. We always keep in touch on cell phones. There's nothing worse than picking a time and place to meet and waiting around for 45 minutes because the line on Space Mountain was longer than anticipated.

If you are a large group you may want to get priority seating before hand. I usually coordinate any group activities. I decide what my family wants to do before we go. I then send an e-mail telling everyone else what we are planning - giving them the opportunity to join us. If they don't want to do it there's no hard feelings.

Remember this is your vacation on your dime. Make sure you have a good time.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Everyone mentioned not spending too much time together

That's not what I said or what I think most people are saying. What I said was not to spend all of the time together. There is nothing like some quality family time too.

HBC

 

[BounceyOne]

I didn't mean that in a bad way, I just noticed it mentioned above and didn't want to repeat it. I meant it in a way of not getting on each others nerves being together to much

 

[yasuern]

1st time we went to WDW was with my neice and her family - We had separate rooms - On some days we started out together - eat at a character breakfast do a few attractions then go our separate ways - other days we met in the evening - had dinner together and took in a parade or Fantasmic - and on other days we took my neices dgt and kept her all day and she slept in our room and the next day they did the same for us.

We had just enough together time to enjoy each others company and we each got a child free full day! It was a great trip!

Enjoy you trip

 

[donac]

I have gone with large groups just about everytime we have been to Disney. The one thing that I have learned is that eating will take twice as lone in a group. You end up spending more time at a table because you are talking and you lose track of time.

 

[goofy4tink]

Wow, you sound just like our group as far as ages go. I was given the 'job' of TA for the group. While I love planning my trips, it was somewhat daunting to be responsible for someone else's trip. But, everyone had imput into the plans. I told everyone that nothing was written in cement, they could do whatever they wanted. It turned into a huge problem when most of us wanted to get up and get going and one dh didn't. Called me a Disney Nazi!! Sheesh. We basically spent the first 3 days doing stuff together but it got to be too much togetherness. We then would spend about 3-4 hrs touring as a group and then split up. The most telling thing was when my dh, who wasn't crazy about the trip to begin with, said on our last night that he wanted to do WDW again, but just the three of us the next time!! So, we are...in Aug. I would suggest you stay very flexible. Maybe the girls could do Neverland Club (ours did and loved it) and the adults can have a nice dinner.

 

[GlennandAnn]

We have traveled with friends and have had the trips turn out wonderfully and some not so wonderfully. I've learned that if you schedule a few things to do together ahead of time, such as character dining or going to water parks, you can feel free to do your own thing the rest of the time without feeling that you've abandoned your friends. Also, if you all agree ahead of time that everyone is free to do what they wish on the trip with no hard feelings, you can avoid fights, guilty feelings or just plain bad vibes.

Ann

 

[susy]

I would try to get get connecting or adjoining rooms. 2-way radios work great in a park, but you ned cell phones for longer distances.

I always recommend the same thing. Have them over for dessert one night to discuss the trip. Rent a good movie to keep the girls entertained and call them into the room when you want their input.


First-make questionaires and pass these out first. Some people won't voice an opinion if someone else has expressed an opposite one first. The questions will put you all on equal footing. Try to come with with many instances, like "If you saw characters, is it more important to get to meet them or more important to get to the next ride?" "Would you be angry if the rest of the group went ahead while you had to take quick bthroom break?" I know it sounds silly, but it is the little things that are annoying.

Ask about expectations and simpler things, like wake up times, touring strategies, breaks or not. Priorites,etc.

I would schedule an evening for each couple to be alone or both (and have the kids stay at a kids' club). Maybe a girls day out or guys' day.

See what you can, enjoy it and don't worry about what you didn't see or do. If you get an early start each day, there is no reason that you shoud have to run yourselves or others ragged.

 

[MinniMama]

The biggest issues we have found were waiting and waiting for soemone in the group to be ready and waiting and waiting in a park for someone to connect up- a real drag. Also if you have adgenda people who have to do this or that and they can't be flexible this is another area of contention. be open and caring use a cell phone and do a trtip plan ahead of time and you should be fine. Our problem is everyone in our group has so many must dos! LOL So we just plan another trip.

 

[ncligs]

"DON"T!!