until i started frequenting the dis boards i did'nt realize how many people take along unrelated minors on family vacations. i remember as a kid a few occasions when my parents allowed a couple of my brother's friends to go along with us on a vacation (and once a friend of mine when we were juniors in high school)-but both of those trips were within a couple of hours driving time to everyone's homes, lasted only a few days at the most-and certainly were not 'high dollar' trips. and none involved any excursions or activities with companies or vendors.
i honestly don't know that i would be willing to undertake this kind of situation on a vacation that involved air travel, ANY type of out of state travel (let alone out of the country) or was a vacation that we were financialy or emotionaly heavily 'invested' in.
reason being-it would (for me) be one thing if something happened with my child and within my (parental emotional/legal) control to address it/have to cancel mid trip-but i think it could be a nightmare if something happened to a non related minor if the identical situation occured.
case in point (for a cruise)-when we were on a
disney cruise we observed a heated (to say the least) interaction at guest services between a parent and a senior officer. apparantly (from what we overheard) the passenger's young teen son had engaged in some behaviours that had been deemed inappropriate and disturbing to both the cm's and the passengers (major noise issues in the stateroom, 'doorbell' ditch to other staterooms, repetative 'prank calls' to room service, stateroom attendants/housekeeping-and apparantly some roughhousing in the public areas/use of inappropriate language). the parent was being told that despite repeated discussions the behaviours had continued and the ship was implementing a provision in the fine print of the cruising contract that required the son to be in the company of his parent at ALL TIMES. the senior officer was very specific that should any futher incidents occur or the kid was found unattended anywhere on-board-the ENTIRE booked party would be disembarked at the next port where they could arrange their own travel back to the u.s.
now for me-it would be one thing if my own child caused this type of situation and i had to be 'joined at the hip' for the entire duration of a cruise-or have to arrange international travel for the family home (the logistics as well as the financial impact would just be something i would bare as a parent), an entirely different thing if it were one of my kid's 'friends'.
a second concern for me would be liability. i had a co-worker who took one of their kid's friends along on a family trip-got all their 'ducks in a row'. made sure to have parental permission for medical care should the need arrise, went through all the travel arrangements, even went through every activity with the parents that they planned to do on the vacation to make sure the kid was able to do them, and see if any special precautions needed to be taken-advise and get consent from the parents (long time family friends-not just parents they've met a few times within the confines of their kid's freindships). a few days into the vacation, the kid is participating in an activity (one that his parents had claimed he'd done with them and knew all the safety precautions/implications-but the guest family still had everyone review before embarking on), gets 'bored' with the pace the guest family is going at, and takes 'off' on an atv. the kid is being wreckless, and as the guest parents are trying to stop the behaviour he does massive property damage and ultimatly slams into a moving motor vehical.
the upshot-the kid ends up with major injuries and incurs massive medical bills. the passengers of the motor vehical that the kid hit incur minor injuries-but between that and the damage to their car it racks up quite a monetary total). combine that with the other property damage (including the atv on the activity) and the total is in the hundreds of thousand dollar range. in this situation neither the kid's parents or the guest family are the 'sue happy' type, but when they both start getting hit with the bills from this incident they quickly find that thier private insurance companies (homeowners and med) have their own ideas and provisions about what happens when a person entrusts their minor child to another adult-and who ultimatly bares the financial responsibility. the guest family spent massive amounts of money to lawyers to handle all the lawsuits from the kid's medical insurers, the property owners who had damage claims, the activity place (apparantly the fine print on some of those contracts is very specific that an adult who purchases the tickets/purchases any type of insurance for damage to the vehicals enters into it stating they are the parents or 'legal guardian' of the minors-so the absence of their 'legal standing' as guardians was used to invalidate the protective provisions of the contract such that the vendor went after them for not only the atv damage, but 'lost revenue' by virtue of the down time for the event, the repair time for the vehical and lost clientele due to 'negative' press coverage). it was a financial nightmare that went on for years-and it made all of us 'co-workers' very aware of the implications of taking a minor who is unrelated to us on type of trip.
given-both of these are exceptional situations, but i think it points out that there is allot more that a person needs to take into consideration in bringing along their kid's minor friend or 'so' than just the issues of room size, dining issues-and weather any 'monkey buisness' might occur. the person may be taking on legal/financial responsibilities that neither their finances nor the insurance they own may cover even remotely.
) and now if it's worth it or not.
It's so nice to know that there are mature young people out there like you!We should clone you. 
Enjoy some mother and daughter time.
