Family get together

[Montana Minnies]

Family includes 8:
Mom-Grandmother(84)
Son-Brother, Husband and father(57 non disney fan)
Daughter#1 (54 Disney lover & planner)
Daughter #2 (Me, 44. Disney lover-spontaneous)
Daughter in Law, Sister in Law, wife to brother (49 loves Epcot)
Granddaughter, daughter, niece #1 (active 26 year old, just graduated from law school)
Granddaughter,daughter, niece #2 ( 24, pediatric nurse in Philadelphia, PA loves Disney)
Granddaughter, daughter, niece #3(14, never been to WDW-just graduated from middle school new disney convert)



Hi For 10 glorious days we spent at WDW at OKW in a 2 bdrm villa. Four of us were there for the whole 10 days, while 2 were there for a week and 2 were there for 5 days each, one came as we arrived and one left when we left. All I can say is planning for a family get together takes patience, tolerance and more patience. We had made many PS's and ended up canceling 2 since other things seemed to come up at the last minute. We tried to let people do as they pleased so everyone could do as they wanted, but still seemed to run into problems at times. The one thing we all seemed to agree on was that OKW was a wonderful place to stay with a large group.
What I learned is that there is no pleasing everyone. My sister and I thought we had planned out well what parks we wanted to visit and when, but others had different ideas. By the end of our stay we just finally ended up doing what we wanted and it seemed to be all right. If going again with a lot of people I don't think I would make as many PS"s since it was difficult to get to our destination in time for eating. It always seemed like we were running late. What was nice was that the restaruant still managed to get us in promptly.
The best part was watching the wonderment and awe in my 14 year old nieces face as she watched "Wishes" Illuminations and Fantasmic. Even my older brother who stated at the beginning that he was not a disney fan ended up getting his picture taken with Minnie Mouse because it was something he wanted to do!
I think we may have even ended up converting him too!
My mother enjoyed staying at the resort and I took one day and just spent it with her, which I found to be very relaxing and enjoyable.
We had a couple of meltdowns and they weren't by the 14 year old! I tried to warn my SIL and brother about pacing themselves, but stil they were up early and going until late at night without a break. I don't know how they did it, but they did!
The time went to fast and I can't believe we are already back home. We left just in time on the 13th and missed Hurricane Charley!
My sister and I hope to return in a couple of years and we have at least 2 others saying they want to go again too! I think for 2006 I will let the others do the planning!
"Montana Minnies"
PS: trip report to be posted sometime in the future.

 

[Linnie The Pooh]

DH's family is taking us all down to WDW in January for a family trip so it was great to read you post! I love your statement that there is no pleasing everybody!! I imagine that will be true of us too!! Everyone in his family has such different interests!

We should all be fighting after day two!! I hope not though.

I'm from Montana too-Billings! Are you near me????

 

[Montana Minnies]

Linnie The Pooh, Welcome to the Dis Boards!
I sent you a private message.
It's nice to see other Montanans use the dis boards too!

Enid

 

[ReneeQ]

We are DVC members at Wildnerness Lodge and the Boardwalk and LOVE taking family to DVC! We took husband's family (7 total) and stayed at Boardwalk this past May. Have taken my family many times and are taking them again this January (7 of us total this time). I start planning these trips 12-18 months in advance, and these are some of the things that work for me/us.

1. We have an in-person, face to face meeting about the trip about every 6 months while planning. It's quick and informal, lasts maybe 15 min, and is usually when we are all together for holidays, etc.

2. I communicate via email at least once a month. I might send out an email this month about "we need to pick out MK restaurants" and give choices. Majority rules.

3. I type up and send out a monthly newsletter showing our countdown and listing things that have been decided, etc. Everyone loves reading these as much as I love typing them.

4. I type up an agenda for the entire trip, just showing where we are what days, what time the priority seatings are and where, etc. It's not hour to hour, just broken out by day and by morning, afternoon, evening and lists meals.

5. I make it clear to everyone that this agenda is what I will be doing. If they like my plans, they are welcome to tag along with me. If they don't like the plans, they are welcome to break off from the group and do something else. But I won't be going with them, I will stick to my agenda. Make this clear early on. Husband's family broke off from the plan a lot and then we would all meet back up for dinner. Worked great.

6. I only plan one sit down meal a day, so if someone does want to break off, they don't have to find us again until dinner. Everyone has a copy of the agenda, so it's easy to find us.

7. We all carry a cell phone so we can easily find each other.

8. I instill this in my family - our happy family unit is only as strong as our weakest link. If you are approaching meltdown, you must remove your self from the group and go take a break.

We have had extremely successful 3 generation trips using these strategies!