Family members cancelled on us, THIS STINKS..

daystar

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 21, 2003
Messages
454
Hi,
I've been on this board for the last month looking up details for our family vacation and asking questions, which i had wonderful replies from all over this board..Our family vacation which included my family, mom and my sister's family..I had everything planned out with my sister now her husband doesn't want to go..This stinks i was so looking forward to us all spending a vacation together..We always go by our selves and i thought it would be great to have other people go with us..My brother in law suffers from panic disorder and he doesn't think he can handle the trip and WDW, i think it's the people..My sister is so mad at him for canceling..Would it be rude of me to ask my sister if she would still like to come with my nephew???I'm so disapointed, i don't know what i should say to her..
 
It wouldn't hurt to extend the invite to them, if her hubby doesn't want to go. Are you all planning on a condo or something together? That and if you are renting a huge van or something to all drive together would be my concern--if she says yes and backs out again, how will that be handled? If you are staying at the same place and making your own ressies, go for it.
 
The talk was to rent a vacation home, we found a few that we liked and were going to put a deposit down..But if they are not going then i don't need a big home, i would look for something smaller..We were going to drive down so that might be a problem unless we fly...I'm just so irrated about this..
 
daystar

Long story short my Dad got sick so I said lets all go down to our rental home and have a great vaca. They got wind of airfares close to the dates and all decided it was not a good idea.

Scrambled to ask friends so the rooms would be filled. I really know the feeling. I love my family but I have to say dealing with friends and taking them down is lots easier.

We have all rescheduled and will be heading down in late Sept/Oct my brother and his 2 kids still do not have air fare. Go figure.
 

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. I would extend an invitation to your sister and just see how she responds. You'll just have to judge how committed you can be to budgeting and planning after you discuss it in more detail with her. It could turn out to be a wonderful trip if she seriously wants to go. I wish you the best.
 
I don't think it would be rude at all to ask your sister to go.
A word of advice that works for me. I plan vacations with my best friend and her kids. We plan the exact same vacation but book every thing seperatly. My family and hers. It may cost us a little more. Instead of getting a house together we get 2 hotel rooms... but if one of us has to cancel the other can still enjoy themselves. I wouldn't plan a vacation with another family any other way.
 
Go without the party pooper. :lmao: Your sister and DN will have a great time!!!!
 
PaulaSue said:
Go without the party pooper. :lmao: Your sister and DN will have a great time!!!!


LOL...Love your advice...My family is still going, i'll just have to change the way i wanted to vacation....I think that i will look into booking seperate just in case she says yes and then cancels and leaves me with the bill....People are unpredictable....This is just a big headache..... I was just hoping to share the experience in which they have never been to FL....Also i changed the date and everything around their schedule to make sure it was a good time for them....Thank goodness i didn't book anything solid....
 
I would invite your sister and nephew. If your brother in law truly has a real panic disorder, he should realize that the world won't stop when he's having problems. If he doesn't feel comfortable going, he definitely shouldn't be made to go. Everyone will feel better if he is comfortable. But he shouldn't have a problem with his wife and son going. I encourage you to talk it out with your sister and her family, and to keep a sensitive ear. Panic is a real problem.

jenny
 
My sister suffers from a panic disorder and anxiety and was able to make a vacation to WDW. She had no problems whatsoever. She is on meds for it though (Paxil, I think). Maybe you can write a post asking people who suffer from panic attacks to tell about their WDW vacation and then print those replies and give them to your BIL.

That said, I would definitely still ask your sister and nephew to go. If your sis is like me I would not want my kids to miss out of a fun trip just because their dad doesn't want to go...

Sorry to hear about the stress for you! I am sure you will still have a magical vacation regardless if your BIL makes an appearance or not...

Best of luck to you!
 
Could you ask them all to go and have her husband just stay in the condo while you go to the parks? Or have some transportation for him available to return to the condo if the crowds get too much for him? Maybe just allowing him to park on a bench (like Dave in the DVD LOL) while you meet him back later would be a solution?

Is there a money issue that maybe they're not sharing? That's been our extended family's problem in the past with group vacations. They come up with all sorts of excuses except the one that's the real reason.
 
Boy do I know your frustration!! :rolleyes:

Hope you have much better luck than I have when it comes to relatives and vacation plans. :wizard:
 
Another vote to ask her and the nephew to go too! How else will he ever get there? It doesn't sound like she is the kind of person to take him alone. If the husband doesn't want to go and stay at the home, then he shouldn't mind them going without him - he should be grateful!! If I rented the home though, I'd be sure to get their money up front. It sounds like they might back out at any moment. Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay onsite in connecting rooms? You could even rent DVC points for a two bedroom. (We loved the DVC rooms!!) If he does let them go, he'll probably worry about them and it might ease his mind to know they're onsite. It never hurts to ask. If she thinks it's a horrible idea, she just won't tell him you asked!
 
I always try to plan Disney vacation with relatives and it never seems to go as planned. This year I tried something a little different -- I made my plans and then emailed them to everyone else. I told them we would love to have you join us, here is our schedule. If you want to dine with us, just call Disney and change the ADR's to include more people, if not fine.

It worked wonderfully, our relatives joined us, but not for the entire time. They had a couple of dinners with us, but not all of the them. I got to do what I wanted and they got to do what they wanted. It really worked out better than I ever thought it would and went much smoother than in previous years. It gave everyone flexibility and they could plan what they could afford, not what I could afford.

P.S. My husband couldn't go this year, so I was really bummed and almost cancelled. Instead I ended up going with my daughter, her best friend (both 14) and my son (7). We met up with my Dad & sister's family. It was an awesome vacation, even though some people were missing.
 
Most likely he would have fun is she got him to go BUT if he doesent look out because that is the worst!

You would be sad if you was not there and could have come.... ASK :)

I would ask her to go without for sure. Unless they are REALLY strapped for cash I can not see why she wouldn't unless she is one of those really dedicated wives(aka: not so layed back dh kind of thing). I have no issue going without my DH but aways ask him if he wants of can even swing going. If he can't I still go and he never has an issue with that, he would be sad if he held me back from doing something just because he couldn't or didn't want to. It is another thing if they really don't have the $, my sister was in that place last year for our BIG family trio but we all added a part of her vacation into our budget and they came and had a great time - It would have been a real shame to be missing her and her family.
 
I say ask your sister and nephew if they still want to go, they shouldn't have to miss out because the dh doesn't want to go. My younger sister is coming down with just her dd on our next trip because her dh doesn't like the whole amusement park thing. Whatever you do, if they decide to come, I would definately book seperately. I learned that lesson the hard way. On our last trip my older sister and her family were supposed to go. We booked everything together and they cancelled last minute. In order to change, everything had to be cancelled and rebooked, they couldn't just take them off. We lost some of our ps times and could have lost our discount (luckily that didn't happen).
 
mommy*RN said:
My sister suffers from a panic disorder and anxiety and was able to make a vacation to WDW. She had no problems whatsoever. She is on meds for it though (Paxil, I think). Maybe you can write a post asking people who suffer from panic attacks to tell about their WDW vacation and then print those replies and give them to your BIL.

That said, I would definitely still ask your sister and nephew to go. If your sis is like me I would not want my kids to miss out of a fun trip just because their dad doesn't want to go...

Sorry to hear about the stress for you! I am sure you will still have a magical vacation regardless if your BIL makes an appearance or not...

Best of luck to you!


I'm going to start a thread about panic attack people who survive and enjoy WDW...Then i'm going to copy every reply and give them to him..
With the money issue i made the trip affordable for them...We were going to rent a house and split it three ways..Drive down so it would be cheaper..We even planned to go in Feb, even though i would love to go back in Dec for Christmas...I always asked before making these plans..He has a good job and she has a good part time job so i know that they live well off with her purchasings...I don't think it's the money because just recently we had a family barbeque at my mom's and he didn't show because he was having issues..That is just from being around family..He's on some type of med now, he just started i think a week ago..Maybe in time the meds will kick in and things will workout..Thanks for all your replies
 
I would definitely still ask my sister to go. There is no reason she should miss out on the trip because her husband has changed his mind. Good luck with whatever happens :)
I am in charge of our family vacation to wdw 12/2-12/13 and it's been very stressful, so I know what you're going through. Just stay excited about the trip, try not to get frustrated.
 
daystar said:
With the money issue i made the trip affordable for them...We were going to rent a house and split it three ways..Drive down so it would be cheaper..We even planned to go in Feb, even though i would love to go back in Dec for Christmas...I always asked before making these plans..He has a good job and she has a good part time job so i know that they live well off with her purchasings...I don't think it's the money because just recently we had a family barbeque at my mom's and he didn't show because he was having issues..That is just from being around family..He's on some type of med now, he just started i think a week ago..Maybe in time the meds will kick in and things will workout..Thanks for all your replies

I wonder about these cause I made a family trip fall apart, and part of it was money, but to my family, the whole thing was out of the blue and they were quite confused.

We have a good income, but I have my own priorities for my income. I didn't enjoy my brother in law deciding how I was going to spend my money on this vacation.

Even my husband and I, who share the same bank accounts and have constant access to our financial information, disagree often on what we can and cannot afford. I can't imagine how my sister or brother in law could make these judgements about what we can and can't afford. And even then, how they feel they are entitled to judge what we should choose to afford.

And it isn't just spending money - its spending time. I have limited vacation time, as does my husband. We schedule vacations around kids school, my work and his work. Just our nuclear family makes vacation planning tough. Now I have my extended family picking weeks we can't go and telling me we need to "make it work." Nope.

And spending time in a fashon I want to spend it in. We'd originally made some plans I could live with during a time we could go - then my family decided they'd rather cruise. And they wanted (none of them at the time had kids) to cruise on a less than completely kid friendly line.

Then there is the in-law factor. I enjoy my in-laws, and I'm fortunate enough that my husband enjoys my family. But spending a week his brother's ex-wife would have been torture. And spending time with my sister's ex-boyfriend - yech! Even a week in the same house with my father in law - a pleasant enough man in eight hour increments - would drive me batty. We went to Mexico last year with friends and spent a lot of time deciding if we should invite other couples - finally deciding not to bother because finding a third couple both of us would want to travel with was too hard.

Add to that some anxiety disorder (I 've been on Paxil), and a vacation destination that has crowds (I avoid Disney with crowds, myself).

I wouldn't print out a thread about his panic disorder. That's really insensitive. Its his disorder. Telling him my experiences would be useless since they are unique to me (I wouldn't have done Disney even when on Paxil when I was ill, now I'm healthy, off meds, but do Disney in a fashion to avoid crowds as much as possible and stress) and his experiences will be unique to him. And the fact that you are telling a bunch of strangers about the condition of his mental health strikes me as a good way to make him angry (and for good reason).

I also think that if he is newly medicated, its poor form for his wife to leave him for a vacation right now. He is ill. Its like saying "you don't have the energy for Disney on chemo, so we are going without you." And before anyone says "its anxiety disorder, not cancer" - mental illness kills.
 


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