Going with Sister & Nieces, Need Advice Please

[WaltD4Me]

A little background....Sorry it's kinda long....

I'm the Disney nut in the family and I have taken my two nieces to Disney individually the past two years.
In 2005 I took my 6 year old niece and in 2006, my 10 year old niece...we had a WONDERFUL time each trip.

Now this year, May 2007, I am going with my sister and same two nieces all together.

Here is the thing.....

My nieces are great on their own, I had NO problems
with them either trip. Tears were only shed once when my older niece was disappointed with the placement of her hair wrap one day. But that is IT...

But when nieces are together AND with the my sister, the fight constantly. It drives me CRAZY, the older one is always picking on and bossing the younger one and the younger one is always tattling on the older one... They are usually pretty good together with just me, but when my sister is around they are alot worse for some reason and the bickering becomes practically constant.

We are staying in a regular studio at Old Key West, I purposely picked OKW because of the larger sized rooms, but I'm still worried about the four of us in the close quarters.

Another thing is, because we are using DVC points, we won't be getting daily mousekeeping and my sister is, well.......a SLOB and I have told her, we HAVE to pick up after ourselves, otherwise the room will become a disaster area...she just rolled her eyes, so I'm thinking I'm going to wind up cleaning every day so the room is livable. I'm not a neat freak or anything, but I like a hotel room to be at least neat, with things put away... so you aren't searching for lost shoes or whatever every morning...it's just makes for a more enjoyable trip IMHO.

So since I rented the DVC points and am paying totally for the room, do you think it would be ok to ask my sister to pay for daily mousekeeping to keep the peace? I think it's like $25 a day.

And please don't get me wrong...I am excited and looking forward to our girls only trip...it's not that I don't my sister and nieces to come, I'm just worried about these two issues and am looking for ideas to avoid them.

 

[momsgoofy]

Wow! It sounds like you've got your hands full, but it also sounds like you're gonna have a great time! I went to WDW with my sis and niece for the first time in July. We split the trip between YC and SSR...used DVC points at SSR so we didn't have the daily mousekeeping...not a problem for me since I'm used to that, but sis and niece had never stayed on points. I just explained it to them and they were good about it...no need to pay extra. Sis and I had to remind niece to hang up the towels a couple of times, but not biggie.

As for the room looking like a diaster area...I think that is just the nature of children. DS is 14 and I still find myself reminding him whenever we are in a hotel anywhere to keep his things together...he's notorious for just pulling off shoes and socks by the edge of the bed, which then get covered by the bedspread. (I always check before we leave to make sure none of his things are missing.) Although, one of the best ways I've found to eliviate this is to have a laundry bag for all the dirty clothes...keep in the closet so it's out of sight...works great. You can usually get these at the dollar store.

And for clean clothes and things, I always designate which drawer belongs to whom from the beginning so there is a place for wallets to be tucked away at night. I do the same with electrical outlets...need a place for the phone chargers, the camera chargers, etc...plug in the chargers and that is where they stay for the trip.

Now, I've never traveled with more than one kid at a time to WDW, I heard a great suggestion from a family as I was leaving MCO the last time. They had 2 kids and said the way they handled it was to designate each day for a different person...whomever's day it is gets to pick the activities. The parents said it worked great...they did mention that they always reminded the kids even though they may not like that days activities, the next day would be the others to decide. My sister and I are debating on taking our other niece and her 2 daughters for the next all princess trip and given that they've only been to WDW once, I'm thinking of implementing this plan...the great nieces tend to be competitive and would fuss too much...gotta work it out before we do take that trip.

And here's a fun suggestion...some Tinkerbell surprises for the girls. I did this for my niece, who was 11 at the time, and she loved it...got the biggest unsolicited hug from her in my life. I just grabbed some inexpensive things and left them out on a table for her as a suprise with a poem for her. I included a lipstick fan for the parks, M&M candies with the POTC logos, Tinkerbell pen, notepad, change purse, Princess (with attitude) stickers (ex. Kiss the tiara), stuffed Mickey and Minnie, and some glow bracelets.

Well, hope you have a great trip!

 

[WaltD4Me]

As for the room looking like a diaster area...I think that is just the nature of children. DS is 14 and I still find myself reminding him whenever we are in a hotel anywhere to keep his things together...he's notorious for just pulling off shoes and socks by the edge of the bed, which then get covered by the bedspread. (I always check before we leave to make sure none of his things are missing.) Although, one of the best ways I've found to eliviate this is to have a laundry bag for all the dirty clothes...keep in the closet so it's out of sight...works great. You can usually get these at the dollar store.

And for clean clothes and things, I always designate which drawer belongs to whom from the beginning so there is a place for wallets to be tucked away at night. I do the same with electrical outlets...need a place for the phone chargers, the camera chargers, etc...plug in the chargers and that is where they stay for the trip.

I did all these things on the trips with just my nieces and it all worked well, but for the upcoming trip, I'm more worried about my SISTER!

When I took the girls, I told them at the beginning..."this is your drawer"
"shoes go in the closet" .... "dirty clothes go in the pop-up hamper"
all that stuff...and they were really good about it...they knew that's just the way it is with Auntie Lisa...but with my sister there...since SHE doesn't care all that much about stuff being put away and she thinks I'm crazy to bring a hamper....well, you know it rubs off on the kids and since I'm not the mom......

Love the idea of the Tinkerbell gifts! The girls will LOVE that! I think I'm going to tell them Tinkerbell doesn't leave gifts in messy rooms though!

 

[Mom-to-2-Princesses]

I understand your concerns about the hotel room - but try before you leave to decide how important it is to you to have a clean room. If it is very important, than push them and expect flack. If you decide it is more important to enjoy Disney, make a conscious decision not to let it bother you. I know it is hard, but at least you know to expect it and it is not going to surprise you.

If the bickering bothers you - why don't you set up special days for each niece? One day it's you and the oldest niece while Mom and the youngest spend time together; and vice versa. Or maybe each day at the park you can split up for a few hours. I know my husband and I are always playing tag team with the kids because of different preferences (and especially since your neices have a 4 year difference between them)

And hopefully the magic pixie dust in the year will cause everyone to be on best behavior!

 

[disnut1149]

Hi
I'm going with my DD, DGD4 and my three nieces in August. My nieces are 13 (twins) and 11. I got two connecting rooms at Pop and I never even gave it a thought about whether our room would be kept neat. I know how teenagers are. I think we'll be too busy at the parks to really make a mess of the rooms.

 

[flying_babyb]

I think the seprate days idea is great. A little alone time with auntie would be cool. Not to mention it gives each girl some solo mother and daughter time.