Have you ever gone on a Disney trip with friends?

[fla4fun]

What is the friend like when you spend time with her otherwise? Only asking because some people complain even when they are having a good time, so I wondered if it was just her normal personality, perhaps magnified a little bit, or if her behavior was totally out of character.

I have no problem splitting up a travel group if some want to do something and others don’t. When my sister, BIL, and I went to DC, I got tuckered out halfway through the museums on the Mall, so they went on, and I got a ride back to the hotel for a rest. We all got to do what we wanted and everyone was happy.

 

[disney-inspired]

And you came back and no longer wanted to be friends with that person....I went on a trip with one of my girl friends last year, and it completely changed how I look at her. I never want to go on a trip with her again, it was so terrible. She complained the whole time, and made me miss a bunch of things because she didn't want to go and got mad when I said I would go alone. It's been a couple of months, and I'm still not feeling very good about even being her friend.

If you really want to test your friendships, go on a Disney trip.

I have done it twice - both times something went wrong for one person and there was a bit of complaining.
Thankfully we are good enough friends that they would just peace out back to the hotel or we each would do our own thing. That being said, I don't think I'll do it again simply b/c it does create a negative vibe and I don't want/need that on my vacation. We've done several day or couple of days trips at DL and never have an issue since we're all local and it's nowhere near as strenuous as WDW.

Planning for another trip in 2024 but this time with my sister and her family - we always have a great time.

 

[ajollyholidaywithjo]

I have done it twice - both times something went wrong for one person and there was a bit of complaining.
Thankfully we are good enough friends that they would just peace out back to the hotel or we each would do our own thing. That being said, I don't think I'll do it again simply b/c it does create a negative vibe and I don't want/need that on my vacation. We've done several day or couple of days trips at DL and never have an issue since we're all local and it's nowhere near as strenuous as WDW.

Planning for another trip in 2024 but this time with my sister and her family - we always have a great time.

I will say, I kind of knew that she would be complaining going into it. BUT I thought I would be able to get away when needed when I was getting overwhelmed by it. That was the biggest issue, that I couldn't escape it.

 

[disney-inspired]

Grand Plan, July 1988, the month the Grand Floridian opened. The Grand Plan was an All You Can Disney thing: all park admissions, activities, boating, golfing, etc., meals, and airport limo transfers. Gift of the Day every day. It was expensive for 22 year-olds, but we crammed 5 into the room: 2 queen beds, day bed. Had a blast, and did EVERYTHING!

We're still the best of friends. But we're all Disney nuts, and I wouldn't do this with just anyone.

Oh man, to be 22 again! When I was 20, I went to NYC with my roommate and a bunch of her friends - we shoved 10 or 11 bodies into 1 hostel room b/c we were all broke. We did buy tickets to see How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying but we waited nearly all day to get standing room only tickets for the Book of Mormon. I don't know how I did it but it was quite an experience!

She mentioned to me she wants to go again, and I don't think I can go through that whole debacle again.

There are people who I have and will room with but won't tour with in the parks. Maybe it could work out to go and split the cost of the hotel and then do your own thing and meet up every once in awhile.

Or not and just avoid it altogether.

 

[BrianL]

I don't really have issues with park touring. If I want to go off on my own, I will. On my first trip with a friend who is a bit of a picky eater, I sort of jsut went with what he wanted - mostly plain brugers, etc. On my second trip with him, I jsut said, I'm gonna go get soemthing at Satu'Li and I'll meet you at Pizzafari after. That worked out fine!

I get more sick of people when sharing a hotel room. We do it to reduce costs, but live alone and I get pretty edgy when I am literally never alone for several days. I wish I could jsut share my room with my cat!

EDIT: The end of that story was when I got to Pizzafari, he had eaten half of his round, pizza disc, and I asked if it was good. "Not really." was his reply. My Cheeseburger Pods on the other hand were delicious!

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I’ve done non-Disney trips with friends and they were all fine. One trip was international with a group of coworkers/friends and there were some moments of strain, but we all still came away as friends at the end.

The one “trip” that did not go well was an out-of-town friend who came to visit me last spring in my home city. (It was her family’s spring break vacation.) The friendship has been a bit rocky for quite some time and by the end of her visit I was more than ready for her to go. She’s become such a negative, angry person over the years and the trip convinced me that what’s left of our relationship either needs to be kept at an extreme arms length or dissolved altogether. She asked to spend spring break here again this year and I said no.

I’ve never attempted a Disney trip with friends because Disney is complicated and stressful enough under the best circumstances, so I’m not keen on the idea of including more people than absolutely necessary. That will probably always be a trip for immediate family only. I would maybe consider including the two grandparents. Maybe.

 

[5kidsmommy]

We've considered going with our friends group, all married adults, but we haven't yet because schedules are a pain to sync up. When I was young I did regular day trips to Disneyland with friends but nothing over night. My preferred Disney partner is my husband.

 

[Heatherhy01]

She mentioned to me she wants to go again, and I don't think I can go through that whole debacle again.

I wouldn't. Have you talked about it at all? If she wants to go again, it seems like she had a good time?

 

[tvguy]

Me a cousin of mine, her husband and 4 kids at Disneyland in 2001 right after California Adventure opened.
They were a little more "freestyle" that our family was. They basically had unlimited vacation time, we had just a week. We had booked 5 nights in the hotel, and had 5 days of park passes. They asked two days in if we wanted to go to Mexico for a few days then come back to Disneyland. Well, we didn't have hotel rooms for those days or park passes, and we had to be back at work.
And the real issue was, they came have way across the U.S. with NO cash, and a debit card that had a $100 a day spending limit. How do you feed 2 adults and 4 kids in Disneyland for $100 a day?

 

[tzolkin]

And you came back and no longer wanted to be friends with that person....

Do parents count? lol

The only people we have done any traveling with are my parents and my mother-in-law. With both, we definitely need to take a little break from talking to them for a while afterwards. My mother-in-law is the worst because you feel guilty leaving her alone, but she has absolutely no concept of compromise or doing things that others want to do. (She has never been married/in a relationship and DH is an only child, so she is used to 60+ years of doing whatever she wants whenever she wants without anyone else's input.)

BUT I thought I would be able to get away when needed when I was getting overwhelmed by it. That was the biggest issue, that I couldn't escape it.

This is why my spouse and I don't really have any intention of vacationing with anyone else except our adult kids (and even for that it has to be a certain kind of trip). We are all introverts and need breaks from other people a good bit. We like to have fun/get loud/joke around, but we will spend a few hours of quality time together before everyone needs to retreat. Even when our kids were little, our house was completely silent with everyone in their own little corner 90% of the time. Vacations, especially at places like Disney where there are lots of people, can be overstimulating so we really need that time to go for a walk alone, read a book, sit on the balcony, etc, but sometimes other people may be annoyed or feel insulted that we want some "alone" time.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

made me miss a bunch of things because she didn't want to go

That's one of those times that you stick with the pre-arranged "hey we can split off if we want to" decisions because you can't control the other person's reaction and it's quite possible that after a few solo activities they opt to either come back and y'all compromise or they leave and just do their own thing.

I get the pressure to maintain the "I'm with my friend" thing but at the same time no sense in missing out on things that are really important to you, you'll end up likely resenting (as it seems you do). Now if they were things you were just like "well if there's time for it" activities then maybe that's different although ideally both of you would be doing things here and there for the other person (within reason).

I knew that we have different styles.

This is one where you have to and I mean this with such conviction have to understand how each of you approach things. I know with my in-laws some trips that work out better than others because even though we have similar vacation styles sometimes there are things that make it more difficult.

Our group of DISer friends my husband and I have had one with us for DLR in 2019 (he sorta opted to go to DLR in an overlapping way to us being there), we all got to experience multiple days together in WDW in 2022 along with minus a few of them Silver Dollar City in 2022. We had been planning a Dollywood trip for this fall/winter but honestly I think most of us will end up being busy with other trips so planning may not work out there. Point being though we can do park trips together well. They know I won't be riding super thrilling rides but I have no issue chilling and waiting for them to go on them and in turn they've ridden some lower thrill rides I'm sure they probably wouldn't have done if I wasn't there. Including this one from Silver Dollar City which we had a blast on even though as adults it was not quite meant for us (that's all 6 of us that with to SDC):



___________________________________________
If it were me I would probably hold off on doing another theme or amusement park vacation with your friend for a while. The fact that it's stuck around for several months afterwards suggests to me that even if a do-over trip occurred there would still probably be enough strife to put a damper on it even if other things went better.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

There are people I love very much but I will never travel with them. It's hard to find a travel companion that gels with you.

 

[_19disnA]

Have been to Disney with other relatives and things worked out fine. I think before you go on ANY vacation with friends/relatives you need to have a discussion about what you like to do and how you want to spend your time to avoid hard feelings while on vacation. Do you have preferences for which parks to visit, like to sleep in, stay up late, eat QS vs TS, get up early to race off to the park when it first opens??? All of those things matter.

Have seen several posts on here where LARGE groups plan to go to Disney and I can see that not working out well for any number of reasons. It would be a HUGE mistake to not have any advance discussions, show up the first day at your first park and then suddenly realize you all want to go off in different directions. Even if just you and one other person, you should talk BEFORE agreeing to go together on vacation to see if your styles are compatible.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Not friends, but my inlaws. My FIL complained about EVERYTHING and barely wanted to go to the parks, he just wanted to hang out at the resort.

The crazy thing was after we got home, he told me he had a great time and they would love to go with us again sometime. They have NOT been invited back.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

It wasn't Disney but yes. I went on vacation with a friend who was WAY more well off than i was in my early 20s. Before we went on this trip I would say we were really close. I was working a full time job and on a really strict budget so I made sure I knew the prices for everything she had planned before we left because we were going to split it. Halfway through, without telling me, she decided to book us at several more expensive places and book tours that I could not afford. My jaw dropped when she told me and i think I burst into tears because I was like "I CANNOT afford this like I flat out cannot pay you, I have $30 in my bank account until my next paycheck and if I pay for this I cannot pay rent." She quickly offered to pay for it, but it put a lot of tension between us, as did when I ended up twisting my knee the day before we had a hike planned so she ditched me to do it herself while I sat at the hotel.

When we got back she was like "Let's go somewhere else next week!" and I was like "I have no money and I have to make sure I can get that time off from my job."

She was utterly and COMPLETELY perplexed at why I couldn't just go off on vacation whenever I wanted and who cares if I lose my job? I ended up telling her off in probably a not very nice way about how if I had rich parents who were just paying for me to go to grad school instead of living in the real world I'd be happy to go, but I didn't. So I couldn't.

She never spoke to me again.

 

[disney-inspired]

It wasn't Disney but yes. I went on vacation with a friend who was WAY more well off than i was in my early 20s. Before we went on this trip I would say we were really close. I was working a full time job and on a really strict budget so I made sure I knew the prices for everything she had planned before we left because we were going to split it. Halfway through, without telling me, she decided to book us at several more expensive places and book tours that I could not afford. My jaw dropped when she told me and i think I burst into tears because I was like "I CANNOT afford this like I flat out cannot pay you, I have $30 in my bank account until my next paycheck and if I pay for this I cannot pay rent." She quickly offered to pay for it, but it put a lot of tension between us, as did when I ended up twisting my knee the day before we had a hike planned so she ditched me to do it herself while I sat at the hotel.

When we got back she was like "Let's go somewhere else next week!" and I was like "I have no money and I have to make sure I can get that time off from my job."

She was utterly and COMPLETELY perplexed at why I couldn't just go off on vacation whenever I wanted and who cares if I lose my job? I ended up telling her off in probably a not very nice way about how if I had rich parents who were just paying for me to go to grad school instead of living in the real world I'd be happy to go, but I didn't. So I couldn't.

She never spoke to me again.

Oof - I totally get where you're coming from and it's just jaw dropping how people don't realize their privilege when they're smack in the middle of it.

 

[antmaril]

My friend and I took a Disney trip several years ago. She hadn’t been to WDW since her honeymoon, 40 years ago. We stayed at the Beach Club and were given a free upgrade to Club Level, which was wonderful. We had a great time. She let me take the lead because I had lots of experience at WDW and it was big fun.

OP - Sorry you had a not so great trip.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

Oof - I totally get where you're coming from and it's just jaw dropping how people don't realize their privilege when they're smack in the middle of it.

I still vividly remember her absolutely not understanding why I couldn't just tell my work I was going to take two weeks off whenever I felt like it. Like the idea of having to request time off and make sure i was working around other people's schedules just never clicked. She was utterly baffled and just thought I was being difficult!

 

[fly girl]

We met up with my BIL and our nephew at WDW. Stayed at different resorts, but would meet at parks in the morning and spent most days together. Sometimes we had dinner, other times we went our separate ways. It worked out well because no one was super set in their ways.

Traveling with anyone outside of your immediate family is tricky. It can bring out the best and worst parts of our personalities. I have learned if I am traveling with a friend for the first time to book a weekend trip so if it doesn't go well it isn't too long.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Also I’m going to comment again about friends:

A couple of times now I’ve met friends on the college programs. Minus when they are at work, given we are all nerds and prepped for anything really (theatre kids turned adults lol) we never have really had an issue waiting or changing a schedule when we could hang out.

Granted staying on property together we’ve never done but I think if your friends are similar to you OR at least have one common interest (for example you all want to eat at Satuli Canteen) it could be easier to handle