Here's a strategy for you: just say no to family who invites themselves

[disneyandme]

Any updates?

 

[MOmousefan]

I had just the opposite experience (but not family related). I planned my September solo trip and then found out one of my favorite former students was getting married the first day of my trip. I have known him and his wife since they are the same age as my kids.
I asked them where they were honeymooning and you guessed it....WDW1
They said "We can meet up and do things together!" Now the last thing I wanted to do on my honeymoon was meet up with a former teacher, they are so great we agreed to meet at some point. Finally, my last day we met at DHS for the evening. He had never been to WDW and I must say I had a great time. We rode all of the attractions and when we all got home we still talk about the day.
My adult kids still ask me to take them even though they are married. I stress to them that we need alone time (at least I do) and we have a great time.

 

[disneyandme]

Still hoping for a trip report.

 

[jason4024]

We went to the World in September to celebrate our kids birthdays. When we were planning in April of last year, my MIL and her sister decided to tag along. While I cant get angry, because my wife and I tagged along when they went to Hawaii a few years ago, I was secretly dreading the whole trip. We wanted to do something special for our kids and worked hard to do so. My MIL is very repetitive and doesn't stop talking EVER! Her sister, is not so bad, but could get the same way, occasionally.

We went ahead with all the planning with them, took care of all reservations, itineraries, I mean we planned EVERYTHING. They did fly down a day later than us, which did us some time on our first day and part of the second day, without them and they also flew home earlier on the last day, which gave us some more time alone.

It turned out to be an amazing trip. They had an absolute blast being there with our kids. Our kids had a blast being there with Grammy. My wife and I had some time to do the bigger rides, while having two built in babysitters. They never had a problem sitting with the kids. The kids would bicker of who was riding with who, and most rides ended up with my wife and I riding together, because they wanted to ride with Grammy and Auntie.

We are planning to go in December this year, and my parents have been asked to tag along, just becuase, we know the kids will enjoy the trip, that much more...

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

We went to the World in September to celebrate our kids birthdays. When we were planning in April of last year, my MIL and her sister decided to tag along. While I cant get angry, because my wife and I tagged along when they went to Hawaii a few years ago, I was secretly dreading the whole trip. We wanted to do something special for our kids and worked hard to do so. My MIL is very repetitive and doesn't stop talking EVER! Her sister, is not so bad, but could get the same way, occasionally.

We went ahead with all the planning with them, took care of all reservations, itineraries, I mean we planned EVERYTHING. They did fly down a day later than us, which did us some time on our first day and part of the second day, without them and they also flew home earlier on the last day, which gave us some more time alone.

It turned out to be an amazing trip. They had an absolute blast being there with our kids. Our kids had a blast being there with Grammy. My wife and I had some time to do the bigger rides, while having two built in babysitters. They never had a problem sitting with the kids. The kids would bicker of who was riding with who, and most rides ended up with my wife and I riding together, because they wanted to ride with Grammy and Auntie.

We are planning to go in December this year, and my parents have been asked to tag along, just becuase, we know the kids will enjoy the trip, that much more...

Great story.

 

[linnell]

I'm totally guilty of tagging along with my sister's family! But here is my reasoning, this was in 2005. Our parents were taking us on a cruise that departed from Port Canaveral. My DH and I didn't have kids yet and my niece and nephew were 6 and 3 at the time. My Sis told me that they were planning on flying down 2 days early and going to Disney. I was like "Do you mind if I come?" she said of course not, but added that her in-laws, who live in Florida for the winter would be joining them in the parks as well.

Well when we got there, it took us 45 minutes just to get down Main St because we had to stop for every character, pin trading etc. My DH and I were like "lets get a move on" so I looked at my sister and she said "Go... I would if I could" and we left them behind and met up at the Crystal Palace for lunch. So really, we invited ourselves and then ditched them once we got there.

 

[fireman1]

I've had the opposite thing happen. I've practically begged my mom and step dad to go with us the last 3 years to Disney with no luck.
My mom would, but she won't leave my step dad at home. He says ''there is no love lost between him and mickey'', lol.

 

[disneyandme]

IS it time to give up on a trip report?

 

[grace&philipsmom]

Our only problem is that the kids get so excited they tell anyone who'll listen. My MIL decided to tag along at the last minute last year.

 

[Luvamouse]

When DH and I turned 40 just 1 month apart, we passed on our original plan of a trip to Hawaii alone and decided to take the kids to WDW for DH and our 2 DD's first time. (They'll only be kids for so long... ) Since it was Thanksgiving time, my beloved cousin-- who does WDW 2-3x year with her family of 5 suggested she and her 3 girls "might come" for the long weekend of Fri-Sun. since the girls couldn't miss school. I could handle that. By the time Christmas arrived we invited my mom and dad along as their Christmas gift from us (our girls are the only grandchildren). When we finally got to Disney, it was the 4 of us, my parents, my cousin's family of 5 and her parents. Plus my aunt and her boyfriend met us there. All at the Poly. All in the same building. 3 rooms on 1 floor and 1 below.

As much as we tried to do the "we'll do our thing, you do yours and some we'll do together", my uncle (mom's little bro.) and his daughter -- the afore mentioned cousin-- have a habit of belittling anyone who "can't handle the pace". Hmmm, given that my mom is diabetic and must stop for breaks and to check her blood sugar, and my dad was lined up for a double knee replacement, you'd think we could've done the "approved" go your own way. And because my cousin insisted it's better to separate sometimes and take a break. Nope. Oh, and everyone arrived on Monday and they all stayed through Saturday. Except us. We had 5 more blissful days with just the four of us.

Thanksgiving day was a long, awful rainy day which we spent on the go from 7 a.m. until wet and bedraggled, we showed up for the Hoop- Dee Doo review for Thanksgiving dinner at 5 p.m. We meant to hang at the Poly for the day... (Do I dare mention I footed the nearly $900 bill? and that my cousin-in-law who is a successful Dr. never once even asked who paid?? To thank someone anonymously even??) Sadly, the next morning my mom fell getting out of the shower and spent the entire day in Celebration Hospital with a 3 inch scalp laceration and a concussion. She remembers nothing from the morning of the fall to approximately 2 months after she got home. Do I suspect her exhaustion contributed to the fall? You bet I do. Do we realize it could have been much worse consequences? Yep. Dr. even said so. Took the shine off our once in a lifetime vacation too.

My family of 4 returned again last April. Just us. It was amazing. We'll be going back next February to celebrate DD's 16th b-day, but unfortunately my cousins kids don't have the same vacation... My parents I could deal with. But I now understand people wanting to just travel with their immediate family. Oh do I... We had a hectic dinner out last night with 15 people ( all good friends of ours) and to think I did almost a week in WDW with 15??? Insanity.

God bless you all, we can all understand your attempts at making it work, and your agony when it doesn't!!

 

[kaetra]

I was so happy to find this thread today! We learned the hard way, never tell your relatives you are going if you really want a nucleus family only trip.

We just got back 2 weeks ago from our very first trip ever to WDW, but I want to book another trip right away and I am justifying it to my husband as a do-over trip.

My in-laws decided at the last minute to join us in WDW and my FIL was a huge pain in the rear. DH, DD and I had an on-property package complete with DDP and ADRs made months in advance. My in-laws used hotwire to book a cheap hotel. Of course they kept wanting us to leave the park to eat at *shivers* Sizzler. And as soon as we got off the plane they said we should go to Busch and Universal instead of WDW because they had already seen everything WDW has to offer because of all the trips they'd made to Disneyland!

I could go on and on about all the horribleness and how they nearly ruined our first ever WDW trip, but I can see by the length of this thread that any more details aren't necessary However, here is an amusing and true top ten list:

Top 10 most irritating quotes from my FIL/MIL at WDW:
10. "Yeah, most of the rides here are really boring like that." - after leaving Peter Pan (which is totally awesome IMHO)
9. "But you can see the puppeteers" - while refusing to applaud at the end of Finding Nemo
8. "I'll just stand in line for all of us and in about a half hour you guys just come through the ropes to me" - In the line for a character greeting. I declined.
7. "Hey, you can't do that, you're cutting in line. No, I'm not moving for you! Can you beleive these people?!" - to and about people who were doing exactly what they wanted to do in the previous line.
6. "Oh, you want to stay for the fireworks? What, you never saw fireworks before?!" - while waiting for Wishes
5. "How much do you make an hour?" - to our waiter at Les Chefs.
4. "Bush Gardens would have been so much cheaper" x20
3. At the gate - "I forgot my ticket at the hotel. We'll have to go back, you guys come and we'll stop at WalMart on the way back and pick up some Disney t-shirts there, lots cheaper." - no we didn't go with them
2. "The food here is just terrible and it's so expensive, let's go eat at Sizzler"
1. "You paid how much for this trip?! Holy man did you get ripped off!"


*sigh* The dream vacation, encroached upon by pain-in-the-rear in-laws!

Of course we had lots of fun anyway, but I feel like the trip was tainted and I want a do-over with just me, my hubby and my 7 year old! It's only fair!

I MISS DISNEY WORLD! I WANT A DO-OVER!

 

[tiggspring]

Seriously. When you plan your trip, keep it to yourself. I know, you are excited, you have your Disney nights, your countdown calendars, you are busy making all kinds of custom surprises from the kind people over on the Creative DISign board...I'm telling ya...DO NOT TELL YOUR FAMILY YOU ARE GOING!!!!!

We are live at BCV, on our family's vacation that we saved for for over 2 years. Yes we are DVC and yes, we saved for years. We have never vacationed with just ourselves. They tag along every time. Every single time. And this trip is the last straw. They are not in our room, but they are just down the hall.

They are arguing with each other, the SIL is a lunatic screamer of a mom (seriously, if you saw the huge commotion today at MK, that was me and my family slinking away pretending not to know her.) and the whole thing is just stressful. So far our best moments have been alone, like we planned it in the beginning.

How do we get in this position? Because they are nosey and we are not liars. Congratulations dear family, I think we have just learned how to lie. No, we are not going to Disney 3 more times in 2010, nope, not us, no siree bob.

I'm so sorry! I know what you mean about family. Ours does not tag along since they live out of state but, they make me feel guilty or try to ruin in some way every good things that happens. Finally, after 15yrs got back to Disney last May and I called and left messages on their machines instead of calling and hearing that tone in their voice that says you shouldnt do that. It was the best thing I ever did. We said we would not be anwering our phones that DH had planned a last minute (planned 6 months in advance) Birthday trip for me. Didnt talk to family for nearly a week after trip. It was wonderful. So wonderful that this year we were able to get 40% off and we are doing it AGIAN! Nice short machine messages is the only way to go!

 

[tiggspring]

We went to the World in September to celebrate our kids birthdays. When we were planning in April of last year, my MIL and her sister decided to tag along. While I cant get angry, because my wife and I tagged along when they went to Hawaii a few years ago, I was secretly dreading the whole trip. We wanted to do something special for our kids and worked hard to do so. My MIL is very repetitive and doesn't stop talking EVER! Her sister, is not so bad, but could get the same way, occasionally.

We went ahead with all the planning with them, took care of all reservations, itineraries, I mean we planned EVERYTHING. They did fly down a day later than us, which did us some time on our first day and part of the second day, without them and they also flew home earlier on the last day, which gave us some more time alone.

It turned out to be an amazing trip. They had an absolute blast being there with our kids. Our kids had a blast being there with Grammy. My wife and I had some time to do the bigger rides, while having two built in babysitters. They never had a problem sitting with the kids. The kids would bicker of who was riding with who, and most rides ended up with my wife and I riding together, because they wanted to ride with Grammy and Auntie.

We are planning to go in December this year, and my parents have been asked to tag along, just becuase, we know the kids will enjoy the trip, that much more...

Lucky you. Enjoy!!!!!

 

[tiggspring]

I completely agree with you!! And also don't tell friends your dates if they express interest in going too. Out of the last three trips we've made two of them have been with family or friends and my favorite trip was the shorter one that didn't have anyone tagging along with us.

Last year my friend did this to me. She had gone in Sept and we booked in May. Next thing I know she booked in May the week before into our week. Thought maybe we could get together and she could watch the kids while we went to Dinner. That way we could cancel our Neverland ressie. Her daughter is a bit timid and they do very different things than my family. We love going places with them when they visit but WDW is soooo expensive that you dont want to have a bad time or worry about anyone else. I have FMS so I just said that our plans were so specific I didnt know how we would fit it in since we have three kids all wanting to do different things and at the time we didnt know if we would ever get the chance to go again at 40%off. She took it well but it really freeked me out that she asked me what week we were going and a week later she was there part of the time. I think she ment well but we hadnt taken a family vacation in Years and it was our kids first Disney trip. It made for a very stressful week as I decided how to tell her that meeting up was a no go.

 

[Plannin'Shannon]

I was so happy to find this thread today! We learned the hard way, never tell your relatives you are going if you really want a nucleus family only trip.

We just got back 2 weeks ago from our very first trip ever to WDW, but I want to book another trip right away and I am justifying it to my husband as a do-over trip.

My in-laws decided at the last minute to join us in WDW and my FIL was a huge pain in the rear. DH, DD and I had an on-property package complete with DDP and ADRs made months in advance. My in-laws used hotwire to book a cheap hotel. Of course they kept wanting us to leave the park to eat at *shivers* Sizzler. And as soon as we got off the plane they said we should go to Busch and Universal instead of WDW because they had already seen everything WDW has to offer because of all the trips they'd made to Disneyland!

I could go on and on about all the horribleness and how they nearly ruined our first ever WDW trip, but I can see by the length of this thread that any more details aren't necessary However, here is an amusing and true top ten list:

Top 10 most irritating quotes from my FIL/MIL at WDW:
10. "Yeah, most of the rides here are really boring like that." - after leaving Peter Pan (which is totally awesome IMHO)
9. "But you can see the puppeteers" - while refusing to applaud at the end of Finding Nemo
8. "I'll just stand in line for all of us and in about a half hour you guys just come through the ropes to me" - In the line for a character greeting. I declined.
7. "Hey, you can't do that, you're cutting in line. No, I'm not moving for you! Can you beleive these people?!" - to and about people who were doing exactly what they wanted to do in the previous line.
6. "Oh, you want to stay for the fireworks? What, you never saw fireworks before?!" - while waiting for Wishes
5. "How much do you make an hour?" - to our waiter at Les Chefs.
4. "Bush Gardens would have been so much cheaper" x20
3. At the gate - "I forgot my ticket at the hotel. We'll have to go back, you guys come and we'll stop at WalMart on the way back and pick up some Disney t-shirts there, lots cheaper." - no we didn't go with them
2. "The food here is just terrible and it's so expensive, let's go eat at Sizzler"
1. "You paid how much for this trip?! Holy man did you get ripped off!"


*sigh* The dream vacation, encroached upon by pain-in-the-rear in-laws!

Of course we had lots of fun anyway, but I feel like the trip was tainted and I want a do-over with just me, my hubby and my 7 year old! It's only fair!

I MISS DISNEY WORLD! I WANT A DO-OVER!

I'm sorry, this is hysterical. I've read this entire post to my boyfriend and we are both rolling .

You deserve a do-over!!

 

[chrisn]

Top 10 most irritating quotes from my FIL/MIL at WDW:
10. "Yeah, most of the rides here are really boring like that." - after leaving Peter Pan (which is totally awesome IMHO)
9. "But you can see the puppeteers" - while refusing to applaud at the end of Finding Nemo
8. "I'll just stand in line for all of us and in about a half hour you guys just come through the ropes to me" - In the line for a character greeting. I declined.
7. "Hey, you can't do that, you're cutting in line. No, I'm not moving for you! Can you beleive these people?!" - to and about people who were doing exactly what they wanted to do in the previous line.
6. "Oh, you want to stay for the fireworks? What, you never saw fireworks before?!" - while waiting for Wishes
5. "How much do you make an hour?" - to our waiter at Les Chefs.
4. "Bush Gardens would have been so much cheaper" x20
3. At the gate - "I forgot my ticket at the hotel. We'll have to go back, you guys come and we'll stop at WalMart on the way back and pick up some Disney t-shirts there, lots cheaper." - no we didn't go with them
2. "The food here is just terrible and it's so expensive, let's go eat at Sizzler"
1. "You paid how much for this trip?! Holy man did you get ripped off!"

*sigh* The dream vacation, encroached upon by pain-in-the-rear in-laws!

I MISS DISNEY WORLD! I WANT A DO-OVER!

I love this thread! I get the biggest kick out of it. Why? Because I have been there, done that! I posted a few of my experiences before. I do not like traveling with anyone but myself, DH, DD and DS. We have done it many times in the past, both alone and with others. I know better. But sometimes, even though I know better, it happens anyway.

I do have to say that we will be going in two weeks for 10 days. It is just us AND my DD's BF of 4 years. The reason I am allowing this is because I know dang good and well that even if he thinks about complaining, or is tired, irritated, has had enough, ect...he will keep his piehole shut! Since we are paying his way, and he strives to keep up the lovability factor, he will be ready on time, have a smile on his face, and keep up with the pace. I feel pretty good about it. Wish me luck!!! Will let you know how it goes...

 

[Atchley]

MIL and SIL, BIL and nephew are coming this trip. Keeping fingers crossed.
DH has already told them we get up early and go commando style for the first 2-3 hours then we kick back and do what we want. Keeping fingers crossed.

 

[Disney_momto2]

we are also trying to keep this year's trip quiet. We love our family and have done two trips now with my SIL and her family, but we really just want a private family vacation this year and I hope we don't upset anyone when the cat is out of the bag.

 

[tinkerfan1]

Listening to you folks makes me so nervous. I want so badly to take other people and share the magic. We went on a big trip when our kids were little and it went well but we all went our separate directions except for a few scheduled meals and the last day which we spent with my parents. However, we have an upcoming trip where we are bringing extended family. I can't imagine it will be a nightmare like some of these sound. I sure hope not! We just want to help the others enjoy the magic that we have so enjoyed over the past several years. We don't have SILs and BILs and neices and nephews going so maybe this will be just fine.... In fact, I'm sure it will. We'll get to watch grandchildren have the time of their lives...

 

[tiredsigh]

Either of our families going with us to WDW


Over my dead body I would immediately cancel. Not worth the headache since we love our way of doing Disney.


Whew! Let me wipe away the tears from laughing so hard at the mere thought