How do you vacation? Immediate family only, or extended & friends?

[Disney MAINEiac]

well since the rest of our family, both sides, thinks we are crazy for going to WDW every year I guess it will always be just the 4 of us. well as long as thats still cool for the boys

oh well the rest of the family will never know what they are missing

 

[JMCDAD]

I much prefer it just us , (wife and kids)
I find it much too complicated when others are involved
Plus my kids are very well behaved outside of the house (inside the house is another story so it stresses me out if we are with family/friends and their kids are acting up or annoying the characters or something.

 

[mousiemom]

Honey, I live and learn every yr. w/my family. My inlaws always go with us and they are a lot of fun! No complaining and they like to go, go , go like we do. Now, last yr., we had the following go with us:
-my inlaws -my 44yr sister and husband
-sil and good friend -my 46 yr sister and her 2 dd(13/17)
-my parents
Everybody pretty much went by our daily itenariary but one day my sisters went off to ride Soarin instead of going to Fantasmic and that was fine but she did say she was lost without me. Hee Hee! My family are so wishy washy where I'm like let's go here. This Jan.(9 days to be exact), it will be my inlaws and sister-in-law and bestfriend(her husband doesn't like Disney like we do so she brings along her bestfriend who is our bestfriend too). So, it will be a very nice 10 day vacation to the World!

 

[mousiemom]

Everybody knows we go to WDW every Jan., well, some of our good friends said, I think we're gonna try to go with ya'll to Disney!!! My dh and I were like NOOOOOOOO! We are like your family, it's just me, dh and our "most well behaved, sweetest, beautiful 6yr dd"! My friends on the other hand, have a 5yr dd that is the devil and is so bothersome to my dd and they have a 2yr ds. Everytime we spoke w/them on the phone, I would never bring up WDW(I'm selfish too), and so they said the other day they were not going!!!! Yeepeeeeeee! My inlaws go with us but we always stay one extra day where it's just us three and it is my favorite day!!!!

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

I much prefer it just us , (wife and kids)
I find it much too complicated when others are involved
Plus my kids are very well behaved outside of the house (inside the house is another story so it stresses me out if we are with family/friends and their kids are acting up or annoying the characters or something.

Yet another reason I should never go with others, I'm the same way, it even stresses me out to see other peoples kids do that and I don't even know them

 

[Whosemom]

runwad, you have my very same kids dd11, dd8 and ds6. Lively mix, isn't it?

LAst summer our dance group danced at disney. we really did very little with the group exceot the day we danced, and you would think they ran our whole vacation. DH says never again will he let someone else control all his time on vacation The rest of us are still laughing at him, because we can't figure out what he's talking about! silly boy.

so i guess that puts us firmly in the "vacation alone" camp.

 

[rbork]

I wish there was an etiquette book just for vacationing with friends and family and a policy of rules signed by every person.!!! lol.
Done it with "one portion" of the family (must stay incognito for this report). It's always fine and we like going on camping trips together...Their kid's are older and we split up and meet later in the day. I also never feel short changed$, if you know what I mean.
On the other hand I dread going with another portion of the family, My kid's are older and they don't get that the older ones want to do other things than the toddlers. I hate waiting around for the others to go any and everywhere. They are on vacation and don't have a schedule - I totally get that. But don't expect me to waste time waiting constantly (and I really mean constantly) when I could be enjoying something with my active /adventuresome kid's and hubby. I also feel that the same people over and over get stuck with the check$ - I don't understand why each family part would not pay his or her own way.
oh boy -this could be a long theraputic thread for me but I'll stop now!
Thanks for letting me vent.
I hope our families don't read this!

 

[Desnik]

The way we have been vacationing is usually WDW 2x's a year, Hershey Park every other year and every year we pick something new for a few days, then DH and I will do 1 alone weekend trip a year. DH likes it to be just us when we vacation. Alot of the times we will take my DSIS14 with us because she is like our kid and we are very close. But that isn't every time. This last trip in Nov we were joined by our friends but really only spent 2 days with them. It worked out great and it was nice to have them to hang with and our DS's are the same age. This coming trip we will meet up with DBIL and DSIL but DH is not too thrilled! He'll be fine just as long as they will do their own thing some of the time. He likes to spend time with just his kids and I, especially at WDW. I don't mind either way. I would never invite people along because I think it's boring just being with DH and our kids. If I invite family along it is so they can enjoy the joy Disney brings us.(this is the only place we have invited people along to) I especially loved the trips we had with my mom and DMIL. The kids loved having grandma along at WDW.

 

[luvdisney77]

We have done both and each way has its benefits. We enjoy going to the beach with friends or family. It makes it really nice that there is always someone else besides siblings for the kids to play with. We have never done the beach ourselves. We usually go with friends of ours who also have 4 kids and whoever else we can convince to come along. Both trips to Disney were also with friends and famliy.

We have gone on vacations just us too - Washington DC, Maine, New York, Florida. These were also great trips - probably more relaxed than the trips with groups. Definately more family time than the other trips which is a big plus.

We will continue to do both. I think a mix is good. If I asked the kids though, I bet they would say the ones with friends and extended family were there favs. I don't think that we don't have any fun with just us - but I think DH and I along with our kids are very outgoing and social and we enjoy a pool full of kids, or cooking big dinners in a beach house, playing games in our vacation home with 12 other people, and just the "craziness" ( for lack of a better word) of it all.

I second everything said here!! We have done both as well, and the up-coming trip will be just our immediate family. The last trip was 18 of us. My brother and SIL and my three nephews, DH and I and our four kids, and our best friends and thier 5 kids. It was really fun to have someone to share the craziness with, and the kids LOVED it! But it is nice to get away with just your crew also.

 

[isla bonita]

We have done both but in the last 2.5 years we have just done groups.

We purchased a rental home outside of Disney and that is were we all go. It is 6/5 so we have plenty of room for everyone.

We all rent our own cars and do not spend every minute with each other. We make some reservations and split up some times with different groups. We have a ball at the end of the night when we are sitting around the pool playing cards all of us adults and the kids are happy to splash away.

We have had some great moments with friends and family. I think that is whats so great about it. Our kids have great memories to last a life time.

 

[tadamom]

Since my son was born 5 years ago, we have really only been on 2 vacations and they were within 2 months of eachother. Both times was with family. We will be doing the same thing this year as well - two vacations both with family.

From my personal experience, I love to go with family. My children are 5 & 2. When we go to Disney World in April we will be going with FIL, MIL, SIL, BIL, Dniece (also 2), SIL and my family of 4. Since we are going with family, if DH and I want to go to eat by ourselves, we have someone to watch our kids.

Also, we live out of state (about 5 hours) from both of our families. We see them all about every 6 weeks but when we do see them it is only for about 2 - 3 days and our time seems rushed. When we all go together on vacation, I feel our time is real quality time and sharing our fun together! Granted, there are times when it gets to be too much but then you just split up and spend some time by yourselves.

 

[runwad]

We have done both but in the last 2.5 years we have just done groups.

We purchased a rental home outside of Disney and that is were we all go. It is 6/5 so we have plenty of room for everyone.

We all rent our own cars and do not spend every minute with each other. We make some reservations and split up some times with different groups. We have a ball at the end of the night when we are sitting around the pool playing cards all of us adults and the kids are happy to splash away.

We have had some great moments with friends and family. I think that is whats so great about it. Our kids have great memories to last a life time.

See now if I could do this with my family just rent a big house and only be together at night then maybe, MAYBE, I could do it...but we wouldn't just be together at night because none of them would plan anything they'd just follow us around like lost puppies and that would get on my nerves real fast!! But I really honestly truly think it would be a great memory to go to DW with the family for the kids, I don't know maybe someday.....I think we gotta start small like a night at Great Wolf Lodge together or something like that.

 

[houseofmouse]

It can be Fun or a Nightmare either way.... I love doing both, however it works best when everyone agrees to go with the flow and let the chips fall where they may...."control freaks" or "my way or the higway" types do not do well on "family and friend vacations" I know my DH has had to learn this the hardway. He got left at home on a few trips to Disneyland because of this.... Now he gets it and has a good time, as long as we get some immediate family(DH, Myself and DD) alone time to regroup he does great.....

We decided that cruises are the best "the whole gang" vacations because you have that "together all the time feeling"(in a good way) while doing your own thing.... Just don't get rooms that share a wall....

 

[thebrain]

We love to vacation to WDW with others. My DH and I went alone on our honeymoon, which was awesome, but there was so much that we wanted to share with others. It's just not the same unless they are there. I have been with family and friends (approximately 250 friends when I was in high school) and I think it's more fun. We are going with some friends and their DS3 who is our DS3's best friend, and our DD1. We are also bringing my DN19 as another adult and babysitter. She is planning on staying at the hotel with the 3 kids for a few nights while all of us DParents get away from the chaos. Our friends wanted to go with us because of my WDW knowledge and planning ability. We vacation with them all of the time, but this is there first WDW trip as adults and the first for all of us with our own kids. Wish us luck. We'll be there in 90 days so I will let you know how it went in about 100.