Lessons learned!

[lorax123]

After a decade of travel to the parks, I still learn lots of things...

One: with young kids (ds3, dd6) it's best to get in later. That way can unpack in the room, get situated and ready for fun. Early morning check-ins with extended family and kids is just too overwhelming.

Two: really just rent a car. The buses did a good job. But anytime we park hopped or needed to get to another resort... The busses take FOREVER. Those days, I wish I had a car. Plus, I really missed driving.

Three: don't take extended family! I've said it before... But I keep doing it. MIL is fine. FIL seems to not enjoy anything that isn't clearly mapped out. He started with grumping right away, even before the plane flight. By the time we checked in, my blood pressure was up. With a rammy three year old and him flipping out on the drop of a dime, I had had enough by noon the first day.
Wednesday night I had gotten the news I didn't get the job I spent the last 2.5 months interviewing for and between the disappointment of missing out on that and facing a family dinner, I couldn't do it and told DW I am going for a drink in Epcot. I was not in the mood to deal with him beyotching about the food, not having a personal server with all the answers before a question is asked, the kids... Anyone have days like that? Am I the only one?

Otherwise, it wasn't a bad trip. I just don't think I want to take another kids trip for awhile. It would be nice if we could do an alone trip for a few days. Maybe we can scrounge enough $$$ for a HHN weekend in the fall.

 

[LMO429]

Luckily I have never had frustrating situations when it comes to family members. I have been lucky with that.

I do agree with you about the buses..however we did rent a car one time but still found it somewhat inconvenient. We typically stay at the beach club and the couple of times a trip we needed a car to get somewhere quickly or not deal with crowds we took a cab..in total it comes out to the same amount of money and sometimes less for us. And we dont have the hassle of renting and returning a car. I know its not reasonable for every family to take a cab everywhere they need to but for us it works out just fine. we are from nyc and we are use to taking cabs everywhere to begin with. there never seems to be a wait for cabs because most people on property dont take them

need to get out of the mk after the crazy fireworks walk over to the contemporary and take a cab...amazing trick works like a gem everytime. I also find it more convenient when having to make adrs they drop you off right in from of the resort where our dinners take place and i dont have to leave over an hour to get front place to place

 

[lorax123]

The cab advice really isn't bad. I've taken a few. But never withthe kids in tow. So I'm not sure how we could squeeze four of us into a cab. Plus the whole booster seat thing.

But we did find the path from the contemporary to MK on one of excursions from DTD. I'd say the bus transportation from a home resort to the park works well. Might get overly crowded at times, but not too bad. Our main issue was just trying to park hop and hitting ADRs at Fort Wilderness and trying to get to DTD and back to a park. Those trips tool forever.

The Epcot to MK to Wilderness Lodge to Ft Wilderness (Ferry boats were out of service) took over 90 minutes. Then trying to get back to Pop after the HDD took about 45 minutes. It was a long day of traveling!

 

[darrengs]

I agree traveling with extended family can be frustrating. Our last large extended family trip to WDW was full of moments, mostly caused by my brother, who it appears goes on vacation just to be miserable. My Father used to complain, but my answer to him is, "if oyu are not interested in what we are doing please fell free to go on your own".

Due to my brother, we now try to avoid extended family trips at all costs. In fact this years vacation was a cruise (non-Disney) and it looks like next years will also be a cruise for us as well. This way we don't have to deal with the airlines and their ever increasing add-ons and fees, and my family are not big cruisers.