NEVER AGAIN! A holiday family vacation report...

[MadiMouse]

I'm so sorry that you could not enjoy WS!! It's funny how sometimes families will not go and tour on their own, but no two groups tour the same. At least my family is that way.

I hope your day was better!

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Oh yes you are reminding me why I know it is a bad idea to travel with groups. No one can do anything at the same time and everyone is waiting on everyone else. Ugh! I feel for you. Is it just me or did your touring plans go out the window the second you had to wait at Sorin'. ? Hopefully the night will be better.

 

[michellem1118]

I'm so sorry that you could not enjoy WS!! It's funny how sometimes families will not go and tour on their own, but no two groups tour the same. At least my family is that way.

I hope your day was better!

Yep, exactly. We thought we'd made it clear from the very beginning that we wouldn't be spending every waking moment together, but apparently a lot of people missed that memo!

Oh yes you are reminding me why I know it is a bad idea to travel with groups. No one can do anything at the same time and everyone is waiting on everyone else. Ugh! I feel for you. Is it just me or did your touring plans go out the window the second you had to wait at Sorin'. ? Hopefully the night will be better.

Our touring plans actually still worked out pretty well, even with the wait... we'll definitely follow the TGM suggestions again when we go back in March (sans family, of course!). Our night was ... oh wait, that's coming in the next update!

 

[goodferry]

I feel your pain about WS, it always seems like I want to spend a WHOLE lot more time there then anyone else we travel with, makes me understand why people take solo trips, lol..

Our first onsite trip was with friends and it was a total disaster. They had two young girls (7 and 5) and we had 3 (8, 5, and 1). They were smokers (spent half their trip looking for somewhere to smoke), did not watch their girls (would wander off and leave them so I spent the entire trip watching five kids), were HUGE shoppers (we are more about the experience then the stuff), and did not eat (between watching their kids and mine I ended up missing our one meal of the day one time and ended up passing out the next day from heat exhaustion and not eating)
On subsequent trips we have been VERY selective about who we will travel with and have a very stringent interview process

 

[MHTeacher]

I was tweeting, and while I was trailing behind the group, I tweeted “Not sure if I will travel with others again. Rushing through WS. :-(“

When we got back to SSR, and were safely in our room, I tweeted “Back at the resort for an afternoon break...from the family!”

At least you could "tweet" it out of your system!

 

[michellem1118]

I feel your pain about WS, it always seems like I want to spend a WHOLE lot more time there then anyone else we travel with, makes me understand why people take solo trips, lol..

Our first onsite trip was with friends and it was a total disaster. They had two young girls (7 and 5) and we had 3 (8, 5, and 1). They were smokers (spent half their trip looking for somewhere to smoke), did not watch their girls (would wander off and leave them so I spent the entire trip watching five kids), were HUGE shoppers (we are more about the experience then the stuff), and did not eat (between watching their kids and mine I ended up missing our one meal of the day one time and ended up passing out the next day from heat exhaustion and not eating)
On subsequent trips we have been VERY selective about who we will travel with and have a very stringent interview process

Solo trips definitely sound more appealing now!

Wow, I'm sorry about your trip with friends. That sounds like my worst nightmare! Do you have any "interview questions" to share?

At least you could "tweet" it out of your system!

Twitter was definitely a lifesaver. DH certainly didn't want to listen to my complaining, and I couldn't complain to anyone else!

 

[dd50]

Sorry that you didn't get to enjoy WS. You should have just took your time and told them that you would catch up. That is what I do now because I was always the one giving up things I wanted to do. My girls actually like WS and we are going to spend about 1 1/2 days there this summer. Can't wait.

 

[carstinsmom]

can't wait to hear more, so sorry your trip hasn't gone as expected so far. our last trip there were 13 of us and it was our best trip ever, guess you never know how your group will be until sometimes it is too late.

 

[goodferry]

Interview Questions:
1. DO YOU SMOKE
This is a deal breaker for us now, smoking at Disney is just too stressful.

2. Can you be up in time to be at the parks for opening?
We are not night owls, no matter how late we are up, my little ones tend to get tired early.

3. Will you agree to sit down meals? How do you feel about the dining plan?
Although we don't need three gourmet meals a day, surviving on coke and cigarettes all day and having pizza by the pool at 11 does NOT work for us.

4. Can you follow a schedule on vacation?
Although we are not commandos, we do follow an itinerary and we do use Tour Guide Mike. We don't like waiting in lines, TGM helps us avoid them so we are definitely disciples.


So far we have had two very successful group vacations. First with my bff and her family (her DH and her two daughters who were bffs with my two girls). I knew going into that vacation that they had been to Disney before, that they toured like we did and that she was hyper vigilant about taking care of her own kids, to the point that I had to force her to let me take all the girls back to the hotel and swim while she and her husband went to the Candlelight Processional, she didn't want to put me out. That's the kind of person I want to travel with.

We enjoyed fun meals together and everyone got along fine. We were so in sync with each other that we would never have to arrange a meeting place in the morning at the parks, we always would just be at the same place, it was weird.

The second successful trip was with my parents. It was their first trip to Disney. They live 8 hours from us and don't get to see their grandkids much because my 94 year old grandfather lives with them and his care takes up most of their time. They were just so happy to see the kids, and so impressed with Disney that they went with the flow and had a blast. My mom even rode Space Mountain because my boys wanted her to. They eventually bought into DVC!

My sister keeps wanting us to go with them, and I really hesitate. They have my one nephew, who is 6, and I love him with all my heart. He is an only child and the light of their life. He is perfect in every way, everything he does is precious and wonderful and when Ian says jump, they jump.

Their version of Disney touring is "Do what Ian wants". On their first trip they missed RNR, TOT, Expedition Everest, all three mountains and Soarin because Ian really only wanted to ride Buzz Lightyear over and over and over. I am worried that it would be a nightmare because we have four kids, my kids have known from the beginning that in a large family you have to respect other peoples wishes and that our vacations are a give and take, everybody gets to do what they want but not one person runs the show.

I am not sure I would be so patient with following Ian around. So, I have avoided the trip with them so far, but they may come down for 3 days in June when we are there. Luckily we have our itinerary and our ADRs, if they want to tag along, great.

 

[Zookeeperof4]

Boy maybe this time we should leave daddy home. we agree with the non-smoker Touring. We wasted "stopping to take it all in" time looking for the cigarette areas...hopefully next trip he will be smoke free as we complained to much...so far its almost a week smoke free! Thank god as I finally can breathe again..I am the non smoker and I suffered more then he did !!

 

[jakeybake]

The cast:
Me (Michelle) - I'm a 31-year-old Disney lover and high school social studies teacher. This was, I think, my 8th trip to WDW, unless I've lost count (which is a distinct possibility! )

Good thing you're DH is the math teacher!!

Jay

 

[KathyRN137]

I think that it must be especially hard when you are traveling with parents/in-laws because "you" are the child in the group!!

Wonder where you went for dinner?


kathy

 

[michellem1118]

Sorry that you didn't get to enjoy WS. You should have just took your time and told them that you would catch up. That is what I do now because I was always the one giving up things I wanted to do. My girls actually like WS and we are going to spend about 1 1/2 days there this summer. Can't wait.

*IF* there's ever a next time, I will do this! I was more worried about making sure my mom & my MIL, who didn't know each other well and had only met on 2 previous occasions, were getting along...

can't wait to hear more, so sorry your trip hasn't gone as expected so far. our last trip there were 13 of us and it was our best trip ever, guess you never know how your group will be until sometimes it is too late.

It's all about the group, I'm sure... our group just didn't mesh as well as we'd hoped...

Interview Questions:
1. DO YOU SMOKE
This is a deal breaker for us now, smoking at Disney is just too stressful.

2. Can you be up in time to be at the parks for opening?
We are not night owls, no matter how late we are up, my little ones tend to get tired early.

3. Will you agree to sit down meals? How do you feel about the dining plan?
Although we don't need three gourmet meals a day, surviving on coke and cigarettes all day and having pizza by the pool at 11 does NOT work for us.

4. Can you follow a schedule on vacation?
Although we are not commandos, we do follow an itinerary and we do use Tour Guide Mike. We don't like waiting in lines, TGM helps us avoid them so we are definitely disciples.

Thanks for the interview questions - I'm going to file those away for future reference. I don't blame you for not really wanting to take the trip with your sister... I know people who are like that with their kids, and I'd never travel anywhere with them!

Boy maybe this time we should leave daddy home. we agree with the non-smoker Touring. We wasted "stopping to take it all in" time looking for the cigarette areas...hopefully next trip he will be smoke free as we complained to much...so far its almost a week smoke free! Thank god as I finally can breathe again..I am the non smoker and I suffered more then he did !!

Good luck on the no smoking! Has he tried Chantix? Both of my parents used Chantix to quit smoking, and it worked really well!

The cast:
Me (Michelle) - I'm a 31-year-old Disney lover and high school social studies teacher. This was, I think, my 8th trip to WDW, unless I've lost count (which is a distinct possibility! )

Good thing you're DH is the math teacher!!

Jay

Yep... there are definitely reasons why I teach history and not math!

I think that it must be especially hard when you are traveling with parents/in-laws because "you" are the child in the group!!

Wonder where you went for dinner?


kathy

Exactly, at 31 I was the kid again! Although it wasn't my parents who were the problem...

I'm going to try to get the rest of day 1 up tonight, as long as the storms don't knock out our internet.

 

[OhMari]

I noticed the cute guy is still not playing in "Off Kilter"
Here is a picture of him playing the bag pipes.

Here is your picture.

Someone said last Spring he had knee replacement surgery. You would think he would be back, especially since it was the holidays.




Did I mention, "you so deserve a do-over."

 

[michellem1118]

Did I mention, "you so deserve a do-over."

We're getting our do-over in March!

 

[goodferry]

Oh yeah!

 

[michellem1118]

Day 2, evening (I apologize, there are no pictures from tonight... I opted not to take the camera out with me)

After we’d been back at the resort for about an hour, my dad called our room and asked if we were starting to get hungry. DH then called MIL from his cell phone, and we decided we’d meet up and head over to DTD for dinner. AK had EMH this evening, and DH & I were kind of hoping to make it over there after dinner, without the family. We met in front of our building around 5:45pm, and debated taking the boat or a bus. BIL decided not to join us this evening, he said he wasn’t feeling well. It was getting very chilly, so we opted for the bus, and headed out.

With my mom in the ECV, we had to let the bus driver know which DTD stop we were getting off at, and after a brief discussion, we decided we’d get off at the Pleasure Island/West Side stop. Of course, in between the two stops, my dad decided Earl of Sandwich sounded good for dinner, so I was really dreading the walk back to the marketplace.

As we walked through Pleasure Island, dad & MIL noticed the sign for Paridiso 37, and stopped to check out a menu. This REALLY surprised me, because my dad is not a very adventurous eater… and then I noticed they had hamburgers on the menu. DH went inside to see what the wait time would be for our group of 5, and was told 30-45 minutes. No one was starving yet, so we decided to wait, but it was getting so cold. We were just not prepared for temps in the upper 30s/low 40s in Florida, and only MIL had an appropriate coat (and only because she’d flown in from NYC where the weather was similar when she left).

My dad decided he needed to get a heavier hoodie or something to wear, so we went into the surf shop right across from Paridiso 37, Curl. Dad found a really nice, fake-wool lined black hoodie for less than $50, and decided to get it. When he got to the register, the cashier noticed that his KTTW card said “DVC member” on it (everyone’s card did, since we used our points for all of the ressies), and gave him the DVC discount. It took about 20 minutes for him to find the hoodie and pay, and as we were walking out of the store, our buzzer went off for dinner.

We were seated in the upper level, next to the windows looking out at Pleasure Island. If it hadn’t been so dark, it would have been the perfect place for people-watching as we ate. Our waiter was good, but did get really irritated and a bit rude when we asked him to split the check so we were each paying for our own food. The food was also good, but a bit pricey! My dad’s hamburger, for example, was $13. My mom had the queso and some other appetizer as a meal, and I had the tacos (which were tiny but tasty). I can’t remember what DH or MIL ordered.

We finished dinner around 8:00, and decided to walk down to the Marketplace bus stop. MIL & mom wanted to go into WoD, but it was PACKED, so we told them we’d come back. We did go into some of the other stores, though. MIL found some things she wanted in the kitchen store, and we waited for her to check out. During the holidays, all of the shops were giving AP discounts, and MIL called me over and asked for my AP so she could get the discount. When I told her I’d left it in the room, *she* acted put out, and decided not to buy anything.

By this point, we were all getting cranky and cold, so we headed to the bus. If memory serves, we were on a bus quickly, and back at the hotel shortly after that. Based on my Twitter feed, it appears that it was nearly 10pm when we got back to the room, so it was really too late to head out for AK EMH. Plus, we had another 7:00am bus stop appointment in the morning!

Where would we go next? Would my trip improve? And just how COLD would it be in Florida???

 

[MadiMouse]

I'm so sorry that it was that cold in Florida. Lol. I went to undergrad in Florida so I'm aware that it can get like that every now and then. lol.

Why was your MIL put out b/c you didn't have your card? Lol. If she really wanted that stuff she would have bought it. She was having a tantrum. Lol.

 

[michellem1118]

Why was your MIL put out b/c you didn't have your card? Lol. If she really wanted that stuff she would have bought it. She was having a tantrum. Lol.

She's a bit... um... frugal and wanted to save 20%. I think she ended up buying much of it later, when we did have our APs with us, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

[tinkerbell48]

I can relate to your TR. That is exactly why DH and I just go ourselves. I get to be the park orgainizer and DH just follows along. It works for us!