Oh! You're going to be in Florida? Let's get together.

[Networth]

As Benjamin Franklin so eloquently said house guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. Being the relative that lives in FL we get the opposite request.

"Hey, uncle/cousin/brother-in-law John we were planning to come to FL for a trip this year care if we stay with you guys?"

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

Well DW has about 50 relatives in FL and wants to see everyone of them when we go... DD and I just want to go to the parks with the exception of a couple relatives we see on the way out of FL. Last year our whole spring break got hijacked... not this year. It's a father/daughter trip for spring break with no relatives yeah... lol. Now we will just have to have the same fight when we go back to New England this summer... yeah family.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My husband has friends in Florida - I barely know these people. One is 2 hours away from Orlando and the other lives in Orlando.

Every trip he wants to see them even though he always sees them at various model kit conventions throughout each year.

I now tell him to go and have fun most of the time - the kids and I will see him when he gets back.
We only do 4 day trips most of the time to Disney when we go together so no way am I taking time away to see his friends.

 

[MacDalt]

Yikes! Noooo. My kids all attend(ed) an in-state, state school. (Boiler up!)

And I may, possibly, have somewhat exaggerated a little bit in an effort to distract people from their Fast Pass + angst.

Haha! I live 30 minutes south of Purdue!!

 

[leebee]

My husband has friends in Florida - I barely know these people. One is 2 hours away from Orlando and the other lives in Orlando. Every trip he wants to see them even though he always sees them at various model kit conventions throughout each year.

This is my husband, too. The minute we nailed down dates for our trip in October (4 days to celebrate DD's 21st birthday at F&W, over a busy weekend because that's when both she and DH have college break), the first thing DH said was, "Good, I'll call Old College Buddy and make plans for a day." I looked at DH like he had two heads! We've been planning this special trip for three years, and he wants to take a day off to go hang at OCB's and talk about how, ahem, "drunk" they used to get in college in the late 1970s? I don't think so! Fortunately, we won't have a car and OCB lives at the beach (still kinda in the "College Buddy" lifestyle at age 67…) and won't spring for a ticket to WDW (don't blame him there, it's expensive).

Actually, we just added a day to our trip. Maybe I'll suggest DH rent a car for a day and go see OCB. DD & I will go see the Food and Wine Festival… again

 

[RnbwSktles]

I hear ya! I am planning a short trip out to DLR to run the half marathon there, and I have an aunt that lives in LA. My dad says I have to visit her, but there's no time!! Not to mention I don't know her that well and I think it will be really awkward.

 

[MeanestMomEver]

Haha! I live 30 minutes south of Purdue!!

Well then, Hi neighbor! I live in Lafayette.

 

[JRawkSteady]

There should be a name for this.

You're spending the equivalent of your child's Freshman year tuition on a Disney vacation and every person you know, kinda know or might be related to in the entire (very large) state thinks you should stop by, hang out or get together.

Well sure, why would I want to ride Soarin' when I could sit on your sticky, plastic covered sofa and listen to your clock tick while you slowly make delicious bologna sandwiches and tell me about your neighbor's dentist's daughter-in-law's food processor incident?

Even attempts to downplay or even fail to mention the trip don't seem to help. Someone blabs.

And if you have older kids and they have friends going to Disney on their spring break as well... Yeah, they think they should hang out while there.

100% Agree Agree Agree Agree!!!! Everytime I go down there, I have to deal with this. Not only that, but 9 times out of 10, someone I know from New York is ALWAYS down there whenever we go on vacation, and we always get the "Hey! We're gonna be in Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, let's meet up!" No! No! No! and No!

 

[disney1990]

LOL. I totally agree. I try to avoid all trips to relatives while on vacation, unless that is the stated purpose for the vacation.

This. Sometimes we will get together for a lunch or dinner, but they have to come to Disney and join us. Every single vacation I went on as a child was to visit relatives and I hated it.

 

[dixiegirl]

For me, it's more like:

"Hey family, I'll be at Disney again this Summer. It's the only time I plan on coming to Florida this year. Here's the dates I'll be down there.....

If you want to COME TO DISNEY to see us, let us know and we'll expect to meet you in the parks. IF NOT, well maybe you can catch up to us when we come down there for vacation another year.
Now, I WILL go visit relatives in Florida before or after a Disney vacation if I can tack on the days and they room and board us. But I'm not going to cut a single second out of my trip for them. Great if they want to come along and try to keep up with us.

For example, this summer, I'm going to Disney from June 6-the 14th. I have a cousin and his family coming over from Tampa to meet us for one day in the parks and then AFTER our trip, we'll go spend a couple of days in Tampa with them. The Tampa days were added after the fact and are only because they'll provide room for us. We might hit Busch Garden, Ybor City, or some Gulf Coast beaches, but this isn't to take a penny or second away from the initial trip I booked.

This is exactly how we handle it too. I will not adjust my vacation for you but you are more than welcome to join us if you would like.

 

[eliz603]

We live about 25 min away fro my SIL, and she and her family will be in Ocala at the same time we're at WDW to visit her other SIL. She threw out there that maybe we could meet up. Love them, but hey, they live 25 minutes from us! I'm not giving up park time to see them (love them, but I can see them any time!), and if they want to come to the park, they have to keep up with me. I'm really hoping they don't want to tag along one day.

While my SIL is in FL, she's also going to Tampa to visit a cousin. DH wants me to keep our WDW trip off of FB because he doesn't want this cousin to be insulted if we don't visit. We will see her in a few months at a family reunion trip anyway.

After almost 20 years with this man, I'm still not used to being part of a family so spread out! I grew up within 15 minutes of both sets of grandparents. No one seems to want to leave our area. But even I tried to move away, and my DH ended up with a job 15 minutes from my parents house.

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

You SERIOUSLY spent that much on tuition?!

Amazing range of costs for schools aren't there. Even a state school here in California will run about 20k/year unless your kid is living at home while going-mine isn't!. We looked at 4 private schools and they ranged from $35-45k/year when you throw in dorms/food/books on top of tuition.

 

[jkramer]

Haha! I live 30 minutes south of Purdue!!

I'm an 08 grad!

Boiler Up!

 

[Raidra]

Some of my family (grandmother, uncle, cousins) lives near West Palm Beach and we feel obligated to go over and visit her when we're down there. Well, we also want to, so there's that. We have four kids and it's extraordinarily expensive to travel with them, so we're only willing to spend that much money if it's to Disney or something. The only times we've been to FL for just visiting family since having kids have been for funerals (two, and we drove both times).

Thankfully, it hasn't worked out too bad - we go for two weeks to make the airfare 'worth it' and don't do parks on the weekends. It's not a big deal to drive over there for a day. However, this year I let my family know when we'd be there and mentioned that since we're giving them plenty of notice, they might want to consider joining us for that weekend. I was thinking we'd just hang out at the resort or possibly DTD with my grandmother, but my aunt said, "Oh, Little Cousins would love to go to a park with you guys!" Um.. yeah.. I don't think that's going to work. Uh-oh.

 

[kerplop]

It doesn't even have to be family! My mother has a friend she met via a Facebook group and she was down visiting her own family when we went for our first trip. So of course, it became "we should meet up!" only the lady got the day wrong and it was a two hour drive, which she then wanted us to make on our only down day from our 7 day trip. It became a big drama and never again! It caused so much trouble and I was so stressed by the end I skipped an ADR and ended up crying in our hotel room. My vacation is about my family because we don't get much time together like that. Forget other people!

 

[missnic]

It also sucks to be on the other side. I live in FL and have APs, but that doesn't mean that I can go meet every relative or friend who happens to be going to wdw. I do have to work.. and really don't want to hangout with you on vacation. If I wanted to vacation with you, I'd have planned it that way.

 

[mamaprincess]

When I saw the title of this thread I knew I could relate. This has happened to us so often that we have taken to sneaking in and even out right lieing to keep our Florida relations from Hijacking our Disney vacations. They don't care that you are on vacation and that you have spent tons of money they think you should spend your vacation with them and then whatever scraps of time you have left maybe spend a couple hours at MK. We have had meltdowns and nearly destroyed relationships over this. We never let anyone know we are going to be at Disney anymore.

 

[Alice Royal]

You SERIOUSLY spent that much on tuition?!

Lol, no. $30K of that was paid for in merit scholarships and such. There was no way in heck I'd pay full price for my school...

 

[MeanestMomEver]

We've even had relatives tattle on us to my in-laws, who live 6 hours south of WDW, after seeing my kids' post Facebook photos upon our return. That was awkward.

And it was a driving trip! Think about driving 16 hours to get there, spending 5 days on property then 16 hours to drive back. We really don't want to add another 12 hours in the car!

It's like me saying, "What, you were in Iowa and you didn't even drive over to Indiana to see us?"

For you FL residents, I feel for you too. You are not the official state free B and B for WDW travelers who have an oddball day to spare or desire a place to stay for free on their way. I'm thinking some northern FL residents get a lot of that.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Can be solved with 7 words. "Sorry, but this is a family trip." (meaning: JUST OUR FAMILY.)

And then don't tell them where you will be.