Planning for two familes....Advice

[MistyLou123]

DH, DD12 and DD9 are planning a trip next year towards the end of August. We are most likely going to be going with another family. They consist of my friend her DH and DD5. We have been before just us, but this was in 2015. Does anyone have any tips where to even begin? We seem to be hitting snags with picking a resort lol let alone park time. I'm thinking a lot the lines of meeting at the park at particular times or certain rides we would all like to do together or dining together. I'm thinking it might be a cluster if we try and do everything as a group. Just looking for some tips please.

 

[icesk8abc]

I’ve traveled with just my family, with my parents, and with friends. With disparate interests and age ranges, I would highly recommend choosing a park together when possible. Then meet for a FP+, lunch, and maybe a show. Then go your separate ways again until dinner or a late night show. If you happen to decided to hang out more than that, great, but that gives you a good amount of time together without being a burden on each other’s plans. Small amounts of togetherness also creates excitement for seeing each other and talking about your morning. With only 2-4 things planned together no one gets their feelings hurt when it’s time to split up.

One exception would be if they are willing to just follow you around. When we went with my sister, her husband, and their kids they really had no opinions about what they wanted other than my niece wanted to meet Tinkerbell. They just did whatever we did and were happy not to plan anything. My parents were kind of the same way, although they went off on their own here and there.

This last trip we overlapped with my best friend. We did some days/times together and some apart. Her son is only 2 months younger than my oldest though so we were both pretty focused on the preschool experiences. We are headed back later this year and have the same intentions. We will hang together when it works. Plan some meals, rides, and shows to do together for sure. Then we’ll plan the rest on our own. We have the complication of my husbands parents joining us.

One last thing is that the bigger your group, the more time everything takes. More people to browse the shops, take potty breaks, or want to stop to see/do something along the way. That’s not necessarily bad, but you want to plan more buffer than usual into your day.

 

[tjmw2727]

We have done quite a few trips "with" and "at the same time as" various friends and family. With friends and most family we just each plan our own vacation and try to coordinate for a meal, parade or sometimes a water park if its to get the kids together. A family vacation IMHO is expensive and everyone should be making their own plans

A few years ago we did try to do more of a together vacation with one family and it really didn't work out. Nobody was honest enough at the planning and some just didn't know enough about this type of trip to be able to plan. There was so much disappointment and trying to re-plan on the spot it definitely took away from the trip. Some folks felt they didn't get to do what they wanted, others felt responsible for someone else's disappointment etc. I heard a lot of - oh that resort looks fun why couldn't we stay there, I don't want to ride xxx can't I go on xx instead.....

I do travel often with my sister in law niece and nephew and we do stay together and tour the parks together for the most part, we are comfortable giving our opinions though so it works out well. We do still separate at times for pool breaks and sometimes different combinations of people go to different parks and meet up later.

 

[MistyLou123]

We have done quite a few trips "with" and "at the same time as" various friends and family. With friends and most family we just each plan our own vacation and try to coordinate for a meal, parade or sometimes a water park if its to get the kids together. A family vacation IMHO is expensive and everyone should be making their own plans

A few years ago we did try to do more of a together vacation with one family and it really didn't work out. Nobody was honest enough at the planning and some just didn't know enough about this type of trip to be able to plan. There was so much disappointment and trying to re-plan on the spot it definitely took away from the trip. Some folks felt they didn't get to do what they wanted, others felt responsible for someone else's disappointment etc. I heard a lot of - oh that resort looks fun why couldn't we stay there, I don't want to ride xxx can't I go on xx instead.....

I do travel often with my sister in law niece and nephew and we do stay together and tour the parks together for the most part, we are comfortable giving our opinions though so it works out well. We do still separate at times for pool breaks and sometimes different combinations of people go to different parks and meet up later.

Yea I think it’ll work better with as much as there is to to just planning meals or meets up for a few rides here and ther. With the age differences I see that being our biggest problem

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I would echo what some PP's already have. I think that each family planning the bulk of their vacation works best in most cases, with planned meet-ups for some meals or events. Which meals/events really depends SO MUCH on your preferences... how early each family likes to start the day, when they like to eat dinner... whether they're interested in fireworks, etc.

ETA: We've decided that we'll only to WDW vacations with people who we know REALLY WELL, and with whom we have a REALLY HONEST relationship. Otherwise it gets sticky... and a vacation should be FUN!!!

 

[DaniMoon]

Yes. I was down with my brother's family last year. My niece was there with her dance team. We were at different resorts and we met up several times. One evening in HS, one afternoon in MK and Epcot, watched my niece dance at Disney Springs, etc. I was worried it wouldn't work, but it turned out great. And the times we were together, they let me take the lead since we had more "experience". We took them to Sanaa, and had a great time. With cell phones, it makes it so much easier, I couldn't imagine trying to coordinate before that, if someone was running late, missed a bus, etc.

 

[michbaron]

Honestly I don’t think I’d ever want to vacation at Disney with anyone besides maybe our parents coming along, we have two kids 5 and 1 and they’re really good with Disney, they’re total troopers, they’ve driven from NY to Orlando, they travel well and are totally go with the flow don’t need a schedule can stay out late head out early and it’s awesome bc with as much planning as we do we love to just go with the flow, we’ve done smaller trips to the beaches and Hersheypark with friends and family and it’s never easy, we are always standing around waiting for everyone else and their kids, we don’t care much on other trips bc we do them often but I would never spend disney money and then be stuck waiting around for anyone else, I would bring my or DH parents though bc they would be there to be with the grand kids mostly

 

[Delilah1310]

we also had a trip with my family, my brothers family and my late-70s parents. we were all over the map age wise, and ride tolerance wise.

Like others have posted, what worked for us was to start our day together, ride something we all could, like Small World or Haunted Mansion and then break up and meet back for dinner. Some days we all started separately and come back together for lunch. One night was a dessert party, one was a character meal ... so we had some Disney magic together. One night we swapped kiddos, too, and my nephew hung out with us instead of his parents.

I was worried that there may be issues, but everyone had a really fun trip - we all still talk about it as being a special one.
Hope it works out for you and your friends! Have fun!