planning questions

[mom2ee]

although my family has been to The world numerous times, i am having difficulty with a trip planning isue. i am planning a trip for my parents (ages 71 and 76, but YOUNG) and my sister (39) and her son (4). i will not be attending this trip. i am thinking that a package for them would be better to alleviate some of the hassle..that way i could really have a plan and schedule for them but offer suggestions for alternatives. 4 nights, early December..prob will stay AKL (2 rooms)...MYW with dining or not...this is first trip for sis and son 3rd for my parents, but they usually travel with us (im a commando planner (organized, not nude ) thoughts?

 

[VAN]

My personal opinion is to let your sister (age 39) do the planning. You can make suggestions and help them take advantage of discounts, but other than that I would let them set their agenda. Offer to HELP with the planning, but state that it is her trip, so she is the only one to know the pace/interest/etc that is right for her. Have her read the Unofficial Guide to WDW.

If you plan everything and they don't have a good time or something goes wrong -- it's your fault! If you decide they should go "here" and they hear about something and wished they'd gone "there" -- you're to blame.

If you plan things out and then find out they didn't follow your plan, you will resent them for wasting all your time and not "believing" in you.

It is a no-win situation if YOU do the planning. ASSIST them in the planning, but they should actually do it themselves.

Speaking from experience!

 

[CTillberg]

I would suggest to them to do the Dining package (AAA to help save money, if you can) then help them make preliminary park plans (suggest which park or two might be best on which day and why and make sure they have a schedule to show when EMH, parades and fireworks are) and dinning plans. I think that would help relive the stress of where to go (map out how to get there) and where to eat.

I did this for a family last year and they were very grateful for the help in pre-planning.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

I personally always go the package route...just to save some sanity in the planning stages. If you have AAA, book the package thru them. It's the only way I've seen to get a room discount and get MYW plus dining. Speaking of dining...I don't think that I will go to Disney without it again. We saved all our receipts last year to see what we saved. Over the course of 4 days, we saved $120. (well actually more than that because we got dining free but that's a different story!!!) In fairness, we probably ate more food than we would have normally but still we definately saved cash and it was less $$$ that we had to bring with us.

 

[Rella Bella]

I would recommend the dining plan because even if your folks are young for their ages, they will most likely want to sit down for atleast one good meal a day... and if you will do that anyway, you definitely save money with the dining plan.

Let them choose what parks they want to visit, so you can help them make ADR's, but early Dec isn't very crowded so I wouldn't think you'd need a more detailed plan than that. Oh, and maybe MVMCP tickets!!