Sharing vacation with another family?

[nicknack]

Has anyone done this? Did it ruin your friendship? We are a military family and can stay at the Shades of Green resort. We can also sponsor up to three rooms for family or friends. All we have to do is check in at the same time. We've said they aren't obligated to visit the parks with us or anything.

They are just nice people that have helped us out in the past (moving) and they have three kids so are on a budget. We have kids too, just not the same ages.

As luck has it we are planning vacations for the same month and can get our dates to sync up. I just don't want us to end up not being friendly afterwards so am looking at potential pitfalls to avoid.

 

[_queenie_]

We've gone on lots of trips with friends and family. The key is to not spend every waking moment with them, we've never had any issues with it "ruining our relationship", it's just for your own sanity (with extended family especially ). It's good to give everyone a bit of family time, what we usually do is plan some days together, some seperately, and then go out to eat together at night.

Good luck, travelling with a group can be a handful but it's a lot of fun!

 

[Aliceacc]

I think there are 2 different kinds of shared vacations (and, no, that's not the lead in to a joke.)

Type 1: Families that are close friends go away together. We've done this-- shared a cabin in the Poconos, and had close cabins by the lake in upstate NY.Both times it was with the same couple. Did we get on each other's nerves occasionally? Sure. But we were close friends and the friendship rolled right along just fine after both trips.

Type 2: actually the kind we're taking this summer. When I got my PIN code, I was told I could book up to 3 rooms. I tried my sister, but she can only go in July, not August. So I called a friend, who was able to get the same dates as us (Then, as luck would have it, she had a PIN of her own and didn't need mine.)

As it turns out, we'll be on the same flight down, but different return flights. We have agreed to meet for dinner twice: once at the Coral Reef and once at Le Cellier. I suspect that we'll stay together both evenings afterwards and "do" EPCOT as a group.

And we've done a lot of pre-trip planning together. Lori found misters on sale at BJs and got enough for my family and my sister's too. All 3 families have compared notes on ADRs, room requests at each of our 3 resorts, fanny packs, trading pins, and a zillion other things.

But, make no mistake: this is NOT a Grand Gathering. We're on our vacation and they're on theirs, and each family will have it's own plans.

As long as everyone goes into it with the same expectations, I'm sure we (and you and your friend) will be just fine. Plan a dinner at your house before you get any ADRs, and maybe plan a dinner or a character meal or something together. Exchange cell phone numbers in case of some sort of a crisis.

I'm sure your friends will be thrilled to stay at SOG. If anything, this should strengthen your frienship.

 

[nicknack]

Well my main thing is that I don't want them to feel obligated to spend time with us if they don't want to. I think it could be fun if we did things together. By the time of the trip, my two older kids would be old enough to be responsible for the younger ones (theirs and mine) in the resort while the adults went to Pleasure Island or even to dinner. But that's if they want to do that.

Another issue is that we have been to Disney World lots of times while they haven't been yet. So we have things we like to do and things we've decided we can skip and they want to see and do everything.

Sometimes I have to bite my tongue. I have definite opinions on things like where to eat or what park is best to visit when...but I don't want to impose my feelings on them.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

For Disney, I think the best way to share a vacation is to plan a couple meals together and maybe plan to be in the same park on the same day for a day or two. Other than that, have your own plans. If it turns out you both have plans to spend a certain afternoon by the pool, that's great. If not, there isn't pressure for one family to conform to the plans of the other.

The biggest issue I've heard with sharing a vacation at Disney is that the two families may have completely different touring styles. Also, since your kids aren't the same ages, chances are there will be issues with the kids wanting to do different things and ride different rides.

I'm sharing a vacation in September with another single parent friend of mine. We'd been talking about doing the trip together, but when I got a 40% off code, it just seemed to all fall into place. We have a few meals planned together. There are 3 or 4 days out of 7 that we will be in the same parks. Our plan is to do some touring together on those days so we can help each other out. We can do the parent swap on rides where 2 of the 3 kids will too small. This way the older child and us parents can get to some of the bigger rides which we otherwise wouldn't be able to do. But much of the time we will be touring separately. This way we won't be getting on each others' nerves too much. Since we work together, we have to make sure we come back from the trip not hating each other.

 

[Darcy03231]

My sister and her family joined me for vacation last summer and it worked out fine. While we ended up staying together most of the time, we did split up. Also, I tended to get up and go to the parks early and she and BIL would meet up with us later as they aren't early morning people. Worked out fine for us.

 

[d1gitman]

Has anyone done this?

We have done a few trips with mothers, mother-in-laws and friends. They have all worked out very well, all things considered. Last year a long time friend of mine that i grew up with took his wife, 2 kids (4&6), and bro-in law. they went on the same flights as us, same resort. The difference was that we did not have adjacent rooms and we only had 3 days out of 10 where we planned on being in the same park together. It worked out well and it was fun to bump into them on other occassions. Had we kept identical itineraries, it probably would have worn thin. Also, we had mother & mother-in-law with us as well. They each had seperate rooms and we had our own (me, DW, DS6, DS2). While the mom's stayed with us at the parks, there were some times when they went back to the room early to rest. We also bought them tickets to Cirque du Soleil and sent them on their own way to Downtown Disney for an afternoon and evening. All in all it worked well for us.

I think the key is to not do everything together with friends for family who are on the same trip. You will likely feel smothered and that you don't have the freedom to see and do things on your terms. That can make for a stressfull vaca, kind of defeating the purpose...

Those same friends are going again this year, same time frame, same resort. They too appreciated the freedom that both of our families had last year by NOT doing everything together.

Good luck.

 

[RN2003AZ]

We did this last year for free dining. My DH and I have been multiple times and a friend I work with asked for some advice about planning a first time trip for her family. It snowballed into the 2 families going together, staying in a 2bd BCV and having a great time. We split up in the parks, my DH, her DH and her DS16 would go ride the big stuff or venture off somewhere and her and I and her DS2 and my DS1 (@ the time) would go do the stuff the little kids would like. We had our meals together (easier for ADRs that way) and never had a problem. Her family was greatful to have someone plan their trip to make the most out of it since they were first-timers. And yes, we still work together, our kids still play together and we would probably do it again.

 

[tinkercrazy]

We went last year with bil and family, and for me....wasn't great.They had no intrest in planning Adr's, then wanted to gripe later. The kids all had a great time but let's face it,their youngest was less than tame. They did'nt have the right state of mind to go with US to disney.Oh, and they didn't want to split up until I made dh lay the law. this year we have a trip planned with bf and other's,14 in all, All of our ADR's are together and everyoine was in on the planning...We are all excited,excited!!!There is lots of communication between everyone and no misunderstandings about what we all expect out of our trip.They're is such a large gap in ages we will have to seperate and do different things.I have no doubt we will have a better trip this time we all have a great DISNEYTUDE!!

 

[mom2aredhead]

Wow - you guys are good people. I feel a little bad 'cause I really don't like sharing my vacations with anyone.
I did it a few times before my son was born (couples sharing a shore house for 2 weeks, a short trip to the Bahamas) and honestly, I really didn't like having to be accountable to somebody else on vacation. I know it sounds selfish, but for a few weeks a year, I love being able to do what we want, when we want, come in late, sleep late or wake early, make/change plans last minute and not have to check with anyone to do it.
There are times when I think I would like for my Mom to come to WDW with us, because she's pretty laid back (like me) and would just kind of roll with us. But my Dad is completely inflexible, hates crowds, hates heat, and although I love him, I really think he would be a downer. And I honestly can't think of another family that we're friends with that I would want to spend the week with them and their kids and have to worry about schedules and things.

 

[abolanwoski]

Has anyone done this? Did it ruin your friendship? We are a military family and can stay at the Shades of Green resort. We can also sponsor up to three rooms for family or friends. All we have to do is check in at the same time. We've said they aren't obligated to visit the parks with us or anything.

They are just nice people that have helped us out in the past (moving) and they have three kids so are on a budget. We have kids too, just not the same ages.

As luck has it we are planning vacations for the same month and can get our dates to sync up. I just don't want us to end up not being friendly afterwards so am looking at potential pitfalls to avoid.

We go to SOG every other year with my BFF and her family (4 kids and her DH) It is probably the only way they could afford to stay onsite. We do as others have said - plan a few things together and then some stuff apart. We always go back for a mid-day break, they never do. We usually do a sit down meal, they don't. It seems to work that we go to the parks together in the AM and then part ways around noon, then regroup in the evening after dinner.

You might want to have them check out this board and Deb's site and then do a casual planning meeting to see if there are ADRs etc that you want to do together. As long as you're both on the same page, it can be great fun.

You don't have to check in at SOG at the same time, but you do have to be present for their check-in. So they can come later than you if you're not on the same flight.

 

[ilovediznee2]

It should work out well, as long as you don't spend every moment with them. I've gone with both family and friends, and when you spend the whole time together, you tend to get on each other's nerves.
Try to spend a couple of days in the same parks, just not "together." And maybe have a few dinners together. This way, you can compare park stories from the day!

 

[pixiedust247]

I am leaving in 13.5 days for a trip with my family (DH, DD-14, DS-9) and we are meeting up (connecting rooms at the YC) with my SIL, BIL, DN-2...we have been planning non stop. We have a detailed schedule and we have set expectations or understandings. We travelled with them in the past but this is the first time with DN...so we have stated that we weill be splitting up more than we did in the past! If you set ground rules before you go you should be fine!

Have a great time!