unblieveable!

[Poohbear123]

If I head to WDW tomorrow, I would know where to stay/what park to go to with the least crowds/how late they are open/EMH/FP..and what resteraunts will be packed at what time.....I guess I have it ALL memorized from going 4 times a year for 12 SOLID years stright!

 

[badblackpug]

But that's not what this thread, the OP's thread, is about at all. This is about someone who didn't totally seem to realize that she was going to Orlando, not Anaheim.





To me, her actions are the opposite of overbearing.






I'm hoping that by the time we get to Orlando, DH will stop calling the MK "Disneyland". Just as embarrassing as my brother (who went to HS in Miami and did WDW for Grad Night) calling Disneyland Park the Magic Kingdom. Stop it, please hubby and brother; call things by their right names, or make up fun nicknames!






Whew!



ohana, you told the story just right in your OP. You said that you offered, then she said they'd wing it, then you left. I know you offered b/c that's what you wrote!

Glad you were able to help her out! She must have been shocked at admission costs, if she thought that ride tickets weren't included in that!

My point is different people have different styles of doing things and different ideas of what they find enjoyable. Some like it scheduled, some like to fly by the seat of their pants and discover what they discover when they get there. Neither is right or wrong. One style does not, necessarily ensure one will have more fun than the other.

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

i am not a big planner . We have many many trips with maybe a month or as little as 2 week of deciding to go to Disney. They were the best trips . We did not make dinner reservations ahead. But we would also eat at an off time. We still knew about the layout of the parks though. haha. I just still could not plan what to eat in 3 months from now. There is no way we could do that. But to each their own.

 

[GrtWtNorth]

Good luck to your friend!

I remember my first WDW trip in 2001, with another couple. When I showed them touring plans, they backed away like a cat threatened with a bath. So I reduced our plan to three parts per day: Morning, afternoon, and evening. All to prevent the "where do we go next?" dilemma. We made ADRs from our resort in the morning, including California Grill. We used touring plans (with FastPass recommendations) for the mornings, and just winged it in the afternoon and evenings. We also bought an E-night ticket (back in the days before EMH). The only bad part was that I never planned any slow days -- we were exhausted and I caught a 24-hour gastro-intestinal bug. That put a crimp on our plan. But we split up and persevered. It was a great trip.

Later trips with the same couple evolved to include less attraction/park planning, more dining ADRs, more rest / slow days, more clearly defined 'couple' versus 'group' time. Every trip is fun, and we can't wait to go back.

For our next trip, our travel companions suggested "Lets just stay in Epcot. We don't need to see the other parks this time." My wife and I looked at each other and laughed. While we will enjoy the Food and Wine Festival, we're getting park hoppers. DW keeps asking for my plan: "Have you figured out when we ride Expedition Everest? What about Tower of Terror? I can't imagine a WDW trip without Space Mountain." I think we'll be doing a lot of morning EMH without our friends.

 

[SabbyR]

I'm the same way. We never want to interrupt our day to do dining reservations. Just not our style to 'have to be somewhere' on vacation. Remember too, that a lot of people, me included, don't care about a ton of the attractions at some of the parks. Some people don't need the constant entertainment of 'stuff' and can enjoy people watching, scenery and all of the performers out and about. We know we want to do a couple of rides that we don't want to miss. So we'll get fp's for them or just get on them. I don't really care if I ride soarin' or TSM and have 0 interest in the kids rides since I don't have them.....makes it easier to take it slow and 'wing it'.

Now granted, I'm planning the DME, have my hotel category that I want and am checking out what's open for EMH. But if we're at a park and are bored or lines are long we'll just jump to another one. I don't want to ride every ride nor do I want to keep a timetable on vacay. I'll go on what I want when it's available, check stuff out with low lines, soak in the atmosphere, eat when I'm hungry and enjoy the meandering with the most amazing man in the world.

I will say that at IoA we saw a family with an Excel spreadsheet tearing through the park and the kids were crying because they wanted to stay in Suess land. They wouldn't let them stay because they 'had a lot of park to cover', the Dad said. The parents planted behind us with the crying kids at the big log flume and one of the kids was saying he didn't want to ride it - wanted to go back to the other stuff - and the dad told him 'we have to ride everything - don't you want to ride everything?' and the kid said no and kept crying. I felt soooooo bad for him!

Not to defend the parents in any way BUT I know my middle child can get "stuck" on just one thing and if we didnt move her along she would stay there all day not realizing there is more fun stuff to do. Also flame me if you must but crying because your parents have spent a tonne of money to take you to a magical place just seems spoiled. I hope this were small children, then its not so bad, but older kids, like 9- and up they should have just been grateful. I'll get off my soapbox now

 

[luckyprincess]

Not to defend the parents in any way BUT I know my middle child can get "stuck" on just one thing and if we didnt move her along she would stay there all day not realizing there is more fun stuff to do. Also flame me if you must but crying because your parents have spent a tonne of money to take you to a magical place just seems spoiled. I hope this were small children, then its not so bad, but older kids, like 9- and up they should have just been grateful. I'll get off my soapbox now

Hi SabbyR - yeah, he was really little - like 4. Honestly, the Dad seemed rabid about moving along. He was just yelling, yelling, yelling the whole time. I felt bad for them for just being his kid - not just the trip, you know? He just seemed like it was about a schedule and not about the kids. I don't have kids, but I know they can be frustrating but I hate seeing parents be so dismissive of how they feel. He cried the whole time during the ride. When they got off the parents never even asked the kids if it was fun - they just said 'we gotta go over here' and took off. The kid was being DRAGGED through the park, looking at Suess and crying the whole time! Makes me sad just remembering it... I just don't get it - if someone (the kids should be the reason for the trip once you are a parent, no?) isn't having fun anymore than you really need to stop, find out what would make the WHOLE family enjoy the trip, and abandon your plans and do that. IMO