Would you do Disney with another family?

[NJDad18]

We've gone with another family and it worked out fine b/c the only things that we planned to do together was dinner or character breakfasts. Outside of the meal everybody was on their own. It worked out great because each family got to do what they wanted.

 

[minkydog]

We are going down this year with another family. We are on the same fights so the kids can sit together and maybe watch a movie. .

Now there's a Freudian slip if i ever saw one

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I would do it IF:

1. We got along well with these people in everyday life;
2. We stayed in separate rooms;
3. We went into it expecting alone time with occasional group activities.

I've traveled with a then-dear friend, who turned out to be hell to be with 24/7. She was a night owl, had completely different interests, and was selfish in what she wanted to be doing. She expected us to do everything she wanted, and if we managed to talk her into something we wanted, she pouted and whined the entire time. She also insisted that we must do everything together, so no going off solo to even get a little peace and quiet. Yeah, that trip was fun... Never again.

But I would consider travelling with another family if the parents got along, the kids got along, if the parents got along with the other family's kids, and if the kinds of things we wanted to do matched some of the things they wanted to do. But you HAVE to have your private time, and if the other family doesn't agree with that, I wouldn't travel with them. I think I would also have our itinerary planned (and hopefully they would do the same) and plan the times to be together.

 

[kaybird]

We are surprising my wonderful cousin/BF and her husband with a trip next month! They don't know they are going, the children's home they work for is in on it, and they think they are going to Kansas City for a week end, instead it's 8 days with us at the POP. The free food is too hard to miss (her DH is a BIG guy) and we are all charming so naturally it will go well. This is a we all turn 50 within a couple of years of each other trip, so hope we are still talking afterwards!!!

 

[oxfordcircus]

there's some good advice in this thread already. Here are a couple of other links for similar threads. Seems to be a popular topic!

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1159249&page=2&pp=15
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?p=13487589&posted=1#post13487589

 

[sameyeyam]

Here's what I do when family wants to join our Disney vacation. I email them our itinerary. So it's my plan, not theirs. I tell them if you want to join us on any of these days great, if you have other plans great. If you want to have dinner with us, great, you can call Disney and change the number of people of the ADRs and we'll meet you there.

I find that most of the time each family wants to do their own thing, then we might meet up once a day for a meal or to hang out for a couple of hours.

If I just made a plan for everyone, we would be stuck together all the time. This way it gives everyone the opportunity to spend time with their immediate family and not be stuck together in a big group all the time. But yet they don't have to feel guilty about saying "I only want to eat with you on Thursday night, not the entire week".

Believe it or not, the rest of your family might not want to spend the entire vacation with you!

 

[Aalore]

I wouldn't mind to go with my family. If we were in seperate rooms, and we all had a understanding that we didn't have to do everything together!! It's sometimes hard to satifsy everyone in a big group.

 

[DisneyFreaks]

We have always vacationed as a family even after DS and DD became adults. Now we have a DSIL and DGS in the mix as well. We have always booked our own rooms even after becoming DVC members. Our next trip will include our DSIL's DB, DSIL, and DN. We are a little anxious about this trip because our DSIL's SIL is very picky and is a freak about everything being "perfect". Our vacations have always been so special to our family. I am praying this trip will still be thought of with happy memories.

 

[babynurse1]

Family always wants to go on a WDW trip. I guess it's the magic. We agree to do a few things together like a character breakfast or dinner or the MNSSHP or MVMCP, and perhaps meet for part of another day, but that's it. Its not selfish at all to want to make memories with your own family. Who needs all the drama, most people have enough within their immediate family let alone their extended family!

 

[JeffZ]

Not selfish at all-enjoy Disney your way. Your family should understand.
My wife and I stayed with my sister and her family at their condo off-site many times and had a great time.We went to the parks together/ate together-no problems --but then our brother and his wife joined one year--they brought their arguements in the carry-on baggage-let's just say it puts a damper on what should be a stress-free WDW time.

Well it's always nice to "do your own thing"--no conflicts--where to eat,what park today? etc.---That being said let me tell you about our next trip to WDW-----with 17 of our closest friends...

We will be going to WDW Easter '07. A friend is a DVC member and has been saving points/buying points to accomodate us all . We are all friends from highschool/gradeschool-and along with our families will be spending a week in the world.Five couples with children from ages 13 to 3(our son). There is no way we will be able to drag 20 people around a theme park all day. We will have to go off on our own .Can you imagine--Chef Mickey's--table for 20! So a little(or a lot) of understanding all the way around will be needed.
Wish us luck!

 

[polkadotladybug]

I've thought that this might be fun, but when I really think it out - it would be a nightmare. We have some friends who have been to Disney twice in the past two years - we get along - one of their kids drives me crazy, but that's not that big of a deal. They are very nice people - but they are complainers. Just hearing them talk about their last trip - UGH! I like to be very "YAY DISNEY" when I'm there...KWIM? Looking for Hidden MIckeys, just going at our own pace - relaxing - riding something again if we want, etc. I could see there being a major problem with all of us doing our own thing there.

Now I would consider going on a Disney CRUISE with another family - just because the kids are taken care of half the time = plus it's easier to separate and go off - like the girls go shopping or the guys go the bar, etc The kids in the club, etc. With Disney World - it's much more complicated to just "go shopping or go to the bar for a drink". But again - anyone who's grumbling about the service, the food, the staff, etc - is going to wind up making me freak out - I'll be so annoyed and embarrassed that I just know I'll go crazy!

Have you talked to your husband? My dh would know better (LOL) but I think I would have let him know that I thought having our own family trip was the special thing y'all did together. Not siblings.

 

[grahamsgirl]

Hi, IMHO I completely understand the need to go with just your immediate family, I get on very well with my in-laws and have been on many holidays with them, however before the kids were born we went to Disney with my SIL and her husband and it didn't work out so well for us.

We were sharing an apartment for a start (Huge MIstake) , and my husband and I had been once before to Disney and they hadn't been at all. Whilst we imparted some advice to them before we left, we decided not to spoil their fun of discovering Disney for themselves as we had done previously, deciding on the things they loved and things they weren't so keen on.(2nd Huge Mistake) .

We had suggested that we stick together for the first few days and then we could all do our own thing and meet up and various times, they decided this was not an option and wanted to stay with us the entire time !!!! Obviously they wanted to try different things that we had done in the past (and we were happy to leave this visit, ) so we went on these attractions again for their sakes, only to be told, they wish they hadn't bothered. This continued for a week and a half , my husband and I making all the compromises but missing alot of things we had hoped to do,'because they didn't fancy it'.

This culminated in an almighty bust up which i think was needed to clear the air, and I explained it was"our" holiday too and we were not their personal tour guides. That did the trick from then on we all drove to the park of our choice separated met for lunch and dinner and if our paths crossed in an attraction line that was cool. And we all had a great time.....

My point being sometimes you can overcompensate wen on holiday with family and trying to please everyone all the time is not always possible even tho you'd like it to be.

We have since been on holidays together and we're fine . But at Disney you have so many choices of what to do and where to go there are bound to be differences of opinion.

That's why I like just going with my hubby and the kids !

 

[El Tel]

We tried this on our last trip and sadly it didn't really work.

Having went once prior to this, I thought it would be great to share the magic with some friends. Unfortunately they were on a different wavelength and often didn't want to do the same things. We were effectively tied to them though because they wouldn't drive anywhere without us as driving in the US scared them.

If you are going to do this I would suggest one of the following:
- you really, really know them well - have been on vacation with them before and like similar things (including all things Disney)
OR
- you have a 'loosly connected' trip with them - meet up at certain times to enjoy meals together and share the days events

Hope this helps.

 

[cleo]

It's not selfish, it's YOUR HOLIDAY.

I've traveled with family and sometimes it's fun (in a different sort of way to the way you are 'used to' traveling) and sometimes it's not.

I wouldn't travel with ANYONE unless I was absolutely sure I'm going to be ok with how THEY like to tour. I can't change them, I can only control my own view of the subject, so I'd better be sure I'm the one who is willing to bend. If I think I'm not, I don't agree to traveling with others.

It isn't rude or inconsiderate to say No, and it isn't a popularity contest. It's your vacation. Enjoy it the way YOUR FAMILY wants to enjoy it.

 

[Threeriversdisneyfan]

I think the consenus is that vacationing with a another family is a "self-fullfilling Prophecy". If you think you aregoing to bad time with another family you will, and you are going to have the greatest vacation ever you will. Granted travelling with people is a lot different than visiting over for a few hours, but These are your brothers, sisters close nieghbors etc. If they driven you nuts in the past do you honestly think it going to chage because of WDW.

My DSIL booked the same dates as us, I don't advertise it on the boards due for numerous reasons. One is the odds of her actually going are slim, (another discussion andother board) Secondly, this is our second trip with the kids (her 1st) we want to see different things etc. All you Dis vets understand? I have vacationed with them before. I now know why the airlines don't allow weapons on board. Its not to prevent terrorism, it 's to prevent me from killing my relatives.

My advice is simple people act differently on vacation compared to home so do their kids. If you have your heart set on travelling with someone else try this

Plan mini vacation with them. (People show true color after the second day or so)

Plan an activity that is not in the other family's comfort zone. For example if you know the people are clean freaks go camping (seeing how they react will be good test )

Let their kids stay the night at you house (good cheap alternative to the first two ideas)

 

[Mickey1122]

I wouldn't want it to be anything besides a family vacation. I wouldn't like relatives coming or anything because we have our system at Disneyworld and do it every time.

 

[BlueJeansGirl]

I don't think it is selfish either - you have to evaluate your relationship with the other family. We went one Thanksgiving with 10 of us - Grandma, me & DH, DB & DSIL, and the kids...13, 8, 7, 2 & 2...we had a great time. Me, being the obsessive-compulsive planner that I am, created a plan, then everyone added/subtracted things they liked or did not like...It worked out beautifully because everyone knew what to expect before we arrived. There was no last minute decision making, or discussions or arguements. We had 3 adjoining rooms, the kids all played together...we could put all of the small kids to bed in one room and the adults could hang out in the evenings in a connecting room. We even bought identical umbrellas strollers & these cool plastic things to turn them into one double stroller when the 2 babies were together. We always had someone to sit with the babies while others rode RNR or ToT. We traded out adults nights out & babysitting...it was really wonderful. BUT...I would really re-think the situation if I was unable to go as often as I do.

 

[sticker231]

We are going in October and meeting our friends. We stay offsite at our timeshare and they are staying onsite. We are going Saturday to Saturday while they are only staying Monday to Friday. We plan to meet a little and not make it everyday together.

 

[Kewz1]

We've always gone to WDW with my family. I always swore I would not go with other folks -- read to many horror stories right here on the DIS.

Well this past April/May we wound up going for 8 days with good friends of ours. Now this family is just as into WDW as ours. I'll admit I was concerned that it would be too much together time. I was so afraid we'd all get home and never want to speak to each other again. My fears were completely unfounded. We had the BEST time.

Now we are happily reliving our vaca through scrapbooking together.

One more thing -- we stayed at different resorts so that helped us have a little space. We also agreed ahead of time that there would be times when we would split up for a short while. I'm sure all that helped us to not have any moments of too-much-time-together-crankiness.

Make sure you have some time set aside for yourselves!!

Kristen

 

[Cookie Princess]

Let me just say....NEVER AGAIN, NO BLOODY, STINKING WAY!

We have gone with family and friends and it was a disaster. We like to do our own thing on our schedule. Let's just say that my mother's bladder and commando mode didn't go very well together. When I am on vacation I don't want to try and ensure that everyone is having fun doing exactly what they want and that everyone's needs are being met. Vacation time is too precious and these trips are very expensive. If people call that selfish than I am ok with that. I will be sure and send my entire family on their next trip!