Would you go at WDW with an other family???

[CanadianPaco]

Do you think it's a crazy idea???

We wouldn't necessarily do everything together!

Would you do it????? [/QUOTE]


NEVER!!!!! Unless you don't want to remain on good terms!!

Every little issue can blow up. Wake up time - wake up speed. Do they dottle? Are you speedy? Does this bother them? Does this bother you? Or DH? Or the other DH? Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!! Every little issue!!! Think of it!!!


Good luck!

 

[CharlesTD]

We have only taken 3 trips without anyone and one of them was our honeymoon. The others seemed quite slow and a little boring we love going with others and it feels odd when we don't have people down there with us.

 

[MouseDogMom]

I read the question out loud to DH and he couldn't wait to hear the answers!

We did it ONCE and will never do it again - for all of the reasons mentioned. We have one child - now 14, and went with another couple whose daughter was our DD's best friend. We thought we were very compatible and would have a great time together. Found out we had different sleeping habits, VERY different eating habits, and extremely different parenting styles. Both of us ending up leaving a day early to come home, and it hurt the friendship so much that we aren't friends at all any more (4 years later).

This year we tried just being there at the same time with another family we knew fairly well, and still had issues of their wanting exclusive family time while we didn't feel quite the same way. We ended up with a lot of hurt feelings by the end of the week.

I'd recommend taking a friend along for the kid(s), but will not ever do it with another family, no matter who or how close we are!

 

[Cosmic Girl]

I've taken two trips with friends that I've known all my life. We planned the trips together and had great fun and wonderful memories.

 

[SandrA9810]

Well see when you try to stick together, of course there are going to be problem. And if you're on the road, you're only stuck together for what, 2-3 days each way. Disney provides transportation all over the place, and in every way. I know, I just spent three days up there on disney transportation. (We went for the water park, and got rained out, and our seasonal passes aren't good till august 18th.)
In any case, who cares about sleeping habits? If you want to do a character dining, why not choose lunch, if you want to get all the kids together for a group photo. That way if one family doesn't normally eat breakfast, they don't have to.
And eating habits... Try doing something with the most pickest eater of all time. And generally a family style place would be good for any picky eater. Or just go over to the grocery store and pick up something that doesn't need heating. You can find anything there.
You don't plan the trip as a great wonderful time together... but more like "yay, we're going to Disney"... and we're gonna do our own thing.

I guess I see the one problem with foriegn travellers, you only get to make one trip down here every so many years... especially when you got kids in school. So you want to make the best possible trip for every one. Down here in Florida, you have a bad trip and you say, well we can go in a few months just by ourselves.
And generally if you invite a friend of your kids, and not the family, the kid will adapt to your schedule of eating, sleeping, and such. Plus if they gave thier kid like 500$ to spend on whatever, they'll sometimes be more willing to be "little things" for your kids if you say no. Like if you say no to a autograph book, they'll be like "I got money, I'll buy it for you".
Another option, if you can't get along wonderfully like the kids can. Get some two way radios, and let the kids have fun together (as long as they are of age), and you don't have to bother with the other parents and you can have a leisurly afternoon any where in the park.
There's a million ways to make it work. And you just have to let every person do thier own thing. And if you got grouchy grumpy people that dont want to be there. Then tell them, enjoy yourself, and we'll see you at the end of the trip. And if they really want to back out, tell them to hop on the Magical Express and get a plane ticket home.

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

Just so y'all know, MouseDogMom is my mom (hee hee, I came up with the name). To reinforce what she said, NO! The first time, I thought it would be sooo cool to go with my best friend and her family. Big mistake. We are a very relaxed family when it comes to Disney and they would barely let their daughter 3 feet away (we were 12). The trip highlighted all the little quirks they had and, like my mom said, we don't speak to them anymore. The second trip I thought would be much better because we were going w/ my boyfriend's family. *Sigh* how I would rewind that if I could. We ended up spending one day and one dinner together. It didn't help that I couldn't call or text message, not even to say "where are you". His mom was afraid of the bill. She also thought Disney was a time for family so opposed greatly to us getting together. My dad also got on bad terms with them because their younger son was burping nonstop so my dad turned around and burped loudly back. They weren't too happy. So now, 6 months later, I'm single again, and we don't refer to them. Disney is just a bad place to try to build strong ties. It ends up severing them.

 

[grover]

Well see when you try to stick together, of course there are going to be problem. And if you're on the road, you're only stuck together for what, 2-3 days each way. Disney provides transportation all over the place, and in every way. I know, I just spent three days up there on disney transportation. (We went for the water park, and got rained out, and our seasonal passes aren't good till august 18th.)
In any case, who cares about sleeping habits? If you want to do a character dining, why not choose lunch, if you want to get all the kids together for a group photo. That way if one family doesn't normally eat breakfast, they don't have to.
And eating habits... Try doing something with the most pickest eater of all time. And generally a family style place would be good for any picky eater. Or just go over to the grocery store and pick up something that doesn't need heating. You can find anything there.
You don't plan the trip as a great wonderful time together... but more like "yay, we're going to Disney"... and we're gonna do our own thing.

I guess I see the one problem with foriegn travellers, you only get to make one trip down here every so many years... especially when you got kids in school. So you want to make the best possible trip for every one. Down here in Florida, you have a bad trip and you say, well we can go in a few months just by ourselves.
And generally if you invite a friend of your kids, and not the family, the kid will adapt to your schedule of eating, sleeping, and such. Plus if they gave thier kid like 500$ to spend on whatever, they'll sometimes be more willing to be "little things" for your kids if you say no. Like if you say no to a autograph book, they'll be like "I got money, I'll buy it for you".
Another option, if you can't get along wonderfully like the kids can. Get some two way radios, and let the kids have fun together (as long as they are of age), and you don't have to bother with the other parents and you can have a leisurly afternoon any where in the park.
There's a million ways to make it work. And you just have to let every person do thier own thing. And if you got grouchy grumpy people that dont want to be there. Then tell them, enjoy yourself, and we'll see you at the end of the trip. And if they really want to back out, tell them to hop on the Magical Express and get a plane ticket home.

I see what your saying but people have to be prepared for the fact that if you take someone with you...no matter how well you plan things to go well..and even if you do all the above..you just don't know for sure how other people will behave--and they may not have the same ideas as you as to how things will be..even if it is planned out in advance.
Yes you can tell them..Seeeeeeee ya..and go about your merry way--but how much fun would you have knowing you have a tiff between you and a friend/family because of different travelling styles.

I don't know if I am making any sense here--does anyone get what I am saying??

I am not saying that it won't ever work for some people..just saying you have to be prepared for the fact that no matter the attitude you hold--people can change your experience by their behavior!

G in W

 

[Cosmic Girl]

SoccerDogWithEars-
Sorry to hear about your trips! When we went with friends we discussed our preferences and likes and dislikes before our trips. Did you and your friends do this before your trips? That seemed to help us alot. Then there were no surprises in the parks and hopefully no hard feelings.

 

[PhotobearSam]

We went for 2 weeks and friends joined us for 4 days...That was enough.


We did all our must do's ahead of time and went at their pace and their ideas...Even though we did a lot of cool things, our styles were so different that it was enough after 4 days. They are meeting us there again this time, and you guessed it...4DAYS....

We are doing Bush Gardens with them, then Sea World and then the MNSSHP and one day at Epcot or AK...There may be 5 days with them but we have 2 1/2 more weeks after they leave...I think it was a money thing...We had planned and saved and all they would say was "I wish we could afford that or this" It got boring.
We are not rich but I don't go anywhere without enough money to enjoy myself a little. I'm not a Ponderosa Girl...

 

[isla bonita]

We have a pool home in Emerald Island Resort. It is a 6 bed room 5 bath home.We always bring family and friends when wer go downl. We have great times and wonderful memories. If it dosn't work out you never have to do it again.

 

[calena]

Both years we have gone my parents (in their 70s) have joined us. One year they joined us for one week. This year they came for about 4 days. It is nice to be with them and do things together, but when we hit the parks it is much better to go on our own. As DH says, taking 7 people around the parks is like dragging a lead balloon! Each year we did one park day with them and the other days we just stayed around the pool or we went to the park and they did "their" thing. One year good friends were arriving in Florida a day after we left and we were really dissapointed we did not "overlap" our trip. It would have been fun to meet at Magic Kingdom for a day. That would have been fun, but staying together, driving together, no. We went to Maine one year with some friends and it was a nightmare!

 

[jakoky]

yes, yes yes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hi there, last december we travelled from bc,canada to WDW...we are also a family of 5, we travelled with another family of 5 and a family of 4. The ages of our kids varied, mine were 13, 11, and 9 and the other family was 11, 7, and 5...and then 5 and 3....the kids all enjoyed each othe thoroughly. We knew before leaving we would spend time together, but first and foremost, it was family trip. We drove to the airport, flew together, stayed at the same hotel, did some swimming together, ate a few meals together(we were there 9 nights)...what surprised me was the amount of rides we did together. Many of the days we started at the same park, and a few of them, we spent a good 2 hours hanging out...actually, my family and the othe family of 5 did this...we had a blast. We would then split up and eventually see eachother at days end and have a visit and excitedly talk about the day. We went to both waterparks, all 3 families and again, had so much fun doing this. I think as long as both families have the same ideas in mind, and no one will be put out if someone wants to do something else, all will be good. I am best friends with the other mom of 3 we went with, and we had a girls shopping day so i think there were 5 of us that went.....it definately worked for us and we are in the process of planning a trip to DL next year with the family of 3(the other family said they want to wait til there kids are older as they have alreay been to both WDW and DL...
sharon

 

[thelionqueen]

We went with my cousin and her family and had an absolute blast!! In fact we're going again with them in Oct. Here are some tips that worked perfect for us....

1. Don't plan on doing anything together. I know this sounds weird, but if you "wing it" and don't plan everything/anything together it gives you the same freedom as if you went alone. What we would do is get up at different times (we're early birds, they're later) go wherever we wanted to go, then call eachother during the day. If we were close, we would meet up, if not we wouldn't. We would usually meet for dinner or to relax at the end of the day, it was wonderful!!

2. Stay close to eachother, but not too close. We stayed in the same hotel, but different buildings. This eliminated the "olbigation" feeling to see eachother if you were both in your respective rooms. If we really wanted to see eachother for some reason, we would make the trek to the other building.

3. Talk to the kids about your rules. Reinforce to the kids that your rules may be different from the other families rules. We are very strict with our children, my cousin is not. My kids knew long before we went that our expectations of them were the same, and would not be compromised, which luckily they weren't

4. Don't share a rental car. This limits the time and places you can go if you don't have your own car.

That's about it. We had a fabulous time, never worried about feeling obligated to do anything we didn't feel like doing, and I know my cousin felt the same. Everyone asked us "wasn't it weird or uncomfortable going with another family?" The answer, no way, we had a blast
good luck!

 

[TinknBoys]

Oh boy, this sure was some interesting reading, but as we all know there are always two sides to every story. :

 

[TENIA66]

we've been with another couple as well as alone, and either has it's advantages and disadvantages. when traveling together, decide ahead of time, when driving, what types of resturants are you going to stop at, how many hours between stops. some people stop every fifteen minutes, others every 4 hours, and the two together can present problems. also, decide what type of food on the road, sit down meals or drive thru and go? while at the parks, decide if you are going to take off together or just meet up later. get up and go folks don't necessarily mix well with stay in the room and rest folks. we solved some of these problems by carryiing walkie talkies and just buzzing each other when they arrived in the park after us. now we'll use cell phones as we are all "in" network. some other advantages to together: one can run get the fast passes while the group waits in line for a ride. one can toilet the kid who "has " to go while the group waits in line, one can grab and drink or snack for group while the rest of the group waits in line, you get the idea. have lots of fun!!!

 

[Laurajean1014]

Last April my family, DH, me and DS9 to WDW. We met 4 other families there. We had dinner arrangements for a few nights with each of the families.

We did not spend every day with everyone - that would be too much pressure. However, we mixed it up and had a terrific time.

We also went down with another family 2 years ago and had a blast. We go often, and the other family doesn't. So, we went where-ever the other family wanted to go. It was great.

This April, we are going with 3 or 4 other families - so we are off to having a great time at WDW!

 

[Disney's My Life]

It has been very interesting reading the different posts regarding taking a vacation with another family, or going down at the same time as another family. The successful stories have been fantastic. The failures have been sad.

I am a Disney fanatic and have always enjoyed our trips regardless of whether we went by ouselves, with someone else, or saw friends down there. The key to any trip though is good communication and knowing everyone's expectations, both family and friends, prior to the trip. This will help to minimize any misunderstandings when you get there. Even with proper planning and communication, there is always to possibility of problems occurring. There are so many things to do and so little time. Everyone may not agree on what they want to do and with whom. Some people prefer to have family time at Disney because it may be one of the few times during the year that they can have quality time together due to work, school, extracurricular activities, and volunteering when they are home. Others may not have that problem and aren't as concerned about spending as much time with their family. That's why the expectations should be discussed prior to the trip.

There is no right or wrong side of the story here. It is a matter of personal preference and comfort level. That's what makes us individuals. We all have different opinions, even within families. It would be a pretty boring world if we all agreed on everything.

It is sad though that friendships can be lost, and families being split as a result of someone getting angry that their trip did not meet their expectations, or that their feelings were hurt to the point of no return. I'm sure that if they think about it, they will find many fond memories of the trip with friends and family, maybe that they even discussed in other posts.

I have always tried to take all of the fond memories from Disney trips and forget about the negative things. We have not always had perfect trips, whether we were with someone else or not. They still seemed perfect though because we were at the Happiest Place on Earth where we had been sharing special moments with friends and family. When we returned home, we put any problems in the past and tried to maintain the friendships and family ties. We didn't hold grudges against friends or family with whom we had disagreed while down there.

I don't think that holding grudges is the way to solve any problems. It gets back to communication. If you didn't communicate properly before the trip, do so afterward and mend any fences. Don't be petty. Life's too short! Disney can and does build stronger relationships. You just have to look at the positives and let go of the negatives.