Tell me about your multi-family trips

[alien_host]

I'm already thinking about our trip in 2011 :) Anyway we are wondering if we should ask BIL/SIL if they want to go at the same time. Of course they might not want to ;)

I'm wondering how the experience was in traveling with two or more families. Is the coordination of parks/meals a nightmare?

Do you take days for yourself to do as a family?

Do you eat most meals together?

Do you stay at the same resort? Try to get rooms close together or is it better to have some separation?

I tend to like to please people so if the other family insists on doing something that is not what I had in mind, I'd likely to go along with it to keep the peace. This "method" can be good and bad b/c I can find myself annoyed but try not to show it.

This is how it looks: Us - one DD - will be 6...would be 2nd trip to WDW
Them - two DC...5 and 2 at the time. Would be their first trip to WDW as a family and the parents haven't been since they were kids (and only went one time).

Their older DC is really not adventurous and probably will be very overwhelmed. I'm guessing he might not want to do a lot of things that DD would do (BTMRR/Splash Mtn).

I know it varies by family on whether or not this would work for everyone, but I'd love some feedback on HOW to make it work and to not hate each other afterwards. We do get a long well but have never travelled together.

Ok the more I type this I'm wondering if it would work...maybe it would be better if they had one trip under their belt first?

TIA!

[hellokitty]

Whatever you do, don't screw up and have one person book everything. We ran into a crappy situation this wknd (non-disney) where we booked the hotel rooms (went with another family) for a weekend trip. All 3 of my kids were sick, we weren't able to cancel or transfer (stupid hotwire, never again). In the end, DH took the older two (with DS1 still being a little bit sick, but otherwise feeling fine, DS2 who was the original carrier was of course ok), and I stayed home with the baby, who got sick last out of the three, so had it the worse. My friend and I (I feel bad for her, b/c we wanted to go together so we could hang out too) both said we learned from this exp, not to just have the hotel booked under one person again. I felt bad about ruining their trip and also my kids really wanted to go, so the easiest solution was for me and the baby to back out, but omg if it were a WDW, I would be really, really upset to be out that kind of $. We never thought that anyone would be sick at the end of May, but I have weird (bad) luck, so it figures that this would happen.

[alien_host]

Whatever you do, don't screw up and have one person book everything. We ran into a crappy situation this wknd (non-disney) where we booked the hotel rooms (went with another family) for a weekend trip. All 3 of my kids were sick, we weren't able to cancel or transfer (stupid hotwire, never again). In the end, DH took the older two (with DS1 still being a little bit sick, but otherwise feeling fine, DS2 who was the original carrier was of course ok), and I stayed home with the baby, who got sick last out of the three, so had it the worse. My friend and I (I feel bad for her, b/c we wanted to go together so we could hang out too) both said we learned from this exp, not to just have the hotel booked under one person again. I felt bad about ruining their trip and also my kids really wanted to go, so the easiest solution was for me and the baby to back out, but omg if it were a WDW, I would be really, really upset to be out that kind of $. We never thought that anyone would be sick at the end of May, but I have weird (bad) luck, so it figures that this would happen.

Excellent tip/advice...thanks for posting it!

I'm sorry about your trip, that really stinks.

[Karenn]

We took our last trip to Disneyland with good friends and it was really a lot of fun. I was pretty worried about how things would work out- our friends are perpetually 20-30 minutes late to everything and I run perpetually early. I totally buy into the get to the parks 30 minutes before they open strategy and that was way too early for our friends to wake up. DH and I love roller coasters, my friend and her DH get sick on any ride that's too wild. But surprisingly, it all worked out and we had a blast.

We booked adjoining rooms. That was nice. We could hang out when we weren't in the parks and each couple got a "date night" because we just opened the doors and watched each other's kids. We almost always ate lunch together- either character meals or special meals in the park. Our breakfasts were always separate, just because of the different start times and most of our dinners were separate too because the kids were so beat and ready for bed by the time dinner rolled around that we often just brought food back to the rooms. Our family would wake up at the crack of dawn and do the whole morning madness thing and then their family would catch up to us whenever they got going for the day. Occasionally we'd split up with the kids by age or gender or interest and then make plans to hook up again. On our datenight DH and I went and rode all of the crazy rides that the kids were too little for. On their datenight, our friends strolled the grounds and watched the fireworks after a leisurely dinner. Everyone was happy. :)

We did stay a couple of days longer than our friends. That made it easier to sort of follow their lead in the beginning, because we knew we could do our own thing after they left. Neither set of kids had ever been to Disneyland and it'd been years since either set of adults had been.

[klwa]

Went with: MIL & FIL (1 room), BIL, wife & 2 kids (1 room), and other BIL (1 room) on our last trip. While I gave DH the OK to ask his famiyl if they wanted to go this time, I was doing handsprings when they said that they wouldn't go along this time. (Last time, FIL was taking us using the money from his inheritance from his parents.) We stayed in adjoining rooms, but not connecting. The biggest issue was that they believed we had to do everything TOGETHER. Big mistake. DS was 2 at the time & I was pregnant, which meant no riding the big rides. (FIL kept forgetting and asking me why I wasn't having "any fun" since I wasn't showing....) And it's no fun to just stand at the exit to them. (SIL or MIL did that with one of our DNieces. Every time.) So, DS & I would go off & do our own thing. Met characters, rode the smaller rides, etc. All they had to do was give us a call & we would meet up with them. But, that wasn't enough. I just basically said screw it. I'd invite MIL or SIL to come along with us. If they did, great, if not, fine. Mealtimes were teh worst, simply because they hadn't LET me make reservations for us, but expected to have sit down meals every night for 10 people. So, DS was worn out & hungry at every supper, which meant I didn't enjoy eating. After they left, we had several more days, which were much more relaxing. Because we could do thigns OUR way. DH was happy going off to ride the big stuff we couldn't (and using my fast passes to ride extra. :) ) and we were happy doing the smaller stuff.

So, after that diatribe, my answer would be, if you do end up going, make sure EVERY ONE agrees on expectations before hand. How will you tour the park, what meals will you have together, etc. It'll make things a lot easier, and cause fewer hard feelings.

[crl]

May I tag some questions on to this? If we go, I think it is likely the ILs will stay at shades of green and we will stay on property and get a meal plan.

Can we make dinner reservations as a group with these difference?

If the ILs babysit our kids at our resort, can the ILs use the resort facilities, particularly the pool?

Thanks for any help!
Catherine

[alien_host]

May I tag some questions on to this? If we go, I think it is likely the ILs will stay at shades of green and we will stay on property and get a meal plan.

Can we make dinner reservations as a group with these difference?

If the ILs babysit our kids at our resort, can the ILs use the resort facilities, particularly the pool?

Thanks for any help!
Catherine

You can made Advanced Dining Reservations (ADR) for your entire party, it doesn't matter where you stay or if you are on the dining plan or not. Although if you stay on property you can make ADRs 180 days in advance for your entire trip (I think they call it plus 10 days), I'm not sure how that works with extra people. BUT I think you are thinking of Thanksgiving so you can make ADRs now for how ever many people you want. :)

Actually if you have a general idea of where you want to eat, I'd make the ADRs now, even if your resort isn't finalized, you can always cancel and re-book if things change. Some restaurants fill up quickly. I could be wrong, but I think it might be easier to go from a party of 6 down to 4, if your ILs change plans at all. Others might know more about that.

I don't have an answer about the pool facilities.

[crl]

Thank you! Never occurred to me to make the meal reservations before booking everything else.

Catherine

[alien_host]

Thank you! Never occurred to me to make the meal reservations before booking everything else.

Catherine

I know right? There are a few places that you have to pre-pay (like Cinderella's Royal Table) or leave a credit card guarantee (like California Grill).

I kept a list of my reservation dates/places/times/confirmation numbers so it was easy to cancel (can do it on-line or by phone) if needed.

[egoldber]

I've been with groups a few times. We also go every 3 years with DH's family (MIL&FIL, SIL w DH and 3 kids and another SIL w/ her DH, no kids yet). We've also gone with other friends, but not family, a few times.

Key points for us:

1) You will NOT do everything together. So stay in a place and have transportation arrangements that make it easy for everyone to get around on their own.

2) Do NOT try to eat all restaurant meals together. We did about two group sitdowns in a week stay and that was plenty for us. We also stayed in a place with a full kitchen so we would all cook for ourselves, make sandwiches, etc. It makes things much easier IMO.

3) Be relaxed about things. Don't try to be "Dumbo or Die!" on this trip because it will just cause heartache all around.

[sidmand]

We've gone twice with other family members. One time we all stayed at the same hotel (AKL) and the other time one family stayed in a nearby house and we stayed in a hotel, neither on property.

Both worked okay. We didn't do much together though and in some cases I wish we had done a little more. But for this last trip we did all have one meal or grand gathering per day as a group, so Chef Mickey's or Illuminations. That worked pretty well, especially with little kids and very different schedules. One family came from the West coast so they were not so keen on getting up bright and early to do things. OTOH, DS would wake up at 6:30 a.m. and announce, "I'm all done sleeping," so we would be out of there bright and early!

It was nice to be at the same hotel because there were the odd moments we accidentally met up...nothing planned but we all might hit the pool in the afternoon (or the adults hit the bar/lounge in the evening!) or the buffet for breakfast. If it wasn't all of the group (there were 14 of us) it was at least a few families. We didn't have connecting rooms but we were all on the same floor.

When we stayed in separate places we only ended up meeting up once (Chef Mickey's), I think. They were supposed to come to our hotel and use the pool and we were supposed to go see their rented house but it didn't happen. My MIL did come and babysit so DH and I could go to Discovery Cove though and that was nice.

[maurenemm]

We just got back from a trip to disney world with DH's sister and her family. So it was me and DH and our 2 boys (4.5 yo and 9 months old) and SIL and her DH and their DD (6 yo). I thought it worked out pretty well. Some of my favorite memories are of my oldest DS and his cousin having funny conversations (for ex, about whether Donald Duck liked the water).

Most of our time together was at meals and not in the parks. I think the kids only ended up riding 3 rides together. We were their 7 nights and, I think, had:
-3 dinners with all 7 us
-2 dinners with just the 4 adults (had in room baby sitter one night, and did the kids club another night)
-2 breakfasts (character) with all or most of us.

The reason we didn't spend more time together in the parks is that my kids still needed to go back to the resort for the naps, but my neice didn't. So it worked best for us to get an early start to the day and end after dinner. They would stay in the parks after dinner and get up later. I anticipated that.

We stayed at the same resort (Animal Kingdom) but we were in the villas and they were in the lodge. We did meet up twice at one of the resort pools. I do wish we would've been in the same building so that would've been easier or more frequent. But I'm glad we didn't try sharing a villa (like a 2 or 3 bedroom).

Coordinating wasn't a big problem. SIL made most of the ADRs and that kinda dictated our park schedule. The only problem we had was with our dinner at Cinderella's Table. You have to put a deposit down (or prepay?) for that - which SIL did. We were all on the dining plan. At the end of the meal, Disney automatically applied SIL's dining plan (TS) credits towards her family's meals but then charged the credit card she had used to make the deposit for my family's 3 meals. At all other restaurants it was no problem to get them to split the ticket among the 2 families (and 2 dining plans). Because we expected to use 2 dining credits per person at Cinderella's that kinda threw off our plan for using up all our dining credits and we had to repay SIL. But in the end, I think we only ended up losing (wasting) one kids table credit. So long story short - if you're going to try to do a dinner with everyone at one of the few restaurants that requires pre-payment and you're on the dining plan, maybe see if you can make seperate reservations and get them linked (I don't know if they can do that)??? We didn't have any problems with California Grill.

Be sure you have seperate transportation available. If you're doing all Disney transportation (buses), thats not an issue. We (DH and I) rented a car. We got something big enough for all 7 of us but is was OUR rental and we paid for it all. Our SIL and her crew rode with us when the timing worked and we were all going to same place or leaving at the same time. But often my SIL would ride with us one way (like to the park) but then take the bus the other way (like back to the hotel). If they had not wanted to use Disney buses, I would suggested they get their own rental car.

Catherine - I don't think your IL's should have any problem taking your kids to your resort's pool. Just be sure to leave one of yours (or the kids) room keys with them in case the pool requires it for entry. (Our pool didn't require it.)

[crl]

Thank you!
Catherine

[nancyvh]

We have always gone with our best friends. Our kids are happy to have their kids to play with as they are like cousins . Anyhow, we happen to stay in the same resort with connecting rooms. Disney takes care of all that. They don't guarantee it, but try their best to make it happen. Has always worked for us. We always have supper together but breakfast and lunch is a toss up. We are the early rising type, they are not. We respect them, they respect us. We make arrangements to meet up at the park. Often back to the resort to swim and such for lunch and then we head out for supper and parks together at night. It's an awesome arrangement. The trip would not be the same if we weren't together. Now, I have other friends and even family members that I am not sure I could travel with. I think it really all depends on who you are traveling with.

[alien_host]

Thanks for all of the advice, it really is very helpful to hear tips etc. I appreciate it!

[KrisM]

Whatever you do, don't screw up and have one person book everything. We ran into a crappy situation this wknd (non-disney) where we booked the hotel rooms (went with another family) for a weekend trip. All 3 of my kids were sick, we weren't able to cancel or transfer (stupid hotwire, never again). In the end, DH took the older two (with DS1 still being a little bit sick, but otherwise feeling fine, DS2 who was the original carrier was of course ok), and I stayed home with the baby, who got sick last out of the three, so had it the worse. My friend and I (I feel bad for her, b/c we wanted to go together so we could hang out too) both said we learned from this exp, not to just have the hotel booked under one person again. I felt bad about ruining their trip and also my kids really wanted to go, so the easiest solution was for me and the baby to back out, but omg if it were a WDW, I would be really, really upset to be out that kind of $. We never thought that anyone would be sick at the end of May, but I have weird (bad) luck, so it figures that this would happen.

I'm so sorry your kids were sick for a vacation :(.

Question though - how does booking together vs. seperately change things?

[alien_host]

I'm so sorry your kids were sick for a vacation :(.

Question though - how does booking together vs. seperately change things?

I'm not Hellokitty but I'm speculating her friend made reservations for both rooms that she had a hard time cancelling just part of it so her DH went anyway? It sounds like it might be better for each family to have a separate reservation number so if one family had to cancel it wouldn't involve other families (maybe having to cancel and rebook)? Something on those lines, maybe? This of course assumes you aren't sharing say a house/condo/hotel room and you have a separate space.