Disney with Others

[mitchsfan]

My wife and I have been to Disney 5 times together. Once for a quick 1 day trip, the honeymoon, our 1 year anniversary and twice with our son.

We are having a baby girl in August and want to start looking at a trip in April.

One night out with friends of ours and too many :beer:, I may have spilled the beans about the trip. They want to take their family to Disney too around that time too.

We have never been to Disney with another family yet alone a couple. What is it like? I know we don't have to spend the entire time with them but they have never been to Disney before?

Some positive thoughts and I would like to hear about negative experiences.

Thanks

[GoofyforFun]

If you spend time with them now and have them over for dinner and such . No problems. We have vacationed several times with friends that we believe we can spend time together, even in one big house. For Disney you need to do a little more planning, what you want to do and what they want to do and how much together: meals, Parks,etc. we just did WDW with a couple we had vacationed with before at the Jersey Shore. I don't have a lot of negatives other than I did most of the planning before the trip , but we did it together like a meeting.

[2lilboys]

We have been to Disney several times with my sister, her husband and their 3 boys. They were very easy to travel with because we had similar Disney vacation styles. We got an early start and pretty much went all day non-stop.

Last year, we again traveled with my sister and her family AND my brother, his wife and their 3 kids decided to come along also. Since we were going with our young kids for the first time, we knew that we would need to get an early start and then go back to the room for afternoon naps. Well, my brother and his family are not early risers and usually got to the parks by 11am. They were late meeting us in the morning, late for ADR's and were pretty difficult to travel with in general. Also, my sister-in-law had NO patience for my 2 year old twins and every time they cried or complained, she would get annoyed.

My point is that you should try to find out how compatible you will be with the other couple. How much time will you be spending together? Are they late or early risers? Do they plan to be in the parks all day or take an afternoon break? Can you just meet for meals or will they want to be together all the time?

I think it can work as long as you know what you are getting into so you can be prepared.:thumbsup:

Good luck and Congrats on the new addition to your family.

[sweetsavannah]

We traveled with my (ex) sister-in-law and niece for our first trip this past April, and although they were fine to travel with, I would prefer to travel without others in the future. It would be nice not to have to worry about pleasing/accomodating others. You could do your own thing, travel at your own pace. No waiting on others,etc. I enjoyed going with them, now I am looking forward to traveling without anyone!

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

I think you should make it known that you don't necessarily want to spend 24/7 together and that you hope that doesn't cause any hard feelings. You can meet up for meals or some rides etc. Start the day together but agree to split up if you want to do different things.

[jensantuit]

We have been at Disney with friends for the 2 past years and this year will be our third and this time we are having them stay with us at our DVC timeshare. We have been very lucky that we travel well together. Their daughters are the same ages as our sons.
The first couple years, we would meet up a day or two here and there and this year we decided to make our travel plans, flights, dining reservations together, but we all know that if we want, we can go off on our own, but I don't think we will do that.
It works well for us that we can watch each other's children and we enjoy each others company. It's also nice if you are a little annoyed with your spouse you have another adult to talk to :blush: not that that has ever happened to me.
We haven't had any bad experiences traveling with others, I think that you just need to have it be out there that this is your vacation also and you may need some family time of your own. Hope this helps. :mickey:

[yjgirl32]

I agree with the other posts. You really need to sit down and talk. On our last trip it was two firends of ours, my mom, aunt, husband, ds3 and myself. My aunt & mom had been to Disney once before- our frineds had been there like 5 other times and it was my husband and sons first time. We set up meetings and I had each one pick one tableservice meal. I also had each person pick at least three places, shops, rides, etc from each park. It worked very well. Everyone stuck together although we could have split up. Our next trip will be the same people, but my in-laws will be joining us. Again we have dne the same plan. So far it seems to be working. Have a great time!

[Disney Doll]

It is nice to get away and just have some time with your immediate family. It's also nice not to worry about accommodating anyone else or playing hostess. However, over the years we have learned how to enjoy a vacation with others in tow. We do what we want when we want like we normally would. If the others want to tag along, fine. If not, that's fine too. I don't wait on late risers or on those who are late for meet ups. Everyone has cells phones so we just figure they'll call later if they want to meet up. Also, my trips revolve around my son which means we often skip the big rides and we always plan for an afternoon nap. If you are traveling with a couple who doesn't have kids that might not mesh well. I'd just be upfront about your schedule and maybe use the kids as a good reason to split up some of the time.

[pcoleman]

No matter how much you plan going with others will be a different experience than going alone, with that said, it can be great fun. We almost always take friends with us. We NEVER spend the whole day together. We do not go with needy people. For us the secrete is to take people who are independent enough to be adventurous on their own. We do not plan everyday day together or even every meal. We would set up times to call each group to check in and see if our paths will cross. We always plan at least one BIG dinner for all to enjoy being at Disney.:mickey:

[Pally]

This can be pretty tricky. Like other posters you can have a good time or a heck of a time. If you are only going to meet for certain times this would be easier than trying to be together for a whole day every day.

1.) Questions to ask are do you have similar budgets? We ran into this when we wanted to buy our children i.e. a treat, drink or ice cream and the people traveling with us did not. Of course their child wanted a drink, it was hot and they were thirsty. They did not buy a drink or treat ever! They did not even want to buy drinks off site and freeze for the next day to save costs which we did some days. We also had bought some treats from the grocery store to take. We ended up constantly sharing or buying because they did not want to buy anything. I know it is small but it was constant. It made us feel guilty every time we bought or did something. By the way, they can certainly afford it, they are just really cheap. They thrived on saying how cheap they were. They didn't buy any extras period. We found this difficult as we like to have some souvenirs and treats. It was a real downer.

2.) What is the temperment of the people you are traveling with? Sometimes the parents are the problem and not the kids.

Final words, don't do it unless you are really, really sure. Anyway, plan, plan, and have a fantastic time. :mickey: