A short vent by my family's official planner AKA me

[DISNEYSQUIRRELS]

Exactly! Well emojied!!

 

[Roxyfire]

I can so relate to your pain. At 180 days I made ADR's not a peep from my daughters relatives. On Wednesday I made all of the fast pass reservations. Now its Friday and I have over a dozen emails asking what about this restaurant (Chef Mickey's) we always eat there and people wanting me to drop some fast passes. I cannot believe I got both FoP and NaVi for consecutive days (Day 1 and Day 2) and 3 people are whining that they wanted to be sleeping in at 11:30. Sigh sometimes I think g*d has it in for me.

I'm no morning person, but Disney's a really expensive place to sleep in that long.

 

[Jess_S]

After looking into the rider swap option, I decided to just say no. I told my mom that rope drop is her best option and she and my dad are going to do that. I did send them an article on strategy for rope dropping FOP because I am not totally heartless. DS, DH and I are sticking with our nude rodent viewing plan.

I don't know how those of you planning for big groups do it!

 

[KenHutch]

I'm no morning person, but Disney's a really expensive place to sleep in that long.

What makes me testy is I pay for everyone. So I sort of expect them to try and have a good time.

 

[Roxyfire]

What makes me testy is I pay for everyone. So I sort of expect them to try and have a good time.

No good deed goes unpunished

 

[tink20]

I feel like I may have this problem too. I have asked DH repeatedly if he wants a FP for FOP (because DS & I are skipping it due to motion sickness) but DD & her husband want a FP. He has said no, he’ll hang out with us & the baby. But then he came home saying a coworker said how great it was. He has until Tuesday to make up his mind .

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Background: My parents, DH, DS and I are going to WDW at the end of the month. I have handled all of the planning including booking our resort, tickets, dining, fastpasses, etc.

A few days before our FP window opened, I called my parents to discuss the fastpass situation. I told them that DH and I would be getting FoP fastpasses, but that DS was too small to ride it. I explained that FoP regularly has 3 hour plus waits, so they really needed a FP to ride. Both of them said they weren't interested in riding any ride that DS couldn't ride and asked that I book Navi for them instead. I followed up by sending my mom a spreadsheet of the fastpasses I was planning to book for each day of our trip. I later updated the spreadsheet with the fastpasses I actually booked.

Today, I got a call from my Mom.

Mom: "My co-worker just got back from Disney and he says I really need to ride the new Avatar ride, Flight of something. Did you get me a fastpass for that?"

I figured that DISers would be the only ones to understand my exasperation.

omg. Reminds me of the one (and only) extended family trip I planned in 2005. FIL du jour (I've had 3, but that's a whole other story), informs us all while on the MCO monorail between the gates and terminal of ALL the things he wants to do in Orlando and WDW, none of which I'd planned for and none of which had come up in the endless discussions we all had about the trip. DH and I had a lovely "re-do" trip about 10 months later.

Does this work if only 2 of us have fastpasses?

As of now, I've told my mom that she is welcome to rope drop FOP while the rest of the family does other things. My son has, umm, let's say, unique, interests and he wants to go directly to the naked mole rat exhibit when we enter the park and then head over to the petting area so he can pet goats with low crowds.

I LOVE it! My DS would totally hang out with your DS. Those goats do draw a crowd. I call that superior park touring planning. DS bee lines for the porcupine. One year, my DS insisted on RD'ing . . . Barnstormer. Yup, chomping at the bit for that rope to drop in the Fantasyland/Tomorrowland area. He literally speed walks over to Barnstormer to, I guess, beat the imaginary people who were racing over with him. We were the only ones there. The CM's were ecstatic that someone loved their ride that much!

 

[Turn the Page]

Background: My parents, DH, DS and I are going to WDW at the end of the month. I have handled all of the planning including booking our resort, tickets, dining, fastpasses, etc.

A few days before our FP window opened, I called my parents to discuss the fastpass situation. I told them that DH and I would be getting FoP fastpasses, but that DS was too small to ride it. I explained that FoP regularly has 3 hour plus waits, so they really needed a FP to ride. Both of them said they weren't interested in riding any ride that DS couldn't ride and asked that I book Navi for them instead. I followed up by sending my mom a spreadsheet of the fastpasses I was planning to book for each day of our trip. I later updated the spreadsheet with the fastpasses I actually booked.

Today, I got a call from my Mom.

Mom: "My co-worker just got back from Disney and he says I really need to ride the new Avatar ride, Flight of something. Did you get me a fastpass for that?"

I figured that DISers would be the only ones to understand my exasperation.

We went to WDW with my parents and one of my nieces this past October. DH and I had been planning to go for an anniversary trip and through a series of misadventures we ended up taking both our kids and my parents and niece joined us.

My parents didn't decide to come until 30 days before so I had to work pretty hard to get FP's for them that matched up at all with ours. This was all done at my mothers request by the way. She doesn't want to mess with it and just asked me to get FP's for specific rides she didn't want my niece to miss. So I did that and made most of the FP's for the evening time because I knew they would want to be by the pool in the heat of the day. We're yankees, we don't handle heat well. I swear we missed half the FP's I made because they either wouldn't get off their butts and leave the resort in enough time to make them or didn't want to wait around for the return time to roll around and then complained about how long the lines were. Uh, yeah, I know the line for Space is 60 minutes that's why I got you a FP for it that you missed because you wanted to hang out by the pool so don't complain to me about how long the line is now.

I was so irritated.

 

[MRLyons]

The last family trip I planned (there have been 3) I started crying in Hollywood Studios saying “it’s too stressful to make everyone happy. This isn’t fun for me.” At that moment, my husband decided only the 3 of us in our little family will take trips together and that’s how it’s been for 5 years. On the bright side, on their last night, my dad (who isn’t very demonstrative) talked about what a wonderful trip they (he, my stepmom and little sister) had and how they knew it was because of all my hard work.

 

[paisleys]

Does this work if only 2 of us have fastpasses?

As of now, I've told my mom that she is welcome to rope drop FOP while the rest of the family does other things. My son has, umm, let's say, unique, interests and he wants to go directly to the naked mole rat exhibit when we enter the park and then head over to the petting area so he can pet goats with low crowds.

My girls LOVE the goats too! I know you said your son likes to go there first but mine are opposite. We always have to be the last ones. If you haven't seen the goats 'go to bed' at the end of a long day of being brushed, you must see this. They all start clamoring to go in I believe 15 minutes (forget, you can ask a CM) before park closes as they know their food and freedom from children is near. When the CM's open the gate, watch out! It's a hoot watching them stampede inside!
and OP, your post is why we tell no one when we are going to WDW or any type of vacation. Selfish, but it becomes more stressful trying to please everyone than an actual vacation...

 

[kimberh]

We take family trips, which I do love, we do what they want to do. Usually not one thing we want to do. Then we take our trip. They are totally opposite. We get so much done on ours. Start later stay later, eat when we want, what we want. I do all the booking on both, but somehow we do all the keeping everyone happy and on schedule. I honestly don't understand keeping everyone together, it's work.

 

[Jess_S]

I LOVE it! My DS would totally hang out with your DS. Those goats do draw a crowd. I call that superior park touring planning. DS bee lines for the porcupine. One year, my DS insisted on RD'ing . . . Barnstormer. Yup, chomping at the bit for that rope to drop in the Fantasyland/Tomorrowland area. He literally speed walks over to Barnstormer to, I guess, beat the imaginary people who were racing over with him. We were the only ones there. The CM's were ecstatic that someone loved their ride that much!

It sounds like they have the same interests. At our last MK rope drop, we rode Pooh (only because my DH loves it) and then road Barnstormer 4 times in a row.

My girls LOVE the goats too! I know you said your son likes to go there first but mine are opposite. We always have to be the last ones. If you haven't seen the goats 'go to bed' at the end of a long day of being brushed, you must see this. They all start clamoring to go in I believe 15 minutes (forget, you can ask a CM) before park closes as they know their food and freedom from children is near. When the CM's open the gate, watch out! It's a hoot watching them stampede inside!
and OP, your post is why we tell no one when we are going to WDW or any type of vacation. Selfish, but it becomes more stressful trying to please everyone than an actual vacation...

Goat bedtime sounds adorable. Maybe if my son actually rests during our mid-day rest breaks this trip, I will take him back to see it.

 

[Rschall]

I am going crazy planning for our group too. I have an elderly MIL, a three year old and two teens. As well as my partner. I know someone will be disappointed at some point!

 

[Beth33]

What a pain! People who don't do the planning have no idea.

You're making me very thankful for my MIL! She's been very flexible about everything as we plan for our upcoming trip.

GL with your trip!

 

[Auntof2]

What makes me testy is I pay for everyone. So I sort of expect them to try and have a good time.

We used to pay for everyone. But stopped when two weeks after we got back from a Disney trip with 8 people, found that one of them actually wrote and publicly performed a play about how they disliked us (I wish I was kidding). We had heard they had written a play and were surprised we weren't invited, quickly found out why once we arrived.

 

[Beth33]

We used to pay for everyone. But stopped when two weeks after we got back from a Disney trip with 8 people, found that one of them actually wrote and publicly performed a play about how they disliked us (I wish I was kidding).

That is unbelievable. Why would they even go if they didn't enjoy your company? How could they feel like a decent human being after accepting your gift of a trip and then being so unkind? Some people. I'm sorry you went through that!

 

[KenHutch]

We used to pay for everyone. But stopped when two weeks after we got back from a Disney trip with 8 people, found that one of them actually wrote and publicly performed a play about how they disliked us (I wish I was kidding). We had heard they had written a play and were surprised we weren't invited, quickly found out why once we arrived.

Yikes you win, while they whine and fight the whole time, I found our they do go home and brag about what an incredible time they had.

 

[Turn the Page]

Ugh. My mom called me at 11 the other night and said her neighbors are taking their granddaughters to Disney World and wanted some advice about which park to go to. They are staying off site and only going for 1 day and they are leaving in a week. They wanted to know what park they should go to and what rides to go on.

They didn't have tickets yet, had no idea about fastpasses or anything. I told them what I could but who knows what they will do with it.

 

[loves to dive]

This is why I don't go crazy with the planning. Pick a few places to eat, pick some FPs and wake up whenever and hit the park we feel like that day. If I had to plan a trip that included other people I'd just tell them I wasn't going LOL.

I do understand though for some planning is just as exciting as the trip, I hope your mom gets to ride without too much of a wait

This is us too except we rarely even pick FPs until morning of since we don't even know what park we are going to until we wake up and decide and we don't book ADRs until late in the afternoon when we are walking around. We will be there for 5 days the week of May 7 and I have booked one FP, for FOP since my son likes that ride (I'm not crazy about it and skip it when I go solo). I asked him if he wanted me to book any others (He's an adult) and he said nope, we'll just play it by ear like we always do. I have booked one ADR, for Tiffins the night we arrive because we love that restaurant and our FP for FOP happens to be 5-6 that night so why not and tea at the GF for the next afternoon because I love that and we haven't done it in a while and it's harder to get that BOG. No way would I try to plan for a group.

 

[Goldilocks07]

Background: My parents, DH, DS and I are going to WDW at the end of the month. I have handled all of the planning including booking our resort, tickets, dining, fastpasses, etc.

A few days before our FP window opened, I called my parents to discuss the fastpass situation. I told them that DH and I would be getting FoP fastpasses, but that DS was too small to ride it. I explained that FoP regularly has 3 hour plus waits, so they really needed a FP to ride. Both of them said they weren't interested in riding any ride that DS couldn't ride and asked that I book Navi for them instead. I followed up by sending my mom a spreadsheet of the fastpasses I was planning to book for each day of our trip. I later updated the spreadsheet with the fastpasses I actually booked.

Today, I got a call from my Mom.

Mom: "My co-worker just got back from Disney and he says I really need to ride the new Avatar ride, Flight of something. Did you get me a fastpass for that?"

I figured that DISers would be the only ones to understand my exasperation.

I just laughed out loud.