First I would like to say that this trip we made with our seven year old son (who is completely wrapped up with knights and castles) and our nine year old daughter (who is a lover of fashion), was a trip of a lifetime and we just had a wonderful time--thanks especially to Steph and Jason
--I just can't say enough about them as our guides! The castles were amazing and overwhelming, the characters you meet along the way are outstanding and knowledgable, the food is fantastic and the "surprises" included along the way are enough to bring a tear to your eye. We were able to go on this trip because my husbands mom left us a chunk of money that she deemed for us to use it on a stellar vacation--God bless her for this special gift..it has truly inspired us to work at doing another one. I have seen that some have done back to back trips or multiples and I just can't imagine having that kind of money (because we all know how expensive these trips are!) to spend every year on vacations--but, hey-good for you!
As our first trip out overseas, we were naturally scared and nervous but, at the sight of our guide at the airport..all was calm and bright! Now, I tell you that our trip itself was fantastic..but I am also going to tell you some things that were not so great, but due to the excellent training and personal skills of our guides, was made bearable--at least for us!On this trip, when we arrived at the first hotel, a family was on their own way there with other transportation and did call to say they were going to be late, so we waited a bit with some very fun activities and conversation amongst ourselves. Ultimately we started without them after about half an hour and about 15 more minutes into it, they arrived....a family of a middle aged mom, older husband, an ADHD 11yr old and a set of 4 yr old twins of a boy and a girl. Let me just tell you that this familymade our lives and the guides lives miserable for the first 6 days of our trip until they finally dropped out and hired a private nanny and guide. Unfortunatley, they had already caused us all to be late to every arrival, dumped their kids onto us other parents multiple times, used several of us for our professional services without saying thank you, yelled at our wonderful guides in front of our children several times in anger and rough language and ultimately took out their frustration on our vacation in the process. I have to say that Steph and Jason were INCREDIBLE under such pressure and difficulty!
I definately will be telling Disney how they were able, at every turn, to handle the family in a professional and gentle manner, even when they were being yelled at and embarrassed for things they had no control over. The guides are NOT babysitters! Oh my goodness, I am jet lagged but very happy to have had this experience and we met some outstanding and fun people who we would love to vacation with again!
Boy, those people should be glad they weren't on a tour with DH and me. Being a high school math teacher for a number of years has left me with the urge to correct others bad behavior. I know I would have had to say something to that couple way before day 6. I can't stand bullies. And that is exactly what those people are. I would think that Disney has to have some way to handle a situation like this. The guides should not have to just grin and bare it. A family should not be allowed to ruin the trip of a lifetime for everyone else.
Did they drop out on their own or were they asked to leave?!
and is not here to translate tone for me; I do hope that this was as crashbb thinks a very serious case of jetlag which made you interpret German for Chinese characters. If not, then I think that it is either a poor attempt at humour or worse - there have been a lot of anti-foreigner threads on this website lately, and I will admit to being somewhat sensitive to them.
