This report is from November 4th – 10th, 2012. The group included my Husband, Daughter, 5 and myself, my Mom, Sister and her Son, 8, and my Dad. Please note that my parents have been divorced for 25 years, but still get along pretty well. We picked this week because it is my Dad and Nephew’s birthdays and I wanted to see Christmas time at Disney. So I was given the task of planning this trip because I am the more organized one of the family and my own family was just down in 2010 for my daughters third birthday. I didn’t mind them asking me because they gave me a year to plan and I do enjoy it. But I quickly realized this was not going to be as easy as I thought. My Mom and Sister are on very tight budgets, and were very unreasonable with their requests and requirements. This is a Disney trip, I can not control the fact that Disney is expensive and they agreed to go on this trip, they were not bullied into it. This cut a lot of stuff out that we all would have really enjoyed and also caused a lot of tension and complaining. My Dad pushed me into finding the cheapest lodging as possible, against my better judgment. If I had had it my way, each family unit would have had their own room at a Value resort. That way at the end of the day we could “get away from each other”. But instead, we split the cost by finding a condo just outside the World. I found it on Homeaway.com and would highly recommend it. The condo was big, clean and the owner Bill was wonderful to work with. More on lodging later. I spent the year gathering info from everyone to find out what everyone wanted to do and see so I could make a plan of attack. Again difficult to do because no one seemed to take this seriously. We live close to multiple large amusement parks so I can only assume they thought WDW would be on the same scale. My Mom basically told me she’s up for anything, so I picked some rides and attractions I thought she would like. My Dad said that he wouldn’t be going on any rides, he just wanted to watch the kids have fun. My Sister said she didn’t even want to go, she’s just going because her son wants to go, and so whatever I pick is fine as long as her son wants to do it. Ugh...Sounds like fun already right? So I talked with the kids and from there I was able, with the help of the famous Disney Parks Touring Plans, make a day by day plan so we could maximize our time and go on as many rides as possible which is what the kids wanted, keeping in mind that my Dad has issues walking for long periods of time. Another issue was food. I warned them ahead of time that food was expensive but you get big portions. They recommended eating outside the park but I told them how impractical that is especially when the kids want to run from ride to ride. So the compromise was the Quick Service eateries, and no sit downs, which disappointed me greatly. I also told them about the Food and Wine Festival and Mickey’s Christmas Party. They were unsure of the Food and Wine Festival, but declined the Christmas Party because it costs extra. At this point I was very sad to see them missing out on all these awesome Disney extras. No sit downs, no Christmas Party, and no Disney Hotel, would our trip be filled with Magic or complaints and fighting? My Mom then brought up she wanted to swim with Dolphins. We looked into the Epcot swim and Discovery Cove, and chose Discovery Cove. We called and found out the only day she could do it was Friday. Booked it. My Nephew then talked my Sister into taking him to Universal. My Dad didn’t want her going by herself, so he volunteered to go with her. So we designated Friday as the day they did this also. Booked it. The clouds opened up and I announced that this would be the day that my family unit will go to Magic Kingdom and attend the Christmas Party. I also booked Bibbity Boppity Boutique at 8am and Cinderella’s Royal Table at 9am. The rest of the stuff like the plane and tickets I booked through a travel agent. I will never use this company again. Both times I used them for my Disney trip, they screwed something up and it ended up costing me extra money! Next time I’m doing everything myself.
A week before we left we had a final meeting and I updated everyone on what to expect and what the plan was. Please note this was also the week Hurricane Sandy hit. Fortunately we only got a lot of rain and wind. The weather in Orlando was looking good, and everything seemed good to go. I also talked them into at least one sit down, and they agreed on the 50s Prime Time Café. Everyone gave the thumbs up and I left everything up to fate. I did my job, if they didn’t take my advice seriously it was their fault.
Day 1: Arrival
We were up at 4am and met at my Mom’s house. We drove an hour to the Harrisburg Airport and waited to board. My Sister was obviously nervous. This was her first plane trip and she told us she really wasn’t happy about flying. We boarded and had a nice flight, 2hrs straight there. We landed, took the tram to the main building and headed down to grab our luggage. We thought everyone had their luggage, and were ready to grab the rental cars when my Mom spoke up and said she didn’t have her luggage. We waited and checked the other luggage belts. Nothing. My Mom and I went to the counter and reported the bag was missing. My Dad then started complaining. It was not my Mom’s fault; complaining was only making things worse. After about an hour, they found the bag and we went to the car rental. I booked everything online and thought everything was paid for except the airport taxes. The previous time with a different company, this was the case. Nope, they made us run back to the counter and pay additional fees because my Dad doesn’t have a credit card so I paid for his car with my credit card online. They said nope, you can’t do that. So then why did it let me do it then online? Ugh. Last time I use that Rental car company. Now my Dad was really crabby and was blaming me that now he has to pay extra money. So we finally get everything straightened out and head to pick up the cars. The cars were nice and we loaded everything in the trunks. As soon as my Dad opened the door he turns his nose up and says “Yuck this smells like cigarettes!” I walked over and smelled. It had a smell, but I didn’t think it smelled like cigarettes. I said it was probably cleaner, and thought maybe we should stop and eat before proceeding because it was 12:30 now everyone was getting miserable. My husband used his GPS and we found a McDonalds on the way to the condo. After eating everyone seemed to calm down. We could not check in at the condo until 4pm so I recommended going to Hollywood Studios and going on some rides, then watching Fantasmic! before heading over to the condo. We arrived at Hollywood and the kids were excited. I rented a stroller for the week and we ran around hitting big rides like Tower of Terror, Rockn Rollercoaster, and Star Wars. The new Star Wars ride was amazing! More on that later. This is when I realized that my Mom was going to be an issue. She was too busy looking around that she wasn’t keeping up and we were losing her in the crowd. Ugh, I wanted to buy her a leash! It was then around 5pm I recommended eating and then getting in line for Fantasmic!. My Nephew wanted to go on more rides but I assured him we will be coming back here on Tuesday and he will be going on lots more rides the rest of the week. This was the start of my Nephews strange, selfish behavior that shocked everyone, even my Sister, his mom. I recommended some places to eat but no one seemed to want to eat anywhere. I warned them it would be a while until the show starts and they will be very hungry. They didn’t listen, grabbed some snacks and headed in to get our seats. The waiting was horrible. My family tries to make the best out of things, but my extended family complained and moaned the whole time saying this was waste of time and that they could be going on rides or whatever. I told them to relax and the show would be worth it. My Mom ran and got a big bag of popcorn for everyone to share, because like I predicted, they were getting hungry. Later I found out, my Nephew wasn’t sharing with anyone, which made everyone furious. My family had our own snacks so we were unaware of this. The show started and was amazing as usual. Afterwards we filed out like cattle and headed to the car. Everyone agreed it was a great show but that they should have sat down to eat somewhere first. We headed to the condo and looked around. Immediately my Dad complained about his room. He didn’t realize he’d have to share a bathroom. I pointed out that I showed him the room layout and told him he would have to share and he did agree to it. Then my Mom chimed in that she wanted eggs and stuff for breakfast, which was another thing we discussed and she previously had stated that cereal would be fine. My Dad blew up because she changed her mind, can you tell my Dad doesn’t like change? My Sister ran for cover, and my Mom tried to compromise with him. After a battle of words, he ran over to the grocery store to grab food and to cool down. At this point I ran in my room crying. What did I get myself into? Then I started to remember why I wanted to get a room for everyone separately at a Value Resort. I had a feeling we wouldn’t be able to be together 24/7.
Day 2: Magic Kingdom
We woke up bright and early to my Dad making eggs, toast and coffee. Yep, you read that correctly. Surprisingly everyone was ready to go by 8am and we headed over to Magic Kingdom, my favorite park. Everyone quickly realized how correct I was on how busy the place would be. I’ve never seen it that busy! I grabbed my stroller and we headed to New Fantasyland. We rode the rides there and did some more in Tomorrowland. To my surprise my Dad even wanted to go on the rides, even though he was the one earlier saying he didn’t want to. My Nephew then approached me and asked when we were going to go on the bigger rides that he wanted to do. I said shortly, we rode on his rides yesterday and I wanted to get some of these other rides in then break for lunch and will head over to his rides after that. He didn’t say much and headed over to his Mom. We stopped in at Cosmic Rays, loved it btw, and started eating. That’s when we noticed my Nephew pouting. He told everyone he had a headache, but we all know that’s code for “I’m pouting because I’m not getting my way”. I could not believe it, remember he’s 8! So after a while and my Sister threating to just leave because she was so upset with his attitude, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, & Pirates rides on the other side of the park. Things then started looking a bit better and we managed to have a decent time although now my Nephew was walking around with his head down, I guess my Sister had some words with him. Please note all the pictures we have of him are of him looking miserable. Haunted Mansion had a pretty neat interactive queue, but while on the ride, it stopped twice which kind of killed the spooky mood. The Jungle Cruise was probably the best. The Cast Member was perfect! He was a young guy and kept us laughing the whole time. By this time though, my daughter started to act up. She was hurt because she was trying to have fun with my Nephew but he was being a little jerk to her. And my Sister wouldn’t punish him for it! She just ignored him and left it up to me. Plus, every time my daughter would get out of the stroller, he would try and jump in. I’m sorry, I hated to be this way, but I warned my Sister that he may need one, and she scoffed at the idea saying, “They both are in shape, he’ll be fine”. So I kicked him out each time reminding him that this was my Daughter stroller, not his. Dinner was at Casey’s then we got our spot for the Main St Electric Parade. It was a great parade as normal then we waited for the fireworks to start. The kids chimed in saying they wanted to go on a few more rides before we left and everyone agreed except my Dad. He threw a fit and said he wanted to watch the fireworks. So we said fine and left him to sit there. It wasn’t until later when we got home that he admitted his back hurt from all the walking. My husband gave him some pain meds and he was fine the rest of the week, taking a pill each morning. My husband, who is normally such an easygoing guy, said that if my Dad complains one more time he’s going to take up smoking! It was also then that my Sister approached me about getting my Nephew a stroller. Amazing…
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Up early again, we headed right over to sign the kids up for Jedi Training while my Dad and husband ran to get us Fastpasses for Toy Story. Well we got there at 830am and finally at 930am we were able to sign them up for the 7pm slot! Wow what a popular attraction! We then headed for Toy Story, a fun ride as usual. We hit all the rides they wanted and Muppets, which the kids LOVED, then had lunch at the Studio Catering Company. I SO recommend this place. The variety was excellent and satisfied everyone, plus it is right next door to the Honey I shrunk the kids play area. After lunch we let the kids play, and planned our next move. Everyone was a lot more agreeable and willing to compromise. Later we had early dinner reservations at the 50s Prime Time Café, and headed over there. Everyone had a blast. They were very happy I recommended this place. The food was great, our waitress was amazing, and they even sang “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” to my Nephew who at the time did not have them. After we ate we ran over to watch the Indiana Jones show, loved it, then headed over to ride the Star Wars ride one last time before Jedi Training started. If you are a Star wars fan I definitely recommend Jedi Academy. It was worth the wait! The kids had a blast and I have wonderful pictures of my tiny Daughter fighting 6ft Darth Vader! That ended and we rode Star Wars again. Even my Dad got on this time. By then the park was thinning out because Fastasmic! was playing. Another reason I suggested to them we do this Sunday night. We rode some more rides with no wait then headed back to the condo.
Day 4 Animal Kingdom
I was unsure of how they would react to this park but overall they were all in a good mood and seemed to enjoy it. My Dad really wanted to see the gorillas, so we made a point to spend some time there. We also got to see all the animal exhibits, which my family had missed last time. I still did not get to see the Lion King show, maybe next time. Dinosaur was a lot more thrilling than I had thought! The kids were a bit freaked out during the ride, but were fine after it was over. We wanted to try Kali River Rapids, but it was too chilly, oh well. My Mom even got to go see the bird show. Finally got to ride Expedition Everest. I’m not a fan of roller coasters, but it was pretty fun. I hope next time we ride the Yeti will be fixed and not disco. The Safari was nicer this time. We got to see more animals and even the short lived Zebras. Overall this a beautiful park, and I look forward to seeing more of it through the years. We stayed until park closing then headed to the local Golden Coral to eat. I was a bit worried because I hadn’t checked out the reviews on the place but it was good food at a cheap price. When we got home they asked if we could go back to Magic Kingdom to fit a few more rides in there. I said sure we could do a half day because I didn’t want to miss out on Epcot. Boy did I regret that decision.
Day 5 Magic Kingdom/Epcot
We arrived at Magic Kingdom and preceded to do the rides we missed out on Monday, Hall of Presidents, Small World, etc. Sadly they did not get to ride Splash Mt, as it was temporarily closed. We finished up at lunchtime then hopped over to Epcot. We hit the World showcase first so we could eat. I tried explaining to them to pace themselves, as there is food in every country they may want to try. Well I’m sure you know how that went. We also signed up to try the Agent P adventure. Well what a waste of time!! I will never do that again. We stopped after the first mission. We only made it to Germany when my Nephew started up again with “I’m bored”. I tried to get him interested in the countries, but to no use. I told my family that there are tons to look at and Epcot isn’t really a ride park. Its relaxing and to take it easy, but they insisted they were just going to go back to the Innovations section and look there. To my surprise my Dad was quiet and just went with them. I said fine, we would meet up later, but we wanted to go through the countries and enjoy them. I was furious. The one thing I was really looking forward to doing, and they were all too selfish to just go along with me, just as I had done the previous days. My family enjoyed ourselves and when we were done called them to meet at Soarn’. They were coming out of Nemo, which bugged me a bit because I wanted to do that with them, but I let it go. We went on Soarn’ and loved it, although my Sister didn’t like it because the scent sprayer apparently was spraying in her face. After that I recommended eating because it would be a while until Illuminations would be on. They declined and wanted more rides. Why won’t they learn? We hit Spaceship Earth then found a spot to sit for Illuminations. Again I begged them to go eat, well it wasn’t until almost 8pm until they ate, which my Dad paid for later when he was up half the night throwing up because he ate too late. Ugh! Illuminations was great, but we couldn’t concentrate because my Nephew decided to throw another temper tantrum because we didn’t get to go on many rides that day. Thank god the next day we were by ourselves!
Day 6 The Happiest Day for me
Everyone got up and went their separate ways. We arrived at Magic Kingdom, which was finally decorated for Christmas, and ran to the castle for our appointment. Bibbity Boppity Boutique was amazing, and my Daughter was in heaven. Her behavior was also greatly improved, because she wasn’t fighting with my Nephew all day. Cinderella’s Royal Table was delicious, and we even got a table near the window. I would definitely eat here again. The rest of the day was relaxing, making sure we got pictures with all the princesses and doing the things she really wanted to do. We even got to go on the Little Mermaid ride, Belle’s Cottage and Beast’s castle, which was closed on Monday. We met Gaston, one of my favorites, and got our picture with him. New Fantasyland is beautiful. I loved the theming and the extra seating on the castle walls. I can’t wait to try out the Mine Train Ride when that opens! This was also the day I did most of my shopping. Because I didn’t have to worry about “boring everyone” I was able to relax and get the souvenirs I really wanted. We ate a late lunch at Cosmic Rays again, and even got to go on Splash Mountain, which was closed on Monday. The Christmas Party came and it took my breath away. We were able to get our picture with Captain Jack, and got Hot Chocolate and cookies. The snow on Main Street was beautiful and the parade was festive and wonderful. It was just such a relief after all those days of stress. While I enjoyed Christmas, I think next time we go will be fall again. It seemed less crowded, and we really enjoyed the Halloween Party. We got home late, had to start packing to leave the next day.
Day 7: Leaving
Sadly the one thing I didn’t like about the condo was we had to be out by 10am! So I didn’t schedule anything that day except to drop the cars off and wait at the airport. What else was I to do? Well I was told that this was a waste of a day, and it was boring waiting at the airport. Why did I agree to this again? My Sister kept taking off and leaving us to watch her Son, guess she was pretty tired of him at that point. It was in talking with my Dad I realized why. Apparently he had been a little jerk the whole day on Friday, and at one point screamed at my sister to go on rides with him. This upset my Dad who then took him aside and had some words with him. My Mom on the other hand had a wonderful and relaxing time at Discovery Cove and would recommend it to anyone. After a long wait at the airport, we finally boarded and were headed home. We were all exhausted and sick of each other. I looked at them all and said in the nicest way possible that I will never do anything like this again with them. They all looked upset, but at that point I didn’t care. We landed, got our stuff, drove the hour home, and so ended the trip from Hell. I love Disney World too much to have anyone ruin it. Let that be a warning to others. We are already planning our next trip, with just my family of course. I hope this trip report helps others try to plan a decent vacation with difficult people. Don’t do what I did and try to be the tour guide. Everyone vacations differently and you will not please everyone. Before we did anything I had to make sure 6 other VERY different people were happy about it too, which in turn made ME unhappy. I also found out later that my Dad had paid for a lot of my Sister’s stuff, which only made me upset because he’s the one that says he will only give to one if he can also give the same to the other. All he did for me was stress me out!! In looking back now five months later, they all said to me they had a wonderful time and would have never seen as much as they did without me guiding them. So I guess they got their money’s worth out of the trip. That cheers me up a bit, but not enough to do it again.
A week before we left we had a final meeting and I updated everyone on what to expect and what the plan was. Please note this was also the week Hurricane Sandy hit. Fortunately we only got a lot of rain and wind. The weather in Orlando was looking good, and everything seemed good to go. I also talked them into at least one sit down, and they agreed on the 50s Prime Time Café. Everyone gave the thumbs up and I left everything up to fate. I did my job, if they didn’t take my advice seriously it was their fault.
Day 1: Arrival
We were up at 4am and met at my Mom’s house. We drove an hour to the Harrisburg Airport and waited to board. My Sister was obviously nervous. This was her first plane trip and she told us she really wasn’t happy about flying. We boarded and had a nice flight, 2hrs straight there. We landed, took the tram to the main building and headed down to grab our luggage. We thought everyone had their luggage, and were ready to grab the rental cars when my Mom spoke up and said she didn’t have her luggage. We waited and checked the other luggage belts. Nothing. My Mom and I went to the counter and reported the bag was missing. My Dad then started complaining. It was not my Mom’s fault; complaining was only making things worse. After about an hour, they found the bag and we went to the car rental. I booked everything online and thought everything was paid for except the airport taxes. The previous time with a different company, this was the case. Nope, they made us run back to the counter and pay additional fees because my Dad doesn’t have a credit card so I paid for his car with my credit card online. They said nope, you can’t do that. So then why did it let me do it then online? Ugh. Last time I use that Rental car company. Now my Dad was really crabby and was blaming me that now he has to pay extra money. So we finally get everything straightened out and head to pick up the cars. The cars were nice and we loaded everything in the trunks. As soon as my Dad opened the door he turns his nose up and says “Yuck this smells like cigarettes!” I walked over and smelled. It had a smell, but I didn’t think it smelled like cigarettes. I said it was probably cleaner, and thought maybe we should stop and eat before proceeding because it was 12:30 now everyone was getting miserable. My husband used his GPS and we found a McDonalds on the way to the condo. After eating everyone seemed to calm down. We could not check in at the condo until 4pm so I recommended going to Hollywood Studios and going on some rides, then watching Fantasmic! before heading over to the condo. We arrived at Hollywood and the kids were excited. I rented a stroller for the week and we ran around hitting big rides like Tower of Terror, Rockn Rollercoaster, and Star Wars. The new Star Wars ride was amazing! More on that later. This is when I realized that my Mom was going to be an issue. She was too busy looking around that she wasn’t keeping up and we were losing her in the crowd. Ugh, I wanted to buy her a leash! It was then around 5pm I recommended eating and then getting in line for Fantasmic!. My Nephew wanted to go on more rides but I assured him we will be coming back here on Tuesday and he will be going on lots more rides the rest of the week. This was the start of my Nephews strange, selfish behavior that shocked everyone, even my Sister, his mom. I recommended some places to eat but no one seemed to want to eat anywhere. I warned them it would be a while until the show starts and they will be very hungry. They didn’t listen, grabbed some snacks and headed in to get our seats. The waiting was horrible. My family tries to make the best out of things, but my extended family complained and moaned the whole time saying this was waste of time and that they could be going on rides or whatever. I told them to relax and the show would be worth it. My Mom ran and got a big bag of popcorn for everyone to share, because like I predicted, they were getting hungry. Later I found out, my Nephew wasn’t sharing with anyone, which made everyone furious. My family had our own snacks so we were unaware of this. The show started and was amazing as usual. Afterwards we filed out like cattle and headed to the car. Everyone agreed it was a great show but that they should have sat down to eat somewhere first. We headed to the condo and looked around. Immediately my Dad complained about his room. He didn’t realize he’d have to share a bathroom. I pointed out that I showed him the room layout and told him he would have to share and he did agree to it. Then my Mom chimed in that she wanted eggs and stuff for breakfast, which was another thing we discussed and she previously had stated that cereal would be fine. My Dad blew up because she changed her mind, can you tell my Dad doesn’t like change? My Sister ran for cover, and my Mom tried to compromise with him. After a battle of words, he ran over to the grocery store to grab food and to cool down. At this point I ran in my room crying. What did I get myself into? Then I started to remember why I wanted to get a room for everyone separately at a Value Resort. I had a feeling we wouldn’t be able to be together 24/7.
Day 2: Magic Kingdom
We woke up bright and early to my Dad making eggs, toast and coffee. Yep, you read that correctly. Surprisingly everyone was ready to go by 8am and we headed over to Magic Kingdom, my favorite park. Everyone quickly realized how correct I was on how busy the place would be. I’ve never seen it that busy! I grabbed my stroller and we headed to New Fantasyland. We rode the rides there and did some more in Tomorrowland. To my surprise my Dad even wanted to go on the rides, even though he was the one earlier saying he didn’t want to. My Nephew then approached me and asked when we were going to go on the bigger rides that he wanted to do. I said shortly, we rode on his rides yesterday and I wanted to get some of these other rides in then break for lunch and will head over to his rides after that. He didn’t say much and headed over to his Mom. We stopped in at Cosmic Rays, loved it btw, and started eating. That’s when we noticed my Nephew pouting. He told everyone he had a headache, but we all know that’s code for “I’m pouting because I’m not getting my way”. I could not believe it, remember he’s 8! So after a while and my Sister threating to just leave because she was so upset with his attitude, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, & Pirates rides on the other side of the park. Things then started looking a bit better and we managed to have a decent time although now my Nephew was walking around with his head down, I guess my Sister had some words with him. Please note all the pictures we have of him are of him looking miserable. Haunted Mansion had a pretty neat interactive queue, but while on the ride, it stopped twice which kind of killed the spooky mood. The Jungle Cruise was probably the best. The Cast Member was perfect! He was a young guy and kept us laughing the whole time. By this time though, my daughter started to act up. She was hurt because she was trying to have fun with my Nephew but he was being a little jerk to her. And my Sister wouldn’t punish him for it! She just ignored him and left it up to me. Plus, every time my daughter would get out of the stroller, he would try and jump in. I’m sorry, I hated to be this way, but I warned my Sister that he may need one, and she scoffed at the idea saying, “They both are in shape, he’ll be fine”. So I kicked him out each time reminding him that this was my Daughter stroller, not his. Dinner was at Casey’s then we got our spot for the Main St Electric Parade. It was a great parade as normal then we waited for the fireworks to start. The kids chimed in saying they wanted to go on a few more rides before we left and everyone agreed except my Dad. He threw a fit and said he wanted to watch the fireworks. So we said fine and left him to sit there. It wasn’t until later when we got home that he admitted his back hurt from all the walking. My husband gave him some pain meds and he was fine the rest of the week, taking a pill each morning. My husband, who is normally such an easygoing guy, said that if my Dad complains one more time he’s going to take up smoking! It was also then that my Sister approached me about getting my Nephew a stroller. Amazing…
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Up early again, we headed right over to sign the kids up for Jedi Training while my Dad and husband ran to get us Fastpasses for Toy Story. Well we got there at 830am and finally at 930am we were able to sign them up for the 7pm slot! Wow what a popular attraction! We then headed for Toy Story, a fun ride as usual. We hit all the rides they wanted and Muppets, which the kids LOVED, then had lunch at the Studio Catering Company. I SO recommend this place. The variety was excellent and satisfied everyone, plus it is right next door to the Honey I shrunk the kids play area. After lunch we let the kids play, and planned our next move. Everyone was a lot more agreeable and willing to compromise. Later we had early dinner reservations at the 50s Prime Time Café, and headed over there. Everyone had a blast. They were very happy I recommended this place. The food was great, our waitress was amazing, and they even sang “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” to my Nephew who at the time did not have them. After we ate we ran over to watch the Indiana Jones show, loved it, then headed over to ride the Star Wars ride one last time before Jedi Training started. If you are a Star wars fan I definitely recommend Jedi Academy. It was worth the wait! The kids had a blast and I have wonderful pictures of my tiny Daughter fighting 6ft Darth Vader! That ended and we rode Star Wars again. Even my Dad got on this time. By then the park was thinning out because Fastasmic! was playing. Another reason I suggested to them we do this Sunday night. We rode some more rides with no wait then headed back to the condo.
Day 4 Animal Kingdom
I was unsure of how they would react to this park but overall they were all in a good mood and seemed to enjoy it. My Dad really wanted to see the gorillas, so we made a point to spend some time there. We also got to see all the animal exhibits, which my family had missed last time. I still did not get to see the Lion King show, maybe next time. Dinosaur was a lot more thrilling than I had thought! The kids were a bit freaked out during the ride, but were fine after it was over. We wanted to try Kali River Rapids, but it was too chilly, oh well. My Mom even got to go see the bird show. Finally got to ride Expedition Everest. I’m not a fan of roller coasters, but it was pretty fun. I hope next time we ride the Yeti will be fixed and not disco. The Safari was nicer this time. We got to see more animals and even the short lived Zebras. Overall this a beautiful park, and I look forward to seeing more of it through the years. We stayed until park closing then headed to the local Golden Coral to eat. I was a bit worried because I hadn’t checked out the reviews on the place but it was good food at a cheap price. When we got home they asked if we could go back to Magic Kingdom to fit a few more rides in there. I said sure we could do a half day because I didn’t want to miss out on Epcot. Boy did I regret that decision.
Day 5 Magic Kingdom/Epcot
We arrived at Magic Kingdom and preceded to do the rides we missed out on Monday, Hall of Presidents, Small World, etc. Sadly they did not get to ride Splash Mt, as it was temporarily closed. We finished up at lunchtime then hopped over to Epcot. We hit the World showcase first so we could eat. I tried explaining to them to pace themselves, as there is food in every country they may want to try. Well I’m sure you know how that went. We also signed up to try the Agent P adventure. Well what a waste of time!! I will never do that again. We stopped after the first mission. We only made it to Germany when my Nephew started up again with “I’m bored”. I tried to get him interested in the countries, but to no use. I told my family that there are tons to look at and Epcot isn’t really a ride park. Its relaxing and to take it easy, but they insisted they were just going to go back to the Innovations section and look there. To my surprise my Dad was quiet and just went with them. I said fine, we would meet up later, but we wanted to go through the countries and enjoy them. I was furious. The one thing I was really looking forward to doing, and they were all too selfish to just go along with me, just as I had done the previous days. My family enjoyed ourselves and when we were done called them to meet at Soarn’. They were coming out of Nemo, which bugged me a bit because I wanted to do that with them, but I let it go. We went on Soarn’ and loved it, although my Sister didn’t like it because the scent sprayer apparently was spraying in her face. After that I recommended eating because it would be a while until Illuminations would be on. They declined and wanted more rides. Why won’t they learn? We hit Spaceship Earth then found a spot to sit for Illuminations. Again I begged them to go eat, well it wasn’t until almost 8pm until they ate, which my Dad paid for later when he was up half the night throwing up because he ate too late. Ugh! Illuminations was great, but we couldn’t concentrate because my Nephew decided to throw another temper tantrum because we didn’t get to go on many rides that day. Thank god the next day we were by ourselves!
Day 6 The Happiest Day for me
Everyone got up and went their separate ways. We arrived at Magic Kingdom, which was finally decorated for Christmas, and ran to the castle for our appointment. Bibbity Boppity Boutique was amazing, and my Daughter was in heaven. Her behavior was also greatly improved, because she wasn’t fighting with my Nephew all day. Cinderella’s Royal Table was delicious, and we even got a table near the window. I would definitely eat here again. The rest of the day was relaxing, making sure we got pictures with all the princesses and doing the things she really wanted to do. We even got to go on the Little Mermaid ride, Belle’s Cottage and Beast’s castle, which was closed on Monday. We met Gaston, one of my favorites, and got our picture with him. New Fantasyland is beautiful. I loved the theming and the extra seating on the castle walls. I can’t wait to try out the Mine Train Ride when that opens! This was also the day I did most of my shopping. Because I didn’t have to worry about “boring everyone” I was able to relax and get the souvenirs I really wanted. We ate a late lunch at Cosmic Rays again, and even got to go on Splash Mountain, which was closed on Monday. The Christmas Party came and it took my breath away. We were able to get our picture with Captain Jack, and got Hot Chocolate and cookies. The snow on Main Street was beautiful and the parade was festive and wonderful. It was just such a relief after all those days of stress. While I enjoyed Christmas, I think next time we go will be fall again. It seemed less crowded, and we really enjoyed the Halloween Party. We got home late, had to start packing to leave the next day.
Day 7: Leaving
Sadly the one thing I didn’t like about the condo was we had to be out by 10am! So I didn’t schedule anything that day except to drop the cars off and wait at the airport. What else was I to do? Well I was told that this was a waste of a day, and it was boring waiting at the airport. Why did I agree to this again? My Sister kept taking off and leaving us to watch her Son, guess she was pretty tired of him at that point. It was in talking with my Dad I realized why. Apparently he had been a little jerk the whole day on Friday, and at one point screamed at my sister to go on rides with him. This upset my Dad who then took him aside and had some words with him. My Mom on the other hand had a wonderful and relaxing time at Discovery Cove and would recommend it to anyone. After a long wait at the airport, we finally boarded and were headed home. We were all exhausted and sick of each other. I looked at them all and said in the nicest way possible that I will never do anything like this again with them. They all looked upset, but at that point I didn’t care. We landed, got our stuff, drove the hour home, and so ended the trip from Hell. I love Disney World too much to have anyone ruin it. Let that be a warning to others. We are already planning our next trip, with just my family of course. I hope this trip report helps others try to plan a decent vacation with difficult people. Don’t do what I did and try to be the tour guide. Everyone vacations differently and you will not please everyone. Before we did anything I had to make sure 6 other VERY different people were happy about it too, which in turn made ME unhappy. I also found out later that my Dad had paid for a lot of my Sister’s stuff, which only made me upset because he’s the one that says he will only give to one if he can also give the same to the other. All he did for me was stress me out!! In looking back now five months later, they all said to me they had a wonderful time and would have never seen as much as they did without me guiding them. So I guess they got their money’s worth out of the trip. That cheers me up a bit, but not enough to do it again.
traveling in big groups is always hard. We traveled with 15 people back in 2001... Never again! We shared 3 2 bedroom condos and were around each other constantly. It was not pleasant. Next moth we are traveling with my aunt and her two kids and we are staying on property in 2 rooms. We can use the bus and come and go as we please, which will be good for us. 
