Thanksgiving DLR argh!

[Disney Doll]

I feel your pain. We do marathon weekend every year with a large group. On the Sunday, we always did a big celebratory dinner at California Grill. I always booked it.

One year everyone wanted to look into one of their private rooms. So I call, get the info which was basically it would cost $100/person.

All I heard was “oh my god. Too expensive, how can you think we can afford that? That’s ridiculous. I can’t belueve you think that’s do-able”.

I was like “umm you guys made the suggestion I just did the research”.

So their next statement was “well what are you going to do now for the celebratory dinner?” My response “let someone else plan it”.

We ended up at Citricos. Lovely restaurant. Delicious meal. Cost $125/person.

How ‘bout that? .

 

[scrapquitler]

The thing is, I’m not complaining about my parents, it’s my sister who was the biggest headache. My parents were actually appreciative about my planning and getting to do a nice dinner with great Fantasmic viewing and more rides at convenient times. And my parents do let me live at home, but that is so I can save for a house/condo; remember, we live in LA, so housing prices aren’t exactly low! And it doesn’t make sense to buy at the top of the market. But their generosity has allowed me to pay off my student loans 7 yrs ahead of schedule, something I never would have been able to do paying for an apartment.

For the trip, they offered to pay for dinner, just as they would have paid for the various things for a homemade dinner; I have paid for my AP and everything else. The other trips were because I sometimes work out of my company’s office in Anaheim, which is 1 mile away from DLR, so some of those trips are just a couple hours after work.

And yes, I get it, these are first world problems. I just needed to vent somewhere and this board was the best option.

So why not just say to your sister "Dinner is at 4:30 at XYZ restaurant. We have plans to see Fantasmic after that, We'll see you at 4:15" and then as you said before "you do you" and let her do what she wants. What's the problem with that? If the rest of you all wanted to ride together all day and she wanted to go off on her own or with her boyfriend and do something different for the entire day except for during dinner, why not?

 

[VandVsmama]

I totally understand! How frustrating that your sister was being such a Negative Nancy in the Happiest Place on Earth! I am a big time DL planner, too. We don't live in So Cal, so we don't get to visit very often. Therefore, when we DO go, I want to take the best advantage of the limited time that we actually have there. Hence, the strategic planning.

We have extended family in the So Cal area who could go frequently, but hardly ever do. And on the rare occasions that they DO go to DL, they are the sort of family that gets there at 11:00 am, complains about the wait times, stands in the middle of Main Street for 15 min arguing about what attraction to go on, etc., etc. They want to go w/us to DL when Star Wars Land opens. Their kids are often misbehaved and whiny. No thanks.

I think your strategy of telling your sister "You do you" was a good one. If we ever go to DL with the extended family that I mentioned above, I plan on going with the strategy of:

1. Our immediate family gets to the parks when WE want to (i.e., when DL opens)
2. We do OUR rough touring plan until Extended Family arrives around noon.
3. We continuing touring using our own methods until Extended Family tells us that they are actually IN the parks (not at the parking lot).
4. We plan to eat somewhere for CS, maybe go on a ride or 2 together after lunch, then we part ways.
5. Our family takes a break at our hotel (within walking distance), while Extended Family spends a miserable afternoon in 45min+ long lines.
6. We go back to the parks around 5pm, meet up with Extended Family for dinner. Extended Family is wiped out, whiny, and beat. We are refreshed and ready to go for a few more hours.

I will even go so far as to make 1 TS reservation for our immediate family per day. I'll let Extended Family know where we'll be eating, but if they want to join us, they'll have to let us know so we can add them to the reservation. Extended Family is like your family...they can never make up their mind where to eat. It literally can take them an hour to all decide. It used to drive me bonkers. Now we just announce, "Well, WE are going to ___. Come join us! We're leaving right now. Hope to see you there in a few minutes!" 45 minutes later, they show up when we are done eating and ready to go back home. It's comical.

Don't let anyone be a Crabby Patty and rain on your good time at DL!