PassPorter.com Feature Article Original article at: http://www.passporter.com/articles/disney-world-with-a-friend.html Traveling to Walt Disney World with a Friend: Talk First, Book Secondby Erin Conrad, PassPorter Guest ContributorLast modified 08-09-2012 I'm a married woman with two teenage sons. My whole family enjoys trips to Walt Disney World, but I seem to be more of a "Disney nut" than the rest of the family. So, to get my Disney fix, I've traveled solo once and with friends on two other trips. Both "friend" trips have been fun -- but both required a different type of planning than I've done for family vacations. Just a quick bit of background: Friend #1 had been to Walt Disney World once, several years ago, with children who didn't really want to be there (I know, what's up with that?), and had decided to not continue with the Disney part of her trip after her second day. We lived close enough to each other that we flew together. Friend #2 was a Disney veteran who had lived in Orlando years earlier, and spent her weekends at the parks, but hadn't been there since. Both our birthdays were within weeks of our trip. She accepted my invitation to come on the trip just three weeks before we left (I had been planning a solo trip, and had flights, hotel, and dining reservations already in place). She also lives in another part of the country, and we had to coordinate flights on short notice. For both trips, my friends and I had a lot of talking to do. Of course, we wanted the trips to be fun and successful, but were we suited to vacationing together? Or would these trips cause such irritation that our friendships would be harmed? We discussed many areas of traveling together before we put down the not-insignificant amounts of money required, and as a result, both trips were fun and brought us closer than we had been. Before you start putting money down on airfare and Disney deposits, consider the following questions: 1. Do your touring styles match? Does one of you prefer a relaxed approach and the other a “planning commando” style? What are your afternoons for, relaxing or re-riding?
Friend #2 expressed interest in having a pool break on one or two afternoons of our three-day trip. Pool-sitting holds NO interest for me – I can read at home. We agreed that if she felt that she needed a pool break, and I wasn’t interested in leaving, that she would go back to the room on her own, rest and recharge, and meet me later. We discussed the specific attractions we wanted to see and made a plan, using the Unofficial Guide's free Touring Plans (touringplans.com), which she had used before but I hadn't. She was happy to get up early and get to rope drop every day, which was what I wanted to do on this trip.
With Friend #1, we both felt like we could splurge a little bit. She was in a bit better financial position than I was at the time, but we were able to agree that we wanted to buy the Disney Dining Plan, and we were willing to spend the money for the Halloween Party. Since we had talked ahead about how much we could spend for the trip, we never had a conflict about the cost of food or extras.
With Friend #2, we were both stretching our budgets to take this trip. I had earned the cost of the trip through an extra job, and since she joined me so late in the planning, she had no chance to find the extra funds. I offered to pay the cost of the room; after all, I had already been planning to pay for it when I was going by myself . We agreed that we would pay for food out of pocket, and go cheap. We didn’t get any extras, spent little on souvenirs, but we still had a great time! We found lots of free and cheap things to do; we visited some of the other resorts as afternoon breaks, and wore our Birthday Buttons every day and enjoyed the attention (and free desserts!) those brought us.
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