Ok, it's not AWEFUL aweful, but it's probably our worst trip.
We had been planning a trip to The World for fall of 2010 for the Food & Wine Festival. Had a day picked out, trip booked, etc. I was talking to my husband's best friend about Disney and how much fun it would be if they would come with us since they've never been there. They really wanted to, but spring of 2011 was more financially feasible for them, so I switched our date. I acted as consierge for this entire trip, making all the ADR's, emailing them all the information on hotels, our personal favorites, pictures, reviews, you name it. We decided upon May 2010 and we planned to stay at POR. So for the entire 6-8 months before our trip, I'd loaned them my vacation planning DVD from Disney (they never watched it), had them decide what restaurants they'd like to go to based upon their tastes (they're or he more particularly is a steak eater so we got Le Cellier and Yachtsman, Boma, etc). Everything was geared around them having the best time possible, I let all of our ADR's know it was their anniversary and their first trip, I handled all the money exchange and making sure everything was paid for. They didn't have to do a thing other than put luggage tags on their bags and show up at the airport (we ever handled that for them). I had gotten the feeling all along that they were excited to go and really looking forward to this.
We get down to Disney and they like POR, a plus. Outside of that, they (particularly him) griped about the price of this, the price of that, the burgers aren't as good as such-and-such place back home, the steak at the Yachtsman was an end cut, Dinosaur ride was ok, but the Mummy at Universal was better, Spaceship Earth was too slow and boring, Mission Space was good, but apparently not enough for another ride, every meal with the exception of maybe one wasn't as good as something else, somewhere else, too much walking, waiting too long for buses, didn't like the crowds (crowds were very do-able), Soarin' should be in HD, pizza at Via Napoli didn't have enough cheese on it and it's not like take out at home, everything. By day 2 of 7, we realized they were just phoning it in. I'd make suggestions like, "hey we could do this over here"...I'd get a luke warm, "eh, maybe" from them. "Hey guys, let's go have our pictures taken with Minnie and Mickey!", "I don't do pictures". Hey, let's go see Festival of the Lion King, it's a really great show!". "We don't do shows". " What do you guys want to do next?" "I don't know, what's cool around here?" Every time something was offered to them, it was poo-pooed. Nothing was fun, nothing was magical, nothing. It got to the point one day while we were walking around at the World Showcase at Epcot and nothing sounded like a good idea to them for lunch. I'd told them that we've got dining reservations at 7:05pm at Le Cellier and we're going to split up now. They can do whatever they like (they don't do shops either) and we'll meet up in Canada for dinner. They were apprehensive to do that because, "well you guys know where all the cool stuff is". Really? Nothing we're doing or showing you is "cool" to you two. I felt sorry for the wife, she seemed game for pictures, having fun, checking out everything and having some fun shopping, but her husband stands outside of a shop with his hands in his pockets and a scowl on his face because he's got to wait and it's the "same crap, different store" to him.
My husband and I are trying to remain friendly and keep things entertaining and fun, but it's just rolling off them in sheets. We were there for 7 days (they wanted 7 instead of our usual 5) and by day 6 we had spent the entire day alone at Epcot, taking our time, looking at everything we wanted and telling ourselves that under no circumstances would we ever go on vacation with these two again. I got home and asked my brother if he had experienced the same thing with them when he and his wife went to Universal with them in 2005. "Yup, same thing" was his answer to our questions. Nothing was ever good enough, worth the money, tasted good enough, big enough portion, made the way he wanted, or interesting enough for the two of them. My brother said, " he sucked the fun out of the entire trip". Exactly.
Now we're just going to go down there with other Disney lovers like ourselves that we've been with or we'll go alone. I just want to go back down there and have a re-do to get the joy back into my vacation.[/QUO
Hmmm I think you were on vacation with my FIL!
I would have stood for you!
I don't know how our luck could be that all four ended up getting the tidal wave of water in our laps and shoes.
