First Family Vacation - DISASTER!

United States
January 17, 2013 12:53pm CST
We planned our first vacation meticulously, and we were so-o excited! We booked it, last March for Sept (2012)... It was DH and I first vacation in 8 years, and our first vacation ever with our 7 year old son... we waited until now to take him because we wanted him to be old enough to remember his first time to Disney and we wanted him to be big enough to do some of the same things we wanted to do... We spent all those months building up Disney, SeaWorld, Hollywood Studios and everything else... He was so cute he even specifically asked if we could go see Winter (Dolphin Tale) in Tampa! I was worried he would be afriad of the airplane! Was I seriously off!!! It was a disaster from day one! We flew into Orlando, rented a car for the trip to Tampa because we wanted to do Busch Gardens and, of course go see Winter in Clearwater... Our darling son spent all of 10 minutes looking at Winter; he would walk by every exhibit, only glancing at it, forging ahead to what was next! Which of course, ruined it for me cuz I wanted to see everything! We spent the night in Tampa and did Busch Gardens the next day... that was a disaster - he was afriad of everything! My little guy who leaps from the top of his swingset, who free glides down our steep/slope of a driveway on a scooter, who never tires of PLAY... he was afriad of everything, got really tired - FAST - and whined about 80% of the day! Drive back to Orlando to spend the rest of our 8 day trip there and every day it got worse and worse... The whining, the pouting, the resistance to everything we looked forward to showing him and seeing him experience.... It was just horrible. Anyway, I think the long and the short of it is, he was overwhelmed by so much in such a short amount of time... Even though we thought enough about making sure we only did ONE major thing a day and making sure we all did everything together... I think it was just too much for him... Anyone else had this happen? As his mom and dad, we were perplexed, disappointed, at times angry, and yes, hurt... By no means do we BLAME him, we just don't know what happened?? What did we do wrong??
5 responses
stary1
@stary1 (6612)
• United States
17 Jan 13
Raven7317 Perhaps you are correct it was overwhelming..too much too fast. One major event a day is also a lot for a 7 year old..A day at the beach depending on the weather might have been a relaxing alternative? I am so sorry you were disappounted..what a let down. We made a mistake when we started taking our first child to Disneyland too early...when she was 2..she doesn't remember it..and we kept going back since we live in LA. Well with our second we learned to wait and take it slower ... and she was older..
Raven7317
@Raven7317 (691)
• United States
17 Jan 13
Hi Stary, thanks for the response... NOW we see he was overwhelmed, but we were going on his normal schedule, daily excitement level, and his personality... We were completely thrown off by the change in him... We know he gets moody when he's tired/hungry, but we made sure he ate, made sure we were back at the hotel early and in bed early... it just didn't seem that it would have been overly different from his everyday routine... camp, school, play dates, sports... he's kept pretty entertained most of the time... DH and I would much rather have found a beach in the Keys for 8 days, but we worried there wouldn't be enough excitement for our dearest monster! LOL Live and Learn I guess... hopefully we'll be able to go back - he's already asking to go back! But next time, it will be more about relaxing with a little excitement thrown in! Thanks!
stary1
@stary1 (6612)
• United States
18 Jan 13
Raven7317 We live and learn with our kids. How nuts was I to take a 2year old to Disneyland and think she would take it all in and remember it and love it...lol We want so badly to make them happy we get all excited and overdue it sometimes..Every good parent has done this. BTW... all children (and even adults) get moody when tired and hungry :)...you sound like a very loving Mom...and I bet you are!!
Raven7317
@Raven7317 (691)
• United States
20 Jan 13
Thank You!
sharlahodges
@sharlahodges (813)
• United States
19 Jan 13
I am sorry your vacation did not turn out like you had planned and even son did not enjoy himself. I remember the first time we took my 2 daughters to Disneyland they were 6 years old and the first time we took my son to Disney World he was 4. I never experienced anything like that with any of them. They enjoyed the trip. We then took my 2 gds for the first time to Disney World when they were 6 and 13 months old. We even drove from Texas to Florida with my 2 gds and they did great. My 13 month old gd did great being so young and would sleep in her personal stroller when she got tired. I really do not know what you did wrong.
Raven7317
@Raven7317 (691)
• United States
20 Jan 13
Thank you for the response... yes, I have heard that many families take young children and do well... I'm jealous! LOL As noted, every child is different and we'll just have to focus more on showing him what HE wants to see/do instead of showing him what WE want him to see/do... With the best intentions of course, we planned alot of what we ourselves had done and thought he would just love it - while he did enjoy some of it, it would have been better for him if we did fewer things and spend longer times there instead of spending a little time everywhere... Lesson learned! Thanks!
ravinskye
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
17 Jan 13
It probably was too much too fast. I was 14 the first time we went to florida and did disney and stuff down there. We were exhausted at the end of the day from walking all day long and hot from not being used to the heat. The next time we went I was about 16 and it wasn't much better lol. My parents wanted to plan a bunch of parks in the little bit of time we were there. My mom got a little upset we didn't want to do all of the ones she wanted to plan. It just is a lot when you aren't used to it.
Raven7317
@Raven7317 (691)
• United States
20 Jan 13
Hi Ravin, thanks for the response... I wanted him to give him the best week of his little life! I never got to travel until I went in the service at 18... The first time I went to Disney I was 27 - my DH actually took me! I'll never forget it, it was everything I imagined it to be... I felt like a child! LOL And I really just wanted to share that with my little guy... I guess everyone is right - it depends on the kid... we'll just have to be sure to plan our next vacation with a little more thought towards relaxing and lazing around... Thanks again!
marguicha
@marguicha (215711)
• Chile
17 Jan 13
I`m very sorry this happened to you. I had a completly different experience when we went to Orlando with my 2 grandsons 12 years ago. They were 6 and 8 years old. Although they preferred more daring things than the ones I liked, everything went well. They both took a backpack with sandwichs for everyone. They explored terible things that only accepted older kids (we put socks inside the shoes of the smaller grandson). Your child may be too pampered, but I don`t know. Every child is different. Up to now, they remember that vacation as the best they had.
Raven7317
@Raven7317 (691)
• United States
20 Jan 13
Thank you for the response... Yes, he is somewhat 'pampered'... don't really understand why that would play into it ruining our vacation... we did everything together, we didn't understand why he was so overwhelmed and/or afraid... he had never displayed such uncertainty before... But now we know... we'll be more aware for next time... thanks again for the response.
edvc77
@edvc77 (2140)
• Philippines
18 Jan 13
Maybe it was a real surprised to your son. You should orient him first on where are you going and what are you going to see. Some children when it is the first time they see something or someone they are afraid. Maybe next time he is going to be used to it already.
Raven7317
@Raven7317 (691)
• United States
20 Jan 13
Hello, thanks for the response... We did try to 'warn' him of all we were going to see... we planned it together, with him... we got the free Disney DVD and watched it, we showed him pictures of our previous trips, we went to websites to explore the parks... EVERYTHING we could think of! LOL Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of smiles and he did have a good time, and he did really love PARTS of the vacation.... but it was really HARD work, really stressful and really overwhelming for US to see HIM so overwhelmed...ya know? Anyway, it's done and over, we don't laugh about it now, but someday we will, I'm sure... thanks for the support!