Having taken my older dd on an awesome trip to WDW in Nov. 2020, I knew the younger 2 kids were wanting their own mother/daughter trips too. Well, they’re 17 and seniors in hs, so it was now or never. I allowed them to propose a different location for each of their trips, but they didn’t look into any info and both decided WDW was the thing. Ok. I also proposed that they could choose to go with my hubby instead of me (I think he was feeling sad that no one wanted him for their trip). Both said no, you. We also offered that they could go together with me, again a no. We generally do a family trip (13ish people) every 2-3 years as we are blessed with DVC points that were given to us. (Yes we are so lucky and so appreciative)
Older dd did all the planning for “her” trip that was scheduled for April 2020. It was kind of a right of passage, a handing over of the planning wand. We sadly watched together as fast passes, then restaurant reservations, then everything quietly evaporated. She was very worried, but I said “sweetie, it’s Disney, they’ll make it right.”
Working in the field of live entertainment, we were out of work for quite an extended time. The kids schooling was also all remote. This gave us the opportunity to reschedule our trip, and time to drive, not fly (no way was I ready to get on a plane at that point).
We took 3 easy days to drive down, spending our 2nd night at Disney’s Hilton Head resort. That was nice. I had read tons of people saying that they felt safer at the parks than at their local grocery stores. Well, they told no lies! It seemed that 99% of the people there were so happy to be there, that they were like, “so all I have to do is correctly wear my mask and maintain proper distance? Ok!” It was a great trip! It was wonderful to see how all the cast members were empowered to enforce the rules, even the non-English speaking janitor felt like he was able to monitor guests, reminding them following proper protocol. Most people, I think, were just so glad to be there, they were great about the rules. We weren’t ready to eat indoors with others, but that was fine. We had a great trip that she still talks about to this day.
It is a huge difference with only 2 people to have to consider, rather than the large group we usually have. We could also pivot plans if we got too tired, or changed our priorities.
So time for the first of the now-17 year olds to plan her trip. We waited too long to get a DVC reservation, so Saratoga it was. We have stayed here before, and it is fine, just bland and uninspired. But fine. We chose the dates coinciding with Jersey week (as we are NJ residents) and added one day on the front, just to try to have a day before the rest of the state showed up. She’s a senior, so we didn’t think missing one day of school would be terrible.
Then I gave her the sign in to Lines and the website, sat the Unofficial Guide in front of her, and waited. And waited, and waited. Nothing. I encouraged, told her over and over, “this is your trip, we can do whatever you like. Is there somewhere you’d like to eat? Anything you want to be sure not to miss? Any special tours you’d like to look into? Anything?” No movement at all. It seemed she would only do planning with me sitting by her side, holding her hand, guiding every single step. Ok, so this is a totally different kid than her older sister, not the go-getter, super-planning kid of the first trip. Slowly, painfully (for me) we slapped together some plans. No restaurant reservations, no tours, just daily loose park plans. It seemed that I’d still have to be the “adult” on this trip.
I was transcribing reservation #s, dates, flights, etc. in my little notebook when I noticed a huge problem! My husband had purchased our airline tickets. Well, it seems that we were scheduled to fly down early morning on the 6th. Good. It also showed that we were to fly back on the same night! 
. Oh no! He made some slight error, but danced around and found us a flight back on the 10th, albeit way later than we had planned.
He is usually the one that takes care of airport stuff, transportation, etc. but this time it had to be me. 
. Having never personally ordered a Lyft or Uber, I watched some videos and loaded the Lyft app. Had dd17 load Uber. I don’t think she really looked into how to use it. For a 17yo, she is surprisingly not adept at tech things.
I shall start a new post to begin the 2nd mother/daughter trip