13 and counting - need suggestions for going with the WHOLE family

[DVC-LEROY]

Help! We recently booked an October 2002 trip for our extended family - 2 sets of grandparents, 4 adults, 2 teenagers, and 3 kids. Any suggestions for tackling the parks and restaurants with such a large group?

[loribell]

There are ten of us going this June. My suggestion would be to not try to spend all your time together. If some want to go off on their own don't get upset. We are not planning to do everything together. The only thing we will definetly do together is 1 character breakfast and on the days we go to the universal parks we will ride together. To many different ages to try to stick together.

I'm taking my neice and her family, my mother, my 17 year old son and a friend of his, DH, DS-10, and DD-3. My neice and mother don't want to eat out alot but that is what my immediate family likes to do. We have a 2 bed and studio so they can cook all the meals they want. I'm just providing the lodging for them.

I feel we will all need some down time from each other. It sure will be nice to spread out. Plus that onsite transportation will sure come in handy!

Have lots of fun.

Lori

[josierac]

Don't plan on going on every ride together, etc. Plan some things together, like meeting fo rmeals and then have everyone go their way if they want to.

[ahutton]

We have done an extended family trip every year for the past several years. I recommend having one central person who collects two or three ideas from each group and coordinate some group get togethers from those ideas. Most importantly, don't try too hard to plan in too great of detail for such a varied group, and don't be disappointed if when something scheduled comes up there are people who don't want to do it and decide to do something else.

[MinnieGi]

We went this past Nov. with my parents, sister & her friend, two of our friends and their 2yoDS and of course DH, myself and our 1yoDD. I have to agree with the others to make plans to meet up places for dinners or shows but not to schedule everyone together all the time. We did one full day together at MGM. This seemed to work out well b/c of all their shows. It was a fun day. Other days we met up for parts of the day or for dinner. This worked out great. We spent most of our time with our friends as we have similiar age children and therefor ride intrests while my sister and her friend were intested in the water parks and thrill rides. My parents had their own agenda doing the Kyle Petty race experience and Discovery Cove along with the parks.

Also consider two way radios for communication inside the parks for when your parties do split up you can still reach them. We found them invaluable.

[DVC-LEROY]

Thanks for the info everyone! Any suggestions for arranging Priority Seating for a large group?

[MinnieGi]

Disney actually has a group priority seating dept. If you call WDW-DINE they can transfer you to the group dept. Just about anyplace can do large groups. We did Whispering Canyon Cafe at WL, Alfredo's in Italy in EPCOT, Cinderella's Royal Table, Spoodle's on the Boardwalk, & Ohana's at Poly.

[WDWfanatic288]

make sure to spilt up..its hard to please everyone!

like eat lunch and dinner 2gether and maybe a ride or 2 but split up other than that

[smiler]

whatever you do dont spend all your time together!!! the teens will get bored (trust me, i am one). you might want to split up in restaurants as the tables are not big enough for such a big group.
enjoy the trip!!!!!!

smiler!!!!!!!!!!:D

[Flheiny]

It is a great way for everyone to keep in touch! DONT BUY THE CHEAP ONES IF YOU GO THAT ROUTE!! Everyone has them and you will hear alot of other conversations on the cheap ones. But they are nice to keep in contact with each other and keep track of teenagers who want to go off on their own. Say someone wants to sleep in but meet up with the group at a park after breakfast...they can call when they are ready. We found them a great help!

[loribell]

Great suggestion Flheiny, can't beleive I didn't think to mention that. My husband and I used them this summer when it was just us with our two youngest kids. We plan to have 6 of them for our trip this summer for the 10 of us. Make sure you get radios with 14 channels and 38 sub-channels. That way you can find a channel without alot of talk on it.