tips for planning a grand gathering?

[becalubob]

Anyone have any advice for planning a grand gathering? My husband's family (16 of us) plan to go in Nov. 2009... there will be 8 adults and 8 kids ages 4, 4, 5, 8, 8, 10, 14, and 16. I think we'd like to stay at WL. I don't want to constantly be with the whole group the whole time, but maybe meet for a meal each day? We are considering the breakfast at Tony's. Other than that, we haven't started planning too much yet. Wondering if any one has any tips for going with a big group of various ages?

 

[tpettie]

tips would be great... I'm planning for 4 adults and 9 children ranging in age from 29months - 15yrs. First time visit for all of us.

Tena

 

[mindy6540]

looking for tips too!!!

 

[becalubob]

Anyone?

 

[gib4]

I don't really have any tips but just returned from traveling with another family. There were 9 of us total. We would book meals at the same time but not together. That way we still had our time alone but then knew we'd meet up at that meal. Go at the kids pace but decide if there are rides or attractions that the older kids want to do instead of waiting at the Dumbo Ride for the little ones to get done. We split up and I took the older kids on the rollercoasters that no other adult wanted to do while someone else would get fast passes or take the little ones on the kiddie rides. You miss out on some of it but that kept the older kids happy and the little ones didn't wait for us to get out of a line or off a ride. It is hard with large groups. Do try to take in some of the shows and parades and not just the rides. It is worth it and really helps with the "magic". Hope that helps a bit!

 

[bcinohio]

We have traveled many times with other families to WDW and will be returning in July. There will be 8 or us this time. The best advice I can give is find out what you each want to do and maybe find 1 or 2 thing during the day to do together. If you try to stay together as a large group for most of the rides you will probable miss a lot. With the vast age group it would be better to split up and agree maybe to meet back at the pool at a certain hour or for dinner. Not everyone is going to want to do the same thing.

You don't want to spend most of your vacation waiting around for others. When we go half of us are morning people and will be going early the other half are not and will call us if they want to get together so we don't have to wait on them.

 

[mkygrl]

I have gone numerous times with groups of family (10+)...Decide what meals you would like to do as a group (chef mickey's,wispering canyon,ohana's are great for lg groups)and make ressies for them...don't expect to just show up with a large clan! Also,when you make the ressies they most likely will say they need to split you...we have always had more than one table but they were always right next to each other!
Have a time each day when you can check in with each other if you are separating....
Also if you can we did a grand gathering firework cruise..it was the best! I highly recommend it!
And most of all be flexible! With lots of ages and likes and dislikes..someone is bound not to be happy with a choice...go with it!have fun!

 

[tpettie]

I have heard lots about groups splitting up and doing stuff on their own. We are a group the normaly go do field trip with our kids together like zoos, amusment parks, movies ect. Will we be able to do stuff as a large group or is that just too hard to do there?

 

[DVCTiff]

We went with a group of 14 in 2006. Though I had a daily itinerary, it became very clear that people had their own plans. I really needed to just be okay with that.

I told everyone which park was best for that day and when we had a group reservation. Other than that, they were welcome to join DH and I or go off on their own. The smart ones came with us but everyone survived. It was fun to hear what everyone else ended up doing. Some people just need to discover things on their own and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[DizzyErin]

Hi we're a group of 16 and all very different ages .. we have basically decided to go with the flow, if there are things we all want to do then do it together otherwise do our own thing so we'll see how that works and i'll let you know hahaha we go in 3 weeks

Also if you can we did a grand gathering firework cruise..it was the best! I highly recommend it!

Can anybody tell me what one of those are??

 

[mkygrl]

The Grand Gathering Fireworks cruise In Bay Lake/Seven Seas Lagoon (water ways around the MK hotels) It stops infront of the Kingdom and you can watch Wishes! Before the boat sails there is a desert buffet and on the cruise a "pirate" is quite entertaining with stories and games. We were led to our boat by Captain Hook and Smee....When we disembarked Wendy,Peter and "Tink" were there!

 

[DizzyErin]

The Grand Gathering Fireworks cruise In Bay Lake/Seven Seas Lagoon (water ways around the MK hotels) It stops infront of the Kingdom and you can watch Wishes! Before the boat sails there is a desert buffet and on the cruise a "pirate" is quite entertaining with stories and games. We were led to our boat by Captain Hook and Smee....When we disembarked Wendy,Peter and "Tink" were there!

Oh wow how fab thanks .. any idea how much this costs?

 

[tpettie]

I have heard about that cruise was planning on giving it a try. how many groups do they take out on a night? Can you see the fire works well?

 

[mkygrl]

Oh wow how fab thanks .. any idea how much this costs?

I believe adults are 29.99 and kids are 14.99 prices may have changed though!

I have heard about that cruise was planning on giving it a try. how many groups do they take out on a night? Can you see the fire works well?

It depends on how many people are in the party....the boat has a capacity so they fill the boat to capacity...The night we did it there were 2 boats picking up at the Contemporary.....

The view was AMAZING....my dad (at the time 70 and die hard Disney fan) said "I don't know how I am going to watch them the regualr way again!"