Disney with multiple families - individual or group reservation

I am going to disney with 3 individual families. Should we each book our own trips and then link in my disney experience or should I just pay for all 3 and put it under 1 reservation. I am planning for everyone and making dining plans. We want adjacent or close rooms and that might help if I book together.

I am doing the exact same thing. I called disney and booked everyone's room together but each reservation is under that particular family's name. I put in the adjacent or close room request when I made the reservations and then we linked the reservations together. You must have an email account, phone #, and address for each family's reservation, as well as the names of all parties staying in that room.

Because this is a family vacation on my dime I requested that payment information only come to me...when the entire December vacation is paid for I will tell everyone to go ahead and link their credit cards and contact info so they can do online check in.

I took care of all of the reservations but if the families are going to different restaurants on the same day/time Disney has made that impossible to do online so I suggest you call the ADR line when your 180+ rolls around.

Good luck!

I would have everyone book their own reservation and link them in MDE, that way you're not on the hook for someone else's vacation. You can make reservations for 20 people and as long as the 1 person shows up you won't be charged the no show fee, so feel free to make the reservations for the entire family.

Individual. I learned my lesson when my inlaws all said Let's Plan A Big Group Trip! and then one by one each canceled.

We did a trip last April with 4 families. We all booked separately, then gave each other our reservation #'s and then had them linked. Because we were linked we requested room (at All Star Sports) next to one another, and not only were we all lined up, but we were in a great location as well. Also, what is nice is once you link each member, you can plan your FP+ together (or separately). There were times we scheduled all our FP+ together and other times that we changed them separately and just met up later.

But, the thing about doing separate reservations is that you still have a down payments and such, so I'd say keep them separate so you aren't having to keep up with who owes each other what.

I'm coordinating a 4 household trip and I must say, linking through MDE has been awesome so far. Everyone booked their own rooms at the resort of their choice, and then I called in and got everyone linked in MDE (it was just faster that way, although you can do it all online), and we had no problem booking heaps of ADRs for the group (which we are adjusting as needed). I bought tickets through my work to save some money and was able to apply to everyone as appropriate since we were all linked. We are using Splitwise (but there are lots of competing apps) to sort out finances (since some of the ADRs were prepaid). That said, we've traveled together before and everyone is quite responsible about repayment so I didn't mind paying for those meals upfront. We're just about at our FP window and I'll be able to book FP for the group and then instruct people to go in and adjust as they want.

I definitely agree that having people book their hotel individually, and then linking the reservations, is the way to go. You can still coordinate things but it keeps things segmented.

We've done this several times. Most recently, last August. We book separately and then link. Disney has always given us rooms together without a problem. I have always made all dining ressies for the group and last Summer did everyone's FP+.

I am coordinating for 3 families
None will bail
1 person is paying
2 of the other families are none Disney people and have no experience planning so it's all me