I love playing with other peoples money
If it were me and price was not a concern...I would want
separate rooms for each family and stay club level whichever resort we picked. A suite for each family unit that is more than 4 people, but definitely separate rooms for each family unit. Having a place to kick back together with treats and a club lounge, while maintaining personal space in our rooms, would be ideal.
My preference would be
Polynesian with theme park views from the room and in the Hawaii Concierge building where I could meet up with family and see wishes from the lounge. Would link reservations so they put all our rooms beside/near each other.
We have done a
4 generation (11 people) and a
3 generation (16 people) and always managed to have rooms that were paired off with pass through doors. Very cool to be able to knock on a door inside the room to coordinate whether ready to go see Mickey. We made ADRs for one large meal together each day, usually lunch, and pretty much stuck together for the morning and then had down time at the resort. Unless we had an evening ADR together we all went or did what we wanted in the afternoon/evenings, pairing off in different ways. The ones with younger kids had one day mid-week where they did their own thing. (water park, a full day at MK or a day lounging at the resort), that day we meet for supper with an ADR at one of the resorts. We also traded kids with my sister one evening, on our first multi-generation trip. We took her younger kids to see Fantasmic (and gave them treats and walked around a bit) and she and her husband took my 9 and 11 year old for another round of big rides, without having to baby swap. We still talk about how fun that was. On our last multi-family trip we took her oldest with us to MK on the day they stayed at the resort for rest and pool time with their two younger kids. My brother also stayed at the resort with his wife and younger kids and the grandparents split up with one staying to rest and hang with young grandkids and one coming with us for thrill rides and big kid time. This also has ended up being a favorite memory for all of us.
Have stayed at
Animal Kingdom Lodge before and it was pretty special and would love to stay club level there, perhaps
renting from a DVC member, with a room looking out over the savannah/animals. Would make sure I had a car to get around and not rely on Disney transportation. We have stayed at AKL and drove between resort and parks and ADRs at other resorts, which worked very well for us. If driving is an option would be a lot of fun to have a whole extra experience of AKL built in to the vacation.
My cousin goes on a 3 generation trip (with her in-laws footing the bill) which includes her family of four, parent-in-laws, sister-in-law with her family of 5. They go pretty much every other year to Disney, usually staying at the
Grand Floridian as that is what the in-laws prefer. She has very nice things to say about the trip and accommodations. MIL likes to take her grand-daughters, plus DD and DIL to the
tea at GFL, and further treats the adult ladies to a
half day at the spa sometime during the trip, while (when the grand kids were young) the fellows take the kids to the pool or park. The fellas get an afternoon during the trip to
golf or do some kind of experience as well. My cousin is a very lucky lady to have in-laws who will spoil their adult children and grand kids equally. The grand kids are all college age now, and as each became old enough, join the spa day or the golf/adventure. Now they can do the guys and gals time simultaneously, since no one has to watch kids anymore.
Anyway, thanks for letting me play and talk about some memories. Would love to hear what you decide on, very exciting and sure to be magical whatever you pick!
