Has anyone done an extended family trip?

[happymommy]

We are going with 24 people in October (my husband's family, 13 adults/11 kids). We do not have Park Hoppers, so we've planned to be in the same park each day. We also have two meals planned for the entire group, plus a few more meals for "sub-sets" of the group. We are all staying at the same All Star resort.

My husband and I purchased Memory Maker for the entire group. My understanding is that as long as we're linked properly in MDE, we'll all be able to see each other's pictures, then after the trip, I'll upload them to a shared Shutterfly site so people can order prints at will. If anyone has any advice in this area, please share!

I am a little concerned about how it's all going to work out, though. My husband's philosophy is, "my parents are paying for half of this trip, so we should do everything their way" and my philosophy is, "WE are paying for the other half so we shouldn't neglect our nuclear family's wants." So we'll see how it plays out, I guess. We definitely have more Disney knowledge than anyone else so we're trying to be helpful but not overbearing. I think my biggest worry is that I can picture all 24 of us planning to be at Magic Kingdom, for example, at rope drop. But then a few people are late for the bus so we wait for the next bus. So we miss the welcome show. Then we get into the park and people want to use the bathroom, look in shops, wander around . . . while I'm thinking we need to hit the rides! Then we all have a Fastpass for the same time, but we wait for everyone to get there, so the "Fast" pass actually involves 30 minutes of waiting.

There are a lot of layers involved in an extended family trip! I do think it's helpful to think through them.

Been there, done that. Trust me, your concerns are why I won't ever do another vacation (anywhere) with extended family again.

 

[Heidi K]

Been there, done that. Trust me, your concerns are why I won't ever do another vacation (anywhere) with extended family again.

Ha! With my extended family, we do an all-inclusive family camp each year. It's much more low-key and works out very well! Disney is a very different animal, though. I'm trying to get in the mindset of not expecting too much and just going with the flow. That's not really my personality, though!

 

[jmccoy18]

I have done multiple trips with extended family and we have done them different ways.

One trip we all camped at Ft. Wilderness (group of 18, 5 family groups) and planned the same days in the parks, but every family did their own thing in the park. If we wanted to ride the same things at the same time we did, but split up when we didn't. We only ate 1 meal together in the parks; it was a table service. Meals other than that were up to the individual family groups. One family brought in all their own food, one family ate QS the rest of the meals, etc... We also spent our time not in the parks together hanging out in the campgrounds. Our last night was NYE so we all met up at the hat in HS and partied the night away. That was a really fun trip because it was pretty relaxed and up to each family to do what they wanted with a few things planned for everyone.

Another trip half of us stayed at SOG and the other half camped (group of 10, 4 family groups) but we to be together for pretty much everything. I made the park touring plans we followed that, but if anyone wanted to do something different from the plan, they did and just met back up with us later. We planned for one big TS meal for everyone and the rest was all QS or meals at the campgrounds.

I think when planning for a large group it is best to keep with only planning a few things for everyone like 1 or 2 big meals and maybe all agree on the same park for the morning. After that let every family group do what they want, especially if you have a lot of different ages. Everyone has cell phones now, so it is easy to meet up after going separate ways.

 

[rg35]

I planned a trip for 16 two years ago. We all stayed at AKL on DVC points. For ADRs, we got together ahead of time to determine where everyone wanted to eat. Anyone not into the majority ideas made their own ADRs. I took care of creating general touring plans for our group and booking FP+ reservations. For the most part we toured together, but there were some splits here and there. As a group we had traveled together prior to this trip, and since I am the "disneyworld expert" in the family everyone was fine with me taking charge of everything.

 

[thejewellfamily]

June 2017, my husband and I are going with our three kids (10, 10, turning 3), his parents (in their 70s), his brother and sister-in-law (no kids), and his sister (possibly with her boyfriend and his two kids). We are currently waiting to see if Disney passes on ROFR for a Bay Lake Tower DVC contract, but if it goes through, we will be staying in a 2 bedroom at BLT or possibly somewhere else if anything is open at 7 month.

Are there any really great experiences for a larger group that shouldn't be missed? We aren't spending all of our time together, but I have a feeling that grandma & grandpa will want to spend most of their time hanging out with us and the grandkids.

My husband thought that Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue would be fun for the entire gang.

I am nervous about this trip because my husband and I are "disney freaks" and the rest of his family.....not so much. *yikes*

 

[thejewellfamily]

Been there, done that. Trust me, your concerns are why I won't ever do another vacation (anywhere) with extended family again.

LOL. I thought the same thing, but we all went to St. John USVI together last summer and I survived (with a nice amount of booze), so I am hoping that this will go as well. I think that it helped that we didn't spend EVERY SINGLE SECOND together.

 

[thejewellfamily]

I plan on asking everyone for their top 3 "must do" things in each park and plan from there. I figure that there will be a lot of overlap between "must dos", but that way everyone will have done what they wanted. Also, I will be asking everyone how they want to "do" Disney. My husband and I and the kids will still be at the parks at rope drop every morning, but if someone wants to sleep in, they can and just meet up with us later. Thank goodness for cell phones!

 

[Julylady]

Yes, we have done a few extended family trips. The biggest issue I have faced is trying to get everyone out the door and to the bus stop at the same time. You can say "We are leaving the room at 8:15am to get on the bus and to the park by 9am opening." Everyone says that sounds great but then its 8:20am and you are the only one at the bus stop. One family shows up at 8:30 and says they need to get breakfast first. Another never shows up at all and say's they forgot to set an alarm. Uggg... Now I just say that the park of the day is "Pick a park." I am leaving at "pick a time." You can come with me or join us later, its up to you. My stress levels have come down considerably.

One other issue. I have found that in making extended family plans, some people consider those plans changeable while others do not. Some people really want to go, but are unable/unwilling to save up the money required and are forced to drop out. Some families have one person footing the bill for the whole group and that's terrific! But other times, each family is paying their own way. Personally, I have learned that people don't take vacation plans seriously until they have their own money on the line. So you make plans only AFTER they have purchased airline tickets for example. Putting a deposit or airline tickets on your credit card for them to pay you later is a recipe for disaster. "We HAVE to cancel because Jimmy got a new job! I know you understand! So sorry about the nonrefundable $400 deposit. I hope you can find someone else to go in our place to recoup your money."

 

[FeliciaL]

We are working through this now. Two park days and then a three day cruise. We will be in a park on Thanksgiving. 17 people in the parks and another 3 added on to the cruise.

I am the planner. To keep everyone up to date on reservations, etc. I am using sheets in google docs. It's similar to excel. Everyone going has a link to the sheet but only I can edit it. This is working really well for planning.

Our dining opened this am. I was able to book a reservation for 17 online at Mickeys BBQ and the Crystal Palace. Those are our only two sit down meals together. My husband has a MDE account that I used to help book reservations.

I can say with certainty that the cruise 1000x easier to deal with. After a pot of coffee this am, I had a hissy fit trying to get all of the individual extra dining reservations settled for WDW.

Best of luck to you!

 

[kboo]

Lots of good advice above! We did a 9-person family trip with my sis and her partner and 7 month old, my parents (in their 70s, my mom has dementia), and our family of 4 (4 yo and another infant). DH and I subsidized the trip for everyone else, but we really wanted to have my mom make some happy memories before she can't travel any more. My sister joined much later, so when we booked the 2Br at BLT we hadn't anticipated getting anything else, and we made meal plans at 180+10 for our family and my parents. My sister definitely had different ideas about how to vacation at Disney - they only came in for 5 days and refused to plan anything AT ALL - which led to them spending their first day (Sunday) ordering groceries online and having them delivered, even though they were leaving Thursday morning. My parents, otoh, needed some guiding and herding, I during the time we were all there, we took them to CRT and BOG for dinner, and Tusker House for brunch. My sister joined us in the parks on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and Wednesday night, their last night, we had dinner at The Wave all together. We went to the parks at or near rope drop, and my sister's family slept in, had breakfast at the condo, made sandwiches for lunch (!) and got to the parks around 1pm. My parents sometimes went with us in the AM, sometimes they slept in and went with my sister. We got a lot of photos together and did a few rides in our overlapping time, and then generally reconvened at the condo after dinner.

We did go back (we had APs) in April just our family of 4 and it was SO much more relaxing! We covered more ground, did what we wanted, were able to have our afternoon breaks, were better rested, etc. I'm glad we had both trips, it really showed how there is not one "right" way to do Disney.

That said - overall advice - I got my family members linked up on MDE and made FP reservations for them based on what I thought they'd like. We didn't sweat it if we missed our FP. Also got Memory Maker - my dad is usually the family photographer and he wouldn't have been in any of the photos. It links to all their bands so my sister was able to take pictures with my parents and they show up in the memory maker too. So this way I am putting all the pictures on a flash drive and also going to make picture books.

Definitely don't expect everyone to do everything together, that is too stressful! I'd just count on 1-2 things each day, and let the other stuff happen or not happen.

As for a group fun experience - we did Mickey's Backyard BBQ and although the food was only so so, it was surprisingly fun.

 

[kboo]

We are working through this now. Two park days and then a three day cruise. We will be in a park on Thanksgiving. 17 people in the parks and another 3 added on to the cruise.

I am the planner. To keep everyone up to date on reservations, etc. I am using sheets in google docs. It's similar to excel. Everyone going has a link to the sheet but only I can edit it. This is working really well for planning.

Our dining opened this am. I was able to book a reservation for 17 online at Mickeys BBQ and the Crystal Palace. Those are our only two sit down meals together. My husband has a MDE account that I used to help book reservations.

I can say with certainty that the cruise 1000x easier to deal with. After a pot of coffee this am, I had a hissy fit trying to get all of the individual extra dining reservations settled for WDW.

Best of luck to you!

Wow. impressive! Forgot to add, I also printed out daily "schedules" in Excel for when everyone's FP, meals, etc were. That way we all generally knew what everyone was planning to do, and no one HAD to use MDE.

 

[Greggieb]

We're in the process of planning an extended family trip for the week of Thanksgiving 2017 or the first week in June. I'm trying to wrap my head around how a trip will work with a group of 12.

Did you all stay together during the parks, or did you go separate ways, but meet up for fast passes?

Similarly, did you do all lunches/dinners together?

The different families have kids of different heights so I would imagine there's going to be some splitting up, but we also want it to feel like a family vacation.

Any tips and advice for large family vacations in Disney World?

I know it might be sacrilegious but when we go in a large group we usually rent a house off property. It is way cheaper and you are all together under one roof. Bonus is most of the houses have private pools so the kiddies can splash away all day while you relax and unwind.

 

[MCBWHITE]

We're doing a WDW (three park days) and (seven day) DCL next month. Group of 10 (family of 5, family of 3, and grandparents). I'm the Disney person in the bunch. Planning FP+ for everyone, transportation, one ADR (Sci Fi Theater), and general park plan (which park what day, etc.). Pretty diverse group in terms of ride preferences, ages, etc, so I tried to use FP+ for rides we could do as a group and then will use single rider lines for the "bigger" rides that probably only two of us will want to go on. Staying on property. Most of my planning is happening for the parks, the cruise, I have planned a couple things (adult restaurant reservations), but figure people will do their own thing on the ship.

 

[HopperFan]

Have done it many times = good, bad and ugly.

- Agree on dates even just overlap dates.
- Let everyone book which hotel THEY want to stay at, hard feelings happen when forced to stay somewhere you don't want.
- Hotel time is purely individual family time.
- In lieu of pool time, we arrange for a water park day, make a day of it, great way to holiday together!
- Have everyone submit a list of restaurants they are very interested in and focus on crossovers to eat together.
- Book lunches where possible so no one has to get there early or stay late, allows flexibility.
- Let individual or smaller groups book dinners where they want.
- Maybe on one day where there is feeling all can commit, set up a group dinner.
- On any given day you can decide to eat a QS meal together. Flexibility is key.
- If connected be VERY clear, that if someone changes their mind about a meal they are not to attempt to unbook themselves. You could lose your ADR. Just tell them at the podium.
- Never agree to meet early in morning, on any given day there can be glitches, nothing worse than waiting on someone and be late.
- You can connect in park if multiple parties arrive early. Cell phones have made these trips so much easier.
- Once went with friends I know to always be late, I insisted we meet at 11 am, good thing as we got lots done before they rolled in.
- FP+, really depends on group compatibility. If you think you'll like same things, book together in time frames you are sure you will be together.
- I personally coordinate FP+ times with the others and we each book/control our own.
- Allow for great flexibility. Everyone travels different. Even if we are hatched from the same family.
- Backup plans for your family. I always keep a Plan B. We once had plans for full day at MK together with family. By lunch they wanted to leave since DH doesn't go often we weren't leaving, so plan B started with a great lunch, doing lots of attractions that we enjoy, a relaxing dinner and then getting early spots for MSEP (to which some of them returned to watch). This was a "family reunion" aka not folks we often see. We had no clue we would need a Plan B, but it worked out fine because we didn't let it bother us.

I think it's clear to remember that this is everyone's vacation and everyone vacations different. Be together as much as you can stress free, then allow for families to do their own thing as well.

 

[writermommy6]

I didn't read all of the answers, I'm sure they were great. I will say that communication BEFORE the trip is very important. If they say "we don't care" then carefully explain how your family "does Disney". I do agree with the one meal together or assisting with ADRs if you are more Disney savvy. Just one time I'd like to see a family where there are two Disney planners that are equally gung ho. That would be so much fun. I will say it's interesting how families see large gatherings. We used to visit Gatlinburg with my inlaws and even though we stayed in the same hotel, they didn't even try to stay together. Just maybe get back together for dinner. We might not even talk to them most of the day because this was before everyone had cellphones.
Then we did Universal with my parents and my brother. Well they wanted to stay with us the whole time to enjoy the grandkids. Great! Except my dad has physical limitations that he refuses to acknowledge and decided at 4pm that he was done for the day. Which would have been fine except my mom had to drive him back and missed the best part of the day when EVERYONE had left and we rode ride after ride with little to no wait.
Anyway, it is what it is. Just be prepared for anything and yes, I believe preparation is key.

 

[nikkistevej]

First time with extended family(it will be 11 of us), DH's parents are paying for us, his sisters, one of the sisters boyfriends, and their kids to go. We are staying at our DVC- Animal Kingdom Villas(mine and DH's- we are "footing the bill" for it), doing MK for 1 day, and then doing a 4 night Disney Cream cruise. We convinced them that in August- 1 day with all those people is enough, that the cruise is the way to go. None of them have ever cruised, only 2 have been on a plane, none have been to Disney- or really on a vacation at all. I am the planner- and am scared. LOL They don't get along the greatest. We'll see how it goes.

 

[swthrtpallanes]

This was my experience with traveling with extended family, I believe in 100% communication so no assumptions can be made.

Ds and I vacationed with my cousin and her family (4 total) in 2013. She had never been and I had been at WDW once before. I will admit I did invite my self and her dates were perfect since our kids share the same school vacations (a break in mid October) She was cool with me planning the whole thing! She made her own decisions too after all it was her family trip

First she chose AofA, I chose Pop. She did originally plan a suite in Art of animation but 2 people on her side pulled out leaving her with the full bill, by the time she tried to get a mermaid room it was too late so she went to PoP like me.

Second she flew out of LAX, I flew from PHX, we live in the same southwest town.

3rd, I asked her to look over the park maps and attractions to give me an idea of her must do's for each one. I planned fast passes and routes accordingly.

4th, on the first morning waiting at the bus stop (8:30 am) for Magic Kingdom I realized they were not morning people I suggested that for the next days they take their time in the am and arrive at the parks at their own time. Meanwhile me and Ds would already be there and meet them at front when they arrived. Sometimes they arrived at 11am Sure they lost a couple of fast passes but had a relaxed vacation. I enjoyed a lot of rides with my Ds before they arrived.

5th) while together in the parks we ate together, other than that, once they were at Rainforest while I was at T-Rex.

6th) She scheduled Bbb, while I scheduled PL

I never imposed my plans on her since it was her family vacation. I just laid out a plan to guide her and she and her hubby were pleased. They left a day before me and thanked me for everything. They didn't realize how big WDW was and were thankful for all the helpful insights. They were especially impressed with me when while on our first bus ride her Dd3 got car sick I immediately gave her a gallon ziplock and a wet nap. Everything went in the ziplock and nothing on clothes or bus floor Like it never happened. For the rest of the trip she gave her something before the bus rides and was fine.

 

[Jack629]

We like extended family trips on the cruise line. Everyone can do whatever they want during the day and we all meet up for dinner together. Lots of great opportunities for group photos.

 

[jvz82]

We went with a group of 17 (4 different families and great grandparents) and, while there were moments that were awesome, there were many frustrating moments as well. Our biggest issue was that my mom really wanted everyone to stay together the whole time. It was just too hard to navigate the parks with that many people (not to mention 7 children ages 7 and under). It caused some stress. About halfway through day 2, we figured out that we needed to separate more often for our own sanity. But we only spent two days at the park so it was a bit too late at that point!

 

[MNDisneyMommy]

e went just this last October with two sets of grandparents, my brother and sister-in-law, and our two young children (almost 4 and just turned 1). 10 people total.

It was a wonderful trip. We had a few rough patches but that was to be expected on a big trip, and the memories are truly priceless. (My father recently died in an unexpected accident, and we are SO GLAD we didn't wait until the kids were older). My husband, brother, and sister-in-law and I have been to Disney quite a few times before we had kids. The two grandparent sets hadn't been there in ages. Also, we plan to take our kids quite a few times (we're DVC members) as they grow up, so this wasn't the once in a lifetime trip.

Pros:

• Lots of hands to help with kids. Lots of different folks so there was always someone to hang out with the kids instead of go on a ride.
• Disney is so amazing at having things that appeal to all ages. All 10 of us went on many of the same rides, enjoyed meals at the same places, etc. You really just don't get that anywhere else.
• Disney makes it easy to get group pictures and do things as a big group (ADRs, FPs, etc)
• Different things made magic for different people, but then you got to see it through their eyes - so maybe the kids didn't love Crystal Palace that much, but my dad actually got up and bounced with Tigger. Or maybe my husband and I think Small World is boring but our 1 year old thought it was heaven on earth. That kind of thing.

Cons:

• Herding that many people, getting 10 person ADRs and FP times to line up, etc - it was a lot of work for me!
• Family politics - which grandparent does which kid sit with for which ride, or who babysits, or who buys the kid what...some of that.
• People got tired at different times, and some were better about taking breaks when needed than others. We emphasized over and over that if folks wanted to grab a snack, drink, shop, etc they could split off from the group and meet up later with no drama.

Tips:

• We had traveled as a group before (and we spend a lot of time together anyway), so we knew we got along well enough to do this.
• There was one leader (me), and everyone was ok deferring to me for what we did during our group times. I also got all the ADRs and FPs for everyone, set up some touring plans so I knew where we were all going, and figured out what the kids were doing while adults rode thrill rides, etc.
• I solicited input from everyone - what was their 2-3 must do items, what would they not ride, and I made the touring plans based off that. We got to everyone's must do items, which I was really happy about!
• I sent out a newsletter via email with reminders, things people needed to do, etc. when we hit major planning deadlines.
• We also used the newsletter to set expectations upfront - mostly, we would spend the morning as a group, have lunch as a group, and then there would be a break in the afternoon. Breaks were hotel time for us. People could keep touring, come back to our room (we had a villa), or relax on their own. We had group plans from about 4-7 again but they were very optional, about half the time we had company and half not. We also set limits on who could buy what for the kids and how those items got back home.
• We set up rules for the kids that everyone was supposed to follow (try new things at least once, quiet time after lunch, and when one person goes potty everyone goes potty were our big group rules).
• I set out clear directions for the day - we will start at this place at this time, we will see these attractions in this order using these FP, we will eat lunch here, and then you can do whatever. We never split up without everyone confirming they knew the next group time. I usually did this via text message so people could double check later too. A few mornings folks slept in and met us midstream and that worked well.
  
• We had a 2 bedroom DVC villa, and my brother and sister in law stayed in one of the bedrooms. We paid for their room and they helped us with the kids. They were WONDERFUL. It made the trip SO much more pleasant. They would help us leave on time in the morning, set out tinkerbell gifts, help with getting the kids/strollers back to the room, grabbing snacks, naptimes, bedtimes, etc.
• We also had a nice big living room in the villa, and that gave us a gathering place outside the parks - it was not a need, but it was nice and we used it!
• Make sure Disney sets up the MDE accounts properly with links to each other done right. For example, in the grandparent sets, one grandparent had an account and their spouses just used the same one so we avoided making duplicates of people.
• Be flexible! Don't stress if you miss something. Remember its about being together, not seeing everything. (I must have said this in my head about 100 times a day).
• Be honest with the grandparents about what kind of experience rides are - both my mom and mother-in-law were quite grumpy with my husband after getting off Test Track.
• We planned one TS meal a day (usually lunch), breakfasts were always on your own, and we had a few special dinners.
• We all have iPhones, so we used Photo Stream to share pictures. I would download the MM pictures and upload them to the Stream too, so everyone could share them. It worked very well!!

I think the biggest reasons we all viewed the trip so positively were that we all get along & have traveled together before, we had a good compromise of together time and split time, and there was a consensus leader who made decisions for the group and everyone was OK with that.

Also, I think if it was a once in a lifetime trip, I'd plan to stay longer - everything takes longer with a big group. We were there Sat-Sat and it would have been a few days too short if we needed to see every attraction on this one trip.

I hope some of this at least helps!