mickeyluv'r
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2005
These are some good suggestions. Getting out the door in an organized manner is important witha large gruop. We don't bring snacks so much,and food is not allowed on the buses. We tend to use the food courts/quick serve for breakfast. It shouldn't be a case of one person being a task master. If you are at the gate at 9:15, that's still plenty early. However, the difference between arrving at 9:15 and 10:15 is huge. So extra time wasted in the morning is important time lost.
We also prep much of what we need for the day the night before. It's always a good idea to get a quick weather report each morning and maybe an update before bed if it looks iffy for rain. That way you know if you should pack jackets or rain gear (I hate to carry anything extra.)
If you have any family members who can shower at night, that may help. So maybe some are at night and some in the morning.
If you are staying on property, you'll need two rooms, a DVC suite, or a Ft. Wilderness Cabin. I think the All Star Suites only sleep five.
The trouble with a schedule is that it often creats more problems than it solves. I've been enough times to know that if we had made a schedule then we would have spent way more time in line. We Do however make a schedule in terms of which park we'll go to on each day. We also tend to have one dining reservation most days, but there are also lots of places to get good quick serve meals, too.
If you are thinking of making any dining reservations, I would make then as early as you can. Preferably near the 180 day mark. With a larger group, getting reservations can be more of a challenge. If you are staying at a resort with a TS restaurant, you'll probably love having a meal there. Indeed, at some of the deluxe resorts, it's worth considering eating at your home resort twice, or the next door resort. The table service places at the mods are nice as well.
Even when we stay offsite and at the values we had dinner at our home resorts at least once.
One more family tip I alwasy like. If you've got a digital camera then taking a picture of every one each morning is helpful. That way you've got a picture of each person in their outfit inthe event someone gets lost.
Another handy thing for groups is cell phones. Someone recently mentioned that texting can helpful at WDW, too.
as we had ressie's at Tusker House. We left the parks by 1pm, went back to the house for a nap, swim and big lunch, and then went back to the parks in the evenings. We found 2 single strollers worked better for us, than one double, as quite often we split the little ones up, either with their oldest sibling or a parent.
It will be time for a new one.
