Any family trip coordinators out there?

[GOBA Mom Lynn]

Just wondering if anyone has been or will be the trip coordinator for their family. My husband's family of 16: brothers & sisters, spouses, parents & children are planning a trip in August 2004, with me being the coordinator since we went last year, and I seem to know everything. (Thanks to all of you on these boards!)

We more or less have decided to stay at the Dolphin using the teacher's rate. Since we will be getting 4 rooms, I was wondering a few things....

Should each room be a separate res. or should they all be put in one name, for simplicity's sake? And should just one person deal with the hotel?

Will the Dolphin need the names etc of everyone right away if we aren't buying our passes from them?

Are there standard view rooms close to the elevators that have a "good" view that we should request?

They do have connecting rooms, don't they?

And finally....Do you end up going crazy dealing with your loving in-laws, trying to make everyone happy?

Thanks!

 

[Growin'upDisney]

I don't know much about the hotel information you are looking for but I can give you some advice on planning for a big group. Do not plan every minute of every day. I say one event a day (two max) for the entire group should be "planned". Like dinner at Ohanas one night, or trip to DTD(DisneyQuest) one day/night, or wathcing th fireworks and EP from the beach at the Poly. If everyone shows -- they show, if they don't then don't stress about it. Plan more activities for your family of 4 and then if other members choose to go along then the more the merrier.

You will stay more sane that way. Trying to plan to the minute for a group of 16 would be crazy. But a select number of events/PS's and everyone should have enough together time and enough alone time. Good luck.

 

[ccrosner]

We returned on October 6 from a 5 day trip to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary. There were only 10 of us with three rooms and we stayed at the GF. I used a Disney Travel specialist and she booked the rooms in the names of those using them. That included the names of all the people sleeping in the rooms.

I think that was smart since we all arrived at different times and the room charges could then go on each person's own credit card. I paid in advance for all the rooms using my Disney Club membership. Check in takes a long time but I don't think that had anything to do with the size of our party. Most of us bought Ultimate Park Hoppers so they were ready when we arrived.

We actually did almost everything together (we're a group that gets along) or at least we started the day together at the same park. Some came back early, others stayed out later. I had PS's for all dinners (you will have to use group dining to get 16) and I was glad we did. The one night we decided to change plans because of illness, we went to the Kona Cafe at the Poly and they accommodated us (great spot, great food).

Hope that's helpful.

 

[2MuchOhana]

Okay, our party of six plus toddler(s) is small by comparison; but I do have a few pointers. We did all three of our rooms separate. We were placed close to each other but not together. Our problem was that we had rooms with kind beds; at the time didn't realize they were only on the corners at the CBR. I would recommend using one name to reserve all your rooms. You are more likely to be placed together.

One problem we encountered was keeping our somewhat small group together. Some of us where early risers and others slept in and took forever to get ready. So, we almost always got a late start when doing things together. Plan for everyone to have some free time to do or go where they want. While it is great to be all together; it is fun to have a little time for yourself, too.
Another idea is set places to meet up with everyoneshould you go your separate ways. It could be an attraction at the park or a planned meal.

Above all don't get all stressed out with the planning. Invite everyone to join in by having them suggest what they would like to do or see. If making an itinery keep it flexible with plenty of room for changes with possible exception of planned meals. Also, check out Disney's Grand Gatherings. It should help greatly with your planning!

Good Luck!

 

[snyderla]

We just got back sunday night from a trip to OKW with 7 of us part of the time and 11 of us the last few days. We stayed in a 2 BR Villa at OKW and a studio there, too.

Our experience was a little different. 4 of our people had never been there before, and except for DH & myself, the rest had only been there once or twice. I learned quite a bit from this trip, that I will use to help me plan a family reunion for 2005. First, DO plan at least 2 meals per day. They don't have to be sit down dinners, but our group needed much more direction than I had intended to give. We stayed together almost the entire time, except for the last day when some of us went to Olivia's for breakfast (I highly recommend this, the meals were wonderful) and the rest went to the Magic Kingdom to stroll down Main Street until we all got there. Plan rest time. I thought everyone would just go back to OKW if they got tired and rest. Not so, they wanted to all stay together and see as much as possible. We took 1 full day to just relax. We went to Ft. Wilderness and ate at Trail's End then ent to the petting farm with my niece and took the boat to Wilderness Lodge and while my niece napped in her stroller, we all napped in the overstuffed chairs in the lobby.

Do an early Priority Seating for breakfast at the Magic Kingdom, then head straight for Fantasyland before the crowds hit it. We went on Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, It's a small world, and Snow white with in 1/2 hour. Then we went to see Mickey's Philharmagic and by then there was a LARGE line for Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh. We were all adults except my niece, so that was really the best way for us. We would never wait in line for those rides, but didn't want to miss then either!!!

Take it easy and have fun. I 'm sure you all will have a great time.

Lori

 

[jordanyosh]

We went on a family/friends trip this last Sept 2003. Overall, it was a fantastic trip. However, it was not without it's challenges. We travelled with a group of13 ranging in age from 13 mos to 71 yrs old. 2 of the seniors were in ECVs.

My cousin was in charge of all of the logistics of rooms, PS arrangements, and coordinating travel/rental vans. I was in charge of the itinerary. To answer your ressie question. If you want higher odds of getting rooms in close proximity, put the rooms under one name. But like one poster already said, if you are arriving at different times, it may be better to seperate ressies. Also it might be easier to keep room charges seperate if they are under different names.

I think the hotel will just need to know how many people in ea room and who the main name is for each room.

As far as driving each other crazy, you have already read what others have written. It really depends on the dynamics of the group. Some groups want to stay together ( our group of 9 in '99 stayed together most of the time) and others don't. What we did this year was plan to eat dinners together. It worked out nice. We also planned what parks to do what days. Originally we planned to spend more time together, but we ended up splitting the younger adults from the seniors and both groups ended up being happier. We also had a few free days where we planned nothing besides dinners. These came at the end of the week so folks could revisit their favorite park or just relax.

Rule of thumb: Be flexible. Listen to side conversations and small seemingly insignificant comments. What my cousin and I found was that folks didn't really want to upset anyone else so even though they weren't having the best time, they just went along with the crowd. By listening to them talk amongst themselves while waiting for dinner or waiting in line for an attraction, we were able to see what wasn't working and change our itinerary early on and everyone ended up much happier and much more relaxed.

Try and get as many people involved as possible and take as many surveys as you can before you arrive. If you are the only one planning and coordinating the vacation, you may end up feeling like a tour director and end up not enjoying your own vacation as much. You end up worrying if everyone is happy and if your plans are working out as you had anticipated.....

Good luck. If you have any more questions about big groups. Just let me know. FYI, WDW is now doing Magical Gatherings that is directed to groups with 8 or more people. You may want to look into it at the official wdw site.

 

[GOBA Mom Lynn]

...to everyone!

We were planning to keep the daily itinerary to a minimum, just planning a few group meals. We enjoyed the Whispering Canyon dinner this year, so thought it would make a good time for the whole group. We've done H-D-D twice before, plus we're trying to save a little bit of money. We also anticipate the "boys" going off on their own, the little ones will be 12,13 & 14: not cool to do too much with Mom or Grandma! (But they will have to put up with a Dad or Uncle )

Anyway, it was mostly hotel details I'm worrying about now! The rest will come later!

Any other thoughts? I do appreciate the ideas.

 

[gtrist4life]

I'm the planner for our group of 18. Ages ranging from 18 months to 74. Mostly Adults, 14 with 5 seniors
I've planned one PS almost every day and picked one park each day with goals to do one parade/fireworks each park. We have separate reservations, and have requested to be in the same building but not right next to each other. A quick look at our itinerary is

Fri 12/12 - Arrive - Early dinner PS at 1900 Park Fare
Sat 12/13 - AK - Dinner PS at Artist Point
Sun 12/14 - MGM - Lunch PS at 50's Prime Time Cafe
Mon 12/15 - MK - Breakfast PS at Crystal Palace
Tue 12/16 - Epcot - No PS planned
Wed 12/17 - Relax - Checkout - Downtown Disney or Boardwalk - about half of us (including my 4) are on early evening flights out of MCO

After reading the comments THANKS!, I'm thinking of adding to our itinerary places to plan on meeting for the parades-fireworks and possibly counter service lunch spots.

Peace
Guitarist for Life

 

[Sara1026]

I'm on my second round of planning for a larger family trip (we only have 7 or 8, though). We have people coming from 3 different cities, etc. I love planning it all, though.

The last time we did this, we had 3 rooms under my name. They still itemized the charges by room, so my BIL and MIL just wrote me a check for their portions (we were paying for the rooms themselves as a gift, though). They gave us rooms right next door to each other, so it was nice.

You might want to put your rooms under different names if having all the charges go to your card is an issue for you. I would think the hotel could still help you get rooms close together.

One caveat-- is someone in each room a teacher? I think you'll have to put the rooms (up to 3)in the name of the one person who is a teacher if not.

You're going to have SUCH a good time-- your family will love it.

 

[cworld]

You might want to go ahead and register as a Magical Gatherings group. A Disney representative will assist you in making your reservations, suggesting special happenings, and help in making Priority Seatings. We have a group of 15 going in December. When I called to register our group the agent pulled all of our reservations and connected them. She was able to put our room requests on all of our reservations with just 1 phone call. There is not an extra charge for the service, but the will push some of their extra happenings. The Magic Gathering people seem to know what's going on.

Good luck.

 

[lwestwise]

We (19 of us, 5 families) were in Disney June of 2003 and I booked everyone's ressie for them. An earlier poster was right. You can't try to please everyone by all doing the same. We were there 9 days and we had three specific PS together and let everyone do as they decided the rest of the time. Different groups went to different parks, etc. They decided on some PS before our vacation and I made the PS for them, but to each his own most of the time. We ended up eating about one meal a day together.
We had a great time, but it was a lot of work for me, way before we headed down.
"Now you can visit me at the NUT HOUSE!"
Next time, to each his own for everything!

 

[JandD Mom]

We are going in 2 weeks with a group that has grown to 11, ranging in age from 2.5 to 62. We first discussed some of the things we would like to do, made some PSs around those, and then set ground rules: if anyone does not want to join the group for an event or activity, there will be no grief inflicted upon them, so long as they give notice before the meeting time. My brother, SIL and their kids are not early risers so they will skip our early Chef Mickey's PS, while my parents, who are early risers like us, will join us. We will take cel phones and meet up later. For similar events, we will decide as we go and be understanding. Similarly, I do not want our family to be forced to sit for 3 sit-down meals per day as some members of our group may want to do. So let's hope the ground rules are followed.

I also made up a sample itinerary that takes into account EMH openings and other events going on while we are there (ie - we will AVOID MGM during super soap weekend - no offense, we just want to be away from crowds). As the week goes on, there are fewer and fewer planned events.

That's what we did in the past when we went with friends, and it worked out very well.

 

[Pig Pen]

so you may not want to listen to my advice! . The worst was a 6-person trip to Key West (not OKW)...but that's a whole other thread!

I am planning another trip - April 28-May 7, 2004, for 8 people - all adults - ranging from 24 yo to 68 yo.

We have a nice mix of early risers, late night partiers, lengthy bathroom primpers, budget babies, swimmers, water-haters, Atkins-dieters, weight-watchers, and one just plain crotchety old man (my dad).

Most have been before, but have not stayed on-site, or have not been for years and years.

This is our plan and why we are doing it:

Staying in a 2-bedroom at DVC (4 days at BWV, 5 days at VWL). Why? For the full kitchen and in-room washer/dryer. We found last time that we spent WAY too much time in the laundry facilities at the regular resorts. We have budget babies who will refuse to eat out often and several dieters so the kitchen will help take the edge off that.

We are switching resorts because I wanted everyone to take advantage of the Boardwalk's close proximity to MGM and Epcot. Then we are moving to VWL because I think this resort is magnificent and several are boaters so we want to do the family boat/bike plan at VWL.


DH and I have AP's but we are getting park hopper or park hopper plus tickets for everyone else, with a DQ thrown in for the 3 20-somethings.

Reason?

Everyone is arriving on different dates/times and UPH would be a waste of money. Some will not go to parks every day. Some want to do water parks and others do not. The problem with this plan will be to make sure we schedule park events to take full advantage of the park hopper features (i.e. don't do a BB and then waste a day's admission to see Fantasmic....make sure you see Fantasmic on a "park day").

Schedule? I will schedule some PS's and try to get everyone together for fireworks, Illuminations, Fantasmic....but other than that, everyone is going to be on their own. I will post MY personal itinerary in the room and if anyone wants to join me, so be it. Otherwise - SEE YA!

 

[JandD Mom]

Originally posted by Pig Pen


I will post MY personal itinerary in the room and if anyone wants to join me, so be it. Otherwise - SEE YA!

Pigpen:

I love this advice and I think DH and I will do this. Our group does not have so many different interests - just the sleepers/loafers vs. commando park attackers.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

We have done a lot of large group trips to WDW and it's usually chaos. The best thing to do is let everyone do whatever they want and just try to meet up for dinner. Doing a park with a large group is nearly impossible... some people want certain rides, some people don't like rides and want shows, some people want to shop, some people are hungry, some people's kids need a nap, etc, etc. It's much better to just do your own thing and try to plan a few nice big dinners.

With the hotel I would let everyone do their own room in their own name. You never know when people will arrive, late flights, etc, and it allows them to put down their own credit card, make requests, etc.

 

[Crazy Kanga]

We recently got back from a week in the world with 15 ranging in age from 7-65. I was the main planner and I found it to be a very difficult trip. We did have fun, but the stress outweighed the fun for me. It can be done, but our group(specificly my m-i-l) who had initialy agreed to split up, decided we didn't come all this way together to split up. So we had the loafers who wanted to stop and look at every little detail, slowing down the kids and "big kids" like me and my s-i-l who wanted to get things done.We ended up having a near blow-up an hour and a half into the first day. I guess it just depends on the dynamics of your family, but I'll never do it again.Sorry if this sounds negative, but I think you should hear this kind of thing so your group can talk about it ahead of time. Even though we knew we needed to do our own thing before hand, it didn't turn out that way and it got really stressful. Good Luck! I hope that your family has a great time.

 

[kadaten]

I'm the planner for our group of 20 in December. We have 15 adults (5 grandparents, 3 married couples, 2 dating couples) and kids ages 7, 5, 2.5, 17 months, and 9 months. We are all booked at the AKL in 8 rooms and got ourselves an extra room to use for a hospitality suite in the mornings and evenings....probably will have some breakfasts there, the moms will share a fridge for babies' milk, and the adults will have a room to socialize in in the evenings after the little ones go to sleep.

I've done all the planning since DH and I used to be FL residents and all the others haven't been in years or have never been. I made all the hotel ressies but have everyone's card numbers so they're all paying for their own rooms. Oddly enough, the CM at CRO never had a problem with me using 5 different cards with 5 different names on them! Thank goodness!! It might have never gotten planned otherwise!

For activities, I've planned a max of one whole group activity each day, and even then, everyone knows they have the option to opt out. I've given them the deadlines for cancellations on things that are prepaid so they know how long they have to change their minds. We also have some small group activities planned (golf for the guys, a backstage tour for those interested, Cinderella breakfast for the girls, etc). We've also included one "date night" where the grandparents have insisted on watching the little ones while the parents all get to go out!!

My best advice will be to sign up for Magical Gatherings. Specifically for groups of 8 or more styaing on property, it includes some additional planning assistance and they are saying they'll make sure you're placed together in the hotel (before this program they would try but not guarantee). Under the MG program, you can designate one leader, or let everyone do the planning. All of the rooms can be individually reserved (even at different hotels to accomodate different budgets) but are linked through your MG #, as are all other reservations (tours, golf, PS, and any other activities).

We've signed up for one of the new Magical Gatherings experiences that are reserved solely for these groups....we're doing the Magical Fireworks Voyage. All the experiences are supposed to be smaller, more intimate gatherings (just a couple groups) and can include character experiences and unique meals and enteratainment. The fireworks voyage will have Peter Pan, Hook, and Smee, and is a dessert, fireworks, and storytelling cruise on Seven Seas Lagoon. I can't wait!

Good luck, and make sure you don't get too stressed. Realize ahead of time that everyone may not get to do everything they want if too much of your time is scheduled. Just get a feel from your group what they want to do....all together all the time or come together once a day for family time....and go with that. This is our Christmas present to each other this year....5 night/6 days in the happiest place on earth....getting the whole family together from across 5 states. The memories will be priceless!! And so will yours!

Katie

 

[GOBA Mom Lynn]

Thanks everybody for your great ideas.

Registering with the Magical Gatherings sounds like a good idea. Do you think they will be able to coordinate our rooms, even though we'll be making our ressies directly thru the Dolphin (so we can get the teacher's rate)?

I only wish they would have come up with some other group activities that didn't cost so much! Anybody have some ideas for a freebie thing to do, that would be different? I'm thinking that sometimes the simple things are what you remember the most.

Lynn

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

My group of 20 or so (it's still growing!) will be there in Aug. 2004 also. Which week are you going? Maybe we can comiserate together, lol! Anyway, definately sign up for the Magical Gatherings. I'm pretty sure you can do this, you have to be at a Disney resort, and the Dolphin counts as this, right? Anyway, my group ranges from 4 to 72, and consists of my family and my dh's family. DH's family is coming from Nebraska and Iowa and have never been to a theme park. They are driving me crazy! The just "don't see the need" to plan anything, and don't think that there's that much to see. (we're planning on 7 nights, 8 days) but they think they'll do a park a day and then leave. My family on the other hand, has been several times, and know you can't do this. I still have a few months to convince the other side, but if they want to run themselves ragged, so be it! My plan is to make and itenarary for my immediate family, pass it out to everyone, and tell them where we'll be if they want to join up with us. For example, if we're at the Magic Kingdom, they can meet up with us to watch the parade at a specific spot. Then we can all do what we want, not worry about late sleepers, etc. I'm also going to do at least 2 of the "Magical Gatherings" events. We're all staying at different resorts, so we'll have transportation issues as well. Anyway, definately download the "Magical Gatherings" planner and have your group do the same. It's a life saver! Sorry to ramble, but this whole process has me so frustrated! Hope you're having better luck with your group!