Anyone ever plan for large group?

[Kara]

A few families of our friends are thinking of going together next year.....
we want to plan the best we can so we can start paying now LOL....
so...did you tackle this yourself??
Should I contact my AAA agent or do you recommend someone else???
Where do I start??????????

 

[Kara]

PS
is there a consistency to when they offer free dining?? We'd most likely use that plan as well...but I'm not sure when they offer it usually or if it changes.

 

[mollyseven]

Hey....how big a group?
I always plan our trips that are us, my parents, my brother and his family.
Free dining is usually Mid august to end september.
Last year they offered free dining for Disney visa cardholders in december also and as long as you checked in by dec. 20th you could have free dining up till dec.30th.
I do have a recommendation with regards to dining reservations.
If you book for groups of 6-8 + they will automatically add on the 20% gratuity even for buffets. Now my problem with this for us was there are restaurants where the tables are round and only seat 4-5 for example Crystal Palace....so we ended up having to sit at 2 different tables and had the WORST service and yet had to pay the 20% gratuity because they had booked it as a res. for 10. !! Same thing happened at 1900 park fare...they sat us at 3 different tables and didn't even get drinks until dessert time and waited an hour past our res. time and still had to pay the gratuity.....it's frustrating!! I would just book tables for 4-5 and then book alot of them individually.....and pay gratuity dependant on the service you get. I have definitely noticed service decline since the gratuity isn't included in the dining plan.

Just my 2 cents....don't know if it is helpful.

 

[Kara]

I had not thought of that so thank you!!!
COuld be up to 20 people....not sure yet but tenatively!!

 

[dizfamily4]

Hi Kara
I planned 3 years ago for 20 of us, all family, and this Aug I just planned for 18 of us to go (my parents have both passed since) My air fare is what I did first, (well I guess after being sure everyone had the same time off) and went to lodging from there. At presnet I am just awaitingthe window for dining (90 days out) The first trip went with out a hitch, and I am hopeful for the next too! Let me know any questions you might have, our ages of kids run 20 years old down to 7 years old...4 families..can't wait

 

[AbbyPan]

Hi Kara, one thing to keep in mind when making ADR's: some restaurants require that you call their restaurant directly (off the top of my head I can think of Narcoosees and Yak & Yeti) to book large parties.

My tip for you: PLAN AHEAD! If you start planning a year before, you'll be fine. WE did that for our DFTW and it was pretty much smooth sailing.

Hope it works out for everyone!

 

[Pixieflip]

One of our biggest issues when we went with 17 people at Christmas to New Year's was just the logistics of walking the parks together and deciding EVERYTHING. What to ride first, which shows to attend, where to sit for parades...everything is a decision and can get tricky.

Here's what we did:
-decided up front, everyone has to be flexible
-kids pick one or two must do things each day, that shapes our plan
-develop a FP Crew who sprints to get the FPs early, then plan accordingly
-use all tickets for FPs ensures multiple rides for many
-walking together will just take longer
-keep cell phones handy
-agree that it is A-OK to split up from time to time and do different things, you can always meet up again later and share your stories with each other
- take your group photo by the Castle or wherever EARLY IN THE DAY before everyone splits up or someone becomes uncooperative

Most of all, have fun together!! Memories of a lifetime, I tell ya.

 

[exwdwcm]

We've done large groups before and have 15 for December.

i HIGHLY recommend Dreams Unlimited Travel- there are links all over the site- one at the top here. Pete, who runs these boards, is a part owner, so you know you are getting good service and knowledge. They will look for all current discounts for you and apply them when they come up. They will even do an itenerary for you and book your ADRs. I've used them before and always been extremely pleased. They focus on disney only, so they are experts. We have our Dec trip booked through them and I just did the DIS podcast cruise through them as well and it was great.

they send notices and updates to you and you can log in to their system and view your reservation and itenerary. We prefer to create our own (way too detailed) itenerary, but we really like having help on booking the ADRs, so we don't have to sit on hold.

Our plan is too always HAVE A PLAN. we make sure everyone has copies of the itenerary. We don't plan it out ride by ride, but we do plan which park each am and pm, as well as which restaurants (we do DDP) and parades/fireworks. We usually do plan the first few rides, since we usually hit e-tickets ones and do FPs early. This way everyone knows where to be and if they don't want to follow the plan- they just do their own thing. It helps with NOT wasting time trying to agree on something once you are there. We also plan to be flexible. If we need to adjust, we do. And again, be prepared to split up, especially for dining- the restaurants simply cna't seat 15 people together everytime, heck most of the time they can't and you'll be split some.