Anyone ever taken a large group?

[jjarman]

I am trying to get our youth director to take the youth group next year to WDW. It is a small church so it will probably be no more than 45 people. Anyone ever done this? Any web sites I could go to for information? I am a good planner and told him I would plan it. I do want us to stay on site, AS Movies maybe. Any information would be great.

Thanks.

 

[nativetxn]

I've never toured with a large group. I'll just bump this up, I'm sure some of our veterans can offer advice.

 

[Tinkermom]

Hi,

I went with a large group the first time I went with my kids ds 4 yrs and dd 8 mos. We were a total of 23 people with two in wheelchairs. Replacement knees and ms. Between bathroom, ice cream and drink breaks if it wasn't for the fact that the wheelchairs got us into the handicapped entrance for most of the attractions we wouldn't have seen too much. We did break off and do things on our own. And the days at the water parks were fun.

I attended a convention there a few years ago with 3500 guests at the dolphin swan and that was great too everywhere you went you ran into someone.

I would suggest to plan ahead which parks to go to and then split up into smaller groups and see who u run into aroud all day.

I hope this helps!!!

 

[Ronda93]

You don't mention how youthful the group is, but I would make sure you have enough adults that you can break into family sized groups in the parks. I think it would be torture to keep everyone together.

If the kids are old enough (that will be debated in another thread) you can come together every 90 minutes or so to count noses.

You could get the entire group together in the All Star food court for breakfast and dinner.

Sounds like fun!!!

 

[scanne]

Hi!

I am in the process of planning a trip for my 8th grade students. We are going to be performing in Disney's Magic Music Days which is part of the Disney Youth Group Series. You can go to http://disney.go.com/disneyyouthprograms/mmd/ to find info about Church groups as well. Disney has a policy of 5 children per adult and will give one adult per 5 kids the same ticket rate. They have discounted park passes (a great deal, IMHO). If you're planning on taking a bus, I have a bus reserved through www.thebusbank.com. I've been working with Anthony and he has been GREAT! If you have any questions, please send me a PM or email me at amg8274@aol.com.

I'm still in the early stages of planning myself. Our trip is in February. Oh, and we're staying at All Star Music. Hope this helps a bit!!!!!!!

Anne

 

[jjarman]

Originally posted by scanne
Hi!

I am in the process of planning a trip for my 8th grade students. We are going to be performing in Disney's Magic Music Days which is part of the Disney Youth Group Series. You can go to http://disney.go.com/disneyyouthprograms/mmd/ to find info about Church groups as well. Disney has a policy of 5 children per adult and will give one adult per 5 kids the same ticket rate. They have discounted park passes (a great deal, IMHO). If you're planning on taking a bus, I have a bus reserved through www.thebusbank.com. I've been working with Anthony and he has been GREAT! If you have any questions, please send me a PM or email me at amg8274@aol.com.

I'm still in the early stages of planning myself. Our trip is in February. Oh, and we're staying at All Star Music. Hope this helps a bit!!!!!!!

Anne

Thanks so much for the information. These kids are ages 13-18 or so. We haven't gotten very far in planning but when we took them to 6 Flags they just paired up and went their own way with or without a chaperone. They had to stay together no matter what including potty breaks. I ended up with a group of about 3-5 most of the day. My idea is that we would tackle one park per day with the kids not being allowed to leave the park without a chaperone. I am sure we would set up times throughout the day to meet up in case someone had a problem.

 

[jimmiej]

I've been twice with high school bands(groups of 125 & 80). One thing I would do differently: Let the kid's pick what park they want to tour & park-hop if they wanted. I restricted my kids to one park at a time. Some got bored with one park after a few hours. I guess you would have to evaluate the maturity of you group.