Big family questions

[lilpixiebabe101]

So I'm not sure if this is on the right board, it kinda of covers parks, food, etc. so I'm asking here.

We may have 5.
We may have 9.
We may have 13.
We may have even more than that. A mix of family and friends. All will have their own resort reservation.

Suggestions on park strategies for that big of a group! Fast pass+ all done together? Each "family" pick their own? Try to stay together in the parks or just at least all be in the same park same time?

Dining - we will have 2, maybe 3, maybe 5, maybe 6 under 11. Would seperate dining be better but for maybe a couple of the buffet style meals? All together? I'm thinking of the difficulty of getting that large of table and if we get them the kids having to sit for so long.

Any other large group suggestions would be amazing as well!!!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

We travel like this every couple of years. We do not stay together all day long. Everyone kinda does their own thing until we meet up for dinner and fireworks. Keeps everyone happy and reduces the "waiting for son and so" events that happen all day long. Also helps avoid conflicts between the early risers and the late risers.

Not saying that we never do anything else together during the day, but there is no pressure to meet up at other times.

 

[angierae]

When we went with six people we agreed to stay in the same park each day, and we had dinner together each day. Beyond that, people stuck together and split up randomly.

 

[kj2mom]

We traveled with another family, they stayed on site/we stayed off. When my FP days came I did everything I could to make all of our FP times match (and I was successful). Unfortunately, a lot of that was for not since we weren't always together prior to the hour window so they would go before we got there or we would text text text when we were heading to our FP and with no reply we would eventually decide to just go because we were there. We did have our ADR's together and one day that was literally the only time we saw our friends. It was nice to be able to sit down and enjoy a meal together and talk about our day even though we hadn't spent any of it together. Some days we did a few rides together, some nights we watched the night shows together and some we didn't. I felt bad for my children since they didn't really get to see their friends much (the entire purpose of the trip was because their friends turned 13) but I would mention that a couple of times and they said they didn't care so we just continued on. I would say I kind of regret putting soo much effort into making our FP schedules match because we didn't go together more times than not but if I hadn't I am sure we would have wished we had so in the end all good. We really did enjoy knowing we were going to see the other family at our TS meals.

 

[PurpleKomodo]

We just went with 9. It was really hard to predict what everyone would want to do when Disney requires advanced planning. We did not stay together too often and were frequently not even all in the same park. I had booked most of our FPs together so when one couple decided to go back to EPCOT instead of staying the 2nd day in MK, they did not have any FPs. So, I would say plan one connection point a day. For us, that was our ADR. If your group ends up being pretty large, make sure you make the reservation at 180 days and it may be better to call as they can sometimes help you find space for larger groups better over the phone instead of online. Let each family choose their own FPs and if there are similar experiences chosen, try to get overlapping times if you want to do that together. That would be my advise.

 

[massmickeypal]

We did 20, yes 20, in January. Our intention was to be in the same park and separate most of the day but meet up for a meal. Turned out that we all stayed together most days. Everyone was on the same page that being together at Disney was fun. If you are looking to do as many rides and attractions as possible this is NOT the way to go. It is slow going. We saw what we all wanted and then had time for a great meal and fireworks. Went to all 4 parks even. We had lunch at Biergarten, late lunch at Brown Derby as part of the Fantasmic package, Dinner at Be Our Guest and character breakfast at Chef Mickeys. You may do well with Chef Mickey's and Biergarten but with so many youngsters I would skip the others. The key for us was the preplanning meetings with all going so we were on the same page and e-mailing the restaurant managers directly to be able to get reservations for a larger group. Hope you have a magical time.

 

[kellifive]

We went with about 45 people January 2013! Had ages ranged from 80-2! It was amazing!!! I did most of the planning. We planned it for about 3 years prior to. Asked everyone for their opinions. Tried to take everything into consideration. Stressed to everyone that it was their vacation to do what they wanted. A lot of us stayed together but out main focus was to have dinner together. We did all stay at the same parks. Then we didn't have magic bands so the whole fp thing was different. We are going again at the end of September this year with only 20 people. Looking forward to the smaller group. We have all of our fp+ together plus all ADR's are together.