Different ages in our group -- a happy medium?

[Goofy4Disney]

Hi all! We have our plans all made (staying POFQ, dining ressies made, etc) and had also planned which park/which day since we are not buying hoppers. However, I'm stuck....

Our party consists of ages 49, 34, 24, 23, 13, 5, (and possibly two 1 yr olds). The problem is I know we can't see everything, especially toting little ones. But we are trying to let our DD & her DH see as much as possible because it's their 1st trip. Right now, we have 1 open day on our last day there, and we aren't sure if we'd like to do something we won't be doing any other day (water park, pleasure island, La Nouba) or have that day to spend 1 extra day a park. Maybe even a combination of things (parasailing then water park, DisneyQuest then La Nouba, etc, just something not requring park hoppers). Right now we have:

2 days MK - 1st day (b'fast @ CP, dinner @CM), 2nd day (this might change but lunch @ Tony's, dinner @ Spoodles)

2 days EP - 1st day (lunch @ CR, dinner @ Biergarten), 2nd day (lunch @ Le Cellier, dinner @ Alfredo's)

1 day MGM - (lunch @ Sci-Fi, dinner @ H&V)

1 day AK - (dinner @ Boma)

1 day basically open, no plans (but g-son has pirate cruise -- over at 11:30 am, dinner @ WCC)

We want our grandson to be able to do as many "kid" things as possible, but as I said, we really want to show DD & SIL why we love Disney so much and share as much as possible with them at the same time. What would you all do?

 

[Princess Roo]

My best advice would be to make good use of fast passes! Some people can go get fastpasses while others wait in lines with the 5 year old. Or, is the 5 year old tall enough and interested in the big coasters, too? In that case, it's possible everyone will like the same things, anyways! Since you're hitting a few character meals, you don't really need to spend time waiting in line to meet characters, maybe?

6 park days seems like plenty. Does the 5-year-old belong to the DD/SIL? Would they enjoy some time off to themselves to go to La Nouba and maybe a nice meal while you take the GS to enjoy some kid stuff? Even hanging out at the great pool and playground at POFQ and riding the boat over to DTD to play at the Lego place would be fun for the GS (and free, except for any Legos you buy!).

I think you have all sorts of great stuff planned for all ages!

 

[Perditamarie]

I would opt out of so many table service meals so your schedule is more flexible for touring the parks....otherwise your trip may seem like you just have a little bit of time between getting to all of the ADRs. For example, I bet your DGS would love a giant turkey leg while watching a parade instead of waiting around in yet another restaurant.

Make sure to schedule plenty of pool time -- kids love to swim as much as the parks. I hope this is a wonderful trip for your family.

 

[TheDizMom]

We just came back from a trip with 11 people with a wide variety of ages and it was great. We planned out our days, had a TS meal every night, and even though it wasn't set in stone ended up spending almost all of out time together and having a great time. We had ages 67, 62,43, 42, 2 39's, 10, 9 ,7,6, and 4. We really utilized the fast passes with my DH and BIL running to get those for everything. We all went on pretty much everything together and if there was someone who didn't want to do something then they would head off to another ride that maybe others didn't want to do. Gramps couldn't really do roller coasters so he stayed with the 2 little ones when they were to small to go on. My DD hates the 3-D things so I would take her to something else. It worked out great! Then at about the half way point we all took a day to just hang out at the hotel pool and not have to worry about rushing around! We even ate at the hotel that night so, though my DH and I spent a few hours at DTD alone while my IL's watched our kids, we just had a relaxing family day. You won't see everything no matter what you do so just think of it as an opportunity to come back again some time. One way to help on that score is to have everyone pick 2 or 3 must sees for them at each park and hit those attractions first. I say just take that extra day and either let everyone make their own plans for that day or do what we did and enjoy your resort. You are paying a lot to stay there so you should at least enjoy some of what it has to offer. Have a great family trip. We sure did! It was a great place to spend vacation as an extended family.